Sponge: Hey all! Bet you'd never see me back, huh? Well, believe it or not, here I am. This is not a sequel, it is simply a revised version of the ever-popular story "Scooby Doo and the Mysterious Tape." It came to my attention that we're coming up on the fifth anniversary of when this story was first published. That's pretty incredible, huh? I can't believe it's been five years since I began my Fan Fiction career. A lot has happened since then. And through it all, I never stopped writing. Well…maybe I stopped writing on this website for a while. But the cogwheels in my head were always turning with new ideas, and Scooby and the gang were never far from mind.

I'm going to be nineteen at the end of the summer. And as a special treat for my oh-so-loyal fans from five years ago, I've decided to bestow a gift upon you: an updated, edited, better-written version of "Scooby Doo and the Mysterious Tape!" (Also, it's more like the actual movie The Ring and therefore makes more sense.)

It's sort of going to be my last hurrah, because this is really the final time that I'll be able to do anything on this website before I go off to college. I can't believe I was thirteen-going-on-fourteen when I wrote this. That's just ridiculous.

Just as a word of warning: this fic (if you didn't already know) is rated T for teen, otherwise known as PG-13 in the movie world. The movie The Ring is also rated PG-13 "for thematic elements, disturbing images, language, and some drug references", according to imdb . com. All of these things – except for the drug references and language – will certainly be appearing in this fic. Also, towards the end of the story, things will be getting a bit graphic romantically between two characters. I won't tell you who – although if you read my original story/looked at the fan listing, I'm sure you can guess. (Okay fine, I'll tell you. I ship Shelma. Just like the good folks at Cartoon Network who honest-to-goodness put them in a SECRET RELATIONSHIP in the new Scooby Doo series that's starting on July 12, 2010!) In any case, I'll try not to be TOO graphic. I refuse to make Scooby Doo, the show that I associate childhood purity with, into a lemon.

Also, although the redux follows more closely the plot of the actual movie The Ring, it won't be exactly like the movie. This is for two reasons: 1.) I do not want to infringe upon the rights of Dreamworks or anything of the sort. 2.) I have not watched the movie in about five years, and I have no desire to do so any time soon. Isn't that depressing, that I'm still so freaked out by a movie that I saw five years ago? Oh well. Also, I understand that apparently Velma has a younger sister named Madelyn or something to that effect, but she is not in this story. She will probably be mentioned, but she will not appear in my story at all.

Oh yes. Imagine all of the Scooby Doo characters in their live-action forms. Or in their cartoon forms, if that's less scary for you. Also, the events of this story take place about four months after the events of the second live-action Scooby Doo movie. Since there was a line in there when Shaggy said, "That was almost exactly like my freshman year in college," I'm assuming that at least three years have passed between the first movie and the second one, making Fred and Daphne 21, Shaggy 22, and Velma 20.

Anyway, I sincerely hope that you all enjoy this special update of the first thing I ever published on this website: "Scooby Doo and the Mysterious Tape."

Chapter 1: Prologue

Jonathan Gates was lounging on his couch, watching TV. Actually, he wasn't really paying attention to whatever was happening on screen. He wasn't hearing anything that was happening on screen either. Rather, he was listening for the sound of the doorbell. Rose was coming over. Of course, his parents didn't know this. They didn't approve of the eighteen-year-old having his girlfriend over when there were no adults home – though he had done this several times before. His parents were just afraid that their son and his girlfriend would engage in "inappropriate activities" if left unsupervised.

Which they had. Several times. But Jonathan's parents didn't need to know.

Anyway, Jonathan hadn't seen his girlfriend in a week. He'd been camping with his friends at a place in the woods called Shelter Mountain. Jonathan had told his parents that he and four of his friends were doing this to "celebrate finishing high school." In reality, it was an excuse for the five of them to party and get drunk and hang out with their girlfriends during the first week of summer. However, Rose wasn't graduating yet – she still had a year of high school left. So since the underclassmen got out a week later than the seniors, she'd been at school.

Now, however, Jonathan was home, and the underclassmen were done with school as well. So they could see each other.

Ding-dong, went the doorbell.

Jonathan sprang up from his position on the couch and ran to the mirror in the front hallway to check his appearance. He saw a tall, decently-built blonde-haired blue-eyed boy of eighteen…whose nose was bleeding. He grabbed a nearby tissue and quickly wiped it away. It was the strangest thing. His nose had been spastically bleeding all week, and he didn't know why. He just hoped it didn't start up again while he and Rose were…doing stuff.

