"Darkness Falls Across The Land
The Midnite Hour Is Close At Hand
Creatures Crawl In Search Of Blood
To Terrorize Y'awl's Neighbourhood
And Whosoever Shall Be Found
Without The Soul For Getting Down
Must Stand And Face The Hounds Of Hell
And Rot Inside A Corpse's Shell
The Foulest Stench Is In The Air
The Funk Of Forty Thousand Years
And Grizzy Ghouls From Every Tomb
Are Closing In To Seal Your Doom
And Though You Fight To Stay Alive
Your Body Starts To Shiver
For No Mere Mortal Can Resist
The Evil Of The Thriller"
- Vincet Price,
Thriller
Ed was a normal boy, just like you and I. He went to school,
he played fetch with his dog, he drank milk out of a bendable straw, he also
liked making things. Only Ed was dead.
But we're getting ahead of the story, now aren't we? That
comes later.
A long time ago when children still played outside, in a
neighborhood not very different from your own, lived a boy named Ed. Not
Edward, just Ed.
Ed lived with his family - or rather, people that said they
were his family. The man and woman who took care of him weren't really his
parents, and the children he lived with weren't really his brothers and
sisters. Well, technically they were his aunt, uncle, nieces and nephews. His
''mum'' was a short, plump woman with bushy hair and rosy cheeks, and always
made sure Ed crossed his ''P's' and ''Q's'' and folded his napkin and many
other things most people like her care about. His ''dad'' was a tall, slender
man with a countable amount of hair, a long mustache that rarely moved to talk.
Their names were James and Susan but he was told to call them ''Sir'' and
''Ma'am.'' The rest of the children were called Mary, Hecter, Reggie and Ryan.
(That's what Ed called them too.)
Ed knew that just by looking at the rest of the children
that he definitely did not belong to ''Mum'' or ''Dad''. Mary was short, plumb,
sort of like a mini version of her mother. The three boys were tall - much
taller than Ed - slender, and usually only spoke unless they had something to
shock their sister with.
And this is why Ed didn't fit in. He was neither fat or
thin, hairy or bald, short or tall, well-mannered or misbehaved. He was just
him, and no one was too happy with him at any rate. He wasn't quite sure he was
happy with himself either.
Dinner time. Or at least, that's what Reggie had said when
he had came blasting through Ed's shared room, nearly knocking over his model
airplanes, and sweeping away the picture he had been working on. Ed frowned.
Super time was probably his least favorite part of the day. If he could get
away with it, he would still be in his room, building something. As he
overlooked his collection of model planes, he sighed once more. He followed the
instructions to the letter, but all of the planes didn't look as good as they
did on the box. The same thing with all his drawings. The pictures he'd drawn
never looked as good as they did in his head. They looked like a mangled, fake
version of what he imagined.
''Dinner time!" That was the voice of ''mum'' this
time, with a far more demanding tone than Reggie's.
''Yes, Ma'am."
He found that everyone else had already seated themselves
but was waiting to eat. He seated himself and waited for everyone to begin
eating.
''Mum'' cleared her throat quite loudly, giving Ed a hard stare.
Ed glanced down, then back up. Then back down.
''Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked.
He forget something nearly every time he sat down. He was
beginning to think that she made up new rules of manners to be able to point it
out to him as soon as he sat down. He said nothing, unsure.
''Wash your hands... please."
That was another thing. ''Mum'' never asked a question - she
ordered.
''Oh, yes."
As Ed seated himself - after tripping on the rug and
breaking one of ''dad''s tea mugs - again - and looked at the bowl in front of
him. It was a reddish-colored soup that smelled like tomatoes and had some sort
of leaves floating in it. He couldn't help but find himself wondering how Mary
and her mother had gotten so plumb eating food like this.
''So, did everyone get their homework done?"
"Yes, Ma'am.'' Said Mary.
The rest nodded, but Ed was too busy thinking of a more
painless way to be rid of the soup.
''Edward?"
He glanced up. His name wasn't Edward, it was Ed. Just Ed.
''Yes, ma'am.''
That's right, school. It was Monday tomorrow. He nearly
forget he spent half of the day in a very long church service full of people
that were just like Susan and just like James.
