Ah, my favorite song in the movie... I'm already back with Chapter 4! By now, Charlie has just been killed, and upon arriving in Heaven, he meets Annabelle, who he tricks by using his amazing voice and goes back to Earth with his life watch. I'm gonna rewrite it just a little, because I already did a one-shot about Charlie's short time in Heaven with this song. I'd love a few reviews, please!

Everything is black. Why is it so dark? Then a burst of colors nearly blinds Charlie, who flails his paws confusedly. Wind blows at his fur, flattening his ears, and before he knew it, he'd smashed into something really hard, and the sound of breaking glass reached his ears. He lay upside-down against a shining golden gate, for whatever reason. Frightened, Charlie kicked his legs out, trying to steady himself.

"Huh-? W-w-where am I?" he stumbled over the words, looking around with confusion written all over his face. Suddenly a blue light appeared next to him, and when Charlie looked over, a pretty pink whippet with a large ponytail-like thing was floating next to him. "This is the Great Hall of Judgement," she filled him in. Panic seized Charlie; he kicked out and found himself floating by the strange dog. "Judgement?!"

She simply waved a tiny paw. "Oh, not to worry, Charlie. You'll go to Heaven." Charlie tilted his head, looking down at his paws and seeing that he was, indeed, levitating. "All dogs go to Heaven, because unlike people, dogs are naturally good, and loyal, and kind," she explained, picking up a diamond and tossing it into the air. "Huh- hey, that's true," Charlie answered, following her as she flew away. He was greeted by a walkway of shapes and colors, with pink clouds everywhere.

"Welcome to doing whatever you wish!" she sang, watching him investigate the area. Charlie grinned, the red banded watch around his neck forgotten completely. "Ah... this is really a... lovely place you've got here!"

The whippet herself had a purple strapped locket, with a pink heart on it. "Eating whenever you please," she singsonged, continuing, "follow me- to a constant different climate, we keep it 73 degrees- we still have Fahrenheit here." Charlie looked down below the floating rug-walkway, and a huge lion, and three lambs, were resting on a fluffy pink cloud. "That's fine with me!"

"Welcome to no more Rat Race!" Charlie just followed, pleased, and let his tongue hang out happily. "Oh boy!"

"To order and calm instead-"

"Ah, great, great."

He followed her to her silver desktop, where a book was laying. It looked endless, as thick as a cake. She spun on her stool. "Welcome... to being dead."

Charlie was startled."What?! You mean I'm... I'm...!"

"Stone cold, I'm afraid."

Suddenly Charlie understood what was going on. "I can't believe it!" he shouted, floating upside down in the air with an angry expression. "I've been murdered!" The other dog, apparently named Annabelle, by the locket around her neck, flipped through the pages of her book. Charlie recognized himself on the pages. He rolled over and sat upright, his front paws on the table. "I've having trouble finding any goodness or loyalty here, but let me see..." Annabelle said.

"He killed me!" Charlie growled, staring right at her. "I beg your pardon?" she said, with her calm voice still presently annoying Charlie. He had to get back to Earth! He wasn't gonna let Carface get away with killing him!!

"There's a mistake been made here!" he yelled. He looked down at the page. On it was a young version of himself, a puppy, with ripped up papers in his mouth, and on the other page was his parents, Burt and Loni.

"I don't wanna die!" he kind of sang, gasping when a small golden dish appeared beside him. "You've got the wrong guy!" A fox angel gripped his paw and dabbed it into the pink sparkles inside the container, and Charlie wrenched it away, tucking it under his belly. "I was double-crossed by a dirty rat-" a few small angels pushed him into the air. "Actually this rat was a dog, but his car ran me down-" They stuffed a brown gown over his head, pulling his arms into the sleeves. "I just blew outta jail, I just got back to town- hey! This is hard to explain!" He noticed the wings now behind him, and Annabelle floated up to speak to him. "Can I speak to your superior? 'Cause I DON'TWANNADIE!"

"Welcome to doing whatever you wish," she repeated, motioning for an angel to place a halo over Charlie's head. "You've got the wrong guy!" he also repeated, growing frustrated. She paid no mind to his protesting. "Laughing and singing all day-!"

Charlie snarled to himself, ripping the wings off him and trying to struggle out the the cloak. "Hey! Listen! My time's not up yet!"

"Oh, it is. There's no mistake about that. We know everything." She disappeared into her blue glow, and with the gown-thingy around his head, Charlie was carried up into different, golden clouds. "Murdered in the prime of my life!" he shouted, clenching his fists. "Damn that Carface, I'll kill 'im!" Then he stopped ranting to see lots and lots of watches surrounding them. "Hey... this must be the watch department, huh?"