He turned to the left and opened the front door.

"I missed you," said the chestnut-haired girl at the front door, whose brown eyes were shining.

"I missed you too, Rose," said Jonathan, taking her into his arms and leading her up the stairs.

"So…" Rose said. The two of them were nestled underneath the covers of Jonathan's bed.

"So…?" he repeated.

"How was camping?" Rose asked.

"Oh…you know. Crazy. I mean, things usually are crazy with Travis and Ben and Reed and Eric," Jonathan replied. "We drank a lot. We did some swimming and boating and stuff."

"What was it like being completely without technology for a whole week?" Rose knew her boyfriend was a major lover of Xbox, and couldn't imagine him in an environment where he couldn't play the most recent Call of Duty…or at least check his Facebook.

"There was too technology!" Jonathan retorted. "There was a TV. But none of us had brought any video game consoles, and reception was awful, so the only thing we used it for was the VCR player. And that was only one time."

"…One of you boys brought a video cassette?" Rose asked incredulously.

"No, there was one at the place. On the first day, it was raining and we couldn't do anything outside, so we had a couple beers and later that night Reed found this tape on the bookshelf. We were buzzed enough that we decided to watch it…" Jonathan trailed off, lost in thought.

"What was on the tape?"

"That's the weird thing. It was…all these creepy images of stuff. I can't explain it. It was like a tape out of somebody's whacked out nightmare. And then…"

"Yes?"

"When it was over, the phone rang. I answered it. And this creepy voice told me that my friends and I were going to die in seven days…"

"Probably a kid playing a prank," Rose said. Rose was very rational.

"Well yeah, but I mean, if it was real, it would mean I'd die today." Jonathan believed in the supernatural. It made for interesting conversation, but there came a point when it got old.

"Jonathan, you're not going to die today," Rose told him. "That's ridiculous. You're going off to college in the fall, and you've got your whole life ahead of you." She kissed his cheek. "I love you."

"Love you too, babe," Jonathan murmured, obviously still preoccupied by his imminent "death." Rose rolled her eyes and laid her head on his bare chest. They were silent for a few minutes, until Rose perked up suddenly.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered. Jonathan sat up a little, straining his ears. He did hear something, a fuzzy sound, almost like…

"Ugh, I left the TV on downstairs," Jonathan grumbled, shoving the sheets back and rolling off the bed. He pulled his discarded clothes back on and gave his girlfriend a kiss on the nose. "Don't go anywhere." He then left his room and made his way downstairs. There was nothing playing on the TV – only static. Too lazy to change the channel, he simply pressed the power button, hoping that someone else would change the channel the next time they turned the TV on.

However, the next time the TV turned on was about five seconds after Jonathan had turned away from it. Jonathan turned back around, puzzled. There was a picture on the screen now – a black and white shot of a stone well. Water began trickling out of the TV, and Jonathan stared at it, confused and a bit frightened.

Meanwhile, back upstairs, Rose was getting dressed. She had a feeling Jonathan's parents were going to be home soon, and she didn't want him getting in trouble. She trotted down the steps – and splashed into a puddle of water at the bottom of the staircase. She glanced at it, puzzled, and looked around for her boyfriend.

"Jonathan? There's water at the bottom of the stairs here."

There was no response.

"Jonathan?" she called again, rather tentatively. She made her way to the TV room, noticing that the water was flowing from under the door that led into the room. Cautiously, she opened the door a crack.

And screamed.

x.X.x

Meanwhile, next door, a little girl of about seven years old sat at her kitchen table. At the moment, her mother was packing for a three-day business trip, and the little girl was going to be staying with her aunt and her aunt's friends.

"Lorelei?" called a voice from upstairs. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the kitchen, Mom," the girl – Lorelei – replied.

"Do you have your suitcase?" Her mother's voice grew louder as she descended the stairs.

"Yes, Mom." Lorelei's mother then stepped into the kitchen and smiled at her auburn-haired daughter. Her smile disappeared, though, when she realized that her daughter's blue eyes were wide with fear.

"Lorelei, are you all right, sweetie?" She put her suitcase down and approached her daughter, enveloping her in a hug. "You're not nervous about staying with Aunt Velma and her friends, are you?"

"No…" This wasn't exactly true. Lorelei was a bit nervous about that, but it wasn't what was currently on her mind at the moment.

Ding-dong, went the doorbell.

"Oh, they're here," Lorelei's mother said. "Come on sweetie, let's go." Lorelei held her mothers hand as they walked to the front door. Standing on the other side, when they opened it, were four people and a dog.

