Cropsy - Chapter Six: Roots Beneath the Ashes

For months after the fire, Alder Bend convinced itself that Cropsy had ended with the fields. Yet the land did not heal the way burned land should. New growth came in strange patterns: circles of unnaturally dark soil, rows that curved inward as if drawn toward a centre point. Farmers found their tools rusting overnight, metal pitted as though buried for years. When they dug new irrigation lines, they uncovered knots of roots far too thick for crops that young, twisting together like fingers.

Elaine noticed it first near the old barn. The earth there remained soft no matter the weather. When she knelt, she could feel vibration under her palms, a slow, patient pulse. At night she dreamed of walking underground corridors made of packed soil, hearing something breathe beside her.

Animals began disappearing again, but differently this time. No blood, no tracks. Just empty pens and fences bowed inward. Sheriff Calder, greyer and quieter now, tried to reassure people, but his voice carried no conviction.

One morning, a scarecrow appeared in a field that had been empty the night before. It was crudely made, clothes stuffed with straw and tied with twine. Its head was a burlap sack, blank and featureless. No one admitted to building it.

By sunset, it had moved.

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model