The Toothless Dead

by Dan Dillard

  “You can’t leave the graveyard either.” Amy said.

  Mumbles shook his head.

  “Not til dat ghost gon’ on ta hell.”

  Momma cried out and loud, wailing sobs filled the room with sorrow.

  “So that’s wailing,” Robbie said.

  “I been sorry fuh a hun’red and fifty years,” she said.

  “Me too,” Mumbles said.

  For a few moments all were silent.

  “And then what? After you cursed him, what happened?” Zack asked.

  “I lef’. I tink muh baby dead and didn’t know what ta do. I run out to da street and tell e’ryone I see.”

  “And?” Amy said.

  “And dey catch dat Crowe. Dey hang him up ‘an lef’ him. Den dey take me back to my owner…and his awful family build dat mausoleum, dat shrine to him.”

  “That’s awful,” Zack said.

  “I couldn’t live with it,” she said.

  “Momma take her own life. Den she got buried out here wit da rest. She don’t rest. She ain’t been in dat grave in decades. She stay down here and pester me so long she can’t go back.”

  “Why not?” Amy said.

  “Crowe. He got dat gas, da laughin gas dat creepin’ all ‘bout da boneyard. Keeps da others in dey graves most time. Keep dem sleepin’. If’n I go up dere, I sleep too.”

  “We have to get Alex,” Zack said, standing up.

  “Wait, boy. It get worse.”

  “How could it be worse,” Zack said.

  “Up to a year ago, Crowe jus’ ate da teeth, tanks to Robert. Dey give him energy. Robert tink, he get da teeth, he leave da children alone. An I tink he been gettin’ out of da graveyard. He can’t get far, but enough to watch. Enough to spy on da children an’ pick out dat special one.”

  “So what changed?” Zack said.

  “Da teeth ain’t enough no more. He runnin’ outta time. He need more energy to do his evil. He run out da energy, he go to hell where he belong,” she said.

  “I don’t understand,” Zack said.

  “He took dat boy to eat his life. Children got da most life. When da teeth ain’t no longer enough, Crowe figure he eat a whole one. If he do dat, he stay here on earth…maybe forever.”

  The kids looked at each other, then at Mumbles.

  “What can we do?” Amy asked.

  “Not sure. But Robert can help,” Momma said.

  “How I’m gon’ help?” Mumbles said.

  “You feed ‘im teeth for so long, maybe you feed him some’tin else.”

  “You take the teeth from the manhole cover?” Amy said, staring at Mumbles in awe and disgust.

  Mumbles nodded.

  “I give ‘em ta him to protect da children. So he can’t do to dem what he done did to me no more.”

  “You’ve been protecting kids for a hundred and fifty years?” Zack said.

  He looked back at the walls, shining his light on them, seeing the articles, the toys in a whole new light.

  “Yup. I give him da teeth, keep him from you. He watch, though. He ‘fraid his time comin’ soon. I hope he right. I hope he go to hell.”

  “It was you in the sewer, too, wasn’t it? The bugs and the street signs...”

  “Yup,” Mumbles said. “Dem rats too. Whoo, what a stink dat be. I try an make y’all g’ on home an’ not come dis far.”

  Zack stared at him for a long minute.

  “We need a plan,” Zack said.

  CHAPTER 23

  Alex lay on top of the crypt, shaking and crying. He stared up at ghostly form.

  “I wanna go home,” he said.

  “You are home, child,” Dr. Crowe said, his voice equally soothing and menacing.

  The apparition floated as if it was sitting down. It wore garb from the 19th century and smiled a wide, eerie smile. The teeth in its mouth were worn, some of them to points, others were cracked and broken. It had a wiry beard and its eyes blazed with insanity. Crowe reached a long, pale hand to his left, to a bowl that sat on a small pillar. Inside, he found and grabbed a handful of teeth, which he popped into his mouth like popcorn or peanuts, before he crunched away. Ghostly versions of the teeth crunched as the real teeth fell to the ground, plinking and clicking off the hard floor. His spirit glowed a bit brighter upon swallowing the snack.

  “This is the last home you will ever know,” Crowe said.

  He swooshed down into the boy’s face and grinned widely, a maddening sight. Alex closed his eyes and pulled his legs up, clutching them in a hug.

