A Dark and Scary Night (Part 1 of 2)



Courage stood at one end of a pool table with a pool stick in his paw. He didn't know how he had arrived in the dimly lit pool hall or what he was supposed to be doing here. A single lightbulb hung down from the ceiling directly over the table. Courage nervously adjusted his visor as he looked across the table. A pack of five dogs stood at the other end. A poodle, a dachshund, a pit bull, a cocker spaniel, and a mutt. All five of them had visors and collars on their necks. The mutt also had a pool stick in his paw and was staring at Courage with white, pupil-less eyes.

"Well?" he asked in a deep voice. "Aren't you gonna break 'em up?"

Courage looked on the table. A lone cue ball was positioned on his end of the table while the rest of the balls were laid out in a triangle at the other end. Courage also saw a bunch of boxes placed around the table so that all the dogs could be level with the table's surface.

Courage leaned over and was surprised that he knew how to hold the stick. He knocked the cue ball into the other balls, causing them to break way from each other. A striped ball fell into a pocket.

"Alright. You're striped and we're plain," said the mutt.

The game continued. Courage was amazed as to how well he was playing. He was already about to win, and he had never played pool before in his life! However, the mutt quickly caught up with him, and soon, all that was left was the cue ball and the 8-ball. After a few turns, the mutt finally sunk the 8-ball in a corner pocket.

"Oooh, too bad," said the mutt. Him and the other dogs crowded around Courage. "Good game, though. Now, how about you head on back now."

"Hmm?" questioned Courage. He looked around the pool hall. There didn't appear to be any exit.

The mutt brought out something from behind his back. It was an alarm clock. The time? A few seconds until 12.

"I hope we can play again real soon," said the mutt with a grin.

RIIIINNNGGGG!!!!!!!

Courage awoke with a cry of shock and confusion. On instinct, Courage reached out and slammed his paw on the alarm clock beside his cot to stop it from ringing. Courage caught his breath. He was in the attic. Courage glanced at the window, then to his computer, and then to the half-open door. "What a strange dream," Courage thought to himself.

Then he turned to his alarm clock and gasped. The moonlight from outside displayed the time on the clock: A few seconds after midnight!

Courage began shaking with fright. The dream had spooked Courage and the whole thing with the alarm clock was rather coincidental, but that's not what Courage was worried about. He was positive that he hadn't touched the alarm clock at all yesterday. So how had it been set for midnight instead of in the morning?

Courage tried to calm himself down. Maybe one of the Hendersons or Eustace fiddled with the alarm clock as a joke. But who?



In the basement, Kevin woke up. He needed to go to the bathroom, so he slowly got out of his sleeping bag. It was pitch black in the basement. Kevin pushed a button on his wristwatch, and a pale green light revealed Kevin's family and Sandy sleeping nearby. He noticed that Mr. Furry were nowhere in sight. "Probably in Katie's sleeping bag," thought Kevin, as he stepped around his family and made his way to the basement stairs. He tried to climb up the stairs without making a sound, but that was impossible. The stairs squeaked like crazy with every step he took. Halfway up the stairs, Kevin heard a loud 'CREAK' from under his foot and froze. It sounded like his family was still asleep so he continued. He eventually reached the door and stepped into the living room. Kevin turned and headed toward the stairs that led to the upstairs bathroom.

Just before he reached these new stairs, Kevin thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He jerked his head in that direction but saw nothing. The moonlight from outside must've been playing tricks on him. Kevin immediately dashed up the stairs, ran down the hall, and arrived at the bathroom door. Kevin was breathing heavily.

"What am I getting so worked up for?" whispered Kevin. "There's nothing down there."

Half believing what he just said, Kevin walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

A moment later, Courage appeared at the other end of the hall. Courage had tried to go back to sleep, but his growling stomach kept waking him up. So, Courage decided to get a bite to eat in the kitchen. He walked down the hall and arrived at the top of the stairs. That's when he stopped. He heard something. It sounded like something metallic hitting the floor in the kitchen. Courage began shivering as he quickly descended the steps. The sounds were definitely coming from the kitchen. Now it sounded like food was being tossed onto the floor. Courage stopped at the bottom of the stairs and gasped. A light was coming from the kitchen! Courage tiptoed to the wall next to kitchen's entrance and peeked into the room.

Inside, the kitchen floor was a mess. Food, liquids, and containers were splattered all over the floorboards. The refrigerator door was open, which explained where the light was coming from. Courage's eyes widened as he heard something going on inside the fridge. The door was open towards Courage, so he couldn't see inside it, but Courage noticed that someone was just on the other side of the door. A small shadow was stretched out on the rectangle of light that stretched across the floor. Whoever this thing was, it was throwing the entire refrigerator's contents onto the floor!

"S-S-Sandy?" called out Courage in a weak voice.

There was a 'THUMP', like someone had just collapsed. Courage rushed over to the fridge to see if Sandy was alright. When he arrived in front of the fridge, Courage saw a figure laying on the ground staring up at the ceiling with dark eyes.

It was Mr. Furry.

Courage took a deep breath and was just about to scream for all he was worth, when he suddenly stopped. Amazingly, his fear had immediately been replaced with an overwhelming sense of curiosity! Courage let out a sigh, put his paws on his hips, and quirked an eyebrow.

"This can't be possible," thought Courage to himself. "There's no way..."

Courage walked slowly to the little teddy bear that nearly gave him a heart attack. He tried not to slip on the food as he approached Mr. Furry. Courage snatched up Mr. Furry and looked him in the eye. Courage actually felt embarrassed. One of the Hendersons probably did all this, but, then again, they all seemed too nice to do something like this. Then Courage convinced himself that Eustace must've set all this up. That made more sense.

