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The hours dragged by and the horrid scent of death and blood inside of the shed was so thick that the only surviving occupants inside of it could swear that it was sticking to the inside of their noses.

Jenna, having been the most traumatized by the incident, had passed out where she was tied mere minutes in the wake of her son's suicide, but Balto remained conscious, if only just. He had not moved since Dingo's last breath had slowly squeezed itself from his lungs, and had hardly blinked. All he could do was stare at the lifeless body of his son, finding himself incapable of taking his eyes off of him regardless of how badly he may have wanted to.

Dingo lay there on the floor where he had fallen, pitched over onto his right side, surrounded by a pool of his blood, now sticky for it had nearly dried. His mouth was slightly agape. The tip of his tongue hung visibly between his teeth, and his eyes, half closed, were glazed over with a glassy white film. But despite the deathly appearance, Balto could almost detect resolve in the face of his son. The wound on his throat had ceased bleeding hours ago and was now closed by four large scabs. His right forepaw was folded beneath his body, his tail lay draped over his left hind leg, and his left ear, wolffish and keen in appearance, drooped limply over the top of his head.

Balto saw it all, every detail down to the ruffle of fur that stuck up on Dingo's left hip.

So intently he stared at Dingo that he did not hear the voices that drew near and nearer to the door.

"Mom?" a female voice called into the shed, but so distant was this voice that it failed to register in his ears.

"Mom you here?" the voice called again.

"Guess she's not home," a male voice inquired.

"Guess n- wait, do you smell that?" the female voice asked.

There was a pause, followed by a deep whiff and a snort.

"What the heck?" the male asked, obviously disgusted by the smell.

"Mom are you alright in there?" the female asked as the door began to swing open, thus releasing the full magnitude of the scent.

"Guh," she groaned, wrinkling her nose against the scent, and pushed her way inside.

"Mom, is- oh my god!" she screamed and turned quickly away from the door, for now she had seen the carnage that awaited her inside of the shed.

She shoved past her brother and began to vomit, causing her brother to become worried. He stepped forward and threw the door open the rest of the way, bathing the inside of the shed with the early evening sunlight.

"What the fuck!" he yelled in surprise, seeing the blood and the bodies.

Balto heard all of this, saw the light as it so suddenly blasted into his eyes, but he was so far away that it had no effect on his concentration.

"Mom, dad," the brother cried, rushing inside, "what the hell happened!"

Balto did not move as his son began to cut his bonds and made no effort to reply. He only lied there, refusing to take his eyes off of Dingo. The brother turned to Jenna to see if she was alright and found her to be coming to, so he left Balto lay for the moment and moved quickly to untie her, though being careful not to set his paws into the blood which was splashed all over the floor.

"Kodi?" she groaned weakly as he cut the ropes.

"Yes mom," he replied, "I'm here."

The last rope was cut and she fell to the floor, completely exhausted.

"What happened here?" Kodi asked her as calmly as he could.

"Dingo," she began, choking on a sob, "he-"

Kodi caught onto and understood the general gist of what happened, but the true story would remain a mystery to him for now, for he put first priorities first and laid his body down beside Jenna's then began to slide his muzzle under her foreleg.

"Alright," he said softly, helping her to her feet, "it's alright, it's over now."

Jenna was in far too much shock to offer any kind of argument, so she allowed herself to be led slowly out of the shed where they met up with the daughter.

"Saba," Kodi called, helping Jenna out the door.

The one named Saba lifted her head and quickly approached, though she could hardly stand to see her mother in the state she was in.

"Help her," Kodi said as he slowly laid Jenna on her stomach, "I have to go back and get dad."

Saba nodded and Kodi turned as she laid down beside Jenna and wrapped her body around her for comfort then began to slowly stroke the back of her neck.

"It's alright, mom," he heard her say softly, then heard Jenna sniffle, "it's alright."

Kodi re-entered the shed to find his father exactly as he had been when he first found them and began to approach him.

"It was all my fault," he muttered to himself as Kodi began to help him to his paws.

"No," Kodi replied, attempting to comfort him, "it wasn't."

As Balto was assisted to his paws, his eyes never left Dingo and he continued to mutter the same sentence over and over.

"It was all my fault."

Kodi ignored the muttering and supported Balto until they were outside and once they had made it to where Jenna lay, he gently deposited Balto onto the ground beside her.

"It was all my fault," Balto muttered.

"Can you keep an eye on them?" Kodi asked, his voice trembling as he battled against his emotions, "I'm gonna go find help."

Saba nodded.

"Hurry back," she replied in a tone only fitting to catastrophe, as she laid down before Balto and placed her nose against his, "hey papa, it's me," she continued on as Kodi left, "it's Saba, it's alright now. It's over."

"It was all my fault," Balto continued to mutter, though this scene slowly faded as Kodi put distance between himself and them.

