Wow, got this one out quickly didn't I? Well I wanted to get another chapter out quickly to make up for the lack of updates in July. So please sit back and enjoy the show. This is one of my favorite season 1 episodes and the first episode to introduce us to Courage's arch-nemesis. Please enjoy.
Also I'm gonna try out something different. Instead of putting all the focus from Avery's POV, I'm gonna try it with multiple POV's in the chapter. I hope you all like it.
After spending a week at the lake house, it was finally time for the family to head home after all of Eustace's memories had come back from his knock to the head. Problem is that they had started back very late in the day and once it had gotten dark out, they were still a few hours from home. They passed by multiple signs, advertising a number of different motels and hotels. But it wasn't until they saw one sign that it told them that it was time to stop for the night.
'KATZ MOTEL 2 MILES. LAST MOTEL FOR 100 MILES'
Avery couldn't help but groan out loud. She really really wanted to get back to the farm, but they were still too far out from there. So what choice did they have now but to stop?
"Oh Eustace, we'll have to stop for the night," Muriel said as she saw the sign.
Eusatce growled and said, "It figures. Alright I'll pull in."
A couple of miles down the road, the motel finally came into sight and they pulled into it. It looked like your generic, run of the mill motel that you see all along the highway. Nothing too out of the ordinary and looked normal to the family. At the very least it was a place to sleep for the night.
Eusatce took one look at the place and said, "This looks like a crummy place to end a crummy vacation."
Avery rolled her eyes at him. She thought the past week had been nice one, but knew just how stubborn her uncle truly was. Courage in the meantime was shivering up a storm on Muriel's lap. Avery could tell that the little guy was spooked by something out here and couldn't blame him. As normal as the place looked, something about it seemed off to her. It was the last place to sleep for many miles, yet not one other car was parked here. Moreover, it didn't even look like anyone had stayed here for quite some time. She couldn't place her finger on it, but she felt like something was up with this place.
Lightning suddenly crashed suddenly, making Courage scream and jumped onto Avery's neck. He shivered violently as Avery carefully and gently pried his arms loose from around her and patted him gently on the head, whispering comforting words to him.
They all went inside, with Avery carrying Courage in, and Eustace rang the bell on the front desk. Out of nowhere, a mysterious red figure silently rose up from behind the desk. As more of him appeared, they could all see that he was a lanky, humanoid cat with very red fur and a leer that made Avery feel a little uncomfortable. She even shivered slightly as she saw him.
'I hope this guy only looks creepy,' Avery thought to herself.
His voice was friendly enough however.
"Welcome to the Katz Motel," the cat said as he looked down at his book. "I'm Katz. Would you please sign in?"
His eyes then suddenly landed on Courage and with a look of anger, he snapped his fingers and pointed to something up on the wall. They all turned their heads to look and saw a sign that read, 'No Dogs Allowed.'
"Sorry, but no dogs allowed in the building or rooms," said Katz.
"But! But! But!" gasped out.
Without another word, Eustace took Courage from Avery's arms and took him back outside. Avery thought that either she or Muriel ought to have been the ones to take him back out or try to reason with the manager, but knew there'd be no arguing with Eustace in his grumpy attitude and it was the rules of the establishment after all.
Avery turned back to Katz and said, "What's wrong with having dogs in the motel?"
Katz didn't bat an eye and said, "I just don't want the other guests to be disturbed in the middle of the night."
'What other guests?' Avery thought to herself.
Muriel turned back to Katz and finished signing them in. As Avery rested her hands upon the counter, Katz turned his eyes towards the wrist of her right hand and caught a look of the ornament currently adorning Avery's wrist. Avery could tell that Katz was looking at the bracelet and pulled it away from the counter.
"My apologies miss, but I couldn't help but admire the bracelet adorning your wrist. I must say that it is a fine piece of jewelry," Katz said polietly.
"Um... thanks... I guess," Avery said sheepishly.
