A/N I would like to know how my story is. So, you know what that means: review, pretty please? I'll give you a Scooby Snack if you do!

Chapter Three

"Tell me again why we're standing in the woods at midnight?"

"We're finding out who the culprit behind all this is, remember?" Fred lowered his voice to a whisper. "Besides, you said you'd be in on it, too."

"Yeah, yeah." I rubbed my eyes, which were beginning to blur from grogginess. "I'm just gonna complain about it the whole time, though."

"We can hear that," the whole gang chorused flatly, in unison.

Fred had awakened us all in the middle of the night, claiming it was the best time to unmask who was really behind all these camp antics. I'd rather find out what it looked like when my eyelids were closed.

The rope on the trap (don't even get me started on Fred's traps- he'd always been obsessed with traps; even though I always told him we could just catch the villains like normal people) jiggled, catching everyone's attention, followed by a loud thud: the sound of a body making contact with ground.

"We got him!" Fred claimed triumphantly as we ran over to the trap. "Now it's time to get some answers," he announced, kneeling down next to the trap. "Ladies and gentleman; say hello to the Woodsman!" He spread the bushes apart to reveal a mousy-haired girl clad in a purple shirt, shorts, and flip-flops.

I frowned. "Hey, you look familiar," I mused, looking the girl up and down.

"You're not the Woodsman." Realization dawned on Fred, memory hitting him like a truck, and an infatuated blush returned to his face. "You're that gorgeous counselor from Camp Big Moose!"

I rolled my eyes. "Give me a break," I muttered under my breath, extending my hand and helping the girl to her feet. If Fred wanted her to be his girlfriend, he wasn't off to a good start. "Sorry about that," I began to apologize awkwardly, not exactly sure what I was apologizing for, but still sincerely.

The brown-haired girl waved a dismissive hand. "Honest mistake," she replied cheerfully, as if that was that. "I'm Jessica." She flashed me a smile, and I found myself letting my guard down. Despite being from the "enemy" camp, she was nice enough.

"If you don't mind me asking, young lady," Burt, who'd reluctantly tagged along with us on our nighttime adventure, resisting at first when we requested, but then claiming he'd make sure nothing got out of hand, asked tentatively, "why are you sneaking around our camp after lights-out?"

Jessica narrowed her eyes. "I didn't mean to scare you guys," she said in a low voice, apprehensive, "but some of our camping equipment has gone missing." She paused, shrugging and looking slightly bashful. "And, well, I thought it might be you Little Moosers playing a prank."

What? I looked at Fred, and he appeared to be just as annoyed, if not even more so. "Little Moosers don't pull pranks," he stated matter-of-factly, folding his arms across his chest. "We leave that to the snobs at Big Moose." I elbowed him in the ribs, and Jessica glared at him. "No offense," he added quickly, grimacing.

"Stolen camp gear?" Velma pondered aloud in dubious wonder. "Monster attacks? What is going on here?"

That was a good question that no one really seemed to have an answer to.

I felt hot breath on the top of my head. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on ends, and I didn't have to look behind me to know someone was hovering over me. And that someone was not friendly.

"Andy," Fred said in a low voice, his chest moving up and down with labored breathing, "whatever you do, do not turn around."

So, being the rebel that I am, instead of listening to his warning, I turned around. An axe-wielding shadow figure- not exactly decipherable to the naked eye, but tall and broad enough to indicate that the figure was male- stood over me, his red-eyed glare intense.

"Get out!" he bellowed, his voice raspy. As he spoke, the wind picked up faster and faster, until it howled through the leaves, creating an eerie, sense-of-impending-doom atmosphere. I found myself standing stock still, staring directly into the eyes of the figure. My heart rammed against my ribcage, and the adrenaline rush of fear shot through my body, but, for some reason, I couldn't get my legs to move, no matter how badly I wanted them to. I was going to die, right here in that camp.

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Naturally, Shaggy and Scooby took off running first, and, after I snapped back to reality, I followed the others.

I could still feel him chasing us even after we rounded a corner. Fred ducked into a nearby bush, and the rest of the gang followed suit.

Fred waited until his crunchy footsteps passed to whisper, "I think we lost him." He turned to me. "Are you okay?"

"No," I whispered back.

"Me neither," he replied, his eyes suspiciously scanning the area.

"So, what's the plan, Fred?" I asked, my voice strained. The only time I can recall being as scared as how I felt now was when I missed curfew and was getting an earful from my parents, the standard "I raised you better than this", chiming in with a few "I'm so disappointed in you's" and a couple "when I was your age's…" That had been relaxing compared to this situation. At least my parents weren't axe-wielding maniacs.

"We hide here until he goes away," Fred replied in a hushed voice.

"That's your plan?" Jessica scoffed. "That's so Little Moose."

Fred glared at her. "I suppose you have a better one?"

Jessica's eyes widened, and she gasped. "Yeah, run!"

"I told you to get out!" the same guttural voice that sounded like it came from the bottom of a well roared, and we ran. I had no clue where I was running to; just as long as I got away from whatever was aiming to kill us.

Suddenly, I realized that, in the midst of our panic, we'd completely lost Scooby and Shaggy. "Hey- where's Scooby and Shaggy?"

If they knew, no one had time to answer. The axe-wielding shadow was still after us; barely missing our heads by just inches.

We rounded another corner. I collided with something, and it was only when both of us hit the ground that I realized that what I had hit was a someone.

