down the stairs with a twelve-gauge shotgun in hand.

            “You! You!” She shrieked. “You killed my family so I’m going to kill you!!”

            She loaded the gun and pointed it square at his head.

            Balto was then down the steps and was in the middle of the floor, not moving an inch.

            Nora started to yell again. “I never liked you! I never like your kind! And now I get to use this!”

            She pulled the trigger and a loud shot rang out through the small town. There was a howl of pain and then everything went silent.

            Balto howled out and then fell to the ground. He was still breathing, but in a state of unconsciousness, while the dream continued.

Balto then reappeared, but not as a physical form, almost like a phantom who couldn’t touch the ground. He was again back in the house. But it somehow looked different. Nora was sitting by the fireside, still knitting a scarf like she had before. He looked at the painting that had been over the fireplace. He was shocked to see that it had been torn right down the middle where the picture of the husky was. Then, Nora got up from her chair and headed upstairs, and he of course he followed. Nora went to the room that Sally used to have been in and saw ripped wallpaper, stacked boxes, and a doll in a carriage.

            “Oh Sally.” she sighed. “I pray every day that you were still here with me… But I know that that will never be.”

            She went over to one box and opened it to reveal a wolf’s skull, all decorated.

            “But I promised myself that I would get revenge on the beasts that started this. Oh not just Cinnamon, but the wolves that started these blasted dogs. Man’s best friend, HA!”

            “So that’s who made that skull.” said Balto quietly.

She put the skull back in the box and put it on top of another stack of boxes. She then went down both flights of stairs to the basement with Balto floating behind her.

            It was littered with all of Cinnamon’s broken possessions. She had never cleaned it up as a grim reminder of that terrible day. She felt her way along the opposite wall until she hit the brick. It swung open, once again, to reveal three skeletons. Nora went inside and laid the scarf around the littlest skeleton.

            “Three years it has been. Three long, terrible years.”

            She rubbed her hand on the skeleton.

            “But now I must leave. After I finish my porridge, I’m leaving this place. It’s not because I hate it here, but the fact that I can’t afford it anymore.”

            “Mommy. Don’t go.” cried a faint voice from nowhere.

            “What. Is it? It can’t be. Sally?”

            “Yes mommy. Don’t leave us.”

            “But I have to! I can’t stay.”

            “Nora.” said a strong male voice. “You’re not leaving us again!”

            Then a creaking noise was heard. The door to the secret room slammed closed behind her which made both her and Balto jump. Nora then tried to open the door, but found that there was not switch, that it only opened one way. Balto watched as she desperately banged on the doors, yelling out “Help me.” which didn’t help at all. Somehow Balto knew that she would never be found.

            Balto gasped awake and found himself in a basement and a ray of light was shining through a roof and cracked floorboards, stating that it was the day later. He knew exactly where he was, right where they wanted him.

 Jenna yawned and stretched as she arose from her slumber. She had been sleeping by the fireplace where the fire had long since been out. Jenna walked by the front door and examined herself in the mirror besides it. She licked her teeth clean of any bit of food that might have stayed with her from last night’s meal. After her inspection was done, she pranced out the door into the frigid air.

            She walked towards the docks repeating the same address. “

. 188 Front Street

. …. Ahh, found it.”

            She walked up to the doggie-door of a house that was close to the ocean. Right before she knocked, a small dog covered in long black hair stepped out.

            “I saw that you were coming child!” she said.

            “How?” asked Jenna. “You have so much hair covering your eyes.”

            “Ahh, A smart-alecky one, I saw you coming through the spirits. They told me of your arrival, and, Ron said.”

            “So I see.” Jenna replied. “And your name would be?”

            “Oh! Oh! How rude of me, my name is Madame Millie!... Come, come in, I set everything up for you.”

            Jenna groaned. It was crazy enough that Balto was being ‘tormented by spirits’, now she had to talk to some ‘whack-job’ that could ‘talk to spirits’, which she was probably just a fraud. But, she reluctantly followed the small dog into her house.

            “Come here. Sit, sit, sit.” urged Millie.

            Millie led Jenna to a small table with a small, clear ball on a pedestal.

            “And I guess this is some kind of crystal ball?” asked Jenna sarcastically. She didn’t quite believe in the ‘Super-Natural’.

            “Yes it is!” Millie said back enthusiastically.

            “Let me guess. You’re also going to tell me what lies ahead in my future.”

            “Right again! You know, you could become a psychic too… But let’s get started…. Ohm… Ohm…”

            Millie put her paws around the ball and starting chanting things that made no sense. Then, the ball started to give out a luminous glow.

            “Wha, what’s happening?”

            “Hush child. I’m getting a vision…. I see, I see, I see!”

            “What!?” asked Jenna again, more anxiously.

            Jenna stared down at the crystal ball and saw nothing in it, just the shimmering lights. Millie could have been making up the whole thing though.

“I see a great torment and tragedy… I also see you losing the love of your life… because of a tormentor, or tormentors, which will force his decision… I also see, a, a, a husk of a hybrid that will end his life because of the tormentors… Unless something can be done, and fast.”

“But what could I do?” Jenna asked, nervously.

            “Well… I suggest you learn what you’re