This year, the Golden Pumpkin Trophy wasn’t just a contest between traditional straw scarecrows, but the center of a creepy rumor: The Headless Watcher.
The Misty Night Secret in Oakhaven Valley
This year, the Golden Pumpkin Trophy wasn’t just a contest between traditional straw scarecrows, but the center of a creepy rumor: The Headless Watcher.
Old man Thomas, a three-time winner, decided to pull out all the stops. Instead of a straightforward standing scarecrow, he crafted a bizarre piece of art: a headless figure wearing tattered robes, holding an old storm lantern suspended in mid-air by a system of invisible cables stretched between two old oak trees. Every half hour, powered by a hidden motor, the scarecrow would spin in a circle, emitting an eerie metallic scraping sound.
The night before the judging, thick fog rolled down into the valley, turning the corn rows into ghostly shadows.
Thomas pulled on his heavy jacket, grabbed a flashlight, and walked out to the fields to check the cable system. As he neared the large oak tree, his heart skipped a beat. His headless figure was already… moving automatically at a terrifying speed, even though he hadn’t plugged in the remote control yet.
“Who’s there? What kind of stupid prank is this?” Thomas shouted, his voice sharp and alert in the heavy fog.
There was no answer. Instead, the storm lantern in the scarecrow’s hand suddenly flared with an eerie greenish-blue flame. From beneath the tattered robes, an icy hand abruptly reached out and grabbed Thomas’s wrist!
Startled, Thomas leaped backward, tripped over a root, and fell flat on his back. A bone-chilling cold crawled up his spine. He snapped his head up to cry for help, only to freeze.
Beneath the ragged cloak was not a monster, but young Leo, his own grandson, gasping for breath with a face as white as a sheet.
“Grandpa… Grandpa? I thought… I thought it was a ghost!” Leo stammered, trembling as he let go of Thomas’s wrist.
Thomas propped himself up, half-annoyed and half-confused: “What on earth are you doing out here in the middle of the night, you little rascal? Trying to scare me to death so you can inherit early?”
Leo swallowed hard, pointing toward the other side of the fence: “I… I wasn’t trying to scare you. I came out here to attach a mini jet engine to my scarecrow so it would lift off when the judges arrived. But when I touched your cable, the system triggered automatically… And I saw a giant, shadowy figure, over two meters tall, step right out of the deep woods and stare straight at us!”
Hearing this, the scolding smile vanished from Thomas’s face. Both grandfather and grandson turned their heads to stare deep into the edge of the dark woods.
Through the hazy fog under the dim moonlight, a lank, towering figure wearing a gigantic straw hat and completely devoid of legs came stumbling slowly out of the mist, marching straight toward the two of them with a heavy, rhythmic thud…
