Author's note:
I'm not going to say much to introduce this one other than I LOVED writing it. On my profile, I have a sentence reading "I believe a story has reached its prime when the characters write themselves and take the story in a different direction than you ever imagined." This is that time for Coast to Coast. When I originally started writing this chapter, I had planned it to be completely different from what it is right now. But as I started writing, the story totally took a mind of its own and went the direction it wanted to go, and the characters just wrote themselves. I am so proud of this chapter, as this is what I wanted Coast to Coast to achieve all along, and it's finally at that point where the characters build off of each other and I don't have to have a "plan" of what's going to happen in place, because the characters write it themselves. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it. Without further comment, here is the long awaited chapter 5 of Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake!
Whoosh.
That was the sound of pamphlets being scattered across Daphne's desk by of the production staff. Daphne briefly paged through each of them. Spooky Manor, Creepy Estates, Creepy-Spooky Mansion. Yawn.
"Didn't you find any other pamphlets, Nick?" Daphne impatiently asked her staff member.
"Well, I found this one." He replied, showing her a pamphlet interestingly titled "Terror at Twilight."
Before she got the chance to say she liked it, Nick began telling her about the place.
"It's another fascinating haunted location near the Canadian border. It's a spooky old cabin up in the woods, super old-fashioned and all that." Daphne perked her ears up, a movement that was visible enough to prompt Nick to explain his vague statement. "This place has got no running water, no heat, it doesn't even have a bathroom!" Daphne caught herself gagging a little bit to think she'd have to use the bathroom outside. She didn't have much chance to give it further thought before Nick clarified. "Well, it has an outhouse."
"What's the catch though?" Daphne questioned, curious as to why he would suggest a place that didn't appear to have any supernatural affiliation.
"No one knows what's up there. People have gone to find it in the woods, but no one has ever returned. A few of the locals say the place is haunted." Nick confirmed.
"Now you're speaking my language! Then it's settled, I'll leave tonight." Daphne said in a bubbly-sounding voice.
"I wouldn't go up there alone if I were you. Most of the people that have disappeared have gone up alone. Plus, did I mention this place is nearly a mile off the road into the woods? Why don't you take someone from the old gang up there, you know, like old times?" Nick suggested, being cautious as to avoid hitting a sore spot with Daphne.
"Well, Velma's still mad at me, so she would never go." Daphne displayed a hurt look on her face, remembering back to Velma and her argument at Velma's bookstore.
"Can't you take Fred then?" Nick offered.
Daphne just gave him an "are-you-kidding?" look and pointed over to Fred's office, which was right next to hers.
Nick looked over at Fred's office to hear him yelling in a boisterous voice. "Aw, sweet! Someone named Prince Rahman just sent me an email saying he'd give me 3 million dollars US! And I all I have to do is give him all my bank account information? It would be a crime not to do this!"
Daphne rolled her eyes at Fred's ineptness, and then brought her mind back to the thought of how she couldn't go alone. "Well, if Velma's mad at me, and Fred's an imbecile, that just leaves…"
A few hours later…
"Yeah, Daph, I'd love to go up to a cabin and spend some time with you again. But…there's a catch." Shaggy informed cautiously.
"I'm afraid to ask…what is it?" Daphne replied nervously, thinking she was in for a big surprise of some sort.
"Scooby gets to come along with us."
"Ri like cabins too!" Scooby smiled adorably, as he reached for a suitcase full of bones.
Feeling immediately relieved, Daphne put her arms around the two boys and said with a smile, "I wouldn't have it any other way!"
It took only a short few hours for the trio to pack everything up for the trip, and they left in the early afternoon on the five hour excursion that loomed ahead.
As Scooby stuck his head out of the car window, Shaggy saw a sign that read 'Canada: 30 miles ahead.' "Like, didn't you say it was about thirty miles from the Canadian border, Daphne?"
Daphne looked up from her daydream and replied to Shaggy. "Oh yeah, why don't we stop for gas quick and ask the cashier if we're close?"
"Yeah! Scoob, you ready to stop?"
Scooby pulled his head from out of the window and began wagging his tail with excitement. "Reah, reah!"