She didn't want to look rude, but something about the way Katz had looked at the bracelet had made her feel uneasy. She was sure that it was most likely just her imagination running wild, but there was something about this character that made her shiver. The fact that the bracelet let out a few pulses didn't help matters either.
Katz turned back to the book and said, "Okay so it says here you are requesting only one room. However, we do have plenty of vacancies available right now and we do have a special offer going on during our slow season. I can offer the young lady her own room, at no extra charge of course."
'Huh, that's mighty friendly of him. Maybe I was just too quick to judge him. Not all creepy people have ill intentions after all,' she thought to herself from her few expeirences in the town of Nowhere.
Katz offered them the room keys with both Avery and Muriel thanking him profusely. Avery held back a moment and watched the manager place a couple of boxes on top of the counter and tossing in what looked like little scraps of meat into them.
'Must have pets in them,' she thought to herself but still felt a little uneasy about him. The bracelet sure seemed to act up around him, that's for sure.
She walked out, just in time to see Muriel whacking Eustace over the head with her purse and him asking, "What did I do?" as usual. Followed by Muriel handing him their room key.
'Must have scared Courage again,' she thought. 'Poor little guy.'
Muriel comforted Courage a little by placing a blanket around him, telling him that it'll only be for the night. She finished by kissing him on the head. Avery sat down on the deck next to him and spent a couple of moments, patting him on the head and promising to give him a treat once they got home to make up for the night.
Avery's room was just a couple of doors down from her aunt and uncle's room and upon first sight, it looked normal enough. The carpet was a bit shabby, but the furniture was nice at least. She sat down on the bed and it felt soft enough for her and the sheets were at least clean, so at least the night here wouldn't be so bad.
"It's just for tonight at least," she said and set her suitcase down on the bed. "Still, I don't like the way the guy looked at Courage or the bracelet. I might just be paranoid, but I think I'll be chaining the door tonight and drawing the curtains too. Shower now though, worry later."
With that, she grabbed her white nightgown from the suitcase and went into the bathroom.
Turns out, she had every reason to be paranoid.
In the meantime back in the office, the door to the backroom opened and inside was a true nightmare for anyone. Inside the room was a giant a spiderweb with a large number of human bones scattered underneath of it. Big fat mutated spiders crawled all along the web as light flooded in through the open door. Katz stood before the open door, carrying one of his boxes under his arm.
"My loves, dinner has arrived," he said to the spiders.
They all hissed, snapping their mandibles and drooled in eager anticipation of having some fresh meat. They began skittering their legs in anticipation of a bountiful feast.
"Just one exception. There is a young lady in room number three. I have something special planned for her and will be taking care of her personally," he said and began closing the door but opened it once again. "Oh and by the way, your web is such a mess. Clean it up would you?"
With that, he closed the door leaving the room dark once more.
In Eustace and Muriel's room, Muriel was preparing herself a nice hot bath while Eustace prepared himself for bed. He made himself comfortable and was soon fast asleep. He was snoring awfully loudly... even as the eyes on the picture above him looked down at him.
As Muriel prepared herself for her bath, the nozzle of the shower head slid open and someone peered in to observe her.
Back in Avery's room, she stepped out of the bathroom having already dried herself off from her shower and already dressed for bed. She set her bath towel on the toilet cover and sighed in relief.
"I really needed that shower. I think my nerves are starting to calm down now," she said as she crossed the room to the bed.
Unbeknownst to her, she was being observed through a hidden hole in one of the picture frames. Like the person on the other side was patiently waiting for something. He watched as she took a seat at the foot of the bed and took the white slippers off of her feet. As she lied back down to relax, that was the perfect cue.
The person on the other side laughed and pushed a hidden button nearby. Within a second of him pushing the button, the bed that the young lady sat upon began to raise upwards from behind, inclining it.
Avery shot up in the bed and said, "What the? What's going on?"
At that moment, a hatch opened up on the floor at the foot of the bed. Avery tried rolling off the side of the bed, but it did her no good. It moved up far too quickly and she slid off of the bed and into the hatch on the floor. Her scream of surprise and terror was silenced as the hatch slid closed. The bed returned to it's proper position, leaving no trace of what had just happened.
