Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog

Chap 47: A night at the Katz Motel

"This looks like a crummy place to end a crummy vacation." Eustace complained as he parked the truck.

We were driving back from a small vacation we took to get away from it all. But since it was getting late and seemed like it was going to rain, we decided to head to the nearest motel or hotel to check in for the night. And as fate would have it, we had to spend the night in what looked like a poorly managed motel. Though, it was the name that caught our attention.

"Katz Motel. Think it could be run by the same Katz that tried to kill us with the submarine a while back?" I asked Courage.

'Maybe. I don't know.' He answered shivering from all the lightning and thunder that was happening around us. But when a particular loud one happened close by, he jumped in terror and clung to my head.

"Well, let's get checked in." Muriel said exiting the truck.

Nodding we got out of the truck. But before we followed, I made sure to cover our luggage so it doesn't get wet when it rains. Once done, I ran inside the motel with Courage still clinging to my neck and shivering in terror. Inside, we went up to the desk with Eustace ringing the bell. As he did so, I noticed that the inside of this room looked as worn down as the outside. But what creeped me out was the pictures of spiders hanging around the room. Not sure of you know this, but I hate spiders. Not sure why though. All I do know is that I can't stand them. Hearing a slight creaking sound, I tuned back to the desk and was surprised at what I saw.

'Yup. Same Katz from the submarine. But how did he escape the shark that ate him?' I wondered as the last we saw him was him getting eaten by a shark just after he left the submarine.

"Welcome to the Katz Motel. I'm Katz. Will you please sign in?" He asked yet never taking his glaring eyes off of me and Courage. He then snapped his fingers a few times before pointing to a sign. "No dogs allowed."

'But...but...' Courage began but was stopped when Eustace roughly grabbed him from my neck and took him outside.

"Oh, my." Muriel said worried. Concerned, I followed Eustace outside and saw him place Courage on his leash before tying the leash to a pole.

'Aw.' Courage whined sadly with his eyes dropping.

'Poor guy.' I thought at seeing Courage sad. But then I saw Eustace smirk at Courage.

"KABOOM!" He shouted scaring Courage. He then began to laugh. I was about to go and slug him across the face but Muriel beat me to it by using her purse and smacking him across the back of his head. "What did I do?"

"Here you go." Muriel said handing him his key which he took bitterly.

"Dog." He grumbled before walking away. Muriel then came over and wrapped Courage in a blanket before giving him a kiss on the head.

"Oh, Courage. Don't worry. It's only for a short time. Good night you two." She said before handing me my key before going back inside.

'It may be a good night for you. You'll be in a warm bed.' Courage complained.

"Well. They will be in a warm bed. I'll be here with you Courage." I told him as I sat down next to him.

'You don't have to do so Jaune. You can go to your room.' He told me looking down.

"Nonsense. You're my pal Courage. I'm staying here with you." I told him as I pulled him into a hug.

'Thanks.' He said smiling.

We stayed like that for the next half hour. I loosened the leash a bit so Courage can get comfier. After a few more minutes, he was on my lap nearly asleep. I was scratching his back lightly to keep him calm from the lightning and thunder. It was a bit chilly now but I was fine with it. After all, I did have to sleep through colder nights with no heat back with the Arc Family. Shaking my head, I pushed those memories away. They no longer served a purpose as I had new wonderful memories with my new family. Not to mention, memories with my friends and fiancée.

'Do you hear that?' Courage suddenly asked startling me.

"What do you hear?" I asked looking around. Looking to the side, we saw the unmistakable shadow of Katz.

'What's he up to?' Courage asked confused and worried.

"Not sure." I answered getting up. Soon, we saw Katz place a box on the ground before opening the lid. We were confused as to what he was releasing but got our answer when a huge spider came out and started to move towards us.

'AAHHH!' Courage screamed in terror before pulling on his leash.

'Why did it have to be spiders!?' I thought as I tried to remove the leash from Courage. Yet it remained firm on him. I then tried to remove the leash from the pole but found that Eustace did an unusual knot that I could not undo.

'Come on! Come on!' Courage begged as he kept pulling on the leash. Seeing that it wasn't budging, he took out a blow torch and used it on the leash. But it didn't burn or even smoke from the heat. Courage then took out a dill chainsaw but it had no affect either. He then gave me a test tube filled with a strange liquid.