Daphne pulled into the gas station as Shaggy began filling up her tank with gas. Daphne went in ahead into the rustic looking old gas station. The entire foundation was built from logs and furnished in animal trophy heads. The cashier looked up at her with friendly eyes and said "Why hello there and welcome to Forestside Stations! What can I do for you?"
"My friends and I are looking for Twilight Cabin, we have to be close, right?" Daphne said assertively.
"A little too close, if you ask me." The cashier responded, still smiling.
"Excuse me?" Daphne looked up at him, confused as ever.
"I don't want to scare you, but did you know that Twilight Cabin is…haunted?"
"We know, in fact we're here for my show. You know, Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake?"
The cashier gave her a blank stare.
"I'm Daphne Blake!" Daphne attempted to clarify, since the man was obviously confused.
"Never heard of ya," the cashier said bluntly, as he scratched his gray-haired head.
"Oh, I'm nothing much," Daphne said humbly, "Just another one of those haunted attraction-seeking shows that tries to capture supernatural activity on film."
"This is one supernatural attraction you'll want to skip, honey. Many just like you have come here asking me for directions to that place, and the next morning, they're missing and presumed dead." The man slammed his hand down on the merchandise counter, in attempt to seem serious.
"Like, zoinks!" Shaggy commented, just coming into the gas station at that moment. "Let's head home, Daphne!"
"Your friend there is smart. Only a fool would take the risk of going in that place!" the gray-haired cashier said grimly.
"Well, I guess we're fools then, because we're going in and capturing whatever's in there on film!" Daphne slammed her hand down on the counter in attempt to mimic the cashier.
"Once you go in, you won't be able to turn back! They're callin' for twelve inches of rain tonight, roads'll be flooded. Too dangerous to travel."
"We're prepared to take that risk!" Daphne said, as she motioned towards the exit door.
As Daphne and Shaggy closed the door to the gas station, and got in their car, the cashier simply watched them and said to himself, "They'll be sorry!"
The trio continued driving down the dark, desolate road to meet whatever their fate was. Daphne tried to focus herself on driving, especially since the night sky was getting foggy. "Hey Daph, stop!"
Thinking it was some emergency, Daphne slammed on the brakes and looked sideways at Shaggy.
"There's a sign for Twilight Cabin, it says only 1 mile!"
"But that sign points to the left!" Daphne looked to her left to see a oddly narrow path off the road that led down a large, grassy hill. The path didn't even look fit for a walking trail.
"Well, that settles that, let's go home then." Shaggy smiled along with Scooby, ready to turn around.
"No, we're going to try the path."
Shaggy let out a big gulp, that Scooby quickly mimicked.
Daphne veered over to the side of the road and began her trek down the narrow path, quickly plummeting to the bottom of the steep hill.
"Zoinks! We've lost control!"
Scooby covered his eyes in fear and began whimpering.
"I'll ride the brakes, we're almost down." Daphne calmly stated, while Shaggy and Scooby were a nervous wreck.
As Daphne's car began rumbling, the car made it to the bottom of the hill, and Shaggy and Scooby caught a breath of relief.
Scooby uncovered his eyes to see a dark, spooky walking path surrounded by scraggly trees. The road, which was only made of gravel, caused the car to bounce up and down repeatedly.
"Guys…we're here." Daphne said almost speechlessly, as she looked up at the small, broken-down looking cabin. The night sky was almost eerie, with a full moon hanging high above the gnarled trees. All three of them looked up at the cabin in both awe and shock, as the scenery was beautiful yet spooky to all of them. The cabin, which was completely made of wood, had several small holes in the foundation.
Shaggy finally broke the group's silence, "Like wow! How does this place stay up?"
"Well, if it did fall down overnight, no one would know. We drove over a mile into the woods." Daphne said in a haunting voice. "Um-m-m…should we go in?"
"Like, I guess now is as good of time as any."
Daphne pushed on the door, still left unlocked as she had expected from the previous visitor. As the door creaked, the red-haired girl braced herself for what creature was inside. The door opened to reveal the eerie cabin, which looked like it had stayed the same for nearly 50 years. The furniture was tidied, yet the floors were covered in dead insects. Like the gas station, the place was furnished with tons of animal heads, as if the place wasn't already creepy enough.
"Well…" There was a long pause between Daphne's speech. "I guess we can start unpacking."
