Chapter 4: In the library and the grisly discovery

October 23, 2009

Several days has went by since Daphne has made her first encounter with Shaggy. Since that first encounter and the subsequent conversation with her father later that night, Daphne has resolved to set things straight with Shaggy in hopes that he doesn't get certain thoughts in his mind.

Interestingly, although she still sees Shaggy in the school cafeteria and in their shared classes (Chemistry and Math), he never approaches her, and when the class is finished, he is usually one of the first students to make the quick exit out of the classroom before she could have a chance to catch up.

Daphne was hoping that Shaggy would eventually understand that she didn't mean to push right into his personal space, though she figured that he needed more time to keep himself calm and not think too much about the way she may have pushed him.

With Halloween a week away, the school has been preparing some Halloween-related spooky festivities for the following week, a week that would end with the school staff and faculty all wearing costumes.

Daphne hasn't decided what she would wear on the following Friday, as she found herself choosing between a number of costumes.

She wasn't sure if she should dress as a witch, a cowboy, a fairy princess, a goth girl or a vampire.

Daphne shrugged those thoughts off as she made her way into the school library with her English binder and a copy of Shakespeare's Othello. The costume party is still a week away, and she figured that she should be able to come up with a decision on his costume choice by that point.

The plan was for her to spend the after school hours in the library, getting a head start on the assignment that was assigned to them this past Monday.

It was a habit she has acquired since her freshman year at Coolsville Central High School, and she has came to enjoy working in the quiet atmosphere of the school library, which is located at the basement of the school building.

As she walked through the library doors, the school librarian, who was at present quietly chatting with a social studies teacher who she recognized as Luis de Portrillo, nodded at her in greeting, and Daphne nodded back.

She didn't quite understand what Mr. de Portrillo and Mrs. Gales, the librarian, were talking about in their discussion, as they were both speaking in Spanish, though Daphne shrugged it off and made her way towards the study area.

Fred was seated at one of the long tables and working on some schematics for his Rube Goldberg Machine Club when he saw Daphne approaching the table and smiled.

Daphne smiled and waved at him as she took her seat, during which she turned and noticed Velma Dinkley typing on her laptop.

The redhead knows for a fact that Velma's quite the genius, as she's only a sophomore and already she's in the school's advanced calculus and chemistry classes, the type of classes that would normally see seniors rather than sophomores in attendance.

"Working on the Othello assignment, Daph?" Fred whispered as she took her seat.

"Yeah, I thought that I wanna get a head start on the assignment." Daphne whispered back with a nod before noting the schematics Fred was working on and asked, "Rube Goldberg Machine Club?"

"Uh-huh." Fred tapped his pencil on the sheet of paper in front of him. "Right now, I'm still trying to figure out how to get that skateboard pushed towards the pedal without the use of a ramp."

Daphne paused her lips as she glanced at the schematics, then she turned to the blonde as she whispered, "I'm sure you can figure it out, Freddie. I know you can."

Fred nodded. "Thanks for the faith, Daph. I might do a little brainstorming for the assignment later on, so if you've got some questions, I'm right here."

"Sure." Daphne nodded back before she turned towards her own assignment and started flipping through the book.

Several minutes went by before the library door opened again, and when she paused briefly and looked towards the door, there was Shaggy Rogers, walking right through the library door with his binder in hand.

He was shaking his head in annoyance as he walked through the door, pausing only to nod at Mrs. Gales.

Shaggy was shaking his head in annoyance as he entered the library, which came after a rather tense encounter while passing through the main hallway.

On his way to the school library, he happened by a crowd of reporters, photographers and people holding election signs that read, "Elect Representative Jeff Dudley!"

Shaggy paused just in time to catch a glimpse of Dudley waving and finishing his speech, to the cheers of the crowd present.

At present, State Senator Jefferson Dudley represents the 7th State Senate District, having had been first elected to the seat in 1998, and is currently campaigning to fill the vacant seat of the 11th congressional district in this upcoming Monday's special election.

The special election came after the incumbent Congressman, a Democrat, resigned from her seat to fill a senior-level position at the Department of Labor, which triggered the special election campaign.

