Warning: This story features horror and bondage-related peril.

Context: This is a short story written for Day 16 of Kinktober 2024 using the prompt words Predicament and Scarecrow.

A cold breeze pierced the summer evening’s thick warmth, blowing through the rows of corn stalks, making them sway and whisper. I shivered as it sent a chill down my spine.

“Eek!”

It blew up my skirt, to my mild embarrassment. At least the only person around to see was my close friend Sadie.

“Shh! Don’t get us caught Nina. Not that anyone’s around right now, but still. Stealth missions demand stealth.”

It had taken much pleading and cajoling from Sadie but against my better judgement, I had agreed to join her in pilfering strawberries from the Salva farm. Guilt and apprehension bubbled up inside me the closer we got, sneaking through the crop fields of neighbouring farms.

“Sadie stop! I see someone in the field ahead.”

We halted at the fence, looking out upon the next field sloping down before us. In the very middle of it stood a dark figure, arms outstretched.

“Ah it’s a scarecrow! Heh~ It sure did its job in scaring you.”

I relaxed a little, but still couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling I’d had ever since the eerie breeze.

“Nina would you chill? Like I said before, no-one's actually going to be around this late in the evening. It’s a big farm and no-one will ever notice anything has even been taken. Hey, let’s cut through the middle of this one and say hello to your new friend~”

“Can’t we just go around the edge agai-... Sadie wait! Ugh.”

I didn’t want to admit it to Sadie but the scarecrow was really creeping me out. As we approached it, the close-up view didn’t dispel that feeling. It was the strangest scarecrow I had ever seen.

The rags resembled a summer dress and the straw hair fell long and low, making the scarecrow look like a young woman. The sack face’s black beady eyes had that unsettling follow-you-around-the-room quality, even without pupils. But the part I found most odd was that its body wasn’t composed just of straw, but instead had thick spools of hemp rope forming the torso and limbs.

“Weird huh. You don't see scarecrows as much these days. You know I’ve heard that they aren’t even used to scare away birds any more. They’re put up by superstitious folk to scare away eeevil spirits.”

“Sadie stop it!”

“I’m just kidding Nina~ You’re so easy to freak out. Alright then let’s move on.”

I was very much keen to leave. Yet even as we put the scarecrow behind us, I felt like its eyes were still watching the back of my head.

We hurried back over the fence, loose strawberries spilling from our cupped arms. We hadn’t encountered anyone just as Sadie promised. Even so, my heart had never beat faster. The strawberries we sampled were absolutely delicious, a sweet reward for our naughty transgression.

As I looked out across the field, the uneasy feeling swelled back up, muting my excitement.

“Sadie... where’s the scarecrow?”

“Huh? I don’t see it. This must not have been that field.”

“No. No, this is definitely that field.”

“Well then I guess it just fell down. Let’s go through the middle and find out.”

“No Sadie I really don’t want to...”

Sadie pressed forward between crop rows. In the fading half-light I had no interest in being left alone and sprinted to keep up. She was moving from row to row, constantly passing out of sight. I kept pushing through the foliage, just to see her back disappearing into the next row.

“Sadie please slow down.”

Suddenly there was a loud rustling noise coming off from the side. Sadie did stop now.

“Sadie... You heard that right?”

Another loud rustle. Closer. I waited for her to say something reassuring again like it was nothing. Instead I heard panic in her voice.

“We need to run.”

She bolted.

“Sadie? Wait!”

I broke into a sprint. All the strawberries spilled to the ground, getting crushed underfoot. I ran and ran, disoriented by the constant battering of stalks and leaves hitting my face as I pushed through them. I had lost track of Sadie altogether and couldn’t see her anywhere.

I burst through a row of plants. A mottled leathery face leapt screeching at me. My own scream rose above it. The last thing I saw before passing out was black beady eyes.

As I wearily opened my eyes, my first thought was that the world was tilted. I jerked from the sensation of falling. I realised that it was me that was tilting, leaning forward and held up above the ground. My legs were tied together to a post and my arms were stretched out to the sides, roped at the wrists to a horizontal wooden bar.

I was tied onto a scarecrow’s stake.

“Mmpphgh!!”

My head was covered with a sack perfectly sized and shaped to cling closely to my face. It had eyeholes at least. My mouth was filled and held open by a large, rubbery, somewhat irregular shaped object which tasted of strawberry. The sack was so tight that I couldn’t spit it out.

The field beneath me was the same one I was just in, but looking upwards brought a terrifying new sight. The previously darkening sky was now a vibrant unnatural purple. Swirling throughout the air were black smoky wisps. The nearest ones were all drifting in a circle around me.

As one wisp floated close to me, I could see the faint impression of a person within the smokiness. The trail was a body writhing in constricting ropes. At the tip was an agonised face with their mouth stuffed by a large object, much like mine was.

“MMPH!!”

I yelled through my gag at it. It actually backed off, rejoining its fellows in the rotating ring. I didn’t understand how or why I was here but I instinctually knew that these entities were a malevolent force. Their drifting vortex was slowly closing in.

“MMMMM!”

The nearest ones were pushed back again, as if my muffled shout was a ripple across water. I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs, but the large gag meant I could only scare them off so much. It wasn’t enough. I needed to get free before they reached me.

My wrists were each bound to the wooden beam by several taut loops of hemp rope. It was wound tightly, but the beam was wide enough that squeezing my hand under the stretched ropes seemed possible. I contorted my body, leaning away what little I could manage, trying to slip my right hand free.

I noticed movement in my peripheral vision and saw the black spirits getting perilously close. It was petrifying being left stuck on a stick helplessly watching my doom approach, like a lure for hungry piranhas. It took all my willpower to not give into despair and descend into aimless thrashing.

The resisting pressure of the ropes made my wrist ache, but it was slowly pulling through. I tugged harder. There was no time to be patient or delicate. It squeezed in... a little more... It popped free!

“Mmh! MMMMH!!!”

I reached over to my tied left hand. With my shaking free right hand to help, I made progress slipping through the binds much quicker. I was afraid to look up and see how close the encroaching spirits were.

My hand popped free. The leg ropes suddenly vanished on their own and I fell forward, collapsing onto soft soil.

I fumbled with the sack on my head, tugging the top to pull it off. It slid up slowly, squeezing against my face as it went, before snapping up and off. I immediately spat out the gag. It fell to the ground and to my great surprise, splattered against it. It was now a big red blob, looking oddly like a crushed strawberry.

I glanced up and was relieved to see the dark beings weren’t descending, the top of the corn stalks being their limit. In fact, now that I wasn’t propped up as a target, the circle had broken up and they were all drifting away in the same direction.

I look in that direction and saw another stake. With another person tied to it. Despite the sack on her head, I saw from the dress that it was Sadie. She was shaking and yelling through her own gag as the evil spirits drifted in towards her.

I tried to step forward, but icy fear shot through me and held me still like a vice. Sadie spotted me and pleaded through her gag, her eyes filling with tears. Even still, I couldn’t move.

The dark spirit nearest to her vanished into her body. Thick coils of rope materialised at her toes and began winding their way up her feet. Another spirit plunged inside her and the rope rose further, wrapping around her lower legs, leaving no skin showing. It shrank in incredibly tightly, mimicking her shapely form. It almost appeared as if her legs were made of rope.

Sadie struggled and wailed hysterically, her bound body writhing against the post. The sack shrank against her head, the bulge of her gag poking out. The ropes rose higher, enveloping her skin and passing up under her dress.

“Sadie. I... I can’t. I’m so sorry...”

I turned and ran for my life.