A/N: Hey! Welcome back! Hopefully I'll finish most-all of this arc (which is pretty lengthy) before I get too busy for college and probably be forced to put this story on some sort of hiatus. I WILL update you guys if that happens so don't worry! Also, the box cutter was a reference to Breaking Bad, which if any of you still haven't watched it, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?! Stop reading, go watch it, then come back. Anyways, back to Noel and his crazy mindfuck adventure in The Realm of Emptiness
Chapter 11: To Escape A Lab
"I, I had to do it," Courage sobbed. "I didn't want to, but he left me no choice."
"Courage," Noel said, a little on edge by the bloody pup. "Why so, brutally?"
"Because he was gonna kill you," Courage said barely above a whisper. He dropped the box cutter, pulled onto his ears, and started sobbing uncontrollably. "I didn't want to, Noel. But I'd rather it be him than you, and I had to make sure."
"Make sure?" Noel asked disturbed.
Courage looked back up at him and then slowly ran one of his paws from one side of his neck to the other, smearing a trail of blood in its path so that it looked like Courage's throat was slit.
Noel was deeply disturbed by that gesture. He stared at the blood that Courage smeared across his throat, and an image of Courage with a slit throat flashed into his mind. It sent shivers down Noel's spine. What also disturbed him was how much killing that cat changed Courage. Courage always seemed so innocent and kind, but killing this awful cat obviously DESTROYED him. And after staring into the drying eyes of the slit-throat cat, not only did Noel pity Courage, he still couldn't help but fear him on some level.
But after crying a little bit more, Courage found a switch that released Noel. Upon getting up, Noel was then tackled by that affectionate dog, who got blood all over him. He was still too shocked at the events to really do or think anything.
"I thought I'd never see you again," cried Courage into his chest. "Oh the things I saw, and the things I did to finally find you here-," he started sobbing again.
"Shhh, it's alright now Courage," Noel tried speaking to his distraught friend. Covered in sticky blood and soaked in Courage's tears, Noel was in too much of a flurry of emotions to say anything logical. But he tried his best to try to calm the dog down, because that was the best thing to do in this situation right now. "We're alive, aren't we?" he spoke again to Courage. "Nothing else matters right now."
Noel spoke very softly to him, calming him a bit. For Courage's sake and against his own wishes, Noel then patted Courage on his back very gently. And after breaking the hug, Courage continued to give Noel those damn puppy eyes.
"Courage," Noel said. "Look, I know it's been hard, but you've got to be strong. Sometimes we're faced with awful decisions that nobody should ever have to face, but trust me, you did the right thing. But if we're ever going to get out of here in one piece, then you're going to need to be strong for just a little longer. Can you do that?"
Courage slowly nodded with a soft whine.
"Hey look, it's okay, Courage," Noel reassured. "I know you're in pain, but right now let's focus on how to get out of here."
Courage nodded slowly and obediently.
Courage's grief affected Noel more than he would've liked. It was just like hearing his own parents scream for their lives. Courage has been scared or even sad before, but he's never had to do anything like this. And Noel believed that he couldn't handle killing. Noel himself can't. Hell, who really could?
Both dogs exited the lab and made it into the hallway. It was a dark, dank hallway, and it went quite a ways down. Noel was still on edge and was prepared if anything or anyone decided to jump out of one of the vacant rooms to try to kill or capture them. But after a bit of walking, it was clear that this entire building might as well be vacant as there wasn't so much as a sound.
Courage still looked miserable as he walked on without emotion and in complete silence. He didn't even cry anymore, as he likely ran out of tears. Noel still felt awful for the pup. He didn't believe he'd ever come to this, but he really wanted Courage to feel better. Not just because he was creeping him out, but just because he hated seeing Courage so torn like this. As he glanced back over at Courage's drying tear marks on his muzzle, Noel wanted to break this uncomfortable silence, but he ran out of good things to say to him. So they both just walked in complete silence, until they reached the end. They encountered another hallway that formed a "T" with the end of the current one.
"Which way did you come from Courage?" Noel asked.
"Left," Courage replied without emotion.
Noel looked back over at Courage. His eyes were circled with red, irritated eyelids that were now dry. His face no longer looked sad, but rather dead. Noel looked away before he could get sucked into Courage's demeanor, and decided to keep walking.
"Maybe you should lead the way," Noel said. "You came down here and know where to go."
