After that unexpected situation, Bogo arrived finally at the mansion of his former instructor. A very decent abode with his brown grand bricks and the statues of polar bear heads. They may have been only stone, but with the black of night and the strong gust of chill, it was enough to chill any polar bear no matter how far they were from cubhood. Bogo brought out a mini torch from his coat and shone it on the pathway up the house. He followed it, careful not to slip for the path was made of patio slabs which led all the way up to the door, made from a strong wood painted well in black and in the middle, like the polar bear busts, there was the face of a polar bear as a shape for the golden door knocker.

The buffalo rummaged through his pocket until he felt his keyring. He brought it out from his pocket and put into the keyhole when he noticed something about the golden door knocker; the fog seemed to have made its way into his head or eyes because the object was seemed to be staring at him. Bogo peered closer and was in surprise to see, not the knocker, but the face of a polar bear, the very face of Instructor Isaiah Larvix, staring right at the buffalo, like a tiger eying its prey. For some reason it was wearing a rusty, iron muzzle and the bear's eyes glowed a strong white, like distant car lights in the night.

"Bogo," it growled, its tone echoey and ghostly.

Bogo stepped back, not taking its eyes from it. He reached out for his pepper spray and shot it at the face which roared at him, making him fall on his back and sliding all the way back up the gate. When he got back up, the knocker was restored to its real golden state. The buffalo made his way back to the door, but cautiously, for he thought the hallucination of that hearse was only the beginning. He peered closely at the knocker – and to reinforce safety, he brandished his pistol and pointed it at the object, but it did not stir. It remained simply as it was.

"Bloody kids," he grumbled. "I'll catch them and arrest them tomorrow. Christmas Day or not!"

Bogo entered the house and locked the door. It was dark but he immediately switched the lights on. However, the power immediately cut. At this, Bogo searched again for his torch grumbling about electrics causing issues. He found it and switched it on; it was not powerful, but it was enough to shine through any darkness. He would just make up some fire and cook up some leftover beef since the electrics were gone.

Shining his torch through the hallway, he made for the kitchen when his eyes fell upon a big portrait of Larvix. Very stern-looking as was the custom on all of his pictures, yet the eyes, the eyes alone, they were somehow staring down at Bogo.

"What are you looking at?" Bogo quaked as he moved away. "I'm just seeing things, like those moving portraits from Harry Otter. AGH!"

The kitchen was displayed by a silhouette of a bear. Bogo grabbed his pistol and set it off. The bullet zoomed through the glass of the window and at which point, the electrical appliances lit up with lights and numbers.

Bogo quickly switched the light on; he looked at the floor and there was nothing lying down. Nothing except for shards of glass from the window.

"Wilde has spiked my coffee," he quickly improvised, but breathing heavily. "Yes, that's what it is. I will have him working tomorrow until four-thirty now."

Bogo angrily threw open his fridge, seized the plate of beef, pulled off the foiling and placed it into the microwave. As it whirred he sat calmy at his chair on the table trying to take in everything. He wrote down the events in order in his notebook. This all seemed like a new case:

1. Ghostly Hearse, No Driver: Carrying the Already Departed

2. Door Knocker with Larvix's Face

3. Larvix's Portrait Staring at Me

4. Bear Silhouette

As he wrote the final clue, he heard some low signing outside the kitchen. He rushed out and shouted "FREEZE!", pointing his pistol where the intruders were. The intruders were a quarter of ghostly priests, all polar bears themselves, singing an eerie requiem as they carried a coffin on each side front and bottom, floating up the stairs.

Bogo was too stunned to react. He stood there, still in position of pointing his pistil when a loud beeping from the kitchen erupted. He charged in and shouted "FREEZE!" again, but the beeping was only the alarm of the microwave.

Bogo sighed and removed the contents from the machine. He placed it on the table and wrote into the notebook, Four Priests Ghosts and a Coffin.

"Down some Buckweisers," he said to himself as he got up and grabbed an unopened box from his refrigerator. "Drink these hallucinations away. If they are hallucinations."

