"Hassle in the Castle: Deleted Scenes"
"Man, like plenty spooky," Shaggy began, his eyes darting around nervously. Ever since the Mystery Inc. gang had run aground on the island that housed the Vasquez Castle, he had a serious case of the jitters. The creepy clues the gang found served only to make him more frightened.
"I once read these old castles were loaded with traps," Velma observed as they headed down a cobweb-filled hallway.
"Oh Velma, don't be silly!" Daphne exclaimed. "That only happens in mooooovies….!" she screamed as she slid down a trap door.
"Daphne! Daphne!" Velma called out.
"Wha-what happened?" Fred asked in a trembling voice.
"Daphne fell through a trap door!" Velma replied.
At that moment, a ghostly wail sailed throughout the castle corridors, causing Shaggy's hair to stand on end and for him to yell out "Zoinks!" Scooby whimpered aloud. Only Velma's quick thinking seemed to save the day, as she scooped up the others and ran from the room.
"C'mon, we've got to find Daphne!" Fred insisted, as the gang regained their courage.
But what about that wahhh hah hah hah?!" Shaggy wailed.
"It was probably…just the wind," Velma hypothesized.
"Well that's the first wind I ever heard with a sense of humor!" Shaggy observed.
Fred ignored the two as they walked on. "C'mon Scooby…put your nose to work."
"Right," Scooby responded, sniffing the ground for evidence.
In the next scene, a girl's voice could be heard from behind a pair of doors. "Let me out of here! Let me out of here!" she demanded. The doors swung open and the redhead slid down a shaft, landing painfully on her fanny.
"Wow," she said, rubbing her backside. "I wonder how I get out of this creepy inner sanctum?" Pointing ahead, she said to herself "Well, my intuition tells me, that way…MMMMPH!" A green hand from a ghostly apparition clamped over her mouth. The other claw grasped her hand, pulling it backwards. She tried to get her other hand loose, but with a body pressed up behind her, it was trapped. Soon, both wrists were pinned snugly behind her back, while she remained speechless.
"Now my pretty," a ghostly voice wailed. "You are about to become the prisoner of the phantom." As if to emphasize the point, he took his hand from her mouth. Momentarily stunned by the unexpected freedom, she tried to yell as the second hand snapped a pair of handcuffs on her. Paralyzed by fear, she felt her lime green scarf behind pulled from under her chin. Finally, her vocal chords began to work as she screamed out "HEL—MMPH! MMPH! MMPH!" But it was too late. The accessory which once adorned her neck firmly covered her lips. Indignantly, she noted that the ghost had rudely tied it behind her head, ruining her latest hairstyle that she had worked so hard to perfect.
But the voice from the white-sheeted character just laughed at her muffled indignation. "You will not escape me," it chuckled. "You will be held as a hostage until your friends leave the island." He pulled her roughly to a chair, then uncoiled a nearby rope.
Daphne's eyes were reduced to slits as he wound the rope, pinning her shackled arms behind the chair, binding them to it. Those same eyes widened with fear as he produced a knife, then lowered as she saw he was merely cutting the cord. Next, her torso was lashed to the chair so that her chest stuck out awkwardly. She squealed in discomfort, but he merely giggled, setting to work on fastening her thighs to the seat. With the last pair of ropes, he knotted her legs together just above the ankles, then secured them to one of the chair legs. He stepped back, as if admiring his handiwork.
"Then again, maybe I won't release you after your friends go away," the ghost openly mused. "You and I will make one last disappearing act…after I find the treasure!" Daphne wiggled back and forth, hoping to loosen the ties, but the ghost shook his head.
"Redheads….always the feisty ones," he added.
Then, he heard a nervous whistling sound from above. "Stop that whistling," a teenage boy's voice could he heard. "You make me nervous."
"Time to scare away the others," the ghost said to her. "Just make yourself comfortable while I'm away." He cackled with laughter, then locked the door to the small room as e departed, leaving Daphne whimpering into her gag.
"Uh oh," Shaggy stammered, having lost sight of Fred and Velma. "Which way did they go?" he asked his canine companion.
