She thought she was irreplaceable.

That is, until Velma introduced her "replacement" friend. She had never felt so used in her whole life.

Though she didn't actually believe it would help, Daphne felt the need to wake herself up out of the mopey stupor she was currently in with a hot cup of coffee. The redheaded girl lifted herself out of her chair making a groaning sound, like she had to lift up the weight of the world on her shoulders. A few people said hi to her in the studio hallway, she really didn't care though. She was lost in her mind, thinking about friends and acquaintances past, stuck on the idea that she truly had no one to confide in anymore. She had wrapped herself up so much in the world of mystery solving and fake supernatural creatures that she had closed her mind to other potential comrades. She felt more alone than she had ever felt before.

Still feeling sorry for herself, Daphne poured herself a cup of steaming fresh-brewed coffee, when a girl about her age caught her eye. The young female had long blonde hair, and was wearing jeans and a purple t-shirt with the studio logo on it. She felt she knew most people who worked at the studio, though the identity of this woman befuddled her.

Daphne suddenly realized she had been staring as the blonde looked at her in a strange manner.

"Do I know you?" the female asked.

"Uhh...I don't think so." Daphne said.

"Hey, aren't you the star of that supernatural show, Coast to Coast?" the blonde began nervously twirling a strand of her hair, as if she were talking to someone of authority.

"Yep, that's me! The one and only Daphne Blake of Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake."

"Hey, that's cool!" the girl replied chipperly. "You know, I love your show. Especially the one about that bony-armed phantom."

The thought of her experience at Twilight Cabin made her shiver. That was a night she wanted to forget. "Thanks." Daphne frankly replied.

"You know, I'm starting an interview show as well," the girl informed. "Maybe we could talk over dinner sometime?"

"Sure. Are you available tomorrow night?" Daphne inquired.

"Oh, yeah, of course!" the female's voice elevated in tone as she got seemingly excited.

"It's a date then. I didn't catch your name, though."

"It's Isabel." the blonde looked at her watch and rapidly began walking in the other direction, while still facing Daphne. "Gotta go, I'm late for a meeting! See you tomorrow!" Her voice squeaked as it got higher.

Hmmm, Daphne thought, Maybe this day won't be so bad after all.


Unconsciously, Daphne began having dreams about her previous friends. Over and over, she tortured herself remembering the bookstore incident with Velma, and Velma's new friend, Marcie.

Marcie?, she thought, What a stupid name.

She replaced the image of Marcie in her head with the image of a blonde-haired face that was Isabel. She repeated the name over and over in her head, reminding herself that this was her new friend, and none of her previous friends mattered anymore. Except maybe Shaggy. The tenderness she felt with his body against hers, his hair brushing up against the back of her neck, how soft he was, how warm he was… the fact that she never wanted to get up from his warmth.

Striking a sensitive memory, Daphne immediately pushed the image out of her mind, and replaced it with the pretty blonde who was going to meet her tomorrow night. Eventually, Daphne drifted off into a peaceful sleep.


It was 4:57pm, and Daphne was ready to be done with work. She had exhausted herself with both work and thinking. Just as Daphne was about to completely check out, Daphne heard a voice.

"Hey buddy, ready for dinner tonight? I'm starving!" Isabel put emphasis on "starving" which sounded drawn-out yet cute.

"Hi!" Daphne instantly became excited, "just let me get my coat first."

The blonde twirled a strand of her hair as she waited for Daphne to put on her jacket. Suddenly, she looked up and saw the design of her acquaintance's coat.

"Oh-my-gosh, that jacket is like, so cute!" Isabel's voice got higher once again as she perked up, which Daphne found quite adorable. "Where did you get it?"

"I got it at Menkle's a few weeks ago. I love it!" her perky friend made the redhead excited as well.

"Well, like, you totally should. You look so fancy in it!" Isabel's voice squeaked at the end of her sentence, as if she couldn't help herself from raising her voice.

All of a sudden, Daphne heard a loud growling noise. As the perky blonde spoke up, she realized the noise was coming from Isabel.

"Ah, that's the stomach alarm! I didn't eat anything for lunch today, so I'm like, so hungry!"

"Let's get going then!" Daphne smiled, trying to stay as cheery as her friend.

The two women began walking out of Daphne's office when Nick stopped Daphne, who was leading the way.

"Hey, Daph, got a letter for you." Nick said, before he spun around to notice Daphne was not alone. "Oh, you've got a little follower there I see."

Daphne turned around to notice Isabel let out a small giggle, as if she wasn't used to having friends either.

"I'll leave you two alone then." Nick continued.

