Chapter 15

Roughly an hour had passed since the ghost of cobblers creek had been unmasked, and the denizens of Rethink avenue had decided to trade the rough, dark and spooky environment of the woods for the comfort of Double Dee's den. The slim boy had invited all of his friends back to his house for a night of warm tea, pumpkin spice coffee and impromptu Halloween fun.

All of the teenagers, with the exception of Sarah and Jimmy who had other plans, enjoyed their time in Double Dee's den in their own way. Ed and May took their place in the middle of the room, dancing in a goofy manner to the "Graveyard Smash", a classic Halloween novelty swing tune, for the sixth time in a row. Kevin and Eddy took turns bobbing for apples, turning it into a friendly competition, as Jonny and Rolf shared scary stories; on the opposite side of the room, Marie and Nazz conversed over their seasonal favorite pumpkin spice coffee.

While most of the teens were filled with nothing but smiles, two members of the group were anything but happy. Across the room, Lee and Lindsay remained seated on the couch; both sat with their legs crossed and arms folded, displaying perpetual scowls as they stared towards the wall.

A few moments, passed, at which point Double Dee reentered the den through the large, ornate French doors. Cradling a cup of tea in his right hand, he made his way towards Eddy who had just completed his turn at dunking his head into the bucket.

"Hey bro" said Eddy as he spotted Double Dee, punching him in the arm as he did so, "Thanks again for inviting us back to your place to unwind after all that craziness. This night was unreal!"

"Anytime Eddy," said Double Dee, "As you know, I am always happy to entertain my friends, especially after spending half the evening in those decrepit woods, being exposed to an unknown variety of ectoparasites!"

"Yeah," said Eddy, "It's great to be home. They sure had us fooled to the bits..."

Eddy glanced towards his girlfriend, who remained seated next to her best friend with a scowl.

"Especially Lee," said Eddy, "She ain't letting it go anytime soon, so I gotta be real careful not to bring it up or I'm in the doghouse!"

Double Dee and Eddy shared a giggle.

"Ah yes," said Double Dee, "The greatest surprise of the night! Who would have possibly known that Ms. Lonergan, who had once lived and went to elementary school in Peach Creek, was the originator of the story! It's truly amazing that, despite not knowing any of our parents, her story was eventually passed down to us through numerous other native Peach Creekers! Not only that, but she and Mrs. Statorowski once played a similar prank on Mr. Statorowski and his friends during a trip to the pumpkin patch when they were children."

Double Dee paused momentarily as the remainder of the group turned their attention towards the Ed boys conversation.

"And it appears Lee and Lindsays curiosity regarding the legend for the sake of pranking us ultimately backfired," said Double Dee.

"So spill it!" said Marie in a playful manner, "How'd you figure out it was my mom and Chuckie Stat in disguise."

"It was quite simple really," said Double Dee, "First, when Rolf bravely challenged the Maiden in response to Lindsay being in danger, I noticed that she buckled along her midsection in an unusual manner upon being struck with that strange specimen of osteichthioform."

"Rolf has brought great shame upon himself," said Rolf in a melodramatic manner, "For he has struck the man whose loins sired Rolfs Sweet Babushka, a tremendous offense in the culture of Rolfs old country."

"Ah no sweat Rolfie boy!" said Eddy as he delivered a punch to his friends arm, "Chuckie Stats cool with it, ain't nothing changing the fact that he likes ya and he knows it's all in good fun!"

The group shared a laugh amongst each other as Lindsay rolled her eyes, emitting a small groan as she did so. After the laughter died down, Double Dee decided to continue with his explanation.

"Anywho, I recalled Sarah and Jimmy's ill fated attempt at portraying the ghost bride," said Double Dee, "Jimmy had a difficult time balancing on Sarah's shoulders, and their almost impossible movements were a dead giveaway that two people were to blame. While Ms. Lonergan fared much better on Mr. Statorowski's shoulders, their sudden loss of balance due to being struck elicited similar movements to those displayed by Sarah and Jimmy."

Double Dee paused.

"The second clue was the ghost brides evening gloves," said Double Dee, "I noticed that this particular incarnation of the ghost bride wore her gloves much higher than Lee and Lindsay's interpretation. Unfortunately for her, the right evening glove had slipped slightly downward, revealing a small portion of Ms. Lonergan's signature ballet shoe tattoo."

Double Dee took a sip of his tea prior to continuing.

"The third clue was the tool the maiden used to force entry into the shack," said Double Dee, "Being quite familiar with tools, I instantly recognized the apparatus as a Halligan bar, a device commonly used by firefighters to gain access through locked doors during rescue operations. I could only think of one person who would have easy access to such a device."

Double Dee giggled.

"And finally, the last clue," said Double Dee, "During her interrogation of our favorite dynamic duo, the ghost referred to the girls by their full first names, Annalee and Tiffany. Only their parents refer to them as such, and that fact pretty much solidified my theory."

"Nice detective work sweetie," said Marie as she wrapped her arms around Double Dee's neck,delivering him a kiss.