"They went thataway," a ghostly growl came from a skull as its eyes flashed.
"Thanks man," Shaggy replied jovially, not fully comprehending what just happened.
"'S'alright," the skull shot back. Shaggy and Scooby gulped, then ran away.
As the ghost distracted Shaggy and Scooby with a floating ham sandwich and mustard halfway across the castle, Fred found a secret staircase that had been covered by a bear rug.
"Where do these stairs go?" he wondered aloud.
"The go down," Velma wryly observed.
The two made their way down the circular steps until they reached a door. Behind it, they heard a scuffling sound, punctuated by a muffled moan.
"Yikes! It's the ghost…on the other side of the door!" Fred yelped. "Let's run, Velma!"
Ignoring him, Velma put her ear to the door. "No, the ghostly wailing was a clear cackle. This sounds like someone with their mouth covered."
"Then it could be Daphne," Fred realized. He threw his shoulder at the locked door. On the third try, it crashed through, sending him sprawling. In front of him was a pair of pink pumps with a white rope binding up them. He slowly followed the long pink leggings to the familiar purple dress and light red hair. But the green scarf over her nose and mouth made her resemble a mysterious girl in a harem. She squirmed back and forth, as if trying to free herself. It was an amazing scene.
"A girl being bound and gagged by a kidnapper also happens in movies," Velma said smugly to the tied up captive.
"That gives me an idea," Fred said, coming to her senses. "We could call her 'Damsel-In-Distress' Daphne." In response, the redhead bleated an unintelligible reply.
"How about 'Danger-Prone Daphne?" Velma suggested, grinning at the gagged girl. This'll make up for all those times she calls me a bookworm and teases me about losing my glasses, she thought.
Daphne reddened, angrily rocking her chair back and forth and mumbling something that sound like "jerks" and "cut me loose."
"Better get her loose, before she REALLY gets steamed," Fred smirked. He pulled out his Swiss-Army knife and began working on her legs, while Velma plucked out a hair pin, and attempted to pick the lock on the handcuffs. As the metal bindings fell from her wrists, Fred finished sawing through the ropes. "Chalk up one for women's lib," Velma announced proudly, then looked down at her gagged friend. "Maybe not."
Daphne snatched the scarf from her lips and said sarcastically "well thank you both for rescuing me so promptly…and ungagging me. That ghost could be back in second!" She tugged at the rope around her thighs while Fred reached in to undo her waist ties. Her initial anger faded as he worked next to her, cheek to cheek, undoing the knots. As his body brushed tenderly against hers, she gave him a tiny peck.
"What was that for?" Fred whispered, blushed, then glanced furtively back, but Velma was looking out the door to see if she could spot the returning ghost.
"For getting me out of a…tight spot," she grinned, clearly enjoying watching him fumble through the rest of her bindings.
"Uh, thanks," he managed as she stood up and…..
"Cut!" the director announced.
"What?" the animator said, in surprise.
"We're way over time and way over budget on this cartoon episode," the director replied.
"But…it sets up the romance between Daphne and Fred…." the artist offered.
"Kids don't want all that schmaltz," the director replied. "They want goofy humor and a few frights. Go back to that scene were the ghost gags the girl, and have him miss. Then have her later hit Shaggy on the head with a pot or something later, and have Fred say something about Shaggy using his head, and Shaggy saying something about being okay if he gets some sandwiches. Kids like that stuff. Then throw in a few laugh tracks."
As the animator's head slumped, the director relented. "We'll use that scene of the ghost just missing his chance to grab Daphne in the series intro…"
"Well…." the animator considered as he watched his favorite scene in the episode about to be cut.
"And Daphne can get kidnapped in some future episode, if it's so important to you. Just make sure you can work it into the story in under 22 minutes," the director added.
"Okay," the animator shook his head. "You've got a deal. He packed away the storyboard and went over to the series writer, already thinking about how to work in the scene. Maybe it would involve multiple kidnappers, two creatures, like a witch and zombie or something like that. It could work…..