Annabelle was now in front of him, her glow fading away as she spoke. "Well, you might call it that. You see, this watch is your life..." A shiny golden watch with a blue strap lowered until it was in front of Charlie's face. "And it stopped." The shepherd looked to the side, pleading silently. "Well... can't ya just wind it up or something?" he asked quietly, tilting his head hopefully.

Annabelle looked startled. "And send you back? Oh, no no no no, no-one's ever allowed to go back!" Charlie threw the brown cloak downward after it was off of him. The halo was also gone.

The pink whippet tried to hand Charlie another thick book with a blank page. "Just put your paw right here..." He narrowed his eyes. "Wha'sat for?" he asked. "For a Book of Records. You see, everything about you that was, or will be, is right here." She shoved it into his paws. He had tilted his head upward, and gripped the watch silently, hoping she wouldn't notice, but she did. "Oh, isn't that wonderful." She pulled it out of his grasp. "I love it here." Charlie pushed the book aside, and it floated away. "You mean there's no surprises or anything?"

Annabelle was sitting on a cloud several feet away, up in the air. "Oh, no no no... we know everything."

Charlie put on a sly grin, getting an idea. "Oh, that's just lovely." He jumped over the short cloud staircase (of, like, 3 steps) and landed softly. "The clouds, the grass, the air." Charlie said that part sarcastically.

"Heaven is a wonderful place," Annabelle said, looking over at Charlie as he jumped again onto a small cloud. "Yeah... no surprises, huh?" As his cloud began to drift up towards hers, he decided to put his plan into motion. "Say... would you like to dance?" He offered her his paw, and the two pink clouds merged to create a bigger one. She took it and let him lift her a little off the ground. He placed one paw on her back, supporting her, and the other held her tiny paw. "You mean if I'm waiting for an inside straight up here, I'd know in advance whether I filled it?" he asked, putting on a flirty smile and slowly moving around the cloud.

"We know how it all turns out," she replied, closing her eyes. Charlie looked into her eyes before they closed. Ah... is that so?

"You must've studied dancing... you have natural rhythm... unusual for a whippet." Then he began to spin in circles, putting her down gently and holding on to her paw, and holding his other one out. Annabelle put a paw to her forehead. "Oh! I'm getting dizzy!"

Charlie halted and caught her as she fell into him, lifting her again and gently swaying back and forth. Her head draped over his arm, her eyes closed, and she had a smile on her face. "Everything is so lovely here... so planned, so ordered..." he leaned down, still supporting her back. He said through clenched teeth, "-and that's what's driving me crazy!" Then he noticed his watch floating by, and bent his legs a little to leap after it.

"I need... Brazil. The throb, the thrill!" He began to sing, internally celebrating that she hadn't realized what he was doing. "I've never been there, but someday I will," he closed his fingers around the watch, raising his paw to wind it-

"Adventure and danger-" it was grabbed away from him by Annabelle, and he remembered that he'd just kinda dropped her by the cloud when he leapt.

"Love from a stranger... let... me be... surprised!"

He hopped off the edge of a cliffside, falling with his belly upward. He snatched the watch out of the air and he and Annabelle both fell. "La-de-da-da-da- bom-bom-bom-"

Startled to see that she was right in front of him, Charlie lost his grip when she pulled, crashing into a pile of watches. Annabelle flew away as he slowly got up. "Today there's sun, they said there'd be snow..." he jumped in front of her to distract her. His watch was in her paws. "When all's said and done, it's fun not to know-!" Using the red-banded watch he'd had on Earth, he gently placed it around her neck and pulled her close as she dropped his blue watch.

"What keeps my heart humming, is guessing what's coming. Let me be surprised!" He plopped down to wind the watch, but tossed it behind his back when a waterfall of sorts came up.

"Oh... ain't it great..." he sang as he landed on the other side. She landed next to him, somewhat singing with him, but using "la-la-lalala-la-la" to replace the silence. Shooting stars flew across the night sky. "When fate... makes you wait."

Annabelle turned back towards Charlie, who, now beginning to get a little impatient, put a paw on her cheek to distract her. He tossed his watch into his other paw, still behind his back. "The world seems mirthless, and you feel worthless..." he put on a sad face, but changed it to a happy one again. "And suddenly, there's a big bone on your plate!" He directed her attention to the side, allowing him to jump through the clouds, floating in the dark blue sky.

He heard her singing as she followed him, "Oh, Charlie, please remember, down there's a world of used cars, and singles bars... broken dreams, and out of reach stars..."

