Tooth or Lie

 "What do you mean the tooth fairy's not real!?" Herbert whistle-shouted through a gap in his nearly perfect row of teeth.  "I need that money to pay rent!"

"I mean," Mary replied, "there's no fairy that flies around collecting your teeth."

"Oooh, I see, it's some sort of angel or imp, not a fairy.  Hmm.  I guess that makes sense." He tilted his head, deep in thought.

"No," Mary sighed.  "I mean it's a lie that Mom and Dad told us so that they could collect our teeth."

"EW, WHAT!?" Herb screamed.  "NO.  What do they DO with our teeth?  Do they use them for spells??  Do they sell them on the black market?  OH GOD are our parents deranged?"

"Well...I guess they just keep them in a jar somewhere."

"In a jar?  A fucking JAR??" He felt his sense of reality slip away, knowing his parents were collecting pieces of him one at a time, in jars, possibly suspended in some ominous-smelling liquid.  He wondered what was next on their collection list; a piece of cirrhotic liver?  A kidney stone?  A severed finger?  No he thought as he shook his head.  There has to be a tooth fairy.

Herbert narrowed his eyes at his sister and curled his lips inward.  "I call bulshit.  That's right, I know your tricks. 'ha ha, let's all play a prank on Herbert, he's so gullible, he'll believe anything I tell him.'  Well I've had enough of it!" He slammed down the bloodied pliers and walked away with the freshly harvested, crimson-stained incisor clutched tightly in his hand.