ZOMG! IT'S TIME FOR ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHAPTERS EVER! (you know it must be good. I'm writing in Caps Lock)

Disclaimer: see last chapter

ONWARD TO CHAPTER EIGHT!

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Later that night...

Bark was preparing dinner, Nack was watching TV, and Bean was bored. The green duck was uninterested in helping Bark, and he could care less about whatever Nack was watching. Therefore, he was sitting on the edge of the bed in the room that he shared with Bark, staring absentmindedly at the bookshelf. Maybe he should try reading a book. There seemed to be some good ones on that shelf. Hm, 101 Ways to Treat Your Foot Fungus. No, the thought of foot fungus did not appeal to Bean.

Then there was Beasts of the World and the People They've Devoured, but that did not sound good to Bean either. There were books on gardening, but they said nothing about Emo grass, there were books about insects, but they said nothing about blowing up cockroaches, and their were joke books, but there were none that had jokes that would annoy Eliah.

Finally, Bean settled on a yellow book that vaguely resembled a phone book. Raising the Dead For Dummies was written across the front in bold, black letters. Totally ignoring the first three words of the title and only focusing on the fact that it said: For Dummies, Bean walked into the kitchen at sat down at the table. Bark, who was heating up the bucket of chicken legs that they had ordered at Kentucky Fried Chicken, eyed the book curious. "What are you reading?" He asked as he popped yet another chicken leg in the microwave.

"Something For Dummies." Bean said, opening up to the first page of the book.

"Right up your alley..." Bark mumbled, but Bean was so engrossed in the book that he did not notice. The microwave beeped, signally that the chicken was done heating up. Bark opened up the microwave and tossed the warm chicken leg into the now full bucket. "Hey Nack!" He hollered, "Dinner's ready!"

Muttering complaints about having his favorite show interrupted, Nack stormed into the kitchen and took a seat across from Bean. "What the hell are you reading?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"A book." Came Bean's simple response.

Nack rolled his eyes. "No duh..." He muttered. "What's it about?"

"Raising the dead." Bean answered, turning the page of the book.

"Like that's possible." Nack snorted skeptically. "You can't raise the dead."

Bark carefully set the bucket of steaming hot chicken legs down in the center of the table and took a seat next to Bean. "Put the book away, Bean. It'll get dirty."

After finishing the page he was reading, Bean carefully marked his spot and slid the book under his chair. "Bark, he asked as he took a leg from the bucket. "is it possible to raise the dead?"

"It don't know." Bark admitted while Nack sadly shook his head. "It might be."

They ate the rest of the meal in silence. Well, if you did not count Bean's loud chewing, Nack's complaints about the duck chewing with his mouth open, and the gurgling and sputtering sounds coming from the sink drain, which Bark suspected was broken.

Once they were done wolfing down the chicken legs, Bean and Nack had begun to have a contest to see who could toss the most bones into the bucket when Bark snatched the bone filled bucket and threw it in the garbage. "What the hell was that for?" Nack demanded, "I was winning!"

Bark shook his head. "We have a to see a bush about a voice remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Bean said as he climbed off his chair and snatched his book from off the ground.

Nack raised an eyebrow. "You ain't bringing that book are you?"

Bean shook his head as he carefully set the book down on the table on his way out of the kitchen. "Let's go!" He said as grabbed the door knob and jumped up and and down. "Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's-"

"Shut up, damn it!" Nack yelled as he walked into the living room followed closely by Bark, who was carrying a small trowel. Bean opened up the door and raced down the hall, down the flight of stairs, past the lobby, down the lower hallway, and out into the dark courtyard. Nack and Bark appeared a moment later, panting and gasping for breath.

Bean was about to say something when Bark covered his mouth with his hand. "Shh!" She hissed. Bean listened intently, trying to hear whatever Bark had heard. It was the sound of hushed voices conversing from somewhere in the darkness.

"No! I've already told you-"

"Come on, be a pal. You're the only one who-"

"Shh, not so loud. You wanna wake up the whole joint?" Bean recognized two of the voices as Shade Hunter's and Heather's, but who's' was the third?

"Look, leave me alone would you? You just don't understand."

"Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge."

"Listen, we can't do this without you."

"And I told you-"

Suddenly, Bark spoke. "Who's out there?" He asked.

"Ooh..." Heather purred as stepped out of the darkness and onto the dimly lit lawn, "it's the one with the nice fur."

"Why are you out here?" Bark asked.

"Just getting some air." Shade Hunter said as she appeared next to Heather. "What's it to you?"

"It sounded like you were scheming something."

"We're always scheming something," said Shade Hunter, "We're thieves."

Bark did not have an argument for that one. Just then, Natalie's voice rang out through the still night air. "But Eliah, we can't just do nothing. We must find out what's happened to her."

