with. They leapt onto a baby carriage. The delicate porcelain doll became an immediate target. First her hair went up in smoke, leaving nothing but little stubs. Then the flames ate the lacy, red dress. Finally they attacked her innocent face, which charred and melted in the intense heat. The pink wallpaper around the room peeled and burned like matchsticks.

Nikki jumped from the crates that made a stepstool up to the broken window of the bedroom. A box of old matches fell along with him and scattered across the snowy ground and were quickly covered by more bucketfuls of snow. He grinned with pure, sick, pleasure. Kaltag on the other hand, ran from the bedroom door as quickly as possible. The chair he had placed between the door and the wall would be good enough to hold those two dogs for enough time. They’d either suffocate first, or they’d just plain burn.

~-~-

Lilith yawned loudly and she stretched. She stood up slowly and shook the snow from her pelt. She blinked her eyes to wipe out the tiredness when she noticed something. She felt, different… There wasn’t that fear of being watched hanging over her head like normal. She wasn’t hearing any noises that weren’t there either. So wait… That had really been her medicine! And it had really worked! She smiled like she hadn’t in a long time. Oh this was great! She couldn’t wait to tell Becca! Oh boy, would she ever be pleased. She began to walk through the blinding snow, back towards the butcher’s, when something caught her eye. A crowd of dogs was walking down the street. An old St. Bernard was leading them, and by the looks of it, they weren’t very thrilled about something. She perked her ears up and leaned in to see if she could hear them.

“Alright everyone, now is the time to take back our town from fear and paranoia! You… We have all been lied to by this so-called ‘protector’! I say that we do not waste another moment listening to these lies that he has promoted! This is our town, and he has no right to wreak havoc! Now… who’s with me!?”

She heard the crowd give very distinct shouts of approval and praise. At last, the true judge had taken his rightful place once more among his fellow dogs. The assembly suddenly halted. Lilith wondered why, that is until she saw what they all saw. It was hard to notice at first, but it caught one’s attention very quickly. Atop one of the buildings, something stirred. It grew bigger and bigger until it was obvious that it was a fire, and a large one at that. The assembly started barking and shouting. This definitely was not good… A light suddenly flicked on inside the building nearest the blaze. There was a deathly shriek that was heard even over the bellowing blizzard. Lights began popping up instantly and humans came rushing out of their homes in slippers, nightgowns, coats, anything that could be easily thrown on. Single men and husbands alike ran back inside to grab buckets, anything they could get their hands on that could  hold water, to fight the fire. Even the dark clouds above sent their snows to try and quell the blaze, but it did no immediate good. The assembly of dogs below watched in awe as humans ran in and out of the nearest building, tossing water onto the fire. Suddenly, a window frame on the side of the house burst, and two objects shot out of it, their fur ablaze. They rolled on the frozen ground over and over, trying to put the fire on their bodies out, but it was no use. The two dogs were slowly turning into roasted marshmallows, need more be said. Lilith’s jaw dropped along with the rest of the dogs in the crowd. They had a very good hunch of who one of the dogs had been from one of the yells. The crowd started to slowly break apart. Some didn’t have the stomach to watch any more of this horrendous scene. Others just thought that staying there would be pointless now.

~-~-

As soon as Balto had entered the house, he was starting to believe his son’s words more and more now. It was completely silent inside except for the ticking of a grandfather clock which soon began to chime eleven times.

“Hello?” he called out, somewhat nervously.

It was weird. One minute, Star had been in front of him, the next, he had completely vanished into thin air. Balto took a few steps forward, his ears alert and his body crouched. He heard foot-falls and the sound of a scratching needle on a record. Balto listened silently as the needle continued on its track. The music came all at once. The trumpets blared loudly on a high note as the rest of the brass and the woodwinds ran down a chromatic scale. Immediately after, the trumpets moved up a half step, playing the same rhythm as before, and the rest of the band rushed down from a higher chromatic scale. The trumpets and coronets moved up yet another half step, only this time the band moved up the scale before bursting into an oh-so-familiar circus tune. As Balto listened closely to this unfitting music, he could hear a humming that moved along with the tune. Bright light was suddenly cast throughout the room as a lamp flicked on from somewhere out of his sight. Balto covered his eyes with a paw  as they quickly adjusted to this brightness. There was a couch right in front of his muzzle, and the sound of paws on the floor was right on the other side of it. They moved around the left side and he heard a tenor voice ring through his ears.

