"Uh-oh..." the goose said next, his eyes going wide and beak falling open. "It's a coffin or casket, something's trying to get out!" said Kodi. "Good grief!" cried Jenna in terror, "I hope it's not something evil trying to escape that box" "Oh, like the goblin we already encounterd before, eh?" Steele remarked, trying to sound cocky or arrogant but in truth he was still afraid. Aleu and Balto were too stunned to say anything at the moment, just staring at the sight of two skeletal hands gripping the edge of the lid of the casket and pushing against it as if trying to force it open, the rusty nails still in the lid squealing and squeaking in painful protest. All the while the unseen voice still crying out to be released from its confines. The crow glared suspiciously at the canines and called forth in an angry tone. "How dare you, foolish mortals! You disturbed a guest, caw-caw! You'll be sorry for that, caw-caw!" then it rose into the air and flew away to disappear into nothingness.

Balto, Aleu, Jenna, Kodi, Steele and Boris ran screaming out of the conservatory and back into the dark hallway. They passed several closed doors as they continued toward the far end. From each door they passed, natural and un-natural sounds came from within. Doorknockers clanking, knobs twisting-turning, pounding-banging against the frames, crying-pleading voices coming from the other side. Each sounded as though it were trying to get out. "Balto, I'm so frightened" Jenna cried in terror, but quietly and to herself since the others could not answer at the moment. "Whatever you do, don't betray your presence by screaming..." the Ghost Host warned his visitors "Follow my voice...come, you have active imaginations...That's good..."

PART 5

They went into another room dimly lit by flickering candles and there an unusual seance was in session. "We are about to participate in a seance" said the Ghost Host to his stunned-disbelieving visitors "Madame Leota is assembling all spirits, they are just dying to meet you...hmhmmhmmmahahahahahahaah..." Balto, Kodi, Jenna, Boris, Aleu and Steele began looking around the chamber trying to figure where they were at the moment so to speak. "What room is this?" asked Aleu, "I think the Ghost Host said something about a seance" said Steele. "Oh, that" agreed the shewolf. "Hey, listen. I hear a voice chanting" said Balto with ears cocked as he strained to hear the unseen voice speaking. "Yes, father, I hear it too" said Kodi in response. Jenna and Boris started looking around again and in the glow of candlelight could make out a table and chair in the center of the room. Two lit candles were positioned on both sides of a crystal ball set in an elaborated gold-silver holder and scattered across the table's surface were tarot cards. "What the heck?" cried Jenna in alarm, her eyes wide with fright. "I don't see a person sitting at the table, the chair is empty!" "Yeah, but if nobody is sitting before the crystal ball, then who's doing the incantations?" wondered Boris aloud to himself. "Look again, goose" Steele answered, fear frozen on his face. "There's the source of the unseen voice"

Indeed, the source of the voice was coming from inside the crystal ball, a disembodied head and face of a woman. Her hair was white and frayed, eyes pale blue and staring outward from the ball's surface as she began calling out to the unseen spirit world, demanding they reveal themselves at once. At the same time there appeared several objects hovering in midair above the table and chair surrounded by wierd colorful auras of light. "Perhaps Madame Leota can establish contact...she has a remarkable head for materalizing the disembodied..." said the Ghost Host before his voice faded away again. It was then Leota began her seance session. "Serpants and spiders, tail of a rat. Call in the spirits wherever they're at!" as moans, cries, screams filled the air around the entire chamber. "Rap on a table, it's time to respond. Send us a message from somewhere beyond" this was accompanied by slow-loud knocks from floating tables overhead. "Goblins and ghoulies of past halloweens. Awaken the spirits with your tamborine!" a tamborine began rattling violently, making its loud sounds in response. "Creepies and crawlies, toads in a pond. Let there be music from regions beyond" This time several haunted instruments played forth a wierd melody-like song. "Wizards and witches, wherever you dwell. Give us a hint by ringing a bell!" a hovering bell jingled several times.

