Glass Reality | Book One

Chapter IX

Ruby tugs on my french braid as I walk beside her. I look over at her, my eyebrows teasingly lowered in anger.

"Hey!" I cry before grabbing a part of her curly hair and tugging it down.

"Ow!" She whines before looking over at me with a look that reads you're dead. I instantly call a truce. She starts laughing before turning to some girl who works the cash register. Ruby did end up dragging me to the apple orchard. Aunt Janice ended up braiding my hair for me, giving me a friendly appearance instead of my hair going everywhere due to the humidity right now. I feel like a cowgirl with a flannel pulled over myself and some ripped up jeans sat on my legs. Ruby picked it out, saying we needed to dress like farm girls. I wasn't exactly on board with it, but then again, I'm never on board with Ruby. Ruby went overboard and actually took her grandma's old cowgirl boots. Meanwhile, I wear boring skateboarding shoes.

It's pretty gloomy out here. Ruby insisted we went early, so here we are, standing in the middle of a foggy apple patch at six in the morning. Not exactly my idea of fun. Ruby woke me up at five by calling me incessantly. When I answered, she just told me to open up the door.

The apple trees look dead, to be honest. All their leaves are gone except for a few, and there are only a couple of apples hanging off the tree, desperate to be picked. Fog from the morning litters the ground, giving it a spooky image. I was hesitant about getting out of the car into this place, but when some lady sent us a warm smile, I felt a little better.

"Feel free to enter the haunted hay maze," I hear the cash register girl tell Ruby.

"We definitely will," Ruby smiles.

"Not!" I hiss when we walk away. Ruby sends me a questioning look before passing me a basket. I take it, grumbling under my breath.

"Not, what?"

"Check out the haunted hay maze. Hell no!" I cry. Ruby just gives me a bored look. It takes me a moment to realize she's staring at me with one eyebrow cocked and the other eyebrow lowered. She clears her voice when I stop talking.

"I'm going in it. Besides, how scary can it be? Little kids come here."

Both of us look to our right. Sitting there, in big red block letters sits a sign. It reads "Haunted Hay Maze!" Just looking at the place sends my heart into cardiac arrest. There are big spiders set up around it, and a horrifying looking scarecrow beside the place with its arms nailed to a cross.

Its arms are pinned to the wooden cross, it's face sewn together, giving it a big smile. Its eyes are buttons, one smaller than the other and both black as the night. It's body sags with the hay packed in it, and its hands are just gloves. I don't realize I am shaking my head until Ruby bumps into me.

"Chillax. If you really do not want to go into it, we won't," Ruby says kindly in my ear. My breath comes out like I am getting my first breath of oxygen after being underwater. From the cold air, my big gasp of breath is visible as it spirals into a cloud before disappearing into the lingering fog.

"Oh thank God." I let out another sigh of relief before Ruby is suddenly chucking an apple at me.

"Now come on, your aunt is expecting Honeycrisp apples. And she makes the best apple pies, so they better be the best apples here," Ruby points at me before turning down an apple tree aisle.

For the slightest moment, I turn to look over my shoulder. I feel as if someone is staring, but the only people here are Ruby and me along with the workers. Maybe a worker is watching us.

But even as I turn around, I know that wouldn't be my luck.

___

It's a little after sunrise when I see him. He's there, hovering by a tree with his famous scythe glowing in the sun beside him. My stomach drops as soon as I see him. I turn and immediately run down the apple tree aisle. After last night, I don't trust myself.