"Darkest Moon, Kevin, Shirley, Sandy, and Courage"
The front door of the house slowly creaked open.
Agent Darkest Moon entered first. She wasn't surprised by the unkempt nature of the house. She'd seen enough TV shows to know that whenever a scary-looking house stood in the middle of nowhere (or at least the outskirts), it was going to look really dark and spooky inside.
Kevin came in next. He stood next to D.M. and marveled at the dustiness of the surroundings. Kevin coughed. He hoped his sinuses wouldn't be too much of a problem in here.
Shirley, Sandy, and Courage came in last. They were a little apprehensive about this place. Courage shivered slightly from the drop in temperature. Sandy held his paw and gave Courage a look that told him not to worry.
Shirley, seeing the obvious connections between the two dogs, closed the door behind her.
SLAM!
Courage cried out as D.M. and Kevin spun around.
"Sorry," apologized Shirley.
"Shhh," whispered Kevin. "C'mon." He began walking toward a door.
"Where are we going?" asked D.M.
Kevin said, "The riddle began, 'where the water heater waits.' Since the only room I can think of that would hold a water heater is the basement, we should look for a door that leads down to the basement."
The group walked around the ground floor looking for a door that open up to a flight of stairs leading downward. D.M. and Kevin took the "left wing" of the house while the others went down the "right wing."
"Hey," said Kevin. "How come you carry that thing with you all the time?"
D.M. realized Kevin was looking at her baseball bat. "Well, it comes in handy sometimes."
"Yeah," said Kevin. "I had a baseball bat once."
"Really?"
"Yep. It's probably stuck somewhere in the stuff back…uh, wherever we go."
D.M. nodded. She had forgotten that Kevin's family had been evicted from their apartment.
"Sorry," D.M. sympathized. "I wish there was something I could do."
Kevin just sighed sadly. The two of them stared at each other for a moment.
"D.M.?" asked Kevin.
"Yes?" answered D.M.
"Have we tried that door yet?" Kevin walked over to a door nearby.
D.M. shrugged her shoulders and followed Kevin.
Elsewhere, Shirley, Sandy, and Courage were trying to find the door to the basement too. Fortunately, most of the doorknobs were low enough for the dogs to reach. They had tried two already and they led into different rooms.
They about to check a third one when, out of the blue, Shirley asked, "Do you two know each other?"
Courage and Sandy looked at each other. At first, Sandy was perturbed. What business of it was hers? Then, she decided that Shirley was just politely asking a simple question.
Sandy looked at Shirley and said, "Courage and I are…really good friends."
"Ah, forgive me," replied Shirley. "Usually I do not ask such spontaneous questions."
"You don't get out much, do you?" asked Sandy, half-seriously.
Shirley just shrugged. "My life is rather…dull at the moment."
Courage almost laughed at that remark. She could conjure up spells and incantations and here she was calling her life dull!
"Besides, I like living alone. Very peaceful," continued Shirley.
"I'm sure," added Sandy.
"Although once in a while I come over to help Courage out with a couple of his problems."
"Really," said Sandy. She looked at Courage before looking over her shoulder uncomfortably.
Courage was also feeling uncomfortable. This conversation was getting a bit to intense for his liking. It looked like Shirley was enjoying the conversation, but Sandy looked a tad miffed, maybe even jealous! After all, Sandy knew that Shirley had known Courage longer than her. Courage took a deep breath and decided to end this conversation.
"It's not like we anything going on between us," said Courage quickly.
"You don't?" asked Sandy to Shirley.
To their surprise, Shirley actually laughed. "Ha ha! No, I don't think I'm interested in anything like that."
Sandy breathed a short sigh of relief. Courage breathed an even deeper sigh.
Suddenly, Kevin's voice could be heard. "Hey, guys! We found it! C'mon!"
Shirley, Sandy, and Courage found Darkest Moon and Kevin standing in front of an open door with a flight of stairs leading downward.
"Let's go," Kevin said.
It was dark down there. Courage whined until Kevin clicked on a light bulb. The room was filled with junk, like the attic.