Daphne quick tore open the letter to see "MYSTERY WEEKEND" written in all caps on an otherwise white piece of paper. She began reading it aloud.

"You have been cordially invited to Mystery Weekend at Cerrie Mansion. Each invitee is allowed to bring one friend along, free of charge." Daphne looked down to see two bullet points, which highlighted various aspects of the festivities. "Food and drinks provided. Must stay entire weekend."

"Ooh!" Isabel chirped, "I love mysteries! So fun and spooky!"

Daphne thought for a moment before replying, wondering to herself if her blonde companion would find it awkward to be invited to the Mystery Weekend so quickly after they had met. But after all, who else was Daphne going to bring? Daphne decided to be silent for now, though she admired her friend's chipperness about everything. She could really use an optimistic person in her life right now.


As the two females arrived at the restaurant, they found a cozy place to sit. The restaurant was well lighted and was painted a light shade of red. The place was quite busy for a Tuesday night, though Daphne assumed it was simply the fact that people didn't want to cook after a long day of work.

As the friends sat down in a booth and the waitress took their beverage orders, Daphne struggled to think of things to say to this person. They barely knew each other, after all.

"So...have you worked at the studio long?" Daphne inquired.

"Nope, just started. I recently moved here from California." the blonde responded.

"Oh, well, how was California?" Daphne felt inspired by the direction of the conversation.

"I'm glad to get away from there, honestly. All my friends stopped talking to me and I didn't feel like I belonged there anymore."

Daphne had to give Isabel credit, as her voice even sounded happy as she was revealing a quite sad thing.

"I'm really sorry to hear that," Daphne sympathized. "I've been going through that with my friends recently, too."

The other girl simply looked up with an interested gaze rather than responding, as if she wanted more information.

"My friend Velma and I used to be really close. Now she says all I care about is my show, yet she's the one who immediately replaces me with another friend! I try to ask her to explain and have us talk things out, but she refuses." Daphne realized not everything she was saying was 100% true, but she was enjoying the bonding moment. She considered revealing more about her background with the gang, but she wasn't sure how to word it. 'I go around in a van solving mysteries and ripping masks off of people?' It just didn't sound right. She decided to inquire more about her friend before she went further into the story.

"What about you, you said your friends stop talking to you?" Daphne asked.

"Yeah, they kinda turned into dicks."

Isabel's swearing took Daphne aback, as she didn't take her for the kind of person who swore. The blonde quickly resumed speaking.

"I wanted to go into TV, you know, be a big time TV host and all that. I originally went to college to be a journalist, but I really wasn't into that anymore. My friends told me I was wasting my life and I need to just suck it up and do what I spent four years studying. But, you know, I have like, my own life and I just want to do what makes me happy. It's not their identity, it's mine."

Daphne was intrigued by Isabel's story, as it really wasn't all that different from her's. She wanted to be in TV, and Velma tried to convince her she needed to stop caring about her show.

Isabel continued.

"We don't talk that much anymore. I just kinda told them off."

"What did you say to them?"

"A tuna melt on sourdough."

Daphne looked up in shock to see that the waitress was here taking their orders. She had been so caught up in the good conversation she hadn't even bothered to look at the menu.

"Umm...I'll have what she's having." Daphne quickly said to avoid making the waitress idly wait.

Isabel held her hand up to her heart and made a "that's-so-adorable" face. "Awww, twinsies!"

Daphne simply laughed at her friend's somewhat amusing comment.

"So, what about your other friends?" the blonde asked. "Surely you had more than one!"

"Yeah, Fred and Shaggy."

"Shaggy?"

"Yep, that's his name. Well, not really, it's actually Norville, but everyone calls him Shaggy."

Isabel put her hand up to her heart once again and made a duplicate face to her previous one.

"So, what happened between you guys?"

Daphne almost bluntly stated 'cuddling' but she thought better of it.

"We just drifted apart. I guess we weren't sure exactly how we fit as friends."

Despite the semi-untruthfulness of the comment, Daphne hadn't totally lied. She honestly wasn't sure what she thought of Shaggy as right now.

"And Fred?" her friend kept digging deeper into her past.

"Oh, he works at the studio, actually. He's my cameraman." Daphne didn't want to reveal everything to this girl she barely knew. She figured short-and-sweet was best for now.

"Oh-my-gosh, Fred Jones? That dumb guy buying all the chimps?"

Daphne nearly spit the water she was drinking out of her mouth.

"What?"

"Yeah, when he welcomed me to the studio he told me he was going to buy a dozen chimps to help him out in the office doing paperwork. He asked me if I wanted one, too."

"Yup, that's Fred." Daphne confirmed, as she tried not to laugh.