"Uh…yeah…I guess." Shaggy said awkwardly, not knowing how to handle himself in the strangely spooky yet interesting surroundings.
After Daphne brought in her several bags, Shaggy brought in his one suitcase while Scooby brought in two suitcases, one filled with bones, of course.
While Shaggy walked past with his suitcase to go to his room with Scooby, Daphne swept all the dead bugs on the floor, while visibly gagging at the sight of the several giant spiders that had met their demise. Daphne's shoulders began to shake vigorously from the cool Fall air, so she quickly put down her broom in a bug-free corner and walked into her room to find something warm to wear. As she picked out a fuzzy purple sweatshirt out of her bag, she rubbed the soft material against her face to remain warm.
Meanwhile, Shaggy unpacked in his room and began brushing his teeth, as there was no bathroom to do it in as he normally did. As he thoughtfully brushed each tooth, he looked over at the bed to see that it was only a single bed, meaning Scooby wouldn't fit.
"Scoob, I don't think we can both fit on this bed!"
But it didn't matter, as Scooby had already found his place and laid down on an ugly-looking brown couch. "Ri'll re rokay, Raggy." Scooby assured him, as he repositioned himself on the uncomfortable couch.
As Daphne finished up sweeping, Shaggy had finished brushing his teeth for the night and had walked out into the cold main room where Daphne was currently. "Like, goodnight Daph!" Shaggy said.
Daphne was staring off into space for a moment, when her brain finally noticed the presence of Shaggy and that he had spoken to her. "Oh, goodnight! I'm just going to record the intro for my show on the front porch and go to bed."
"Okay, be safe!"
That made Daphne more worried than she already was, as she was trying to escape the fact that she very well could run into a vengeful ghost that could make her disappear along with the other tourists…forever.
Daphne walked outside the cabin's front door and quickly adjusted her hair before turning her camera on. The camera was ice cold, and Daphne's hands were figuratively frozen just holding the thing.
"Hello and happy Saturday, Daphanatics! Daphne Blake here to give you another fantastic episode of Coast to Coast. This week, me and my friend Shaggy and his dog, Scooby are here at the Twilight Cabin, where spooky happenings have been reported to be going on. Stay tuned fans, because things could real spooky here!"
Daphne turned off the camera, and walked inside, nearly frozen. She quickly brushed her teeth and began brushing her hair thoughtfully, as she put a piece of wood in the fireplace to keep the cabin warm. Exhausted, she quickly climbed into bed and fell right to sleep.
Daphne began walking around the perimeter of the cabin with her camera. She couldn't remember why she had decided to get out of bed, but she quickly dropped the thought as she saw two glowing red lights up ahead. Daphne snuck closer to the red lights, which appeared to be coming from the bushes. She slowly reached her skinny hand out into the bush, only to find the two red lights were not lights at all, but eyes. Glowing red eyes, coming from a mysterious figure. The figure slowly became clearer and clearer in her vision, and the figure turned into a floating apparition in a dark, black cloak covering its entire body, other than its face, which was completely black inside the cape other than its glowing red eyes. The phantom got closer and closer and Daphne attempted to run, but she was completely paralyzed. The creepy figure reached an arm out of the cloak, except for it wasn't an arm, it was simply a skeleton-like bony arm. Daphne still couldn't move, and the figure reached closer, closer, closer!
Suddenly, Daphne woke up in a cold sweat, panting to catch her breath. It was just a dream. Daphne looked around the room, and saw nothing, other than the creepy-looking deer head whose unmoving eyes stared into her soul. She tried to fixate her gaze on her pillow as she adjust it, and closed her eyes once again.
Scooby woke up when he heard the rustling of bedsheets coming from Shaggy's room. Peeking his head into Shaggy's room from his view on the couch, he saw Shaggy was tossing and turning, likely uncomfortable from the mattress, which looked quite old. Scooby closed his eyes, and went back into the world of blackness once again.
Shaggy woke up near the outhouse. He had no memory of getting there, he figured he had maybe sleepwalked there or groggily walked to his bathroom destination, instinctively knowing he had to go. As Shaggy's hand reached for the outhouse door, he saw a strange black shadow behind the outhouse. The shadow morphed into a black phantom, with glowing red eyes. The phantom began chasing him, and he knew what he had to do: run! Shaggy ran through the woods as fast as he could, so fast in fact that he ran into a tree! Attempting to get up so he could make his getaway, he tried to stand up, but couldn't. He turned around to see the mysterious cloaked figure coming, reaching ever closer with its bony arm. As the phantom got within a few inches of him, its skeleton arm reached for his face, and Shaggy shut his eyes, knowing his fate.
