Despite our pitiful lack of sleep, both Fred and I were instantly awake. Shaggy and Scooby were slightly less alert, but they were both trying to be helpful, especially Shaggy. I got the feeling that he was trying to impress me, and I giggled when he lay down and checked under the fridge despite the risk of spiders without comment. He never does that sort of thing normally, unless a Scooby Snack or a sandwich went astray under there. He gave me a slightly wounded look and I stifled my laughter.
There was nothing there, it turned out. Not even a spider.
Fred decided to split us up again, but "in view of recent events" he said he'd take Scooby and Shaggy and I would be split up together. He winked at Shaggy again, and I smiled to myself as Shaggy winked back, trying to hold in laughter. Fred was too concerned for Daphne to laugh, but he smiled. Scooby gave his "Ruh-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" that was so familiar.
Shaggy shyly reached out and held my hand as soon as we were out of eyesight of the other pair. I smiled at him, the memory of the kiss at the restaurant still fresh in my mind, and promptly tripped on a mat.
"Agh!"
Shaggy laughed quietly as he helped me up from my sprawled position on the floor, his grin almost glowing in the faint light from the bulb in the kitchen. The lights had returned to normal as soon as Daphne had disappeared, but we had been too busy being concerned with Daphne to really notice, Fred especially.
"Like, you're gonna fill in the space of "danger-prone person of the gang" now, are you, Velms?"
I laughed with him, giving him a little shove as I stood up. He mock-staggered back, pretending to have been wounded, and fell into a shelf- which moved down and turned, opening up a section in the opposite wall. I clutched his arm as it made its way down and the light bulb just inside ignited and showed the top two rungs of a ladder.
"Like, we go down it, right?" Shaggy asked with resignation in his voice, looking down at the ladder and shuddering. I nodded grimly and stepped inside, grabbing his arm and directing him down as well.
The ladder didn't go down too far; it was only about the size of a normal household ladder, maybe one story of a house or so. Shaggy was trembling, as usual, but without the addition of Scooby he was shuddering even worse than usual. He looked as though he was standing on top of the epicentre of an earthquake. (The epicentre of an earthquake is the spot where it's the most powerful, in case you don't know. If you did, good for you! Jazzola ) I grabbed his arm and we started walking forwards, a trembling chicken and a determined young sleuth, trying to get some answers for this mystery.
We turned a corner- and I walked straight into someone else, a broad-chested person wearing a dark blue shirt.
"Freddy? What're you guys doing down here?"
Scooby had run straight to Shaggy, who was now stroking his dog's brown back. Fred gently dug me out of his chest and wiped my glasses on his ascot, since they had steamed up a little due to my embarrassment at walking straight into Fred. Ever since the kiss I had been somewhat less than completely alert.
"We found a passageway in the third bedroom, behind the orange panel. And your glasses really hurt!"
"Sorry…"
I checked they weren't bent as Fred rubbed his hand over the point of impact, trying to stop it hurting. I gave him a sheepish smile and he shook his head at me in mock exasperation, then turned towards the guys, who were huddling together still.
"Guys, we're not done yet. We need to find Daphne and get some answers, yeah? But Daphne takes priority."
"Like, I wonder why," Shaggy said cheekily.
"The same reason you were kissing Velma earlier," Fred snapped back. "I haven't got time for you right now, Shag."
Shaggy looked away, his cheeks going bright red. I glared at Fred.
"What was that for, Fred Herman Jones?"
He winced at the sound of his middle name and avoided my gaze, running his hand over his forehead wearily.
"I- I'm sorry, Shag, I'm just worn out and worried, OK? I didn't mean that. Can we just go back to searching?"
Well. That was more than a decent apology from Fred. Normally he just sticks with a "sorry" rather than giving a reason for whatever he did. One of the things that he finds a challenge is apologising, not because he's excessively proud or anything, just because he hates himself when he has to admit he's wrong. When he was younger, his brother overshadowed him quite a bit until Fred's grades started climbing above his brother's and Fred proved he was the smarter one in the pair. The aftermath of that brief contest was that Fred developed a phobia of admitting when he was wrong and apologising, because apologising was confirming he was wrong and that went against what he had been trying to do. It happens to a lot of kids, but that doesn't make it any better.
"Like, thanks and OK, Freddy," Shaggy said, and Fred gave him the barest minimum of a smile before turning away to look around the tunnel.
After about another five metres, the two tunnels led to a room. We went in, Fred swinging a torch around to give us some light. The room was pretty much empty, except for a couple of cardboard boxes stacked against the wall furthest from us. I went over, curious, and looked in them- then backed away quickly, shocked at what I had seen.
"Guys…"
"What?" Fred asked, seeing my wide eyes and looking alarmed himself.
"Guess what's in those boxes."
The guys shook their heads, now looking frightened.
"Petrol. And fire-lighters."
Fred gasped.
"They're gonna… They're gonna set the house on fire!"
A/N: Cliffhanger! Remember to review, I love reviews as much as I love chocolate (and that is saying something! XD). Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Jazzola