Marie turned towards Lee

"Too bad Ms. Resting Bitch Face can't take a joke." said Marie.

Lee groaned as she ground her teeth.

"I am never...speaking...to Mommy again," said Lee.

Marie and May snickered amongst themselves, at which point May decided to speak up.

"Well we know one good thing came out of this," said May, "The hard times got ya'll to admit your feelings out loud, and I got it all on tape!"

"What!?" said Lee and Lindsay as they simultaneously turned toward May with angry expressions.

May giggled as she brandished the camcorder she and Ed used throughout the night as a means to document their ghostly adventure.

"Seriously May," said Lee, "You were the most afraid of that stupid story out of anyone here. You'd think you'd be too upset about watching your sister die to film anything!"

"Hey, I had to document evidence of the ghost brides existence," said May, "Besides, the video might prove that I wasn't the only one who was scared."

May reached into her pocket, retrieving a rather lengthy cable used to plug the camera into the television set for playback. As she did so, Lee adopted an expression of anger.

"May," said Lee, "You'd be wise to put that thing away!"

"C'mon Lee," said May, "It ain't no secret that you love Eddy and Lindsay likes Rolf, and besides everyone gets scared once in a while."

"Annamae Lynn!" yelled Lee the stern manner of a mother as she rose off of the couch pointing towards her sister as she do so.

"Okay, okay, geez I won't show it," said May, "But that doesn't change the fact that it happened."

"Whatever," said Lee, " It's getting erased if me or Liz ever get a hold of it."

Eddy snickered as Lee retook her place on the couch next to her best friend, taking a sip of her soda in the process. He then retrieved his drink, making his way toward Double Dee's position as he did so.

"Well Double Dee," said Eddy, "Everything's back to normal!"

"The ghost has been vanquished!" yelled Ed

"I suppose," said Double Dee as he directed his attention towards Lee and Lindsay, "I do have a few unanswered questions for you girls if you don't mind."

"What's that?" asked both girls simultaneously.

"After you frightened us away from the clearing, Ed, Eddy and I encountered a false, but very well executed presentation of the maidens successful suicide attempt, complete with her boyfriends truck stuck in the tree and an old tattered farm dress that appeared to have been impaled on one of the branches." said Double Dee, "Upon questioning your parents, they have no recollection of staging such a stunt, so by deductive reasoning, I can conclude that you two must have been behind that. Would you care to explain how you were able to portray such a believable scene?"

"And how the hell did you guys steal Ed's medical bag right under our noses near the creek?"asked Marie, "You guys still haven't given it back by the way!"

"Yeah," said Jonny, "And how'd you guys make that zombie costume you used to scare me in the tunnels? Your parents didn't do that either!"

Lee and Lindsay glanced at each other momentarily with expressions of confusion, at which point they turned back towards their friends.

"I don't know what youse have been inhaling," said Lee, "But we didn't do anything with no car or a dress in a tree."

"Yeah," said Lindsay, "And we don't have any medical bag to give back. If someone took your medical bag, it wasn't us."

"As for the zombie," said Lee, "I figured it was one of you guys playing a prank back on us. You saw it too Jonny?"

"Yeah, it chased me through the caves into the room where you guys set up the skulls!" said Jonny, "It looked so real, don't deny it, I know it was you Lindsay."

"Puh-lease," said Lindsay, "I would never be caught dead looking that garish, even on Halloween. Plus, those elastics would be murder on my facial skin...no thanks. Besides, I was outside the cave the whole time, Annalee was the one who told me about the zombie."

There was a momentary pause, as the group pondered the unusual circumstance presented before them. After a few seconds, Eddy decided to speak up.

"Well," said Eddy, "Someone or something did all those things...but who?"

The teenagers stared at each other in silence, all with curious expressions on their faces. As they did so, the cream colored glow of the moon shined brightly over the treetops of the woods, as the eery sound of a woman's voice humming "Hush Little Baby" in a gentle tone sounded from within. Within the trees, the blue tattered farm dress, discovered adjacent to the crashed truck by Eddy, continued to wave; as maniacal female laughter echoed over the wind.

The End

Well guys, that was an absolute blast! Major props to Craig Bartlett and the Halloween holiday for inspiration for the story, I think it came into it's own well and turned out fine! Thanks to everybody who read, it is most appreciated.

What a nice change of pace writing a short story! It really makes writing those new episodes and future work look promising.

So what's next?

Well, first and foremost there's going to be a slight break from writing to recuperate. I will use this time to work on my YouTube Let's Plays, as well as more art related to my fanon. I look forward to doing some more drawing as I really enjoy it. I have received a few requests for art on my DA profile and will facilitate, but please do not hesitate to request any additional scenes, character models etc. you would like to see. I'd be happy to draw them.

There will definitely be more stories in the future, but for now I'm going to take a little break to relax the old story telling noggin!

Until we meet again, Happy Halloween Everyone!

KiltedEngineer.