Hayride To Hell

HAYRIDE TO HELL 

  "How did you hear about this hayride, daddy?" Bonnie asked her father as they traveled down the dusty road leading to an old farm house. 

  "It's a fella I work with. He's usually pretty reserved and keeps to himself. I was surprised when he invited us out to his farm. Plus, it's free. Can't turn down free," Nikolas answered. 

The family of four grew quiet as they approached the run down house. Fields of corn surrounded them on all sides. The two teenage girls , Bonnie and Barb, looked around them in amazement. They'd never seen so much corn. 

As they approached the house, Nikolas noticed a long line of cars parked along side the driveway. 

"I didn't expect so many others to show up," he said to his wife Katie. 

They saw a family getting out of a small car directly in front of them. Nikolas didn't recognize them from work. 

He parked his car behind them and walked up to the other family. 

"Hey there! You guys here for the hayride, too?" he asked the young man. 

"Yes, sir," the gentleman answered, "This is my wife, Jennifer, my son Aidan and I'm Eric. Nice to meet you!" 

Eric extended his hand and Nikolas shook it. 

"There's not much to do in this small town. A hayride sounded nice. These damn kids were driving me nuts. Had to get them out of the house," Nikolas said with a laugh. 

Eric laughed along with him. Everyone turned to look when they heard a tractor approaching with a group of people on the back wagon. 

"There goes the first ride. Guess we'll wait on the next one," Eric said. 

"Whoa! Daddy, I want on that ride! Barb, look!" Bonnie squealed as she pointed to the wagon. 

 The group of parents knew instantly what the girls were staring at. Several young men looked like they'd came right from the set of Twilight, they were sparkling with so much glitter. Not only were they sparkling, none wore shirts. The two girls were practically foaming at the mouth. 

"Hey, wait for Nathan!" one shirtless young man yelled. 

They watched as a guy ran up to the wagon and got pulled onto the wagon with the group. 

 

"There's no room on that wagon," said Nikolas, without even looking to see if there actually was. 

As they all wandered to the house, they saw others waiting around on the porch. 

 "Where the hell did all these people come from?" Nikolas wondered out loud. 

 Eddie, the coworker who had invited him, was nowhere to be found. Nikolas couldn't understand how so many people knew about the hayride, or why it was so damn popular. 

 Nikolas heard screams coming from the cornfield. Terrified screams. Eric looked at him and both turned to walk towards the screams. 

Eddie wandered onto the porch at that moment and greeted them. 

"Nikolas! You made it!" Eddie said with a smile. 

Nikolas was surprised. Eddie never spoke to him at work. 

Eddie patted both men on the back and overheard the screams. 

"No need to worry about that. We have leftover Halloween props out there from the Halloween hayride. I'm sure it's scaring the hell outta some of them!" Eddie said with a laugh. 

"Dammit, Tim! Why do you always have to be an asshole?!" 

All three men turned to see a woman yelling at an older man. 

"I guess I was born this way, Joy. But you knew that when you married me, huh?" 

"I wish I had known! But I found out soon enough and that's why I divorced your sorry ass! Now shut the hell up and let's try to get along for our son's sake. Let the kid enjoy this damn hayride," Joy answered. 

Eric and Nikolas turned their attention back to to Eddie. 

"This seems to be rather popular, Eddie. How'd you get so many folks out here? I don't recognize anyone from work," Nikolas asked. 

"I have my wife, Jamie, to thank for this. She invited a bunch of folks from her job," Eddie replied. 

Just then they heard the tractor approaching. It was nearly empty. 

"Wasn't that thing full when it left?" Eric asked. 

"Oh yeah, I'm sure most of them got dropped off at the barn. My wife has refreshments and food set up in there" Eddie answered. 

 

No one questioned this as Eddie ushered another group off of the porch as the wagon approached. 

The few remaining people jumped from the tractor wagon as it slowed down in front of the porch. None of them said a word. They simply walked to their cars and drove off. 

Eric and Nikolas helped their families onto the wagon and jumped on themselves. The lady who was arguing with her ex-husband hopped on with her family as well. 

Once the wagon was full, it drove off slowly into the setting sun. 

As they approached the path they were to take that led into the cornfield, Nikolas looked back at Eddie, who was watching them from the porch. 

 

The expression on Eddie's face gave Nikolas chills. He was staring at him with a dead look in his eyes, as if he was looking right through him. Eddie threw up his hand and waved, but his expression never changed. 

 Nikolas turned his attention back to his family. Bonnie and Barb were sitting on the side of the wagon with their feet dangling off. 

 "Scoot back some, you're too close to the edge," he told the girls. 

"Oh, they're fine! Let them have some fun," Katie said. 

As darkness fell, Nikolas turned on the small flashlight he kept on his keychain. It didn't help much, but it was better than nothing. The tractor was moving slowly at first, then it started to speed up. 

"Hey, driver! Slow it down. There's kids back here," Eric said. 

"My name is Dean, not 'Driver'."

 

"Ok then, DEAN. SLOW IT DOWN!" Eric said loudly. 

 Nikolas was shining his flashlight along the path, when he saw something glitter. He peered closer into the field of corn and saw what appeared to be a pile of bodies. It looked like something was hovering over them, feeding on them. He instantly remembered the group of glittering, shirtless men from earlier. 

He grabbed his daughters from the edge of the wagon and pulled them closer to him. 

"Get back!", Nikolas yelled. 

 

The wagon slowed to a stop. 

 "Something the matter?" the driver, Dean, asked as he turned around on his seat to face to them. 

 "There's a pile of fucking bodies back there, so yeah! Something is the matter!!"  Nikolas screamed. 

 "I think you're mistaken. Those were Halloween props. It wasn't real." 

 Just then, the lady who'd been arguing with her ex earlier, pushed the man from the wagon. 

"This is your stop, Tim!" Joy yelled as he hit the ground. 

 Before anyone could react, something drug Tim off into the corn rows.