Creepy unknown

Previously

…Then, with a sudden, violent lurch, the ground beneath Elara gave way. Not a sinkhole, but a strange, disorienting sensation, as if the very fabric of reality had warped. She felt herself being pulled, not towards the woods, but downwards, into the earth. The last thing she saw before darkness consumed her was the flash of red eyes, and the silhouette of the scarecrow dressed in her grandmother’s shawl, its straw arms raised in a futile gesture of protection.