Suddenly, Shaggy woke up and looked around. He was back in bed, with all the same surroundings. It must have been a dream, he realized, and pulled the covers over his head.
A few seconds later, Shaggy was back outside, in the same area where the phantom had reached for him. Except, there was no phantom. Maybe he had never actually woken up, and being in bed was the dream. Not questioning how he managed to escape the phantom's bony clutches, he tried to stand up, to see if he could at least move again. Pulling himself up from the ground, he realized he could and quickly ran back to the cabin and opened the door. Shaggy knew what he had to do though, he had to tell Daphne. She would be crushed if she missed getting that phantom on film, plus she needed to know of the danger. Running into her room, he prepared to raise his voice to a shouting level to wake her up.
"Daph, I…." Shaggy stopped dead in his tracks when he saw it was not Daphne in her room, but rather the cloaked phantom. "Like, I'm out of here!" Shaggy shouted, as he began running. But he couldn't. Something the phantom had done had completely paralyzed him, so he was unable to move. He tried screaming, hoping Daphne could maybe hear him, but it was no use. He couldn't move a muscle, and the phantom's skeletal arm reached for him once again. As the phantom's arm was nearly upon him, he felt a tingling in his leg.
Shaggy suddenly appeared back in his bed, not remembering anything between the phantom reaching for him and how he was back in his room. Shaggy groggily looked down, to see a gigantic rat crawling up his leg. "ZOINKS!" he screamed, as he jumped out of bed to the floor to get the rat off. The rat flew through the air and under the bed, frightening the eight other rats that were under the bed. The rats scurried out and up onto Shaggy's legs, as Shaggy ran out of the room as fast as he could, causing all the rats to fly off of his legs. The rats all scurried back under the bed, and their red eyes glowed in the darkness. Shaggy ran into Daphne's room, though she was still asleep. All of a sudden, she quickly sat up, with a look of shock on her face. "Daphne! There are rats infested in my room, and I just had a bunch of creepy nightmares!"
Incredibly shocked, Daphne replied "I did too!" she said, panting to catch her breath. "What were yours about?"
"This creepy phantom kept attacking me, and I was paralyzed and couldn't move!"
A cold sweat once again ran down Daphne's back, as she grimly asked, "What did it look like?"
Shaggy was still out of breath from a combination of running and the sheer fright of the incident. "It…had…a black cloak with no face, red eyes…and these terrifying, bony arms!"
Daphne swung her head around in horror, realizing it was the exact same dream she had. It couldn't be a coincidence. They were going to be at the mercy of this terrifying phantom.
"I don't wanna be killed in a cabin in the woods, Daphne! And there are rats in my bed, I have nowhere to sleep!" Shaggy said in a panicked voice.
"Then we'll just have to improvise." Daphne compromised, moving herself against the wall so Shaggy could also fit in the single bed with her.
Both of them felt scared out of their minds and uncomfortable, as Shaggy was practically falling off the bed to give Daphne room. They sat in bed for a while, both catching their breath while their hearts nearly pounded out of their bodies.
As Shaggy tried to make sure Daphne had enough room, he scooted over an inch further and fell off the bed with a loud bang.
Frustrated and terrified, Shaggy began raising his voice. "I don't want to be killed! And now I'm gonna have to be killed on the floor 'cause there's not even enough room in this stupid cabin!"
"Well…" Daphne awkwardly began trying explain her idea, "would it be weird if we…got closer to each other?"
"Uhhh…does that mean I won't have to be killed on a hard tile floor?" Shaggy said dryly.
"I mean, it doesn't have to be weird. There's just nowhere to sleep and it's freaking cold in here! So we're just doing it for the body heat is all. It's not real cuddling."
"Umm…okay, I guess."
