Author's note:
So before you start reading I have a few things I want to mention for this one.
First of all, my apologies for how long this one took to get out. I've had about half of this written for a while and then life got busy, so I was unable to finish the chapter when I wanted to. On that point however, you may want to give chapter 5 a quick skim again as well if you feel like you don't remember what happened. A few little things (such as Fred falling for the email scam, the Shaggy/Daphne moment) from the last chapter come up again, so I would recommend maybe giving the previous chapter a quick reread if you don't remember either of those things.
Full disclosure here and this is not really a spoiler, this chapter is nowhere as creepy as the previous one, but it is necessary for the overarching plot I'm developing for the story. However, I think this is still a really good, solid chapter with a great mystery and some really cute moments.
So without further ado here's chapter six of Coast to Coast!
Daphne had finally returned to work two days after her trip to Twilight Cabin. Sure, she could have returned yesterday, but she was frankly far too tired and moody to even think about working. Despite the resistance the prior day of working, she felt comforted using mental labor as a distraction from the trip. A lot had happened that she didn't understand on that trip, and admittedly putting off having to process her thoughts felt amazing.
Suddenly, the redhead heard a familiar voice coming from behind her.
"Daph? You're back!" Fred called to her.
"Hey...Fred…" Daphne said awkwardly. She had to scramble to think of something to say. "How's Prince Rahman?"
"Oh yeah, I never told you. My computer crashed yesterday, so I can't contact him! The IT guys said my email account infected my computer with a virus somehow!" Fred replied.
"Gee, I wonder how?" Daphne sarcastically fired back.
"Yeah, weird how these things happen, isn't it?" Fred obliviously stated. "Prince Rahman is going to be so disappointed in me!"
Daphne just rolled her eyes, in disbelief on how Fred could be so stupid.
Fred quickly changed the subject. "How's production going?"
Overjoyed that the subject had changed from the fictional African prince, Daphne delightedly responded. "Oh, it's going good. I'm actually going to shoot the opening teaser for my next episode in a few minutes."
"You need someone to tease for that? I hear Nick's a real pushover!" Fred chuckled obliviously.
"Fred, you know what a teaser is, right?"
"Uhhh…" Fred's cheeks suddenly turned bright red. "I'm gonna go see if my computer is fixed!"
Daphne rolled her eyes again, as she caught Nick walking by her office out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey, Nick!" Daphne waved her hand to get his attention.
"Daph, you ready to film the teaser?" Nick inquired.
"Yep. Just let me get my coat!"
The set looked as beautiful and spotless as ever, with an interview podium neatly tucked against the green screen in which skyscrapers were currently projected. Above them, there was a large projector.
"Ready to roll?" Nick asked.
Daphne nodded her head in agreement.
"Okay, 3, 2, 1!" Nick motioned his hands to show it was go-time.
Daphne adjusted her voice level from casual to professional and mature-sounding. "Hi. This is Daphne Blake from Coast to Coast, and we've got another exciting show for you this week!"
Suddenly, she heard Nick sharply tell her "Move!"
"Am I standing too close to the screen or…" Daphne asked, confused as to why he was being so urgent with her.
"Just move, fast!"
Daphne did as he requested and jogged towards him. Suddenly, she felt her heart stop as a spotlight crashed to the ground. Speechless, her heart continued pounding and her breathing got heavy.
"That...was...close." Daphne gasped in between breaths. "Good thing you saw it. Otherwise we could have had a real bad accident on our hands."
"I don't think it was an accident." Nick pointed rapidly at the green screen, which had now morphed from a skyscraper image to a projected note. "Watch your back, or this show may be your last. Signed, The Phantom."
Daphne continued gasping for air, replaying the image in her head of how close she was to near-death.
"You know someone who'd want to do you harm, Daph?"