As for Avery, she suddenly found herself sliding down a dark metal chute. She tried to grab the sides, but it did no good as they were far too polished. She tried to turn herself around, but this simply made her start sliding down head first. In short order, the chute came to an end and she found herself falling from the chute and into the open air. She squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to land on the hard floor with a painful thud.
Before she hit the ground however, she felt something catch her with a thick springing sound. She opened her eyes to see that she was in a dim room and something was holding her upside down. Not only that, but whatever she had landed on was gently bouncing her up and down like it was made of elastic bands.
"Well, I guess it could have been worse," she said and then tried to pull her body up.
But as she tried to sit up, whatever it was that she had landed in had suddenly pulled her back down. She tried to move her arms, but the mesh that she was caught in pulled her back to it's previous position. She then tried to move her legs, but found that the too were stuck in place.
"Okay that can't be good," she said.
She raised her head up and immediatly afterwards, she turned pale. She wasn't an expert, but she knew what a spider web looked like and that she was caught in one right now. It wasn't just the strands that shimmered even in this low light that drew her attention, but the fact that she could now feel the adhesive on the strands clinging to her skin, hair and nightgown. She pulled at them as hard as she could, but there was no breaking them.
Even worse is that she knew there was no known species of spider that could spin a web like this. Meaning that this was either a nasty prank... or that she was right about this place all along.
"Scratch that. This IS worse," she said fearfully.
Back outside, Courage was still shivering badly. Not from the cold air, thanks to the blanket that Muriel had draped around him, but from the fact that the place was still giving him the creeps. He wanted nothing more than to fall asleep or simply wait until morning came because he highly doubted that sleep would be happening in this place.
Then he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him from nearby. He turned his head in the direction that they were coming from and saw a shadow standing at the corner of the deck. A shadow shaped a lot alike the manager of this creepy establishment.
The appearance of the shadow terrified Courage as he gasped and his eyes began to bug out. From around the corner wall came the manager's arm as he set a box down on the deck and then opened the front of the box before backing away. Courage couldn't help but shiver even harder and whimper some more. His worst fears were confirmed when a big red spider skittered out of the box towards him.
Courage did the one thing he could think of that moment. He screamed and howled at the horrific sight of the arachnid skittering towards him. He still couldn't move from this spot because of his leash being tied to the post of the deck. He tugged on the leash as hard as he could, but couldn't get it loose. The spider kept on coming. The next thing Courage tried was blowtorching the leash, but to his shock and surprise the leash was still unharmed. So he tried using a chainsaw, nothing. A chemical explosive? Nothing.
The spider was getting closer and closer and Courage was no closer to getting himself free from the leash. So he went with the only option he had left. He began gnawing on the leash like a wild animal... and the leash snapped.
Courage sat surprised for a second before hollering, "Yay!" and running off right as the spider reached the spot and stopped there in aggravation.
Back in Eustace and Muriel's room, Muriel was relaxing into her bath while Eustace snoozed away in his bed.
Muriel was humming gently to herself and was half dozing herself, so she didn't notice the eight green spindly legs pull themselves out of the bath faucet. Quickly followed by the body of the spider plopping into the tub of water.
Muriel sighed in contentment and said, "Finally! I can relax."
She sunk lower in the tub to do so. But it wasn't until she heard the sound of something skittering above the water that she was brought out of her half dozing state. Upon sight of the spider, Muriel was suddenly wide awake again and let out a scream. A scream that didn't go unnoticed by Courage outside.
Courage howled out loud again and he grabbed the door knob to the room, but it wouldn't budge. He then pounded on the door, hollering for Muriel. When this failed, he rushed off but quickly returned with a cannon. He climbed in and shot himself into the room through the window. He could see Muriel in the bathroom, actually managing to hold off the spider.
Muriel saw him and said, "COURAGE! GO AND GET HELP!"