''I'm surprised you even got around to your homework with
all that tinkering and nonsense you do in your room all day.'' ''Dad'' said his
first words at the table - possibly the first words of the entire day to Ed.
"Yes, Edward, no one's going to pay you to draw and
make miniature planes." His wife chimed in.
''When I was your age, Edward, I would take any job I could,
earned and saved a lot of money and built my own business. From the ground up.
That's why you're living the comfortable life you're accustomed too. Because I
made my own foundation. Unlike your father, I worked for a living."
"I know." But he just didn't care. He didn't want
to earn money, he just wanted to do what he enjoyed doing. He couldn't imagine
what the rest of the family would enjoy doing. It must have taken some time,
getting used to doing absolutely nothing fun. They couldn't have started out
this way.
The next morning, like so many other mornings, Ed was awaken
by screams. Mary's screams. Hector had either dropped a toad down the back of
her dress, put a prank snake in her bed, or tied her hair to the bedpost again.
Hector wasn't really that creative, but he was persistent. Ed was jealous of
people that had alarm clocks.
After he had brushed his teeth, combed his hair and had some
toast he'd burnt himself, he and the other children headed off to catch the
bus.
School was a miserable place where Ed was surrounded by a
thousand people all the time and felt the most alone. His teachers were all so
boring and cold. Even the friendly ones were obvious fakes. He wasn't sure
anyone liked each other here. Teachers hated each other, children hated each
other - but they all pretended not to. This was normal to them. But Ed could
see everyone as they were, and they all seemed to hate each other, and no one
seemed to like him.
Arithmetic class was his least favorite time of the day.
Even worse than Dinner time. So many numbers and different equations that never
made any sense to him. His teacher said that it was simple, 2 and 2 always made
4, 4 times to was always 8. But Ed couldn't help but ask why. Who decided that
2 and 2 would always make 4? What if 2 and 2 didn't want to make 4? It was safe
to say that he wasn't doing too well in this class. And his entire ''family''
let him know about that.
Recess was a much better time for him. He would sit on the
swing set with his notepad and draw airplanes, cars, dogs, anything he'd seen
that day that he thought he could improve on. Sometimes he drew pictures of his
teachers with smaller heads - because their brains weren't really as big as
they thought they were. Of course, the pictures never looked like how he
imagined them. In his head, the images made him smile, but on paper they made
him frown.
The bus was one of the loudest places he would be during the
day. It was much louder on the way home then on the way there. Everyone was
awake and felt the need to scream. Ed sat in a seat all his own, tried working
on his arithmetic homework but soon gave up because he was unable to
concentrate. That's what his teachers said anyway, he couldn't concentrate.
They told ''mum and dad'' that he needed
to get checked out by a doctor for some condition in which he couldn't pay
attention to anything for very long. But Ed knew why he couldn't pay attention
for a long time - it was boring. There was nothing wrong with him, arithmetic
was just boring.
His house was a miserable place where Ed was surrounded by
by six people most of the time and felt very alone. But he could get away from
most of them some of the time, and when he did, he was content. He would open
the back door in the garage, work on one of his models and wait for the stray
neighborhood dog to come in to get his daily bowl of meat scraps and cereal. He
hadn't yet come up with a name for the dog, even though he'd been spending
quite a time with him. He didn't really want to hear any other people hearing
him talking anyone in the garage - ''mum and dad'' would have his head if he
saw the stray pup in here.
He looked down at the dog, then back up at the model he as
working on. ''What do you think, boy?"
The dog glanced up, then back down at his bowl. ''Yeah,
that's what I thought too."
He looked up at the clock, it was nearly time for dinner.
"Well, I guess you better get going now." He said,
though he tried not to stop talking to the dog - one of the siblings could
quickly burst in any moment and find the dog. He sent the dog out the back
door, closed it, and continued working on his model.
Dinner time was quite like the night before. And the night
before that. After that he finished his homework - as best as he could- and
went to bed. Today was quite like the day before, and the day before that. And
it will be the day tomorrow. At least, that's what Ed thought.
The next morning, Ed was not awaken by Mary's screams, or
any sort of prank by Hector or any of the other boys. In fact, he wasn't quite
sure why he woke up. But it was still dark out when he woke, and he couldn't
get back to sleep though he tried for some time. Eventually he just gave up and
went down to the garage to continue his work. It wasn't long before he'd
finished the plane and was now beginning to paint it. After he'd finished
painting, the sun had barely come up but he wasn't sure what time it was.