Daphne remained quiet, trying to think of anyone she had pissed off. She felt like she was generally well-liked among all the people she worked with for the most part, and certainly couldn't think of anyone who'd want to kill her. In a flash, she saw a mental image of the arm. That same bony arm which nearly killed her, Shaggy, and Scooby up at Twilight Cabin. Maybe it followed her back to finish the job. Once and for all.
Daphne was so panicked at the thought that she hadn't realized she was zoning out. She came back to reality noticing a hand waving in front of her face, which she immediately slapped.
"Oww! What was that for?" Nick scoffed at her.
Though not zoning out, Daphne just responded with a blank face.
"I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall! How we feeling Daph?" Nick attempted to get a response one final time.
"Scared and cranky." Daphne stated bluntly.
"The perfect combination!" Nick fired back in a sarcastic manner.
Daphne had returned to her office without finishing the scene, only causing her thoughts to swirl even more. She wanted to feel comforted and safe somehow, though she felt she had no one to do it with. Velma was mad at her, Fred's idiocy seemed to grow by the day, and Shaggy...well, she didn't even know how she felt about Shaggy. Her mind flashed back to that night in bed - no, Daphne, don't call it that!, she admonished herself - when she felt comfort in his warmth. When she felt like he could be the last thing she saw before she died at the hands of a bony-fingered assailant. When she just wanted to cuddle him and never stop. But, she reminded herself, she didn't truly know how she felt about him. It could have been just a scared-out-of-her-mind instinct. And she couldn't simply just go over to Shaggy's house and say "Hey Shaggy, let's cuddle to see if I feel anything!" Ugh, it was her teenage years all over again. Confused about her new feelings and whether she liked certain boys and…
Daphne pulled herself out of the endless cycle that was her attempted processing. Word had apparently gotten around about the so-called "accident" and everyone had treated her especially nice throughout the day. Gotten her coffee, given her a soft blanket to snuggle up under, and pretty much told her she could leave if she wanted. That's your problem, Daphne, you never know what you want! She admonished herself once again.
All of a sudden, she heard a knock at her door. She looked up to see Nick's serious face.
"Hey, look, sorry about earlier…" Daphne apologized, as she did truly feel bad for punching her production assistant.
"No problem. Now let's go out looking."
"Looking for what?"
"For the guy."
"What guy?"
"Don't be challenging with me Daph, the guy who nearly killed you."
"You know it could be a girl! Stop perpetuating the societal gender norms!" Daphne replied half-jokingly, though mainly just trying to get Nick off her case.
Nick ignored her sarcastic comment. "Daphne Blake! Are you telling me you'd rather sit under a blanket in danger than find who tried to kill you?"
"I'm not in danger! This blanket is soft and comfortable! I don't own any knife-blankets."
"Man, you are challenging when you're in a bad mood! You know, the PERSON" - Nick made sure to accentuate the word 'person' as Daphne had made the sexism joke earlier - "could try again. Now are you coming or staying?"
Daphne realized that he made a good point and she should go and find whoever - or whatever - tried to harm her. She finally responded "Fine, but give me one last moment alone with the blanket!"
Nick walked outside her office, awaiting Daphne's departure.
After a minute had easily passed, Nick looked back into her office to see Daphne holding the blanket up to her ear.
"You hang up first." Daphne said, trying to refrain from laughing.
"No, you hang up!"
Nick rolled his eyes at her difficultness.
"No, you hang up!" She said in a strict voice, as if she actually believed the blanket was disobeying her.
"If you don't get out here right now, you won't have to worry about whoever tried to hurt you. Because I'll kill you first!" Nick said in one final attempt to get her out.
"Fine! Someone can't take a joke." Daphne huffed as she walked out.
Quickly, as Nick's back was turned, Daphne ran back into her office and held the blanket up to her ear once again.
"Aww, you're still there! I just know we're going to be together forever!"
Angrily, Nick ripped the blanket out of her hands, and said "You know, blankets can be weapons too! Easier to choke you with!"
