Courage quietly made his way up the stairs to his attic room and began to look for something in his pocket. After a couple of minutes, he pulled out a piece of metal with some writing on it. He was shaking so bad that he could barely read the words but he forced himself to calm down enough to read the spell out loud. He nervousely pace the room and waited. Soon the room was filled with several small lights and one larger light that slowly took the form of 13 ghostly children and their schoolteacher, Mr. Worth.
The children happily surrounded Courage who was wagging his tail enjoying the attention. Finally, all the the children had said hello to Courage and everybody settled down.
Mr. Worth smiled down at Courage. "Hello, Courage!"
Courage wagged his tail happy to see his friend. He was about to try to explain the strange events and the scary shadowy figure when the alarm on the front door went off. Courage raced toward the staircase followed by the tall ghost who motioned for the children to stay in the attic room.
When Courage got half-way down the staircase, he saw that the front door was wide open! Both Muriel and Eustace were standing in the middle of the livingroom frozen in fear as a dark shadowy figure loomed in the doorway!
"Oh my --- !" Mr. Worth grabbed Courage and pulled him back up the staircase and shoved him into the attic room. "Stay here!" the ghost commanded then left the room. Courage could hear a commotion downstairs. He tried to get out the attic door to protect Muriel but was held back by the children.
After what seemed like a lifetime, Mr. Worth returned. "It's gone."
"What about Muriel and Eustace?" Courage's words were understood clearly by the ghost.
"They're okay. Just frightened."
"Courage!" Muriel's voice frantically called from the living room. Courage ran downstairs to let her know that he was okay. Eustace was busy trying to get the front door to close but it was badly broken.
Eustace looked down at Courage. "Don't just stand there, get my tools from the hall closet."
Courage ran over to the hall closet, grabbed the toolbox and took it to Eustace. Eustace opened the toolbox taking out a hammer and some nails. Soon the front door was nailed back together and Eustace was able to get it to shut again. Muriel sat back down in her rocking chair but it was obvious from the look of fear on her face that she was not going back to sleep. Eustace went to check on the kitchen door then returned to his chair.
"What was that thing, Eustace!" Muriel's voice was trembling as she spoke.
"I wish I knew." Eustace said quietly, "Maybe it was just some wierdo in a costume trying to scare us."
"Should we call the police?"
Eustace shook his head. "The police probably too busy answering all the calls from the other people that wierdo has been scaring."
Muriel thought about it. "Eustace, if that was a person, then how did he get from Nowhere to here so quickly? I didn't hear any car or anything when he left."
Eustace thought it over carefully before answering. "Who knows, maybe he parked his car down the road a bit. Whoever it is is gone now so let's try and forget about this for a while okay, Muriel? There has got to be something on tv." Eustace turned his attention toward the tv hoping that Muriel didn't notice that he was visibly shaking. It was true, whatever it was that had broken the door did not have a car. Eustace was certain of that because he had listened for a car engine to let him know that the person had left. But instead of a car, he heard something that sounded like giant wings flapping.
Muriel had turned her attention toward the televison and was changing the channels trying to find something to watch. Soon, both Muriel and Eustace were watching a movie. This gave Courage the chance to sneak back upstairs to the attic.
When he got back into the attic room, Mr. Worth was standing in the middle of the room. The children had formed a circle around him and were chanting something. Courage listened to the chant. It was different than the prayer of protection that he had heard the children chant before but somehow it made the room feel safer. After a few minutes the children stopped chanting. Some of them moved to various corners of the room as if standing guard while the others sat down in the middle of the room to rest.
Mr. Worth called Courage over to where he was standing. "How long has that thing been here?"
Courage thought for a moment then went over to the computer that sat in the corner of the room and turned it on. A few seconds later a sarcastic sound voice came from the computer. "What do you want?" Courage ignored the voice and began to type. Soon the computerized voice had explained about the events of the last few days, Eustace's bad dreams, the trip to Nowhere, the strange things that had happened at the park, the strange events in Nowhere, and everything that had happened that night.
