Haunted Holidays – The Scarecrow Shrine at the Orchard

Beneath the orchard roots lies a gate that was never meant to open.

No map shows it. No legend speaks of it. But every harvest, when the veil thins and the air tastes of sleep and endings, something presses from the other side. Something that remembers the living world all too well.

That is why the guardians stand watch.

The Lantern Keeper does not speak, but neither does the Scarecrow. Bound in straw and warding sigils, it is older than the orchard, older than the town beyond it. The runes carved into its stand are not decorations… they are warnings. And tonight, one of them was freshly carved.

The Keeper’s flame flickered as if sensing it too ... a shift, a pull, a trembling thread beneath the earth. Whatever waited below was stirring.

The harvestmoon had begun to move.

And the guardians were no longer watching over a sleeping gate… They were guarding one that wanted to wake and had to stay shut.