The Scarecrow Murders is a horror story posted on r/nosleep by Grand_Theft_Motto. It was commissioned for Dr. NoSleep's Halloween narration collection. The story can be read here
, and Dr. NoSleep's Dramatic Reading can be listened to on YouTube and Spotify.
Two days before Halloween in Claremont, Tyler the reporter learns of a gruesome murder, with the corpse nailed to a post like a scarecrow. Not long after he finishes his article about it, word of another murder breaks out. The town's nonchalance to these incidents unsettles Tyler, and he keeps seeing a mysterious stranger around town. He agrees to go investigate with his colleagues, Emma and Casey, but nothing could prepare him for the truth.
Not to be confused with HoodQuest's similarly titled creepypasta.
Grand_Theft_Motto's The Scarecrow Murders contains examples of:
- Author Avatar: The narrator, Tyler, is confirmed to be based on the author himself, as he was always fascinated by the rituals and history surrounding Halloween.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The story opens with Tyler observing a woman's corpse that is so damaged that he figures "whoever did this to the girl must have really hated her". The other murders are of a similar gruesome manner.That’s the only explanation I could come up with for how ugly the murder was and what they did with the body. Nailed to a post, gutted, then strangled for good measure; the woman’s last moments must have been Hell on Earth.
- Dead Guy on Display: The murdered corpses are mutilated and nailed to a pole like a scarecrow. The manner of it suggests to Tyler that it's part of a ritual. He's right.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: The human sacrifices are gutted because the blood keeps the Nightmare Under the Mountain asleep. The stranger answers to this sleeping entity, and says that his master will wake up one Halloween and "will devour".
- Evil All Along: The ending reveals Emma was trying to set Tyler up as the third sacrifice for the stranger, and dismissively shrugs him off as someone nobody would miss.
- Human Sacrifice: Three ritual killings, the locations of which form a triangle with sides of 3 miles each, are executed every Halloween. The blood protects Claremont, keeping the Nightmare Under the Mountain at bay for a year. The latest victims, Cindy and Roy, were "a drunk and a drifter" who wouldn't be missed. Tyler feels betrayed to know he was meant to be the third.
- Intrepid Reporter: Tyler is a city mouse journalist who investigates the titular murders in a Town with a Dark Secret.
- Murder by Mistake: Played with. Tyler was meant to be the third to be killed, but because Casey rushed into the church to attack the "killer", the cops shoot him to near-death in retaliation. They decide to make him the third sacrifice as a Mercy Kill, much to Emma's displeasure.Emma: (shouting) It wasn’t supposed to be Casey. He was our friend. Why did you do that?
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Emma delivers a berating speech to the unwelcome stranger once he speaks ill of her deceased grandfather.Emma: Stop talking. We're done. You're a coward and a worm. You were so afraid of my grandad you wouldn't step foot in Claremont until he was dead. He must have hurt you something awful back in fifty-five, huh?
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end, Tyler decides to leave town after figuring out he was set up as a ritual sacrifice.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Claremont organises ritual killings once a year to keep an entity from devouring the town, and "everyone who matters" is aware of it. Tyler's article on the murder was obscured to the 3rd page, just like the 1955 article that talked of the last time these murders happened. It also explains why the town council insisted on continuing festivities as scheduled like there wasn't a wild killer on the loose.
