Chapter 0 - The New Computer

The New Computer

By: CTCD

It had been about a month since the little dog known as Courage had lost his parents and was found by Muriel...of course that is a whole different story. This is more or less about how his talking computer was bought and how Courage found out the hard way...that it reeaaallly doesn’t like him and just about anyone for the matter...

That day was no different from any of the other days he had with his new owners. Though Muriel was as kind as his mother had been, Eustace all around hated having a dog in the family as Muriel poured all the love on the pink nuisance and forgot about him.

Courage trailed behind his owners as they finished shopping at the Nowhere-Mart which they always went to on Fridays and may stay in town long enough for Dinner.

Like most pups Courage had grown fast and had already hit his full size though he still acted like a pup...sometimes. He tended to get scared...a lot...and Eustace loved to exploit this fear.

As they loaded the truck Muriel suddenly asked out of the blue, “Eustace why don’t we buy one of those fancy computer things while we’re here. My friend in the store said she got one a few days ago and said they’re really helpful.”

Eustace grunted. “Too expensive.”

“Oh but Eustace...”

“No we don’t need one!”

“Well...there is a computer store down the street, can’t we just go look?”

“Will it make you shut up?” The old man mumbled under his breath. Courage couldn’t help but scowl at the old man. “Fine we’ll go, but I ain’t buying you one!”

Courage would have normally stayed by the truck now since they usually would go out for dinner now and Eustace forbid Muriel to buy anything for an uncivilized dog who can just eat dog food. But Courage had never seen a computer before and if what Muriel’s friend had said was right he wanted to see one.

As they entered the computer store they were greeted by a rather pudgy balding man. “Welcome!” He spoke in a cheery voice. “You looking for a new computer miss?” He asked Muriel.

Before Muriel could even speak Eustace interrupted “We’re just looking!”

“Oh well...why don’t I show you around anyway!” The man said pulling the two forward.

The first computer he showed them was sleek jet black and on its screen displayed all the many things it could do. Courage couldn’t help but want to get up to it and try it out.

“This here...” The man spoke patting the monitor screen fondly. “Is one of the newest models out and...oh boy is it fast! It’s a fan favorite of WoW players!”

“Wow?” Muriel asked.

“Ah! You wouldn’t understand!” The man laughed and then launched into a long explanation of what an RPG is.

Bored with the man Courage wandered away from the group into the back of the store watching as the computers around him steadily grew older and less nice looking. Finally as he hit the back of the store something caught his eye.

Tucked away in the corner was a rather old and small pure white computer looking terrible up against the much nicer computers. Courage was also taken aback by the fact that instead of showing off all its features on its screen all that was there was a glowing green.

He walked forward toward the thing, unlike the other computers which made him feel he was too unimportant to be used by it this one felt like it was just a runt that nobody ever wanted to even get anywhere near.

It’s keyboard laid in front of it as if beckoning someone to use it or even better buy it. Courage stared into the endless green radiating from the screen. He let his paws rest on the keyboard and just as he was about to press down on a key he was greeted by a voice in which he had knew none of the other computers had.

“Well, well, and just who are you?” It spoke with a clear male voice and a British accent.

Courage didn’t spare anytime to scream his trademark scream and took off across the store where he utter out total gibberish to Muriel hoping he could get across how he had just heard a computer talk.

“Courage? What’s wrong?” Muriel asked as he pulled at the hem of her dress.

“Something wrong with your dog miss?” The man asked.

Courage managed to get everyone down to the end of the store and back to the computer through constant pulling and gibberish. Everyone stared at the him as he tried to get the thing to talk again but it stayed silent as he pushed random keys on the keyboard.

“Was I hearing things?” Courage asked himself. Maybe he just thought he heard the computer speak like a normal human.

“Hmmmm, funny your dog noticed this computer over all the others.” The man spoke putting a hand to his chin. “I’ve had a lot of trouble with this one.”

“Trouble? Is it broke?” Muriel asked.

“Oh it works fine...but it’s an old thing, one of the oldest models I’ve ever seen. Heck the guy who gave it to me gave it for free! Said it was keeping him up at night! He seemed happy to get rid of it.”

Courage felt even more scared as the man explained how its old owner had seemingly wanted to get rid of it.

“Well I managed to get it to use the internet, it’s so old it’s useless for anything else. I gave it to my little daughter and afterward she kept running into the me and my wife’s bedroom at night saying the computer was scaring her. She said there was a ghost living in it! Funny things kids come up with these days! Anyway I ended up putting it here in the shop but nobody even notices the thing.”

