Who Says Corn Fields Are Creepier Than Apple Orchards

Tessa and Alexander pulled up at the house in their brand new (to them anyway) 2010 Toyota Camry. They'd had tons of crappy cars including a Buick that Alex had bought for a grand from his older brother, Eric, a year before. The Buick had been nothing but trouble, much like their other cars. But finally they had a vehicle they could be proud of.

"Oh. My. Gosh! I love our new car! Iloveit, Iloveit, I LOVE IT!" Tessa screams as she jumped up and down and kissed her hubby on the cheek.

"Me too babe. It's great to finally have wheels again! I got so sick of having to ask for a ride EVERYWHERE." Alexander beamed.

"Yeah, mom really helped us get a great deal in it, didn't she?" Tessa said leaning against the pearly silver front bumper. Alexander nodded.

"Sometimes she drives me crazy but she really does have a big heart." He said thoughtfully.

"She does." Tessa smiled. The front door of the house creaked open.

"Are you two gonna stand out there all night or what?" Louisa called to them, her silhouette framed in the doorway and lit up by the moonlight.

"Coming, mama." Tessa yelled back as she walked toward the house.

This place held a lot of memories for Alex and Tessa. Tessa's best friend since her sophomore year in high school lived here up until three months ago when she moved down the street with her husband and two daughters. Tessa's mother saw the houses availability as an opportunity to leave her crazy husband. Moving two miles away from him was better to Louisa than staying in the same house.

The only thing Tessa felt about it is that after years of her parents having screaming matches several times a week, some weeks everyday, they bothed deserved peace. The constant fighting was negatively affecting Michael and Morgan, Tessa's two younger brothers, profoundly. Those two deserved a stable home life and it just wasnt going to happen if their parents lived together.

Tessa walked into the living room, Alex trailing behind her, and plopped down on the brown suede double recliner.

"What are we watching?" Tessa asked her mother. She heard Michael cheering in the next room over, no doubt he was playing Grand Theft Auto 5 with his best friend again. Teenage boys. Tessa rolled her eyes and smiled about them adoringly.

"Oh this is a goood movie, you've never seen this?! It's so good!" Louisa exclaimed as she took a sip of her coffee, she continued "Jennifer Lopez stars in it. It's called 'Enough'."

"Hey babe," Alex touched her arm "I'm gonna go play some Ghosts with Morgan." Tessa nodded with a small smile and turned back to her mother.

"No I haven't seen this but I'll watch it with you now. By the way, Mexican (her best friends nickname, you can guess why) will be up here after she gets Audrey down for bed, so it'll be a while."
An hour and a half and J-Lo kicking some ass later a knock came at the door.

"Come in." Louisa and Tessa said in unison.
"Hey white girl." Mexican stood in the doorway as Tessa jumped up to give her a hug.
"Hey yourself." Tessa said with a smile.
"Hey Abbie, not being rude but it is pased my bedtime." Louisa said looking at the clock and yawning. "Have fun, see ya tomorrow." Louisa pecked her daughter on the cheek, disappeared into her room and closed the door.

"So," Abbie said "the moon is supposed to be super huge tonight and a lot brighter."

Tessa smiled. "I'd rather be outside anyway."
Tessa popped open the trunk of her car. She pulled out a Smirnoff screwdriver, popped the cap and took a swig, and offered it to Abbie.
"No thanks, my drinking days and hard partying days are over. Since my birthday I get sick every time I drink now."

Tessa giggled. "That was an obscene amount of Tequila and PJ you drank that night." She recalled. "Kurt and I had to carry you to your room after you passed out on us."

"Never. Again." Abbie laughed. The girls opened the car doors and got in. Tessa propped her feet up on the dash.
"The moon really is beautiful tonight." She said.
"It's a little less super than I thought it'd be though." Abbie replied.

"Hey ladies." Alex said, gravel crunching beneath his feet.

"Oh my gosh, Alex, let's take Abbie for a joyride, you down Abbie?" Tessa said excitedly.

"Absolutely." She said, shutting her car door. Alex turned the car over and the engine purred to life.

"Oh my gosh, your car is on?" Abbie asked, straining to hear the motor.

"Yup." Alex nodded once.

"I can't hear anything at all." She said.

Alex smiled. "One of the many reasons I like it." He shifted into first and pulled out of the drive, turning left onto Scatterlight Circle. Tessa hooked her phone into the auxiliary input. Brantley Gilbert's 'Bottoms Up' boomed through the speakers.

"Wow, nice stereo too." Abbie shouted over the music. She gripped the seats as Alex drifted through the curves. They passed a trailer park, an old farmhouse and a huge apple orchard before coming to a stop on Ebenezar Road.

"Ugh, that bridge creeps me out." Abbie shuddered, looking through thr rear windshield.

"Why?" Alex asked curiously.

"A girl died there." Tessa said rolling down her window and unbuckling her seat belt.

"I'm going window surfing. Want to, Mexican?" Tessa slid her upper body through the window and sat on the passenger side door.

