The Three Ghost Brothers
– A Beautifully Illustrated Ghost Story
Copyright © 2011 A.T. Sorsa
All rights reserved. Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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CHAPTER 1: BLACK UNDERARM AND THE ACCUSATION
On one dark and starry night, the three ghost brothers went out to scare the neighborhood kids just as they had done so many times during the past years. They were not real brothers or even blood relatives. They considered themselves as brothers because they had lived in the same house for the last fifty years.
The night started well for the three ghost brothers, and soon they had scared about twenty children who probably would not be able to sleep for a week!
Like in all the other dark and scary nights, all the ghosts were doing their bloodcurdling tasks by going around house to house and scaring both young and older people. Some elderly people got heart attacks, and most of the kids were unable to sleep after the ghosts’ visit, but that was normal in Ghostville.
This tiny town had the population of 100,000 people and 250,000 ghosts. Why ghosts liked this town so much, nobody knew. It was just a fact and people had to learn to live with the ghosts.
However, on their way back home the three ghosts noticed that there was a group of angry looking elderly ghosts waiting for them in front of their residence. They were elderly by their age as being ghosts. The three ghost brothers were just preteens in the ranks of ghosts.
“What’s going on?” the oldest brother, Black Underarm, asked. His name was Black Underarm because his white sheet had a black spot under his right arm. Some human had stepped on his sheet while he was sleeping and left a dark footprint on his sheet. Ghosts cannot clean their own sheets, and that’s why everybody called him Black Underarm after that incident. As you might know, ghosts like to name themselves differently than humans, and you cannot even imagine what kind of funny names they could invent!
“You have trespassed on our territory!” a ghost named Big Wrinkles yelled. He had an extremely wrinkled, yellowish sheet. He shook his cane towards the three brothers.
“What?! I haven’t trespassed!!” Black Underarm said, surprised.
“You are a disgrace to the ghost family!” another elderly ghost yelled. His name was Ancient Hiccup Ancient Hiccup looked so angry that he almost had a heart attack (except a ghost could not have a heart attack.) Ancient Hiccup was named after his famous scare tactic. He used hiccups to scare children… Think about it: a dark room in the middle of the night… and suddenly, you hear a ghostly hiccup coming out of nowhere… and you can’t see anyone else in the room… that’s scary!
Black Underarm looked at his brothers, Ripped Sheet and Brown Bumstain. He had no clue what was going on and what all these ghosts where talking about. His brother, Ripped Sheet replied to Ancient Hiccup and Big Wrinkles, “My brother tells the truth: We just went through our normal route, all three of us.”
“That’s not true!” the visiting ghosts shouted. “You broke our laws!”
“But…but … I’m innocent!” Black Underarm stuttered.
A distinguished, old gentleman-ghost stepped forward. He was the governor of all the ghosts in this ghost-filled town called Ghostville. His name was King Sheet because he was quite large and intimidating. And he always wore a ghost-tie around his neck. “Brother Black Underarm, we have to arrest you. You will be sentenced tomorrow at midnight…if it is full moon.”
The ghost laws required that all the sentencing had to happen during the full moon. The sky had to be clear to see all the ghosts. The ghosts liked the shining full moon with its pale light because it reminded them vaguely of the sun, and when they were still normal humans with a beating heart and blood pumping through their veins.
“Why me?” Black Underarm asked. He was pale. He had heard of the ghost sentencing, and it scared him.
“You were seen visiting one of the houses that were not on your route. You have violated the most sacred rule of the ghosthood. You have scared living humans outside your own route! This is a very serious allegation. The ghost council will have to meet and decide how to punish you.”
“At least you won’t die,” Black Underarm’s younger brother, Brown Bumstain whispered. “You are already dead!” He turned around and showed his back to the visitors. All of them cringed. Brown Bumstain had an unidentified brown stain on the back of his white sheet. Nobody wanted to know what that stain was, or where the stain came from… But that’s how Brown Bumstain had got his ghost name.
King Sheet snapped his fingers and a pair of shiny ghost handcuffs appeared and closed around Black Underarm’s wrists. They were inescapable, made to use by ghosts to trap the villain ghosts.
“Ohhhh!” the ghost onlookers sighed.
This sight was unusual in the ghost community. No one had seen a villain ghost for a long, long time. This had not happened for a thousand years. Nobody even remembered exactly the last time the ghost handcuffs had appeared.
The younger ghosts had believed that the ghost handcuffs were just a tale told by the elder ghosts to scare them.
CHAPTER 2: THE SENTENCING
The two ghost brothers were desperate when they watched their brother taken away for the daytime to wait for the sentencing the following midnight. Brown Bumstain and Ripped Sheet looked at each other.
“We have to help our brother Black Underarm. We got to save him from this sentencing!” Brown Bumstain said sounding frantic. “The allegations were bad.”