"Alright, I'll go! So pushy." Daphne said in a frustrated tone.
Nick led Daphne into his office.
"Why are we looking in here?" Daphne asked curiously.
"So we can have an adult conversation without you talking to your blanket!" Nick said, nearly at his wit's end.
"Don't make fun of Bea!" Daphne said in a sort of playfully defensive way,
Nick just looked confused, unsure of what she meant. "Who's Bea?"
"My blanket? Bea. Get it? 'Cause it's like the "B" in blanket?"
"You seriously named your damn blanket?"
Daphne tried to inconspicuously change the subject, realizing her playful stubbornness had become a bit mean. "What do you want to talk about?
"Well, who has access to the projections on that green screen?"
"Anyone who's in crew. The projection booth's upstairs on the second floor."
"Well, that sure helps us! Not." Nick snarkily responded.
"NOW who's being sarcastic?"
"Fine, do you know where the surveillance footage is?"
"Up in security. We should pay them a visit. They probably already know what happened."
The red hair on her head blew in the drafty hallway in which the air conditioning was on full-blast.
"How do they stand working up here?" Daphne asked.
"Maybe Bea keeps them company too?" Nick attempted to make a joke of his own.
"Ha ha. Very funny." Daphne rolled her eyes, clearly unamused at his poor blanket joke.
Daphne knocked on the open security guard's door as a courtesy.
"Oh, Daphne and Nick. Come in!" The security guard smiled.
"Hi. We're looking for the security footage from the projection room on the second floor, from 10:50am today." Daphne requested.
"Sure, let me just pull it up here, and I'll step out so you two can watch it." The security guard quick typed in his password and pulled up the footage in a matter of minutes. "Hope you find something!"
"This should be easy, honestly." Daphne said. "There was obviously someone in the projection room, once we watch the footage we'll know who it is."
Daphne pressed the play button on the guard's computer and intently watched.
The room was strangely empty, until in a flash, a man covered in a white sheet with a ridiculously large drawn-on eyes and a large Sharpie marker frown.
"Oh god!" Nick gasped, "It's the invasion of the sheet-ghosts! What the hell are we going to do now?" Nick laughed, confirming his sarcasm.
Daphne paused for a second and watched the "ghost" take a large screwdriver and unscrew the bolts that held the spotlight in.
"Wait…I think I know…"
Nick interrupted her before she finished. "You know that that's the most pathetic ghost costume I've ever seen? I made a better ghost costume when I was 10!"
"No. That guy was supposed to be on my show today!"
"Lord help us all. You were actually going to PAY that guy to be a moron?"
"No, listen. My special guest today, as a joke, was going to be a guy in a cheesy ghost costume. It was one of the crew members! Daniel Smith!"
"Let's go pay your old friend Daniel a visit then." Nick said, his voice full of apathy and coldness.
Daphne and Nick stormed into Daniel's office in a huff.
"Daniel? Why the hell would you try to kill Daphne?" Nick shouted.
"Kill her? Man, I didn't even get in until 11 today. I got majorly sick last night, bro."
"Oh yeah, "majorly" sick enough to dress up as a ghost and try to kill me?" Daphne defended herself.
"Dude, get off my case! Seriously, man, check the security footage. I got in, like, a couple of minutes before 11."
Daniel was about to fire something else back, when Daphne tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to leave.
"Sorry to bother you, Daniel. We'll check the footage."
After they were safely out of Daniel's office, Daphne spoke up and said "Nick, let's just check the security footage. If he actually was at the front studio gates a few minutes before 11, there's no way he could have been in the projection booth at the same time."
"I guess you're right, Daph. Let's just check it and move on."
After they returned to the security footage room, the duo checked the footage and found that Daniel had indeed been outside the entrance at 10:52am, meaning there was no way he could have been in there, dressed as that cheesy ghost.
"Wait, if Daniel wasn't in the studio, how did that other person get Daniel's ghost costume?" Nick asked.