"Dottie!" cried one of the people, clad in an orange sweater and glasses as she hugged Lorelei's mother.

"Oh, it's great to see you Velma!" Dottie replied, hugging her younger sister back. Lorelei and Velma's friends stood to the side awkwardly.

"Dot," Velma said, pulling away from her sister. "I'm not sure if you remember my friends from high school…"

"Let's see if I do…" Dottie said, pointing to each person behind her sister in turn. "Fred Jones…Daphne Blake…and…um…Fuzzy? Or something to that effect?"

"Like, it's Shaggy," said the tall man in the green shirt with unkempt hair. Lorelei could see why his nickname was 'Shaggy'. She wondered what his real name was, but she was preoccupied at the moment.

"And you, of course, are Scooby Doo!" Dottie said of the giant brown Great Dane that stood at Shaggy's side.

"Rat's right!" the dog barked.

"Mom!" Lorelei said, tugging on the hem of her mother's blouse. She finally realized what was wrong.

"What is it, Lorelei?" Dottie said with a hint of impatience.

"There's someone at the Gates'!" The other adults glanced outside.

"Like…there are no gates…" Shaggy said, confused. Lorelei rolled her eyes.

"Not fence gates," she said exasperatedly. Dottie looked out the door to the right and groaned.

"Ugh. That's Rose Anderson's car," she sighed, pointing to the blue Dodge Caliber parked on the street in front of the house next door.

"Who?" Velma asked. She had just been hoping to pick up her niece and get back to headquarters before it got any later – it was already almost nine o'clock.

"The Gates' are our next-door neighbors," Dottie explained. "Bridget and George went out to eat tonight – I saw their car leave. They have a rule that their son, Jonathan, can't have his girlfriend Rose over when there are no adults home." Dottie sighed again. "He constantly breaks that rule. I would tell his parents, but then I remember what it was like when I was in high school. I hated that rule."

"We had that rule in our house?" Velma asked.

"Well, I guess it never really applied to you – you never really had many guys," Dottie said. "Mom and Dad pretty much forced it on me though…" Dottie sighed. "Well, I guess I'll be going." She gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead. "Be good for Aunt Velma and her friends, dear,"

"I will, Mom," Lorelei said, somewhat uneasily. She had a feeling that Rose wasn't the only other person inside the Gates' house.

Dottie picked up her suitcase, said goodbye to Velma and her friends, and left the house, getting into her car and driving off down the street.

"So…do you have everything, Lorelei?" Velma asked. Lorelei nodded and picked up her suitcase. They were just locking the door behind them, when they heard a shrill, frightened scream come from the house next door.

The Gates' house.

Everyone stared at the house.

"What do you think that was?" Velma murmured.

"There's someone else in the house," Lorelei said. The others looked at her.

"Shouldn't we investigate?" Daphne asked.

"Like no way!" Shaggy cried vehemently. "What if there's like, a ghost in there?"

"Reah! A roast!" Scooby agreed. Fred rolled his eyes.

"Really, you two. If there WERE such things as ghosts, do you really think they would haunt a house in the middle of the suburbs?"

"Like, two words man: Paranormal Activity."

"I knew it was a bad idea to let them watch that movie," Daphne grumbled.

"You guys, ghosts and poltergeists aside, what if someone in there is really hurt? We should help them, don't you think?" Velma asked. The others looked at each other, wordlessly. "Well, I think we should," Velma proclaimed. And with that, she marched towards the house, with the others in tow.

"Hello?" Velma called, tentatively trying the door. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. She took a step inside, and was shocked to discover that she stepped into a puddle of water. "Hey gang, come here!" she called as she stepped further into the house. To Lorelei she whispered, "What's the name of the boy who lives here again?"

"Jonathan," Lorelei replied.

"Jonathan?" Velma called. There was no response.

"Hey Velma," Fred said. "It looks like the water is coming from inside this room." Slowly, he opened the door and took a step inside, followed by the others.

The TV was on, but it was only static. In front of the TV was a couch. And lying on the couch was a young blonde man with a look of sheer terror on his face.

Everyone gasped. Lorelei backed up and hid her face in her aunt's sweater.

"Jeepers!" Daphne exclaimed. "What happened?"

"Lorelei, get out of here," Velma said sternly, but quietly. Lorelei obeyed – she sprinted out of the room as if it was on fire. "Scooby and Shaggy, maybe you ought to go with her." The pair looked as white as ghosts.