Brown Bumstain knew how serious the allegation was: A ghost can only ghost and scare humans in a specific area, dedicated to him – especially in a town like Ghostville that had more ghosts than any normal town had. If you go around scaring humans in some other ghost’s area, then this poor ghost will have no job, no reason to be a ghost, and eventually this ghost would cease to exist.
But what can we do?” Ripped Sheet asked from his brother Brown Bumstain, clutching his sheet in between his hands ripping the edge of his sheet further.
“I might have an idea…” Brown Bumstain said, farting loudly “FFFFFFFFFRAPPAPAPAPA!”
“Hmm…that might help… The council members will faint or run away, and we can save our brother,” said Ripped Sheet holding his nose with his two hands. He was used to the awful fart smell that his brother could provide. It was also a great way to scare the kids… Just think about it: a loud, strange sound echoing in a dark room and then a smell of rotten eggs spreading in the room… sure, that will scare anyone. They could tell someone or something had been there. The kids would certainly hide under the covers for the rest of the night. What a fun way to scare children!
“Maybe we should still consider some other more conventional ways to save our brother just in case your fart is not distracting enough?” Ripped Sheet asked.
“Let’s wait for tomorrow night and the sentencing. We don’t even know yet what they plan to do with our brother. Maybe the real criminal, the one who actually did the crime of scaring humans out of his own area, will be caught before our brother is sentenced…” Brown Bumstain said looking hopeful. “Or maybe this ridiculous allegation will be proved to be false. It’s a lie, a malicious attempt to get rid of our brother Black Underarm! I don’t want anyone to think that our brother Black Underarm is a criminal when he is not!”
Ripped Sheet was not so optimistic. He was afraid that someone was framing Black Underarm for this crime he had not done. The real criminal would not show up. He was sure of that. He was just afraid that some other ghost had framed Black Underarm for sheer meanness. Maybe Black Underarm had got into a fight or ridiculed another ghost… Ripped Sheet sighed. He had no idea who was behind this false allegation.
It was too easy to start an allegation like that: just inform anonymously to Governor King Sheet that you had witnessed this happening.
Usually, ghosts were friendly to each other. The ghosts did not tell lies about another ghost. Therefore, this false allegation was really strange. That’s why only Black Underarm’s brothers believed in his innocence.
The two brothers went home to go to sleep for the daytime to be ready for their brother’s sentencing in front of the ghost council during the full moon. They did not sleep well. They had nightmares of their brother’s sentencing to exile, and not ever being able to scare kids again.
Brown Bumstain and Ripped Sheet were awake early. They did not want miss their brother’s sentencing. All the 250,000 ghosts were present at the sentencing. It was so exciting. Nothing so electrifying had happened for ages. The sentencing was held in a dining room of the old stone castle. Of course, not all the 250,000 could fit in the dining room and the rest of them gathered in the other rooms, the stairways, the roof, and the yard. They all just wanted to be near to hear firsthand what was going on and what the sentencing would be.
The humans could not see this ghost gathering.
They were just wondering, “Where are all the ghosts tonight?”
“It’s really quiet tonight.”
“What has happened to all our ghosts?”
“I have not heard any scared screams from the dark yet…”
But the ghosts did not care for the humans tonight. They had much more important task in hand: THE SENTENCING OF THE MILLENIUM! THE SENTENCING OF BLACK UNDERARM!
“WOW! There are so many ghosts here tonight,” Ripped Sheet whispered to his brother Brown Bumstain. “How can we get closer to see and hear the sentencing?”
“I have an idea…” Brown Bumstain said, winking at his brother, his face quirking in terrifying smile.
Just a moment later, most of the nearby ghosts had fainted with scary green complexion on their faces.
“Oh brother! You did it again!” Ripped Sheet said with admiration in his voice. “Your farts are awesome. That was a real SBD (silent but deadly)!”
Brown Bumstain blushed. He was not used to compliments. “Let’s go! We can see our brother now in the dining room.”
The two brothers hurried towards the dining room climbing over the fainted ghost bodies that blocked their way. Finally, they reached the sentencing room’s door and peaked in. They could not see over the audience. But when they floated towards the ceiling, they were able to see their brother.
Black Underarm’s voice rose over the audience, “I’m innocent! INNOCENT! I did not do anything illegal!”
Misery in his face, Black Underarm looked up and faced his judges, the ghost council. His eyes darted across the room and saw his brothers floating near the ceiling. Relief spilled into him. He wanted to live with them, not banished, being able to scare kids again. Maybe his brothers could save him…
The council members were three old ghosts with skeleton-like oblong faces, deep eye sockets, protruding chins, and just few hairs floating on top of their heads. They also had loose, yellowish teeth, which came off sometimes when they got excited. They were the scariest ghosts you could imagine. They looked more like dead skeletons than ghosts.
“You have been seen entering a house which was not on your route!” The fist council member said with a voice as cold as ice, and his chilly voice made Black Underarm shiver.
“We have witnesses saying you entering the house,” The second council member said with a gravelly voice.