"But it isn't over... not for this rover!"

Charlie felt a bit amazed by the beauty of the moon in front of them, but kept singing so his plan would work, quickly putting the watch behind his back again. "I don't like to steal... ha-ha-! But I... don't buy this deal!" Annabelle continued singing her "la-la-la-la's," but by now Charlie was floating with his belly up again, as if he was lying on his back. "In 'bout three seconds, she... will've realized..."

Annabelle finally caught up with him, and he jumped, spooked, and laughed nervously, pulling the watch closer to his fur. "Annnnd, she's gonna be-" Charlie held the watch in one paw while the other began to wind it. Noticing his attention was behind him, she asked, "Charlie, what're you doing?" Grinning at her, he tried to keep her attention away from what was behind him. "Wait'll you see-!"

The heavenly angel grabbed at the fur on his chest, pulling it to get a better look. Her face was suspicious. "What's that you have behind your back?"

"She's gonna be-" Annabelle gasped, and Charlie smiled slyly. "Charlie, don't wind that watch!"

She grabbed at his sides, but he kept shifting so she couldn't grab his watch. "Surprised!" He held that note for a while until he shoved his back foot into her belly, detaching him from her. "CHARLIE!" she screamed, but it was too late; by now he'd finished winding it, and he felt it begin to shake in his paw. Confused, Charlie looked down to see, but he didn't actually see the watch before he was rocketing through the tunnel of colors again.

"You can never come back..."

The next thing Charlie knew, he was deep, deep underwater. Panicked, he struggled upward until he resurfaced, grabbing the dock he'd been killed on to get out of the water. He coughed violently, and he barely noticed a skinny street cat wailing in fear as it sprinted off. He pulled himself up, gripping his throat desperately while he tried to breathe. He looked down, and his watch was pouring water.

Terrified, Charlie grabbed it and slammed it into the dock twice before he collapsed onto his belly, struggling to breathe.

It opened and began to tick. Color flooded back into Charlie's body, and he wheezed, eyes huge. He wheezed a few more times, sitting up when he could finally breathe again. "I'm alive!" he murmured, a big smile brightening his face. But the watch began to speak, and Annabelle's voice echoed in Charlie's ears.

"Charlie... you can never come back! You can never come-"

Unwilling to listen to her, Charlie shut the watch, glaring at the sky as thunder crashed overhead. He laughed quietly, standing up, but he winced when a sharp ache passed through his front leg. "Oh..."

Whimpering a bit, Charlie began to limp away as the rain started to fall. He had to go see Itchy.


Whimpers and whines came from a little room inside an old junkyard house, where Itchy lived and was sleeping. Not peacefully, needless to add.

More whimpering. "Hmmmm... Charlie-! (whimper)..."

Charlie himself was slowly approaching, kneeling over his friend. "Yyyyy- ah! Look out! Charlie, no! Nnnn-"

Charlie grabbed Itchy's shoulders and began to shake him, but Itchy moaned/screamed. "Aahhhh!!"

Itchy sounded like he was half-crying, and half-laughing, because he was imagining Carface choking him instead... wait, Carface was talking with Charlie's voice...?

"Itchy, it's ok!" Charlie said with a chuckle. "It's ok, little buddy! It's me, Charlie!" Itchy's eyes went wide open, and he but his paws on Charlie's arms. "Oh, Charlie! Charlie, it's you! But I saw- Carface! And he was- chokin' me! He was- grabbin' my neck, and I said-... oh! Hi, Charlie!"

Charlie laughed. "Haha. Hi."

What he didn't expect, though, was for Itchy to scream. And I mean scream. "AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Charlie, shocked, jumped back, but then he grabbed his horrified friend and tried to restrain him by wrapping his arms around the smaller dog. "Itchy! Shhh!" he whispered, struggling to keep a hold on him.

"Aghhhh! Charlie! You're a ghost! Stay back!!!"

Charlie finally lost his grip on Itchy when he twisted violently around, terrified and shocked beyond words. Itchy scrambled away, growling warningly, but, frustrated, Charlie glared at him, teeth bared, and jumped up after him. Itchy ran around the room to stay away from Charlie. "Hey!" Charlie whispered, but Itchy didn't pay attention in his fear.

He jumped up on a squishy purple mattress. "Don't hurt me! Here, take my nine-piece ratchet set!" He threw it at Charlie, and he flinched backward before trying to jump at Itchy again.