Before Eliah or anyone else had a chance to react, there came a second voice: tiny, plaintive, and so weird that it sent a shiver of fear through everyone. At first it moaned. Then it began to cry out in a strangled sort of way, "Let me out! Please...let...me...out...of...here...!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Bean's frightened cry seemed to make the very walls of the Chateau quiver and shake. As fast as they could, Bark, Bean, Nack, the hotel staff, and the guests hurried across the lawn, where they gathered in a hushed semicircle around the bush that the voice appeared to have been coming from.

Bark glanced to his left. Bean and Nack, their differences forgotten, were huddled together, their teeth rattling. Next to them were the thieves Shade Hunter and Heather who were looking a little more like amateur burglars who just got caught. To Bark's right, The Beaver was singing an inspirational tune in a trembling voice while Ferra whimpered and Snyder shivered.

"What do you think?" Bark whispered to Bean.

"I think there's someone in there," Bean said, gulping.

At that, the general level of rattling, whining, and shivering skyrocketed, and The Beaver burst out singing: "I will be brave. I will be strong. I will be right unless I am wrong." If that was some sort of beaver anthem, then it was pretty wishy-washy. No one bothered to comment, not even Nack. They were all to busy listening their own hearts thumping wildly in their chests.

"Let me out!" Called the voice beneath the ground.

"I don't know about you guys," Nack said, "but I think it's time for a little digging. Bark."

"Huh?"

"You're a good digger; I've seen you."

"Why is it that you only compliment me when you want something?" Bark asked.

Nack turned, a surprised look on his face. "That's not true. Just the other day I told you that I liked your eyes."

"Yes, but when I got up to look in the mirror, you took my spot on the couch."

"Would you two get on with it?" The voice in the ground snapped, "you sound like an old married couple."

Nack and Bark looked at each other. This was getting weirder by the minute. Bark sighed and maneuvered his way over to the bush. He bent down and buried the trowel in the ground. It did not take long for him to find something suspicious. Bones. Large, white, dry bones. The others, even Nack, gasped as Bark, with the help of Bean, laid them out in a line on the ground. Then Bean noticed something else. It was a bracelet with dirt smudged gold letters stamped into it. "M-A-N-D-Y." Bean yelled. "Mandy."

"But what does it mean?" Bark asked.

"This is incredible!" Natalie exclaimed, "We have a real paranormal experience on our hands. This is the real thing. Talking bones! Mandy!"

"But what does it mean?" Bark asked again.

"It was my name," the voice said sadly.

Bean was a couple feet away from Bark, but he could still feel the duck trembling as he whimpered, "I want to go home, Bark. I don't want to stay in a place where bones and bracelets talk."

"I'm not a talking bracelet," said the voice, "I am the spirit of Mandy. These are my bones. In life I was a ferret."

"Good heavens!" Natalie suddenly exclaimed.

"What is it?" Bark asked.

The black cat turned her anguished face to the polar bear. "Poor Mandy..." Natalie moaned. "I knew her well."

"You did?"

"She checked in my first day on the job," Natalie began. "She was supposed to stay here four seven days, but on the fourth day, she vanished! We all assumed that she had left in the middle of the night, but apparently..."

Nack nodded his head slowly. "Apparently she was met with foul play." He said.

"Fowl play?" Bean began, "Surely you don't mean..."

"Murder," Nack finished. Bean gulped.

"Murr-der," Mandy echoed eerily, "Murr-der."

Nack inched his way towards the talking bones. "But why?" He asked. "Why were you murdered?"

It took a moment before the voice spoke again. "Because...I stumbled upon...the truth..." A cold wind blew, and no one dared to speak. No that is, except for a pile of bones and a bracelet named Mandy. "Be warned. All of you must be warned. Leave this hotel before you discover...the secret of Chateau Royal!"

"But-" Bark began.

"Remember me... Remember me..." The voice interrupted, fading away into nothing.

"Wait!" Nack yelled. "What's the secret?"

But it was too late. The voice faded away into nothing. Suddenly, a raucous, ear-splitting scream ripped through the air. "Run!" Nack screamed, and everybody dashed into the hotel. Tripping, stumbling, and screaming, Bark, Bean, and Nack scampered up the stairway, closely followed by The Beaver and Shade Hunter and Heather, who were also staying on the top floor of Chateau Royal. Before Heather ducked into her hotel room, she whispered to Bark. "There's going to be a meeting tomorrow night after dark. Be there."

Before Bark could respond, she slammed her door shut, leaving Bark, Bean, and Nack alone in the hallway, but they quickly locked themselves in there too. But little did Bark, Bean, and Nack know that their night was far from over...

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OMG! My longest chapter yet! Review to see what happens to Bark, Bean, and Nack!