A/N: UPDATE! Upon FINALLY proofreading and editing this chapter, I have decided to add another chapter between this one and the final one of this arc. So instead of there being one more chapter left in this arc, there are now two more (not including this one). I broke the promise of finishing this arc before the end of my Spring Break, but I suppose another chapter will be as a "reward" or something for that. Anyways, back to Hell we go!
Chapter 18: To Find Hell
After Shirley's signal, Noel finally bounded on all fours towards Courage, who was now free from his strangler's rope and his bound paws. They waited a long time before attacking, and Noel hoped more than anything that they hadn't waited too long. And as Noel approached his injured friend, he was relieved to see that he was still breathing.
"Courage! Courage, are you alright?!" Noel tried shaking him awake.
Courage's neck still bore disgusting rope marks from being strangled so hard. God, Noel hoped none of this hurt him too bad. He hated seeing Courage like this.
He tried to pick Courage up, but retreated his paw after touching something crusty on Courage's back. Noel spotted some dried, bloody cuts on his back along with burnt, blistering, bleeding wounds on his wrists. Who would do something like this to poor Courage? Who would ever do this to anyone really?
Noel could not believe some of the other things he witnessed during his five minutes here with Shirley. All of the bodies, all of the blood, and all of the hopelessness!
They now stood in the middle of Hell, which has been hiding underneath everything here this whole time. As he and 'not Courage' traveled across the realm, he never came in contact with the real Courage. This was probably because this Hell is likely where Courage must've been the whole time. Poor Courage. Poor, poor Courage. Nobody should have to be stuck here for long, but especially not Courage.
"Courage, Courage!" Noel yelled again. He noticed a giant Gila Monster, who was dressed like a guard, approaching them. His heart trembled.
"Courage, get up now!"
Courage stirred a bit before finally sitting up.
This wouldn't do. This was no good. The guard was too close, and so Noel threw himself between Courage and the guard.
"Stay back!" Noel barked as he protected Courage. "I'm warning you, buddy!"
But the Gila Monster kept advancing with an unreadable expression.
"Courage, we have to go NOW before the-!"
"Ha ha, good to see that you are still breathing, old friend! It has been too long, no?" Shirley said warmly to the Gila Monster, who nodded in return.
Noel froze, as Courage stirred again.
"I'm 'fraid that I sinned too harshly in this role," The Gila Monster spoke glumly in a deep, raspy voice. "No more room for redemption for me. The things 'He' and Doyle made me do... and I lost my mind. Can't see left from right no more."
"I'm sure The Keepers and the spirits of Thaumagus will still grant you absolution for your penance," Shirley replied.
The Gila Monster nodded in response, clearly struggling to be content.
"So the big scary dude who watched as Courage almost got killed is a good guy?" Noel thought in his mind.
"N-Noel?" Courage moaned out weakly. This obviously recaptured the attention of Noel.
"Courage?" Noel asked in a soft, choked up voice. "Are you okay?"
BLEEHHHHHH!
Courage suddenly vomited all over the ground next to Noel. Noel grimaced before looking away.
"Ohhh," Courage spoke in a weak, scratchy voice. "I feel so much better now."
"That's great Courage," Noel said, returning eye contact. Noel could automatically tell that this was the real Courage he was talking to, but he could also tell that he was lying about feeling better. "But can you move?"
"Prolly," Courage said. As he sat up to stand up, Noel notice his arm trembling underneath him with effort.
BANG!
Courage fell back down to the ground again. Noel gasped.
"Doyle," the Gila Monster spat in disgust. He looked down at Courage and Noel. His red, beady eyes still scared Noel.
"How's the little guy doin?" He asked Noel. Noel swore he could smell the cigars and tobacco from his beath from here.
"Uh, he can't walk," Noel trembled. He was cursing at himself for still being so scared of this creature. Good guy or not, this guy clearly reeked on blood either way.
"Damn it!" the Gila Monster silently cursed. He glanced over to where the bang came from. It was from an entrance that leads to a long hall.