“Entrance of the Gladiators, composed by Julious Fucik, a tantalizing piece of music in itself, wouldn’t you agree?It used to be played for me all the time when I was growing up… Glad to see the good doctor has a good selection of music,” said the voice with a chuckle.

Balto looked carefully and he saw a red nose stick out. He cocked his head and he heard the voice speak again.

“Oh, but you might know this as just plain circus music.” 

The rest of the dog walked out. The dog was purely white except for the paint all over his face. His cheeks were painted a sweet, rosy red, and his lips were black and outlined with red. His nose was bulged and unnaturally red. The string fused with his skin which, in itself, was pretty disturbing to Balto. The thing that he noticed first though, was his cold, ice blue eyes.

“I don’t believe we’ve met before,” Balto said.

The other dog smirked and took a few light-footed steps right up to Balto. He stuck a claw underneath his chin.

“No, I didn’t think you would know me, but we have met before My Boy. You just must not remember it,” Hal replied cheerfully.

Balto pulled away from this strange looking dog. “Listen, not to be rude, but I don’t have time to mess around. Star brought me here, so you must know where Jenna is.”

Hal tutted. “You really are that gullible? What a pity.”

There was a sudden shattering sound and the room went pitch black once more. Balto felt a paw rest on his shoulder.

“I personally have nothing against you My Boy, but it seems that everyone that I’m concerned with has some grudge against you, so, of course you had to become a target of mine.”

The paw slipped from his shoulder. “What are you talking about!?” he called to the darkness.

“You don’t get it do you?” Hal laughed, “You’re the whole reason that I’m able to get rid of all these pests that keep getting in my way! If you hadn’t taken the glory and that filthy mistress of yours, then my brother wouldn’t have caused a huge deal and then come running to me to help him. Sister Dear and Brother Burt would have never fallen for any of my traps unless I used Steele. Killing Sister Lucy, her horrendous mate, and one of her pups was just a bonus for me. And that dimwitted brother of your mistress should be burning up with my sister right now, so, everyone wins!”

“Jenna is not my mistress…” Balto growled quietly, hunching down once more.

“Oh, you prefer I call her something less polite?” he taunted from the safety of the shadows, “And you better keep you’re cool little pup. I’m in control here.”

“How so? Seems like an even one-on-one to me.”

“Oh, now that’s rich! You thought I would come alone!? How very naïve of you Pup,” Hal sneered.

“Heh, I thought you just said you got rid of your help,” Balto replied coyly.

“Hey Balto, you okay?” he heard Star ask from beside him.

Balto gave a small smile, “See that, whatever-your-name is, I’ve got Star on my side.”

“The name’s Hal, Pup, and I think it might do you some good to remember that. But if I remember right… he and Kaltag were the ones who dog-napped your little mistress, while Nikki and I took care of some business.”

“And why would I believe some clown who’s killing his own family?”

“I may be a clown, but I am no fool, I assure you… But if you’re so sure, ask him yourself.”

Balto turned to where he guessed Star was. “It isn’t true, right Star?”

The answer he got was not immediate but it was giddy. “Heh, in my opinion Balto, you’re the clown in all this.”

“Now that they’re all out of the way, we can finally join in on the action!” Hal chirped.

The room suddenly went deathly silent, save for the unfitting circus music that was still singing merrily in the background. Balto felt completely vulnerable. His eyes still hadn’t been able to adjusted to the sudden absence of light and so it was as if he were blind. He staggered forward and he slammed his shoulder into the