"Like yeah, okay," Shaggy mumbled, as he and Scooby followed Lorelei out of the room.

"M-maybe someone should check his pulse…" Daphne suggested. Fred stepped forward and put his fingers to the young man's wrist.

"He's dead," he said after a few minutes. Suddenly, there were three screams from outside.

"Oh no," Velma said. "Please don't tell me there's another dead person in this house." She, Fred and Daphne sprinted out of the room and found Shaggy, Scooby and Lorelei dashing out of a closet.

"What were you guys doing inside the coat closet?" Daphne asked as they ran toward each other.

"L-l-like, th-there's a girl in there!" Shaggy stammered.

"A girl?" Fred asked, pushing his way towards the coat closet. There was indeed a girl inside – curled up in a ball on the floor, crying, looking as though she'd never been more terrified in her life. "Are you okay, miss?" Fred asked her. The girl just cried harder.

"I guess we should phone the police…" Velma said, looking back towards the TV room. "And tell them there's been a homicide."

x.X.x

Minutes later, the police arrived, as did Mr. and Mrs. Gates. They were taken into the kitchen for questioning while other policemen and crime scene investigators searched the TV room for evidence. Meanwhile, Rose had been escorted home by other policemen. Mystery Inc. and Lorelei were also in the kitchen with the Gates'.

"How did you discover what had happened?" one of the detectives, a man by the name of Bruce Edelbrock, asked Mystery Inc.

"We heard someone screaming inside," Velma replied. "I suppose it was Rose."

"Was anything out of the ordinary?"

"Well, there was water all over the floor when we came in," Fred answered. "Although, I guess you already gathered that…and there was static on the TV."

"And you didn't see a weapon anywhere at all?" Detective Edelbrock asked.

"Nothing," said Daphne. "He didn't even look as though he'd been hurt." Mrs. Gates – Bridget – sobbed into her husband's shoulder. He patted her on the back, and looked as if he was mustering up all the strength he could not to cry.

"Mr. Gates," said Detective Edelbrock, turning his attention now on the blonde man.

"Please call me George," he muttered.

"George," said the detective. "Can you imagine anyone who would have wanted to hurt your son?" However, it was his wife that answered.

"No," Bridget said through her tears. "He was the sweetest boy. Never made trouble. Always polite to everybody. He was going to go to Clemson in the fall. To play baseball…" That was as far as she got before she collapsed into tears again.

"He went camping with his friends this week," George told the detective. Edelbrock's ears perked up.

"Where?" he asked.

"Some place up north that I've never heard of," George replied. "Shelter Mountain? I think?"

"I've heard of that place," Daphne said. "I used to go up there with my family a lot when I was a kid."

"You did?" Fred exclaimed incredulously. "I always heard that was a famous place for…" but he didn't finish his sentence. He had been about to say that Shelter Mountain had been "a famous place for teenagers to get smash drunk and party hard", but he figured that the Gates' didn't need to hear that right then.

"Can you tell me the names of the friends he was camping with?" Detective Edelbrock asked, retrieving a pen and a pad of paper from his pocket.

"Travis Parker," George began. "Ben Thomas, Reed Connors, and Eric Weissman." Detective Edelbrock stopped writing and stared at George for a moment.

"Please excuse me for a moment," he said, pulling out his walkie-talkie and leaving the room.

"What do you suppose that's about?" Fred asked his companions.

"I have no idea…" Daphne replied.

Meanwhile, Lorelei had taken to wandering through the house. She wandered upstairs into a bedroom. There were posters of baseball stars tacked up on the walls, and the sheets were a disgruntled mess. This, Lorelei realized, had been Jonathan's room.

Lorelei hadn't known Jonathan all that well. He'd babysat for her once, but only moments after her mother left, his girlfriend showed up, and they had shut themselves up into the guest bedroom and didn't come out until right before it was time to put Lorelei to bed. Rose left, and Lorelei went to sleep, but she told her mother what had happened the next morning and Dottie never hired Jonathan to care for Lorelei after that.

But still…he'd lived next door to her for her entire life. It was strange to think that he was suddenly dead.

She wandered back downstairs, into the TV room where they'd first found Jonathan. He had been bagged up and taken to the city morgue for an autopsy, but there were still policemen and crime scene investigators milling around, searching for evidence. Lorelei approached the TV. It had been turned off, but she couldn't help wondering if there was something about the TV that could have been important. She touched the bottom of the screen, and noticed that it was a bit moist. Had the water been coming from the TV? Lorelei couldn't believe that. There was sure to be some kind of electrical science that made that impossible. Still…she brought her hands up the screen farther – and it rippled under her touch. She jumped back in surprise, but then she curiously leaned forward. She thought she saw someone's reflection behind her – a reflection of a little girl, no older than herself, with long black hair covering her face.

