"So what do we do now?" Daphne asked as the gang made their way inside Fred's apartment. "Call the police?"
"The evidence is circumstantial at best," Fred said, shaking his head. "I say we wait until the morning and call the tipline. I think that's about all we can do."
"Like, I guess that's good enough," Shaggy sighed as he collapsed on the couch. "I'd really prefer to be like certain, but I guess it's better than nothing."
"I understand, man," Fred said, clapping Shaggy on the shoulder. "I'd like to be more sure too. But at the very least, maybe the cops will open it back up and they'll take it from here."
"You know one place we haven't investigated yet," Daphne said as she pushed the coffee table in the living room off to the side.
"Where?"
"The river," she stated as she stoof up again. "We've spent a lot of time in here, and at the stadium and everything, but we haven't gone to the scene of the crime."
"Or Casem Hall," Velma pointed out. "We don't know why Danny would've been there on a Sunday afternoon."
"Those are both places we could go tomorrow," Fred said. He stretched, and let out a deep sigh.
"So I guess all that's left for tonight is to have a slumber party," Daphne said with a hint of a devilish grin.
"And like what exactly does that entail?" Shaggy asked.
"Well, we can gossip and eat popcorn and tell scary stories," Daphne said excitedly.
"Rary rories?" Scooby whimpered. He leapt on to the couch Shaggy and Fred sat on and knocked the wind out of both of them as he struggled to hide under Shaggy's arm.
"Like chill man," Shaggy wheezed, trying to push the dog off. "They're like not real."
"Maybe no scary stories," Fred added, also wheezing under the weight of the dog.
"Well why don't we all change into our pajamas and then we'll let the festivities begin," Daphne instructed.
There was a murmur of agreement as each member started fishing clothes out of his or her bag. Fred and Shaggy left to change upstairs. Velma and Daphne stayed in the living room for a moment as they searched their bags for their nightly necessities.
"So, would you like to sleep on the couch or the floor?" Daphne asked as she pulled off her socks.
"Uh, the floor?" Velma answered, unsure.
"Really?" Daphne asked astounded. "I was sure you were going to say couch. I mean who wants to sleep on the floor?"
"Well, I never have. So I think it could be interesting," Velma shrugged. She jimmied the straps on her leg brace until they unlocked.
"Well I wish you luck, because I assure you it will be the last time you willingly sleep on the floor," Daphne said.
Velma left for the bathroom just as the boys, now dressed in their pajamas, returned to the living room. They helped Daphne finish moving furniture out of the way. Shaggy dropped a handful of blankets on the floor and he and Scooby began unfolding them.
"Daph I don't know how much gossiping I've got in me," Fred admitted as he tossed his pillow onto the floor. "I am exhausted."
"Well you have an excuse Freddie," Daphne said as hugged him. Then she turned quickly and raised a finger to the others. "But the rest of you don't."
"Actually like Daph, I'm pretty t-t-tired too," Shaggy yawned. He laid down on one of the blankets, only for Scooby to jump on top of him.
"Likewise," Velma said apologetically. "It's been a long day."
"But you guys! It's supposed to be a slumber party," Daphne pouted.
"And I think we prefer to slumber than party," Fred said. He draped an arm around Daphne's shoulders and squeezed.
Daphne, still putting, sat down on the couch, as everyone else laid down on the blankets on the ground. Everyone except for Scooby, who, having been unsuccessful in his attempt to sleep on top of Shaggy, had curled up in an armchair. Within minutes, both boys and the dog were asleep.
"Well this isn't what I was expecting at all," Daphne muttered. "I thought we'd stay up and at least talk about stuff. I know we're not kids anymore, but that's the fun part."
"I can stay awake for a little while longer," Velma said, though the yawn immediately following her statement indicated otherwise. "What do you want to talk about?"
"I don't know…Boys? The world? Politics?"
"I don't know very much about any of those," Velma admitted. "Well I mean, I can name countries and have reasonable ideas of what is going on in said countries, but nothing else more than that."
"What about boys?" Daphne rolled over on her stomach and rested her chin in her hands. "Can we talk about boys?"