"Okay," Courage replied silently, and without another word. He then passed Noel without looking at him and walked in front of him now.
This hallway was very similar to the last one, as it was very musty and dank. It was difficult to see in these hallways because of how dark it was, but it was still possible. This hall was another long way down, but it looked like it ended in another "T".
As Noel trailed behind Courage, he thought of that voice from his memories in the memory lab.
"Who was he?" Noel thought. "He claims to have been there when my parents-." Noel stopped and remembered his parents. "My parents, they were taken, just like I was. But why were they taken? Why was I taken? Both the voice and the yellow cat expressed 'interest' in me, but why? Was it because of my parents? Were they 'interested' in my parents too? And what did Courage do to him before I woke up? Unless the voice and the cat were one, where the hell did this guy go? He could've been somewhere else and not in the lab at all, but still."
"Also the voice told me that it was ME that wanted answers, and that THEY were the ones providing them. But the cat made it sound like THEY were the ones wanting answers, and that it was ME providing them. Something doesn't seem to be adding up here. They also claimed that the night of my birth was a memory, but I didn't remember any of it. But why would they have me revisit the kidnappings of my parents and the traumatic faces from my past? What would they have to gain from giving me answers? Unless they wanted me to react in some way and say something that they wanted to know, that was really the best I could-," Noel's thoughts ended as he accidentally bumped into Courage's behind.
Courage apparently had stopped walking again, as there was another "T" in the hallways. Noel had bumped into him hard and Courage was rubbing his back, but he seemed to be more interested in something down the hall on the left.
"Sorry," Noel said.
"Shhh!" Courage shushed him and held a paw out in front of him to stop him. "Do you hear that?"
In fact, Noel did hear something. He heard what sounded like swift, uneven footsteps. Only the legs crunched, and the feet sounded like they stuck to the ground with every step. There was some sort of half growl, half shriek, that sounded kind of like a rodent of some sort. It sent shivers down Noel's spine as they saw the shadow of what looked like a HUGE spider coming around the corner down the hall on their left.
"To the right, go!" Courage harshly whispered and shoved Noel. Both dogs ran in terror side by side down the hall to their right. Noel heard the creature see them without a doubt. And as he turned around to peak, it was indeed running after them, and was gaining quickly. This hallway was simply too long, and the spider was literally on their tails!
"Go!" Courage screamed as he shoved Noel further forward to keep running. Courage slowed down. Noel couldn't bear to let this happen.
"Courage, what are you-?" Noel tried to ask.
"No, run while you still can!" Courage yelled at him. "Leave me, I'll buy you some time so that maybe one of us can escape!"
"No, Courage, that's not what I-!" Noel's cry was interrupted.
Before Courage could even turn around again, the spider jumped on top of him. The shear size of the spider's body bumped into Noel and he fell to the ground, further away. All he could see were Courage's legs and the bottom of his muzzle barely above his stomach. Noel felt utterly hopeless, and so he shut his eyes. He heard of what he assumed was the spider digging its fangs into Courage's throat. It was followed by a disturbing, gurgling, choking sound. After the sound ceased, Noel shot open his eyes and saw that Courage's legs were now entirely still
"COURAGE!" Noel cried. His heart sank, and he cupped his face into his paws to weep. But before he could even shed a tear, he then noticed how quiet it was in the hall. This silence wasn't right.
He decided to open his eyes again. Courage's legs still weren't moving, but neither was any part of the spider. Then he noticed that one of its legs were going straight through what he could only assume was its head from the under. And after its other legs started curling up, it then collapsed onto Courage's body, surely dead as well.
"What the f-," Noel interrupted himself when he realized that Courage may actually still be alive.
Noel got up as quick as he could and frantically ran over to lift the spider off of Courage. When he was able to see Courage's body, he noticed that the dog's throat appeared to be uneaten. However, he still laid completely spawled out with his tongue sticking out of his mouth like he would if he was dead.
"Courage? Courage!" Noel tried slapping his friend in the face. "Come on, wake up!"
Courage was not breathing at all.
Noel crouched, looked down at the pup's body, and cringed once he realized what he had to do. But after some hesitation, he was ready. But before he even started counting in his head, Courage's eyes shot open. He gasped a very wheezy breath and started coughing uncontrollably
"Courage!" Noel exclaimed. He couldn't believe it! And as HE went in for a hug this time, Courage pushed him back.
"Stay away from me," Courage said as he got up.