He rubbed his eyes, feeling tired once more. It was a bit
too early to go back to bed though.
He suddenly heard the pup barking - the dog that he'd been
spending some time with. He looked in the backyard, but the dog wasn't back
there. He went around to the front to see the small dog sitting in the middle
of the street barking at cars passing by. He was going to kill himself.
Ed ran out there quickly looking the left and right as cars
flew by him. The dog was still barking relentlessly at the traffic, Ed quickly
scooped down to grab the animal.
''What is wrong with you, boy? You could have gotten
yourself killed!"
He heard a horn blare very close to his ear, giving him an
instant headache. Then feel something knock off his feet - really quickly. And
that was the last thing the boy Ed and his dog felt after the bright yellow
school bus ran them both over.
There was a modest funeral for the boy. His ''family'' came,
all of his teachers showed up, his entire class came (though no one in his
class really knew him), the preacher who bored Ed every Sunday morning was
there, and a lot of the other people who came to church (the people Ed always
thought looked like they lived at funerals), the bus driver didn't come.
People said nice things. They said he was well-liked by all,
an extremely nice boy, that he was taken away too soon, that there was a divine
purpose for all of this - all things that none of them really believed. People
put on smiling faces for weddings, though they really are just waiting for the
divorce to happen. People put on crying faces for funerals, though they really
are just waiting to go back home and do whatever it is they usually do. But if
you were to tell Ed these things, he wouldn't care. He never really wanted to
make a spectacle of himself, and he was never a liar. Which were the very two
things funerals were.
But there's no reason
to be bored with more details about the dreary funeral, or dreary day-to-day
life of our young Ed. Let us continue to the 31st of October, Halloween. As we
all know, Halloween is a magical night. Some children dress up as their
favorite heroes, villains, or animals and go out for candy, while others use it
as an excuse to pretend to be magicians, but you're about to be told the story
of what more happens on this wondrous autumn evening.
Skipping over the neighborhood where Ed used to live, past
the Jack-O-Lanterns, the children
dressed up like nurses and police officers,
the scary decorations, the orange and black lights, past the harvested
fields, and to the old, small graveyard - where the dead people live. Around
the 12 o'clock hour, when the moon was full and the wolves began to howl.
At places like this graveyard, at such a late hour, it
wasn't unusual for young people to drive up in their cars and park for a short
while. This very night, there happen to be two young people at the cemetery,
where the dead people live.
"It's out of gas.'' The boy said, as the car came to a
gradual halt.
The girl gave him a disbelieving look.
''I'm serious!"
The wolves howled once again as the couple climbed out of
the car and began their walk. The ground beneath them quivered, only slightly.
''I'm sorry I didn't believe you." The girl said,
holding on to him as she almost lost her balance.
"It's oka--" His words were cut off as the ground
beneath them began to tremble.
Only gently at first,
but then the earth began to rumble, the cries of the jackal's grew louder, the
young couple lost their footing and tumbled to the ground. The headstones began
to shake violently, trees swinging back and forth, crows scattered in a huge
flock, wild wolves raced past the couple as they both sat on the ground in
utter shock.
''What's going on?" the girl cried, wide-eyed and in
shock.
The ground before them cracked open, a hand plunged out from
beneath the ground and began to pull at the soil. The headstone cracked as
another hand shot up from the grave, clawing its way out. The crows returned,
swirling around the both of them like a hellish tornado. Both of them shook in
sobs of shock as they heard an unearthly moan sound from the ground, then
returned by many others. Other pairs of hands plunged out of the graves,
wrenching their way upward. The haunted figure pulled himself up out of the
grave, climbing his way up from hell to face the two teenagers. Maggots sprouted
from its left empty eye socket, long strands of hair fell from the top of its
skull, half of the flesh of its flesh was missing, leaving worms crawling
through his bones and its internal organs hanging by a thread. The creature
stood to its full height, looking straight at the young couple with his one
eye. Its jawbone opened wide, ''Well, then, Halloween already, eh?"
The two young people let everything out. They screamed loud
enough to be heard miles away, turned and bolted off faster than many people
will ever run in their life.
