The cold wind brushed against my dangling arm. I didn’t feel it though, for this paled in comparison to what I had just experienced. 

It was dark outside. That time when it feels like it was daylight 2 minutes ago but now is pitch black. That is when I went outside to grab the mail. My mom had told me to go grab the mail 10 minutes ago but I didn’t get it then. Once she called up the stairs again I finally went down. Why doesn’t she have my brother do it? I questioned as I descended down the carpeted stairs. I grabbed a light blue coat on my way out. It had belonged to my dad when he was young but now I use it. 

I stepped out the door and a gush of cold air slapped me in the face. It shocked me and I jumped back. Just a bit. I walked down the brick stairs out to the mailbox at the end of our driveway. The mailbox was full of letters, notices, and bills. I grabbed it out of the mailbox and headed for the house. However, before I made it to the door something caught my attention. 

There was a low noise. It sounded hollow and deep. 

“ Ruuuuuuuu,” it whispered.

“What is that?” I said to myself.

It was coming from down the street. The noise was not very loud but it could be heard. 

I looked inside the window to my house and saw my mother cooking dinner for us. We are having baked potatoes tonight. It's my brother's second favorite, right after taco’s. 

I crept inside and placed the mail down on a table in our mudroom. I grabbed a hat and then left again. No one would know I was gone because I would not be home for long at all. Just long enough to see what the noise was. 

I walked outside onto the dusty sidewalk and started my walk. The noise was more faint now but I could still hear it. 

I continued walking until something crossed my path. It was a black cat. The cat was small and it had a small white spot in the shape of a skull. It crossed the street quickly and scurried along. One thing stuck out to me about that cat, and that was its eyes. As it went to cross the street it turned back and shined his eyes at me. They were bright red!

He turned around and scurried away. 

What an odd cat, I thought as I continued my walk. 

I reached the edge of the block when the noise got very loud. It sounded like it was coming from the house in front of me. I had never been inside this house before. It was black and had what felt like 1,007 windows. The thing that stuck out the most was the fact that the door was open. 

At this moment my curiosity got the best of me. I went up the stairs and into the house.

It was a normal fall day, just like today. Eric was in his bed as usual. Ever since his parents told him they were moving, he never wanted to leave his room. It had been 1 week since the new news, and today was the day of the move.

“I’m gonna miss this place”, he mumbled to himself. Knock knock knock! Eric heard knocking on his door. 

“Eric!” His mother called, “Are you all packed?” Eric groaned. 

“No, mom!” He called back. He started hearing footsteps outside his room. Someone opened his door.

“Hey bud”, his dad said, “Are you alright?” His tone sounded like he didn’t want to move either.

“Not really”, Eric said, “I don’t wanna leave here.” He tried his best to hold back tears.

“Moving is hard”, his dad said. His tone sounded like he didn’t want to leave either. “But I think you’ll like the place we found. He pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture. Eric gasped. Eric wasn’t expecting to see a giant barn and a small house next to it.

“We’re moving to a FARM?” Eric asked excitedly. Eric really liked animals, but farm animals specifically. 

“I knew you’d be excited”, his dad said. “Now make sure you pack your stuff up, we gotta get outta here at 4!” Eric spent 3 hours packing up all his stuff. It would’ve taken one hour if he didn’t have nostalgia moments every 5 seconds. But then, it was time to leave. Eric looked at his house one last time and took a deep breath. And then, they were off. 

After 5 long, boring hours, Eric and his family made it to the farm. It was 9:00, and Eric was sleepy. “Welcome to your new home, Eric”, his father said. But then, Eric saw something that made him jump.

“Ah!” He yelled. He saw a humanoid figure standing in a field. His dad laughed.

“Eric”, he said, “that’s just a scarecrow! Don’t be scared!” Eric laughed. He couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. That night, they unloaded their things into the house and claimed their bedrooms. Eric’s new room only had a bed. It had a big window that showed a big corn and wheat field. 

“This is gonna be a great new house”, he told himself as he fell asleep. The next morning, they heard a rooster shout: “COCK A DOODLE DOO!” Eric jumped. He got out of bed and went into the kitchen. His mom had brought some cereal, but no milk. 

