So I'm just gonna say real quick, this is one of my favorite episodes of season 1. The bulk of the episode is frightening and has a, not only happy ending but an uplifting on too. You really can't help but feel happy about it. If you haven't seen the episode, I highly recommend you watch it before reading this. It's one of those episodes that needs to be experienced first. Then again, that's how it is with most episodes of this show.
The moon. For some people, it's simply a beautiful celestial body dwelling among the stars of the night sky. To others, it's simply a hunk of rock floating out in the middle of space. And for others... it's simply another desire to be had.
Sure money can buy you a lot in life. A huge house, maybe some fancy cars, servants. Just about anything you want. But not everything in life be be obtained so easily and there are those who simply reject that notion.
Not too far from the town of Nowhere sat the mansion of one of the richest men in Kansas. Simple, yet extravagant at the same time. The owner needing nothing but his money and his earthly desires. However, there were times where liked to view the things he desired that were beyond the Earth.
Gazing through his telescope in his private observatory, he looked up at the moon in all of it's glory as it shined in the dark night sky. An item he was desperate to obtain, but had no ability to obtain. Didn't stop him from dreaming though, no matter how impossible it seemed.
With one eye still on the moon he began to address his butler standing behind him.
"Ah! The moon looks good enough to buy Jennings. What a nice addition it would make to my collection," he said boastfully.
Jennings was less amused than his boss was and simply said, "Yes indeed sir. But some things are just not for sale."
The older man, clearly not used to such words took great offense and turned back to his butler.
"Everything is for sale Jennings. EVEN PEOPLE!" the old man said venomously.
Jennings mood suddenly deflated and sadly added, "Y-yes sir. Even people." He proceeded to leave the room.
The old man didn't calm down a bit and continued his venomous tirade by adding, "You should know that after fifty years with me."
Jennings looked back in as he was closing the door, but the old man wasn't finished with him yet.
"Oh and another thing Jennings. YOU'RE FIRED!" the old man said and began to laugh wildly.
He laughed to the point where his breath began to wheeze. Jennings could do nothing but sadly leave the room, dwelling on the fact that he was now without a job. That is until he heard a startled gasp coming from the room that he had just left and the gasp was then followed by a loud thud. The hoarse laughs had now become coughs and even through the door, Jennings could hear the old man struggling to breathe.
Then came the weak calls.
"Jennings!" called the old man desperately.
Jennings pondered for a moment if he should do something to help the old man. But as he thought about, he recalled that the old man that he had loyally served for several decades had just fired him without even a second thought. So without giving it a further thought himself, Jennings simply threw away his dishtowel and walked away from the door happily. Maybe he could help himself to a few of the old man's belongings before he left the manor for good.
Back inside the observatory, the old man shuddered, once again calling out for Jennings to help him. With one last shudder, the old man was still, breathing stop and then... he was no more.
The very second that the old man passed however, his shadow that bled across the observatory floor suddenly stirred and looked about the room excitedly. Like something he had been waiting for for so long had finally arrived.
The shadow smiled, waved his arms in the air and happily declared, "I'M FREE!"
Without missing a beat. He lept up from the spot where the old man's body lie and ventured off into the night.
Back in the town of Nowhere, it was a late Friday night so there were still a few people out and about, trying to enjoy their night. Some were trying to relax while others were trying to have a little bit of fun. But a certain shadow had little interest in the majority of the people that were out that evening. Right now, his fixation was at the town's ice cream shop. Or to be more precise, a little girl that was standing in the alley right near the ice cream shop.
She stood in the alleyway, happily licking her vanilla ice cream. No cares in the world and with nothing to fear. That is until a certain shadow began creeping up behind her. He didn't move slowly, but he moved quietly enough to where she couldn't even hear him coming. She was too focused on the confectionery in her hand. It wasn't until he stopped right behind her that she sensed that something was off.
She turned her head behind her and to her horror, a shadow in the form of a sharp toothed demon stood behind her and it let out a loud howl at her.