Noel was actually quite hurt by Courage's hostility. But he figured it was because the pup was still scared, as Noel still was. He watched Courage stand back up with no serious injury.
"I was so scared that you got hurt!" Noel exclaimed. "I thought those gurgling sounds were from you." And then he looked back over at the spider, whose leg was stabbed through its head. "And how did you manage to rip off a leg and stab it in the head?"
"That leg was what was pinning me down," Courage explained with a shaky voice. "I saw that the spider was injured, and that the leg was about to come off, so I did what I had to do and ripped it clean off." He paused after he said this, clearly feeling guilty by his actions again. "And then it charged its fangs right into my face, and I used the force of its charge against it, and the leg went right through its 'jaw' or whatever they have. But I'm okay, though."
"Courage I, I was too scared to know at the time or to know what to do! But I cannot begin to describe how thankful I am that you managed to save yourself. Well, I guess you've trained your entire life for things like these. But why did you stop breathing like that?"
"I actually suffer from shock time to time," Courage admitted. "I forgot to tell you, but sometimes I fear that it may happen at the worst moment and I or someone else may die."
Noel then felt strange after Courage told this to him. He felt like what Courage told him was a lie. Why would Courage lie about something like this? But ultimately, Noel decided to just ignore it.
"Now come on!" Courage said. "Let's get the heck out of these never-ending halls of dread before something worse than a giant spider finds us!"
They turned and continued down the hall they were running towards away from the spider, and it of course ended in another "T" as well. But Courage looked completely confused.
"I'm lost," he said blankly. "I do not remember where we are. I thought the exit was here!" He pulled his ears and started to panic again. Noel, still uneasy about Courage, intervened to calm him down before he could get worse.
"Calm down, Courage," Noel said. "We're not out of options yet. Let's just mark this wall with something and then just try to rawly find our way out of this maze. And if we find our way back here, then we'll know, and we'll try another way."
"But what would we use for marking?" Courage asked.
And that's when both dogs slowly turned around to see the massive, dead spider still lying on the floor on its back with its massive legs curled up. Its only straight leg, which bled a black blood, was still in the spider's massive head.
"You stay here and rest Courage," Noel demanded. "I'm going to get that spider arm and come back."
"I don't need rest," Courage stated. "I feel fine."
"Stay," Noel ordered. "Yell if anything happens, I won't be long, and you can still kinda see me from here."
"Fine!" Courage complained. "Just hurry up!"
Noel was off on all fours trying to hurry for Courage's sake. He knew that Courage had been through a lot here, but Courage's behavior had felt too strange. He feared that killing that spider with its own limbs or slitting the throat of the yellow cat weren't the worst things Courage had been forced to do here. And like it or not, with his discrete skill, innocent and kind or not, Courage seemed to display the reflexes of a skilled hitman or a passionate serial killer. Even if he didn't have the heart to kill, he was certainly very good at it. He thought of this as he gagged, trying to get that goddamn arm out of that spider's massive head.
As he returned to Courage with the arm, Courage seemed to have cooled off from earlier, much to Noel's relief. Noel then smeared the blood of the spider's arm to try to form an "A" on the wall.
"Alright, let's keep moving," Noel said.
"Right behind you!" Courage said.
When the two walked down the hall on their right, it was silent again. However, this silence wasn't hostile or weird like before. Something seemed to have restored Courage's smile. Noel was more than a little thankful because now the dog seemed to be acting more like himself. And as they walked, Noel smiled over at him. But when Courage noticed Noel's grin, his own grin faded.
"What?" Courage asked.
"What?" Noel asked back, his grin was now gone.
"You were grinning at me so I KNOW something is up!"
"Thanks for saving me," Noel tried to say. "I didn't say it before, but thank you for busting me out."
"Noel," Courage replied. "What the hell else was I gonna do?"
"Ahhh, GREAT!" Noel said to himself in his mind. "I just HAD to do something so STUPID like that!"
"It doesn't matter what happened," Noel said to him before he could enter another mental breakdown. "It just matters that you came back for me. I hoped you would."
While his words kept his friend from having another mental breakdown, they didn't restore his smile.
Noel decided to keep his mouth shut, as he was too guilty from taking away Courage's smile like that. And with neither dog talking, it was silent again. Only, this silence was VERY uncomfortable for Noel.
Eventually they made it to another fork. Noel smeared a "B" on the wall, and then they went down the hall to the right.