  “I wanna go home. I wanna go home. I wanna go home,” he chanted, as if magically, he might.

  Crowe laughed. With one hand, he gripped the boy’s hair, pulling his head up. With the other, he stretched Alex’s lips apart to reveal the boy’s teeth. Alex cried hard.

  “Very nice,” said the ghost. “I have ideas for you, but I need to get those lovely teeth.”

  Something distracted Crowe, and he snapped his head away from Alex and sneered.

  “First, I might have some exterminating to do.”

  ***

  Mumbles picked up the bolt cutters.

  “Dis maybe da best we could do,” he said.

  Zack shook his head.

  “I don’t understand,” he said.

  Momma put a hand on his shoulder. Zack recoiled at first, then relaxed.

  “Trus’ me. You distract dat Harlan Crowe. Ma boy, Robert, he go cut dat lock and get dat boy free. Den we find dat gas tank and shut da valve. We can do dat and help will come.”

  “How are we supposed to distract him?” Robbie asked.

  “He be in dat mausoleum until after dark,” Mumbles said.

  There was a crack, like lightning, in the room and Crowe appeared.

  “Will I?” he said.

  The whole group screamed, including Mumbles and his momma. Dr. Crowe swirled around them and swooped in next to Mumbles. His eyes were crazed. He wore a lab coat and a stethoscope swung from his neck. The suit underneath was tattered and dusty.

  “Robert,” Crowe said. “How is my best patient?”

  Mumbles jerked away from him, batting at the mist that comprised Crowe’s body. “You let dat boy go. We had us a deal,” he said.

  “We had no deal. You did what I said. You brought me what I needed, and now I need more. I see you have four nice specimens lined up and ready for me.”

  “I never did brung dem here,” Mumbles said.

  Crowe laughed.

  “Let Alex go!” Amy screamed.

  Zack grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

  Crowe laughed again.

  “Children have such lovely spirit,” he said.

  He swirled around them all in a counterclockwise circle, then spread his arms like the wings of a mighty bird and enclosed Mumbles’ mother within them and flew away down the hall.

  “Crowe!” Mumbles shouted, shaking his fist.

  The kids jumped up to follow, rounding the corner into Mumbles’ workshop, but Crowe flew her up and through the ceiling, disappearing. Zack headed back to the hatch where they came in. Amy shook and slapped Brad’s face trying to wake him. Brad babbled something, but never snapped out of it.

  “Brad!” she shouted.

  She slapped him again, one time in each direction. Nothing.

  “Zack, he won’t wake up,” Amy said.

  Zack thought for a few seconds.

  “We’ll just have to come back for him.”

  He started to open the hatch in the floor and Mumbles stopped him.

  “Nah. Not dat way. Over here,” he said.

  Mumbles led the kids through the workshop and up a flight of stairs. They came out inside of a closet. It was full of cleaning supplies. Mumbles closed the door behind Robbie, who was straggling behind, and then popped open another door into a storage shed full of lawnmowers and trimming equipment.

  “You’re like a superhero,” Robbie said.

  Mumbles kept moving.

  “Where is he takin
g her?” Zack asked.

  “He put momma back in her grave. I know he will. It’s okay…she be fine, jus’ go to sleep. We need to get to dat boy.”

  The four trekked across the graveyard, stepping carefully between the stones. The creeping gas rolled at their feet, swirling under their footsteps in tiny eddies. In the distance, they saw a vast open space lined with trees. The graves in the center were mostly flat with markers instead of headstones. At the top of a hill in the back was a grand mausoleum, all marble, with the word, “CROWE” carved into the front above a gated opening. As they approached, Zack shouted, “Alex!”

  “Hello? Can you hear me? Please, somebody help!” Alex said.

  Mumbles was already at the gate, pulling up the bolt cutters and opening their jaws around the “U” of the lock.

  “Tol’ you I be back,” Mumbles said.

  Alex tried to shift inside, but was bound to the top of the crypt. Zack shined his flashlight inside to see him. It appeared as if his hands and feet were wrapped with spiderweb.

  “You okay?” Zack said.

  Alex was stressed, his eyes red with tears, but he nodded. He wasn’t physically damaged.

