Casper woke the next morning to Kat's voice calling him.
"What's goin' on Kat?" He asked suddenly alert.
"Stretch is up. He- He's going in and out of consciousness right now. Dad's with him. He asked about you."
"H-He shouldn't be worried about me, he should just work on getting better."
"Stretch love you, it's his job to worry about you. Dad told him what happened yesterday, when he found you in the room curled up like that." Casper looked away.
"Was he mad?" Kat shook her head.
"I think it hurt him though, to know that you were hurting so much."
"He's not gonna get better is he Kat?" the question she had been dreading.
"That's why I woke you, he wanted to talk to you about that. With him having such a hard time, he-" Casper rushed off to the bedroom where he found Fatso and Stinkie sitting close to their brother.
The young ghost flew over to his Uncles and hovered beside the bed.
"Hey Short Sheet" The greeting was nearly a whisper. Casper struggled to hold in the tears.
"Hey Uncle Stretch, Kat said you wanted t-to talk to me."
"Yeah, You an' me gotta have a talk." He tried to sit up but Stinkie placed a hand on him.
"Don't." He pleaded. The older ghost agreed and the hand was removed.
Casper immediately climbed into the bed and leaned into Stretch as he had the day before.
He felt slightly more secure when his Uncle placed an arm around him.
"Casper maybe you should-" Fatso began.
"He's fine. I need ya ta understand somethin' Short Sheet. I know that ya found out I lied ta ya, I'm sorry. I was tryin' ta shield ya from this as long as I could, hopin' that I could stop it. Truth is I can't." Stinkie whimpered from beside the bed. Stretch paused.
"I want ya ta know that even when I didn't act like it, I loved all a ya. Still do an' always will. This ain't anyone's fault an' Casper, ya had ta watch it all happen, ya were here with me when I needed it an' I know it wasn't easy. But, I'm prouda you."
"D-does this mean y-you're gonna leave us?" Casper sobbed. Stretch held him close.
"Yeah. I don't got a choice." The ghosts felt as if their world was falling apart around them. Fatso and Stinkie had known about it since gathering the information, but hearing Stretch admit to it made it sink in.
"B-but you can't, we love you. Love is supposed to-"
"If love really worked that way, no one would ever die Casper, it might sound like a wonderful thing but, it don't work like that. This ain't a cartoon where that kinda stuff happens."
"I wish it was"
"ya wouldn't want that, I mean this world is loony enough as it is, without people out there droppin' anvils an' all that nonsense" Casper managed a smile in spite of the tears falling. Stretch had managed to at least for the moment, allow his nephew a momentary release from the pain as he imagined the world as his uncle had described.
Stinkie however was not finding the situation amusing in the slightest.
"Why ya do that?"
"What?"
"Minimize this, this is bad, we're gonna-"
"Enough." Stinkie fell silent. Although the trio were brothers, it wasn't often that either fatso or Stinkie challenged Stretch's authority.
None of the ghosts of Whipstaff were aware that a that very moment, someone was watching, Someone who had been long forgotten by the trio and knew the time was nearing to make an appearance.
He smirked as he sped off. " Any time now, Stretch shall leave them defenseless and all will be mine" He laughed cruelly in his deep voice and disappeared.