"I don't know. Let's see if Daniel knows." Daphne replied, as she motioned for Nick to come along.
Upon their return to Daniel's office, they noticed a loud guitar solo blasting out of the office door.
"Daniel, what are you doing?" Daphne puzzledly questioned.
"Ahh man! You caught me! I'm tryna bring my jams up to the next level! So I'm watchin' these Guitar Hero videos. You know, jammin' out, man!" Daniel oddly began positioning his right hand as if he were playing a guitar, strumming the air as hard as he could. Daniel paused for a moment. "Why you back here anyway? I told you, I wasn't in my office til 11!"
"Yeah, we saw. But someone was in your office, since I doubt someone wanted to replicate your cheesy ghost costume." Daphne said apathetically.
"Ah man, I forgot about that! Yeah, I don't know what happened to that costume. I always keep my office locked if I'm not here, and nobody has the keys but me. It's just gone into thin air!"
Nick looked as if he was about to blow a circuit with Daniel's lack of awareness, so Daphne motioned for them to leave again.
"That'll be all, Daniel. Enjoy your guitar!"
"Ah thanks Daph! You da man! I mean...wo-man."
Daphne gave a fake smile, and shut Daniel's door.
"We can check the security cameras around Daniel's office. Then we'll question anyone who came in or out." Daphne suggested to Nick.
"Yeah, better than talking to the rocker wannabe in there." Nick said, as the both of them could still hear the loud guitar riff in Daniel's office.
A few hours later, both of them had checked every security camera up and down, and no sign of anyone going in or out besides the janitor doing routine maintenance.
"Now are you SURE the janitor didn't do it?" Nick asked.
"Yes, I'm sure! He leaves in a matter of seconds, and the door is open the whole time. He just takes the old trash bag and dumps it out, then puts a new trash liner on it." Daphne reaffirmed.
Daphne replayed the scene to prove it, and Nick watched again to make sure his partner-in-mystery's intuition was correct.
"Wait, what is he doing there? Pause it." Nick instructed.
"Nothing, I told you."
"No, look."
Daphne zoomed in on the frame to see him picking up a piece of trash and placing it in the bin. The janitor then walked out and dumped the trash in a larger bin, though with his hand in an odd position.
"Why is he putting his hand in the garbage?" Daphne said, slightly shocked as to why someone would ever want to do such a thing. "Rewind it."
Nick did as he was told and rewinded the video to the scene in which the janitor picked up the piece of trash. Out of curiosity, he attempted to zoom in more on the figure. Then, both of them saw it: the black spot.
"An oversized spot perfectly eye-shaped like that could only mean one thing." Daphne realized, "I think we're going to have to talk to security again, my friend."
Nick dialed the number quickly and told the security guard of what they had found.
The next morning, Nick walked into Daphne's office as he had the previous day.
"How's it going, Daph?"
"Oh, fine I suppose." Daphne said, acting quite antisocial.
"Just fine? Didn't you hear they arrested that janitor? He was a new hire who apparently had it out for your show." Nick said, in a surprised manner.
"Well, let's see, my friend Velma hates me, I nearly got killed in my job yesterday, and…" Daphne left out the part about her newfound teenager-like angst about her feelings for Shaggy. "This isn't the end."
"Well, could you make it any less ominous, fortune teller?" Nick joked.
"Think about it. Two guys, both new hires, have it out for me within a month? First that creepy security guard, John Barnes, and now the janitor? That's not a coincidence. Someone here has it out for me personally."
"And how do you figure that? Someone's recommending all their sociopathic friends come work here with the extra bonus of getting a fresh kill?"
Daphne's face puckered up in disgust. "Fresh kill" sounded like whoever it was thought she was an innocent deer waiting to be slaughtered. "No! I think it's someone higher up."
"What are you going to do?" Nick questioned.
