Lee walked confidently into the corn maze. This Halloween festival was a joke. What could be scary about corn?

Miles followed after him. He wasn’t so sure about the maze. The corn was pretty high, and it would be dark soon. What if they couldn’t find their way out?

“I’m great with directions,” said Lee. “Just stick with me.”

“Ok,” said Miles. “But I think I’m going to make a trail just in case.”

Miles took a pack of small candies out of his pocket. He’d won it in the pumpkin-carving contest for making the silliest pumpkin.

“Do you have your candies too?” he asked Lee. Lee had won for scariest jack-o-lantern. Of course.

Lee handed over his candies. “What a waste,” he said.

Miles dropped a candy every few feet along the maze. He figured if they couldn’t find the end they could at least retrace their steps to the beginning.

The boys wound their way through the corn tunnels. Looking up, Miles could tell it was getting pretty dark. “This is taking a long time,” he said. “I feel like we’re going the wrong way.”

“Well, if we’d been this way before we would see the candies you dropped, right?” said Lee.

“True,” said Miles. That was comforting. He shivered a little. It was getting cold, and it was darker by the minute.

“What was that?” asked Miles.

“What?” said Lee.

“That noise,” said Miles. There was kind of a thumping sound.

“That’s the Haunted Scarecrow,” said Lee. He laughed. It wasn’t a very nice laugh.

“Stop,” said Miles. “That’s creepy.”

The noise got louder. “I said stop,” said Miles.

“I’m not doing anything,” said Lee.

The moon went behind a cloud. It was pitch black. The thumping sound got even louder.

“Run!” shouted Lee. They turned around and followed the candy trail in and out of the corn maze tunnels. “Faster!” yelled Lee.

They finally got back to the start of the maze and collapsed in a pile under the lights.

“Whha..what was that?” stammered Lee when he could breathe again.

“Like you said, it was the Haunted Scarecrow,” said Miles, laughing. He high-fived his friend Mandy, who came crashing out of the corn behind them. She was wearing huge boots, better for thumping.

But then, out of the maze, something else came crashing. The Haunted Scarecrow. “Run!” they all shouted.

All that was left was a pile of candies in the lights by the maze. Maybe corn is scary after all.