“So Eric”, she said, “we have a bunch of animals to care for now. I’ll milk the cows and feed the animals, and your father will collect eggs and plant vegetables and fruit. So we want you to harvest the wheat and corn.” 

“Okay!” Eric said happily, “I’ll get to it in 10 minutes!” After eating some dry Cheerios, he bolted to his room and got dressed. He ran out the door and grabbed some tools. He ran into the field and bumped into the scarecrow. It had a pumpkin head and a witch-like hat. It reminded Eric of The Wizard of Oz. 

“You should have a name”, Eric said, “How about…Johnny Strawbones!” Eric walked through the fields. He heard a swish noise and looked back. Johnny Strawbones was facing him.

“Ha! Must be the wind!” Eric said, as he continued walking. But something was telling him that the incident couldn’t have just been the wind…

Eric saw tons of corn. 

“Woah”, Eric said, astonished, “that’s a LOT of corn!” He got a basket out and started to pick corn. It wasn’t hard for him, but it was tedious.

“That IS a ton of corn”, a voice said. It was a male voice, but with a southern accent. Eric turned around to see Johnny Strawbones, standing up.

“Jeez! What the-” Eric shouted, terrified. 

“DON’T SCREAM!” The scarecrow shouted, “PLEASE, DO NOT SCREAM.” Eric put his hand over his mouth, preventing him from screaming. Once he removed it, he said:

“Um, uh, who ARE you?” Eric asked, shaking.

“You don’t know?” The scarecrow asked, “It’s Johnny Strawbones! You NAMED me!” 

“Oh, I’m dumb”, Eric said, slapping his face. 

“Yeah, no wonder!” Johnny said, annoyed. He walked forward, stumbling. “I got straw for legs! Can you get me somethin’ to walk with, Eric?” Speaking of legs, Eric’s were still trembling.

“Uh, uh, sure!” Eric said, with a little voice crack. He ran home, breathing super heavy.

“What was I thinking? I can’t trust him right away!” Eric said, panicking. But he knew he had to help him. He already said he would. He looked around the house, trying to find something that would help Johnny walk. Soon, he found his dad’s old baseball bat. He picked it up and said:

“This’ll work!” Eric said as he ran back to the field.

“Finally!” Johnny said, stumbling over, “Hand it over!” Eric gave him the bat, and Johnny used it as a walking stick. 

“That’s better!” He said, straightening up. Eric was a little surprised Johnny hadn’t thanked him. 

“I’m good now”, Johnny said, “I’ll call you when I need you again.” Suddenly, Johnny jumped forward, right onto his stand. 

“You're welcome!” Eric said, annoyed. He walked back to the house, seeing his parents angry. 

“ERIC!” His mom screamed, “What on Earth were you THINKING!?” Eric ran in to see that there were piles and piles of straw EVERYWHERE. 

“What the…” Eric said, shocked, “Was it Johnny?”

“Who?” His mom asked, “Who’s Johnny?”

“Uh, “Eric said, “Imaginary friend.” His dad rose an eyebrow.

“Imaginary friend?” He asked, “aren't you a little old for imaginary friends?” Eric shrugged.

“Well, then clean this up”, his mom said sternly. 

“Alright”, Eric said, grabbing a pitchfork, “I’ll get to it.” He spent the rest of the day throwing all the straw into the fields. Once it was around 6 o’clock, Eric finished.

“Finally!” Eric said to himself, “I should go to bed, I’m wiped!” He ran upstairs and hopped in bed, to go to sleep. Suddenly, he heard a knocking sound. ‘Knock, knock, knock!’ 

“What?” Eric said, tiredly, “Who’s knocking?” There was no answer. Eric turned his head to see a pumpkin in his window.

“Ah!” Eric shouted. 

“Open the window you idiot!” He heard the pumpkin say. He ran to the window and opened it. Johnny’s body dropped to the ground, causing his head to fall over. Eric immediately picked up his head. 

“Hey!” Johnny yelled, “Be careful with my head!”

“Explain yourself!” Eric said angrily.

“Explain what?” Johnny asked.

“All the straw in my house!”

