The Dead Man's Brains

The Dead Man's Brains is a story from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It explains a game that people play in order to be scared for fun.



The Story
This scary story is a scary game that people play on Hallowe'en. But it can be played whenever the spirit moves you. The players sit in a circle in a darken room and listen to a storyteller describe the rotting remains of a corpse. Each part is passed around for them to feel. In one version, a player is out if he or she screams or gasps with fright. In another version, everybody stays to the end no matter how scared they get.

Here is the story:

Once in this town, there lived a man named Brown. It was years ago on this night, that he was murdered out of spite. We have here his remains. First, let's feel his brains. [Which is a wet, squishy tomato] Now here are his eyes, still frozen with surprise. [Two peeled grapes] This is his nose. [A chicken bone] Here is his ear. [A dried apricot] And here is his hand, rotting flesh and bone. [A cloth or rubber glove filled with mud or ice] But his hair still grows. [A handful of corn silk or wet fur or yarn] And his heart still beats, now and then. [A piece of raw liver] And his blood still flows. Dip you fingers in it. It's nice and warm. [A bowl of ketchup, thinned with warm water.] That's all there is, except for these worms. They are the ones that ate the rest of him. [A handful of wet cooked spaghetti noodles.]