The ghost listened intently to every word then moved over to stare out the window for a few moments "I can't say for certain what that thing that broke down your door was, but I do know it was very powerful and definately evil."
Courage looked up at the ghost then turned back to the computer and began to type again. "That thing has been seen in Nowhere and all the way out here. Do you think there could be more than one of them?"
Mr. Worth thought it over. "It's possible. Can you tell me exactly what the news reports said?"
Courage had a better idea. A quick search on the internet turned up the website for Nowhere's news channel. On the front page of the website were several stories of sightings of a strange shadowy figure. Two people said that it appeared that this strange person or creature had wings. Courage shivered when he read this. He looked up at the ghost and tried to think as loudly as he could while he spoke. "I saw that thing in our yard earlier tonight. I think it does have wings."
Mr. Worth concentrated on Courage, reading the dog's mind while listening carefully to what Courage was saying. "Are you sure?"
Courage shrugged. "It looked like it had wings but it was too dark to get a good look at it."
The tall ghost considered what courage had said. "Courage, can you show me what you saw?"
"Uh-huh!" Courage got up from the chair and after a moment turned himself into a perfect likeness of what he saw.
The children all turned a pale white - much paler than their normal color. Mr. Worth just stared at Courage then collapsed into the chair in front of the computer. The ghost's voice was shaky and barely audible. "I wasn't completely sure when I saw it in your doorway earlier. It was standing back and I couldn't get a good look at it. I sensed the evil so I didn't want to go any closer." The ghost rose to his feet and moved to the window then paced back to the center of the room and sat down on the floor motioning the children to come sit by him. Finally he looked up at Courage. "I have never run into a demon before so I cannot be absolutely sure that the thing that is terrorizing the town and the thing that broke your door down is a demon but ... " The ghost's voice trailed off.
Courage shrugged. He had seen a demon once before. In fact, Muriel had been possessed by one. It was a little scary but they were able to get rid of the demon even if Eustace had been possessed in the process. He went to the computer and started typing.
Mr. Worth listened to the computer voice and then shook his head. "What I saw out there is very powerful, Courage and I doubt it would be so easy to get rid of."
One of the little girls spoke up. "Why do you think that thing is here, Mr. Worth? I mean, why is it scaring everybody?"
Mr. Worth shrugged. "I don't know Dianne."
"Why did it just leave instead of coming in?" one of the little boys asked.
"Good question, Stephen. That was strage that it just stood there in the doorway for a few moments then just backed away and left."
"Do you think it might have been scared of you?" another one of the boys asked.
Mr. Worth shook his head. "I doubt it Andrew. That thing is way to powerful to worry about me. In fact, that thing could easily overpower me."
All of the children stared wide-eyed at their teacher. Finally Stephen asked, "What are we going to do? If we stay here to help Courage, it might destroy us all but we can't just leave Courage and his family here alone!"
The teacher sighed.. "There is no safe place with that demon out there so it would be useless to leave anyway because there is nowhere to run to. We could go back to the tomb but if that thing becomes powerful enough, then the first place it will look for wandering spirits is the graveyard. We cannot go up to the mountain because we would be sitting ducks up there. The only thing we can do is stay here until we come up with a plan. Believe it or not, this house is actually one of the safest places we can stay at the moment. The demon doesn't seem to want to enter the house so I don't think it will come in here after us - at least not for a while anyway."
Courage looked at his friends then down at the ground. He never intended to put them in any danger. He felt awful for calling his friends into this nightmare.
Mr. Worth looked over at Courage and, after reading the little dog's mind, he called the little dog over and looked him in the eye. "Courage, this is not your fault. We would have ran into that demon sooner or later even if you hadn't summoned us for help. It is better that we are all together right now. There is safety in numbers even when nobody feels safe."
"Courage?" Muriel's voice echoed up the stairway.
"I wonder if we should let her know that we're here?" one of the girls asked.
Mr. Worth nodded. "It might make her feel safer if she knows that we're here. Courage, call Muriel up here."
Courage peeked his head out the door and called to Muriel. A few seconds later, Muriel timidly made her way up the stairs and stepped into the attic room.