A Republican, Dudley has shared many conservative views, and although he is considered a moderate like his fellow Republicans from New England states, he shares the neoconservative stance of the previous President.

The state senator had attracted notoriety for his unwavering support for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and with a rather colourful reputation who uses salty language, it came as no surprise to anyone when he referred to anti-war protestors as "f**king traitors who doesn't know what's good for the country" during an interview.

He never apologized for those remarks and has continued to stand by the war in Iraq, even as it has become clear that the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction intelligence sources spoke of never actually existed.

Since the new President took office this past January, Dudley has been relentless in his criticism of the President, going as far as to say that the country made a colossal mistake in "electing a black socialist" to the White House.

Dudley has also been a vocal critic of the current state Governor, denouncing him as a "Republican in Name Only" and a "closet socialist", particularly with his initiatives in trying to combat climate change and working with Democrats.

In his campaign for the House, Dudley has promised that he would fight for the people of the 11th District.

His visit to Central, was in fact, a hallmark of his promises of improvements to the country's education system.

However, while Shaggy wasn't exactly fond of civics class, he knew enough politics to know that Dudley's promises were nothing other than window-dressing.

Several things to note was that Dudley has frequently voted against increasing the state's education budget, citing the state's debt as reasons for his opposition and questioning whether the extra funds to the school system would really make much of a difference, particularly in Crystal Cove County.

Dudley was also a proponent of school vouchers and chartered schools, initiatives he touts as being of great help in offering efficiencies to taxpayers, even though those initiatives involves the use of public funds to fund for independent schools whose curriculum may not necessarily be on par with what public schools are required to teach.

Shaggy also couldn't understand the logic behind intelligent design or creationism, finding himself to consider evolution as a more logical scientific theory.

Either way, what Shaggy figured was that Dudley's promises wouldn't do much to improve the already-decaying state of the Crystal Cove School District, where the lack of funding has resulted in the schools being overcapacity, a situation not helped by the delays in the construction of new schools across the county.

In addition, since his father's death, Shaggy has came to view neoconservative war hawks, those that advocate for increased military roles abroad, with deep disdain.

Anyways, Shaggy was about to continue on to the library when he got pushed by the crowd of students wanting to meet and shake hands with Dudley.

Unable to move out of the way in time, Shaggy paused when he found himself face-to-face with the State Senator.

The state senator, wearing a smile that is frequently attributed to politicians that makes false promises, smiled cheerfully to him as he extended his hand.

"Looking to vote for real change, I reckon?" Dudley asked him.

Shaggy glanced down at the state senator's offered hand briefly, then he looked up at Dudley, who was looking at him with expectation of sorts.

In spite of the anger and resentment inside him, Shaggy hold firm, though he narrowed his eyes into a glare of sorts.

In a calm voice, he replied, "Unless you're promising to lower the voting age to 16, a promise I highly doubt you will keep, I don't see how can I vote for real change when I'm not even at the voting age."

It was clear to Dudley that Shaggy had no intention to shake his offered hand, though he continued to wear the smile on his face.

There was some awkward silence before one of the men, who has black hair, dressed in a suit with a dark red tie and wearing a pair of glasses, accompanying Dudley stepped in.

"I'm sure the boy's had enough, Jeff." The man stepped in. "He's probably in a rush to the library or something."

Dudley, still wearing the smile on his face, nodded before turning away, but not before saying to Shaggy, "Vote Dudley for the House and vote for real change!"

With the attention taken away from him, Shaggy scoffed before he squeezed his way through the crowd and continued with his way to the library.

He was still shaking his head in annoyance as he thought about the encounter he just had, and it was clear that he had no regrets refusing to shake the state senator's hand.

There's no way he intends to shake hands with someone who supports something that is responsible for the death of his father, especially when that death is in a war that has been dragging for far too long and has not been making any productive progress.

Shaggy doesn't believe that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth the effort and sacrifice of the lives of troops, lives that include that of his fathers.

Daphne perked up from her writing as Shaggy made his way into the main study room of the library, where without hesitation, he took a seat right across from her and Fred, sat down and spread out his stuff.

She noticed that he was shaking his head as he entered the library, and it made her wonder what exactly was he thinking about.