The creature turned to look behind him, at the rest of the
ghouls that had risen from their graves. ''I don't think those were
trick-or-treaters." He said.
A chorus of haunting laughs.
''Well, Mr. Wormwell, looks like we've got ourselves a new
guest with us tonight." Another corpse said, carrying his head under his
arm and looking at the newcomer. ''Not put back together, he is.''
''Says someone who can't even keep their head on
straight!" said another.
Wormwell went to look at the grave. Just a boy, a small one,
still had a lot of meat on his bones. But he was a bloody mess. Wormwell wasn't
quite sure what happened to him, but it sure wasn't pretty. ''Well, looks like
he's gonna need a bit of work."
Ed woke up with a gasp. It was really dark around the
corners of his eyes, and his fingers felt numb and tingly. His mouth was
extremely dry and he had a hard time opening and closing his eyes. He tried his
hardest to recall his last memory before this moment, but it was all quite foggy.
''Greetingsss, young one!" a hissing voice tickled his
eardrums.
Ed flinched, then grew immediately stiff. A cold, wet snake
coiled itself around his torso, underneath his arm and around his neck.
''You're trembling, little one..."
''A'right, that's enough.'" someone said from behind
him.
''Mussst you ssspoil my fun?" the snake slowly released
him and slithered off.
''What is going on...?" Ed asked, turning around to
face the man who spoke. But he was facing no man, not one that was living at
any rate.
''Name's Wormwell, how are you feelin', son?"
''Y-You're a .. corpse!"
''Well, I wouldn't say you're lookin' too much better."
Wormwell held up a large piece of glass to the boy.
Ed was staring right into his own eyes, but he couldn't
believe it. His face was completely blue, with many unusual-looking stitches
running across his cheek and a couple above his eyebrows, his thick black hair
was nearly gone on one side of his head, and his body! His body was a mess. The
left side of him was missing, exposing organs that were no longer functioning,
his weak legs were bandaged up as if they were those of a mummy, and he only
had one hand.
''What happened to me?" he shouted, his head spinning
as he looked deeper into his reflection. What did happen to him? He felt like
he was hit by a moving truck. Yes, he was. No, no it was something else. He was
hit by a bus, a yellow school bus.
That was the last thought Ed remembered, before everything
went black.
''Hey, look, he's wakin' up."
" - never found his hand?"
" - looks like just a little fella - "
" where did he come from? - "
Ed felt incredibly confused as he started to come to. There
were more corpses surrounding him - all just as vastly strange looking as the
first person who'd spoken to him. Why were they staring at him as if he were
funny-looking?
''What's going on? Who are you people?" His words were
all jumbled into one large sentence as he found it hard to really think about
what was going on.
''We,'' said a plump character with a top hat taller than he
was, ''are Thriller: The Corpse Circus! Featuring breathtaking stunts,
heartstopping high-flying acrobatics, and funny bone tickling madness - if we
had any of those." As a showman, he extended his arms to introduce the
rest of the group. ''This is Missy, the fattest corpse in the world!" He
waved his hand in the direction of a gigantic corpse with much more meat on her
bones than the rest of the group combined.
''And here we have Jethro and Jill, the greatest acrobats
this side of Graystone!" The couple was holding hands with one set of bony
fingers and waving to Ed with the other.
''And I do believe you've already met Wormwell, the tallest
body around!"
''They buried me with my stilts - " Wormwell
interjected.
''This is our clown, Barney!" He gestured to a corpse
sitting across the room, with clown makeup painted on his skull,a green Afro
clinging to his head, cigarette hanging from his teeth. ''Hey.''
''And I am Pericles Van Leo, the Ringmaster! And who might
you be?"
Ed sat there for a moment, just trying to take it all in.
''I'm... uh.... Ed."
"Edward?" The fat woman, Missy, asked.
''No... just Ed."
"Well then, Ed, how did you end up here with us?"
Wormwell asked.
"I think I was hit by a school bus."
"That must have hurt.'' Said Jill, ''Jethro and I fell
off a tight rope together. We've been together ever since."
"Eh, save it, sweethearts." said Barney from
across the room, ''I bet he's wondering what he's doing here. Gets hit by a
bus, all of the sudden he's with the freakiest freakshow of his life.''
