Valley of the Scarecrow (13 page)

“So, any of you clowns want another drink?” Rich said, his words slightly slurred and much too loud trying to speak over the sound of drunken conversation and the crackling noise of the roaring fire.

“I do! I do!” Dan said, laughing and jumping unsteadily to his feet so Rich could pour another inch of Jack Daniel’s into the bottom of his plastic glass.

“Hey, me too,” Kim said, giggling as she nearly tripped trying to step over Pat’s outstretched legs. “Don’t forget me.”

The party was definitely in full swing, all six campers having drunk more than enough already but no one ready to call it quits just yet. It had been Rich and Lizzy who’d smuggled in the booze in their backpacks—a forty-ouncer of sour mash whiskey and a twenty-sixer of peach schnapps. They only had water to mix it with, but after the long, tiring day they’d had, that hadn’t slowed anyone down. Add a few home-rolled “doobies” into the mix and everyone was feeling quite fine. More than fine, actually; they were all smashed.

It had taken most of the morning for the gang to strip off a decent number of wooden planks barricading the windows and finish uncovering the front doors. When they were finished, the entranceway was completely clear and
every window in the front reception chamber was wide-open, letting the cool breeze and bright sunlight into the church for the first time in over seventy years. The light radically altered the appearance of the front room, chasing the shadows away and making the reception area a bright and friendly place, surely how the villagers of Miller’s Grove had originally intended it to look all along.

The basement windows were uncovered after lunch, and an impromptu search of its contents was done in the hope Rich had overlooked something earlier and they might luck out and find the treasure. Nothing of value was found. After some debate, even the room with the reverend’s three dead faithful followers had been reexamined, in case there was something stashed in with the grisly remains. The girls wanted nothing to do with seeing any more dead bodies, but Dan and Rich had taken turns holding their breath and darting in and out of the room until they were satisfied there was nothing hidden inside. Pat had taken pictures, documenting their progress every step of the way. They sealed the metal door again and everyone went outside for some fresh air and a drink of cool water.

A quick search of the second floor (via the staircase beside the front entranceway) revealed nothing but an empty room with an old rope going up high toward the peaked ceiling. There was a rickety wooden ladder nailed to the wall heading up into the bell loft, but the ladder didn’t look at all safe to use and no one wanted a closer look at the bell anyway. Just as they’d suspected, the thin cord was still attached to the bell above and when Pat gave a tentative pull on the cord it rang out surprisingly loud three times before settling back down into silence. The noise startled the crows outside and they took to the
air at once, cawing madly and circling the church for ten minutes before they’d calmed down enough to perch on the roof again. Rich wanted a turn ringing the bell, but Dan convinced him the sound might carry for miles out here in the woods and it wasn’t a great idea to needlessly draw attention to themselves. Disappointed, Rich followed everyone downstairs again.

Without ever discussing it, they’d left the sanctuary until last, none of them particularly interested in hanging out with Reverend Miller if they didn’t have to. They’d taken the time to knock a few boards off the rear windows, just enough to let some light inside, then did a quick but thorough search of the room to see if by any chance the silver and gold might be lying around. None of them expected the treasure to be out in the open in a public place like this, and they were right. Finding nothing, the gang removed themselves from that room and closed the sanctuary doors. Knowing he’d been dead for a long time still wasn’t enough to make any of them want to stay in that room any longer than necessary, especially Kelly, who kept feeling Joshua’s eyes burning into the back of her head every time she turned away.

They’d spent the rest of the day outside, gathering firewood from the nearby woods and talking about their plans for tomorrow, which included searching for the Miller’s Grove settlement. Everyone had high hopes that the town was where they’d have their best chance of finding the treasure stash. Somewhere in the village they were sure they’d find Joshua Miller’s house, and inside there had to be a secret hiding place where he’d stored his silver and gold. They were determined to find it even if they had to tear the whole damn village apart. But that was for tomorrow.

Tonight was for partying.

And for dying, but none of them knew what fate had in store for them yet…

Pat staggered to his feet, heading for his camera bag. He wanted to get some pictures of his drunken friends dancing around the fire. “Hey, guys, gather around. I wanna get a pic of everyone together.”

“Screw you, amigo!” Rich said, but put his arms around Kelly and Liz, getting set to ham it up for the camera.

“You too, Dan-o,” Pat said. “Come on, Kim. Get your little butt in there too.”

