A/N: O-kay, to the person who said that this is vore. Yeeeah, no. Getting poisoned, thrown down a well to drown, and then being eaten after you're dead is not supposed to be sexy in even the slightest. This is meant to be a horrific concept, and if you find that sexy, well, you may have some problems that you need to work out. I chose this because it was one of the scariest ways I could imagine myself dying. Stuck at the bottom of a well, unable to keep my head above water forever, and with no one knowing where I am to help me. If anything, this is supposed to be an intentional parallel to the episode 'Heads Of Beef' where Courage gets paranoid over something that isn't actually happening, while in this case the threat is very real. I wanted to use the underlining concept of that episode and take it to its horrific extreme. If you somehow find this titillating, yeeaaah, I'll just leave you to it then, but don't project your fetishes onto me. I legitimately cannot see what anyone would find 'hot' about this, but whatever. I mean, hey, there's a fetish for everything on the internet so I probably should have expected that this would happen. (Goddamn, I can't believe I actually had to write this out.)

Chapter 38: Down In The Depths

It seemed like he fell forever before hitting the water with a painful splash. At first he struggled, it didn't matter how weak he was, the adrenaline surging through his body kept him from faltering.

He did not know how to swim. The extent of his knowledge of such things was that you were supposed to keep flailing your limbs around and hope that it got you above water. The strategy worked, at least somewhat. He could get his head above the water briefly to take in several gasps of air only to sink back down again and his struggle would begin anew. It was an incredibly taxing endeavor, even with the intense fear of drowning fueling him.

Every once in awhile one of his paws would hit something, and in the light of his glow he could see...he could see that the things floating in the water were bones, bones that had markings on them that made it clear they had been picked clean. His light cut into the water deep enough that he could see the bottom of the well and it was comprised of nothing but bones that had sunk to the floor.

He closed his eyes, hanging there underwater for a moment, unwilling to take in that sight any longer. He fought once more to reach the surface. Up above him he could only see a single pinprick of light that was the opening of the well. The only way out of this hellish situation was entirely out of his grasp. He tried to grab onto the wall as way to support himself and to keep his head above water, but it was too slimy and smooth. No, it was not entirely smooth. The light from his glow revealed to him that the walls were covered in scratch marks by other people who had been so desperate to try and climb out of the well that they had dug their nails into the stone without success.

He dipped back under the water again, too exhausted to fight. It was only when his lungs began to burn did he force his weakening body to reach the surface again. He did not want to imagine what it would be like to drown but now it was looking like that was about to become a reality. His thoughts turned to Courage once more. He couldn't believe that things were going to end like this. There was some hope that Courage would be able to escape the chicken, but what good would that do either of them? Without each other, they were as good as-

He closed his eyes again, battling against his ever weakening body to keep his limbs moving. Panic set in when he suddenly couldn't get his head above water. His heart felt like it was about to give out from the exertion, but with one final desperate kick he got his head above the water for a moment longer.

A moment longer that he would get to live in this nightmare come to life.

Out of sheer desperation, he reached for his power one last time. Whether it be through adrenaline, his fear of drowning, or his desperation to save Courage from the same fate, he managed to break through the effects of the poison and access his ability in full. It was difficult to keep it within his grasp, but he held onto it like a lifeline. However, it proved to be a useless effort, a false hope that would lead nowhere. There was nothing that he could use, nothing nearby at least. There was almost no metal around the shack, and back at the farmhouse-

Wait...

There was one thing.

He could feel the cellphone.

Realizing that he may have found the one thing that could save his life, he quickly sent a text message to it. There was nothing else he could do. It was all up to Courage now, if Courage could even save him at this point. He would not be able to fight his exhaustion for much longer. There was no guarantee that Courage would be able to get to him in time, and the chicken might get in his way.

With the message sent, Computer sunk below the surface once more as an incredible sense of lethargy took over. He was so very cold, this water was frigid. His paws had gone numb. He was just so incredibly tired. It was as if he could feel the poison creeping through his veins. He feebly tried yet again to get to the surface. He had to keep going. If he could just fight it a little longer, Courage would...

…...

Courage jumped when something from within the bag began to beep. The cellphone? It couldn't be anything else. Who was messaging him though? He was certain that it had to be a message because the phone wasn't ringing incessantly, but still, who would be messaging him?

He went over to pull the phone out of the bag, thinking that maybe Computer had made a few contacts during his drunken escapade. He swiped the screen to unlock it and the message he found made his blood run cold.

'The shed out in the back. Hurry.'

