“You know.” Joyce said as Lily drove up to yet another farm on their list. “This is the first farm I think I’ve seen with scarecrows.” 

Lily glanced at her friend. “Do we even have crows around here?” 

“No idea but there’s a few over there in the fields. I guess they have to keep up the looks of a farm huh.” 

The two girls parked on the edge of the property and got out of the car. After the last fiasco with Farmer John Bellamy, the girls had split into two teams and were constantly tracking each other on these excursions. Even a police report hadn’t gotten them out of having to do this project, so their farm visits continued. “Only one more after this one, I can’t wait to be done.” Joyce complained as she climbed out of the car. 

Joyce was dressed for the weather, in jeans, Blundstones, a red sweater and a puffy vest thrown overtop of it. Lily was also dressed casually in brown knee high leather boots, stockings, a denim skirt, and an oversized sweater over a tank top. “Most have been quite nice to use though.” Lily said as they started down the road towards the farmhouse. 

“That’s probably because we’re good looking girls asking for a favour and they would definitely be willing to help.” Joyce retorted, brushing hair out of her face as a strong gust blew across the field. 

Lily rolled her eyes before abruptly halting as she spotted something on the scarecrow. Joyce made it several steps before noticing her friend wasn’t beside her anymore. “Lily?” 

“That scarecrow over there, the wind just blew some of the burlap over it and it had cowboy boots on.” 

Joyce walked back to her to get a better view. “The one on the left?” 

Both scarecrows were attached to a cross beam with what seemed like a large burlap blanket thrown overtop of it hiding the real form of the scarecrow. For the one on the left, the burlap was several inches from the ground but the wind had revealed a pair of boots and a glimpse of jeans tucked into them when Lily had tossed a cursory glance in that direction. 

Curiosity got the better of her and Lily wanted to confirm what she had just seen, walking along the path towards the small clearing with the two scarecrows. As they got closer, the wind picked up again revealing the boots once again. “That looks a little too real don’t you think?” Joyce asked, a bit of worry creeping into her voice as they entered the clearing. 

Once in the clearing and the wind died down, Lily could now hear some soft moans coming from the scarecrows and her heart accelerated. These weren’t actual scarecrows. Slowly walking up to the one on the left, she could hear some muffled whimpers coming from beneath the burlap blanket, whimpers that sounded a lot like someone with a full mouth, before reaching down to lift up the burlap. “What the…CATHERINE???” 

Lily pulled aside the burlap and stumbled backwards in surprise as the face that was revealed was her friend. She knew Catherine had been busy with an outdoor photoshoot at some point after class today, but now it seemed like that outdoor shoot had taken her to some farm fields. Specifically the fields they now stood in. The way Catherine was dressed gave a clue as to why they were in a farm field, as she wore cowgirl boots, jeans, a white tank top and a loose flannel over top. “Mmmmmmoh!” She cried out behind the cleave gag filling her mouth, along with some other stuffing that puffed her cheeks out. “Grrrrrt hwwwwwwwlll!” 

“Oh my god Catherine, what the hell is this?” Lily stammered out. 

Meanwhile Joyce pulled aside the second burlap blanket off of the other scarecrow, revealing Sabrina, one of their mutual friends who was a photographer and likely the one shooting with Catherine given the camera that was still slung around her neck. She was restrained the same as Catherine, with her burgundy Doc Martens and black pants pinned in place with metal cuffs around the ankles, her arms clad in a long sleeve black top and oversized white tshirt pinned behind the wooden crossbeam and a final metal band at the waist keeping her locked against the stand. She was also gagged with a stuff and cleave combo and the tears running down her cheeks showed how afraid she was, although the relief was evident in her eyes as she recognized her rescuers. 

That relief quickly changed to fear however as she looked behind the two girls and cried out into her gag. “Well well, our fields are popular today aren’t they? Hands up ladies, nice and slow.”

Lily and Joyce both winced and slowly raised their hands. “How the hell does this happen again.” Joyce ground out as they turned to face two men in work clothes, one holding a shotgun on the two college students. 

“Some more trespassers I see. And you seem to know our previous ones as well.” The one with the shotgun told his friend. 

“All pretty ones today it seems.” The second agreed. “Shame we have to hide it with a mask but now we have some more scarecrows. “

“Get moving girls.” The first man gestured with his shotgun at the dirt path. 

