One spooky Halloween night at 8:30 two brothers stepped through their doorway. They were shivering with cold. Their names were Bob and John. Bob had dressed up as Dracula, and John was Frankenstein. They had gotten bags of candy and scared a lot of little kids, too. "Let's sort our candy now," said John.

     "Okay," Bob said.

     "I've got Sweet Tarts!"

     "I've got a Tootsie Roll!"

     "I've got a Bubble Pop!"

     "I've got a Tootsie Roll Pop!"

     "I've got Peanut M&M's!"

     "I've got a Jaw Breaker!"

     That's how the next few hours went on.

     They finally went to bed at ten minutes to midnight. Both of them fell asleep right away. But ten minutes later, they awoke to the sound of banging and thumping. It sounded as if it was coming from the ceiling.

     "It must be coming from the attic," Bob said. " Let's check it out!"

     But when the two boys reached the attic, they found nothing. The banging and thumping had also stopped.

     "I guess we should go back to bed," said John. He yawned.

     They were about to head down the stairs when Bob said, "Wait, am I imagining, or do you see that white thing floating around in the air, too?" John looked, and sure enough there was a shimmering white figure floating around the big attic.

     "Is it a-a-a-a g-g-ghost-t?" John hated scary things.

     "It sure looks like one," said Bob. "Eeeeww! What are these slimy things?"

     "They look like vampire bat ears," Said John, surprised. He was interested in bats, and he studied them a lot.

     The shimmering ghost had moved right next to the boys. Suddenly it said in a loud growl, "What are you doing in my attic?"

     "It's not yours! It's ours!" Bob had finally gathered enough courage to speak.

     "Listen," said the ghost," my name is Headless Harold, and I am a very important ghost. Haven't you noticed my name written in blood on the door? It says Harold Halloween. I'm so important that people named a holiday after me. I come out of my hideout every year on the midnight that ends Halloween, and I haunt the attic. And if people find out about me, I haunt this attic nonstop. And it will never get too quiet, because if it does I'll do some extra banging and thumping."

     They argued for a while, but Headless Harold got bored, so he vanished, but kept up the banging and thumping. Bob and John went back to their beds and tried to get some sleep. It was Headless Harold's fault that they couldn't sleep. It had gotten too quiet at night according to Harold, so he did his banging and thumping louder than ever.

     The next morning there were dark shades under the brothers' eyes. They remembered everything that had happened during the night.

     "I think our house is haunted," John exclaimed.

     "Well," said Bob, "you could be right. It does look a little bit like one. I have an idea. We could go to the library and look at some books about haunted houses."

     "Okay. Good idea," John complimented. So they got dressed, ate breakfast, brushed their teeth, and combed their hair. Harold must have decided it had gotten too quiet again, because he was banging louder than ever before.

     When the boys reached the library's parking lot, they stopped their bikes and parked them. In the library, they did a computer search and then went to the shelves and started looking.

     "I found the right books over there," Bob told John. On the front cover of the first book that they pulled off the shelf was a picture of their very own house! The Most Famous Haunted House was the title. They opened the book, and it told them about Headless Harold. They turned the page, and it started telling them about the bat ears. They were interested in this.

     "Look, it says that there is one pair that you can eat, and it will make you multiply! And over here it says that all of the other pairs will turn you into a mean old witch," Bob exclaimed. At that, they rode their bikes home as fast as they could.

     When they got home, they ran up the stairs to the attic. They saw Headless Harold right away. For the first time, the brothers noticed that Harold carried his own head under his arm because it was cut off. But the strange thing was that Harold looked like the ghost of an old witch.

     "Uh oh! I think Harold has been eating bat ears," said John.

     "Now it's even worse," said Bob. "We've got a ghost of a headless witch haunting our attic!"

     "Wait," said John, "I have an idea. Come downstairs with me."

     They were standing in front of the closet where they kept their cleaning stuff when John said, "Vacuums suck up air and dirt, right?"

     "Yes," said Bob.

     "Well," said John, "Headless Harold is a ghost, and ghosts are made of air, so we could suck him up!"

     "Good idea," said Bob.

     A few minutes later they were in the attic with the vacuum.

     "Bye-bye Harold," said Bob, turning on the vacuum as he pointed it at Harold.

     "Aaahh!" Harold was screaming as he got sucked up. But just then the lights flickered and went out. Then the brothers heard a growl, and a million ghosts of headless witches appeared out of nowhere! The ghosts growled again.

     "Run!" The brothers raced down the stairs and slammed the attic door shut.

     Harold ... ate... the... multiplying ... ears," panted John.

     "Let's go to the library to get more information," said Bob.

     Thirty minutes later, they were in the library looking at the same book.

     "It says that there is one spot on the attic floor that the ghost always bangs on because it makes the most noise. And it shows that it is located right here," said John, pointing to a photo.

     "That is just enough info to give me an idea," said Bob.

     Fifteen minutes later, Bob was turning off the T.V., and John was turning off the ring on the telephone. Then Bob helped John find the spot on the kitchen ceiling that was right underneath the spot on the attic floor. Everything was so quiet that every ghost pounded as hard as it could, and then the floor broke. The ghosts fell right through, and got sucked up in the hungry vacuum. The house never haunted again. But it did get its book torn up.