Well, Kat, Jennifer, Sky and Sherry had just rescued Friskie and Steffie and were now driving away from Schultz’ house and back to Jazzy’s house. Although Sherry just stayed in the car, she is still an important part of this rescue. “Wow, you three must be ghosts!” exclaimed Friskie, “No one could have done that otherwise.” “Yep, I say you are ghosts too, like mommy,” said Steffie with a big smile. “Are you really a ghost?” asked Kat.

“Yes, I am,” said Friskie, “though I can’t do the things you did. I can only go from place to place and locked doors don’t stop me. I can’t walk through a door, but even if it’s locked I can just open the door like normal. Oh, plus I can talk with someone, like I did with Steve tonight, without waking anyone. I was the first patient with a man called Dr. W. It was the leader of the Dog Dragons that killed me and Dr. W saw it happen and decided to try and help me. He got hold of my body somehow and brought me back to life, sort of anyway.

I’m just so glad that Steffie and I are back together again, I want to have some kind of normal life for us though right now I’m not sure what that means.” “By the way,” said Jennifer, “my name is Jennifer and I’m Steve’s wife, this is my twin sister Kat and that is Sky. Our driver is Sherry, however she’s not a ghost, but she is the best driver around.” “Naw,” said Sherry, “the best driver is Fluffy.” “Me Fluffy, me say thank you Sherry.”

Meanwhile, back with Schultz and his men. “We checked all the doors and windows boss,” said Ansel, “everything was locked as it should be. I just don’t see how they could get in here and not set off the alarm.” “Well, I did have the inside alarm turned off since we were walking around,” he said, “but the door and window alarms were still working, or should have been anyway. There was something strange about those 3 women, one of them killed the two men holding Friskie just by touching them! It makes no sense!

I want Friskie and that brat Steffie back here, they are my slaves! No one steals my property and gets away with it! And I want that house too! Start killing people until Jazzy sells her house to me. I want one of them dead each day, do you hear me?” “Yes boss, we got the message,” said Ansel, “I will get those Dog Dragons on it tomorrow.” “Perfect, then no one can pin the murders on me,” he said laughing, “it will just be considered a gang fight!”

Now back to us again. The girls have just arrived with our new guests. It was nearly 6am now so everyone was awake and some of the girls were getting breakfast ready for everyone. We had been warned ahead of time that Friskie and Steffie had no clothes, so the girls shared theirs and Jazzy had picked out a dress for Steffie from the caretaker’s daughter, though it was a bit big and dragged on the floor a bit. Steffie loved it though and had this huge smile as she came back into the living room with her mom.

Friskie brought her over to me and introduced us, then she put Steffie on my lap and we hugged each other. Then Snow and Jewel joined us too which got Steffie really excited. We talked for a bit and both Kat and Jennifer told Friskie that she and Steffie will be coming home with us and they can stay for as long as they like while Friskie figures out what she wants to do. “And, you are welcome to stay with us, period,” said Jennifer, “we can always use extra help around the chateau.”

After breakfast Sky took Jennifer and Kat back home. They arrived in time to see Misty and a group of the girls outside already having a race. “Misty is so far ahead of the other girls,” said Kat, “that’s absolutely amazing.” “I know it,” said Jennifer, “the same thing happened the other day too. I think I will give Misty the day off, she deserves it.” “Good idea,” said Kat, “and I will give the others some extra exercise time, they shouldn’t be that far behind Misty.”

What they didn’t know was that Misty was helping with breakfast and was in charge of making oatmeal. Josephine said to put a certain amount of salt in it and Misty thought that since pepper always goes good with salt, she added some of that too. A lot of pepper. The girls had to eat it though, Josephine and Nadia don’t tolerate complaints about the cooking. That’s what spurred the “race” outside after breakfast. Oh well. I guess Misty should stay out of the kitchen.

Meanwhile, back to us. I told Aari to start giving those Dog Dragons a rough time and let them know that being associated with Schultz is not a good idea, it can be bad for their health. So, after breakfast they went to the headquarters of the Dog Dragons where apparently they were still in bed. That didn’t stop the Black Wolves though, they just tossed some flares through the windows. Those Dragons sure woke up in a hurry and began to run outside, 20 of them altogether.

They stopped quickly when they saw the Black Wolves standing there. Aari told them bluntly that it would be much healthier for them if they stayed away from Mr. Schultz. Aari also made it clear that this was the only warning they will get. Then they got on their bikes and rode away. “They will pay for this,” said Klaus. “That’s more men then they had before,” said Bauer, “and they have even more men yet, they are a large gang. It might be better to leave them alone, they will soon go away and things will be back to normal again.”

“Maybe,” said Klaus, “but I don’t like to be pushed around.” “True, but Schultz doesn’t pay us enough to start a large gang war,” said Bauer, “maybe we should ask for more money if he wants us to fight those guys.” “Hmm, not a bad idea,” said Klaus, “it’s about time that wealthy rat gave us a bigger cut of the business.”

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.