"I'm going to walk around and ask everyone 'Hey, do you want to kill me?'" Daphne rearranged her face to make it look stupid, "Duh! I'm going to do the only thing I can do. Do my job and do some investigating on the side. It'll be like old times."
"No! That's the easiest way to get killed! Just tell someone, like the studio president or something. He'll make sure you're protected." Nick pleaded.
"No, this is my issue, I'll take care of it on my own. I don't know who to trust anymore higher up. This could be some big conspiracy against me for all we know."
"Agh, you're so stubborn sometimes! I'll never understand you."
"Aww, that's too bad, 'cause Bea does!" the redhead jokingly grabbed her blanket and held it up to her ear again. "What's that?" She paused for a moment as if she were listening to what the blanket had to say. "Aww, I love you too Bea!"
Nick rolled his eyes as Daphne playfully rubbed her face on the blanket. "You know, that's not even your blanket. It's your boss's blanket, he'll be pissed if you don't return it."
"No!" Daphne said firmly, yet still a hint of playfulness in her voice. "I'm keeping her. We've made a connection!"
Nick realized he couldn't reason with her ridiculous game and walked off.
Despite that Daphne was completely being silly, the blanket actually had brought her a bit of comfort. After a bit of thought, she decided to not bring the blanket back to her boss and keep it for herself.
She knew she shouldn't, yet she did. Going up to Velma's bookstore door and apologizing wasn't exactly her idea of fun, but it had to be done. Honestly, she felt like Velma was overreacting a bit. Maybe she was slightly selfish, but Velma should contact her more often. It's no wonder Daphne was so focused on work when her four best friends had essentially abandoned her. Daphne's thought process caused her to stop and think for a moment. Did she really feel resentful of the four people she had felt were as close as any friends could be? Ugh, feelings are confusing! Daphne lamented.
Daphne knocked on the wooden door of Velma's bookstore, and waited for a few moments before it opened.
"What do you want?" Velma scoffed.
"I just want to say, I'm really sorry. I was selfish and used you to further my show. That was wrong." Daphne tried to sound sincere, yet she still held a little frustration at her friend's stubbornness.
"Did you read that off the back of a box of Boo Berry?" Velma said dryly.
"Ooh, nice burn, sister!" called a voice from the back of Velma's bookstore.
"Who is that?" Daphne asked.
"That's my new friend."
Velma's friend walked forward. Her hair was messy with a few stray hairpins in it. She wore a red ascot, which Daphne thought was sooo 1969. On her face were several freckles, and a pair of glasses resting on her nose.
"I'd like you to meet Marcie." Velma presented her friend.
"Obliged to meet you." Marcie shook her hand.
Daphne knew she was being slightly immature, but she didn't care. To present a new friend like she was Daphne's replacement was not cool.
"You know, I can get a new friend too! I'll replace you and forget you ever existed!" Daphne stormed off in a huff and got in her car.
"What's her problem?" Marcie asked.
"She's off carbs. Plus I made her angry, but screw her. Let's go play that fun new video game you got."
"Yeah! The Dark Lilith's empire will never stand a chance against the two of us!"
Meanwhile, Nick watched someone he had never seen before sit down on the wooden bench next to Daphne's boss's office. He was a burly man, with large brown eyes and blond hair.
"Oh, hey, are you the new production assistant?" Nick asked, attempting to make small talk.
"Yup." the man said, bluntly.
"Are you nervous about the interview?" Nick responded again, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Nope." the man said, acting quite relaxed.
Nick could clearly tell this man did not want to talk, so he let him be. "Okay, good luck with the interview!"
"Yup." the man simply stated.
Nick walked back to his office, not thinking much about the man's strange behavior.
The large man walked into his potential new employer's office, and sat down in the chair across from his interviewer.
"You know why you're here?" the boss asked him.
"Yup." the man blatantly replied.
"No questions before I start talking?"
"Nope." the man said in his deep voice.