''Quite right, Barney, quite right.'' mused Pericles.
''Well, today is the 31st of October - Halloween. You see, this is the night we
go up there,'' he pointed up at the ceiling , ''and usually the only night.
It's the only night no one would recognize us as who we are.''
''What do you do up there? Eat people?" Ed asked.
The rest of them laughed.
"Eat people?" Jethro asked, chuckling, ''That's
disgusting!"
"We're performers, dear boy.'' said Wormwell, ''Not
cannibals!"
''You put on your show... up there? And nobody
notices?"
''Notices?'' asked Pericles, ''It'd be nice if somebody
would show up!"
"Haven't had an audience in years." said Barney.
''But you never answered the question,'' Ed pressed, ''How
did I wind up here?"
''Well,'' said Pericles, ''it appears you've been buried
with the rest of our bodies. A rare thing, not many people get buried in our
old graveyard."
"I can't believe this..."
"It could be worse,'' Missy chimed in, ''could've been
buried somewhere else - we're quite nice company!"
"Speaking of which,'' the Ringmaster rose his voice and
tipped his hat, ''The show is about to begin. Would you like to watch?"
''Well, it's not like I have a whole lot of options, is
it?"
"That's the spirit!" said Wormwell.
The next thing Ed knew, they were standing underneath a
gigantic circus tent with intricate designs embroidered on the side, the crows were flying unusual
patterns towards the top, jack-o-lanterns decorated the empty stands, and large
torches lit the massive tent.
"Come one, come all, to the most stupendous show of the
year! Thriller, the Corpse Circus will be preforming, in town tonight
only!" Pericles began to the stand of carved pumpkins and gaping seats.
''Have a seat, boy,'' said Wormwell, lifting Ed up and over
the railings and onto the first row. ''Enjoy the show!"
The show began with Barney lighting several torches with a
short cigar, then beginning to juggle them. Blowing flames, tossing torches in
the air, all while standing on the shoulders of Missy - the fattest corpse
alive. Ed had never seen a clown with such a scowl on his face, but he was
guessing he at least took some enjoyment out of being a clown -he could
probably leave if he wanted to. After all, once your dead, who can tell you
what to do?
As the show continued, Ed couldn't help but from smiling ear
to ear during the entire thing. He can't remember the last time he smiled. The
show was the most exciting, most ridiculous, and funnest thing he'd ever seen
in his life. The show was livelier than all his years he spent with his
''family'' combined. Jethro and Jill were incredible, flying, flipping, falling
- fantastic. They sailed through the air,
hanging upside down on a trapeze,connected like a human chain. Grabbing
Wormwell by the wrists, they tossed him up in the air, as Jill released herself
and went rolling to the other trapeze. Wormwell landed on his enormously long
legs with incredible balance for his size, and the Jethro leaped from his
trapeze, Jill caught him by the wrists. That is - until his hands broke off he
fell tumbling to the ground, finished with a summer-salt and took a bow. The
rest of the corpse circus walked out, and took a bow.
Ed applauded - only he couldn't, his hand was still missing.
"Well, what did you think?" asked Jill, giddy as a
schoolgirl.
"You guys are amazing!"
"Why thank you." a certain pride filled Missy as
she spoke.
"It was incredibly pleasing to actually have an
audience this time,'' said Pericles.
''How long have you guys been putting on the show
anyway?"
"Many, many Halloweens.'' Barney interjected, throwing
out the stub of his cigar.
"When was the last time you had an audience?"
"Oh, it's been a very, very long time." Mused
Pericles,'' Perhaps 40 Halloweens ago. Back when young people would come to our
shows every midnight. We'd throw out candy to them, there'd be kids, young
couples, even some older folks. They never told anyone about it because no one
would believe them anyway, and besides, it's not like anyone could find us
after Halloween. People were much more respectful of the dead back then."
"Back then? Did.. my parents ever go to any of your
shows?"
"I couldn't say, I'm afraid. Many people came, and we
never asked names.''
''Do you think they're... down there? Where you guys usually
live?"
''It's a large world, you never know. I'm not sure they
lived in Graystone, but we could check the registry when we get back."
"The sun is beginning to come up, we'd better start
heading back home.'' Said Wormwell.