In a panic, Courage jumped onto Eustace's bed, trying desperately to wake the old man up. Eustace didn't even stir. So Courage tried a couple of different ways to wake him up, but each attempt failed.
Feeling frustrated, Courage ran back to the bathroom where Muriel was still trying to hold off the snapping spider.
"COURAGE! DID YOU FIND ANY HELP?!" she hollered out.
While this was going on, Eustace's bed flipped around and he disappeared into the floor. Courage returned to find him missing and the means of salvation gone. He screamed as the situation was growing more dire.
"COURAGE! GO FIND AVERY! MAKE SURE SHE'S OKAY! SEE IF SHE CAN HELP!" Muriel shouted from the bathroom.
Courage did just that and ran from the motel room, running as fast as he could towards Avery's room. Thankfully her room door was easier to open than Eustace and Muriel's and he was able to get in no problem. He found her suitcase on the floor and her other belongings in the bathroom, but there was no sign of Avery anywhere. Courage looked around frantically, but saw no other signs of her in the room.
He let out a terrified howl and howled in a way that sounded like, "Where is everyone?!"
Avery tugged at the sticky strands that were holding her off of the ground, but no matter how hard she tugged she'd remain hopelessly trapped in the web. With every tug, she could feel her muscles begin to strain and the adhesive on the strands pulled at her skin. So all she could do was lie back and hope that someone would come find her and soon. She didn't have to wait long for someone to arrive though.
After a few minutes, she could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. These were followed by a clicking and jingling sound from the door. It opened and in stepped the manager that Avery had seen earlier, a box was tucked under his arm.
"You?" she gasped out.
Katz stood at the door before her and said, "Good evening and how are you enjoying your stay at the Katz Motel?"
Avery shot him a death glare, but he was unfazed. He stepped into the room and set the box down on a table in the corner.
"Rendered you speechless I assume. And I must say that you're nightwear looks stunning on you," he complimented.
Avery said nothing. So Katz walked to where her wrist with bracelet was sitting. Avery tried to tug her arm away, but the webbing prevented that. Katz brought his eyes down to it get better look and scratched his chin.
"Peculiar, very peculiar. Tell me young lady, where did you obtain this ornament?" he asked.
"Why would I tell you?" Avery answered.
Katz chuckled and said, "So you DO have a voice now? Alright, where you got it isn't important. What I am interested in is what it's capable of. So please, tell me what it can do."
Avery closed her eyes and turned her head away from him, remaining defiant.
"Alright, you don't have to tell me, I'll find out for myself. So now for my final question. How do you get it off?" he asked.
Avery turned her head back to him and shook her head.
Katz sighed as he said, "Clearly it's too small to slide off of your wrist and there's no way that it got on by natural means. So you must know something."
Avery glared back at him and said, "I don't even know how it got on me or how I can get it off. Even if I did know, I wouldn't be telling you."
Katz groaned in frustration and said, "Fine. We'll do this the hard way then."
With that, he walked back over to the box. Avery followed his movements and it was here now that she noticed that the box itself was shaking. Suddenly any courage she had just had began to fade away. She watched as he opened the box and pulled something out. Something alive and feisty.
He turned back to her and she could see that he was holding a large orange spider. It took one look at Avery and it began to go wild with a ravenous appetite. It's maw snapping and drool running from it's mouth.
"You don't need ME to tell just how horrific a death at the fangs of a spider are. How it pierces the skin and digests it's prey alive before drinking the resulting soup. Feel like talking now?" he asked.
Avery tugged even harder than before and stammered, "I swear! I don't kno-"
Katz cut her off and said, "Wrong answer."
He laughed evilly as he brought the spider down towards Avery's face. She winced and her adrenaline began to run through her as the spider's legs began stroke all over her face as it's drool dripped onto her neck and chest.
Katz's evil laugh echoed in the room as Avery squirmed in the grip of the web with nowhere to run and a hungry spider wanting to make her it's meal.
She finally took a breath and screamed.