"Hold still." I said as I carefully moved it and aimed it so that the liquid would hit the leash. Yet, once it did, the liquid exploded but the leash remained intact.

'Come on!' Courage begged one last time before putting it in his mouth and trying to tear it apart. I was about to say that won't work after all we put it through but a split second later, the leash broke.

"Okay. What is that leash made out of?" I asked wondering how it survived all that yet broke to Courage's bite.

'Another time. Let's go.' Courage said before grabbing my hand and dragging me inside the motel away from the spider.

"Now what?" I asked once we were inside and away from the spider.

'Check on Muriel?' He suggested.

"Sounds good. Do you know which room she is in?" I asked.

'Nope.' He said shaking his head.

"Great." I said annoyed. Turning around, we began to go through the hallways and try and figure out which one Muriel was in. But that proved to be much harder as all the doors looked the same. There was a window next to each door but they were made so no one can see in. Just out. Luckily, we caught a break soon after.

"AAHHH!" We heard Muriel scream from the room we were next to. Looking to the door, I saw the room number 666½. Which is a fitting place for how I feel about this motel.

'It's Muriel. She's in trouble' Courage said worried. He tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.

"Stand back." I said moving him. Grabbing the handle, I started trying to force the door open. Yet after a few attempts, the door remained closed with my side now hurting. "Damn it."

'I have an idea.' Courage said before disappearing for a moment before returning with a canon. He got into the canon and shot himself through the window.

"You okay Courage?" I asked worried.

'Yeah. Had a helmet on.' He answered as he opened the door.

"AAHHHH!" We heard Muriel scream reminding us of what we came to do. Heading into the room, we looked around before seeing Muriel in the bathroom trying to keep a giant spider away from her.

"Courage. Jaune. Go get help. Hurry!" She told us.

"Okay. We'll be right back." I said before we rushed out and towards Eustace's room. Luckily, I managed to see what room he had when Muriel gave him his key. Getting there, we found the door was thankfully unlocked. Opening it, we saw Eustace in his bed asleep.

'Wake up! Wake up!' Courage shouted getting on top of him.

"Wake up Eustace." I shouted in his face. Yet he remained asleep. Courage began to jump on the bed while I shook Eustace a bit. But he still remained asleep. Hearing some horns, I looked up and saw Courage blowing into many different loud horns at once. But we got the same result in Eustace snoring.

'OOOH!' Courage said panicking.

"Like normal. We can't depend on him." I said frustrated.

'Let's go back and check on Muriel.' Courage said before running out of the room. Following him, we quickly made it back to her room where she was still fighting the spider.

"Did you two get any help?" She asked.

Worried, we quickly went back to Eustace to try one last time. But grew confused when we saw the bed neatly done but with him gone. We quickly looked around the room but didn't find him. Thinking, we decided to see if there was anyone in the office. Getting there, Courage began to transform into monsters of different kinds. Not realizing that there wasn't anyone there. After a moment, he stopped and realized this.

'Where is everybody?' He asked confused.

"I think aside from Katz, we are the only ones here." I answered while looking around.

Seeing a slightly ajar door behind the desk, I started to move towards it. Hoping that someone or something was in that room. But instead of that, we saw a giant spider web. And in the center was a sleeping Eustace wrapped up tightly in a cocoon of spider's web. From the corner of our eyes, we saw a giant spider start to make its way towards him.

'OOOH!' Courage howled in fear. Looking around for something to squish the spider, I saw a large wooden plank nearby. Grabbing it, I brought it over before using it to flatten the spider. Leaving nothing but a gooey mess behind.

"That takes care of that." I said as Courage and I walked up the plank to Eustace. Picking him up, we were about to leave but stopped when we saw Katz standing in front of the door.

"Leaving so soon?" He asked while shutting the door shut. Thinking quickly, I realized what we could do to escape.

"Think fast Katz." I shouted as I threw the still sleeping Eustace at him.

"OOF! I wish you hadn't done that." He said pissed.

Seeing another door, we ran to it and entered it. On the other side was a long hallway. Running down it and eventually down some stairs, we began to look for an exit. But didn't find any. Not even some windows. We quickly figured out that this was the basement and proceeded to try and find some stairs. Soon we saw another door on the right. Getting there, we opened and quickly closed the door behind us.

