A/N: Don't really have much more to say on this note. I do want to share that I always listen to soundtracks from Amnesia The Dark Descent on loop when I read and write most of this story. Specifically, there's a great YouTube video called "6+ Hours of Amnesia Music for Studying/Relaxing" and it was uploaded by YouTuber "The Anatomy of Fear". The music is WONDERFUL as it is haunting and soothing at the same time, perfect for a story like this. DEFINITELY worth checking out ;)

Chapter 9: Shirley's Tale

"No wrap? Well, that is just too bad," Shirley said as they sat in her trailer drinking strong green tea. Courage had already babbled to her exactly what happened after she correctly guessed that Noel was in danger.

"What exactly is happening?" Courage asked.

"You don't want to know dog. Trust me, it is just best for you to move on from your friend. From my understanding, you two have had some rough patches, yes? Indulge onto those moments, hate him, and try to move on."

Courage was beyond enraged.

"Atteteteta minnena ablububu burafu!" Courage spat with fire.

"Dog, I am sorry, but your former friend cannot be saved," Shirley said. "He is in too hot of water trust me. It'll cause you FAR less pain to just forget about him."

"But WHY?! For the love of god, please tell me why!" Courage begged.

"I am so sorry dog, but someone like you will kill themself if you had the information you desire. I am sparing your life, trust me dog!"

"What life?!" Courage started to sob. "A life spent in nothing but loneliness?" He pulled his ears and cried some more recalling all of the times he spent in dark corners, so lonely, yet too scared to go anywhere else. "What's a life worth living if I'm constantly yearning for a companion? I finally found one after all of this time. Did he take some getting used to? Yeah! But I made a promise to him. A promise that I'll never leave him in the dark, as long as he doesn't leave me." He looked up at a sad Shirley (which was a VERY rare sight). "And if he's in the dark, I'll find him. And if we can't leave, that's where we'll be. At least we'll have each other." He cried again.

Shirley watched him cry again. A single tear ran slowly down her left eye and was making its way across her muzzle. She quickly wiped it away when she realized that she was actually crying too. Courage, who was still sobbing, didn't seem to notice. But this was the first time anything had triggered such an emotional reaction out of Shirley, at least in a long time. And even though Courage didn't see Shirley cry, he still saw the heartbreak in her face after he looked back up at her. She got up and sat right next to him and patted his back.

"Okay, dog," she said in a quiet voice. Her voice slightly trembled, not only with emotion, but out of fear. Courage picked up on this and it deeply disturbed him. He was scared of what she was about to tell him. She took a deep breath.

"I didn't tell you two the truth earlier," she said in that quiet voice again.

"What?" Courage couldn't believe it.

"About Noel's parents," Shirley said. "And I believe he's meeting their fate as we speak."

"Ohh no!" said Courage. "Where is he? What's going on?!"

"He was taken," she continued. "They all were. They were taken by a very dangerous being. He resides within the realms he stole."

"He?" Courage asked, trembling in fear.

"Devius," Shirley said. "That is what he's always called himself and therefore what we all call him."

"We all?" Courage asked again.

"The Thaumagi," she finished. "We were trained to work with and assist The Keepers of The Realms in guarding the realms from evil and domination. We are basically indentured wizards and 'arts of Thaumagus' is the fancy name for magic. There's not very many of us left because Devius has killed most of us off. He wants all of the realms to himself, and if he succeeds, he'll be the most powerful being in the Thaumagus arts and will have the keys to this realm, 'Hic et Nunc', which means 'Here and Now'. But he recently found a way to banish The Keepers into outerspace and incapacitate their ability to guard the realms. It's been up to the remaining Thaumagi to guard the realms, but he is tearing us to shreds and winning the battle. It's only a matter of time before he comes back."

"Comes back?" Courage asked again, shaking uncontrollably in fear. "What, has he visited you or something?!"

"He and I go way back," Shirley admitted. "He's visited me a few times to rub his progress in my face to both annoy me and strike me with fear, and he's succeeded in both. He is my archenemy more than I am his, but he knows this and will come for me last after I've suffered such grief and fear from him. I may hate him, but he's always been rather clever, that snake!"

"How exactly do you guys go way back?" Courage asked silently.

"He was one of us," Shirley replied. "A Thaumagi (wizard), just like me. The Keepers caught wind of a possibly great threat to the realms. They said that evil had been given a consciousness and a life. They feared that this being may have already been too powerful so they made haste with recruiting many apprentices to master the arts of Thaumagus to create an army of Thaumagi. When I went into training, so did Devius. He was a black beagle dog and seemed very friendly, quite wisecracky, and very hilarious."

Courage cringed upon hearing that this monster was somehow the same breed of dog as him.