"I'm coming for you."

Lorelei whirled around, but there was nobody there. She turned back to the TV and the reflection was gone. She could have sworn she heard someone's voice say those words…as if they had come from directly behind her. She shuddered, decided that it was her imagination, and returned to the kitchen where the detective was still questioning Velma and her friends.

Scooby and Shaggy weren't partaking much in the conversation – rather, they were partaking in the food that Bridget and George had allowed them to help themselves to. But even they glanced up when Lorelei entered the room, followed by a very distraught looking Detective Edelbrock.

"Mr. and Mrs. Gates, did you know that there were four other homicides that were reported in the tri-city area at nine pm this evening?" he asked the couple.

"N-no, I didn't know that," Bridget stammered.

"Neither did I," George agreed.

"Well, there were," the detective continued. "Two were here in Lyonsville, including your son's. Two were in Coolsville, and the last one was in Nelmsville." Detective Edelbrock stared hard at the Gates'. "Do the names of those cities sound familiar to you?"

"Y-yes," Bridget said. "Those were the towns were Jonathan's friends lived. They all went to Lyonsville High School though because they were drafted through the baseball program."

"Hold on a minute," Fred spoke up. "Are you telling us that all of the boys who stayed at Shelter Mountain last week are dead?"

"Precisely," the detective said. Everyone was silent. "My issue," Edelbrock continued, "is that all of the detectives are working on these homicides, and we don't have any spare time." Fred nudged Velma and raised his eyebrows. Velma shrugged, and Fred cleared his throat.

"Uh, Detective Edelbrock? May I make a suggestion?" he began. The detective nodded for Fred to continue. "My friends and I here belong to a group known as Mystery Inc. Maybe you've heard of us?"

"Your headquarters operates in Coolsville, doesn't it?" George asked. "I've heard about you."

"So have I," said Edelbrock. "You're very well-renowned all over the tri-city area."

"Thank you," Fred said. "Well uh…if we could be of any assistance to you…"

"Our department would appreciate that very much," the detective said. "It would be an honor to work with great detectives such as yourselves." Every single member of the gang blushed – even Scooby.

x.X.x

"So, what are you thinking, Freddie?" asked Daphne as they left the Gates' house that evening.

"Well right now it seems like the only common factor is the fact that they all played baseball at Lyonsville High School, and that they all stayed at Shelter Mountain last week. So I'm thinking we should check out those places first."

"You mean…split up?" Daphne asked. "How are we going to do that? We've only got the Mystery Machine."

"Mom's got another car in the garage," Lorelei spoke up. The adults gazed down at her.

"She does?" Velma asked, incredulous. Dottie had been driving the same champagne-colored Buick for as long as Velma could remember.

"Well, I guess it isn't really hers," Lorelei admitted. "It was Dad's. Mom never drives it, though." Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy glanced at one another. They didn't know what happened to Dottie's husband, and they didn't think it appropriate to ask Velma – at least not at the current moment.

"There are keys to the car on the key ring that Mom gave you," Lorelei told her aunt. Velma fingered the key ring and sighed.

"All right," she said. She typed in the garage code, got into the car (a white Acura) and backed out of the garage. Lorelei climbed into the car with her aunt.

"We'll see you back at headquarters," Velma called out to the others as she careened down the road. Lorelei at the window, though she was seeing more of her reflection than the scenery. She couldn't help thinking of the other reflection – the one she'd been so sure she'd seen in the television at the Gates' house. And she couldn't stop thinking of the voice either – the one that said "I'm coming for you." Had Lorelei been imagining things? Or had that really happened.

Whichever it was, Lorelei was eager to find out.

Sponge: Whoo! Chapter one is out of the way! I hope you enjoyed it! Also, interesting tidbit of information: Rose's car and the two cars that belong to Lorelei's family? They are based off of actual cars in my life. The blue Dodge Caliber belongs to a friend of mine. The champagne Buick is the car that I drive, and the white Acura is the car that my ex-boyfriend drives. Every car I mention in this fic – other than the Mystery Machine and taxis and buses obviously – are cars that are actually in my life, or were in my life at some points. Anyway…review and I promise that chapter two will be along shortly!