"Y'all need to hide. Guard him and yourself, understand? Things are 'bout to get crazy," the Gila Monster heeded before sprinting over to the entrance.
Noel watched as the Gila Monster snatched a rebar from a torture "station" and made it to the entrance.
"He sure does run fast," Noel said aloud.
Courage coughed in response before-
PLACE
He laid his head onto Noel's lap. It might as well have been a jumpscare for Noel. But he remembered how affectionate the dog was, so he'd grant Courage this comfort only once. But ONLY because Courage was hurt and it was Noel's job to protect him from whatever the hell was about to happen.
As Noel sat rather awkwardly with Courage's enormous noggin, he watched as the Gila Monster closed the double doors of the entrance and slid the rebar into the door handles. He also moved a conveniently close crate full of propane tanks in front of the door for more blockage. This Doyle character must be really bad if that much reinforcement was put into the door. But that's also when Noel noticed that Shirley was missing.
But before Noel could scream her name, he spotted her across the atrium opening cell after cell to free the prisoners. Humans, dogs, cats, lizards, deer, bunnies, prisoners of all different shapes and sizes came came running down the stairs like water flowing down a slide. They attacked and absolutely mutilated ever guard they saw. Bodies of guards, dead and alive, rained down from the upper floors where the cells were. Noel averted his eyes from the bloody chaos, and he was beyond happy to know that they were on their side.
BANG!
"What the-? HEY!" A very mean sounding voice came from behind the barricaded doors. The Gila Monster then shot Noel and Courage a worried look. Noel thought he'd never see a creature such as this guy display pure worry like that.
"Y'all need to get!" He yelled over at them. Noel then remembered that they were supposed to run and hide.
BANG!
"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIYA!" The voice shouted uncontrollably. The doors, rebar, and crate were shaking around violently. There was a very dangerous creature on the other side of those doors, and Noel wanted Courage and himself to get as far away from that creature as possible.
Noel sprang up, grabbed Courage by his paws, and then started dragging him swiftly across the atrium.
"AHHH," Courage moaned as he fell in and out of consciousness.
"Sorry, Courage," Noel apologized, as he continued dragging Courage far away from that voice.
SLIP
"AHHH!" Noel screamed, as he realized he went too close to the enormous mass grave pit. He fell, and was now dangling from the ledge like a water droplet would hang from a faucet. And as he looked down, he saw a sea of dead eyes from the slit-throat bodies, which were all starring up at him and his little blue toes. And man, how hard it's been for him and Courage to avoid the same fate as these unfortunate souls.
"Noel!" He heard Courage try to scream before another coughing fit. He looked back up and directly into one of Courage's little pink paws. The wound around his wrist was turning black and crusty. Noel grabbed onto it immediately.
"Gotcha!" Courage exclaimed before finding just enough strength to pull his friend up and save his life.
Both dogs laid completely sprawled out, gasping for air.
"T-Thank you, Courage," Noel breathed out.
"Don't mention it," Courage wheezed in response.
BANG!
CLATTER CLATTER
CLATTER
CLATTER
"ALLLLRIGHT! NOW WHO'S THE SAD SACKA SHIT WHO THINKS THEY CAN KEEP ME OUT FROM MY OWN PLACE?! HUH?!"
The whole place grew dead silent after that voice reverberated through the entirety of it. That creature could sure yell very loudly.
Both of the dogs' eyes shot directly over to the entrance of the atrium. Courage audibly gasped before shielding his eyes into his hands and trembling in fear. Noel kept rubbing his eyes to make sure that this was what that creature actually looked like.
The owner of the voice, Doyle, was a very tall white man with very wide shoulders. He had a bushy mustache and wore tore-up police-like clothes. However, from here it looked like part of his body was charred. Either way, this creature was clearly very strong and very dangerous.
The Gila Monster was hiding behind a wall used for torture and made eye contact with Noel. He gave Noel a subtle nod before ducking down further.
Courage was crying in fear, and now that it was dead silent, Courage's cries carried more weight.
"Shh, Courage!" Noel harshly whispered before placing his paw over Courage's mouth. He could feel Courage's warm tears soak the fur on his paw.