"We started when we were young and were actually best friends for a while," Shirley smiled as she recalled this. "We helped each other study and practice our magic. We blew all the other kids out of the water. We were always the top two no matter what we did. Sometimes I'd be number one and sometimes he was, but we were always feeding off of each other's enthusiasm and motivation." Her smile faded.

"But it was much different when we were older. We were all assigned specifically to one of the five keepers as a master for direct apprenticeship. We were both assigned "Laedus The Supreme", a great soul and the main spokesman of The Keepers because there was a considerable margin between us and everybody else. And ever since we were assigned to Laetus The Supreme, we were ALWAYS competing. Devius took studying more seriously than I did and was soon consistently the best at everything. While he was trying to be the best he could possibly be, I was busy building a closer relationship with Laetus The Supreme. I lost my parents as a pup to CDV in a puppy poverty camp and Laetus became the closest thing to a father I ever had. And after growing up with Devius, he was almost like the brother I never had. But after some time, I tried to keep up with him and was able to make second best at everything. However, there was now a greater margin between us and everybody else."

Shirley briefly smiled with pride.

"But everybody loved Devius, and Devius was always so rude to me. It was always behind Laetus The Supreme's back however and the other keepers never knew either. This lasted for years. But Devius still found ways to improve his skills exponentially at a rate WAY faster than my own. The margin between us grew and I began to almost fear what he was capable of. And his hostility towards me only seemed to get worse. This went on for years until one dreadful night."

Shirley paused to wipe her eye. Courage saw her tear this time and felt bad for her. He reached over to pat her back and she stopped him with her free arm without even lifting her head. Soon after that awkward encounter, she raised her head to resume the story.

"We were in our quarters that night, trying to sleep as usual. We shared quarters with Laetus The Supreme, but he rarely slept so that he could keep an eye on the realms. He'd brew these potions that'd keep him awake, but he'd still require sleep anyway. And every now and then he'd come in to sleep way after we were off and he'd be up way before we were up. But one night he came in to sleep, and I was awakened by the sound of Devius talking to himself in broken Latin. When I awoke, he was standing over Laetus The Supreme, watching him sleep with a sharp, sinister smile. I then watched his silhouette as his arm shifted shape into a dark blade. I knew that blade, it was the blade I've seen only in my nightmares. It was a blade of pure evil, and I should have known then and there who he really was. I sprang up out of bed but it was too late. He had stabbed Laetus The Supreme in his belly and he spat blood all over himself. I tackled Devius and we engaged in a mystical battle. I tried my hardest, dog, I really did. But my old 'friend' had grown too powerful. After downing me for good, he sliced into where my spleen is located, and sucked my Thaumagi powers right out of me."

"Then, he went over to Laetus The Supreme, who was miraculously still alive, and revealed to everybody how 'foolish' we all were. We were so paranoid by the evil with a consciousness and entirely overestimated it. We were so stupid, that we invited it in and raised it as our own and gave it the tools it needed to destroy everyone. And he said not only did it become our very best, but because of us, it is about to become more powerful than it ever was in any of our nightmares. Laetus The Supreme managed to choke out the question of what he was talking about. Devius then revealed to us that he WAS 'it' and thanked him for teaching him how to destroy everyone. Then he finished the job and Laetus The Supreme was no more. Only a blade of pure, concentrated evil could pierce the skin or fur of one of The Keepers. And the final blow was right into the side of his neck, where I watched blood flow freely from his mouth. And Devius made me watch, that sick bastard made me watch!"

Courage swiftly took that opportunity to pat her on the back. This was enough to temporarily pull her from her grief.

"Sorry," she apologized before continuing. "But he'd say, 'Look what you did to father,' and 'Too bad you couldn't save him,'. After beating me senseless and mind torturing me for some time, he then started to slowly slice me up with that god-forsaken blade."

Shirley stood up right in front of Courage and for the first time ever, she took off her cloak right in front of him. Her body was irregularly shaped, likely from a result of skeletal injury. But sure enough, she was COVERED in nasty looking scars.

"But he started way up here-," she said as she turned around and pointed at the back of her neck. There was a LARGE scar running from the back of her neck, down her back, and all the way to the end of her tail. "-and ended way down below," she pointed at her tail. And just like the front, her back side was completely littered with disturbing cuts and scars.

Even though he felt TERRIBLE for Shirley, as much as he hated to admit it, it creeped him out immensely to suddenly see Shirley "naked" like this for the first time. But then he thought about himself and looked down at his own body. He remembered that he's always been "naked" everywhere he went and it was never weird until now. Feeling a little self conscious about it, he quickly covered up his pelvic area with his arms in front of him. But since he had to lean forward, his tail and rear end were now exposed too and he had to move around a lot before he finally gave up trying to cover up.