The little girl screamed in horror and ran away from the alley, dropping the ice cream behind her. The shadow laughed in triumph of his successful scare but, then turned his attention to the ice cream that the child had left on the ground and did the exact same thing he had done to the little girl to it. The ice cream shuddered as if it were alive and then it melted into a white puddle. The shadow continued to laugh in triumph... until the lightning flashed.
Not wanting to be caught in the middle of a storm, the shadow melted into the ground and dashed through the emptying streets. Searching for cover.
Outside of the town in a small farmhouse, Avery sat at her bedroom window and was gazing out at the sky. She had dressed for bed an hour earlier and had tried to fall asleep. But once she had heard the rumble of the approaching thunder, she had found the idea of falling asleep to be practically impossible.
Not that she was afraid of storms, on the contrary, she actually loved them. Ever sine she was a little girl, she had loved watching the storms as they came in from the ocean. And since she had lived in Florida for almost her entire life she had seen plenty of them in her short life. She couldn't sleep during them because she was always fascinated and excited by the flashes of the lightning, that flashed brighter than the fireworks on the Fourth of July and the clap of the thunder that was always louder than the rumble of the ocean.
Then the rain began to fall and the sound of the rainwater pelting against the glass of the window brought a swift gentleness to the ferocity of the storm it had originated from. The bracelet even seemed to quiver in time with the rumbles of thunder as they roared through the skies. Almost like it was sensing her excitement from the storm.
At this point, the bracelet didn't bother her that much anymore. It still felt alive, but it was a bit more relaxed than it had been the week before. Sometimes it felt like the thing tried to comfort her when she felt stressed, no matter what caused it. She still wasn't sure what to make of the thing, but if it kept up behavior like this then she was bound to figure the thing out sooner or later.
What she really wanted to do was crack the window and let a little breeze in. The nightgown she wore would no doubt make it feel a little cooler. Even though she wished that she still had her regular nightclothes with her, she'd grown accustomed to the nightclothes her aunt had given her. At this point she had tried them all on, except for the gaudy pink one that she would have gladly burned. But since it had belonged to her mother, she let it be. But to date, the white one she had worn on her first night was her favorite and so it had become her main one.
She sat back in the computer chair and was just starting to doze off, when she suddenly heard the sound of someone screaming inside the house.
"Wha was tha?" she said tiredly as she bolted upright in the chair and yawned.
It took her a moment to process it, but she began to realize that the scream she had just heard could have only come from one person.
Or dog in this case.
She stood up from the chair with a sigh and said, "Poor Courage. Storm must be scaring him."
She wanted to make sure that he was okay and walked out of the attic to go see if he needed comforting. But as she approached her aunt and uncle's room, they both came storming out of the room. Muriel carrying her rolling pin and Eustace had a baseball bat. They both rushed down the stairs with Courage leading the way.
Confused, Avery followed after them and watched from the top of the stairs as Eustace and Muriel turned on the lights and looked around the living room with their weapons raised high and their hands jittering. Yet there was no one in the room but them.
Courage stepped away from them and began to babble a little. Eustace however was NOT amused with having been woken up in the middle of the night and just glared at the dog.
"That's it. You're sleeping in the attic," he said angrily.
Eustace grabbed Courage and lifted him off of the ground as he proceeded up the stairs with him. Courage babbled more at him, but Eustace ignored his babbling. They walked right past Avery without a word as Muriel followed after them.
"Did I miss something?" Avery asked her.
Muriel shook her head and said, "Courage thought he saw a burglar was all. Guess the storm is just getting to him. You don't mind him staying with you tonight do you?"
Avery shook her head and said, "Of course not. He might feel a little safer with me anyway."
Muriel smiled and proceeded up the stairs as well. Avery followed after, turning off the lights as she passed the light switch. However, none of them were around to hear the crazed laughter of the entity that was now inside their house.
Back up in the attic, Avery was lying in bed with Courage lying at the foot of the bed with her. She was trying to get to sleep, but Courage was shivering violently. He must have still been convinced that there was something scary in the house. She raised her head and looked at him, starting to worry about him.
