The pitch-black scarecrow (ghost story)

I wasn't going to post this but I keep thinking about it so here we go.

Every year-end through New Year's, I go back to Gunma Prefecture where my dad's side of the family lives and pick up a part-time gig at the local post office. Been doing it since sophomore year of high school, every single break. Small rural town, so I had the entire delivery route memorized. The staff was genuinely thrilled, like 'our guy is back!'

This particular year they asked me to babysit a new guy, S. Show him the ropes for two or three days, take him on deliveries, help him memorize the route. S turned out to be a massive drinker so we clicked immediately, just trading jokes the whole time. His route covered about 50 stops. Not a lot of households, but the houses were SPREAD OUT. Like, embarrassingly far apart. The kind of area locals just call 'the middle of nowhere.'

Eight days in is when it happened.

S's route was right next to mine. We had a standing arrangement to meet at the vending machine by the bus stop and head back together. That day though. S showed up COMPLETELY unhinged. Red eyes, tears streaming down his face, pedaling his bicycle like something was chasing him. It was already 5pm, way past when he should've been done. He'd clearly fallen off somewhere, face and clothes and bike all caked in mud.

'What happened?'

He just kept saying it. 'Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous.' Over and over. Nothing else. I figured maybe he'd lost or damaged some mail, so I just said 'okay, let's go back to the post office first' and brought him in.

The delivery department supervisor took one look at him and came running over. 'What happened? Did you lose something?'

S said, 'No. I delivered everything.'

Every single person who came up and asked him what happened got the same response: 'You won't believe me.' Just that. Over and over.

Then one of the older staff members asked, real quiet. 'Did you see the pitch-black scarecrow?'

S nodded.

Another staff member said, 'In the forest? Or near the stream?'

S said: 'Both.'

Okay so. On S's route there's a house, let's call it House A. Based on the mail it looks like a middle-aged couple lives there, just the two of them. To get there you have to go through about 300 meters of dark forest, cross a small stream, and then cut through the middle of some fields. Honestly the kind of place that makes you want to yell at someone for building a house there.

About 20 years ago, House A burned down. A young child and the grandparents died in the fire. The grandfather apparently collapsed in the forest path trying to carry the child to the hospital. The grandmother was found by the stream, burned black. The child got taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital but didn't make it.

Where the current house stands now is past the fields, but the original house was in the fields themselves. Where the scarecrows are.

According to the staff. The grandfather is still looking for the child. And the grandmother is still running from the fire.

S told us, barely holding it together: 'At first I thought it was a scarecrow. But then I noticed the hair. Pitch-black all over... except the hair was completely white...'

And then I remembered something.

There are no scarecrows in those fields. I know that route. There aren't any.

But earlier that year, just once, I thought I saw something dark floating near the stream.

just once.