"I live every single day with these scars-," she continued turning back around, "-and I know that he'll be back one day to add one more here." She ran a paw from one end of her neck to the other. "But after he was done torturing me, he realized that there was a whole realm currently being left unguarded. It also just so happened that it was The Realm of The Dead, the easiest realm to rule maliciously. And once you have one realm, you gain even more power and it is much easier to take over the rest. And once he has them all, he'll come to the most guarded one, which is here. And when that happens, our fate will entirely be up to him. And in other words, it won't be pretty." After Shirley finished talking, she bent down, picked up her cloak, and slipped back into it.

Once her cloak was back on, Courage then felt silly about feeling a little self conscious earlier. But the scars still burned heavily in his mind as she sat back down next to him.

"So," she said. "The danger that your friend is in is very real. I do not know why Devius has taken such an interest in him, but it cannot be good. He DID take his parents away right after he was born, so maybe he is 'special' in some way and Devius sees him as some sort of threat or something."

Courage felt very nauseous as he was overwhelmed with the fear of losing Noel and their friendship, which he yearned for now more than ever. He had to find some way to rescue him and live a peaceful, fear-free life afterwards. He just HAD to! And if Devius kills Noel, then he'd go to Devius to get slain by him too to join Noel wherever he was. But then Courage remembered a very important question.

"Where exactly did he take Noel?" He asked in fear.

"He took him to The Realm of Emptiness," replied Shirley. "I have been there and let me tell you, it is not a fun place, especially if you have emotional issues." She smiled a little bit after that last part.

"Hey!" Courage fired.

"Don't get hurt, dog," she replied sincerely. "That was no joke. I like you, dog, and that is one of the reasons why I'm not letting you go there.

Courage was crushed again. "But, but-," he tried to argue.

"You see!" exclaimed Shirley. "This is what I was talking about earlier. I tell you where, you go, you get yourself killed in a painful way. I am sorry that there's no other way. This is exactly why I lied and told y'all that they were dead in the first place. Devius has had them all of these years. And if y'all knew that, then you two would have dove head first into something that could kill more than just you two."

"Well then let me remind you,-" Courage said standing up directly in front of where she is sitting, "-that I'm okay with dying if that's an option. Either way, if he dies, then I die too. If I can't save him, then I won't let him die alone."

"But what about your Muriel?" Shirley asked, now trying frantically to change Courage's mind.

"She'll be okay," Courage reassured. "We haven't seen anything in AGES. Hell I'm not even with her right now!"

Shirley put a paw to her face and grimaced. "Mucho loco!" she silently groaned between teeth. "Alright dog, I'll help you."

"YES!" Courage exclaimed and then hugged Shirley tightly. But when he sunk right into her cloak and he felt him hugging her weirdly shaped body, he jumped back.

"Haha, get off," Shirley said unamused.

Courage laughed rather embarrassedly.

"Come on, dog," Shirley said as she was already at the door before Courage even knew it.

Courage followed and then they were off back to the alley.

-o0o-

"So, what happened after Devius left?" Courage asked, walking beside her. They were just entering Nowhere.

"There were four keepers left. There was Charismus The Kind, Aletheus The Honest, Deacus The Selfless, and Andreus The Brave. All of them sacrificed pieces of their Thaumagi powers to try to replenish what Devius stole from me. They then proclaimed that my training was complete and I could return to Here and Now. Then I became a "gypsy" as you guys call them so that I could use my magic for good while still helping defend the arts of Thaumagus and the rest of the realms as well as slow Devius's storm."

"Woah," Courage exclaimed. "Is that what you were doing when Noel and I arrived earlier?"

"Oh, that? Noooo! Hahaha!" Shirley genuinely giggled. "Us Thaumagi still need to have fun sometimes too, eh?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Courage was creeped out.

"Something I do wonder though,-" Shirley continued. "-is if Noel's parents are in The Realm of Emptiness too? They were all snatched in the same alleyway so maybe it took them all to the same place. But yet again, Devius could have moved them somewhere else. I'll tell you what. I'll try to live with the expectation that you two will survive and while you're in there I'll search around for more clues regarding the whereabouts of his parents and hopefully find out what's making Noel so attractive to Devius. And while we're on the subject of parents, you know the fate of your's correct?"

"Yes," Courage said, briefly and depressingly.

"Well, is there anything you want to do about it?" Shirley asked after a little more silence..

"What good would it do?" Courage asked.

"Maybe so that you can get a good chance to visit for a bit," Shirley offered.

Courage shook at the thought of him talking to his dead parents as resurrected zombies or something. He'd give ANYTHING to talk to them again, but he almost knows for a fact that Shirley's offer would end in disaster or heartbreak.

Shirley managed to read his expression and managed to stop pressing.

After a little more walking in silence, the alleyway came into view. As they entered the alleyway, Courage whined in dread of what happened there earlier and feared that place now more than ever. As he looked all around him, he accidentally bumped into Shirley from behind from walking backwards. As Shirley tripped a little, she stepped in something. It was the wrap! A huge smile spread across her face as she bent down to pick it up and put it somewhere in her cloak.

