Harold is One of the Most Disturbing Tales from 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'

To this day, I can't believe that the iconic series of 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz was written for children. I had discovered this series when I was in the fifth grade, and I remember how my fellow students would obsess over the creepy pictures for each story. Seriously, these pictures were so unnerving to look at, how did the author expect a child to get through these stories without having nightmares?

Years later, I now own the whole collection. I could name so many creepy stories that haunted me during my childhood, but I think the one that deserves the crown for the best one, has to be "Harold."

Harold follows the story of two men named Thomas and Alfred, who would take their cows up to the valley for a total of two months. The two men were bored with their work, and they got the idea to make a scarecrow, to scare off the birds in the garden. They decide to name the scarecrow Harold, after a farmer that the two men despised.

The men begin to speak with Harold for fun, and they also would beat up the scarecrow, whenever the men were angry or wanted to take out their emotions on Harold.

Then one day, they heard Harold make a grunting sound. The two men both get scared, and both try to figure out what to do with Harold. One of the men considers burning him, but the other one insists that they are only being stupid, and they should just keep an eye on Harold for now, since the men were going to leave the valley soon anyway.

They leave Harold alone for a couple of days, and once the men realize they were being silly over this odd situation, they go back to treating Harold like they did before.

Then another odd thing occurs. The men notice that Harold is growing.

To make matters worse, the two men one day see Harold get up and leave the hut they are staying in. They hear him walking back and forth on the roof of the hut, or he would go and stand in the corner of the pasture.

The two men decide to leave that same day with the cows, and they are relieved to not see Harold anymore. They start to cheer and sing, until they realize that they had forgotten to bring along the milking stools for the cows.

Thomas and Alfred convince themselves there is nothing to be afraid of, and they draw straws to see which one of them would go back for the supplies. Thomas is the one who is chosen to go back for them, and he tells Alfred he will catch up with him later. Alfred sets off with the cows, and at some point, he looks back to the hut, wondering why Thomas is taking so long.

Instead of seeing Thomas, he sees Harold, back on the roof of the hut.

He stretches out his arms, revealing that he is holding human skin, to dry out in the sun.

That ending left me terrified for days.

The thought of what happened to Harold is unsettling to think about.

I love how Harold coming to life was never explained, it made the story so much more enticing to read, and keeping his backstory a mystery made Harold even more of a threat. I felt so bad for the two men, how the hell did they expect their scarecrow to come alive and skin one of them?

And once again, I need to clarify this...this story was written for CHILDREN.

No child should ever have been exposed to this kind of horror.

And I blame this story for my mini fear of scarecrows.

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn