"The Scarecrow Murders
" is a very short creepypasta by HoodQuest. Its main inspiration is Stephen King's Children of the Corn.
The events being relayed by the protagonist took place in the almost unheard-of town of Moorefield, Nebraska. Its small population was threatened with murders over the course of 14 years. However, not even the killer's imprisonment stopped people from disappearing. He did forebode that his scarecrows will continue the job for him...
Not to be confused with the r/nosleep story of the same name.
HoodQuest's The Scarecrow Murders contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Ending: Most of the mystery is left unsolved as it's written by someone who recalls what they read about it and ends with their intent to go to Moorefield and investigate the truth. It's left unknown what caused the deaths of more citizens after the original killer, Joseph Banks, was caught, or what Harold Barker was doing inside a scarecrow like the hidden corpses were if he was the one who "continued Banks' work".
- Body in a Breadbox: The bodies hidden within the farm that the police didn't find the first time were discovered later inside the increasing amount of scarecrows. It puzzles the protagonist that they never thought to check the fields before.
- Corny Nebraska: Moorefield, Nebraska, is the small town the murders happen in, and the one who confessed to it all after several bodies were found hidden in his farm is Joseph Banks. During their 2nd police raid there, they found the other bodies hidden inside the scarecrows, having cleared 18 of them from 35 acres of corn field.
- Deathbed Confession: Harold Barker, the town handyman, was the only one alive (but barely) that was found inside a scarecrow. He passed away 3 days later, but not before he confessed that he "continued Banks' work." Besides Joseph Banks being arrested earlier for several murders, it's unclear what was really meant by "Banks' work", and what that had to do with him being found in a critical condition inside a scarecrow (as those were where the other victims' bodies were hidden).
- Scary Scarecrows: It is hinted that there is more to the scarecrows than meets the eye once the murderous Joseph Banks said, "Beware the fields. They watch it. They will finish my work." More and more scarecrows appeared in his corn field during his absence. In the 2nd police raid on the farm, they found the scarecrows to stink of decaying flesh and discovered several bodies hidden in them. The only living victim claimed that he was "continuing Banks' work," whatever that meant. The protagonist intends to pry deeper by moving to the town where it happened, resolving the story with, until the truth is found, that they're not trusting another scarecrow.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Even after the farmer responsible for most of Moorefield's murders is jailed, more people kept disappearing, and then several bodies were found within scarecrows. The protagonist thinks "it almost seems like people wanted this to disappear" because there is so little information about the events and the town itself. There was one time where he wanted to show a website article about the murders to his father, but it vanished before he could see it.
- Wham Line: Joseph Banks' final words before he's dragged off to prison for life inflicts unease into the citizens of Moorefield that he had yet to kill: "Beware the fields. They watch it. They will finish my work." It's ultimately left ambiguous if the scarecrows are alive, but it is very much implied.