“Sure thing,” Kim said, taking her chance to wrap her arms around Dan and secretly squeezing his ass while the picture was being taken.

Dan quickly stepped away once Pat was done, saying, “Hey, you know what would be really cool? How about we go back inside and get a few party shots taken with the good reverend?”

“Yeah, great idea,” Rich said. “Show him we ain’t scared of his ugly ol’ ass. Maybe bring him a drink so he can celebrate with us!”

“No way,” Kelly said. “Just leave him alone. It’s…I don’t know, sacrilegious or something. Respect for the dead and all that.”

“Fuck that. Fuck the dead!” Rich said, then repeated it even louder, shouting it into the chilly night air. “You hear me, Joshua? FUCK YOU!”

“Okay, tough guy,” Pat said. “I dare you. Let’s go in there and I’ll get some pics of you and the big guy up on the altar. You ain’t got the balls, I know it!”

“Yeah, we’ll see. Grab that bottle of Jack and follow me.”

They grabbed a few flashlights and laughed their way toward the front doors of the church. Inside, the reception
area wasn’t nearly as cheery at night as it had been earlier in the day and the sanctuary wasn’t likely to be any better, but Rich had shot his mouth off and there was no way he could back down now without looking like a chicken. Not feeling nearly as confident as he had back at the fire, he pulled open the sanctuary door and took a few uncertain steps inside.

“Come on, tough guy,” Pat said, pushing Rich in the back near the door. “Not shitting in your pants already, are you?”

“No way. I’m fine…it’s just there are some holes in the floor in here so chill a bit. I’ll get there.”

“You don’t have to climb up there, Rich,” Lizzy said, her better judgment starting to kick in. “We can get some pictures during the day, when it’s not so dangerous walking around in here.”

“Don’t worry, sweets,” Rich said, carefully making his way to the far end of the room, his flashlight aimed at the floor the whole way. “Everything’s cool. I can see okay. Just a couple quick pics and we’ll get back out to the fire.”

Climbing up onto the raised altar, all the flashlights in the room flashed up toward Joshua Miller’s corpse, and now that they had Rich’s body to compare it to, they could see how truly large the reverend was.

“Oh my God!” Kelly said. “He’s huge!”

“Damn!” Rich said, having the best view of all of them. From up close, the mummified man looked immense, his body withered but standing nearly seven feet tall with a wingspan at least that much. For the first time he started to rethink this dumb plan of his.

“That’s right, Liz,” Dan said, bursting into laughter. “A few quick pictures and you can help Rich change his underwear.”

“Very funny,” Rich said, knowing he was in too deep
to back out now. At the reverend’s bound feet, there was a church pew likely left from when they’d strung Joshua up all those years ago. Rich carefully climbed up onto the dusty wooden bench and stood up right beside the dead man.

“Careful, honey,” Liz said, holding her breath for no reason, hoping the boys would get through with all their macho bullshit so they could get back to partying soon.

“I’m fine, for God’s sake. Man, he was a big dude though, huh.” Even standing on the pew, Rich was still only head level with Joshua’s chest, even though the bound man’s feet were only several inches above his own. Looking up into the tangled hair covering Joshua’s face, a chill ran down Rich’s spine, a sobering tingle of fear urging him to get this over with. “Okay, Pat. Take the damn picture.”

“Sure, but can you push his hair out of the way so we can see him? From here it just looks like you’re standing beside Cousin Itt from the old
Addams Family
show.”

Everyone in the room laughed at Pat’s joke except Rich, who had the ghastly job of actually touching the dead holy man and then looking directly into his gaunt, dried-out face. Reaching out, he gently pushed the mop of tangled locks to the side but it wasn’t the death mask of Joshua Miller’s openmouthed frozen scream that caught Rich’s attention first. It was what was hanging around his neck, hidden within his tangled mane.

“Wow! Look at that, guys.”

“What is it?” Dan said, having noticed something shiny too.

“Don’t know,” Rich said. “Some kind of necklace. A triangle on a five-pointed star. Some kind of funky carvings
around an eye too. I’m no expert, but I think the damn thing’s made of silver and gold.”

“Get lost,” Pat said. “You serious?”

“Of course I am. Look!”