'Something is bothering the little guy,' she said in her head. 'Sometimes I wish I could look into his head and see what was going on in there.'
Suddenly Courage let out a frightened howl.
'Then again, some things are probably better off not known,' she added to her thoughts.
But as she lied her head back down to go back to sleep, she heard the sound of wicked laughter and this was followed by the sound of Courage screaming. She bolted up right in bed fast enough to see Courage running from the bed and running straight through the attic room door, leaving his outline in the door.
Avery would have waved it off as him being overly paranoid about the storm, but then she began to wonder. Where did that laughter come from? She got up from the bed and ran out of the room. This was when Eustace and Muriel arrived, once again armed with their weapons and ready to attack whatever they saw coming.
"Avery, are you okay dear?" Muriel asked worriedly.
Avery nodded and said, "Yeah I'm fine. What's going on?"
Eustace scooted her to the side and said, "Stay out of the way. If there's a burglar in there, I'll make him pay for getting in."
Before he went in then, he gave her a sideways glance. A glance that looked like that someone breaking in wasn't the only reason he wanted to pummel an intruder. Of course he still showed some anger towards Courage for breaking the door. Not that she could blame Eustace for that one.
Courage pulled at his ears, howled and then morphed into a monster so frightening that even seeing Courage himself morph into it made Avery jumped back in surprise and horror. At the sight of that, all four of them barged back into the room. Eustace even made sure to keep Avery behind him as they stormed in.
But instead of a monster, the four were met with a mostly empty room. Nothing in there but Avery's bed and the computer. Courage was distraught once more that evening.
"Now Courage, we're not going to be doing this all night are we?" Muriel scolded him and then walked out of the room.
Eustace however was less pleased and walked up to the dog with fury plastered on his face.
"What did I tell you? If you wake me up one more time, you'll be sleeping with the termites," Eustace threatened him with Courage looking even more fearful.
"Uncle Eustace, can you please calm down? He's freaked out enough as it is," Avery stated.
Eustace looked back at her and said, "The dog has to learn about consequences. You should know that."
He looked back at Courage and said, "So I'm giving one more chance to act like a real dog."
Courage lept at Eustace's foot and let out a whine that Avery couldn't help but find depressing. Eustace however was not amused and simply threw Courage off of his foot. As Courage landed on the floor in front of him, Eustace pulled out some large googly eyes and placed them on his head. Courage screamed and Avery could feel her anger beginning to rise. The bracelet on her wrist began to glow.
But before she or the bracelet could do anything, Muriel came rushing into the room and whacked Eustace on the head with her rolling pin. Whacked him HARD. The googly eyes falling off of his head and rolling across the ground.
Muriel picked up Courage and angrily stated, "Now YOU sleep in the attic. Avery, you can sleep in a cot in my room tonight."
Eustace was flabbergasted and wanted to argue, but Muriel walked out with Courage before he could say anything. Avery shot her uncle an angry glance and followed after, leaving Eustace alone to huff.
It took no time at all to set up a cot in Muriel's room and before Muriel and Courage were even asleep, Avery was curling up in the cot and was trying hard to go to sleep. She didn't even mind a couple of whine's from Courage. Looking up at him, she could tell that was having a hard time going to sleep. And since the storm was now past, she knew that couldn't be the thing bothering him now.
As she tried to lie her head back down, she heard something laughing madly and with a sudden chill, she felt something glide over her body. As darkness briefly glided over her eyes, she looked up at the wall and saw something dark sliding over the wall and then disappear behind the bed. Courage watched it as well and shivered and whined as he stood up on the bed and watched the thing disappear behind it.
'Is that what's spooking him?' she asked herself.
That was when Eustace burst into the room and began to strangle Courage. Muriel woke with a start and then whacked Eustace as she saw him strangling Courage. Eustace was undeterred and began to chase Courage as the dog made a run for it. Muriel chasing after in tow with her rolling pin.
"Not this again," Avery groaned.