Suddenly from out of nowhere there appeared several green glowing shapes that began to solidify and take shape of human forms and started floating about the seance room, shocking & startling the canines & goose who stared with wide eyes and open mouths! "Those are ghosts?!" gasped Kodi, "I've never seen ghosts like that before" "Nor me, son" Balto shuddered in fright from the scene before his eyes. "Are they real or are they fake, like movie magic special effects?" Aleu wanted to know but it was Boris who retorted in kind; "Oh, I'm sure they'd be happy to hear you say that to them as an insult" "Hey-hey-hey!" the shewolf snapped back, sounding like Fat Albert, "I did not mean to say that as an insult to the spirit world" "Don't worry, ghosts don't hear animals or people talking anyway...I think" said Steele. "Oh my goooood!" cried Jenna, sounding like Joey Stiley from ECW "I don't believe this" Just then the Ghost Host's voice interrupted their thoughts. "Come now, we must leave this cozy little circle...For the spirits have received your sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materalize..." So the unseen host escorted Balto, Jenna, Kodi, Aleu, Boris and Steele through another doorway and onto a balcony overlooking the majestic grand ballroom.

PART 6

A party was taking place, one of the strangest parties you've ever seen. There was a long dining banquet table covered with decayed food and wiltered flowers, spiderwebs hung everywhere. It seemed to be a birthday party and when a birthday ghost blew out the candles on a cake, several other ghosts disappeared. They reappeared to clap and applaude the guest of honor for extinquishing the candles in one breath. Those spirits sitting at the table were engaged in friendly conversation, either talking or laughing with each other and sipping wine. Across the room sat an elderly lady in her favorite rocking chair before a fireplace knitting on a quilted blanket. When she rocked forward she disappeared. When she rocked back, she too reappeared. "This is crazy, I don't believe what I'm seeing" Jenna told herself while staring at the scene before her eyes, "Ghosts celebrating a birthday party?" "I didn't know spirits celebrated like people do" said Kodi. "Vanishing and reappearing like magic before our eyes, wow" Steele remarked in awe. Several ghosts were playing on the chandelier over the banquet table, two were sitting side by side and laughing with each other, holding glasses of wine while on the other side of the light fixture was another spirit hanging off the edge of the chandelier pretending to be Tarzan. "Check out those ghosts up there, playing on that light fixture" Boris pointed up toward the ceiling overhead. "Hey, they shouldn't do that, what if that thing breaks free and falls? They could get hurt or worse" cried Balto in alarm. "That's because they're already dead, hero" Steele reminded his former rival, "Ghosts can't feel pain anyway" "Oops, heh-heeh" Balto laughed nervously, blushing a little red in the face. "Hey, look over there. I see more spirits" Aleu said gesturing across the way. Sure enough, other ghosts, 6 couples were waltzing or dancing in circles on the other side of the ballroom while an organist played a haunting refrain on a pipe organ against the far wall.

"I still cannot believe we came into this house to get out of the storm in the first place, only to have the door slam in our faces and now we're trapped" Jenna complained bitterly, still worried about finding another way out soon. "Have we found that EXIT yet, eh?" asked Kodi, looking toward his father who glanced back at his sibling and shrugged. "Dunno, junior...but I'm sure we will" he said. Just then Boris saw something across the balcony and shouted to his friends. "There's another door at the other end of the balcony, come on!" as he started towards it in a rush, the canines hot on his heels as one by one they entered the door and up a flight of hidden steps then through another doorway into a strange room filled with antique junk lying about. The room they were in was the unfinished attic or storage space that was filled with objects of long neglect ranging from mirrors, lamps, rugs, chairs, tables, clothes, toys, crates, trunks, chests, and such either stacked from floor to ceiling or piled neatly in rows along the walls. "Where are we now, snowgoose?" demanded Steele who believed Boris knew his way around the place at the moment, Boris glowered back at the ex-bully and snapped "Okay, hotshot. I presume this is the attic we are in right now. It appears we are on the highest point of the mansion's roof area at the moment" This made the others look around in awe and wonder at the stuff lying about. "Gee, lots of neglected things lying around here" Jenna remarked "Covered in dust