First thing she saw was a dirt brown fabric layered on top of a dark forest green. Instantly, Claudia let out a whimper at seeing Artie's Mother Nature wardrobe. She brought her hand to her head; overcome with relief that it was over. Artie grabbed her before she tilted over, wrapping his arms around her protectively and drew her into him sideways. Suddenly Claudia was releasing all of the fear, tension and exhaustion all at once. Not knowing what else to do, Artie just held onto the girl, closing his eyes against the empathetic pain he felt and dipped his head against her as she sobbed.

She didn't remember a lot of the next few minutes, but Claudia knew that she probably lost a lot of her tough girl reputation and not a lot was said.

Long minutes later, her shaking finally abated and she started breathing full breaths again. She didn't change her position of leaning against Artie, but when she opened her eyes, she saw a crowd of heads in the small space of the trap door opening. Pete, Myka, and HG were all peeking up through the hole in the floor. Claudia duly noticed that the light was a normal yellow glow from light bulbs and not the red glow from hell, as before.

She was tired beyond what she thought was ever possible, but Claudia saw many concerned pairs of eyes so she tried to swallow with her dry throat and croak out, "Heya gang."

Pete and Myka broke out into relieved grins. "What did she say?" Claudia heard Leena's voice come up through the hole.

Pete looked down and said, "She said hello to the Scooby Gang!"

"That's good right?" Claudia heard HG's voice say. The girl grinned lazily at how she still didn't get all of the social references.

Claudia sighed, and Artie lifted her to sit up. As he gathered himself and stood, she glanced around the small room that trapped her for who knows how long. The walls were back to their normal wood color and the white floors were again perfectly normal, complete with that damn trap door that was hiding from her.

On the wall, the vent was back to its usual size. It was missing only one vein even though she remembered knocking two off of it. Claudia frowned at her memory of something that apparently didn't happen. Glancing at her fingers, she see a perfectly normal hand. There were neither cuts nor blood on her hand or down the front of her shirt either. Claudia shook her head at how totally encompassing the hallucination was.

"Everything ok?" She looked up and finally met Artie's brown eyes and saw them filled with concern. She could see the emotional toll that this whole escapade took on him in the weariness in his eyes but he was wholly present as he reached his hand down to help her up.

"Yeah. F-fine." Claudia accepted his help and he pulled her to her wobbly feet.

He kept a grip on her elbow, steadying her. "Ok?"

Claudia got her knees to hold her. "Yeah." She glanced up at his paternal face and saw that he was wearing a serious expression of protection and a red clown's nose. "Artie?"

He leaned in, eager to help. "Yes?"

"Should I still be seeing things?"

He flexed the muscles in his cheek and looked up over his glasses at the group of heads that he saw as a group of brown large mushrooms with eyes. He swallowed and simply said. "Yup."

"Ah. Ok then."

Soon, Claudia was being helped down the trap door ladder by so many people that she contemplated developing agoraphobia out of sheer convenience. HG slid her arm around Claudia's with the intent of support, but Claudia pulled back upon seeing an HG look-a-like, but with a purple complexion and eight wavy arms.

HG gave a hurt and confused look, so Claudia swallowed hard and closed her eyes and gave up her arm to a slimy embrace. By then she knew that HG was underneath the illusion of the octopus. Fortunately, when HG took her arm again, Claudia felt only a normal arm from a perfectly normal HG. Claudia sighed in relief and when she opened her eyes again, HG was back to her normal appearance. Artie's cure was working after all.

As Artie lowered himself from the small room, Pete folded the ladder up and eased the trap door into the ceiling. Leena, at the edge of the group, said in her melodic voice, "C'mon. Dinner's nearly ready."

"Dinner!" Claudia said incredulously. It seemed like she spent hours dealing with those horrors. "How long was I in there?"

Myka glanced at Artie looking for permission. He nodded with an inexplicable amused look on his face. She gave him a suspicious look, but said, "About thirty minutes."

"Only thirty minutes." Claudia repeated in amazement, letting HG guide her into the dining room. Claudia readjusted her time line mentally, the sting from her collar bone reminding her that the water buffalo artifact incident in the Warehouse was only a few hours before. As if to reinforce that memory, a pain from Claudia's leg reminds her of its scratch, making her stumble. Suddenly Pete is on the other side of her, escorting her into the dining room where the rest of the gang all piles in for a well deserved hot meal.

Fin.


Happy Halloween!