Shaggy got back into bed as Daphne positioned herself tightly against his back. Shaggy immediately felt awkward, though Daphne did have a point that it was simply for keeping in body heat. In an instant, Shaggy felt a hand around him. Shaggy spun around, knowing he would see the phantom, but instead, he saw his red-haired friend with her hand around him. In an unusually breathy voice, she said "at least we'll be together when we die" and proceeded to cuddle up against him, quickly falling asleep.
Enjoying Shaggy's warmth, Daphne groggily opened her eyes to the sight of the familiar bedroom. As the minutes passed, the bedroom got colder and colder and Daphne found herself unable to fall back to sleep. Quickly realizing the fire had gone out, Daphne decided she was going to get up. At least she could get rid of the awkwardness of sleeping right next to someone she had no particular romantic interest in. As she stretched her legs to get up, she found something peculiar…she could get up, but she didn't want to. Something about Shaggy's presence made her feel completely safe and relaxed. In fact, it was almost beautiful.
Suddenly, Daphne heard a loud thump coming from the fireplace, which made her want to just curl up in bed and forget that tonight might be the night she died. But if it was the phantom, she knew she had to face her fate at some point. Feet first, she got out of the freezing cold bed and walked towards the fireplace. Terrified, she looks around to see if her apparitional assailant was anywhere nearby. Not seeing anything, the redhead walked closer to the fireplace and reached for a log. Upon inspecting the log, she noticed that it was so old that it wasn't brown - the normal color of wood. It was coal black…yet it was somehow almost shiny. Not thinking clearly, she put the log on the fire and fast-walked back to the bedroom. The exhausted girl collapsed back in bed, and adjusted herself so her flat stomach was once again contoured with Shaggy's back. And just like that, she was out like a light.
She wasn't sure what time it was. It could be seconds, minutes, hours from when she had originally fallen asleep. Knowing she had to use the outhouse, Daphne lifted herself out of bed and did a quick stretch before going to the door. Incredibly out-of-it, she opened the door not noticing her surroundings, until she saw the familiar glowing red pupils. It was the phantom. Unable to move once again, the phantom reached for her body, as Daphne remained paralyzed. As the phantom's bony arm was a few inches away from her arm, she hoped that she would once again wake up in bed, but to no avail. The phantom clutched her arm with its skeletal ligaments, putting a large, bright red scratch against her skin.
She was in bed once again. Phew. It must have been a dream, She thought, until she looked down at her arm and saw the giant scratch intact, which left off at the same place she last remembered. Shaking her bedmate awake, she shouted "Shaggy! The phantom just scratched me!" As she spoke, the redhead realized she was still unable to elevate her vocals anywhere above a breathy whisper, due to an almost paralyzed state of fear.
"ZOINKS! We've gotta get out of this place!" Shaggy shouted, his voice still as animated and full of emotion as ever.
"We can't! Remember what the gas station cashier said? The roads are flooded until late morning."
"I'm making a run for it then!" Shaggy said, "I'm not waiting any longer to be killed in my sleep by some ghost!" Shaggy ran as fast as he could, but his line of vision suddenly was blurred and he ran into the front door and passed out.
After what felt like a few minutes later, Shaggy woke up from his unconscious state.
"Shaggy, are you okay?" Daphne said in a panicked voice, her voice returned to normal?
"Like yeah, Daph. I didn't see any ghosts this time!"
"Shaggy?" Daphne repeated, somehow apparently unable to hear him.
"Daph! Don't you see, I'm right here, talking!" Shaggy began to get nervous. Maybe her vision was somehow blurred too, like his had been a moment ago.
"Shaggy? Shaggy?!" her voice suddenly got dramatically deeper. "Shaaaaggggyyyy! Shaaaggggggyyy!" Suddenly, Daphne turned into the cloaked apparition and once again reached its arm towards Shaggy's face.
"Like MEGA ZOINKS!" Shaggy screamed, once again paralyzed in his tracks.
With a burst of energy, the terrifying specter that stood in front of him clawed diagonally across Shaggy's face, creating a giant scrape ranging from his left ear to the right side of his mouth.
In a flash, Shaggy woke up, coughing for air.
"Oh my god, Shaggy!" Daphne ran up to the green shirted man and hugged him tight. "Your face, it's got a huge scratch!"
"I know! That creepy crawler got me in my dream! How did I pass out?"
