shoulder into the stiff back of the couch. He let out yelp, more out of surprise than hurt.

“Peek-a-boo, I see you,” Balto heard someone whisper in his ear.

He whipped around to find the dog, that is until a set of razor sharp claws slashed across his muzzle. Balto let out a loud yell and grabbed his mouth, already feeling blood trickling from his wound. He blinked quickly, and his vision was starting to come back, but only at an agonizingly slow rate. He stepped forward again, finding that he wasn’t alongside anything, completely out in the open. The music in the background suddenly grew in intensity, blaring out of the bell of the record player. Balto stood completely still, his eyes shut and his ears perked. They were barely audible, but he could hear steps coming towards him. Wait for it… He snapped his jaws and grabbed onto something soft. He threw the dog by the scruff of his neck and sent him sprawling to the ground.

“Ooh, hoo, hoo! Maybe I was wrong about you Pup! You‘re more intelligent than meets the eye!” Hal chimed in delightedly from somewhere behind him.

Balto smirked, “I guess you could say I’m a quick learner.”

“Indeed…” Hal whispered thoughtfully.

The hybrid turned towards the shadow clad Hal. The clown flashed a wide, toothy grin. He began laughing quietly, and in a much darker tone. This sent a chill tingling down Balto’s spine.

“Ladies and gentlemen… boys and girls… for his last performance here, or anywhere else… I proudly present Balto the Magnificent.”

The music abruptly ended, plunging the room into perfect silence. Balto took a few steps forward, before feeling a kick in his side and being sent roughly onto his back. A black shadow stepped overtop of him and laughed.

“All good things must come to an end, and sadly, this is yours,” Hal said, his voice cold and dark as sleet.

Hal put a paw on Balto’s throat and pushed down enough to make the hybrid gag and struggle. He took in a deep breath and smiled sweetly, lifting his paw from his throat just a little.

“I just realized, you’ll be the first wolf-dog that I’ve ripped the throat out of. You must feel honored.”

“Ecstatic,” Balto sarcastically replied.

“Ooh, very nice,” Hal giggled.

He hadn’t realized that he had let his guard down. Balto took his chance and kicked the clown off of him. Hal landed like a cat and smirked.

“You’re pretty clever My Boy… That’s it… I’ll let you duke it out with Star instead, and if you manage the simple task of beating him, then you’ve earned your life, and caught my interest.”

Hal twirled and sprinted out the door before anyone could stop him. Balto turned around when he heard the sound of heavy breathing. He could now see Star, dull-eyed and grinning…

~-~-

Kodi was thrown back to the ground, sending more snow into the air. A few seconds later, his brother was lying beside him. Haida stood up quickly and shook his head.

“Alright Kodi, you dragged me into this, so I won’t let us lose.”

Kodi closed his eyes as another blast of icy wind lashed against his face. He got to his feet much slower than his brother and looked at their opponents. Whatever had gotten into Kaltag and Nikki, he would never know. He had been standing outside when Kaltag had chased him away from the doctor’s home, and right into Nikki. It had only been pure luck that Haida had been on his porch and heard Kodi through the howling wind. 

“C’mon you’s. We don’t have all night to wait,” Nikki growled.

Haida smirked confidently as he crept back towards them. Kaltag laughed quietly and pointed at Haida.

“This kid thinks he can take us? That’s the most entertaining, the most comical, the most sidesplitting-”

Kaltag yelped as he felt a kick to his face. He fell back to the cold ground while Kodi quickly ran around and slammed a paw to his head, sending him into dreamland. Nikki jumped away from the fallen Kaltag and stared at both Kodi and Haida.

“And they say I’m cocky,” Haida chuckled. 

He saw Nikki crouched down and growling at him, completely forgetting about Kodi. Haida thought for a moment and smiled when he saw Kodi sneak right up beside Nikki.

“Hey Nikki, someone’s behind you,” he pointed to Kodi.

The chow scoffed, not turning his head. “Like you’s could trick me.”

“Apparently we can,” Haida smirked.