Doyle's head shot over to them, and then he started walking rather fast in their direction. The Gila Monster could be seen cursing under his breath, and Shirley was still on the upper floors, completely frozen.
Once Courage noticed that Doyle was on to them, he started uncontrollably sobbing.
"No, Courage!" Noel still tried to shush him, but he knew it was no use.
And as Doyle noticeably increased his strides, he began singing.
"Hush-a-bye puppy,
In the treetop.
When the wind blows,
Your feet will rock."
Noel barely found enough strength to get back up to try to pull Courage somewhere else. But neither of them could budge hardly at all. And once Noel realized that Doyle could really see them now, he became absolutely paralyzed in fear.
"When your neck breaks,
Then that will be all."
Courage's sniffling whines of terror mixed in with Doyle's sick, singing voice of pleasure. They were in terrible danger, but Noel knew there was nothing he could do. Wait! There was still one thing he could do. As Doyle drew nearer, Noel stood in between him and Courage, who of course was still crying.
"Down will come puppy,
Body and all."
Doyle finally finished his sick rendition of "Rock-A-Bye Baby" as he was now standing directly in front of Noel. He reeked of burnt hair, frankincense, tobacco, turpentine, and cigars.
"I haven't seen a little blue bitch around here yet, so this must be my lucky day!" Doyle laughed. Even when he wasn't screaming, his voice was still extraordinarily loud. Noel looked directly into his bloodshot eye and into his half burnt eye. He wanted more than anything to tremble or even run in fear.
"Be strong, Noel," he told himself deep within himself. And that's when he noticed the Gila Monster sneaking up from behind Doyle. Noel took a deep breath.
"Well, it must be my lucky day too. Because I haven't seen such a big, burnt-haired bastard around here before either," Noel spat up at him.
Doyle didn't yell. Instead, he smiled. It was a smile that told Noel that he screwed up, BADLY.
"Another talker," he laughed. "Y'know, little pinky down there was a crier." He slowly drew his voice face closer to Noel's. Noel could hardly look this creature in the face as he felt his warm breath. "You saw what we did to his neck. And both of us know how much worse it's going to be next time."
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!" Noel growled at Doyle. His response came out of him before he even knew it.
"What are you gonna do about it?" Doyle grinned venomously. "You're just a worthless little bitch. I could easily shatter all of the itty bitty little bones in your neck with one hand. I know you know this, and I admire your bravery. But it's just too bad that you're so stupid."
SNATCH!
Doyle had a tight grip on Noel's neck. He looked straight into Doyle's face. But it wasn't the face he saw 2 nanoseconds ago. This face had longer, blonder hair. This face had blonde facial hair, and was littered with homemade piercings. And underneath the face, he spotted that god-forsaken neck tattoo. It was HIM!
Noel now knew that he was utterly defenseless. And as he felt the grip tighten around his neck, he swore that he could hear the bones cracking.
CRUNCH!
"AHHHH!" The man holding Noel screamed.
Noel's neck was free, and he was immediately on the ground. He saw Doyle spinning around in circles with a little pink blob stuck to his burnt leg. But the man was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hellll," Noel slowly groaned. He was still too scared to move his head around too much with the fear that something within it might be broken or tweaked in some way. But as his mind cleared a little more, he realized what was happening in front of him. He could hear the crunching of Courage biting into Doyle's burnt leg. He also saw that the Gila Monster was underneath Doyle's free leg, which was bashing his head in. The Gila Monster no longer moved.
"Yelp! Yelp!" Courage was squeaking out as Doyle delivered punch after punch after punch right into his little noggin. He saw Courage eventually let go. He fell to the ground. His eyes were half open, his mouth was all black, and his muzzle was littered with blood. Noel hated to admit it, but Courage almost looked dead.
Noel found some more hidden strength to crawl over to Courage to see if he was even still breathing. But just before he made it, a boot came crashing down onto Noel's left arm.
CRUNCH!
"YOWWWW!" Noel screamed in agony, as he knew that his arm was now hopelessly mangled.