"You ran into that door somehow…I can't figure out how other than the billowing smoke." she immediately realized what she had just said. "Why is there so much smoke? I only put one log on the fire!"
Still disoriented, Shaggy hobbled over to the fireplace to see that the log Daphne put on, or at least the little bit that remained, was glowing.
"Like, that's no regular wood!"
"Do you think…" Daphne paused for a moment, with her still-breathy voice, "That wood is somehow related to the bad dreams?"
Shaggy looked at her, completely puzzled.
"Think about it. The bad dreams always started right after I put the wood on the fire. I couldn't sleep when it was cold, yet when I put the wood on the fire, you could barely stay upright you were so sleepy!"
"What does it matter? That ghost is still gonna murder us!"
"The wood I put on is almost burned down now. If we just stay awake until morning, maybe the ghost can't get us?"
"But…I'm almost falling asleep now!" Shaggy yawned.
"And that's where water comes in!" Daphne hypothesized in a split second. Rapidly, she grabbed a liter bottle of water in the fridge and guzzled the whole thing at once.
"Like, what's that gonna do?"
"If we have to pee, we won't be able to sleep. Now the water should take about a half an hour to get through our systems, we just have to try to stay awake for the half an hour and we'll be in the clear."
Shaggy and Daphne looked around at the nearly empty cabin, which only had a deck of cards and some old magazines.
"You know, we could just talk?" Daphne suggested.
"Can't talk. Drinking." Shaggy said, as he guzzled another liter-bottle of water from the fridge.
Shaggy pulled out an obviously worn folding chair from the dining room table. Daphne did the same, and look at Shaggy.
There was a long, awkward pause. Daphne was incredibly confused with herself, her and Shaggy had known each other forever and she considered him one of her best friends. They talked all the time. Why couldn't she think of anything to say to him?
Daphne was the one to break the silence. "So…how's…stuff?"
"Uh…like….good…I guess." Shaggy blurt out awkwardly.
10 more minutes passed of complete silence, until Shaggy considerately asked, "are you warm enough?"
"Not really." Daphne replied, rubbing her hands together to keep from freezing.
"How's the show?" Shaggy persisted.
"Good." Daphne said in a melancholy voice.
Daphne couldn't get a handle on herself. She felt incredibly confused about her feelings for her friend. She knew they were just friends, but something about the night and the cuddling made her want more. The redheaded girl couldn't imagine her and Shaggy being anything more than friends, but she felt an odd connection to him suddenly.
"Daph?"
"Yeah?"
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
"Scooby's sure sleeping through this, right?"
Admittedly, she had completely forgotten about Scooby. Sure enough, he was fast asleep, not even noticing what was going on.
"Yeah. Hey, it's almost sunrise!"
Looking out the window, the light brown haired young man saw his friend was right, sunrise.
"Hey, we did it!"
"Yeah…but….I gotta pee!" Daphne did something similar to a jogging dance, like the ones you see little kids do when they can no longer hold it.
Daphne jogged outside, putting her hands over her pants and ran into the outhouse.
Shaggy simply laughed, and packed up his suitcase. Just as he was nearly finished packing his few items, Daphne jogged back in the cabin.
"Still have to pee?" Shaggy said in surprise.
"No! It's freaking cold out!" Daphne replied bluntly. Shaggy looked down to see she was still wearing her fuzzy pajamas, which he hadn't even noticed her wearing the whole night, despite that they had been sleeping right next to each other.
"Well, let's get out of here then, shall we?" Shaggy asserted in an eager voice.
"Umm…the roads are still flooded. The cashier said late morning, remember. It's only 8."
"Oh man, you mean we've gotta spend a few more hours in this spook shack? What are we gonna do?"
"We could talk!" Daphne suggested cheerily once again.
Shaggy gave her a confused look. "Like, we tried that Daph. Nothing to talk about!"
"Oh, I think we can come up with something." Daphne smiled, and took a seat at the table with her friend.
And with that, the two friends reminisced about old times with the rest of the gang for nearly two hours, until Scooby got up.
"Rello!" Scooby said, excitedly as he wagged his tail.
"Ready to go, Scoob?" Shaggy asked his four-footed friend.
"Reah! Reah!" Scooby immediately took his bone suitcase out to Daphne's car.