He walked back into the corridor, ignoring the portrait, and switched the light on. The whole area immediately faded into black as a groaning declaring of "Bogo," echoed through the house. To which, the light restored itself.

"Humbug still!" snapped Bogo. "Bullsh – I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT!"

His voice echoed through the house and it seemingly shook out all the ways going on. He nodded satisfactorily, returned to the kitchen, picked up his pate and box and made for the upper story. As he did so, he felt an odd sort of weight around him and weird clanking of chains, though he could see none. He panicked and looked about him, but nothing or no one was in sight. He sighed in relief and walked into the open door of his bedroom, a big room with shelves of trophies, and a television in the centre of the room where he could watch it from his big bed, very cosy at that. But yet, he only bought it so to encourage himself not to lay in, as Instru – he decided to keep him out of his mind for the rest of the night. As he switched the light on, he felt a cold draft blow behind him. Whipped round and slammed the door shut and bolted it. Then he walked over to the remote, picked it up, switched on the television and sat down to eat and drink.

Bogo sat on his chair in his bedroom watching some TV show about arresting adolescents. His favourite show of all, for young people these days seemed to be the cause of all delinquency at this day and. He found a little too difficult take the show seriously as he had already drunk half of his fifth bottle of Buckweiser. He watched on as the cops were arresting a teenage polar bear, chaining him and muzzling him.

"Excellent," said Bogo to the TV police in disorientation. "Muzzle him and give him the right to remain silent night ..."

He forgot what he said on the last part. He got up from his chair feeling dazed. He collapsed onto his bed looking at his trophies. His mind seemed to go all over the place, because he thought he saw Larvix's face reflected on them. He closed his eyes tight and opened them again; the reflection was gone.

He picked looked at his half-empty bottle.

"To think I *Hic!* to think I trusted you," he snarled at the bottle before chugging it at the side. The ground was matted out, so it did not smash. He looked over at an old frame of Larvix on the wall and blue mist began to make the shape of a muzzle over his snout and over his body, chains.

Bogo's eyes widened as he turned his eyes to the television as the incarcerated polar bear was being muzzled and chained – and wearing the very suit this polar bear in his life had. Bogo reached for the remote and switched the TV off.

"Humbug!" he snapped. "Too much TV. Why am I the kid being scolded for it?"

Unexpectedly, his cell phone on the bedside began to ring. Most likely Officer Wilde gathering enough courage to confront him. He reached to grab it, peered at it and to read Caller: Instructor Larvix. The buffalo immediately switched the phone off and placed it in the drawer on his bedside and locked it.

"Humbug! Double Humbug!" he said, though with tensity.

The next thing to torture his night were all the phones in the house. In this very room, the next room, the room up above and at the ground floor, every phone rang their leads off for a very seemingly long time as though they would not rest until answered – until, finally after seemingly five minutes, they all stopped in sudden silence.

Bogo got up from his bed and back to his chair. He picked up a new Buckweiser, opened it and was about to take a swig when -

Clank! Rattle! Screech! Jingle! Clash! Clank!

The sound of heavy, rusty chains from the hallway ascended their way up the stairs and close to the bedroom, getting closer and closer. As this occurred the lights, just like last time, suddenly switched off as did his lamp.

Bogo got up from his chair and brandished another pistol from his cupboard, aiming it at the door. Bogo stood ready but was disturbed to see his door bolt unbolting itself, pale blue mist flowing in through the crack of the closed door.

"I'M ARMED!" he shouted. "I'M WARNING YOU!"

The door opened and he fired - nothing. Blue fog floated into his bedroom followed by a low growl coming from a floating polar bear, a ghostly polar bear, white in fur but in a dark blue suit, strongly muzzled and heavily binded in chains, paw-cuffed and foot-cuffed, even neck-cuffed with case books connected on each lining from his waist downward, surrounding every side making it look like a skirt. The very polar bear on the door knocker.

"State your name!" demanded Bogo. "I'm chief of Zootopia Police Department and will have you for breaking and entering! What do you want?"

"Much," replied the ghost seriously.

"Who are you?"