From her conversation with her father that past Monday, Daphne figured that he must be thinking about his father.

By this point, the librarian Mrs. Gales have finished speaking with Mr. de Portrillo, who has left the library.

A few minutes of silence went by before the librarian walked over towards the four, who were presently the only students inside the library, and gently knocked on the table they were all seated at.

The gang all looked up, and Daphne asked, "You need something, Mrs. Gales?"

"Yes." Mrs. Gales nodded. "I need to leave the library for a couple of minutes to help an after school class out, and normally, I wouldn't leave you kids here alone in the library and would've had an assistant to cover for me."

The group all arched their eyebrows as the librarian continued, "However, due to recent budget cuts and the recent transfer of my assistant to Watson's Pass, I'm going to need to trust you kids in not wrecking this place while I'm gone."

"We won't, Mrs. Gales." Velma paused from her typing. "We promise."

The other three at the table all nodded, and Mrs. Gales nodded back.

"I should be back in around ten minutes." The librarian said as she made her way to the doors.

As the librarian made her way through the doors, there was an awkward silence between the four students before Velma was the first to resume what she was doing earlier as she resumed typing on her laptop.

Slowly but surely, the other three at the table followed suit.

Several more minutes went by, during which Shaggy continued on writing on several notebook pages while Fred has moved on from the schematics and is helping out on the English assignment with Daphne.

As the silence continued, there was an eerie feeling in the atmosphere and Shaggy began to pause from his writing.

He looked around and got up from his seat to take a walk around, though as he glanced towards the library door, which is within the line of sight of the closest door to outside, Shaggy noticed that it looked little gloomy and cloudy outside.

It was the same gloomy and cloudy setting that he remembered seeing when he and his classmates boarded the school bus for the trip back to Abraham Lincoln High on that fateful day, and he felt that he was going to shiver again.

Shaggy immediately shook his head and turned towards the reception desk in the library, during which he noted the time.

16:30. Shaggy noted and frowned, as he recalled that his watch said 15:55 when Mrs. Gales walked out of the library.

Returning to his seat, he sat down, looked towards the others and remarked, "Like, it's been half an hour since Mrs. Gales left and she said that she should be back in around ten minutes."

Velma was the first to respond to his observation as she paused from her typing and looked up to him.

"Maybe the help took longer than anticipated." She offered.

"Yeah, I'm sure that maybe the students in that after-school class had plenty of questions for her to answer." Fred nodded.

"I wouldn't know about that, though." Daphne joined in. "In the past several times Mrs. Gales had to leave to help out at an after school class, she's usually back within the ten minutes she said that she will be back in."

It was then that the group heard some rumbling coming from outside, followed by a sudden flash of light and then some thunder.

"Huh." Velma remarked as she checked the weather on her laptop. "The forecast said that an afternoon low pressure system is due to arrive within the next hour."

The others all furrowed their eyebrows and nodded, though the atmosphere grew more intense when the lights suddenly went out.

The gang all jumped in shock as the lights went out and turned towards the door. Apparently, the power outage has affected the school building itself, as they all saw that the hallway lights are also off.

As they shared looks with each other, a lightning strike, followed shortly by thunder, accompanied a faint shriek.

"Jinkies." Velma held a hand up. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Yes." Fred nodded and frowned. "If I'm not mistaken, whatever we just heard, not the thunder, came from the gym lockers."

"Gym lockers?" Shaggy asked.

"It's down the adjacent hallway and is also where the school swimming pool entrance is at." Fred explained.

Then, turning to the girls, the blonde continued, "I don't know about you girls, but I think we should head out and take a look around and see what just happened."

"Do you think that Mrs. Gales got held up by something at the gym lockers?" Daphne asked as they grabbed their stuff and started walking towards the library door.

"That's what we're about to find out." Fred nodded towards the direction of the gym lockers.

Along their way out of the library, the gang stopped by the emergency supply box at the entrance for Fred to grab a flashlight.

"Fred, are you sure that we can take that flashlight from the emergency supply box?" Daphne asked as they pushed through the doors.