Suddenly, he was shaking so hard that he almost dropped the phone. Taking a step back, he grabbed the the small knife off the barrel and looked down at the phone again. The message had no name or number attached to it, but he was certain that it wasn't a prank. He knew one thing was for certain, he needed to check on Computer. Whatever was going on here, it had spooked him enough to at least feel the need to make sure that everything was alright.

He tip toed out of the storage room, and as he got closer, he could hear the chicken humming to himself in the kitchen. He would sometimes breaking off to say something in a low voice that Courage could not pick up on. Knowing that he was going to have to get past the kitchen no matter what he did, he moved in closer so that he would at least hear what the chicken was saying before he made a break for it.

"Aaaah, yes." The chicken hummed. "It won't be long now. I can't wait to see the look on my new friend's face once I've told him what he's been eating. It's been so long since I've had a pair come around these parts, and dogs none the less! Yes, indeed. I always love serving up a friend so that they can know just how wonderful my work is. Little Courage will be horrified 'and' still want seconds, and if he doesn't take seconds, well...he'll learn not to insult a gracious host."

Courage stood there with his back pressed against the wall, eyes wide and his whole body trembling.

W-what had happened to Computer? What had that chicken done to Computer? Heart pounded, he was desperate to get some answers. He needed to get into the living room, where Computer would be if...

He slowly looked into the kitchen, needing to make sure that the chicken wasn't watching, and to make sure that Computer wasn't being-

He shivered.

The chicken had his back turned to the door, but he was looking over several butcher knives twice the size that Courage was. Fighting back a whimper, he silently made his way past the doorway and into the living room.

His heart nearly stopped once he got there. Computer was nowhere to be found, just as he had feared. The only comfort he had was that he had not seen Computer in the kitchen being sliced to pieces, but then where...

"The shed..." Courage whispered to himself. He needed to get outside and find this shed. Computer had to be alive out there. He had to be!

Courage tip toed over to the door, wincing at every creak the wood floor made. He slowly opened it and then slipped outside, quietly closing it behind him afterwords to insure that the chicken wouldn't notice anything out of the usual. He wasn't sure when that...that psycho was planning on checking to see if he was still peeling potatoes, so he needed to get out of sight quickly, just in case he would soon gain a pursuer.

Running as fast through the snow as his feet would take him, nearly getting blown around by the violent winds, he wheeled around the farmhouse and into the back. Soon, through the veil of snow, a moderately sized shack began to materialize. It looked as though it had been hastily put together quite a long time ago and it was a bit surprising that the howling wind simply hadn't blown it away.

Gasping for air, Courage went inside and shut the door behind him. Only a single light lit the shack and there was nothing inside except for an open well. His heart plummeted at the sight of it, fearing the worst. He made his way over to it, almost too afraid to look down into that darkness. First he called out "COMPUTER!" and his voice echoed unusually loud for such a small space, but he received no reply from his friend. Finally, no matter how much he didn't want to, he was forced to look down into the well. That unmistakable glow could be seen far below, at the very bottom.

Courage tensed with fear. How was he ever going to get Computer out of there, and...why wasn't he responding? Looking up, he saw that the well still had a rope and bucket system set up to draw water out of it, but it was badly aged with the wood rotting in places and the rope looking no better. Even the bucket itself had mold growing on it.

There was no other way to get Computer out of there though. He'd just have to hope that it would hold together long enough to pull him out.

"Compute!" He called down into the well, hoping beyond hope that he could hear him. "I'm sending down a bucket! Climb in and I'll get you out of there!"

He placed the knife the chicken had given him onto the cold, mossy stone that was the rim of the well and then he carefully climbed up onto it so that he could reach the hand crank. It was incredibly slippery, but he managed to grab onto the crank without issue and began lowering the bucket down into the well.

It seemed to take forever, no matter how fast he went. There was a point where he heard splashing far below, but when he called out to Computer he still did not get a reply. Finally, several minutes later, he heard the bucket hit the water and he looked down into the well, expecting to see Computer get in. He was nearly overcome with fear when his friend did not do anything at first, but then there was splashing as Computer tried desperately to clamor inside the bucket. It proceeded to sink down into the water and then the rope snapped from the weight, at a point just high enough that Computer would not be able to reach it from within the water.

Courage winced, and, thinking fast, he called to him. "I'm coming down to get you!"

He wasn't even sure if the rope would be able to hold his weight, but he had to do this. He wasn't going to leave Computer down there to drown, even if it meant that he might meet the same fate.