"Only you would have identified me, Fernando Bogo," replied the ghost. "Ask me who I was."

"Sensitive to words," remarked Bogo. "Have it your way; who were you?"

"In life, I was your law instructor, Isaiah Larvix."

Bogo looked at the portrait of the same figure and compared it to the figure who stood there motionless.

"Poppycock!" snapped the buffalo as he sat back down picking up another bottle and opening it. "You've been dead for seven years!"

"You're speaking to me," said the ghost as he advanced, the door closing without him using his paws and taking a seat opposite Bogo. "Why do you speak to me if you don't believe in me?"

Bogo considered this for a moment.

"Out with it!" ordered the ghost. "Why do you doubt your senses?"

"Logic," said Bogo simply, holding the bottle. "Hallucinations can be affected by the littlest thing. Something ate most likely. You're probably the result of an undigested scrap of beef. Perhaps an out-of-date doughnut or strong coffee. I've had a binge on these Buckweisers I might add. Perhaps too *Hic!* carelessly. But then even kids can see the likes of you from their own beverages. More caffeine in Coca Polar than a polar in you – whatever you are."

At this, Bogo was about to swig another bottle when the polar bear rose up the air and roared ferociously and aggressively, shaking and rattling its chains frantically.

"I'M SORRY!" cried Bogo dropping his bottle in all the disturbance. "PLEASE STOP!"

"Now, are you convinced?" asked the ghost floating back down to Bogo's level.

"Definitely," said the buffalo. "Buckweiser?" he offered with an awkward grin.

The ghost swiped it off his hand and chucked it among the trophies.

"I achieved them thanks to you," said Bogo, crossly.

"I didn't come her for a reunion party!" Larvix snapped. "Would I ever come to one like this?"

"So then why do you come in the first place?" said Bogo with respect and tensity. "Why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to me?"

The spirit rose up again as it responded to Bogo's question:

"It is required of every animal that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen and travel far and wide. And if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world and witness what it cannot share but might have shared on Earth and turn to happiness!"

Bogo looked at him in puzzlement. At this the ghost growled in frustration and translated:

"Animals are put on Earth to help others and if they refuse to do so, they shall be punished in the afterlife!"

Upon this, Bogo then eyed upon the chains and muzzle on the ghost.

"Is this why are you like this?" he asked curiously. "Why are you wearing all of this metal junk? Who bound you in all these chains?"

"I bound myselfin these chains and muzzle," the ghost explained mournfully. "What you see are the muzzle and chains I forged in life. Link by link! Yard by yard! Nothing will ever free me from them."

"But why?" asked Bogo. "You were a good instructor. I remember you stating that I was your top student and I would go far. Look where I've come, those trophies you Buckweiser stained. And that frame of you and me in my youth. It was just before I became chief, all thanks to you."

"And it's all thanks to me that you are destined to share my penalty!" said the ghost. "I trust you recently felt the weight and length of the chain you bear yourself."

Bogo recalled the weigh on him and the sound of chains as he walked up the stairs previously.

"It was as full and heavy as this one seven Christmas Eves ago," informed the ghost. "Ever since then, you have been improving its size every Christmastime. It's a ponderous chain!"

Bogo began to shudder. He wanted to swig form his bottle but had not strength for it.

"Speak comfort to me, Instructor," he said weakly. "Please."

"I have none to give," he returned. "When I was alive, all I did was prejudice predators, arrested them, took them from their families, neglected important laws for lower priorities, priorities bigger that took young lives and taking families away from family time, especially this time what Christmas should be about, something I should have realised. Now endless journeys lie before me, to make up for all these misused opportunities to do good and protect those who needed it." He opened one of his case books, showed it to Bogo and flicked through the pages. "All cases I could have solved but chose not to. Cases that should have been my business, all bound upon me! Oh, woe is me! Captive, bound and double-ironed!"

"Cases can't all be handled at once, Instructor," said Bogo brightly. "You handled your business well."