Seeing as he had no place else to go, Courage ran straight for the Motel's main office. He dashed right in and without observing the room first, began morphing into various reptilian creatures to get the sense of danger across the mind of whomever was in the room. It wasn't until his panic subsided that he finally realized that there was nobody at all in the room. No manager or anything. Just an empty office with the back room door hanging open.
Courage wanted to run away from the room and look for help elsewhere, but knew that he couldn't help anyone if he simply ran off. With his heart still pounding in his chest, he ran over to the back room door and took a look inside.
Oh how his heart began to beat faster.
Inside the room was a large web. In the very center of it was Eustace... wrapped all up in webbing and still snoring like nothing had bothered him at all. And skittering down from one corner was a large purple spider with it's maw snapping and drool dripping from it's mouth.
Courage took a breath and let out one of the loudest howls he had ever released.
Back with Avery, she felt tears welling up in her eyes as the spider's maw kept coming closer to her face as Katz brought it closer and closer to her. But right at the sound of a loud nearby howl, he finally pulled back and turned his head towards the door.
"Now what could that have been?" he said and then turned back to Avery. "My darling, I must leave you for a bit. But fret not, I will return shortly."
With that, he pulled the spider away from Avery's face and took it back over to the box that he had carried it in.
"Now be a good baby spider and stay in here. Daddy will be back to serve you dinner soon," he cooed to the spider and locked the top of the box.
He stepped to the door, looked at Avery and said, "I shall leave the light on for you. I wish to see the look of terror on your face when I return."
The spider inside the crate began to bang on the lid. Katz chuckled darkly as he walked out and closed the door. As soon as he was out of the room, the spider inside the crate suddenly began to bang at the side of it. Banged on it HARD.
So hard that the box was suddenly knocked off of the table and to the floor. It landed on it's side and as it landed, it broke part of the latch that locked it. As a result, the spider spilled out of the box and onto it's back. It quickly righted itself back up to it's feet and turned itself around. It turned it's gaze to the web and landed it's eyes right on Avery.
Avery's heart began to race in her chest and she found herself beginning to tug at the sticky strands of the web again.
"Oh no! Please no," she hollered as she began tugging at the strands a bit harder.
The spider wasted no time in climbing onto the web and skittering its way up to her. In short order, it was on top of her. It used it's back two legs to keep her head still and it's two front legs latched onto her ankles. With the legs in front of the back ones, it reached under it's abdomen and Avery watched in horror as it began to pull silk out from it's spinnerets.
Avery was familiar with spiders all too much to know what it was going to do next. With the two legs behind it's front ones, it pulled a ribbon of silk from it's abdomen and wrapped it around Avery's ankles and began working the silk up her calves.
Avery shrieked as the spider set to work on cocooning her.
Back in the office's back room, the spider skittered closer and closer to Eustace's still snoozing form and prepared to feed on him. Courage grabbed a floor board directly underneath him and managed to pull it right out of the floor after only a few tugs. By now the spider had reached Eustace, began prodding his body and prepared it's deadly bite.
Courage took the board and with one strong swoop he was able to bring it down on the spider, squashing and killing it. He quickly climbed up the board and was able to easily pull Eustace off of the web and run back down.
But before he could run out of the room with Eustace, Courage found that his escape route was blocked by a familiar red cat.
"Leaving so soon?" snarled Katz as he slammed the door to the office closed.
Courage howled again and in an instant, he threw Eustace right at Katz. Right as Eustace's cocooned form slammed into Katz, Courage made a dash for another door in the room. He dashed in, found that it led to some stairs and ran down them in his bid to escape.
Katz was able to pull himself out from under Eustace's still sleeping body and said, "I wish you hadn't done that."
Courage ran but found no ways back up and dashed into a side room. The room was dark with no light shining anywhere, but thankfully Courage felt around beside the door and found a light switch.
Only he quickly regretted turning on the lights.
All along the room were shelves. Shelves loaded with many jars containing even more deformed versions of the spiders that Courage had already witnessed. Indicating that the things that he had seen certainly were not normal spiders and that someone had taken great time and effort to create them.