“Sounds like you should just throw it in a junkyard! It’s a piece of junk itself!” Eustace spoke scowling at the thing.

“Well that was what I was planning to do soon but...you two don’t have a computer do you? Well I’m willing to give you this for lets say twenty?”

“Ten!” Eustace said. He couldn’t resist a bargain like this!

“Fifteen?”

“Fine!”

Courage couldn’t believe it! He was actually going to live in the same house with a haunted computer! He was already shaking with fright...and now it was coming home with him...

He stared at the glowing green screen again and got an awful feeling that he was being watching. Something was staring at him in that green glow...he could still remember that voice...

He felt utterly horrified as the man unplugged it and the screen went dark, as Eustace hauled it to the truck and Courage finally realized there was no going back.

The rest of the afternoon went on as normal apart from the fact Eustace was getting the computer hooked up in the attic. Courage had been happy to hear this because he never had to go up into the attic and he wanted to stay as far away from that thing as possible.

As night rolled around Courage got into his usual place at the end of the bed and fell into and uneventful sleep. At first his dreams were pleasant but soon morphed into a nightmare where a ghost came out of that glowing screen and was heading down the hall to get him...

He awoke with a scream and before he could react to anything else he felt a pair of hand wrap around his neck. He yelp expecting it to be the ghost but his fears were abandoned as he realized it was Eustace as he yelled “Wake me up! You stupid dog!”

Normally Eustace just kicked him out but when he walked out into the hall with Courage still in his grasps he knew he was trying to put him in the attic!

“Stupid dog! Lets see you sleep in the attic with the ghost!”

Courage was thrown into the attic and before he could escape Eustace locked the door from the other side trapping him in with the ghost. He sat there at the door scratching and whining but gave up once he knew Eustace wasn’t returning.

He turned and could see the glowing screen at the end of the attic facing the bed on the opposite side of the window. He decided to muster up all the courage he had and give the ghost a piece of his mind!

Stomping over to the computer he typed in, “Look ghost I won’t have you scaring me or Muriel you got that!”

He half expected a ghost to come popping out of the screen like in his dream but nothing happened...Just as he was about to believe he really had heard things back in the computer shop it spoke up.

“What ghost?” It asked in a very board and uninterested voice. “I’m no ghost if that’s what you think. Well you must be my new owner, I don’t see why you ran off like that before.”

“If your not a ghost then what are you?” Courage typed.

“I don’t know.” Was the reply he got.

“But you must know!”

“Does it really matter?” The computer asked sounding just as board as ever.

“Well you could be dangerous! I don’t even know what you are!”

“Oh boy don’t tell me I got stuck with a stupid owner again...how do I get so unlucky...” It replied. “And I thought you were smarter for a dog. All my owners are either afraid of me, or want to take me apart, or just too stupid to understand anything.”

“H..hey! I’m not stupid!”

“Alright, you’re a twit then.”

“No I’m not stop that!”

“Well...I could give you a chance...I do owe you for getting me out of there before that guy made me scrap metal.”

“Hey! Your supposed to be the one trying to make me trust you!”

“You can either trust me or not but I have a task for you so I know if you’re an idiot or not.”

Courage groaned angrily. “Well?”

A picture of what looked like the inside of a normal home appeared on the screen. “What’s wrong with this picture?” It stated bluntly.

“What?” Courage spoke looking into the picture but nothing seemed wrong with it.

“Well?” The machine asked.

“I...I..really don’t...” Courage began but just then a frightening picture appeared on the screen along with a loud scream.

Courage screamed himself toppling out of the chair and landing face first on the floor and he became all to aware that he could hear the computer laughing.

“Well you are a twit after all! Anyone who’s not stupid would know about that internet prank.”

Courage quickly regained himself. “I have half the mind to throw you in a junkyard myself!”

“Ah but you wouldn’t do that now would you? We’re friends now.”

What!” Courage yelled.

“Well you may be a twit but you still are my owner. If you need my help for anything just ask because it’s not like I’ll be anywhere else. Hopefully you’ll ask more interesting questions then the others. You are after all the first who asked me a question I don’t know the answer for!”

“What you are? Right?”

“Yes...But you still are a twit though.”

And with that the screen went dark before Courage could ask anything else. He couldn’t believe of all the computers in the world he got stuck with the own with a mind of its own. Much less that he gained its respect just by asking a question it could not answer.

Little did he know his and Muriel’s life would be saved many times thanks to that computer and that Courage would be dealing with his computer’s rather annoying personality many more times...

But in the end it was still just another family member.

End

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