"Electrified," whispered Shaggy.
"Rampiric," whispered Scooby.
"Ghost!" the pair tried to jump into each other's arms before running off down the nearest corridor, a corridor which headed towards the kitchen.
Fred looked at his watch "Well that beats our previous record for stumbling into a mystery by nearly an hour."
"We won't have to get out of bed at this rate," Daphne muttered fishing out a credit card to pay for the rooms.
"Madds and me will go get them while you check us in," said Velma as she and Madelyn began to follow Shaggy and Scooby's dust trail.
"They em get a little nervous at times," said Fred filling in the register.
"With vampires," said Daphne.
"Ghosts."
"And werewolves."
"Zombies."
"Or bog monsters, especially bog monsters, in fact they carry an allergy alert card," said Daphne.
"Really, how interesting," said Basil, clearly not.
The sisters eventually found Shaggy and Scooby in the kitchen. Shaggy was hugging a catering size can of peaches while Scooby was hiding under the sink pretending to be a bottle of washing-up liquid.
Madelyn gentry stroked Shaggy's head trying to calm him, "Don't worry Shaggy, there's no vampire," she spoke in gentle soothing tones.
"Like Madds are you sure?"
"Of course it's the ghost of a vampire."
"Oh well now you put it like that. Yaaaah!"
"Raaaah!" Shaggy and Scooby set off again, a few moments later the sisters trudged off after them.
"You'll need this," said Velma passing Madelyn a booklet.
"'So your boyfriend is afraid of his own shadow – a survival guide by Velma Dinkley age 16½.' I remember you writing this, oh Vel thank you!" Madelyn briefly hugged her sister.
"Look under V," said Velma.
"V, v, ahh Vampire – ohhhh is shows where he's likely to hide!"
"Years of research in that," smiled Velma. If Velma was to let on she was starting to feel a bit misty-eyed and nostalgic. Rose-tinted memories returned of her writing the guide with Madelyn always trying to sneak a peek at it, caught as she was between thinking that boys were a waste of space and the fascination of seeing her big sister, who used to share those views, now besotted with one.
"Excuse me Mr Haywire, how can a vampire become a ghost in the first place?" said Madelyn as she and Velma dragged Shaggy and Scooby into reception.
"It seems that he accidentally got impaled through the heart by a live electrical pylon and that was enough to turn him into a ghost. He haunts the area as a glowing ball of electricity only becoming a vampire again when compelled to feed."
"Hmmmnm," Velma stroked her chin "Fred, I need to find a map of the local geology."
"Why?"
"Granite and fault lines."
"Again, why?"
"Just a hunch, this could have a natural explanation."
"Absolutely!" said Basil appearing between them giving them both a start "I would start with our dear next door neighbour, one Professor duVoile."
"Why him?" said Daphne.
Basil drew breath to speak but was interrupted by Sybil.
"Basil, it's not nice to talk about our neighbour like that, just because he does wild, mad experiments with electricity and communes with sinister forces from the other side, that's no reason to implicate him in anything. I'll get Michael to take your bags to your rooms. Michael!"
"Yes Sibyl?" Daphne jumped at the voice from just millimeters behind her. She turned and stepped back, ready to give whoever it was a lecture on personal space. The person in question was a male, slightly taller than Velma, wearing a crumpled black suit. He had quite a stocky build, a narrow face and a slightly beaky nose, his hair was so oily she could see her reflection in it. She guessed he was in his late teens or early twenties based on his general appearance and that his gaze was fixated on her chest.
"Ahhh Michael there you are, please show these guests to their rooms," said Sibyl.
"Certainly Sibyl, please follow me," he mumbled as he loaded their bags onto a cart, all without taking his eyes of Daphne, except to occasionally stare at Velma and Madelyn when the opportunity arose. The girls gave each other nervous glances while Daphne's creepy-weirdo meter began to edge off the scale.
"Like, emm which way are the rooms?" Shaggy casually moved in front of Madelyn as he spoke.
"This way, its in the new part of the building." Michael pushed the trolley towards a gloomy corridor.
"Nicely done Shag," said Velma as Madelyn floated happily next to him, his knightly armour shone to perfection.
"Here you go, these are two single rooms which have a common bathroom, I suggest the men take this, I'll bring a dog-basket up for the Dane," Michael indicated to two doors on the left of the corridor, "while I suggest the," he licked his lips "ladies take this room, it has a double bed with en-suite and a connecting room with a single bed. It's going to be our family room when it's been finished. We've only just opened this part of the house up so things might need the odd tweak," said Michael as he handed each of them a hammer "just in case the plumbing stops working, the phones are a bit flaky as well so hit the pipes five times for room service."
With a final lingering glance over various bits of the girls anatomy Michael left them to get settled in.
"In, in, in, in!" said Daphne pushing Velma and Madelyn inside. She slammed the door and the trio slid down the door onto the floor.
"Perhaps he goes to an all-boys school," said Velma.
"I guess he doesn't see many, emm, many," Madelyn stumbled.
"Exactly," said Daphne.
"But Shaggy was so, oh!" Madelyn jumped up grabbed a pillow from the bed and hugged it tightly to herself "so brave and ferocious, like an untamed lion striding into battle to defend his princess!"
Daphne and Velma shared a look; Velma ran her hand over her face.