"Business!" whipped the ghost rising up again and wailing. "The Animal Kingdom was my business! The welfare of Zootopia was my business, safety, trust, loyalty, charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business - as it should be yours, while still alive," said Larvix. "I was ignorant of it all until my death. Look at me know! Binded and muzzled forever! Never a day of happiness in the afterlife. The Lord shutting us souls out of his paradise forever! All these years I sat beside you many, many a die trying to reach you! Especially this afternoon, when you were praising me for things I should not be praised for! Especially at this time of year when I suffer most!"

Bogo stared.

"Seven years dead and now you appear?"

"As I have been granted to speak to you in person," said Larvix. "Everything I taught you was wrong. Wrong! everything did the right to quit. But I appear before my top student to warn him."

"That you have," gulped Bogo. "That I'm growing chains."

"Another warning also!" announced the ghost, pointing at Bogo. "LISTEN WELL! I appear before you tonight to inform you, Fernando Bogo, that you still have time! Time to repent! Time to reform! Time to rectify! Time to redeem yourself. You still have time to escape my fate, a chanceto escape my fate. A chance I have organised for your own sake."

Bogo was unsure of all this, but he smiled rather weakly.

"You were always a good instructor to me. Thank you."

"I have found you the perfect chance for you to mend your ways and be diplomatic to your recruits."

"I'm listening," said Bogo, rather disturbed by everything he said so far. "What might this chance be, Instructor Larvix?"

The spirit lowered himself back down to Bogo's level.

"I have arranged you a visit of three spirits."

Bogo's grateful smile was replaced with a chilled expression.

"Is this the chance and hope you meant?"

"The chance and hope I meant," replied the ghost.

"One was enough," said Bogo. "I appreciate your thought, but you've shaken me already with all these chains and muzzle stories."

"Without their visits," said Larvix seriously floating closer to his former student to emphasise how important his words were, "you will have no hope to escape what awaits you."

Bogo nodded respectfully.

The ghost floated up to the clock up above the television and pointed at it.

"Expect the first spirit, when the bell tolls one! The second shall appear at two and the third will appear at three on the dot!"

"Why can't I have them all at once?" Bogo inquired. "What are they going to do with me?"

"They will take you on a journey to your Christmas past, Christmas present and your possible Christmas future," Larvix explained as he floated towards the window slowly opening as the ghost ascended closer. He turned to Bogo and announced, "Listen to them! Learn from them! Heed everything that they show you! If you are faithful to everything they say and teach you, you will avoid ending up like me and change your ways. Good luck, Fernando Bogo."

At this the ghost floated out of the window, Bogo following. As he reached the window, he was shocked to discover before him, phantoms flying around the neighbourhood wailing and yelling in agony. All of them covered in chains and tightly muzzled. Bogo could recognise two animals he had known in his life: an elephant and a horse, both tightly muzzled and chained form head to foot, wailing and lamenting. He also noticed a few familiar characters he had learned from his History lessons at school, a king in a blue robe bound in chains with heavy money bag weighing him down and he was handcuffed with one hand close to his mouth from which he sucked his thumb wailing "Mummy!", a snake in red, feathered cap and cape was also weighed down by a huge money sack and could not float about and a fat wolf in a read uniform, red had with a pink feather could not float using his hands he was tied head to foot in chains and had no hope of freedom. Yet these three mentioned joined in the yelling and wailing in heavy chains and muzzle along with many other animals such as beavers, tigers, monkeys, bears, elephants, all the animals of the world, lamenting the everlasting fate of wandering the world forever in chains and muzzles for the misdeeds they had all committed in life, just like Instructor Isaiah Larvix who joined in the moaning and wailing with the unfortunate souls, evil or greedy when alive. They had all aimed to seek good deed for those in need of it but had lost the power forever.

Bogo shut the window, still shaken with everything that has happened. As he looked out, the spirts had all vanished. The lights witched back on and the TV resumed itself. As for the door, it was shut and botltes again.

"Take me on a journey," grumbled Bogo. "Took me on a trip! Hm!"

Bogo lay back on the bed and reached for his Buckweiser bottle. He finished it off as the TV switched to an advert to do with some orphanage. Bogo almost made out a little buffalo calf but before he could try to make it out, he passed out.