Courage looked at Mr. Furry with a smug look on his face. "You don't scare me," Courage whispered.

WHAM! It happened so fast, Courage didn't even know what happened. He yelped, and his paws flew to his nose, which was throbbing in pain. This caused him to drop Mr. Furry. Courage closed his eyes as the pain began to spread to his entire muzzle. He opened his eyes just in time to see a small figure dash around the corner and out of the kitchen.

Courage massaged his injured nose as he realized that Mr. Furry was gone. Fortunately, the pain was drowning out his fear. Courage came to the conclusion that Mr. Furry must've punched him in the nose, and that meant that, somehow, he was alive!

Of course, Courage had no clue as to how that was possible, but right now he had more important things to worry about. Like where that bear had gone. Courage wanted to go after Mr. Furry, but first he decided to satisfy his starving hunger. So he began licking up some of the food that had been dumped on the floor. Afterwards, Courage walked into the living room. The moonlight that had leaked in through the windows had vanished. Courage wondered where the moon had gone, when suddenly, a bolt of lightning illuminated the entire room! Courage just had enough time to see a tall, dark figure standing at the top of the stairs before all became black again. The boom of thunder wasn't loud enough to envelope Courage's scream of fright.

"Courage!" shouted Kevin, who ran down the stairs and held Courage in his arms. "Courage, it's just me."

Courage held onto Kevin's pajama shirt with all his might. He began blabbering out a mix of syllables and sobs as he took a step back.

"What? What is it?" asked Kevin with concern.

"Th-the b-b-bear..." gasped Courage, who quickly began hyperventilating.

"Courage! Courage, calm down," said Kevin. Courage began breathing normally again. "Now tell me what happened."

Courage looked at Kevin with shock. "The bear, that Katie has..."

"Mr. Furry?" asked Kevin.

"Yes. He...he's..."



"...alive," said a small voice to the side.

Kevin and Courage jerked their heads in the direction of the voice. At that moment, another bolt of lightning gave a brief look at the small furry creature who had just spoken. Courage and Kevin screamed in unison.

It was Sandy. She was standing in front of the open basement door. The reason Kevin and Courage screamed was because of the look of absolute fear on Sandy's face. She was also shaking from tip to tail.

The thunder startled Sandy, and she ran to Kevin. A single beam of moonlight peaked out from behind a cloud, revealing Kevin sitting in the middle of the living room hugging the two dogs.

Sandy was still shaking when Kevin started to calm her down. "What happened?" he asked.

Sandy stopped shivering, but still appeared frightened. "I saw him. I s-saw Mr. Furry move!"

"How?" asked Kevin. Courage whined slightly as he listened.

"I...I heard a shout from upstairs. It sounded like it came from Courage, but I wasn't sure."

"It was," said Courage, rubbing his nose. The pain was beginning to subside.

"Well," continued Sandy. "I thought about going up to investigate, but then I heard someone running down the basement stairs. Since dogs see much better in the dark than humans, I could see that it wasn't Courage, as I had previously thought. As he came closer, I saw it was....Mr. Furry!" (Lightning and thunder) "I froze right then and I saw him dive into Katie's sleeping bag, where he suddenly stopped moving. It...it was one of the scariest things I've ever seen."

Sandy started crying, but luckily she had Kevin and Courage to comfort her.

After a moment, Courage said, "How did this happen?"

Sandy turned her teary-eyed face to Kevin. Kevin looked at Courage. Courage looked at Sandy. All three of them said it at the same time.

"The cemetery." (Lightning and thunder again).

"Of course," mumbled Kevin. "It all makes sense. When we left Katie and that bear at the tombstone, some kind of...spirit or something must've inhabited Mr. Furry's 'body'. That must be why Katie keeps talking to Mr. Furry. She's actually talking to that spirit!"

"Wait, spirit? You mean like Reginald and Joseph?" asked Courage.

"No," whispered Kevin. "We're dealing with something far more dangerous; something more.....evil."

Courage gasped.

"E-evil?" asked Sandy. She began quivering again.

"Of course," said Kevin. He looked at Courage's swollen nose. "Did Mr. Furry do that?"

Courage nodded.

"Well that clinches it. His aggressive personality. His mischievous behavior. We are definitely not dealing with a friendly ghost like Reginald or Joseph. He has totally changed Katie's behavior too. She rarely talks or acts the way she used to anymore."

"But...but if Katie can talk to the bear...or spirit...or whatever..." began Sandy. "...how come we can't hear it?"

"I don't know," answered Kevin. "But my best bet is that the spirit is probably communicating with Katie telepathically. We can hear her, but we can't hear it."

Sandy wrapped her arms around Courage. "We need to get rid of it," she said as Courage comforted her.

"But how?" asked Kevin. No one answered.

"All I know is that I'm going back down there," said Sandy who pointed to the basement.

Kevin sighed. "OK. Courage, you'll be safe upstairs with Eustace and Muriel. Sandy and I will sleep down here on the couch."

"Do you think our family will be safe down there with that....thing?" asked Sandy.

"It hasn't hurt them so far. And I don't think it'll start by revealing himself now."

"Yeah, you'll be okay. Don't worry," said Courage. "I'll see you in the morning." With that, Courage gave Sandy a quick kiss before turning around and running up the stairs.

Kevin had already collapsed on the couch, so Sandy jumped up and lay down by Kevin's feet. Rain was beginning to fall outside, so it eventually lulled everyone to sleep. But not before Kevin, Courage, and Sandy stayed awake worrying what would happen when morning would come.



(If you're wondering about those dogs at the beginning of the chapter, they're just original characters created by myself. I hope to put them in my own comic series, or something, in the far off future.)



(And the night's not over yet. Coming up in Part 2 of "A Dark and Scary Night", it's the agents' turn to get scared!)