"Well, seeing that the power is still out, if we don't have a source of light that's strong enough to last through the next hour or so, then we will have more problems to worry about when we stumble through the dark." Fred replied.

"You guys could've used the flashlight function on your cell phones." Velma countered.

"No luck with mine, I forgot to charge it this morning and left the charger at home." Fred said.

"And I left mine at home." Daphne added.

"Like, I don't even have one, so we will just have to use the flashlight Fred's grabbed from the emergency supply box." Shaggy said as they followed the glow from the flashlight, then noting the dark setting, he swallowed. "Though this place sure is creepy without the lights on."

"The place is frequented by the school faculty, not to mention that school property is off limits to members of the public outside of school hours, so I'm sure that there's nothing to be afraid of when it's just us in the hallway..." Fred was about to continue when the flashlight shined towards several large claw marks on the floor, and he trailed off.

Seeing the claw marks and what appeared to be signs of blood on the floor, the gang paused as Velma knelt down.

"As you were saying?" Daphne asked as they looked at Velma.

Rubbing her hand on the claw marks and the blood, Velma's eyes widened before she turned towards the others. "Jinkies! These marks comes from something huge."

"Something?" Shaggy swallowed.

"Like a bear but larger." Velma responded. "And it's blood on the floor."

"Jeepers..." Daphne trailed off as some of the colour began draining away from her face.

Looking around, they saw that they were just at the reception area leading to the gym and the gym locker room doors.

Noting that the claw marks originated from the stairway door across the hallway and leading into the gym locker room, everyone tensed.

Wordlessly, Fred motioned them to follow him as they followed the trail of claw marks into the gym locker room, and then through the door that led them to the shower area separating the locker room from the swimming pool.

Following the claw marks, the gang then saw that they disappear in one of the showering booths, which is also where a large drainage manhole cover is located in.

"Hmmm..." Fred remarked as they peeked into the shower booth and looked at the manhole cover.

"I wonder what was that." Velma said. "Clearly, those claw marks came from some wild animal that's bigger than a bear."

As she made the remark, she frowned before adding, "But there's no animal in the area that is bigger than a bear. If there is, then the local ecosystem would be knocked out of balance."

The others shared looks with each other and nodded thoughtfully, which was then that the lights and ventilation resumed, and everyone felt relieved at the return of the lights.

"Oh, thank goodness." Daphne remarked as Fred shut off the flashlight. "I was getting worried that we would be dwelling in the dark for much too long."

"Which could also provide whatever left behind those claw marks a good opportunity to attack us in the dark." Fred nodded.

"Since these claw marks had disappeared into the manhole cover, I think it's safe to say that whatever creature that was here earlier and leaving behind these claw marks are gone now." Velma said.

Fred and Daphne both nodded, though it was then that the latter noticed that Shaggy wasn't with them.

"Say, where did Shaggy go?" Daphne asked as she looked around.

Fred and Velma paused and then followed suit in looking around, during which the redhead continued, "He was with us here a minute ago."

It was that moment that Shaggy's voice came from the other side of the opened door leading to the swimming pool.

"Uh...guys?" He shouted, and the trio can hear the uncertainty and horror in his voice. "I...think we've got...a bigger problem..."

"What's the matter, Shaggy?" Daphne asked as they quickly rushed through the opened door and joined Shaggy, who was standing over the edge of the swimming pool.

The trio stopped and seeing that his face was as white as a sheet of paper, they looked at him worriedly.

"What is it?" Fred asked.

Shaggy shuttered as he pointed directly downwards towards the swimming pool area directly under his finger, and as the others followed suit and looked towards the swimming pool, they all noticed the red-ish colour of the pool water.

And when they saw what Shaggy was pointing at, their eyes all widened as the remaining colour drained away from their faces.

"...Jinkies!" Velma gasped.

"J-Jeepers!" Daphne covered her mouth with her hand in horror.

"Oh my Holy G-!" Fred said in horror.

As the gang looked on in horror, the scene shifted towards the swimming pool where a man dressed in a suit was looking up towards the ceiling as he floated on the surface of the shallow water.

His body was horrifically scarred with claw marks all over, and it was clear to them that the man was dead without the need to check for a pulse.

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