I heard myself screaming "Why would you do that?" and not in a manly way either.

I backed away from the pumpkin display. The shattered gourd and its spewed innards lay at her feet, but Dina had her head on a swivel, watching and waiting for something to appear, for some evidence that all of this was real.

It came from the sky.

It looked like a man in a costume at first, but only at first. I became a believer as the creature floated—yes, floated—over the corn. It was slow and deliberate. I was close enough to see that there were no wires. There was nothing that could be supporting this thing except for the impossible.

It was a scarecrow—not the most famous of horror monsters, but off the top of my head, I could think of three or four movies that featured this creature.

As it grew close, I could see that it wore gray-blue coveralls, like a mechanic might wear. In fact, it had a little red and white name tag on the chest that read "Benny." For its head, it had a sackcloth with a little straw hat.

For eyes, it had buttons. Each was a different size and color. Its mouth was sewn in, stitched in dark colors into an ironic smile. Its hands were gardener's gloves. All of this - the coveralls, the sackcloth head, the hat, and the gloves - were apparently sewn together into one unit and stuffed with straw. The legs of the coveralls were tied at the ends into knots and were so full of straw that little sticks poked through holes in the uniform.

The way it flew reminded me of how Peter Pan was always depicted as flying - belly down, legs folded upward, head up, arms out.

In its right hand, it held a rusty sickle.

I continued to back away from Dina as I watched the terrifying creature bare down upon her. It could simply stab her, and that would be the end of it, but it stopped in the air, paused, and appeared to be looking deep into her soul.

My vision went red. I saw a movie poster of the scarecrow. Benny the Haunted Scarecrow in The Final Straw II.

Its brass plate said, “Plot Armor: 42.”

Well, shit.

My Plot Armor was currently rounded down to a meager 5. This wasn’t even fair.

Other posters were hung on the red wall. I quickly recognized that these represented the tropes that were equipped to this monster. My Trope Master ability was working overtime, allowing me to decipher the rules that this creature lived and killed by.

Judgment Call

Monster Trope

This creature only kills those who it has deemed unworthy or immoral.