''Quite right. Barney - would you take down the tent for
us?" asked Pericles.
''Sure thing.'' Barney tugged a rope tied around two of the
main poles supporting the tent and soon the entire thing collapsed on them.
Once they climbed out from under the tent - they were back
in Graystone.
''Well, why don't you and I head down to City Hall and see
if we can find your parents in the registry?" Wormwell suggested.
Ed nodded.
As they walked through the rather small town of Graystone,
Ed realized something - the place was a complete mess. There were few
buildings, most of them just thrown together and ready to collapse, the weight
of the crows were nearly causing the buildings to tumble, and the entire town
was slightly beat up. As if it was once a huge Metropolis of... dead people, he
guessed, and a lot of fun. Now, it just seemed really run down.
City Hall was a very large stone building that looked just
as regal as a city hall should look. The floors echoed with your footsteps and
at the front desk was rather large women staring them down as they walked
towards her.
"'Ello, Lucille. How are you doing today?" asked
Wormwell.
Lucille only glared at them.
''Well, alrighty then. We just needed to take a look at the
registry.''
She still continued to glare, without blinking.
''She's just a little moody sometimes."
Ed nodded.
''Why are you looking for the registry?" she asked,
finally. ''Strangers in town?"
''No, we're just looking for someone who may have lived here
for a while, or may still be living here."
She said nothing.
"Can we please see the registry?" Ed asked.
Again, she said nothing. But after a momentary pause, she
stood to her full height - which was actually less height then she currently
had, her chair was nearly as tall as Ed. She poked around a book shelf until
she came to a small booklet, took it out and laid it in front of them.
"That's it?" Wormwell asked.
"No." she said. ''That's the guide to which
registry you would like." She motioned to another set of 3 large
bookshelves, with gigantic volumes. On the side of the volumes was written,
''A, B, C, D...'' and so on.
''Oh, well... alright. Thank you." He opened the
booklet and began to flip through it. ''What was your father's name?"
"Henry Price..."
"And what did he do for a living?"
"Architect, I think."
''I'm not seeing him... what was your mother's name?"
"Anna."
Wormwell flipped through a few more pages. ''No, I don't see
her either."
Ed sighed.
"Doesn't mean their not around here somewhere, just not
Graystone. We can still find them."
"If you say so..." Ed glanced down at his hand,
and the stump of his other arm. ''I need to do something about my hand."
''Well, we'll just take you to the body shop then!"
said Wormwell.
The body shop was an unusual place, with legs, arms, heads,
and other smaller body parts hanging on the walls. You could buy fingers on
sale -4 for 5 - and toes and short legs were half-price. There were also many
different kinds of hands. They were small hands, large hands, bony hands, fat
hands, but not his hand.
''Wormwell, can I ask you a question?" Ed asked as they
both left the shop.
"Well, sure. I'll be honest - I'm pretty
transparent."
He smiled. ''Why didn't I wake up until I was down here, in
Graystone, with you guys?"
"Well, we had to wake you up.''
"I was just asleep?"
"Kind of. Lucky you didn't get buried somewhere else, a
lot of people stay sleeping for their whole lives - and even in death."
"So my parents could be buried somewhere and just not
have been awakened yet?"
"It's possible." he admitted.
''Well.. if anything, it's a lot more fun with you guys than
it ever was up there. You're a good friend, Wormwell. Thanks for waking me
up."
''You're welcome, Ed."
Ed went his own way to explore more of Graystone, and
hopefully find a new hand. While the city wasn't all what it used to be - from
what he gathered - it was still an amazing place. Full of so much life. There
were skeletons doing tap-bone dancing on the street corner, with a hat tipped
open to toss coins into, jack-o-lanterns singing a quartet only a few blocks
away. The theater was showing ''Dead Wife'' and ''The Albert Family''. It was a
like a small-scale Broadway of sorts. People greeted him in the street, he was
offered a drink at the local establishments, people noticed him here. In death,
people are far more pleasant.
But he didn't really want to talk to people right now. He
wasn't really a talkative person, even in death. He followed his curiosity into
a forest, with a winding walking path and long, bare trees curling in unusual
angles. He always enjoyed taking walks in the forest, just himself and his own
imagination as his guide. He never got lost, but was not necessarily home for
dinner on time. Taking the long way back, the scenic route, was far more fun.
