Welcome to Scarecrow Hollow: Ghost Tales Mystery Series, #2

By Patti Petrone Miller

Welcome to Scarecrow Hollow The Urban Myth: The house was built around the turn of the century by an elderly man with many children. When the man died in the 1940's of old age, he left his spirit behind in the home. The apparition drags people out of their beds during the night, leaving them in the hallway. The man also has an affinity for doors-every door in the house that is left open, and is always found closed again. The Fiction: WELCOME TO SCARECROW HALLOW where things go bump in the night... Meet old man Wilson. Viciously murdered by his children for his money, his spirit is left behind. Outside, in the deserted cornfield, a lonely scarecrow dwells in the wind, and is used as a perch for the black birds. But with a closer look, it isn't a scarecrow at all. The birds flock to it like a moth to a flame, one by one pecking at the loose, decayed flesh hanging on the meat hook. People who visit the old farm house begin to disappear, one by one with no explanation...spray painted in red paint --the sign into the town of Scarecrow Hallow reads: Warning: Don't go into Scarecrow Hallow if you want to live... That's not what the Winter children had in mind while on their way to visit their favorite farm with their father, where things tend to go bump in the night. It will take the three siblings, Lance, Gwen and Merle to solve the mystery, in this middle grade thriller. Readers beware...you're in for a scare! Find out what happens in "Welcome to Scarecrow Hallow."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patti Petrone Miller
• Release date: Feb 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201141066

Book preview

Welcome to Scarecrow Hollow

The Urban Myth:

The house was built around the turn of the century by an elderly man with many children. When the man died in the 1940’s of old age, he left his spirit behind in the home. The apparition drags people out of their beds during the night, leaving them in the hallway. The man also has an affinity for doors-every door in the house that is left open and is always found closed again.

The Fiction:

WELCOME TO SCARECROW HOLLOW where things go bump in the night...

Meet old man Wilson. Viciously murdered by his children for his money, his spirit is left behind. Outside, in the deserted cornfield, a lonely scarecrow dwells in the wind, and is used as a perch for the black birds.  But with a closer look, it isn't a scarecrow at all.

The birds flock to it like a moth to a flame, one by one pecking at the loose, decayed flesh hanging on the meat

hook.

People who visit the old farmhouse begin to disappear, one by one with no explanation...spray painted in red paint—the sign into the town of Scarecrow Hollow reads:

Warning:

Don't go into Scarecrow Hollow if you want to live...

That's not what the Winter children had in mind while on their way to visit their favorite farm with their father, where things tend to go bump in the

night. It will take the three siblings, Lance, Gwen and Merle to solve the mystery, in this middle grade thriller. Readers beware...you're in for a scare! Find out what happens in Welcome to Scarecrow Hollow.

Additional Titles in the Series

The Pendleton Witches

The Legend of Violin Annie

Legend of the Little People

Knight in Screaming Armor

Pirates of Savannah

I dedicate this book to all of those children who believe in Ghosts...

Sometimes it’s not always a bunch of Hocus Pocus

And as always,

For Harold

Yo ho. Yo ho, a pirate’s life for me...

Welcome to Scarecrow Hollow

by

Patti Petrone Miller

Chapter One

The crows sat, evenly perched, on the shoulders of the battered scarecrow that was neatly placed in the middle of the cornfield. It was the only thing that was left behind that guarded the old farm, or so it would seem.

The birds cackled, and flapped their wings, before flying off toward the old apple orchard. The farm was quiet, almost too quiet, except for the periodic blood curdling screams.

A few miles down the dirt road, stood the Wilson apple orchard farm, high upon the grass-filled hill. The house loomed high above the town below, with a lovely view that could be seen for miles.  It was run by a crotchety old man known only as Wilson, along with his wife, Greta. While his eight children grew into adulthood, they patiently watched as Wilson aged and became disabled. He wasn't particularly a good father to his children and made them work on the farm every day, before and after school. He depended on his children to run the farm, which they felt was unfair because it left no time for the things they enjoyed doing, like reading, riding the horses, playing baseball, or hanging with their friends at the movies.  It was once a thriving happy place those many years ago when customers would flock to the farm for fresh eggs, milk, butter, and apples.

Every year on Halloween they would sell apples and pumpkins, have hayrides, and the haunted village. But as it seemed, as the years past, and the Wilson children grew dangerously bored and filled with hate and greed, they had other ideas racing through their minds that didn't involve the farm or the benefit of their aging parents. So, they waited, and they waited...

The torturous screams were muffled, but continued, echoing as the night wind howled blocking out the sound that only those who were closest could hear. Thinking it might have been mistaken as a cat or an injured animal.

But inside the barn where pigs and chickens were made to be slaughtered, connected to the ceiling were knives, machetes, hatchets, and cleavers. No one would ever be able to find a body no matter how hard they searched for it because afterward it would be ground up in the meat grinder...bones and all.

Old man Wilson was never seen again. The farm was empty for a normal weekday that was usually busy. On this day the farm was deserted with a sign that said closed. The delivery boy thought it odd, but he only delivered bread once a