This week’s Saturday Scares theme was THE HARVEST, and I did not have to go looking for it. I already had the field.
Four pieces, all of them from a book I’ve been quietly building since June.
The Blessing
Straw wings, red cloth over the eyes, and the whole village on its knees around her. There’s a bowl of milk at her feet. Somebody in that crowd brought it, and somebody in that crowd is keeping count of how many bowls there have been.
The Arrival
Barefoot in the corn at sundown, wearing a shawl one of them gave her. This is the good part of the story. It does not stay the good part.
The Row
Scarecrows down a corn row and a man in white armor walking it, sent to confirm what’s living at the other end. The theme said living scarecrows. I want to be clear that the scarecrows are the least of his problems.
The Orchard
Red blossoms hanging upside down under stone arches, dripping into pools that have gone the wrong color. No people in this one. That’s on purpose.
The premise, and this is all you’re getting: a village had been starving for three years. Something walked out of a dead field and the ground came back. The corn came in heavy. The sick children got better.
Everyone in that village was grateful. Not one of them thinks of himself as cruel. By autumn there was a rite with a schedule and an elder keeping a ledger, and nobody can point to the day it stopped being a thank you.
No title yet, no release date, nothing to preorder. Just the field!
Saturday Scares is hosted over on Threads by @promptadventures and @horra.i. Come see the rest of this week’s entries, some of them are so much worse than mine. Catching up? Before this was the Wild West run, and after it came Honey Bees and Felines.
All four pieces live in the Gallery too, alongside the rest of the collection.
New Saturday Scares every week. Follow along on Instagram and Threads, and if you’re new here, Start Here is the map.