There were many little creatures to speak with, many interesting plants to look
at, leaves to press and trees to climb. Though climbing trees in his current
state would be rather difficult.
He looked up at the immense height of the trees, and also at
their unusual shape. They were bending in the direction that the walking path
took, as if they were pointing to the right direction. The trees had no leaves
on it, you could see all the branches quite clearly. One branch in particular
stood out to Ed. It had four long prongs and one shorter one on the side - it
looked like a hand. If a tree can make a hand, why couldn't he?
So he began to work. Wood wouldn't make a terribly good
hands, so he went back to the body shop. He bought a couple of small fingers,
some bones, a hand, and an arm. In order to build the hand he wanted, he was
going to have to start from the ground up. The foundation.
Wait.
The Foundation? He then remembered what his ''dad'' had
said. "From the ground up. That's why you're living the comfortable life
you're accustomed too. Because I made my own foundation. Unlike your father, I
worked for a living."
He remembered them talking quite a bit about how wealthy his
mother and father were, how his mother didn't actually work a day in her life,
that they both came from rich families and got all of the inheritances when
they're parents died. But why did they hate his parents so much? The
foundation.
He knew where his parents were buried.
''Is there something different about you?" Jethro asked
as Ed stormed in.
"Get your hair cut?" suggested Missy.
Jethro interjected, "No, no he's not wearing glasses
anymore."
"He never wore glasses, dear." said Jill.
"Ohh, I've got it! He's got himself a new hand. Did you
make that yourself, Ed?" asked Jethro.
"I know where my parents are buried!"
Wormwell spun around, ''Did you find them?"
"No, but I know where they are!"
Pericles walked in the room, ''What's all this excitement
about?"
''We have to go get my parents!"
''Alright, alright, settle down,'' he said, ''Just where are
they? You know we don't go up there unless it's Halloween, Ed."
"But there's are my parents! And they're only a short
distance away from where we were buried!"
"Why are you in such a hurry?" Barney asked,
''We've got all the time in the world."
"Not if you've never seen your parents before in your
life!"
"Well, how will you know it's them?" Barney asked.
"Because no one else is buried in the foundation of my
adopted family's house."
Wormwell sighed, ''Look, I know it's disappointing that you
may never see your parents... but this is an extremely big hunch."
"What do you have to lose?"
"People could see us!" said Missy.
"And what would they do then? Run away? And it's not
like they could catch you or kill you, we're dead!"
''Well... he does have a point.'' Said Wormwell.
''Come on! Let's take the show to them." Ed persisted.
Everyone around the room began to nod. There really was
nothing they could all lose.
"Well...'' Pericles hesitated. ''Why not?"
Everyone agreed.
The midnight hour was close at hand, darkness fell across the
land. Some people were still out and about, at parties or going to movies. But
they would soon be running for their lives.
Corpses crawled from their graves, clawing at the soil and
hoisting themselves upon land. It was not just The Corpse Circus, but most of
the population of Graystone. They all agreed on it, and who wouldn't want to
try something new? Haunting an entire town was something that none of them had
tried, though they heard other ghouls and ghosts in Hallowsberg had done just
that before. And a couple crazies in Transylvania.
All of the ghouls, skeletons, and all manner of creeps
entered the town. Some of them were coming up from closer cemeteries, others
were shooting up right out of the ground, manholes, and even gardens. I'm sure
that any of them would tell you it was the most fun they've had during their
entire death.
People began to scream and run, car sirens were going off,
windows were shattering, buildings catching fire. The small town went up in
complete chaos.
James and Susan were sitting in their living room, watching
television. At least until they heard the screams. ''James! What is all that
blasted noise about?"
"I don't know.'' He walked over to the window and
peaked through the curtains. He couldn't quite make out what was going on until
he took a closer look, and pressed his face closer to the window. As his eyes
looked out, empty sockets looked back in. He was staring face to face with a
corpse. The man shot backward, backpedaling, knocking over his lamp and
tripping over his chair.
"What has got you?" Susan spat.
There was a knock at the door. Two solid knocks. A pause.
