The Eds were reaching the end of the ritual, when the Mario book Wendell was holding opened. A huge army of Boos (the Mario kind, not the ghost featured here) flew out. A huge Boo in an army helmet ked them. "Get the ghosts! They give us a bad name!" Hobbes and the other animals followed them. "We did it!" cheered Hobbes. "The Boos will get rid of those ghosts for sure!"

The other ghosts simply stared at the Boos, who were terrified, and flew away. After all, that trick always works in the video games. Snoopy looked hopeless. "Why did we think that would work?"

The Darkling let out a roar that made everyone turn to him. "No more interruptions! THEY give US a bad name! Keep going!" At that very second, a small ghost flew out of nowhere and grabbed the ritual book. He was wearing a red striped shirt, and looked very familier. To everyone's delight, it was Calvin's ghost! "You had me killed, Darkling! You won't be restored if there's no one to preform the ritual!"

"Stop him!" shouted the Darkling. Boo had a ghostly sword materialize and stood in front of the large group of ghosts like a military commander. "He's still a newby ghost! We can still get rid of him!" With a screeching battle cry, the ghosts all chased Calvin. Two rocky ghosts, Stonewall and Banzai, started hurling rocks at him. Calvin hid in a tree.

"Okay, newts!" called Archlight. "It's our turn to destroy the kid!" He, Firetail, and Sparkle set a few trees on fire, surrounding Calvin. He was trapped in a flamey inferno, but Calvin actually looked happy! "That's it! Say goodbye to the book, Darkling!" With that, Calvin tossed the book in the fire. With a pained expression, the Darkling watched his freedom and powers all burn up. "NO! That was the only way to restore me!"

As the book burned, any control the Darkling had on the once evil ghosts faded away. "Hey..." said Boo. "It's all coming back to me!"

"And me!" said Blair Wisp.

"And me!" said Fingers.

"And me!" said Buck.

"He can talk?" said Cojammer.

Ghastly showed some emotion for a change...even he smiled! "It appears that the Darkling used what was left of his powers on us, so he now has nothing!"

"No!"

"And" added Edd, "now that it's gone, you have to point to exist, knowing you can never return!"

Everyone watched as the Darkling faded, as he screamed, "It's all over! I'm gone! I'm gone! I'm gone! ..." But that, like him, faded as well. Then, all was silent.

"Wow," said Eddy.

"Although we cannot restore the Darkling, we can still save the boy," suggested Wisperwind. The ghosts all concentrated. Suddenly, Calvin was normal! "You're alive!" said Hobbes.

Not knowing what to do next, Edd started to leave. "That was quite an interesting experience, although I'd rather not have it again." Ed followed. "It was a dream come true!"

Calvin noticed Boo studying a map that he had materialize."So now where are you guys gonna go?"

Boo looked embarrassed and sad as he rolled up the mad and had it disappear. "Uh...I hate to say this, but we don't really know what's gonna happen. We always had the choice of passing over to the other side, but we love this earth too much to leave it, even if we can come back sometimes...but I wonder, is it really worth staying here? I hate to say, no matter how much I rant about how great it is to be a ghost...it's not really the time of your life..."

Wendell laughed. "'The time of your life!' That's priceless!"

"There was no pun intended."

Quiver picked up from where Boo had left off. "We were just floating along when the Darkling came. As awful as he was, he made us feel wanted. We had a point, we could haunt places, we could sing songs..."

"You can still sing songs now," said Hobbes.

Boo sighed and flopped to the ground. "There's nothing to sing ABOUT! It's not like I'm sad the Darkling's gone or anything, he was probably gonna destroy us when he was restored, but now we've got nothing at all...but we've caused you too much trouble. I'm sorry. We better be going now."

The ghosts sadly picked up whatever their belongings were and started to float away in their strange group. Suddenly, a lone Mario Boo flew over. "Well, actually, I had an idea. (Could you not look me in the eye? Thanks.) I think you guys would make great video game characters! Think about it." The Boo flew away. The ghosts all looked at each other.

"Video games ARE totally cool..." said Wendell.

"But we should change the plot," suggested Sparkle.

Boo was clearly getting into this idea. "Yeah, we'll make it into a sorta simulation-style game with us trying to haunt houses! And we would be trying to restore the Darkling OURSELVES so he'd be on our side!"

"Uh...Darkling won't like that," said Quiver.

But Boo already had the idea in his head, and there was no stopping him now. "What's HE gonna do about it! Let's go, ghosts! We have a purpose!" The ghosts cheered and flew away. The clouds parted, and the kids watched as the ghosts flew into the sunset. In the distance, they could also see Linus in a tree he had landed in after he was blown away.

"Bye, guys! Good luck!" called Calvin. Hobbes was curious. "Why do you think they wanted to change the plot?"

"Probably they assumed we'd want a bit of the money, so they could write us out and not legally have to give us anything," said Edd.

"WHAT!" yelled Eddy. "Those rats!" Eddy and Calvin ran after the ghosts. "Get back here, creeps! We want that money, too!"

Hobbes sighed and walked away with the others. This story certainly beat "The Haunted House That Had a Curse With a Whole Lot of Blood and Gore!"

THE END

Told you Calvin was really dead...but I never said I wouldn't bring him back!