"Ooh, my oil can!" Itchy hurled it at Charlie again, who ducked just in time. "Don't go away without my Rolls-Royce hood ornament!!" Itchy said, hitting it over Charlie's head. "Ow!"

Having had enough, Charlie finally leapt at Itchy, but missed again, standing at the end of the mattress as Itchy clung to the top of it. "I'm not a ghost!!! I'm not dead!" Charlie whispered hoarsely, but Itchy's short legs kicked at him unsuccessfully. "Please, I've got a bad back! Uh, don't touch me!"

Charlie jumped up and grabbed Itchy's muzzle tightly with one paw. "Quiet!!! Itchy... I am not a ghost... I'm not dead! Now be quiet... I'm gonna take my hand... away from your mouth... and you're gonna be quiet, aren't ya?"

Itchy nodded, whimpering in a muffled manner. Charlie chuckled. "Hehe... that's my pal," he said, releasing his grip on Itchy's snout. He immediately screamed again, and Charlie, startled, grabbed him tighter than before. "Will you shut up?!"

"Itchy, I'm alive! Look, look-" Charlie grabbed Itchy's paw so he couldn't get away, but he used his own paw to dig into his own fur. "Uhhh- here! Here! Do ghosts have fleas?" Charlie demanded, holding one up to Itchy's face. "No! Ghosts don't have fleas!"

"Right."

The flea jumped into Itchy's fur, but he didn't notice because his friend was alive. "Charlie... Charlie, it's really you! Oh, Charlie- but I saw the car!"

Charlie took to sort of comforting Itchy. "I know... I know..."

"And your lifeless body... flyin' through the air! Oh, Charlie...!" Itchy started crying a little, but Charlie just patted his head. "Itchy, what can I say? Haha... it wasn't my time."

Charlie was startled again by Itchy leaping at him. "I'm so happy to see ya, Charlie! You don't know how much I missed ya!" He started blabbing unintelligibly, but Charlie, who'd been tackled onto the floor below, got up and grabbed his muzzle again. "Shut up! Do you want the whole world to know I'm back?!"

He put on a sly grin. "You thought I was dead, and so will Carface!" Then he got angry. "The dirty rat killed me-!" Then he hurriedly corrected himself. "Ah! Tried! Tried to kill me!" He let go of Itchy. "But I'm gonna make him pay!!"

Itchy immediately tried to convince him otherwise. "Oh, no, boss, we don't wanna do that-!"

Charlie had walked away a little. "Yeah, we do!" He sat down. "Listen, Itchy. I was always the brains of the outfit, wasn't I?"

"Yeah!"

Charlie laid down, putting his head on his paws. "Well, when I left... he shoulda gone under!"

Itchy did the same. "That's it, boss! We'll go under! Deep, deep under! They'll never find us!"

Charlie shook his head. "No, I don't wanna go under. The operation grew! It got bigger, and bigger... and now he doesn't wanna share!"

Itchy put both of his paws on Charlie's. "That's it, boss, we can share a nice little place in the Himalayas!" he pleaded, looking up at Charlie hopefully. Charlie stood up, facing away from Itchy, but then he laid back down. "Ah, I hate the Himalayas," Charlie said, but Itchy flopped himself over Charlie's side. "Wait a minute, they've got gambling, they got races-!"

"So what?"

Itchy shook Charlie a tiny bit. "Well, they've even got a town called Tibet. You know, to-bet? Haha..." Charlie made a little noise of reluctance. Itchy got off of him. "Listen, boss, we could nab us a few llamas, a couple a' mountain goats, and open a track of our own-!"

Charlie interrupted him. "Y'know, he's got somethin' up his sleeve..."

"Yeah, a gun-!"

"And when I find out what it is..." Charlie balled his fists. "I'm gonna ruin him! I'm gonna make him suffer! Slow... he'll be beggin' for mercy!"

Itchy became a little more persistent. "Well, I'm beggin', but I'm beggin' that we get outta here!" Charlie, spotting an empty can on the ground, grabbed it with both paws and rolled onto his back, smiling menacingly at it. "Listen, boss. Carface has got thugs... and they've got muscles, knives!"

Grunting, Charlie squeezed hard on the can until it crushed in. "And he's got a monster in his basement!"

Charlie's ears perked up instantly. "What?"

Itchy looked terrified. "Boss! They feed it!"

"Monster?"

"Yeah, monsters! I said monster-!"

"Monster?!" Curious, Charlie's face turned mischievous again. "Hahaha..."

He suddenly stood up abruptly. "We're gonna go find this monster. But first... we're gonna go get Snowflake..."


Hey, guys! Thanks for reading Chapter 4! Please review!