Before Daphne and Shaggy followed Scooby out to the car with their luggage, Daphne looked at Shaggy and stated "that was a great talk, Shag!"
"Like yeah, I haven't thought about that in a long time!" Shaggy sighed, remembering what good of times he truly had with the rest of the gang.
"Come on Scooby, we've got a LOT to catch you up on!" Daphne said semi-happily. There was a hint of somberness in her voice, due to her distress from the night…and with Shaggy. She felt like a teenager again, completely confused about her feeling about boys. She didn't inherently want Shaggy to be any more than a friend, yet she wanted something more. She realized she had to put it behind her, and she began telling Scooby about their crazy adventure full of creepy skeletal phantoms and amusing pee-dances.
As Daphne shifted the vehicle into drive and zoomed away from the terrifying cabin she knew she would never return to, all that remained in the field was the whipping winds and the shadows of the gnarly oak trees. The wind shifted the oak, and suddenly, the oak's shadow became one with another…the shadow of the cloaked phantom, which watched with its gleaming red eyes and pointed menacingly with its bony arm as the threesome's car pulled away onto the main road.
Author's note:
Now as some of you may have seen, this fanfiction is rated T though it hadn't previously had anything that would have stopped it from being rated K or K+. So did I rate it that then? Zombie Island is very creepy and I wanted this story to be as dark, if not darker, than Zombie Island was. With my first four chapters, it hasn't really gotten to that point of darkness, but I think you can agree this chapter was pretty dark! A creepy, no-faced phantom with skeletal arms and glowing eyes paralyzing and attacking you in your sleep plus they're in an isolated cabin in the woods, where no one can hear them? If that's not dark, I don't know what is! And the crazy thing is it wasn't supposed to be that dark! From a writing standpoint, this was a chapter of experimentation. I could have made it not as dark, but what if I did make it darker? What if the characters actually feared for their life? I don't want metaphorically pat myself on the back, but when I re-read the finished product, it was awesome how dark the chapter got. Heck, I creeped myself out in a couple of the scenes, especially the one where the phantom scratched Shaggy. I'll admit when I first thought up the scene (which was basically as I wrote it), there was going to be a bit of blood. But I had to stop myself there as I felt it went little too dark for Scooby. However, know I'm still getting my footing here, as the characters went in totally new, amazing directions in this chapter. Admittedly, I'm super excited with the seemingly endless possibilities of where the story will go from here. As the series goes on, it is certainly possible that the series will get dark and continue to push its old boundaries.
The second thing that is really cool for me as a writer is when you find your own writing cute. There were two scenes that particularly come to mind with this, the first being the scene with Scooby saying "Ri like camping too!" It was so cute because I could totally imagine Scooby saying it, plus it's amusing in a cute way that Scooby was trying to sway Daphne into letting him go.
The only real reference in this chapter was Daphne calling her fans "Daphnatics," which is what she called the fans of her web show from Scooby-Doo! FrankenCreepy.
Now the second scene ties into the last thing I want to talk about here. I'll be completely honest here and say I'm totally unsure what people will think of this, I could see anything from "Eww!" to "Aww!" (I hope it's the second option!) The scene I'm talking about is of course the Shaphne (Shaggy/Daphne) part. You may not believe me here after what I just wrote, but I have honestly never been a fan of the Shaggy-Daphne relationship, in fact I'm far more fond of Fraphne (Fred/Daphne). Until now, that is. Full disclosure here, this scene was not supposed to happen at all. The original plan was to have Shaggy hit his head and become unconscious when he fell on the floor trying to give Daphne room, which would have taken the place of Shaggy hitting his head on the door. But, I thought, what if Shaggy and Daphne had to sleep in the same bed right next to each other? And so it went, the characters once again wrote themselves and Daphne found herself getting cuddly with Shaggy. And in my opinion, it was perfect. You'll just have to wait and see if the relationship continues and Daphne sorts her feelings out, but a little hint I love what I wrote there so you'll *probably* see it play out in some way or another, even if they don't necessarily date. Though when I wrote the scene Daphne liking the warmth of cuddling Shaggy, my first thought on coming up with that part was "Awww, I'm adorable!" lol.
Well, I hope you loved this chapter as much as I did writing it (I had a lot of fun writing this one!), and look for chapter 6, which is coming hopefully soon!
