"Covered in dust and looking old and used, what a pity people never fix stuff up to make them look new again and perhaps sell" "You got that right, mom" Aleu agreed, then reacted in shock as her eyes went wide! "Huh, what-the?!" she gasped as if she heard something strange. "What is it, dear?" Balto asked his daughter, responding to her cry of alarm, "Did you hear something?" "Yes, I hear a strange noise. It sounds like a beating heart" "A what?!" Steele gasped, eyes popping wide, he started looking around in terror, "Where, where?!" he shouted.

"I hear it too!" Boris exclaimed in fright, his own eyes bulging out in terror as the goose cocked his head this way and that way to locate its source. "But I don't see anything right now" he said. "Uh...mom, dad?" Kodi spoke in a trembling voice, his body shaking with fear as both husky and wolf turned his way and asked "WHAT, SON?" "There it is!" he cried and pointed a paw towards a frightening sight. All heads turned and froze at what they saw before their eyes. Standing before them, or the politically correct term floating before them was a ghost dressed as a bride! This ghost, a woman was wearing a bridal gown and veil, white in color. Her face was a palid blue-green, her eyes yellow inside their sockets. Tears seemed to streak her face as if she were crying while her face was twisted upward into a sad-like smile _expression as though the spirit were dreaming of something far-far away from this world. Her train, or lower portion of veil or the gown was billowing gently behind her transparent body as if held by unseen hands to allow her to walk down an imaginary asile to an unseen alter where her so-called groom awaited her so they would be joined together for all eternity. She was strangly illuminated as her heart glowed red with each beat that seemed to radiate through her body and gown. In one hand was clutched a bouqet of flowers, the other gripped a candle. "Who is she, where did she come from?" Aleu said in shock, "Who knows?" Boris answered her in reply. "I don't like the way she's staring at us, smiling like that" Steele shook in fear as he spoke. "Maybe she does not see us, perhaps we don't exist in her time" Balto told the ex-bully. "I think she's lost in another dimensional-like world that is not part of ours" "Oh, yeah" Steele seemed to agree "Maybe she doesn't see us" "I hate the way her heart is glowing through her body" said Kodi as he shut his eyes and turned away from the sight. Aleu did the same, mimicking her brother's move since she too hated being scared by these ghosts.

Just then there came the sound of music being played from somewhere in the attic which made huskies, goose and wolves look around in disbelief, wondering who could be playing piano music in here? The answer came as a shocker to them when - from across the room they discovered what appeared to be a shadowy figure seated before a broken down piano, the phantom-like shadow illuminated by two flickering candles set atop the instrument who was hitting the keys and playing a somber version of the infamous wedding march. Even as they turned to run out of the room another ghostly manifistation appeared to block their way. He was a cloaked figure with an evil grinning face, a hatbox hung from his hand. With each beat of his bride's heart, his head disappeared from his body and appeared in the hatbox. "We're trapped, there's no way out!" cried Jenna who believed they were doomed. "Not yet we ain't, honey" Balto tried calming down his wife-mate. "I'll try to open this window" and he rushed over to the dormer window nearby. Bracing his front paws against the sill he began grunting-snarling-growling and straining as he fought the stubborn sill to force it open. "Yo! Need some help, blood-brother?" Steele offered as he ran over to assist. "Thanks, I could use another extra paws here" Balto cracked a joke of sorts to which the ex-bully smirked in reply "I thought you would, heh-heeh" Together husky and wolf pushed and strained with all their might until with a loud squeak of painful noise the window slid upwards!