"Okay, listen up then. My last two guys have failed, but I want rid of that Blake girl once and for all. Either she quits this job or she dies." Daphne's boss ominously told him.
"Yup." the man repeated.
"After my second guy failed today with the spotlight, I gave her a blanket with a mini tracking device hidden inside it. It's too messy to try again at the studio now, people will be suspicious. Track her to her house and do as you see fit."
"Yup."
"Good. I've tried again and again now. First I tried to cancel her show, then I got that security guard, and the janitor, and they all failed! I will not accept any more failure. That Blake girl needs to be gone."
Author's note:
Now last chapter, which was absolutely amazing to write, was far different from this one, but as I said I think it really had some necessary plot development to move forward with both the characters and the story. I hope no one was disappointed with the lack of real supernatural creature, but know that this is an odd chapter in the sense that I'm planning those going forward to be a lot spookier.
I have a lot I want to say on this chapter again, but first we've gotta do reference time!
So first I should probably start with the huge reference which was Velma's friend Marcie. Before you ask, yes, it is the same Marcie in which appeared in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and yes, there will be a bigger plot development with her.
Daphne thinking Marcie's ascot was from 1969 is obviously a reference to when the show first aired.
The Dark Lilith's empire is a reference to Marcie's Lilith disguise in "Night on Haunted Mountain" from SDMI.
I realize the "She's off carbs" line is a very obscure reference, but it was a reference to "A Scooby-Doo Valentine" in which Shaggy makes a comment about how Scooby is angry because "he's off carbs." I always found that line particularly oddly placed and random, and it randomly came to mind when Marcie was asking Velma for an explanation of why Daphne was so angry, so I thought what the heck, why not include that?
As I said, a lot of things I want to say about this chapter, but I'll try to keep it to a few main things!
One of my favorite parts of writing this chapter was Fred. Admittedly I found the whole email scam thing quite amusing so I decided to extend it a bit into this episode. Hopefully no one is annoyed with me making Fred a bit dimwitted, but I think it works well for this fanfiction personally.
And then there's "Did you read that off the back of a box of Boo Berry?" Now don't ask me where that came from because it just randomly popped in my mind as I was quick trying to think of a good insult. I haven't eaten Boo Berry (for those who don't know it's a type of cereal) in years, so I have no idea why I suddenly thought of it now!
Probably the funnest part of this chapter was Daphne's sarcasm. Hopefully other authors will identify with "feeling" their character's emotions a bit as they're writing, so it was fun to get a break from angsty, emotional Daphne and have her be silly and let loose for a bit.
Oh and we have to talk about Bea! This is another example (as I highlighted in last chapter's author's notes) of a totally unplanned thing which I was not going to include originally that ended up being really cute. The original plan was to have the tracker placed on Daphne's purse, but the whole blanket silliness developed in the midst of the sarcasm and I decided to give the blanket a bigger role so to speak which turned into "Bea." Hopefully you found it as cute as I did writing it!
So I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Honestly, I'm enjoying the adventure of writing it and seeing where the characters take the story myself, as I have no idea where the story is going to go! For those of you who suggested I include Shaggy and Scooby more, now hopefully you see why I haven't. Part of the overarching story arch is the dilemma that Daphne finds herself in, where she feels she is distant and maybe even resentful of the gang leaving her behind. I can't say what she feels because, at this point in the story, SHE doesn't even know how she feels yet!
A quick note as well, Daniel Smith, whom Daphne and Nick accused of trying to drop the spotlight on Daphne, was originally named Daniel Sim, but I changed the name due to the unintentional closeness of the name to a different character who appears a few chapters later.
I don't want to guarantee a time, even an approximate one, for when the next chapter will be out, since the last one was intended to be out by the beginning of March, and that obviously never happened. So all I'll say is stay tuned to see what happens with Daphne's apparently evil boss, Velma's new friend Marcie, and of course, Bea! :)