Once he was around the corner and the gravity of the entire situation set upon him fully, he began to feel its true weight settle in upon him, something that he cared not to think about in the heat of the moment, but now that he was alone, he felt all of his emotions beginning to rush forward.

He felt tears beginning to sting his eyes and no matter how he fought them, they continued to fall.

"God dammit Dingo," he said coarsely, wiping his eyes, "why would you do this?"

He felt his stomach balling up into knots, almost like he wanted to throw up, and felt his body begin to tremble.

"God dammit," he muttered again.

He lifted his head and dried his eyes, only to find that he had an audience.

"Kodi, is something wrong?" Kirby, one of his teammates asked.

"Yeah man, what's eating you?" Dusty threw in.

Kodi only lifted his eyes to them and then lowered them again, brushing past them and continuing on his way, heading off down the streets toward the Old Mill where he hoped to find the town's alpha dog Doc.

"What's with him?" Ralph asked, turning his eyes between the other two.

Kirby and Dusty only shrugged.

"You know how he gets sometimes," Kirby replied, "I'm sure it's nothing."

They both nodded in agreement and went about their own business.

"... for the upcoming spring and-"

The old Saint Bernard was cut off when the door to the mill was pushed open and Kodi walked into the room.

Doc, the saint Bernard, and the two in his company, turned to Kodi.

"Excuse me son but this is a private meeting," Doc informed.

"There's been a murder," Kodi stated flatly, almost as though Doc had not spoken in the first place.

There was a brief silence and all attention focused upon Kodi.

"And how do you know this?" Doc asked under the glances of his colleagues.

"It was my family that was killed," he replied then walked out, not even pausing to see if they were gonna follow him.

Doc turned an inquisitive gaze between his two colleagues.

"It could be a prank," the one to his right said.

"No," Doc said to him, "pain like that young boy was in does not arise from anything but tragedy. We need to look into this immediately. Grab the police dogs and follow my scent to wherever the scene may be."

They nodded and filed out of the door, leaving Doc alone. For a moment he stood, trying to collect himself, then followed Kodi's steps out the door, finding that he had not gone but about twenty yards or so. Doc paused, sighed, and then walked hastily until he was at Kodi's side. Kodi knew of his arrival, but did not acknowledge it and only continued to walk, silent tears rolling down the side of his face.

Epilogue

The case was pretty well open and shut, but no eyewitness reports could be made until a whole week later, for nobody wanted to speak of it, not Kodi, not Saba, not Jenna, and especially not Balto. In fact, Balto hadn't said a word since the moment police arrived and hardly moved once he staggered his way home and laid down that night. He was anything but alive from that moment on, cast deep into a recession that not even he could pull himself out of. Sleep did not come easy to him, for his thoughts screamed loudly and incessantly into his ears, and when it did finally settle in upon him it was not welcomed, for nightmares that always ended the same played on a loop through his mind, making him constantly have to relive the death of his two sons over and over again. Nobody who tried could get through to him; nobody could get him to open his mouth and talk about that day, and this dragged long into the months, but Jenna, despite his recent seclusion from her and from the world, remained faithful to him, for she knew what it must have felt like for him to feel the way he did. Though he never told her in person, she knew that he felt as though he let her down and felt as though he let their children down, for despite his greatest efforts to protect them, it still wasn't enough to save them from the monster caged inside of them all.

Jenna, not wanting to experience anything like that fateful day those long months ago again, did not hesitate to sit every one of her remaining children down and speak to them about why everything happened the way that it did. By some she was greeted with anger, but the situation was controllable, and by others, she was greeted with sadness, while in the case of Kodi, he responded only with a sense of neutrality, almost as though he lacked the ability to feel anything at all, or he had already known.

Jenna cared not to ponder this, for she knew he could sort out his own problems, but her actions were quickly regretted when she went to his master's house later that month to find him gone, seemingly without a trace, but upon further investigation, they found carved into the floor of his shed, a message that only dogs could understand, for to the human eye it looked like random claw marks, but to those who understood what it meant, it was the key to the mystery of his disappearance.

"I can't hold him anymore, so I must leave before I hurt someone. Please don't come looking for me. It is what must be done. It is where I was meant to be, amongst my own kind. So long, Goodbye, and God bless."

No further incidents would arise after his disappearance and Nome eventually returned to normal. Balto, after five months of mourning, finally came to life once again, though he seemed changed, slightly disturbed even, but nothing bad ever came of it. Saba, Gunner, and Ali were able to cope with their inner demons and lived the rest of their lives as though they had no afflictions to speak of. All three of them became proud mothers and fathers, and made it a point to tell their pups of the wolf early in their lives when they were still young and easy to control.

Jenna died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 13, and finally Balto three years later, but their legacy remained long after their deaths, though tragically, like most stories of old, they were slowly forgotten, lost to the times, but if you travel a short distance outside of town, just beyond the totem pole, you can find their final resting places marked by mossy stones that tell separately the story that I tell to you now, of that fateful day in the winter of 1929.