Abbie let out a small "eeek" before unbuckling her seat beltand sliding up through the window. "Yes but let's get out of here. That bridge really does creep me out."

Alexander took off. Weaving through the curves like a pro. The night air was cool and moist. This was freedom. Tessa held her hand high in the sky.
"Oh my god," Abbie coughed and shouted"I think I swallowed a fly." The girls laughed.

"I hope no deer come out and hit us tonight!" Tessa shouted back.

"I was getting ready to say the same thing. Hehe, I feel like a dog." Abbie said as she stuck her tongue out and started to pant.

"I was getting ready to say the exact same thing!" Tessa stuck her tongue out too. They were always doing silly things like this together. Alexander accelerated through a straight stretch. It didn't feel like they were going fifty miles per hour.

"Oh my god, I got drool in my ear." Tessa wiped at her ear as Abbie giggled at her.

They came around the corner approaching Abbie and Kurt's house.
"Cuurrrttissss!" Abbie shouted as Tessa screamed "Aye aye aye!"

Abbie looked at Tessa. "Hey, who's the Mexican here?" The dissolved into a fit of giggles as they slid back into the car cabin and Alex decelerated and pulled into Louisa's driveway.

"You guys are gonna wake the whole neighborhood, you do realize it's 2:45am, right?"

"Eh, I don't care. I live here." Abbie shrugged.

"Tell me about that girl that died." Alex said.

"Well, she lived, just her and her dad, in that old farmhouse we passed on the way back. She was troubled. She would have freak outs if there were loud noises. Her dad, old Mr. Whittemore, had to stop using a lot of his farming machinery because they were so loud, she'd go crazy. She was killed, or killed herself, no one really knows. They just found her body by that old bridge a few weeks after she went missing. She was seventeen. Of course that was ten years ago." Abbie said matter-of-factly. "Old Mr. Whittemore called my dad a few days ago. He said to watch out for a pack of coyotes that had been after his livestock. He called again earlier tonight. One killed the dog his daughter had as a puppy last night. I know he's been through a lot but I cant help it, that old man creeps me out. I wish he would stop calling."

"That is pretty freaky." Alex said seriously.

"I know, right?" Abbie agreed.

"He's there all alone. But I've heard from some people who used to buy apples from him that he talks to his daughter like she's still there." Tessa added.

"Ugh, enough, I'm getting creeped out." Abbie said with a shudder.

"Yeah. That was exhilarating! Let's go again, you wanna go again, Abb?" Tessa exclaimed.

"Yes, let me just text Kurt to come outside so he can see me pass." Abbie finished her text and they took off again, this time faster.

Passing by her house, Abbie frowned, Kurt was nowhere to be seen.

"Kurt's a dick!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. Her horses galloped along side the car.

Tessa stared at the moon as everything whizzed by. It really was a beautiful night. She couldn't have felt more free than with the wind in her hair in this moment.
Alex decelerated the car as he did a U-turn on Ebanezar. Tessa heard a low growl. She and Abbie turned to look behind them two coyotes slinked up the bank on the sides bridge, hackles raised. One lowered it's head to the ground.

"Oh my..." Abbie whispered. The coyotes ran towards them with a vicious sounding bark.
Tessa drummed on the top of the car.

"Go, Alex! Go! Go! Go!" She shouted. Alex floored it and the girls gripped the handles on the inside of the car tighter.

Tessa looked behind them. Only one coyote was in sight and it slowed to a halt in the middle of the road. Tessa let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"They're gone." She said, looking forward again. Alex rounded the corner at the apple orchard.

"Oh my God! Tess! Did you see that?" Abbie looked terrified.

"Wha-" Tess started.

"There is is again!" Abbie pointed ahead of them. A dark black figure sprinted unnaturally fast through the orchard.

"It's coming toward us!" Abbie shrieked.
It was moving so fast they couldn't see any legs.

Abbie yelled "ALEX, WATCH OUT!" The black hooded figure darted across the road. The headlights blazed right through it.

The tires squalled as Alex slowed the car dodging the... THING.

"Where did it go?" Abbie said after a second.

"Abbie..." Tessa whispered. Abbie looked over at Tessa who was staring behind her.
Abbie looked back.

It's face was cloaked in darkness. A long willowy black tattered dress drug the ground. The arms of the dress were lace, bony hands protruded from the long sleeves, an axe in one hand... a coyote head in the other. It stood not 30 feet from them.. and it started running towards them. 20 feet and gaining.

"What the fuck?!?" Abbie gasped.

"Alex step on it!" Tessa screamed and pounded the roof of the car.

Alex floored it. The girls held on tight as he whipped the car through the curves past the farmhouse. The girl in black slowed and stopped in the middle of the road. Alex didn't slow down. Until they passed Abbie's house and finally slowed down to creep down the short drive to Louisa's.

Abbie and Tessa looked at each other without words. The terror of what they had just seen passed between them.