Courage let out the loudest shriek that he had ever made. He didn't even bother opening the door as he ran out, he simply knocked it down and crushed Katz as he ran away from the freak show.
"I wish you hadn't done that," Katz said angrily from under the door.
Courage screamed as he sprinted down the hall, but then heard another scream from one of the nearby doors. A familiar shriek that made his blood run cold. He dashed to the door and to his horror, saw Avery hanging upside down in a web as she struggled against one of the spiders. Already the webbing was up to her waist as the spider snapped it's maw quickly with drool running out. Tears ran from Avery's eyes as she pleaded for help. She couldn't even move her head to look at Courage as the spider kept her head still with it's back legs.
Courage would have been able to run in and help her, when he heard a voice behind him.
"Got you now," Katz said as he popped up behind Courage.
Katz made to grab at Courage, but the little dog was able to evade the grab and sprint down the hall once more. He'd have to come back and help Avery later. But his path came to a dead end, trapping him with Katz.
He turned to run back... only to see Katz stepping out of the shadows, just glaring at Courage.
"There's no place to run and no place to hide," he said in a surprisingly calm voice.
Courage shivered as Katz approached him. To his surprise however, Katz pulled out a rubber bouncy ball and began bouncing it against the floor.
"A little sport before dying dear boy?" Katz asked.
Courage knew that he had no choice as Katz served the ball at the wall. The ball bounced back towards Courage who then bounced it back to the wall and back to Katz. Katz did the same and then the game was on.
Back in the bathroom of Muriel's room, she was still holding off the spider that was trying to get to her. Even though she had it's legs trapped, it still snapped madly at her.
"Oh you fiend you," Muriel stammered at the nasty spider.
Even with it's legs trapped, the spider was still getting close to biting her. But just as the spider slowed a little, Muriel saw her chance. She used all of her strength to toss the spider away from her. But some lucky shot, it landed right in the toilet. Wasting no time, Muriel used her big toe to flush the toilet. It sent the spider down the drain, effectively crushing it in the pipe and potentially drowning it.
As soon as the danger was gone, Muriel dried herself off and dressed. There was no way they were staying here tonight. She'd much rather get back on the road and wait until they got home to go to sleep then stay here a minute longer. She walked back out into the motel room and her anger grew as she saw no trace of Eustace in the room.
Muriel glared around the room and said, "Now where has that man gone to?"
Avery shrieked again as the spider continued trailing it's silk up her body. The skirt of her nightgown was no longer visible under the mesh of silk. The web cocoon was now just under her chest as the spider paused. It turned to her left arm and with a sudden jerk, the spider managed to pull her arm off of the web. Avery felt a sharp pain shoot through the spots where web had held her arm, as the spider bent her arm and placed her left hand on her chest and webbed it to her.
"Please no!" Avery sobbed as her left hand was cemented to her and she squinted her eyes shut.
The spider then turned to her right arm and one of it's legs landed on her wrist... and on top of the bracelet.
The next thing Avery knew, she heard a loud shriek that lasted only for a fraction of a second that was quickly silenced. She felt a burst of of heat, also lasting only a fraction of a second at the same time as the shriek. She opened her eyes to see that the spider was no longer on top of her.
Instead the spider was lying crumpled on the floor, dead. It's body was blackened and charred from being flash fried.
Avery looked at the spiders body, tears still falling from her eyes, and took a quick look at the bracelet. It pulsated as she stared at it.
"Did you do that?" she asked it, already knowing the answer.
The bracelet pulsated some more and she brought it to her chest. The next thing she knew, the webbing on her began to burn away from her left arm and chest, not even hurting her. She did the same for the rest of her body and to the web around her. In no time at all, her body was free of the cocoon and she was free of the web. She landed on the floor with a soft thud and quickly pulled herself back up to her feet.
She wanted to cry out in joy, but knew that the danger was not over yet. She still needed to find the others and convince them to get out of the hotel. She ran out of the room, kicking the dead spider's charred body and out into the hall.