"Like, am I glad to see you," Shaggy grunted, standing and rubbing his head.

I hopped to my feet, still slightly taken aback. "You okay?"

"Like, ask me again when we're out of Camp Creepy," Shaggy replied dryly, glancing over his shoulder one last time.

Fred, Daphne, and Velma caught up with us, looking equally as disheveled.

I was the first to notice that Jessica was missing. "Hey, where's Jessica?"

"Come on." Fred turned to go, heading toward the mountain adjacent to the camp. "We have to save her!"

"Oh, no." Shaggy and Scooby shook their heads frantically in protest. "The Woodsman is up there!"

"No, he's not." Velma's declaration snapped all of us to attention. "He's gone."

She was right. The camp was practically vacant now; just as serene and eerie as before. The Woodsman had vanished as quickly as he had appeared.

"Oh, will you look at this place?" Bert grunted, his hands poised on his hips as he scanned his eyes at the torn-up camp. "Now, that just ain't right…"

The door to one of the cabins opened, and out stepped Deacon, Trudy, and Luke. "Hey, what's going on out here?" Luke inquired through a yawn, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, we're trying to sleep," Trudy muttered, her voice husky.

"Seriously?" Shaggy's jaw dropped. "Like, you kids slept through all that?" Trudy and Luke nodded. Shaggy grinned. "Heh. I'm impressed."

We decided to move to Camp Big Moose (begrudgingly, on Fred's side) for the night, or at least until we sorted out what was going on at Camp Little Moose. I couldn't say I was complaining- I could be anywhere but Camp Little Moose and be deliriously, deliriously happy, especially after last night's showdown.

"Like, this place has everything," Shaggy remarked as we walked down one of the long hallways inside Camp Big Moose's indoor resort.

"Personal transporters," Trudy commented, watching a boy ride past on a hoverboard. "Computers!" Her face lit up at the sight of a row of laptops on the wall. "And cute boys…" she added, her face turning dreamy as she gazed at a blonde-haired boy hovering over one of the computers. "We don't have cute boys at Camp Little Moose."

"Uh, hello?" Luke piped up, raking a hand through his hair and bumping up against her, which Trudy ignored.

"Why couldn't I have gone to this camp?" Trudy mused, more to herself than to us.

"About a week ago," Jessica, who had apparently returned to Camp Big Moose undetected and unscathed, told us, "we noticed that some of our sonar equipment had gone missing from the Marine Biology Center. A few days later, an RV disappeared from the Motorsports Pavillion."

"Now they're just showing off," Fred muttered under his breath, miffed.

"Most luxury RVs have GPS locators built in." Trudy opened a laptop, her fingers dancing across the keyboard furiously. "I'll ping the area to see if it's sending out a signal." She zoomed in, the radar dot blinking as it moved almost in slow motion across a green line on the screen. "In the middle of Shadow Canyon."

"Shadow Canyon?" Velma turned to the camp counselor, her interest piqued.

"They say that place is haunted by the ghost of a lost hiker still searching for her way out," the camp counselor continued, his expression and mannerisms darkening. "They call her the Specter of Shadow Canyon. Legend has it if you hear her terrifying wail, you're a goner."

"All we need is another ghost story…" I muttered warily, feeling the atmosphere in the room drop.

"Dude, I did not need to hear that," Shaggy agreed, as Scooby ducked behind him whimpering.

"The stolen RV is in Shadow Canyon," Trudy stated matter-of-factly, flicking her thumb at the computer screen, "the missing sonar equipment; that could only be used in the lake."

Fred sighed. "If we're gonna get to the bottom of this, we'd better split up and-"

"Look for clues?" I interjected.

"Exactly." Fred nodded in confirmation.

"Let me get this straight." Shaggy looked and sounded horrified. "There's a crazy man with an ax in the woods, a ghost in the canyon, a fish monster in the water, and you guys wanna split up and look for clues?"

"Yup," Fred said lightly, unbothered.

I smiled at Shaggy apologetically, a gesture that let him that our feelings were mutual.

"I'll take the lake," Velma stated. "I wanna check out that building Scooby saw. Who's with me?"

"I'll go," Jessica volunteered cheerfully, as if we were on a field trip. "I'm a certified scuba instructor."

"'I'm a certified scuba instructor'," Daphne mocked Jessica under her breath, and Velma and I giggled.

"What was that, Daph?" Fred asked, his gaze switching from Jessica to the girl in question.

"Huh?" Daphne glanced up, feigning innocence. "Oh! Nothing. I'll go with you," she said nonchalantly, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"As much as I love swimming," I added, turning to Fred, "I think I'll opt out of this one. I'd rather not be Fishman food if I can help it."

"Scuba diving?" Luke perked up like a dog who'd just been asked if he wanted to go for a walk. "Sweet! Count me in."

"Well, that settles it," I decided out loud. "The rest of us will head to Shadow Canyon."

"Oh, no." Shaggy shook his head, holding his palms up. "Like, you can forget it. Every time someone tells a campfire story, it comes true. Scooby-Doo and me are trying to live a Specter-free lifestyle here." Scooby nodded vigorously in agreement. "You can find us in that five-star dining hall when you get back."

"Maybe you should take Deacon with you," Daphne suggested warily, her eyes wandering to the said boy, who was breathing in and out, spastically, into a paper bag. "He seems a little freaked out."

Deacon wasn't the only one who was freaked out.