Avery watched them run out and then looked back to the back of the bed. Then looked back at the door and then to the back of the bed. She wasn't sure what to make of the creature she had just seen, but hated leaving Courage to Eustace's wrath and leaving Eustace to Muriel's wrath. She was split between the two, but since she still wasn't sure about what she had seen she decided to stick with the thing she knew was real right now.
She jumped up from her cot and then dashed after the trio, not noticing the entity gliding up to the ceiling behind her and shooting past her. She did however look up just in time to see it glide along the wall and down the stairs. She came to a stop as she came to the top of the stairs and suddenly debated if she should go down there. She knew that she had just seen something moving about in the darkness and the thought of running towards it was a chilling one to her.
A few seconds later, she heard a loud CRACK come from the kitchen and she saw Muriel walking out and she was carrying Courage with her.
"What? What just happened?" Avery asked as Muriel came up the stairs.
Muriel walked past her and with a yawn she said, "Let's just go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning."
Avery looked back down the stairs and to the kitchen door. True she was tired, but at the same time knew that something was in the house with them. She certainly shouldn't leave her uncle alone with it. Must have been too late however, as a few seconds later his screams filled the house.
"AHHHHH!" came the scream.
Now she COULDN'T ignore it. She had to go see if he was okay, but her fear was beginning to freeze her to the spot. Thankfully, Courage came rushing back down the hall towards her. She didn't know why, but she always felt safer with him around and together they went back down the stairs and into the kitchen. But upon entering, they saw no sign of Eustace anywhere and instead they only found his hat lying in the middle of the floor. Courage gasped as he picked it up and Avery could tell that some frightening scenarios were running through his mind right now.
She always wondered what was thinking of, but in the back of her mind she always told herself that she would sleep better not knowing what he saw in his own head. Especially as he began to scream out of nowhere and run off. Avery tried grabbing for him, so that she could calm him down, but he was much too fast for her.
Courage ran for the bedroom ,but to his shock and horror, Muriel was missing. Avery appeared in the doorway a second later and saw the empty bed.
"Aunt Muriel?" she called out. "Where'd you go?"
Courage howled at the sight and clutched the sides of his head. He babbled to himself before he howled again and ran off again. This time, leading them both back up to the attic. The first thing that Courage did was climb onto his computer chair and began typing away at the keyboard. He babbled as he typed and Avery couldn't understand a word, but she could see what he was typing.
"Evil shadow! Evil things! Search!"
The computer beeped and said, "You twit! Do you mean evil shadows?"
Courage scratched the top of his head as the computer continued.
"What a loser. Of course you do," the computer insulted.
Courage growled at the computer.
"Can you, for once, just do a search that doesn't involve you speaking down to Courage?" Avery said angrily.
The computer chuckled and said, "That coming from the 90's girl dressed like she's going to bed in the 60's."
Fire appeared in Avery's eyes and said, "DO YOU WANT ME TO THROW YOU OUT THE WINDOW?! REMEMBER THAT I HAVE MAGIC ON MY SIDE!"
She even held up her hand with the bracelet, the bracelet glowing in order to emphasize Avery's point.
The computer sighed and said, "Fine, no need to get all testy."
The computer quit talking and the word, 'SEARCHING' filled the screen. Courage sat in the middle of the room and attempted to meditate while they waited for the results. Avery even sat on the floor next to him, simply to watch him.
'Maybe I should try that some time. Looks relaxing,' she said to herself.
After a minute or two, a bell sound came from the computer with the computer saying, "Search found."
It displayed that only one item had been found through it's whole search. Courage opened it eagerly, but all that it said was that he wouldn't want them in HIS house. Courage howled at the lack of a better result.
Avery covered his mouth and said, "Okay Courage! I think that's enough howling for one night boy."
Courage calmed slightly and typed in, "How do I get rid of evil shadows?"
The computer provided an answer, suggesting pleasant conversation or to move out of the house. Courage growled at the computer and babbled a little more at it. And Avery knew that the latter was not a good viable option for them as this was the only place that they could call home.
Avery assumed that the computer must have understood him as it then said, "I don't know. You're on your own kid." The computer even added a smiley face emoticon for good measure.