She heard the sound of Courage's shrieks from down the hall and they weren't his usual terrified shrieks. She knew that he had to be in danger.
"Courage!" she gasped and began running in his direction.
Back with Courage, the game continued and went on. Courage was having a hard time, but Katz was having it easy. He sipped tea, read a book and even practiced his tennis swing. Courage was getting worn out, while Katz wasn't even breaking a sweat. In due time, Courage missed the ball and was knocked over when it struck him right in the head.
He groaned as he lied on the ground and Katz stood over him, setting his tennis racket off to the side. Katz popped the muscles in his neck and kneeled down to Courage's level.
"I'm afraid that you lose dear boy," he said and then gripped Courage by the neck.
Courage began to struggle in Katz's grip, but the exertion of their game of handball had tired him out too much that he could barely even struggle. Katz even grit his teeth in anger.
"Now you're going to learn why no one EVER checks out of the Katz Motel," Katz said with a sneer.
Courage began to shiver as Katz applied some pressure to his throat.
Katz raised one of his hands, revealing one of his spiders as it snapped it's maw at Courage. He began to laugh maniacally as held the spider up high and stared down at Courage, ready to finish this once and for all. Courage howled, knowing what was coming his way. Not only in fear, but in despair. He had failed. He'd failed to save Avery and he had failed to save Muriel. He had even failed to save himself.
Katz laughed even louder. So loud, that he didn't hear the sounds of the footsteps creeping up behind him. The next thing he knew, his tennis racket was slammed over him and pinned his arms to his sides, immobilizing him and knocking him out. The spider fell from his hands, but didn't get far as Avery ran over to it and pressed her right hand against it, flash frying it as well.
Avery nodded in satisfaction before looking at Katz's form.
"Didn't see that coming did you jerk?" she said to him.
She looked at Courage as he looked up at her.
"Yay!" he gasped out of his sore throat.
She knelt down and scooped him up, holding him gently in her arms.
"Come on Courage, lets see if we can convince aunt Muriel to leave this dump," she said to him.
Courage nodded in approval.
A short time later Avery was walking out of her room, dressed in her casual clothes again as Courage waited over by the manager's office. She had already been to the back room and managed to burn the web and any spiders that she found skittering about in there. She even burned Eustace free of his cocoon, still leaving him asleep.
Upon arriving at the office though, she found her aunt walking out, looking furious.
"Aunt Muriel? Are you okay?" she asked.
Muriel shook her head and said, "No I am not. There are giant bugs running around here and the manager is nowhere to be found to take care of it. I even found your uncle asleep in the back room. Beds must be so bad here that he found the office more comfortable. This place has terrible customer service. We're leaving and NEVER coming back."
Those were words that Avery was happy to hear. The four of them clambered into the truck and drove away from the forsaken motel, not daring to look back.
All but Eustace who had slept through the whole thing.
Back in the downstairs hallway, Katz regained his senses and lifted himself off of the ground. He shook his head clear and made his way back up to the motel office. To his displeasure, he found all of his beloved spiders dead and his potential victims gone. The spiders of his had been genius and took a lot of time and work to create. There's no way he'd be getting them going again any time soon. But that didn't matter to him right now. What did matter to him was that young woman and the key she possessed.
He left the back room and went back into his office, flipping through the check-in book and found the names of the family that had just stayed there. It wasn't long before he found them.
"Bagge? I recognize that name. That old woman... the one who always beats me every year. I should have known," he said as his anger seethed. "And the young lady with MY family's birthright. Flaunting it as if it were her own heirloom. You two just wait. I'll come for you both and the both of you will pay."
So I'll admit, the one thing in this episode I don't like is them just leaving before all the spiders were dealt with, possibly leaving them to claim more victims in the future. That's why I decided to have Avery show them no mercy.
The next episode will be Demon in the Mattress. Muriel will remain the demon's victim, but don't think that Avery won't be in it's sights as well.