"Yuck!" Courage exclaimed.

"Okay dog, stand there," she said, pointing right in front of the same dumpster from earlier.

As Courage drew nearer and nearer to the dumpster he thought about all of the history this very dumpster had witnessed. From the birth of Noel and the kidnapping of his parents, to the kidnapping of Noel earlier and whatever the hell was about to happen to Courage. This dumpster has seen it all!

"Now," Shirley said, trying to hand Courage a strange bottle of red fluid.

"What is that?" Courage asked on edge.

"It's Thaumagi blood, and you are going to drink it," she responded.

"Wait, what?!" Courage couldn't believe it. "I'm not drinking blood!"

"Uh, yes you are," said Shirley sternly.

"No I'm n-," Courage was interrupted as someone grabbed him from behind and forced something in his mouth. He noticed almost immediately that it was Shirley, but my god why was she so strong?! He tried to yell in protest, but he kept coughing on the blood being forced down his throat.

"Shhh don't talk, and don't yell," Shirley apathetically demanded. "You'll choke if you do."

When Courage finally decided to give in to Shirley and drink the blood obediently, he noticed that it tasted just like cherry limeade. It was like a thick, but kind of cold, cherry limeade. It was very tasty and even after the bottle was empty and Shirley let him go, he continued to lick the inside of it. And while she reached into her cloak for something else, she smiled at Courage licking the inside of the bottle clean.

"I take it you like the taste of Thaumagi blood, huh?" she ridiculed him.

Courage suddenly remembered what was in the bottle, and threw it and spat in disgust.

Shirley laughed at him. "We used some magic to tweak how our taste buds interpreted the taste of it because we used to do so many rituals that required the drinking of Thaumagi blood. Then we'd look forward to it ever since." Then she pulled out some weird looking plants that bore a similar resemblance to celery. Only it was a GIANT piece of like-celery.

"Great, are you going to grab me from behind and force that giant thing down my throat again or what?" Courage said, still upset about the blood.

"No," Shirley replied. "Shut up and hold still."

"Okay," Courage responded.

Courage cringed as he watched Shirley slam that giant thing right on top of her own little head for it to snap right in two. A bunch of clear juice leaked out and it soaked most of Shirley. She then approached Courage and rubbed some of it on top of his forehead. He felt super uncomfortable at that moment as he knew the ritual was starting and soon he'd be in Devius's domain without backup. As Shirley returned about 5 yards across from Courage, she bowed her head, put her paws together, and started speaking some ritual chant or something.

"Custodes Oblivionis

Deprecor beneficium

Projice hanc animam coram me

In Regnum Inanitas"

A massive blue swirly thing suddenly appeared right before Courage. This HAD to be a portal!

"Woah!" Courage yelled. "How did you do that?"

"Have I mentioned that I've been there before?" Shirley asked.

"Uh, yeah," Courage replied feeling dumb. "And what crazy language was that?!"

"Oh that? That was just some broken Latin. The English language was partially built off of it like many others," Shirley said.

"Oh," Courage felt stupid again. "Well, I guess this is it."

"Dog," Shirley spoke with genuine concern. "Do be careful in there. Devius could very well not be the worst thing you encounter in there."

Her words scared Courage, but he wasn't going to back down now!

"I'm prepared for a one-way trip if that's what it takes," he said with as much bravery as he could muster.

"Okay, dog, okay. Just be careful, I don't want to think of what a place like that will do to someone like you."

Courage decided to hug her, probably for the last time. He didn't care about her protests or anything. But what surprised him was when Shirley's arms wrapped around him too and he felt her lean her head into his.

"Thank you, Shirley, for everything you've ever done for me," Courage said with a choke up voice.

"Good luck, dog," Shirley replied with a sad voice too. "I hope you find what you're looking for, one way or another."

When they broke the hug, Courage gave her a sad smile. Shirley gave him a nod and a tear fell from her eye to the ground when she did that. Then she gave Courage a pat on the back and one last farewell.

As Courage stared into the blue portal, he could see ABSOLUTELY nothing but slightly changing shades of the similar shade of blue. He cautiously stuck his left arm in first. It was very cold. He lifted it back out and his paw was fine. Then he closed his eyes, took one final breath, and jumped in.

End of Chapter

A/N: I was so excited about introducing our main, but one of many antagonists in this story. I was also excited about revealing more about Noel's parents and Shirley's backstory. Also sorry about flashing Shirley like that and making it kinda weird LOL!. I thought "naked Shirley" would make a fun addition to this story. Also it'll PROBABLY be some time until I publish the next chapter. I haven't written this next arc yet and I did a LOT of typing today so…