Taking in a breath, and, knowing that this was going to tax him greatly given the strain that his illness was already putting on his body, he jumped onto the rope. He waited fearfully for a moment, expecting it to snap, but it did not. The only thing worse that could happen was if he had an attack while climbing down as he'd surely drown down there if he fell unconscious. Computer needed him though, and he wasn't going to let the fear of drowning stop him now.

He slowly began to make his way down into the dark, moldy depths of the well. The smell alone was nearly unbearable. He heard Computer surface once more, his movements sounding all the more frantic inside the closed space of the well.

"Almost there, Compute." Courage whispered under his breath. He kept waiting to hear the rope snap, but it never did. There were spots that seemed particularly frail, but he moved carefully down them and that seemed to be enough to keep them from giving out.

Finally, he had nearly reached the end of the rope. Much to his horror, he could see bones floating in the water below him, and worse, the bottom of the well, which he could only see because of Computer's glow, was filled to the brim with bones that had sunk to the bottom. Just...just what had that chicken gotten away with? How many people had he...

He stopped at the very end of the rope, where it had broken off when Computer had tried to get into the bucket. The bucket itself had sunk to the bottom of the well, and Computer was hanging there in the water, looking frighteningly more like a corpse than a living being.

"Computer, I'm here! Hurry, I'll help you up!"

His voice seemed amplified down in these murky depths, and he was sure that Computer would hear it underwater. All Courage knew for certain was that he could not let go of the rope, not even to go get him himself, or else he would become stuck down there as well. To make things all the more horrific, he only just now noticed the scratch marks all along the circular wall of the well.

"Come on, Computer! You've got to get up here or else I can't help you!" He reached a paw down towards the water, hoping more than anything in the world that Computer hadn't drowned since the last time he tried to surface for air.

Suddenly, his friend began to flail wildly, and for a moment it seemed as though he were suspended in place and would never escape the water, but then he began to make his way toward the surface, his eyes focused intently on Courage's paw. With one huge kick of his feet, he burst out of the water and managed to grab hold of Courage's paw.

Courage almost lost his grip in that moment, and, gritting his teeth together, he refused to allow himself to fall or to let go of Computer's paw. His friend's grip was like iron in his desperation to not go back into the water. Calling upon a level of strength that almost seemed to overcome any weakness that his illness had set upon him, Courage used his one free paw and legs to pull himself up higher bit by bit until there was enough room at the end of the rope for Computer to grab onto. Once he was free of his friend's extra weight, Courage just hung there for a moment, panting from the exertion. Below him, Computer clung to the rope like his life depended upon it, which it did, and he was shaking hard, his breath coming out in ragged gasps.

"Th-thank...g-goodness you...f-found me." He choked out between gasps for air. He sounded as though he could barely breathe at all and there was one horrible moment where he almost seemed to fade out and nearly let go of the rope. "D-dog," He wheezed. "T-there's...n-no way that...I-I'm going t-to...be able...t-to climb up this...r-rope on my o-own."

Courage nodded down at him. "That's alright. I'm going to climb back up and pull you out of here. Just hold on a little longer, okay?"

"C-Courage, w-wait!" He stammered out, having to take several long, ragged gasps for air afterword. It took him awhile just to get his breathing under control long enough to say whatever needed to be said. "T-that chicken...he...he poisoned me. I-I don't think...I-I don't t-think that I'm...I-I'm going t-to...to be a-alright." A sense of genuine fear had entered his voice on that last note.

Courage's stomach plummeted with anxiety. Poisoned? What on earth could he do for Computer if he was poisoned? Would he be able to...

He shook his head. No! He was not going to let things end like this! They had gotten too far to let some psychotic chicken do them in! He was going to save Computer! No matter what!

"Just hang on!" He tried to assure his friend. "I'll get you out of here in just a minute, then we'll figure out what to do next!"

"H-hurry." His friend wheezed. "I'm...n-not sure h-how much...l-longer I can...s-stay awake...like t-this. I-I'm v-very tired...and...and m-my vision k-keeps..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

Courage wasn't willing to wait another moment longer, and he was just about to begin the long climb back up the rope, but then he noticed something odd. To his right, he could see from Computer's glow that there was a strange, half-oval shaped indent in the wall. It was rather large, large enough that anyone human sized could-

"Computer, I think there's a door here." He said, wondering if he should try and check it out or to keep climbing.

His friend said nothing, he simply remained gripped to the rope, his muzzle leaning against it and his ears drooped with exhaustion. He was still wheezing and gasping for air constantly.

