afghan, and lived in Room B. He didn’t tell anyone, but he was a guardian angel undercover in New Orleans. He was to be leaving for Heaven in just a few moments, but he had made good friends with the locals and was just a nice guy to all.

“Uh, yep! I’m just, uh, Yankee Doodle Dandy in here.”

“You sure? I heard you howl pretty loudly. Sounded like you were in pain.”

“Oh that. Well see, I uh, was watching this show…and my favorite character got pulled off of it and it just,” Mickey tried to fake a sad whimper, “It just hurt on the inside.”

“If you say so. Look, I have to be going. Places. Chicago. Sure.” Johnson said with nervousness.

“Okay, good luck with that.” The moment that he was sure that Johnson was gone, he sighed in relief. He slowly limped back into the living room. The cat was lying on the floor, motionless but breathing. “Crazy bugger. Now then, what to do with you?”

Before he could think, Crystal regained consciousness. “Oh man, where am I?” she moaned.

It’s a lady! Mickey yelled in his head. That first line was so demonic it was anyone’s guess, but now it was a given. Being taken down by a cat would have been bad enough, but a female cat? Outright humiliation! Still, Mickey needed answers. “What do you mean? You know damn well where you are!”

“No I don’t.” Crystal tried to argue. “And, well, who are you?”

“I’m Mickey, the dog you just tried to kill!”

Crystal sat, mouth agape. “Oh no. Not again.”

“What do you mean: not again?”

Crystal gulped. “When I was young, I was shot in the head with a Beebe pellet. It wasn’t lethal, but it caused me to form three split personalities: a good me, a neutral me, and an evil me. My good and neutral sides were fine by me, but my evil side made me kill my parents, which turned me into a criminal. Worst part is, I end up forgetting most of what happens in my evil state. I just kept running away from my troubles, and they kept getting worse. I am wanted in 13 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. And now I’ll be wanted here too.” Crystal sat up straight, on the brink of crying.

Mickey was torn. The cat had just tried to kill him. But she was in a separate personality. But she was a wanted criminal. But her life had been nothing but sorrow. Mickey knelt down to the cat’s face. “Look, I think I can forgive you. At least you didn’t draw blood from me.”

Crystal looked at Mickey with confusion. “Then, where’d I get this blood?” Crystal held out her paws, sure enough they were covered in blood. Not the kind that is weeks old and can be ignored. This blood looked fresh, it had to be have there for at maximum 3 hours.

“Well then. In that case, I need to tell me everything you can remember since you last became, erm, evil.”

“I’m Crystal. Just, to let you know.”

“Crystal, concentrate. What can you remember? Any reason why you wanted to kill me?”

“Well,…I can remember…clocks! Yes, lots and lots of them. Ticking, tocking, chiming, ringing. A…black? No, purple dog wanted them. I think. But there was this pink dog, and she attacked me. She made me lose the watches.”

Mickey looked back at the couch. His watch was still there, shining from the light. He walked over and grabbed the pocket watch. “Did the watches look something like this?” he inquired as he showed his watch to Crystal.

“Yes! But…how…”

“It fell from out of nowhere. Now then, what else do you remember about the dogs?”

“Not a lot. They kinda looked alike. Wait, the pink one…she had a necklace, of sorts. I grabbed it and it is in my alley home. It looked like, like…a heart. And is had a name on the back. What was it? It began with an ‘A’ I know that. Anne? Anna, Anna…”

In a flash, Mickey realize what she meant. “Annabelle.” he whispered. “Look, Crystal. I need you to cooperate.”

“Why? What did I do? Tell me please.”

“I believe that you lost some kind of Holy Watches or something from dog Heaven. You were attacked by Annabelle, the heavenly whippet. The only part that doesn’t make sense is the purple dog. I was never told about that.”

“Oh no. I…stole from Heaven?”

“Look, it is no big issue. If we’re lucky, those special watch thingies are all here in New Orleans.” Mickey raced for the window in the room, and let out a howl.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s called Twilight Barking. Not like any cats would know about that. I calling out to a friend. Just call her Harli. But that isn’t important right now. What is important is that we get a good night’s sleep so that we can meet her at Don’s Auto Wreckers tomorrow.”