Two more knocks. Pause. Knock, knock. Pause. Knock, knock. Something broken
branch must be hitting the side of their house. Knock, knock. No, someone was
at the door. Knock, knock. Susan slowly approached the door, just then
realizing that she was holding her breath. Knock, knock. She looked through the
peephole. Couldn't see anyone. Knock, knock. She took a breath. Knock, knock.
Wrapped her hand around the door knob. Knock, knock. And opened the door.
''Hello, mum.''
''No!" she squawked. ''That's not possible!"
"I forgot to take my shoes off before coming in."
The large woman fainted and hit the floor extremely hard.
''I invited my friends over... 'dad'.''
With that, Jethro and Jill swung in from the window,
Wormwell smashed through the side of the house, Pericles followed, and Missy
made herself another door out of the side of the wall. Barney walked in behind
Ed.
"Edward - ?" James began.
"No. Dead Ed." He cut him off. "Where are my
parents?"
"Your parents are dead! Just like you should be!"
"You can't lie to the dead about their own kind. You've
hidden them in the foundation."
"Bodies? I have no idea what you're talking
about!"
"Yes you do. You didn't earn all of this money, you
stole it from my parents, when you killed them!"
"Are you sure about this, Ed?" Wormwell whispered
to him.
"Yes.'' he said. ''Now where exactly in the foundation
did you bury them? Or we'll just tear the entire place apart."
"This house was built 12 years ago, how would I know?"
"We'll just have to dig up everything until we find it
then."
"Are you going to kill me?"
Ed shook his head. ''Living with your wife and family is a
lot worse than death. You don't deserve that much fun." He turned to the
others, ''If you guys could help me rip this place apart, i'd really appreciate
it. And burn all his money."
Missy began to tear at the floorboards, ripping them up from
the ground. Wormwell smashed out another wall.
"Wait!" Said James. ''Underneath the fire place.''
Wormwell tossed the sniveling man across the room.
They soon broke open the flooring underneath the fireplace
to find the two bodies they were looking for. They brought them up and put them
in the coffins they'd brought to bring them back in. Ed couldn't believe it.
His entire life he was only a few feet away from the bodies of his true
parents.
''Holds it right there!" said James.
Ed turned around to see his uncle holding a flickering
lighter to the coffins. ''I'm betting whatever you want these bodies for, it
won't be any good if they're cremated.''
The flames licked the bottom of the coffins, tempting the
wood to burn. ''Stop it.'' said Ed, ''Haven't you done enough?"
''I won't let you come in here and ruin everything I've
built.''
''Everything you've built is stolen and full of lies."
said Wormwell. ''More maggots and holes in your stories that in me."
The flame continued to flicker, wavering back in forth,
singeing the coffin.
''Stop it!" Ed grabbed the lighter, his hand burst into
flames.
"Well that was a smart move!" James taunted him,
with a smug look on his ugly face.
But Ed didn't feel a thing. It wasn't his real hand, but the
hand he's fashioned himself. His hand shot off the arm and grabbed onto James
leg with a vice grip. Soon the older man's leg was ablaze. He screamed and ran
out of the house and into the fields. You could see him running for miles, a
bright orange flame catching up to him with every step.
Now, you might think Thriller, The Corpse Circus never
performed again. However, that very night, not one of the ghouls hurt a soul
and the entire town thought it was just a huge after-Halloween prank. Now, the
town continues to celebrate Halloween not only on the 31st of October, but for
several days in November as well. The Corpse Circus has never been more
popular, every Halloween they have every seat in the house taken up. The
applause gets louder every year, and Thriller gains more and more popularity.
As for Dead Ed and his parents, well, they made a nice
little home in Graystone all their own. And with Henry being such a skilled
architect, Anna such a wonderful gardener, and Ed a masterful builder, they
rebuilt Graystone. Every Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, they light the
town up with their intricate lights and Anna's gorgeous flowers - always the
right color for the occasion. And on July 4th, it's said that the fireworks are
so spectacular, they're to die for.
And concerning James, Susan, and the rest of the family. The
children all went on to go to expensive schools and are now successful business
people, accountants and other important figures in society. Susan stays at
home, waiting for grandchildren. And James, well, I think he's still running.
The End.
"Due to my strong personal convictions, I'd like to stress
that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult." - Michael
Jackson