With their hands still raised, Lily and Joyce glumly headed down the path away from their friends who sobbed into their gags behind them. With the sun blazing overhead it began to feel like forever until they finally came to a clearing with two more scarecrow stands. These ones seemed like actual scarecrows since they were not moving, but given how Catherine and Sabrina had been restrained, Lily knew that her and Joyce were about to join them watching over these blasted farm fields. “Those are already occupied.” Joyce noted as they stopped in front of the stands. 

“Not for long they ain’t.” 

The girls could only watch as one of the men went up to a scarecrow and popped open the metal cuffs built into the wood, freeing the scarecrow and letting it drop to the ground. He repeated the process with the other, leaving two empty crosses with built in metal cuffs and Lily felt a sense of dread settling in as she stared at the open metal restraints, with the wooden cross now having restraints for her wrists, ankles, and waist. “Alright bootsie, you first!” 

Lily bit back a retort about how both of them were wearing boots as the one with the shotgun gestured towards the stand. The other man, who Lily decided to call Scowl for how scrunched up his face was, looked positiviely delighted as the Asian girl walked towards him with hands raised. “Up we go!” 

Lily stepped up and turned on the small wooden platform before Scowl grabbed her left arm and pulled it over the crossbeam, snapping the metal cuff secured onto the back of the beam shut around her wrist. She grunted as it locked tight, her slim wrists were a little larger than the straw arms of scarecrows so it was a tight fit as her other wrist was locked in place, keeping her arms pulled over the back of the cross and propping her up. The waist clamp was next, closing right above the top of her skirt and Scowl definitely spent a little more time than needed adjusting it above her hips. “Keep your hands to yourself!” She snapped. 

“Fiery, just like the others, I like it.” 

Lily decided to not make anymore comments as the last metal clamps were secured around her booted ankles, making a face as she saw how the metal indented the leather with how tight they were. “Alright bootsie, open up.” 

Seeing the rag in his hand, Lily shook her head. “No way you’re putting that-AAAAMMMMMMPH!” 

Her tirade was cut off mid sentence by a hand grabbing her hair and yanking back, forcing her mouth open for the dirty rag to be stuffed inside. Not this shit again. She groaned internally as another cloth was folded into a band and tied between her lips as a cleave gag, the stuffing filling her mouth completely and causing her gag reflex to kick in. 

Once she got over the horrible taste filling her mouth, she noticed that Joyce had also been gagged with a matching stuff and cleave combo, absolutely not willingly as her eyes were spitting venom but her tongue would no longer be lashing out. Silently, she was pulled to the second scarecrow stand and forced to step up before the metal cuffs clamped down around her wrists, ankles, and waist to restrain her. “Lmmmph mmmph grrr!” Lily complained, straining against the solid wood and cuffs. 

“You two will make great scarecrows.” Shotgun grinned as he stepped back to admire the work of his friend. “Some noise, some movement, perfect for these fields. And no one will come and find you.” 

“MMMMMMMPH!” Joyce protested as Scowl stepped away from her and joined his friend. 

Lily could already feel the rag in her mouth becoming damp with her saliva but it stayed mouth filling nonetheless. She chose to instead just glare at her captors as she tugged once again at her restraints, wondering if the wood was old enough she may be able to snap it but after a couple of seconds, she decided that she would be able to snap it if she transformed into the Hulk. Otherwise the wood was staying in one piece. “What do you think?” Scowl asked his friend. “Fire up the harvester? We’ve got four juicy scarecrows that could magically disappear under the blades as we harvest our crops.” 

Both Lily and Joyce screamed at the mental image of a harvester bearing down on them. “Something to think about girls.” Shotgun grinned as the two men pulled out another set of the burlap cloaks. 

Both girls winced as the scratchy material was thrown overtop of them and soon all Lily could see was a fuzzy outline of what was around her through the layers of smelly burlap, unable to even look at her friend now to comfort her. Through the cloak, she could barely make out the chuckling shapes of the two men as they retreated back down the path, probably to fix up Catherine and Sabrina.  Lily whimpered into her gag, hoping that Emily and Fiona noticed that the girls were in trouble sooner rather than later and sent help to get them out of this predicament.