"Now," Doyle started as he grabbed the back of Courage's head. Courage was now wide awake again. "Here's a little tutorial on how to put a necktie on a wailing bitch!"
"AHH Noel! Help m-!" Courage screamed before Doyle shushed him. Noel punched and punched at the giant boot on his arm, but it didn't budge.
SMACK!
"You payin attention?" Doyle spat in Noel's face. "I need you to be takin notes, haha. Now look into his eyes."
Noel did so. He could see poor Courage's eyes shine in terror as he shook uncontrollably and helplessly kept his paws on Doyle's enormous arm.
"There, there," Doyle spoke softly as he let Courage grab onto his arm.
AWW, GOD how Noel wants to see this creature SUFFER.
"Now, you wanna keep your bitch nice and tight so that they don't make a mess. But the goal is to get 'em scared and keep 'em scared, you see?"
But all Noel could pay attention to was how much he shook Courage's head around as he emphasized each word. And for every time he shook Courage's head, it would equal another time Noel would stab this motherfucker in his thick, beefy neck.
A shiny blade was now placed under Courage's muzzle and against his throat.
"ARRUUU!" Courage howled in fear before kicking the arm with the blade. The kick surprised Noel by how powerful it was, and it took Doyle completely off guard. Doyle lost his grip on both Courage and the blade.
"RAHH!" The Gila Monster screamed as he pounced onto Doyle. Noel never thought he'd be so happy to see him.
And those two brawled, Noel's attention returned to Courage, who was unconscious again.
Noel gasped as he saw Courage's body.
Courage's neck had been cut! Well, it was just a small one, but it still bled a little more than Noel was comfortable with.
"Courage," Noel said softly as he ran his right paw along the wound.
Courage winced, and he stirred in response to this.
"S-sorry buddy," Noel said. He starred down at Courage's blood on his right paw. Then he look over at his broken left arm and saw the DISGUSTING angle at which it was bent. If they somehow escaped this nightmare alive, neither one of them would ever come back from this. If anything, he hoped that Courage may not remember too much because of him losing consciousness so much. And if he did, maybe it was better for both of them to just give up and submit to death.
"Get, OFF!" Doyle threw the massive Gila Monster off of him. The Gila Monster was badly injured, and Noel knew that he couldn't take Doyle alone either.
"ALRIGHT, THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH!" Doyle's hateful voice boomed. "I'VE TRIED TO PLAY GAMES, BUT SOMA Y'ALL JUST WANT IT SOOOOO BADLY! SO GUESS WHAT?! AFTER I FINISH OFF THESE THREE, I RECKON EVERYONE STEP RIGHT UP! NECKTIES FOR ALL YOU SUMBITCHES!"
The atrium grew extraordinarily noisy. All of the prisoners were now on the atrium level, and they were all yelling and sprinting straight towards Doyle.
Noel moved him and Courage back a little bit so that they wouldn't get trampled to death. As he did so, Courage woke back up.
"Courage, look!" Noel couldn't believe it.
"AHHH!" Courage screamed in fear (of course).
The two dogs watched in awe as all of the different animal and human prisoners tackled Doyle, who put up a decent fight at first. Other prisoners surrounded the dogs, as well as the Gila Monster. The Gila Monster was helped up by an enormous sheep and was assisting in walking to a safe distance by a gorilla and a cat. Noel was carried by a crocodile, and Courage was carried by a fox. Both were carried side by side and to a safer distance.
Some of the prisoners received rather nasty blows from Doyle and even fell unconscious. But other prisoners helped them up or carried them to a safe distance as well. And as the giant mass of moving bodies fell, Noel knew that Doyle was now on the ground, underneath it all.
All Noel could hear was a bunch of yelling, screaming, whooping, crying, and cheering. And as the mass of prisoners back away to form an oval around Doyle, Noel saw what remained of him.
He was completely naked, and all of his mangled, dismembered limbs were shoved up his... yeah.
Noel felt sick. He hated that creature and wanted it to pay, but this was just too gruesome.
The Gila Monster then broke through the crowd of prisoners with the same shiny blade that cut Courage's throat a moment ago.
