Courage opened his sleepy eyes and sighed. It was just past midnight and he was having trouble going to sleep. It wasn't as if he wasn't dead tired. Poor courage was very sleepy but, something just seemed wrong tonight and he couldn't make his sleepy eyes stay shut. It had been this way all week - an uneasy feeling of something wrong in the air. Up until tonight Courage had just ignored the feeling but now he found himself feeling anxious and worried. After another hour of being unable to fall asleep, the pink dog decided to go downstairs to get himself a drink of water. He carefully got up from the bed he shared with his owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, and slipped quietly out the bedroom door. Courage shivered as he made his way down the hallway to the stairs. The house felt strangely creepy tonight and the anxious feeling was buzzing inside his stomach like a swarm of angry bees.

As Courage got further down the stairs, the anxious feeling kept getting worse and, by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs he found his hair standing on end. Slowly, he moved forward, one paw sliding up the wall feeling for the light switch. But instead of finding the lightswitch, his paw found a spiderweb. Courage jumped about two feet into the air landing in several pieces on the ground. One paw bounced around until it found the wall then pulled itself up the wall until it found the lightswitch. Suddenly the room was filled with the comforting glow of the overhead light.

Courage pulled himself together and stood up with a nervous giggle at how silly he had been to be afraid of a little thing like a spiderweb. Still, even with the warm glow of the light, he found himself feeling very nervous. "Get a hold of yourself!" he said out loud as he made his way to the kitchen door. He reached in to turn on the light before entering the room.

Courage slowly tip-toed over to the sink unable to understand why he was being so careful to be quiet wondering exactly what it was that was making him feel so afraid. He reached up to the cabinet and found a plastic cup then filled it with water from the sink. He was enjoying a good long drink when a voice startled him so badly that he found himself stuck to the ceiling like a frightened cat!

"Courage, what are ye doin' up so late?" Courage pried his claws out of the ceiling falling to the floor with a soft thud. He was relieved to see Muriel standing in the kitchen doorway. He gave Muriel a toothy grin as he picked up the plastic cup that he had dropped on the ground. Muriel chuckled and grabbed a dishtowel to clean the water up off the floor. "I didn't mean to startle you Courage. I was just having trouble getting to sleep and was wondering where you had gone to." Courage wagged his tail at Muriel. Her kind, gentle voice always made him feel better and it was good to know that he wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping. It did worry him a little that he wasn't the only one who seemed to be feeling a little anxious and scared tonight. He noticed Muriel's hands shaking as she returned the towel to the rack to dry.

Muriel made some hot cocoa then the two of them went into the living room. Muriel settled down in her rocking chair with Courage curled up in her lap and turned on the television. Courage contently sipped his hot cocoa feeling much more safe and secure curled up in Muriel's lap in the well lit livingroom. He was dozing off when a strange feeling of fear overcame him. Courage woke with a start to find Muriel asleep. The tv was strangely quiet although the movie that Muriel had been watching was still on the screen. The whole room felt strange and he wondered for a moment if he might be dreaming. A noise behind him let him know that he was awake. Courage jumped off of Muriel's lap waking her up. The pink dog landed with a frightened thud, his eyes searching the room for the source of the sound, then melted on the floor with a sigh of relief as he realized that the sound was just Eustace coming down the stairs.

Muriel turned toward the stairs and looked up at Eustace. "We're ye having trouble sleeping too Eustace?"

Eustace just nodded and motioned toward the cup on the table next to Muriel's rocking chair. "What's that?"

"It's hot cocoa, want some? I made plenty."

Eustace headed toward the kitchen. "I'll get it myself." He returned a moment later with a large cup in his hand. He sat down in his chair taking a long sip of the cocoa before setting the cup down on the table next to him. "What's on the tv?

Muriel looked up at the screen and seemed confused for a moment as she tried to remember what she had been watching before she fell asleep. "It was a movie about some people living in a small town out in the country. I can't remember the name..." Muriel's voice trailed off as she suddenly realized that the television was still on but silent as a commercial showed on the screen. "That's funny. What happened to
the sound?"

Eustace glared down at Courage. "Stupid dog, go see what's wrong with the tv!"

Courage, who was still standing on the floor by Muriel's feet, looked up at Eustace then over at the television set before walking over and playing with the knobs on the front of the machine trying to get some sound out of it. Finally, Courage looked back at Muriel and Eustace and shrugged. He was making his way across the rug to Muriel's chair when the sound came blaring back on. Courage lept onto Muriel's lap and sat there shivering with the sudden fright.

Eustace and Muriel both stared at the tv. "Now that was odd." Muriel said almost cheerfully. Eustace got up to go take a look at the television set grumbling something under his breath. He stopped in his tracks as the television suddenly went off then came back on again. Courage turned white and huddled in Muriel's arms as Muriel let out a startled, "Oh my!"

Eustace just stood there in the middle of the room glaring at the tv screen. "Oh great, another thing for me to fix." he grumbled angrily as he watched the television for a moment to make sure that it was going to say on before returning to his chair.

Muriel looked over at him. "Eustace, something strange is going on around here. None of us can sleep, Courage is jumpy and scared, and even I am feeling a little nervous. And now the tv is acting up."

Eustace finished off the rest of his cocoa and set the cup down on the table next to his chair. "Ain't nothing strange going on Muriel. That dog is always scared of something or other. I don't know why neither of us can sleep but it could be all that vinegar you used in the casserole this evening. The television is just broke like all the other stuff around here that I got to fix."

Muriel didn't seem too convinced. "I hope you're right Eustace, but I don't know. I've had this nervous feeling for the last few days now and I swear something doesn't seem right."

"Blah, blah, blah. Don't get all crazy on me woman. There's nothing wrong around here. Just your nerves." Eustace turned his attention toward the tv screen as the news came on. Even though he said that nothing was wrong, Eustace didn't seem in any hurry to turn off the lights and go to bed. All three of them stayed in the living room the rest of the night.