Coal
Three boys in a small village were bored and decided to walk around the abandoned mines where it is rumored that a worker that had black lung disease went crazy and one night he went into the mines and dyed his teeth black with the coal inside and he choked to death with the coal he was using. The mines were closed after the worker was found dead with a note that said “black teeth, anyone?”, and so the mines were never opened again, since there was another accident after that when a bystander went inside for ten minutes and came out screaming that there was a ghost that was smiling and saying the same phrase that was on the suicide note “black teeth, anyone?”, the people were horrified to hear this and took extreme measures to use a priest to exorcise the evil spirit. But even the priest couldn’t send this evil spirit away and so the people blocked the entrance way with a boulder and the priest decided to put a talisman on the boulder so that the evil wouldn’t be released into the village, leaving the workers body in there as well.
One of the boys, Ken, suggested that they go out to see if the ghost is real, but the second boy, Tom, didn’t want to go since he didn’t want to find out if the ghost was real or not while the third boy, Ben, not a believer in the supernatural, tells Tom that he can come back later to prove that ghosts don’t exist and it was just a rumor to scare the children. Tom then tells Ken and Ben that he’ll come back later and that he’ll go to the library and will try to ask for the blueprints for the mines. They thanked him and Tom goes to the village library while Ben tears off the talisman and Ken pushing the boulder out of the way with Ben’s assistance.
Tom, now at the village library asks the assistant librarian “Excuse me, I need the blueprints for the mines please”. The assistant replied “I’m sorry, those blueprints were reported lost but I’ll check in the back so just wait here for a moment”. Meanwhile, Ken and Ben, wearing facemasks so that they don’t inhale the dirt, looking around the cave to try to find the ghost and then Ken said he spotted something and aimed his flashlight at that direction. Back at the library, the assistant talks to the elderly head librarian about what happened to the blueprints. The head replies “it isn’t lost, it was burnt.” Shocked, the assistant asks why it was burnt with the head replying with her voice trembling “it was destroyed because of the same reason the mines were closed, the real evil spirit lives on in there is the same one that possessed the worker!” Tom, overhearing the conversation through the door is surprised that the worker didn’t go crazy over the disease and continues to listen.
“Who…who is the real evil spirit then?” said the assistant. The head sighs “since all the adults already know of this, you may know as well, the evil spirit is my great-grandfather who was the village doctor, respected by all his people for his knowledge in medicine, until he decided to make an immortality potion for himself so that he can live on, forever helping the people of his village. After weeks of researching on immortality, he kidnapped two children, killed them, and used their blood for his potion! I sneaked out of my parent’s home on that night and went to my grandfather’s house, when I got there I use the key he hid under his rug and went in and saw--.” “What… was it that you saw?” the assistant replied with a shaky voice. The head replied with a loud voice filled with fear “I SAW HIM KILLING THOSE TWO CHILDREN RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, DRAINING THEM OF THEIR BLOOD, WORST OF ALL HE CHOPPED THEM UP AND PUT THEIR REMAINS IN A GARBAGE BAG AS IF THEY WERE GARBAGE!” “Calm down and breathe, there is a child waiting in the front office.” The assistant quickly said while Tom’s face was frozen with shock after hearing a dark secret of the villages past. The head, now calm, explains what happened next…
“After that, I immediately ran back to my parents house and told them that I saw a robber broke into my grandfather’s house because they wouldn’t believe me if I told them that grandfather was doing those horrible things. So when we arrived there, we were shocked to find him on the floor, having a seizure after drinking the potion which turned his teeth black and he just chocked to death. I told them about what really happened and pointed at the garbage bags where I saw him put the bodies in and when my father opened them, he screamed that there was so much blood on the corpses while my mother fell on her knees crying that her father did such a horrible thing.”
“Since they knew they couldn’t keep this a secret, we all went to the authorities and explained everything, but what really convinced them was that the bodies of the two little children in the bag that he tried to disposed of. Feeling betrayed by the one who was supposed to give them hope, a mob was formed by the villagers, including the parents of the two children, to burn the evil doctor’s body leaving him with nothing but his skeleton. The people spat on his skeleton after the burning stopped and buried his body deep enough where the mines were found. That is the whole story and remember never speak a word about this to anyone else, are we clear on that?”
“Yes, I understand”, the assistant said. After going back to the front to tell Tom that she couldn’t find them, she hears footsteps running out of the library and runs to the front with Tom not there. The assistant insinuates to herself that Tom might’ve overheard the conversation and decides to run after him to ask.
Tom, in front of the mine’s entrance, shouts out to Ken and Ben “Hey! Can you guys hear me!?” and after waiting five minutes, he hears the reply from Ben “Yeah! We didn’t go that far since Ken tripped and scraped his knee, can you help me carry him back!?” “Sure, I’m coming”, which Tom said and went in.
“Tom! Tom, where are you!?” the assistant said while nearly exhausted looking for him. “I’m over here with my other two friends since we didn’t go that deep in the cave!” Tom said. The assistant, relieved, says “I’m so glad you didn’t go any further, but never go into the mines again, do you—AH, AHHHHHH!!!”
When she looked at the three of them, she realized they lied and saw their teeth turned black. All three boys ask the assistant, “Do you want black teeth too?”
End