"This is for all of the souls we took, you son-of-a-bitch," the Gila Monster sighed.
SQUISH SQUISH SQUASH
The final Columbian Necktie had been administered. Doyle laid there as a "flower pot" with possibly the greatest looking Columbian Necktie this place has probably ever seen.
THUD!
Courage had passed out again. But Noel was there to keep his muzzle from hitting the ground again.
The prisoners then carried this Columbian flower bouquet over to the mass grave and threw it in.
PLOP!
"Like a turd, huh?" A lion prisoner elbowed a gazelle prisoner laughing.
"Hahaha!" The gazelle prisoner laughed before arm embracing the lion.
"These people are out of their frigging minds!" Noel's mind screamed in horror.
"Of course they are," Shirley was now standing right next to him. "They've seen such unspeakable horror to which they have been desensitized to. Perhaps it may be better to keep them all locked up."
"What? No!" Noel exclaimed. "Maybe they could get some rehab or something?! I don't know! Look, that's not what's really important right now. Courage is bleeding, and we need to get out of here!"
"Hmm, true," Shirley spoke with a sense of calmness that infuriated Noel. "But what about your broken arm?"
Noel looked down at his freakishly bent arm. "What about it? Yeah, it's broken, but it can wait."
"Take a closer look at your friend's wound," Shirley spoke.
Noel re-examined Courage's neck slice. It was only just a tiny scratch that bled barely at all, almost like a cat scratch.
"But, I saw more, blood," Noel starred back down at a little red spot on his blue paw.
"Sometimes things can seem worse in the heat of the moment," Shirley explained to him. "Especially if you feel like you failed to protect someone you love."
"Love?" Noel choked on that word. "Heh, I don't love him, I just... have a deep regard for his well being!"
"Okay, I'll just let you figure it out on your own," Shirley sighed.
"N-Noel?" Courage was waking up again.
"Courage!" Noel screamed before tacking him into a hug. He didn't care of Shirley was judging him. He was just so happy that Courage was finally safe and okay (at least for the most part).
When he felt Courage weakly wrap his arms around him too, there was something that tickled the inner doggy self inside of him that he thought was discarded long ago. And knowing the fact that this was finally the real Courage without a doubt, that feeling completely flooded the inside of his body. His tail started to move, so he retreated fast. He heard Shirley giggling behind him, but he was still going to not care about Shirley's judgement. Courage was just a very doggy... dog friend that simply brought out the dogginess within him. Members of packs do this all of the time whether they be hostile enemies or pack companions.
"Is this Hell?" Courage asked. Noel almost forgot what was going on because he was lost in his thoughts.
"Yes Courage, this is Hell," Noel answered with a fake smile. "But we're getting out."
"We are?" Courage asked with pleading eyes.
"Yes, we are, if you decide to get up before Doyle does," Noel joked. "Come on, can you walk?"
"I actually think so," Courage said. He luckily seemed to be growing stronger by the second.
As Courage tried to stand up, Noel tried to help him. Shirley then assisted, and that's whenever Courage was able to stand again.
"How goes figuring it all out on your own?" Shirley teased Noel about his little tail incident.
"How goes explaining everything to Courage and I?" Noel asked in agitation.
"I'll tell you on the way," Shirley replied, as she walked right past them and towards the demolished entrance.
"Where are we going?" Courage asked, as he limped beside Noel.
"Mount Anguish," Shirley turned around to face them. "But first we're going to need some stones."
"Stones?" Noel asked. "Why do we need stones, and why are we going to Mount Angnoose?"
"We need the stones to make a portal back, and it's Mount 'Anguish' you idiot," Shirley sighed. "The stones are guaranteed to work up there because it is the highest point of the realm."
Both dogs were scratching their heads.
"It's the only way out," Shirley groaned in annoyance. "But it is also where He likes to dwell in this realm.
"He?" Both dogs asked in unison.
"Devius," Shirley said carefully.
End of Chapter
A/N: Noel's starting to find out how much he cares about his dear bro, Courage, whether he likes to admit it or not. Also, it may be some time before the next chapter is out