The Secret of His Last Glance
James Hunter was holding a huge secret over the death of the beloved cartoon dog, Scooby Doo. He had known about it before any of them caught on and was told to keep it a secret. It was a secret that was eating away at his soul, as he stood with everyone who had meaning in the dog's life. He was standing there with Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scrappy, Ruby, Scooby-Dum, Scooby Dee, Flim-Flam, Scrappy Doo and even his son, Scooby Junior was lying straight to their faces as he gave the dog the eulogy he had wrote.
"Scooby Doo was a beloved sleuth who didn't deserve to die of the degenerative disease that has recently come to affect and kill many characters like him. He was brave, even if no one would believe it. He would do anything for a Scooby Snack and helped Mystery Inc. He was a loving father who cared for his son, an uncle who knew what was right for his nephew even if he wouldn't admit it. He was a brother who cared for his sister. And to me, he was my hero and my inspiration," James said to the rest of them, as he looked back on the day that he had found out that his beloved hero had come home, wheezing.
James had watched as Scooby had walked into the doors, his weak brown paws making him even clumsier he usually was. He had tripped over the table that was right in front of him without a second glance. "Scooby, buddy, are you okay?" He asked, as his eyes were filled with concern for the dog that he had befriended and had saved his life in the past, messing up in his legs when he was just a pup.
"Reah, ri'm rine, Rames, rust rired," Scooby lied to him. James watched the eye movement of the dog who was avoiding contact with him. It was more than evident that he was indeed not fine, he was far from fine.
"You're not fine, you look sick, Scooby. Was it something that you ate?" He asked.
Scooby shook his head. "Ro, Ri rot rhe risease, rhe rone rhat rills reople rike re. Ri'm rying, Rames, rut ri ridn't rant ro rurden rnyone rith rhat recret," he said.
James paled as he wished that he hadn't found out that secret from the dog. "What about your son and your wife? Are you going to let them know soon?" He asked.
"Ro, rit ris roing ro rappen roon," he said. It was true what he was saying. The disease was fast acting and took less than thirty hours to kill the host, slowly making them weak and clumsy and numb to any pain that was given to them. James could tell that Scooby had two hours at most left to live.
"How long ago did you get?" He asked, not sure what else to ask the dog he had grown to idolize.
"Rwenty rine rours rago, ren ri ras risting Riny Rina rho rad it," he said. The disease came from touch and that meant that Scooby was there during her death, something he wished he had known. He didn't think anyone deserved to suffer and Scooby was just visiting a little girl who needed love since Flim-Flam had been avoiding her to stay alive along with his brother. He knew it didn't affect half-toons, but it was better to be safe than sorry at the end of the day, something his father had told him before he had died.
James looked at all of them and spoke the first truth he had said in a long time. "And I was there during his last hours, like he was there when I had nearly died in that car accident, or the time where I had a bullet in my chest, or the time where I died and came back to life because of his love. I was there and I knew and it's eating at my soul. I'm sorry, Shaggy, guys, I can't do this," he said to them. Shaggy was already wreathing in tears so he did nothing to stop them. The last person who he expected to come up to him was Velma Dinkley and Scrappy Doo, he hadn't been there when JJ had died from the same disease or Lily or his girlfriend Lucy. It was slowly eating away at his soul that everyone was dying around him and he couldn't.
" James, it doesn't matter what happened in the past, you have to go back and finish that eulogy, you're the only one who know what his last words were and what he wanted for us to do. You're the only one who can tell us how to live our lives, only you can do," Velma said. Daphne and Fred nodded in agreement.
"Shaggy needs this more than you now. We all do, we all have lost someone. You lost your father, Fred lost Danica, Daphne lost Peter, Velma lost JJ, I lost Lily, Flim-Flam lost Tiny Tina, and my mother lost her brother and her husband. We need this, even Scooby Dum," Scrappy said to him.
"Only you can do it," Daphne said, tears ruining her make-up.
"It has always been you, Scooby-Dum can't know what it is like," Fred said to him.
Scooby Dum helped the boy up and he went back up to the podium to finish the eulogy.
"Scooby Doo told me his last words before he died. He told me that it is important to live your life, to go on throughout the grief and to make a difference in the world even if he was gone from it. We need to keep living through him. We can't let the world crumble because we are losing everything in our lives. We have to solve mysteries, to live, to love and to believe in hope even in these times of despair," he said.
"Rames, romise re romething right rhere," Scooby said with his last dying breath.
"Yes, Scooby, what is it?" James asked as he started to tear up since he was losing the dog that meant the most to him in the world.
"Ron't rope round rand rate rhe rorld rhen ri rie, rive rour rife rand rake rother's rife retter," he said, as he took his last breath.
"I promise," he said to him.
"In conclusion, we have to keep living and finding hope. That was his last words to me and I have to agree with him," he said, as he watched as the gang looked at him. "We need to start something new from this loss; we have to come back stronger than ever. Gang, I believe it is time to go and write a new chapter," he said.
Fred smiled. "Gang, I think we have a mystery downtown to solve," he said. They weakly nodded and left James alone with Scooby and Shaggy.
"Goodbye, Scooby Doo and thanks for everything that you gave me. I'm going to miss you, but maybe you can live on through us, just maybe," Shaggy said, as he looked at James and they left to follow the gang.