  “What is that stuff?” Zack said, eyeing the webbing.

  “I think it’s dental floss,” Alex said.

  Zack nodded. It fit. Mumbles struggled with the bolt cutters. The lock proved to be too thick for them. He banged on the lock, hoping it might pop open.

  “That one is mine,” Crowe said, swooping in from behind them. “And now, so is this one.”

  He swiped at Amy, trying to grab her, but she dropped to the ground and rolled away. The kids scattered. Crowe ascended high into the air so he could keep watch on all of them. Zack ducked through a small group of trees and hid behind a tall gravestone. He saw Amy and whispered, “Psst! Over here.”

  Amy changed directions and ran toward Zack. Crowe followed. Robbie kept running, not looking back. “Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap,” he said.

  He struggled to keep his balance, sprinting even though he was exhausted. He zigged one way and zagged another, finally looking back over his shoulder to see where the evil doctor was. When Robbie turned his head back around, still running, he smacked face-first into the arm of a cross-shaped headstone. Robbie’s feet kicked forward and he landed on his back. The impact caused him to spit out a tooth, knocked loose by the impact, and a small trickle of blood ran down his cheek.

  Crowe stopped midflight and sniffed the air. Zack and Amy held their breath, eyes closed, ready to be grabbed, but opened them again when nothing happened.

  “Oh no,” Zack said when he saw Robbie lying on his back, fifty yards away.

  Crowe’s eye’s crazed, then his pupil’s dilated, filling the entire socket with shiny black like a frenzied shark. His grin widened into a deadly expression.

  “Yum,” he said.

  He turned slowly, and moved slowly, hovering several feet above the ground. Robbie struggled to get upright, holding his bruised face. Crowe slid in front of him, cornering him. Robbie screamed. The ghost twirled like a whirlwind and the crazed Harlan Crowe scooped up Robbie’s tooth and crunched it in his mouth. The whirlwind then grabbed Robbie and shot up into the air, taking him in its clutches.

  “Dumb and stupid,” Amy said. “Dumb…and…stupid…I told you, boys always get in trouble, and I’m always stuck in the middle of it.”

  Zack grabbed her and ran back to where Mumbles was still working on the lock.

  “Alex, he’s trying to split us up. What did he say to you?”

  “He said he wants my teeth. He said he has ideas for me. I wanna go home.”

  “Hang in there,” Zack said.

  “Mumbles, where’s he taking Robbie?”

  “Dunno. We got ta stick together. If he split us all up, nobody can’t help nobody.”

  “There!” Amy said, pointing.

  The swirling spirit moved across the cemetery into another mausoleum. Robbie yelled for help. Mumbles moved the cutters and pulled with all his strength. They cut into the metal of the lock but not all the way through. Not even enough so he might break it open. He tried again.

  “Hey guys. He’s coming back,” Amy said.

  Crowe came straight for them, still spinning like a tornado. Zack looked back at Mumbles who pulled on the handles of the bolt cutters.

  “Hurry!” he shouted.

  “Dis ain’t gon’ break,” Mumbles said through clenched gums.

  “He’s comin’,” Amy said.

  “No. I’m here!” Crowe growled, arms spread out, looming over top of his crypt.

  Each faced the monster, shock on their faces.

  “What are you going to do if you get to the boy? Take him? I’ll just find him again. I shall find all of you.”

  His face was in Amy’s face in a flash. She screamed.

  “I’ll take you one at a time. Nice teeth!”

  Amy stumbled backwards, away from the vile monster. Zack stepped in between them.

  “Leave her alone,” he said.

  “Loyalty. Such a waste,” Crowe said. “I bet she’d turn on you in a heartbeat. They all turn when I get hold of them. After they’re done begging for their lives, they’d give me their friends, their families, even their own children. Isn’t that right, Robert?”

  It spun up again, picking Amy off the ground in its smoky tendrils and twisting away. Zack ran after the ghost and his sister. “Get that lock open, old man!” he shouted.

  Mumbles shook his head and went back to work. His sleeves rolled to his elbows, he pulled with all his strength, his forearm muscles rolling and flexing.

  Zack couldn’t keep up, no matter how fast he ran. He stopped at the mausoleum where Robbie was and watched the direction Crowe took his sister.