'Oh, no. It's dark in here.' Courage whined when the room became engulfed in darkness. Feeling along the wall, I quickly found what I hoped is the light switch.

"And let there...be,,, light." I said flipping the switch. But trailed off at the end when we saw what was in the room. It was a nightmare to be honest. Especially for anyone suffering from arachnophobia. There were many shelves filled with nothing but jars containing different kinds of spiders. Ranging from small ones to unnaturally big ones. I even think I saw some spiders that seemed to resemble grimm to an extent.

"AAHHHH!" We both screamed before crashing the door down and running as fast as we can from the room. And conveniently, running over Katz as well who was at the door before we crashed it down.

"I wish you hadn't done that." Katz said in pain and annoyance.

Ignoring him, we continued to run down the hallway as fast as we could. But it seemed to go on forever. Not to mention, no other doors appeared as we continued. As we ran, we could hear Katz footsteps approaching. After another few minutes, we were met with a dead end.

"Damn it." I said looking around to see if there was anything at all we could use to escape. But there was nothing here except the light above us allowing us to see.

'Oh, no!' Courage said panicking. Hearing the footsteps, we turned around and saw Katz eyes glowing in the dark.

"There's no place to run. And no place to hide." He threatened as he walked out of the darkness to us menacingly.

"Yeah. We noticed." I said moving between him and Courage. But we both grew confused when Katz took out a small purple ball and started bouncing it.

"A little sport before dying, dear boys." He asked,

'Do we have a choice?' Courage asked knowing that we didn't have a choice.

Katz didn't say anything and simply started the game by hitting the ball against the wall which bounced back towards us. And thus, the game was on. It was easy at first. Especially since I was decent at the game. But it was quickly shown where we came up short. And that was stamina. After a few moments of rapidly moving, and sometimes crashing into the wall, we grew tired. Looking over to Katz, we saw him sipping some tea before using his foot to hit the ball back when it came to him.

"Hmm. How lovely." Katz said. Looking over to him, we saw him lying on the floor and reading a book about spiders. He then sued his tail to hit the ball back.

'Not sure how much longer I can keep going.' I thought panting before hitting the ball back. After a few more minutes we were done.

"OOF!" We both grunted when the ball hit us extremely hard. Mainly because Katz had used a tennis racket to launch the ball back. We tried to hit it back but were too tired. And because of this, the ball hit us and send us to the floor.

'Damn it.' I thought while panting and trying to catch my breath, Seeing Katz shadow loom over us, we looked up and saw him standing right in front of us. He then cracked his neck in a disturbing way.

"Now you're both going to learn why no one ever checks out of the Katz motel." He threatened before pulling out a giant spider.

'OOOH!' Courage screamed when he saw the spider.

Katz began to laugh as he slowly brought the spider to us. But fate smiled on us for when he got half way, someone slammed a tennis racked on him which caused him to let go of the spider. It landed a couple of feet away before scurrying away. Looking back to Katz, we saw him slowly fall to the floor. His eyes closed and were replaced with to x's. Looking to the side, we saw that it was Muriel who saved us.

"Come on you two. We're leaving. The service here stinks." She said angrily. She turned around and began to leave. Looking to Katz, we got up and quickly followed Muriel.

Ten Minutes Later

We were back in the truck and now heading to the farm. We also had the still sleeping Eustace in the back. But he was also still wrapped in the spider's web. Which made us dread when we get back home and half to take it off.

"That's a fancy blanket grandpa has on. Maybe we should get you both one." Muriel suggested. Not knowing that it was just spider's web.

'AAHHHH!' Courage screamed. Not at all liking the idea.

'No thank you. I had enough with spiders to last a life time.' I thought feeling chill run down my spine when I imagined myself in Eustace spot right now. Thankfully, it was soon put in the back of my mind as Courage and I felt fatigue from the game start to set in. And soon, we were both asleep.

Note:

*Updated

(1) Cabaret Courage with Wiess. (2) Family Business with Winter and Weiss. (3) Night of the Scarecrow with Qrow, Ruby and Yang. (4) Curse of Shirley with Qrow, Yang and Ruby. (5) Wrath of the librarian with Blake. (6) Squatting Tiger, Hidden Dog with Nora and Ren.