Now this caught Nikki’s attention. He turned around and saw Kodi a little too late. The husky hit him on the head, the same spot as he had for Kaltag to knock him out as well. Haida looked at him.

“Remind me never to tick you off. You don’t play nice,” he laughed.

Kodi rubbed the back of his neck and smiled, clearly embarrassed. “We better get these two home before they try anything else.”

~-~-

As soon as Hal had left the building he plowed into an unsuspecting dog. She was instantly thrown to the ground while Hal just barely managed to stay standing. He walked around the side of the stunned dog and stared into her face… His eyes widened in shock for the first time in a long time when he realized just whose face he was gazing into. She lifted her head slowly and looked back at him.

“You… You’re not supposed to be here.”

There was an ominous glow on the horizon that was visible even through the snow. The wind wasn’t just blowing snow, but soot and ash along with it as well. That’s when he knew for a fact that she was definitely in the wrong place. He smiled with as much self-control as he had as he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck with a paw.

“Excuse me, Sister Dear, but, didn’t I tell you that if anything went wrong with ‘Henry’ that you were to help him?”

Lilith gave a small, unafraid nod. Hal closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Then, if I may ask, what are you doing here, and not there?”

“The house caught on fire. I wasn’t going to risk my life for him…” she replied calmly.

Hal chuckled and shook his head sweetly. “So, you directly disobeyed me… Well then, I guess that-”

He paused. Something was very different about his sister. Her heart wasn’t thumping in her chest, and she wasn’t acting afraid… There was only one explanation. But how?… The image of her scratching at her collar flashed through his mind. He dropped her head to the ground and grinned a yellow, toothy grin.

“I underestimated you Sister. Heh, hiding the smell of your pills under your scent. Very clever.”

Lilith got to her feet and brushed the snow of her back. She stood nose to nose with her brother, her face showing no emotion.

“Guess it didn’t take that much to outwit you. You’re slipping…”

“Oh I’m slipping now am I?” he laughed amusedly.

He jammed all four of his sharpened claws into her back leg, grinning maliciously. She let out a yelp and her eyes watered as she bit her lip.

“Well it looks like my claws are slipping too,” he chortled as he dragged his claws at an agonizingly slow pace, watching her squirm and squeal. Hal put his muzzle to her ear and whispered. “I’ll give you five seconds…”

Lilith felt the claws retract from her flank and she glared into his twinkling eyes. She backed away little by little, still staring at him.

“Five…” he began to count down.

Lilith continued her pace and snorted at him.

“Four…” Hal crouched down, readying himself.

Lilith quickly turned around and began to sprint.

Hal waited just long enough to see her partially disappear in the blowing snow. “One…” he whispered.

He charged after her, taking long and joyous strides. She quickly came back into view, but what fun would it have been to take her down so quickly? Lilith looked back and could see her brother just a few feet behind her. She kicked up mounds of fluffy snow as she pushed herself harder, but no matter how fast she ran, he managed to stay right on her tail.

“Oh Sister Dear!” he called mockingly, “I just want to play!”

Her breath caught in her throat as her confidence suddenly vanished. Adrenaline dumped into her veins and her heart rate shot through the roof. Lilith ran faster and faster, her breaths coming out ragged and in puffs of steam. She stumbled as her back leg started to give out, just barely managing to recover. A lamp flickered as she hurried past with all her might. She saw the mouth of an alleyway, and she, thinking that it would be a great place to lose her brother, rushed down it. She slammed her paws into the ground and came to an immediate halt as her plan backfired, horribly. She was surrounded on three sides by tall buildings. It was a dead end, its name was going to be quite literal in time. Lilith turned around slowly to the sound of shallow breathing. Here in this three-walled entrapment, no wind blew. She could clearly see him, and he could clearly see her.

“Looks like the end of the line, Sister Dear,” Hal sneered.

She gulped quietly as he closed the gap between them. Hal hummed merrily as his head bobbed back and forth.

“You look just like Lucy did before I snapped her pretty little neck. How delightful.”

“You lied… Y-You said you’d never hurt us,” she stuttered.

Hal smirked. “No I didn’t… Nikki