  “Robbie, are you in there?”

  “Get me outta here!” Robbie shouted.

  Zack walked into the building which wasn’t gated and found Robbie lashed to the wall using the same strange rope with which Alex was bound.

  “Are you okay?” Zack said.

  He tugged on the rope, then pulled his pocket knife from his pack and started sawing on it, a few strands at a time. It was dental floss—layers and layers of it.

  “Do I look okay. A lunatic tied me up in the graveyard. I saw a ghost, and I smell horrible.”

  Zack laughed.

  “So you’re okay.”

  Zack snapped through the last few strands of the floss and held it up for a quick inspection. Robbie pulled himself loose and grabbed Zack by the arm.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here,” he said.

  “It’s got Amy,” Zack said as his eyes caught on something in the corner of the mausoleum.

  “What is it?” Robbie said.

  “It might be the gas,” Zack said.

  He shined his flashlight into the darkness and found a series of brass knobs hidden behind a dust-caked glass door. Zack rushed over and yanked on the handle, but it was locked.

  “Stand back,” Robbie said.

  Zack moved away, and Robbie kicked at the door, shattering the glass. Zack pulled his gloves from his pack and flipped the latch from the inside of the door and it swung open. He started turning all the knobs to the off position.

  “What if Crowe comes and turns them back on?” Robbie said.

  “Good call,” Zack said.

  He reached inside and found rubber hoses attached to each valve, took his pack off and fished inside to find his small pocket knife. Reaching back as far as he could, he pulled the knife across one hose, slicing them and letting the gas leak out.

  “Hold your breath,” he said.

  Robbie stepped away as Zack cut a second and third hose. He hoped it was enough. Gas leaked out over the brass knobs and spilled down to the floor, hugging the ground.

  They left the Mausoleum, turning only briefly to watch the thick gas pour out onto the ground. Running back to where Mumbles was, they found him tied to the gate, the bolt cutters at his feet. Crowe
hovered there, taunting them.

  “I’ve waited a long time to finish my work on you, Robert.”

  “Ain’t scared o’ you,” Mumbles said.

  “You will be.”

  The ghost’s eyes grew to an impossible size and his teeth stretched into an eerie grin. He started to giggle like a child. The combination was horrifying.

  “Let him go!” Robbie said.

  “In time,” Crowe said, still smiling. “In due time.”

  With that, Crowe’s ghost cackled like a crazy chicken and disappeared between the bars of the gate, then reappeared to surround Mumbles. Crowe opened his mouth, a hole that grew larger than the size of Mumbles entire head. He drew in a breath and wisps of light peeled off of Mumbles’ face, as if somehow, the old man’s energy had become visible and was being sucked into the monster’s mouth. Mumbles slumped in his dental-floss sling.

  “Not much there,” Crowe said. “It should be enough for now. I’ll drain the girl next. Little girls are sweet, like cavity-causing candy.”

  He shrieked with delight and laughed like a drunk.

  “I don’t think so,” said Zack.

  He was looking at the ground, at the creeping mist of laughing gas. It was drying up, leaving broad patches of open land.

  “Such a confident boy. An annoying trait,” Crowe said.

  Zack smiled and Crowe looked momentarily confused.

  “Tell it to them,” Zack said.

  All around them, spirits emerged from their graves. Crowe watched, not understanding what was happening. The ghosts stretched as if from long naps, and then one by one, moved toward the dentist with their misty arms outstretched. He moved away from one, but another was waiting. He spun, trying to fly into the air and escape, but one had hold of his foot, then another, and another. They pulled him back to the ground.

  He struggled and laughed the mad giggles of an insane person. Within seconds, there were dozens of ghosts surrounding him, tearing at him, silently joyous as they pulled him to pieces. Robbie watched with a grin.

  “Cool,” he said.

  With his ethereal body in shreds, Crowe pulled free, a pure spirit, nothing more than a ball of light.

  “I’m free. You’ve freed me, you fools!” it said.

  “Not so fast, devil,” a woman said.

  It was Mumbles’ momma floating down from the sky. The boys looked at her and cheered. She opened her arms and set Amy down on the ground. Amy ran to her brother’s side and Robbie started clapping.