-o0o-
After hours of trying to find their way out of these endless halls, the spider arm was running out of blood and drying out. They made it to the letter "X" before they finally ran out. And while the exit was still nowhere in sight, they luckily didn't have any encounters with death ever since the giant spider.
As Noel tried to finish the letter "X" on the wall, he threw down the spider arm, knowing it was hopeless.
"Let's go back for another one," Noel suggested.
"All the way back there?" Courage asked.
"Well it's either that, or we get lost."
"We ARE lost!" Courage yelled.
"You're not helping," Noel complained.
"Did you forget?" Courage whined. "We're in The Realm of Emptiness. These halls might be designed to never end!"
"But that doesn't mean we're going to give up!" Noel proclaimed. "Come, Courage."
Courage, although unhappy, willingly followed behind Noel this time.
The walk thankfully seemed to go by much faster since they didn't have to stop and hone in a mark on every wall facing a "T" in the hallways. And counting down the letters made it go much faster, knowing that "A" was where they were trying to get to.
But when they got back to what was supposed to be the letter "M", it was a messy smudge on the wall. Both dogs investigated it.
"Someone was here," Noel said.
"And it looks like they're trying to sabotage us," Courage added.
"This is not good," Noel stated. And then he thought of the spider again. That massive monster came out of NOWHERE. "These rooms might house portals or something," Noel said.
"Because that spider had to have come from somewhere," Courage read his mind.
"EXACTLY!" Noel confirmed.
But right after he said that, he noticed something black wrapped around Courage's leg. He was amazed that the dog didn't even notice. It was a TENDRIL!
"Courage!" Noel yelled and pointed at his leg.
Courage screamed, as it yanked onto his leg and knocked him to the ground. And after letting him go, it wrapped itself around Courage's neck, turning his screams into strangled chokes. It then pulled him down the unexplored hallway to the left.
Noel ran after him with the fear of losing sight of Courage in a place like this. And while he ran, he heard Courage's strangled chokes and wondered just how tightly the tendril was squeezing him. He then ran much faster on all fours and pounced to grab a hold of Courage's body. Courage was too busy getting choked to really notice or do anything, but Noel held onto him tightly while the tendril dragged the both of them. That was until they took a sharp turn and suddenly slammed into the wall.
Noel was temporarily dazed. But when his vision cleared and he got back up, he noticed that the wall was actually a window to another room. Only this room had no door.
The tendril strangled Courage against the pane of glass. Noel jumped up to try to grab a hold of the tendril coil, but it was WAY too dense and WAY too tight for him to even grab a hold of. He was surprised that Courage's head didn't literally pop like a big grape because of the pressure of the tendril. Noel didn't know what else to do, as he watched his friend die painfully and horrifically in front of him. But since Courage was also pressed up so tightly against the glass, Noel barely noticed that it was starting to crack!
That was IT!
"BRACE YOURSELF!" Noel screamed to Courage, as he threw himself hard into the cracked window. As the window busted, both dogs flew through and into the dark, doorless room.
Noel was able to get back up with no injury and little difficulty. Once he was on his feet again, he immediately tried looking for Courage. While he picked pieces of glass from his fur, he found Courage faced down and not moving. He still had that god-forsaken coil around his neck, but it was limp, and it looked as if it was cut with something. He sadly knew very well that Courage's neck HAD to have been broken. But as he turned Courage's body around, he noticed that he was indeed awake, and now desperately trying to unravel the coil. But with Noel's help, they were finally able to unravel it. Noel discovered that the tendrils left marks all around Courage's neck. And as Courage tried to get up again, Noel stopped him.
"Woah there," Noel said as he pressed Courage to lay him back down.
"What?" Courage asked annoyed. "I feel fine."
"Your neck might be broken," Noel said with concern. "We should stay here while you rest, at least for a little bit."
"I'm FINE," Courage stated, while overcoming Noel and standing up.
"But, howwww?" Noel asked.
"When you broke the window, I quickly tore off a shard of glass and then used it to cut the tendril from behind my head," Courage explained. "Piece of cake!"
After Noel noticed that Courage didn't even cut his hand after all of that, that set off some alarms in his head. "But, HOW are you okay after that?" Noel asked again.
"I guess I'm just not getting hurt as badly as you think I am," Courage smiled. "That or maybe my body is very resilient after years of dodging death everyday in Nowhere."
Noel decided to abandon beating that dead horse when Courage's smile seemed to last. Instead, he decided to smile at Courage.
