Ollie wrenched free. “We have to go!” she cried.
“There are scarecrows right outside!” snapped Brian.
“We have to risk it,” said Ollie. “The bus driver said they’re only dangerous at night, remember?”
“The bus driver whobrought us here?” demanded Coco.
The woman had hurried to the window. “My boys, my dear ones,please.” She was fumbling at the window, and beyond her were the blank, smiling faces of the scarecrows.
“Comeon,” said Ollie. The three of them ran, tripping over the threshold. Two scarecrows stood outside, one ateach window. Somehow, they were not looking into the house anymore, but were watching the kids run, still smiling their wide smiles. The laundry was rotting on the line, the shutter banging and banging andbanging...
Ollie, Coco, and Brian dashed into the woods, dodging trees, wild with panic, sure the scarecrows were marching behind them in steady pursuit, while their dead mother wailed in her cold house.
17
OLLIE CAUGHT ONEof her duck-printed rain boots under a tree root and went down with a cry, ripping her jeans and smearing herself with mud. Brian stopped when she yelled, and Coco tripped over her, knocking the wind out of them both.
“Come on!” cried Brian, while Ollie and Coco lay wheezing on the ground. He was faster than either of them, what with the hockey and everything, but he waited for them, panting. “We have to go!”
Ollie got to her hands and knees, still heaving for breath. She looked around. “No one’s chasing us,” she said. “We’ll only exhaust ourselves. You okay, Coco?”
“I think so,” she said, rubbing her knees. Brian was scanning the woods, but Ollie had been right—there was no one in the woods but them.
Almost no one. Ollie jumped with a little cry. “Look!”
Written on a tree trunk a few paces away, in sloppy white letters, were two words.
STILL WATCHING
Below, a new scarecrow, wearing an old-fashioned flowered dress, leaned against a tree. Both her hands were paintbrushes.
“Come on, comeon!” cried Coco, scrambling up.
“Hang on,” said Ollie. “If the scarecrows could get us in daylight, they would have back at Cathy Webster’s house. It’s like the bus driver said.”
She walked up to the scarecrow. It didn’t move. She poked it. It felt like an ordinary scarecrow. Cloth over straw.
“Are you crazy?” Coco demanded. “They’rewatchingus! If they can’t grab us during the day, all they have to do is watch us until dark!”
“Were thosescarecrowsreally Caleb and Jonathan?” asked Brian. “Or did that crazy ghost just think they were?”
“I don’t know,” said Ollie. She found herself hoping Cathy was wrong. But she wasn’t sure. Jonathan had promised to serve the smiling man. And the bus driver had called the scarecrowshis servants.
“Why can’t they get us during the day?” Brian asked.
“Something about them being only partway in the sunshine world,” said Ollie. “They’re weaker. The bus driver said. I dunno.”
“Sunshine world?” said Brian. “So they’re in bothworlds? Even though we aren’t? Wonder if they know a way for us to get home?”
“Also, what was Cathy doing here?” Coco piped up. “If she’s the lady from your book, Ollie.”
Ollie didn’t know that either. She hoped neither of the others could see her shiver.
To reassure herself, Ollie looked down at her watch. The countdown read 02:50:45. They still had a while until sundown. And the old word—RIVER. Okay, that was whatFOODhad meant. Don’t eat the food. Duh. She opened her mouth to tell Brian and Coco about her watch, then closed it again.
“Do you hear that?” asked Brian suddenly.
They all went still, listening.