“So, I can stay with you?” Crystal’s cat eyes widened.

“Of course. I’m a very remorseful kind of dog. Now sleep well.”

As Mickey turned out the lights, Crystal yawned one last statement: “I like you Mickey; you aren’t like the other dogs.”

Chapter 3:

[August 29 - 9:01 am]

In the Louisiana countryside, all is calm. The sun rises upon the land, the dew glistens in the light. The fauna, just waking, run wild in the land. All is peaceful and in harmony. But then, a whistle blows from a distance, the noise echoing through the air. Just when the noise stops, it rings again. The ground begins to rumble, the animals tremble with fear and run for cover. The whistle gets louder, and louder, until a black cloud of smoke rides drearily on the wind. Then, barreling down the rusted tracks, now hidden by the rapidly growing grass, a train roars by.

An old style freight train rushes by, carrying cargo cars behind, rattling with every second that passes. One of the cars, one near the very back, remains with its door opened, letting the air rush on in. Much to the chagrin of its passengers.

“Pick the express, I said.” Charlie moaned. “But no, we had to ride the freight train!”

Tony was relaxed on a pile of hay in the corner, with Itchy sitting right beside him. “Look, Charlie. We needed to get to New Orleans fast!” Tony remarked. “Your way would have made the trip three hours longer. Three hours! If I’ve learned anything, you don’t keep Annabelle waiting for three more hours than needed.”

“And that’s the part I still don’t get.” Itchy joined in. “She was ambushed? In Heaven?”

“Yes, it was the strangest thing. One moment, Heaven is a nice and calm place, next thing you know, it was like it was falling apart.

Charlie chucked. “Yeah right. This must be some test or something little Miss Perfect conjured for us. Y’know, to make sure we’re still good guardian angels.”

“I am serious you two! Do you think I’d pull you away from that romantic dinner with Sasha? I might be an angel, but I’m known to sin.”

“I’m still not forgiving you for that.” Charlie moaned.

“Look, Annabelle was very serious about the life watches. She put them above the fellow angels. She even swore at me when I refused to help.”

“Nah,” Itchy yawned. He preferred to get up later than he had that day. “There is no, none, nada, no way that Annabelle would degrade herself like that!”

“I keep telling you two, it happened! Clear as day!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Charlie uttered, still looking at the wild Louisiana. He’d been away since his deaths in 1939, so the sights brought back memories. “It’ll be nice to be back around the old town, won’t it Itch?”

“You bet Charlie. I wonder if any of the old places are still around.”

“I wouldn’t think so.” Tony muttered.

“Oh yeah, why’s that?” the dachshund wondered.

“Do you seriously don’t remember Hurricane Katrina?”

“Hurri-what?” Charlie questioned without looking back.

“I forgot Charlie. You’re such an idiot.”

Charlie turned his head around, revealing his teeth. “What did you call me?”

“Nothing.” Tony responded.

“I swear, you’re trying my patience already, so why don’t you…” Charlie suddenly stopped, and raised an ear.

“He better what Charlie?” Itchy curiously asked. “Charlie? What is it?”

Charlie sniffed the air. He stared distantly into the air, standing like a statue. “Come on. We need to get to the next car.”

“What!?” Tony and Itchy asked simultaneously.
“No time to explain, come on.” Charlie quickly spoke before reaching out of the car and grabbing onto the ladder. He scurried up and fought against the wind to stand on the roof of the car. Tony and Itchy had no idea what was going on, but began to follow suit.

“Charlie!” Itchy yelled while climbing up the ladder. “Why are we going up here!?” Itchy, unlike Charlie struggled to stay on the roof, and clung onto the near edge.

“No time to stop, Itch!” Charlie yelled above the roaring winds. Charlie grabbed his friend and waited for Tony to reach them.

“This is silly Charlie!” Tony barked as he steadied himself on the roof. “There is no order to your chaos, this is blasphemy, this is madness, this is…” but Tony