Courage pounded the desk in frustration and walked out of the room.
Avery glared at the computer and said, "You can try to at least try to be a little nicer to him you know."
"Young lady, my body consists of circuits, wires and switches. I have no room in my hard drive for empathy. You can scold me all you want, but I simply just don't care," he said smugly.
It took a lot of will on Avery's part to prevent herself from tossing the computer out the window and being done with him. But she knew that he was a useful one, so she just had to bite her tongue and deal with it.
"I WILL get you back some day for all of this," she said as she turned towards the door and left the room.
The computer beeped and said, "I'm sure you will."
The next few minutes were spent searching the house for a flashlight to search for the shadow. They searched all of the cabinets, drawers and closets they could find. Each one they opened cautiously as they searched, knowing that the shadow could pop up out of anywhere. This thought however led to Avery feeling a little... uneasy. What if that shadow popped up somewhere it wasn't supposed to. Like in the bathroom, her room when she changing. Or even through the floor right now while dressed in her nightclothes. She shuddered at the thought and knew that now they REALLY needed to get that thing out of the house. Lest she feel unclean just by being in here right now.
After searching all over the house, the duo found no sign of a flashlight. Courage began to feel a little distraught when Avery gave a glance to her bracelet. Could this thing's magic help them in this situation? There was only one way for her to find out.
"Okay you, can you please give us some light?" she asked the thing, but nothing happened.
"Please?" she repeated, but nothing came of it.
She balled her hand into a fist out of frustration and the next thing she knew, a little flash came from the bracelet. She looked back at it and then clenched her fist again. Sure enough there was, once again, a dim flash.
Courage was about to panic when Avery said, "Wait! Let me try one more time."
This time she concentrated on a beam of light coming from the bracelet and when she clenched her fist again, a bright beam of light actually did manifest from her bracelet. It was almost like having a flashlight on her wrist. One that didn't require batteries.
"Okay, this is wicked. Like wish fulfillment," she said. "Now we can look around more easily. So where should we begin?"
Courage pulled her over to the basement door and sat in front of it. She figured that he knew that the basement would probably be as good as any place that they start. At the very least, they could work their way up if they found nothing down there.
They opened the door and Avery began casting the light around the stairwell. Courage babbled something down into the darkness as she shined the light around. And as she shined onto the wall by the stairs... they were both greeted by the sight of a giant shadowy dragons head that let out a huge roar at them. They both screamed and then slammed the basement door.
Avery leaned against the door with her heart pounding her chest with Courage lying on the floor with his heart pounding too. Now, even Avery was freaked out. She wanted nothing more than to grab Courage, hop in the truck and drive away from that house and never look back. But yet, she still had roots here and couldn't leave her aunt and uncle to suffer from whatever.
So they opened up the basement door again and then quickly slammed it shut. But then they threw it open again and knew that they had to do it. They had to go down the stairs. Courage took the first step and then another. And then... he slipped and suddenly tumbled down the stairs.
"Courage!" Avery hollered and then ran down the stairs.
She shined her light on him as he sat up and groaned from the pain. She knelt down to see if he had an injuries on him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Courage simply got back up to his feet, grabbed Avery's wrist and began casting her light all over the room, possibly calling out to the shadow. But as they cast the light on one wall, they were greeted to the shadow of a roaring creature. Both of them screamed and Avery unclenched her fist, enveloping them in darkness again. She clenched her fist again and they saw the shadow of Muriel waving to them as the light hit the wall.
They both smiled and Avery called out, "Aunt Muriel? Are you okay?"
Then out of nowhere, Muriel popped her head, complete with blood dripping from the head and stump. They both screamed again and Avery's light went out again.
The light came on again and they saw what looked like Muriel being burned at the stake. The light went out again. When it came on, they saw a spinning saw blade headed for her. Over and over again the light went out and each time it came back, there was a new shadow.
Muriel being drawn and quartered, a bed of spikes coming down towards her, a wavy figure, an anvil and hammer, a screw and ball, a cuckoo clock and then finally, the shadow had had enough.