Courage shook his head again. There was no telling where that door led so there was no point in risking it rather than to simply take the surefire way out of this ghoulish death trap.

"Hold on just a little longer, Compute." Courage called down to him, beginning his climb anew. He'd only made it a few inches higher when he heard that ever familiar voice call down to them.

"Well, well, well! So that's were ya went, you sneaky little doggy!"

There wasn't a hint of anger in the chicken's voice. In fact, he sounded more like he was amused with this situation than anything. His lack of anger was the thing that probably disturbed Courage the most.

Trembling with fear, he had already begun to make his way back down. That door was suddenly looking a lot more welcoming. As he looked down, he realized that the door was just high enough up that nobody in the water below would ever have had any hope of reaching it. How many people had met their ends down here in this utter darkness without knowing that their salvation had been just out of their reach? Perhaps it was better that way. Regardless, it was clearly the only escape he and Computer now had.

"I'm sorry to have to say this, but you ruined my plans." The chicken called down to him. "I was going to let you enjoy a nice feast with me, but that won't be happening now. You're just going to have to drown down there with your friend. I didn't want it to be like this, but you've left me no other choice."

Pure panic raced through Courage's mind when he remembered that he had left the knife up at the top of the well. It would only take the chicken a few seconds to cut the rope loose, and then...

He reached for the indent in the wall, pushing at it with all of his might using his one free paw. It slid in slightly, on the right side, while the left side pushed out, like one of those false walls that people would sometimes fall into in movies. He pushed a bit more until there was enough of a foothold for him to jump onto it and push it open the rest of the way. He then reached for the rope once more and just barely managed to get it into his paws when the chicken finally cut it free. He let the rest of the rope fall into the water below and had to pull with all of his might to get Computer up to the opening. When he did finally get him up there, his friend simply let go of the rope and remained laying there on the stone floor, shivering hard and gasping for air.

"Compute?" Courage asked, getting down onto his knees. He gently placed a paw onto his friend's shoulder. He was icy cold and obviously dripping wet.

Computer did nothing for several moments and then slowly opened his eyes. He did not focus on Courage, or anything at all, before closing them again without a single word. Now he was quivering even harder than before.

Fear rose up inside of Courage greater than ever before. There was nothing that he could do to help Computer...and...and it didn't seem like he was going to be alright. He needed help, real help, the kind that could only be given by a doctor, but they were so far away from anything even resembling civilization.

Courage finally looked up to see where they were. He'd been so worried about Computer that he hadn't taken the time to check his surroundings. Gasping, he fell backwards. They were in some kind of tunnel, but this particular part of it was filled with gigantic butcher knives, racks that looked more like they belonged in a torture chamber, several lengths of metal chains that all had terrible hooks on the ends of them, and many, many different instruments for, well, what looked like preparing food. It was like someone had taken a chief's dream and added a torturer's touch to it. It was Courage's deepest hope that anyone who had ever ended up in this tunnel had been dead long before they got here. Everywhere he looked, he only came across yet another new horror. In spite of everything though, this area was surprisingly clean. It appeared that the chicken meticulously cleaned this place after every 'meal' that was prepared.

"Compute, we've got to get out of here." He whispered, his voice trembling with every word.

Computer stirred a little bit, having finally opened his eyes again, but he did not seem to take notice of the horrific torture chamber that they had found themselves in. It was only his glow that allowed Courage to see anything at all. The tunnel was pitch black, though there were unused lights overhead.

"Come on, I'm going to find you help." Courage spoke, putting an arm over Computer's back and helping him sit up. He soon got him standing, but he had to use both of his paws to keep him steady and his friend had to lean all of his weight onto him. He could not stand at all at this point without constant support.

Courage led him over to one of the many racks of butcher knives where he took one of them and gripped it between his teeth. Though it was clean, he still did not like having it in his mouth, but he needed both of his arms to keep Computer standing so he couldn't carry it in his paws. However, he was not going to go any deeper into this tunnel without some kind of weapon. If the chicken had still been watching, he'd know that they had just escaped the well and it was likely that he would soon be coming after them. A confrontation was inevitable and Courage wanted to be ready for it.

He looked over at Computer, who in turn was looking ahead with glazed, tired eyes. He did not truly seem to be looking at anything at all. It was going to be hard to get him out of the tunnel like this, even when helping him walk. He was shaking so hard at times that it was a miracle his legs didn't simply give out from under him.

Courage suppressed a whine and urged him forward. In spite of his fear, he was resolute. He would not let Computer die here. He would not lose his closest friend again.

End Of Chapter