"You can if you'd like. I'll sit here and listen."
To show her support, Velma sat up and gave Daphne her full undivided attention.
"Fine. I guess I can talk about Fred. Well, he and I have been together for about eight months now. We met in this investigative journalism class that both of us took for fun. I'm a history major, and he's a business major, so neither of us really needed it, but we both had keen interest in the subject matter. We were assigned a project…"
Daphne launched into the full story of how she and Fred met and the eight months they had so far spent together. To be fair the story was very interesting, and Daphne was a very good storyteller. However, she was not attentive to her audience, and she was twenty-six minutes into her story before she realized that Velma had fallen asleep.
Grumbling to herself about her friends' inability to participate in a slumber party correctly, Daphne clicked of the lamp pulled a blanket up over herself. Immediately she started to feel drowsy, and within five minutes, she was asleep too.
It was dark, save for the little bit of shimmery light somewhere above her. She could hear the muffled shouts of happy children, but the pressure against her ears was mounting. The pressure on her chest was mounting too.
Suddenly the feeling, the true feeling of the pressure hit her. It was water. She was underwater. Desperately, she tried to swim up, to get to that distant, shimmery light. But no matter how hard she pushed, how hard her arms tried, she couldn't move forward.
The light disappeared as a large figure jumped into the water, right overtop her. She felt the force of the water drag her down as she frantically tried to swim harder.
Something grabbed her ankle and yanked her down. Water was forced into her lungs as she tried to gasp for air. The thing grabbing her didn't let up. It pulled again. Trying to keep her mouth shut and her eyes open against the growing force of the water, she looked down.
The bloated body of Danny Snyder gripped her leg. She could feel the sliminess of his skin against hers. She struggled to get out of his grasp, but he was stronger. He pulled down as she pulled up. But her body was growing weaker, more and more tired as the water overtook her.
Danny's corpse pulled once more, and did not let up. He pulled her down, farther and farther until there was nothing but darkness.
Daphne sat bolt upright, her chest heaving. Forgetting she was sleeping on a couch, she went to roll over and promptly fell off the couch… and onto Velma.
Fred, who had been jolted awake by the sound, flipped a switch to turn on the light.
"Wha- what happened?"
"I had… just a bad dream," Daphne said as she climbed back on the couch. "Uh, nothing to worry about. Just, you know, just a nightmare."
"A nightmare so bad you rolled off the couch?" Fred asked, one eyebrow raised.
"No I didn't… I forgot I was sleeping on the couch and rolled over," Daphne explained, rubbing her elbow. "Are you okay, Velma?"
"Yes. Though I will say being fallen on was rather a different consequence of sleeping on the floor than I originally imagined," Velma said, pulling her knees in towards her chest.
"Like what was the dream?"
"Uh, just my normal nightmare," Daphne said with a nervous laugh. "About the time I almost drowned as a child."
"Yikes," Shaggy said. "Like that does not sound good."
"No. It's not good. But this time it was different. This time-" Daphne stopped herself, considering her words carefully. "I think… I think working on a case where someone drowned just messed with my subconscious."
"That's understandable," Fred said getting to his feet. He crossed over the couch, careful not to step on anyone, and sat down next to Daphne.
The group chatted about nothing for a little while before everyone eventually fell back asleep. Everyone, except for Daphne. Though she laid on the couch trying to think of the next part of the memory where her cousin pulled her out of the water, her mind kept flashing to the moment she had been pushed farther in. And it seemed that every time she closed her eyes, she saw Danny.
As she felt into an uneasy sleep, the flashes began to change. It wasn't just him in the water, his lifeless hand pulling at her. The dream changed to an aerial view of the scene. Daphne could see Danny falling in, a faceless figure watching from the water's edge. She could see Danny in the water, struggling against the late October current. She could almost feel the freezing water's pressure growing, pulling, the way her nightmare had. But she couldn't move. She was forced to watch him die, and no matter who much she worked to get closer to the faceless figure, she was stuck watching him die, hoping against hope that at least once he might live.