"STOP ALREADY," he screamed as he began to cry into his hands.
This surprised both Courage and Avery.
"I can't take it anymore," he cried. "On and off, on and off. You're both driving me crazy!"
Courage babbled angrily at the shadow and Avery decided to add in her two cents.
"Where's my aunt? What did you do with her?" she demanded.
"I haven't done anything to her," the shadow answered.
Courage babbled something else to the shadow which was followed with the shadow saying, "What do I look like? Her twin?"
It was here that they both heard a flushing sound coming from upstairs and the rattling of the pipes as water ran down them. And now both Avery and Courage were beginning to feel foolish.
"See? She's been in the bathroom," the shadow stated.
Avery looked back at him and asked, "And you weren't peeping in on her?"
The shadow groaned in disgust and said, "Lady, I may be a jerk, but I'm not a creep. I'm still gonna respect everyone's privacy, including the broads."
Now Avery really did feel foolish. She had just jumped to a conclusion without taking the time to truly think that the evil shadow that was trying to scare everyone might actually have some standards. She knew she'd have to fix that mindset on herself.
Courage babbled something to the shadow and the shadow began to pour his heart out. He seemed to understand Courage just fine and since she had just offended him, she thought that it would be better to let Courage do the talking while she wrote down notes.
"Well I was the shadow of a cruel old rich dude," the shadow began as he lay on the shadow of a therapy couch.
Courage nodded as Avery wrote it down on a notepad that Courage had given her.
"But that's not me. That's not me at all," the shadow continued. "I always wanted to be in showbiz, to be a star baby. A star."
Courage babbled something else to the shadow and proceeded up the stairs. Courage must have gotten through to him as the shadow followed Courage up. With nothing else to do, Avery followed the two of them up to see what Courage had planned.
A few minutes later, the trio were standing outside and looking up at the night sky. The storm was long past and now the sky was clear of clouds. The stars seemed to stretch across the sky forevermore in every direction around them. Avery couldn't help but admire the spectacle of the night sky and the beauty of the stars blinking as the scene seemed to stretch on and on to the horizon.
Courage was busy talking with the Shadow, who was looking more and more intrigued as Courage talked. Oh how she wished she knew what he was saying. At least the shadow seemed happy with whatever Courage was telling him.
"You mean, become the shadow of a REAL star?" the shadow asked.
Courage nodded and babbled a little to him.
"Huh, never thought of that before. Sounds too romantic to me, but what the heck. It sure beats scaring the jeepers out of folks," the shadow stated with a shudder.
Avery looked at the shadow and said, "By the way, have you seen my uncle anywhere? Big chin, glasses, thin and with an ugly hat?"
The Shadow chuckled, pointed the truck and said, "Yeah, he's hiding in that old pick-up truck. He's a bigger coward than the dog here."
Even Courage chuckled at the slight insult as he used his own shadow to shake hands with the old man's shadow.
The shadow glided and the ground and said, "Thanks. See you two in the funny papers. And lady, please try not to be quick to judge."
And with that he drifted up into the sky and in a flash of light, his form scattered across the sky. And in the very spot where they had seen him last, shined a brand new star. Burning brighter than any other in the sky.
Courage smiled and turned to go back into the house. He turned back to Avery and gave a her a look that said, 'You coming?'
Avery smiled and said, "In a little bit. I'm just gonna watch the stars for a bit and then try to get Uncle Eustace to come inside. You go ahead."
Courage smiled and walked away. Avery smiled as he walked off and just looked up at the sky, in particular the galaxy's new star. She felt a pang of sadness in her chest, but deep down she knew that the shadow was now truly happy. But most importantly?
He's at peace.
But she was sure that her uncle wouldn't be once she tried to get him out of the truck.
So I know the ending is a little abrupt, but that was honestly how I thought best to end it. Everything wrapped up nicely and everyone was safe.
The next chapter will be the episode where we meet Le Quack. Gonna need to think extra hard on that episode so I wouldn't expect it to be out too soon. But I will give it my best.
Once again, I thank you all for taking the time to read this story.