A/N - sorry about the lateness of the last chapter. My computer crashed…TWICE!!!!…It was my fault too… Well that's all over now, so on with the story!

Chapter 4

REALLY Scary Stuff

Meanwhile, upstairs in the parlor, Courage's screaming cold be heard by everyone. Well except Eustace who had fallen sound asleep (with the aid of earplugs).

"I told them not to go into the…basement!" Harry said dramatically and so conveniently, a flash of lighting lighted the room and a thunderclap sounded.

"Could you…not do that anymore?" Katz asked, a little agitated.

"Well yes, I suppose."

"Thanks."

"Someone should probably save the chubby and fuzzy ones, yes?" Shirley the Medium chimed in.

"Well it certainly won't be me seeing how this is my diabolical plan to kill all of you in the first place, but especially that dog. Oh how I detest him." Katz responded and shook a furry fist.

"We will look in my crystal ball." Shirley announced and immediately Eustace woke up.

"What did you just say about crystal?" he smiled a huge smile, apparently being able to hear through the plugs after all. Crystal is worth selling and of course anything worth selling is worth money.

"Stupid one," Shirley said completely ignoring Eustace's question. "Turn off all the lights."

"Rotten, lazy teenagers," Eustace mumbled but did as he was told.

Fred sat there smiling.

Shirley took out a crystal ball from nowhere and placed on the ground. Eustace, Katz, and Harry gathered around.

Shirley gazed at the ball and after a moment went into a weird trance state. She began to moan and said, "I see…I see…"

"Please, do tell us." Said Katz sarcastically.

"I see…." She stopped short.

"What, what is it?" Eustace looked eagerly at the ball and the others leaned over too. When they saw, they also stopped short.

* * * *

We now return to Courage in the basement.

Courage looked up into the eyes of the horror before him, so scared he lost the voice to scream.

The giant 10-foot clown holding Muriel in claw like hands stared down in confusion at the little pink dog. Muriel screamed again and Courage noticed a big boiling pot of caramel directly beneath her.

"Muriel!" Courage called and, forgetting his fears (could it be true?!?!?!?) ran up to the monstrous clown and bit the end of his oversized shoe.

"Owwwww!" it yelled and hopped up and down on one foot while at the same time dropping Muriel. Thankfully, she landed on a pile of cotton candy.

"Come on Courage," Muriel said once recovered. "Let's get out of this horrible place."

"Uh huh," he agreed and the two began running for the basement door. They heard the clown thundering behind them. Past the museum of butchered stuffed animals they went, but the clown was closing in fast. Will the two escape a horrible carnival style death?