Courage shrieked. He had found himself face to face with a moose! Luckily, it only turned out to be a moose head on a plaque.
Once Courage's heartbeat returned to normal, D.M. shouted, "Look!"
Everyone turned and saw the water heater. Nearby, a bunch of boxes stacked up in one corner of the cluttered room.
"Just like the riddle!" said Kevin. "Where the water heater waits…"
"…Lays a pile of empty crates!" finished D.M.
"Yeah!" said Kevin.
Since the crates were empty, the group tossed the crates aside with ease. Sandy happened to notice Kevin glancing at D.M. a couple times. She looked to see if Courage noticed, but he was too busy lifting crates to notice.
Finally, when all the boxes were moved, there lay a small passageway. Beyond it lay a larger room.
"C'mon!" said D.M. as she entered the passageway.
Sandy couldn't hold it in any longer, so she ran up to Kevin and whispered something in his ear.
"No, I don't like her," whispered Kevin. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Hey, Kev! C'mon," said D.M. Shirley was already heading in.
"She called you 'Kev'," grinned Sandy.
"Oh, cut it out," said Kevin, as he entered the tunnel with Courage.
"Your ears are turning red."
"They are not. Not stop that," said Kevin…with a small smile on his face.
At the other end, there was a tunnel that led to a wall on the other side. Torches lit the hall as vines hung down from the ceiling. The floor was also covered in palm leaves.
"Great," muttered Kevin. "More tunnels."
Seeing nothing else to do, Courage decided to show off a little...something to do to take his mind off all this creepiness. He ran to a vine and swung on it. Then he landed on the ground.
"Hey, Kev," said D.M. "What did the rest of the riddle say?"
"Uh…something about 'the sand that's quick'…I think it means…"
Courage screamed the moment everyone said "quicksand." Everyone looked at Courage and gasped. He was up to his knees in quicksand that was hidden by the palm leaves!
"Courage!" yelled Sandy. She ran a couple feet before she stopped herself from nearly entering the quicksand herself.
"Don't move, Courage!" yelled Kevin. He turned to D.M. "What do we do?"
"Look!" said Shirley. She pointed to a ledge that ran along the wall just over the quicksand. They ran along the ledge, but Courage was just out of reach.
"Wait! I've got an idea!" said Kevin. "D.M., gimme your bat!"
D.M. gave the bat to Kevin and was shocked when he tossed the bat to Courage.
"What'd you do that for?" she asked.
"Trust me. Hey, Courage!" Kevin yelled. "Lie on your bat and put the bat under you back. You'll stay on the surface of the sand."
As Courage followed the instructions, Kevin told the others, "I read it in a survival magazine."
Courage was now lying on his back and reaching out towards Kevin. He was still just out of reach. As a last resort, Kevin grabbed Shirley and held her out to Courage.
"Grab Shirley's hand!" yelled Kevin.
Courage did and Kevin pulled the dog in with all his might. Courage had just enough time to grab D.M.'s bat as he reached the ledge and fell into Sandy's waiting arms.
"Wow," said D.M. who grabbed her bat. "That was close."
"Let's go," said Kevin. He and his group carefully made their way over the ledge until they reached the other side. "The last part of the riddle said, 'look for hands that tick and turn.' Well, that's easy. It's a clock!"
"Like that one?" asked Shirley.
Embedded in the stone wall was a clock face that had stopped long ago.
"What now?" asked D.M. who pressed her hand against the clock.
To everyone's surprise, the clock sunk into the wall, which triggered another secret passageway. This one opened up into a…
"A water slide?" asked Kevin in disbelief.
Running perpendicular from the tunnel was yet another water slide. This one was big enough for everyone to fit in at once.
"Well…I guess we'd better…" said D.M.
"Aright! Slip-and-slide time!" said Kevin. He hadn't been on a water slide in ages. Without thinking, he grabbed D.M.'s hand and yanked her into the slide with him. The two of them landed on their backs and slid down the slide, D.M. screaming all the way.
The three dogs stared at each other for a second, then, with Sandy holding Courage and Shirley in each paw, they jumped into the slide and slid down after D.M. and Kevin.