"Are you sure you're related," whispered Daphne.
"Nice work there Shag," Fred clapped Shaggy on the back "way to deal with Mr Creepy, Madds looked impressed… say talking about Madds now that you two are an item, well I was thinking as an old pro like me should pass on some tips about how to treat your girl right…"
"Like, let me stop you right there Mr. Jones, I don't need advice, with Maddy I've got all the motivation I need to treat her right."
"Yeah, I guess you have," they were both quiet for a while "I mean who'd have thought the Velmster was so strong. Holding you upside down by your knees over a tub full of cold boiled broccoli..."
"Yeah, like, emmm Fred like you promised not to mention that again," Shaggy's voice shook more than normal.
"Still it worked, you found the courage to ask Maddy out."
Shaggy smiled "Yeah, yeah I did." Where Fred's coaching and Daphne's psychological games had failed, Velma's more direct approach had given Shaggy all the encouragement he needed.
In the other room the girls had got over the initial upset and their discussion had moved onto general creepy guy talk with Madelyn enthusiastically extolling Shaggy as the macho all-action hero. Behind Madelyn's back Velma pretended to stick her fingers down her throat in response to all the gushing and got felled by a well aimed pillow thrown by Daphne. After the ensuing pillow fight they got down to the serious business of who slept where. Daphne bagged the single bed, not wanting to be kept awake buy the Maddy and Vel chat show. That done they settled down to plan what to do. Daphne sat on the edge of the double bed, Velma lay in the middle with Madelyn lying next to her. They were looking through the guides and brochures which always get left in hotel rooms.
"Nothing here that interests me," said Velma putting the brochure down then stretching out on the bed next to Madelyn.
"But Vel it's a museum, you love museums," said Daphne, she lay face down next to Velma resting her chin on her hands.
"The International Leaf Vegetable Museum, now with interactive broccoli exhibit? Sheesh Daph even I have my limits."
"Why don't we take a look at the gardens next door? Till the garage fixes the van we can't go far anyway," said Madelyn sitting up.
"Good idea, we can scout out the area while we're there and see what we can find out about that professor," said Velma.
"Yeah, you two do that," said Daphne hiding her head under a pillow.
"The Dinkley sisters will bravely explore the untamed wilderness next door," said Madelyn dramatically to the rest of the gang.
"Sheesh Madds the garden just needs a bit of attention that's all," said Velma rolling her eyes.
"I know but it'll be so much more exciting if we pretend, where's your sense of adventure?"
"Getting coffee," muttered Velma as she pulled her boots on.
"But what about the vampire? You know 'we've got a mystery on our hands' kind of thing?" said Fred.
"I'm disinterested in it," said Madelyn.
"What, wow really, I always thought you wanted to join us on a case?" said Daphne.
"Disinterested, not uninterested," said Madelyn as both sisters gave a little chuckle "to be disinterested is good as it means I don't have an opinion so can let the fact guide me, to be uninterested means I'm bored," explained Madelyn the rest of the gang bar Velma looked blankly at her.
"Not the best joke ever but grammatically that was a belter," said Velma taking hold of Madelyn's arm and leading her towards the door.
"Like before you girls go…" Shaggy look Madelyn by the waist and lead her towards the kitchen.
The sisters walked in through the gate. Both were wearing daysacks filled with food that Shaggy had insisted they take.
"Oh Vel, my heart does somersaults whenever I sees Shaggy, even now."
"My stomach does somersaults whenever I see his cooking." Velma look suspiciously inside her daysack "And you've only been dating for a few hours so of course everything is new and exciting."
"You mean the fire has gone out between you and Rupert? But you've been together forever!" Madelyn's voice was full of worry.
"Just over two years Madds. Look, things change as time goes by. The world is a much better place when I'm with Rupert that's for sure, but fireworks all the time is just exhausting. Relationships mature."
"Like cheese?"
"You two were made for each other," smiled Velma, Madelyn looked ecstatic "Say want to try that maze, it'll be like when we were kids."
The girls closed their eyes, held hands and plunged into the maze, deliberately getting lost.
"Jinkies," said Velma opening her eyes to walls of green "Mazes seem a lot narrower these days."
"This brings back memories, hiding from mom, but she always found us."
"Mom's a mathematician; she developed search algorithms the navy used to hunt for submarines during the Cold War."
"Ohhh that's why she's so good."
"Muuu-uh, come on Madds, heuristic branch and bound?"
"My favourite algorithm, oh Vel thank you." Madelyn rested her head on Velma's shoulder for a second "let's go."
The girls wandered the maze, working towards the exit, after a while Velma slowed and motioned for Madelyn to be quiet.
"Shhh I think we're being followed."
"You sure?" Velma nodded as there was the sound of movement nearby.
Velma took Madelyn's hand, together they carefully moved away from the sound. The next second the girls were knocked to the ground as a pair of large dogs rounded the corner barreling into them. The dogs tumbled to the ground, picked themselves up and were standing over the sisters before they could react. Moments later more dogs appeared and surrounded them. A small, rotund figure emerged from the shadows; he was wearing a white laboratory, and had an afro of translucent white hair and small pebble glasses.
"So there you are, I've been looking for you all over the place; you have both been very naughty and deserve to be punished…" he spoke with a thin Germanic accent.