Steele and Balto peered out and saw they indeed were on the rooftop of the mansion with a bird's eye view of the entire grounds surrounding the house on all sides. By now the storm had ended, moved away to leave behind a clear sky of twinkling stars and full moon overhead that shone down upon all. "Come on, we're in luck!" Balto called to his family "There's a balcony out here" "You found it, honey? You found the EXIT out of here?" exclaimed Jenna in suprise and relief at the same time. "What did you expect, Jen?" shrugged Steele, "Of course we did" "Horray for uncle Steele and Balto!" cried Kodi, "Yay!" shouted Aleu in response. "Whoo-hooo!" hooted Boris in excitement. "At last we can escape this cursed house" Carefully the canines and goose stepped through the window and onto the balcony catwalk where they stood staring at their new surroundings. "Careful, watch your steps. The rain made everything slippery" cautioned Balto. "How on earth do we get down off the roof?" Boris thought to himself as he glanced about in search for a way down. "I don't suppose you could fly down, eh?" Steele joked while trying hard to keep a straight face, the goose glared back but said nothing in reply. "Here's some steps at the far end" Aleu pointed out a fire-escape descending down to the ground far below. "But they lead to the cemetary!" cried Jenna when she saw where they led to, "Do we have to go in there?" "I got a bad feeling about this" remarked Kodi sounding like Indiana Jones. "Come on, it's the only way home. Besides, I'm sure we'll find the fence and back-gate area while making our way through the cemetary" Steele assured the gang as he started for the stairs and began his descent. "Okay, you're the boss, uncle" Aleu shrugged helplessly and followed his lead down the stairs, the others behind her as well. Carefully the canines and goose descended the steps to the ground level and began their trek through the private burial grounds trying to find their way out of this living nightmare. 

"Finale"

There was music all around them and the sky was filled with flying spirits. Wolves, huskies and goose passed a group of musicians who paid no attention to their presence. One was playing a banjo, another a fiddle, another a guitar. There was a fourth playing an accordian and a drummer pounding out the tempo on a gravestone while ghosts of all descriptions danced and swayed amoung the tombstones & trees to the rythem of the music being played. There was a king and queen balancing a teeter-totter on a gravestone with their daughter, a princess swinging in a swing pushed by her brother, the prince. They saw a hearse stuck in the mud, the coachman chatting merrily with a duchess sitting atop the carriage sipping tea. The casket had slipped out the open rear doors and its contents, a shrouded corpse sitting upright in the open box also was sipping a cup of tea. Behind the hearse on a hill a group of phantoms with glowing eyes were enjoying a bicycle ride through the tombstones. "This is wierd, everywhere we look there are ghosts abound, having fun" Kodi said in amazement as they continued down the single pathway. "Looks like a midnight spree of sorts" added Steele. "And yet they pay no attention to us as though we're not here" said Jenna in puzzlement, "But we can see them having fun still" she added. "I believe there may be more suprises awaiting us farther along" Boris pointed out who was leading the group. Pretending to be interested, Balto sarcastically remarked "Oh, this should be fun"

Nearby on a raised platform-walkway stood several more spectral figures singing to the music heard throughout the cemetary. Two were dressed in opera theater costumes as viking warriors, a fat woman and thin man with arms around each other's waists and wailing to the sky in their tenor and soprano voices. Next to them stood a huge masked executioner singing a duet with a medieval decapitated knight who held his singing head in his extended gloved hand. "Yegads!" cried Aleu in disbelieving shock and bewilderment at what she saw, "Now I've seen everything" the shewolf told herself as though she refused to believe what she was witnessing at the moment so to speak. "Boris?" Kodi asked the goose, "Are you sure we're going the right way?" "I think so, there's only one path through the cemetary" Boris answered back in reply. Suddenly everything got very quiet, it was as if the whole cemetary became silent, holding its breath for what was to come next. "What-the?" Balto said in suprise as he glanced about the graveyard, "Where did all the ghosts go?" "I don't see them anymore, they're all gone" said Steele, also suprised. Sure enough the spirits had either vanished or returned to their graves to retire for the rest of the evening, having finished their so-called midnight jamboree party. But then, seconds later there came the sound of singing voices close by. "Do you hear that, it sounds like many voices singing a song" said Jenna. "YES, WE HEAR IT TOO, MOTHER" both Kodi and Aleu answered back simultanously. "It's coming that-a-way" Boris pointed out as the group hurried forth to check out its source.

As