Kristen is late. Suddenly, into the clearing lopes a friendly hound, followed closely by Kristen. Having been sent to pick up Elvis, she's brought him along to provide sound effects for tonight's tale. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls this story "The Tale of the Hungry Hounds."
One rainy day, Pam, in the attic, examines family memorabilia. Behind her, stands a figure in a white dress and eerily matching veil. Her urbanite cousin Amy pulls off the veil and scoffs at the idea of ghosts.
Behind them, a chest falls to the floor, spilling its contents. Amy finds a framed monochrome photo of a teenage girl who closely resembles Pam - her late Aunt Dora, who, with horse Mirage, suffered a fatal accident.
A squeaking sound draws Amy to a locked trunk, inscribed with the name Dora Pease, and the year 1963.
Pam’s mother Beth then summons them to feed the dog.
...
The two cousins wander a sunlit country lane. Amy laments the tranquillity. Pam leads her to a nearby field, where lives a horse. Pam produces a carrot, and smilingly coaxes over the horse, who happily chomps the carrot. She climbs the wooden fence, and prepares to mount the horse. From behind, Beth's recently arrived car loudly blares, startling the horse into rearing. Amy falls back onto the grass. Panicked, Beth chides Pam against going near such a powerful animal.
...
On the lawn picnic table, Pam from a stack of old board games, takes her mother's old Ouija Board note
Beneath their hands, across the letters, the dial moves, seemingly independently, to spell "let me out." The glass then spells the number 149.
As they return to the attic, Amy takes the chest's lock, dials the combination, and lifts the lid.
They kneel by the chest, and together, lift the lid. Amidst a rising waft of mist lie a riding helmet, red jacket, tweed trousers and boots.
Pam slips into the jacket. As she starts to button it, a strange mist rises around her. She looks into a nearby mirror. The mirror shows her hair to have fallen, and her face to wear a curiously knowing expression. Entranced, she walks towards the large, circular grilled window.
Before Pam, the grill swings open, to reveal an incongruous night sky.
Down the steps, Amy follows Pam to a forest, above which the attic door hangs fixed in open air.
Through a low, pale mist, Dora!Pam strides on. Amy follows... into a small woodland cemetery. Dora!Pam picks up something from the grave - a bone, left by Mon Petit Rouge, her adopted fox. The day of the hunt, Dora rose before dawn to feed him. Before the hounds were released, he ran away. On Mirage, Dora pursued the adopted fox - but the horse tripped and fell.
In a misty clearing stands an overalls-clad man whose whitish hair is matched by a deathly pallor - Giles, the stable keeper. With Dora not having yet fed them, the starved dogs leapt upon him, causing him fatal heart failure.
From the enraged spectral farmhand, Pam!Dora and Amy flee into the nearby barn. Pam!Dora bolts the door, and lights a paraffin lantern. From outside the barn, a bolt slips into place, locking them in.
Amy desperately rattles the bolted door. From across the barn comes a plaintive chorus of canine wails. Dora!Pam resolves to feed them.
Past a small stack of hay bails, Dora!Pam reaches a narrow recess. At its end, from behind a bolted wooden door, drift the growls and whimpers of the starving hounds.
Amy seizes her possessed cousin, steers her across the barn into a ceiling-high pen, and bolts the wired door. Dora!Pam directs Amy to fetch a sack of kibble with which to divert the starved hounds. As Amy searches, Dora!Pam takes a long leather strap, loops it over the fence and around the latch, and frees herself.
Through the cracks of the wooden door to the hounds' pen shines a deep white glow. Dora!Pam serenely approaches.
Amy desperately drags the heavy bag.
Dora!Pam's hand reaches the latch.
From the glowing fog within leap the hungry hounds.
With Dora!Pam having suddenly vanished, Amy drops the bag of kibble, runs, and climbs the nearby stack of bails. The hunger-crazed hounds swarm across the barn, and snap desperately at Amy's flailing feet.
The barn door creaks open. From behind a bail stalks Dora's adopted fox, Mon Petit Rouge. Through the door, the fox flees into the night. The hounds follow, leaving the barn silent.
On the grass, astride a white horse, in full riding gear, is someone who resembles Pam. Horse and rider take flight.
Amy runs after them, to no avail, and soon finds herself back at the steps of the air-mounted attic door. Back in the attic, Pam emerges from behind some clothes, and pulls off the riding jacket - it's time to feed the dog.
- Gary: I declare this meeting of the Midnight Society closed... and don't forget to feed your dog - or he may have a bone to pick with you!Betty Anne: Aww!
This episode provides examples of:
- All Girls Like Ponies: Pam adores a local family's beautiful horse, and even Amy seems intrigued by her.
- Artifact Domination: The jacket in which Aunt Dora, when worn by Pam, transfers the spirit of the former to the body of the latter.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Playfully invoked by Amy with an ancient bridal veil.
- The Cavalry: The ghost of Dora's adopted fox, Mon Petit Rouge, diverts the frenzied hounds.
- City Mouse: Amy pines for urban life.
- Country Mouse: Pam enjoys rural life.
- Dissonant Serenity: On possession by Dora, Pam is eerily calm.
- Dramatic Thunder: Heard from inside the attic.
- Deadpan Snarker: In a playful sort of way, Amy.
- Eldritch Location: The attic's balcony door leads to a scene bathed in anachronistic night. On departure of the ghosts, it reverts to daytime.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Pam being taken over by Dora's spirit is signalled with her hair being worn down.
- Foreshadowing: Amy dons an ancient bridal veil and spookily pretends to be her and Pam's grandmother. Later, trying on an old riding jacket has a similar, rather less voluntary effect on Pam.
- For Want Of A Nail: Because Dora had chased after Rouge without feeding her hunting dogs, followed by having her accident, her hounds were near starvation and leapt onto Giles, causing him to have a fatal heart attack.
- Ghostly Goals: To feed the hounds, whose starved frenzy gave farmhand Giles a heart attack.
- Haunted Fetter: The jacket worn in a fatal riding accident seems to house Dora’s spirit.
- Hellhound: Subverted, the ghostly hounds are dangerous only because they’re near-starved.
- Honor Before Reason: Amy warns Pam/Dora that the hounds might attack them if she lets them out. But Pam/Dora only cares about feeding them in order to atone for not feeding them sooner like she was supposed to.
- Karmic Jackpot: Because Dora freed the fox before the hunt began, his spirit returns to lead the hungry hounds away from attacking Amy as she's trying to feed them.
- Meaningful Name: The name of Dora's adopted fox, Mon Petit Rouge, is French, which translates to "my little red one".
- Monochrome Apparition: Giles appears in tones of ashen white.
- Ouija Board: Amy and Pam take out the old one belonging to the latter's mother. When they play it, its dial moves to the letters that spell "Let me out", and then to the numbers that belong to the combination needed to open Aunt Dora's trunk.
- Poltergeist: Hinted with an ominously falling chest.
- Scenery Porn: Some lovely shots of the farm and woodland.
- Skewed Priorities: Pam's mother sees her reaching over the fence to pet a horse, possibly even to get on. She fears for her safety, because her own sister died in a riding accident...so she thinks it's a good idea to honk her car horn. The horse runs away and Pam only falls off the fence, but startling the animal like that could have had worse consequences.