“I have NO idea what you’re talking about!”

“SURE!” Johnny’s head started to shake and he jumped into the pile of straw, recreating himself. 

“Thanks to the bat, I won’t fall over all the time!” Johnny said, leaning on his bat. Suddenly, he laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Eric asked. 

“I DID FILL THE HOUSE WITH STRAW!” Johnny burst out laughing, causing him to fall over.

“You jerk!” Eric yelled. 

“Eric!” His mom yelled, “Why are you shouting!?” 

“Sorry!” Eric yelled back. “Johnny, I’ll be right back.” He ran downstairs and into the kitchen. He opened a cabinet and pulled out a match. He ran back upstairs and lit it.

“WOAH!” Johnny said, afraid, “W-what are you doing with that!?” Eric grinned.

“Since you made a mess in my house, I think it’s time for a little revenge.” He threw the match at Johnny causing him to fall out the window. Eric could hear the shouts of his misery from below. Soon, the shouting stopped and smoke rose. However, the smoke was shaped like a skull. 

“Finally, he’s gone.” Eric said, climbing in bed. And then, he fell asleep. However, the next morning, he woke up to the sounds of the fire alarm. 

“ERIC!” His parents yelled, “GET OUT OF YOUR ROOM!” Eric looked around to see fires all around his room! He jumped out of bed, but the floor was super weak. And then, he fell through.

“AHHHHHHH!” Eric screamed in fear. He hit the floor hard, causing him to yell out in pain. His parents saw him on the ground and picked him up, and ran out of the house.

“What happened!?” His dad shouted. 

“I don’t know!” His mom said, tears dripping down her face, “But we should get out of here!” The family ran to the car and left the house, as the house broke apart, the flames consuming it. They drove away from the house, to Eric’s grandmother’s house. It was the only place they could go since their own house burned down. They drove the way there in silence, as they were traumatized by the house burning down. Once they were there, they opened the door to see a pumpkin on a table.

“Hello, Eric”, the pumpkin said.

I was working at an old, creepy amusement park. There were only thirteen guests. Was my luck about to turn? Something has raided everything! I’m really trying not to act scared, but something is definitely not right. I know this might sound weird but we last saw something by the hot dog stand. It ate every single hot dog! Can you guess what or who it was? 

It had a pretty dark shadow with a bright something on it.That is all I saw and then it scurried away, I did hear it munching though. Any guesses? It turned and started running after us. 

We had to run for our lives! We were hiding when we saw a bunch of fur. What was it? It was a good chunk of fur or something. The chunk was a little white and black. “Ughhh, what is that smell?” I asked the group. They thought it smelled awful as well! I’m not sure what to think.

 I finally got the others out of this place but now I’m all ALONE! My shift isn’t over yet. I need to figure out what that was and deal with it before I get into big trouble with my boss! Why don’t I sit down and go over the clues? Oh, I know what it is, do you? It is a skunk!!

   Two days ago I woke up on the wrong side of the house. First my parents told me we were moving in a month and then as I grouchily went out the door to catch the bus I saw some weird things scattered in the front yard. They consisted of a doll, the seat from a car (I don’t know how they took it off), a half eaten cake, a jar of pickles and a letter with my name on it. I wasn’t sure what the meaning of this was but it was a little creepy. I didn’t know what to do with these things. Should I keep them? It reminded me a little of Harry Potter when he gets a bunch of letters and he doesn’t know why or what to do with them.

      I went to school and told some of my friends what happened. They didn't know … or at least that’s what they said. I’ve been living in doubt since then, and I’m not really sure what’s happening. The next morning, there were 7 chickens, 3 cats and a dog barking and squawking for help in my yard. What should I do!? My parents kept blaming me for it, sadly, when even “I” didn't know what was happening. A few days after I got the junk, the phone kept ringing and the person on the other end said I was accepted into something but they were mumbling so I couldn’t hear what it was for. I woke up and my room was filthy with mud and grime all over the place. Someone is trying to haunt me. I know it! I guess maybe it is a good thing I am moving out of that place soon. I have been trying to stay out of there but it is a little tricky because technically it is my own home. I want this to stop! It is all too confusing! HELP!