Rich leaned back and let the others shine their lights on the large amulet beneath Joshua’s leathery skin. When the lights hit the precious metals, even after all these years they shone. “See that? I’m telling you that’s gold! It’s part of the treasure, I’ll bet.”

“Grab it, man!” Dan said. “Bring it here and let’s get a closer look.”

“No, wait!” Kelly shouted, startling everyone. She remembered Malcolm telling her about this amulet and making her promise not to mess with it. “My grandfather warned me not to touch that. It’s a matching charm to the ring I showed you. This is gonna sound stupid, but he said they’re both magic and it was that necklace that has some kind of control over the evil around here. He made me promise we’d leave it alone.”

“You’re right,” Rich said. “That does sound stupid. Look…we came here to find a treasure, didn’t we? This thing is probably worth a fortune, Kel. There’s no way we can leave it behind. Right?”

“Right!” Pat said.

“Right!” Kim and Lizzy said together. Everyone looked at Dan.

“Sorry, Kelly, but Rich is right. We might not find anything else, but that necklace alone might be enough to get us all out of the hole. We can’t leave it here. No way. I mean, really…magic? Come on. This is the real world, remember? Just don’t tell Malcolm we took it. That’s all.”

“I guess you’re right.”

That was all Rich needed to hear, his fear of the hulking corpse in front of him gone as the excitement of finding some real treasure sunk in. “Yes! I’ll have it off him in a jiffy! Just a sec…”

Rich grabbed the bulky necklace, its weight making him all the more excited. He was trying to mentally decide how many ounces of gold it was made from as he lifted the chain to slide the amulet over the top of Reverend Miller’s head, when it pulled tight on his desiccated forehead and wouldn’t budge. “What the heck?” he muttered under his breath, pulling harder on the silver chain but still having no luck. “It’s stuck, guys,” he said over his shoulder. “The chain is too short I think. Doesn’t want to fit over his head. Maybe they did it up with a clasp on the back or something?”

“Don’t be such a wimp,” Pat said, snapping a few pictures. “Just rip the damn thing off like a man!”

That was the last thing Rich wanted to do. He could picture the reverend’s entire head coming off if he yanked too hard. Setting his flashlight down, he reached up with both hands and used one of them to push the chain a few inches higher up the dead man’s head. Tearing the dry skin a little above Joshua’s right eye, the chain started to move. One more hard yank and…

“Oww!” Rich screamed, the amulet finally sliding loose but not before one of the points on the star sliced into the tender meat of his palm, drawing blood. In the darkened room, Rich didn’t realize how badly he’d cut himself until he stepped down off the wooden pew and examined his hand under the glare of his flashlight. He had a two-inch cut under his left thumb and blood was streaming into his palm and starting to run down his wrist.

“Shit! I cut myself, guys. Fucking nasty too.”

“You got the necklace though?” Lizzy asked.

“Yeah, I got it. Thanks for all the concern, honey. I’m okay, really!”

“Oh, poor baby. Get over here and I’ll kiss it better,” Dan said, laughing.

“I got something else I’d rather you kiss, asswipe!”

Back out in the reception area, Liz wrapped Rich’s hand in his undershirt, while everyone else was busy checking out the necklace.

“This is incredible,” Kim said. “It’s just like your ring, Kelly, only
way
bigger.”

“Yeah, and feel the weight of it,” Dan said. “If this is really silver and gold like it looks, there’s no telling what it might be worth. At auction it might be worth a bloody fortune!”

“Speaking of bloody,” Liz said. “I’m gonna take picture boy here back to the tents to get some Band-Aids. The fool sliced himself pretty good.”

“We’ll all come. Rich is the man tonight! I think a find like this deserves a drink. What do you say, big guy?”

“Sounds good to me,” Rich said. “Make mine a double!”

“You got it. Let’s go.”

Together they exited the church and headed back over to stoke the fire and have some more drinks. Liz got Rich bandaged up and soon the party was in full swing again. Everyone was in a great mood, convinced the amulet they’d found was only the tip of the iceberg around here and that by this time tomorrow they’d have found the mother lode and all be filthy rich.

Inside the sanctuary, Joshua Miller hung in darkness, none of the reveling campers outside the least bit concerned that Rich’s blood had sprayed onto the reverend’s forehead as he’d yanked off the silver and gold talisman, and that even now his crimson life juices were sliding down the dead man’s face and trickling into the corner of his gaping open mouth…