Mario and I braced ourselves to attack the evil scarecrow if needed. But when Ruth opened the front door, there was no scarecrow. With the exception of the gnomes and a couple of flowers in pots, the porch was empty. There was not even a trace of straw.

Ruth let go of the door and spun around to face us. She seemed annoyed. "I do not understand. What am I supposed to be seeing?"

Mario squeezed past her and pointed a finger at the exact spot where he saw the creature had been standing. "He was right here and close to the door. I swear."

I believed him, but not Ruth. She thought that he was either pranking or messed up in the head. It was her turn to point her finger, and she pointed it at him and basically bullied him. She called him stupid and said that he was only doing this because he desired attention from me. I noticed that he was on the verge of tears and stood up for him.

"You can never shut up, can you, Ruth?" I said. "You just have to make yourself feel better by making others feel worse. You should be ashamed of yourself. Has it not hit you that bullying is one of the main reasons why kids end their lives? They will believe the lies of a bully and suffer because of it."

She glared at me and crossed her arms. "Maybe if the Forlot school was not filled with idiots and fools, I would not be going around and telling them how useless they are."

I balled my hands into fists and growled. Never had I been this angry with her, and I did not take into consideration what I said next. "The only fool in the school is you, Ruth Ford. You may be pretty, but you sure have an ugly soul."

You readers should have seen the look on her face. She absolutely hated that I was telling the truth. Her face became more red than your average tomato, and before I could react, she raised her hand and slapped me hard. It was such an impact that I staggered back and covered my face with both of my hands. Then I overheard her and my friend going at it.

"You need to leave immediately, Ruth," Mario stated. "Or I will contact the Forlot hospital, and they will contact the police from the next town and arrest your big butt."

She took offense to that last part and gasped. "I do not have a big butt!"

"I said that you have a big butt to get you to leave the property. If you do not by the time that the police arrive, I will have you charged for trespassing and assaulting Robin."

I expected Ruth to make another so-called "smart" remark, but I guess that Mario worried her. I removed my hands from my face, and the first thing that I saw was her staring intently at me.

"You should not blame me for showing up uninvited, Robin. You and that stupid principal are at fault." With that, she shoved my best friend out of the way and dashed down the sidewalk.

I joined Mario on the porch and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I do not care if I am an evil person for saying this, Mario, but I wish that she was being stalked by the scarecrows instead of me."

"The readers agree with you on that one," Mario replied. "Shall we get back to what is more important?"

"If you mean catching the scarecrows in the act, then yes."

I suggested that we go outside to record. It would be much clearer outside than inside. Mario was skeptical at first because the outside was accessible, and he was afraid that the scarecrows would chase us and capture us with ease.

"After we are captured, the scarecrows will drag us into the cornfield and transform us into straw figures like them," he theorized as we went around the back of the house.

"That will not happen," I reassured him. "The Forlot books are different, not predictable."

"If the books are supposed to be different, Robin, how come there are characters who sometimes do questionable and stupid stuff and ghosts and vampires and werewolves?"

"Not all the main characters do stupid things. And even if we do things that a human with common sense would never do, it just proves that we are not perfect. We make mistakes and hopefully learn from them."

"Robin, that only works if the person does not get easily offended."

"Forlot characters are not the ones whom you should be concerned about offending."

We were now standing at the back of my house. My friend had the camera to his face and notified me that it was recording the cornfield. Like what we did in my bedroom, we waited and waited. The scarecrows did not move, however, I noticed that one of the poles was bare. A scarecrow was not hanging from it.

I gulped. If the scarecrow was not on his pole, then that meant that he was wandering around and somewhere on the farm.

With a shaking voice, I said, "This was a bad idea, Mario. I am sorry. We should head back inside. Better yet, we should run away from the farm."

"What suddenly changed your mind?" Mario asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just the fact that a scarecrow is missing and could grab us at any minute."

He lowered the camera. "Say no more."

We crept up to the back door, and I gripped the doorknob tightly. But before I opened the door, I looked up at the small window - and screamed.

From the inside, the curtains were pulled away from the small window, and in place of them was the face of a scarecrow. The sides of his lips were curved up.

I watched as he turned the knob and opened the door.