"I'm glad you're okay," Noel said, warmly.
"Me too," Courage replied with just as much warmth. But then, he noticed something. "Hey, uh, what's that?" he pointed to another window on the opposite side of the room.
As he and Courage approached the window, they pressed their snouts up against the glass. They still couldn't see anything out of it.
"Stand back!" Noel demanded as now he stood on the other side preparing to charge into the window.
"Don't hurt yourself now," Courage laughed, still maintaining his smile.
As Noel ran on all fours towards the window, he jumped only to-
WHAM!
"Oohh," Courage cringed while looking away. And after looking back, he quickly ran over to help Noel up. "Are you alright," he asked.
"Ohh, man," Noel moaned. As he looked up, he noticed that he had only made a small crack. "What was I thinking?" He looked up to Courage. "We BOTH have to jump."
"Okayyyy," Courage agreed nervously. "But if we suffer concussions or amnesia because of this, it is ALL your fault."
"Note taken," Noel groaned, rubbing his head.
Both dogs lined up on all fours right next to each other.
"Remember, we both have to run the same speed," Noel reminded him. "That way we collide at the same time. You ready?"
"Yeah yeah, let's do this!" Courage wagged his tail.
"Alright," Noel responded. "On three! One! Two! Threeeeee!"
Both dogs sprinted on all fours right towards the window, making sure to stay right beside one another. And as they jumped, they flew right through the window with a loud CRASH! Courage landed on his feet, and Noel landed directly onto his head. And after being helped up by Courage, Noel realized just where they were. They were back in the hallway where they were attacked by the massive spider! Only…
"No," Noel said.
The spider was no longer there. There was only a pool of the black blood and a bunch of little black puppy pawprints everywhere, which of course belonged to them from earlier. Noel could also see that the "A" at the end of the hall was smudged too.
"Damn it!" Noel stomped. "All of this time and we've gotten nowhere!"
"Hey, maybe let's try the hall that the spider came down," Courage suggested positively. "Like you said, maybe we can find a portal or something that'll get us, well, somewhere."
"Alright," Noel replied cautiously. "But let's be careful."
Both dogs walked slowly down the hall that the spider came from. Noel half expected another giant spider to pop from around the corner and finish the job of the other one. But that's when he noticed that this hallway didn't end in a "T". There was only one way to go, and that was right.
"I think you may be on to something," Noel said to Courage.
"Hopefully," Courage said in return.
As they came around the corner, there were no more vacant rooms, and the hallway was much shorter. It also didn't end with a "T", and the only direction was left this time. But when they came around the final corner, they saw that the hall ended with a wall. There was nowhere else to walk.
"Really?" Noel said agitatedly. "A dead end?! DAMN IT!" He kicked the wall, but his foot went right through.
Courage gasped. "Look! There must be something on the other side!"
Both dogs then went to work tearing the wall down. It was very easy, and felt just like unwrapping a Christmas present for some reason. Only, it was a present further into Hell it seemed. But when the dogs finished, they found more hallway. However, it led to something new. The dogs couldn't tell what, but as they walked closer and closer, they saw that it was definitely an "outside" or something.
"The exit was right here all of this time?!" Noel couldn't believe it. But before he could do anything else, Courage grabbed his shoulder.
"We made it though, didn't we?" he smiled at Noel. This was able to immediately calm him.
"Yes, we did," Noel sighed, but with a smile.
"Now let's go," Courage said, and he held out his paw to Noel.
Noel, stared at it for a little bit, and after some hesitation, he ultimately decided to grab onto it. Noel finally admitted to himself that he wasn't really fond of the agreeable Courage either. Even though he was better than the volatile Courage, he would be WAY too playful, kind, and affectionate. It seemed like after whatever the hell happened to Courage, he's acted in only extreme emotions. And what bothered Noel is that the last few positive reactions with him have left him scratching his head. Whatever happened to Courage before this, he wanted to know. And what he wanted more than anything was for Courage to heal from this.
As they left the building, the ground became a dark gray sand. And when they looked up, they saw a dark blue void of a sky, hiding behind the "crack" of the cliffs from above.
End of Chapter
A/N: Sorry Courage for all of the torture! His physical strength, moves, and extreme emotions will all make sense in a couple of chapters I promise! Also I didn't realize until after writing this how similar those halls were to the backrooms. I swear on my grave that I wasn't referencing them AT ALL!