The two friends continued bonding throughout the night about aspects of their lives. They found they both liked fashion, enjoyed similar kinds of music and bonded over their lack of friends. Daphne could have done without hearing about Isabel's daddy issues, but nonetheless she was happy for the good conversation.

As both girls finished their meals, Daphne began wrapping up the conversation with her newfound friend.

"Isabel, it was super nice meeting you. You and I have so much alike!"

"Yeah, it was so nice meeting you too Daphne!"

All of a sudden, a letter fell out of Daphne's pocket.

"Oh shoot, let me pick that up for you." Isabel offered.

"No, it's alright." Daphne got up and picked up the letter herself. "It's just that letter for the Mystery Weekend."

"Oh yeah, did you decide who you're taking to that?"

"Well...um...I was going to actually ask you. I didn't want to be awkward." Daphne confessed.

"Oh, no, that's not awkward! I'd love to go with you!" the blonde responded.

"Cool!" Daphne was overloaded with a sensation of happiness. "It's this weekend, so let's meet again at my office at 5, Friday night."

"Sure! I'm looking so forward to this!" Isabel eagerly responded, her voice squeaking again when she attempted to inflect the word "so".

Daphne put out her credit card to pay the bill while waving goodbye to the perky blonde.

You made a new friend today. Daphne let the thought wash over her for a moment. Good job, she complimented herself.


Friday couldn't have come any faster.

It felt like she blinked, and the clock had sped up to 4:53pm on Friday afternoon. In less than 10 minutes, Isabel was coming to meet her for the mystery weekend getaway. Last time she had traveled with another girl was with Velma, and that had been alright, she supposed. She remembered her uncontrollable laughing fit in the car, the fright they had felt while alone in the mansion with a phantom, and most importantly, their fight at the bookstore a few weeks afterwards. Daphne tried to remove the thought from her mind, but it lingered, until she looked up for a second and realized another three-and-a-half minutes had passed with her perseverating on the same topic.

She let another three minutes pass by, remembering the good old days with the gang, until the blonde appeared at her door and subsequently knocked on it.

Daphne left her thoughts behind and tried to focus on what was current.

"Hey Daphne!" Isabel said, appearing to be her normal perky self.

"You ready for a weekend of fun?" the redhead replied, though she didn't feel excited as her tone reflected at all.

"I was born ready!" her friend replied, with a light giggle.

"Do we need to stop at your house, or…" Daphne was interrupted by Isabel before she could finish.

"Nope, already have everything I need packed!"

"So do I." Daphne's cheerful charade faded.

"Something wrong?" Isabel tilted her head a bit sideways, to show concern.

"Uh…" Daphne had to think for a moment. "No, no, let's get going."

"Aww, thank you so much for inviting me! This is gonna be an awesome weekend!" As soon as the last syllable dropped, the bubbly blonde extended her arms and hugged Daphne, which she wasn't expecting at all.

She felt embarrassed, but she must have had a strange look on her face.

"What?" Isabel chimed in. "I hug all my friends!"

"Oh...yes...of course." Daphne replied, in a scatterbrained voice. "Let's get going. We don't want to be late."

With a hop in her step, Isabel fast-walked towards the door and started down the hallway before Daphne was even fully out of the office. This is going to be a long weekend, she thought.


90 miles.

Daphne saw the road sign on the highway, which alerted her to how long the two travellers had remaining before they arrived.

Daphne had finally, for once, come to peace with the fact that she had a friend now, and decided to worry about rekindling her relationship with her other friends at a later time. If her friends would allow it, that is.

While Daphne kept her eyes on the road, her ever-cheerful friend listened to music while humming along.

This was going to be a good weekend, Daphne adjusted her mood, as she kept repeating that phrase to herself.


5 miles.

That's the sign Daphne saw as she was just about to consider the fact that they were lost. Quite frankly, she was glad to be done driving. Her eyes felt like they were heavy and about to close. Not looking over at what she was doing, as moving her head felt like running a marathon, Daphne called to her friend to see if she could help keep a lookout for the place. The road was slowly leading her into a forest, which was dimly lit by a flickering streetlamp and her headlights. There were very spooky looking oak trees all around, and the wind howled through them as Daphne continued driving.

"Isabel?" Daphne said, in a whisper.

She finally glanced over to see her friend's head propped up against the seat with her eyelids shut. At that moment, she let out a small snore that you might hear from a sleeping kitten. Even in her sleep, Isabel's mouth was in the slight shape of a smile. Daphne wondered what her blonde friend was dreaming about. It was probably better than what she had been dreaming about recently, which was apparitions and angry conflicts with friends.

As Daphne approached the flickering streetlight, she suddenly saw a dark figure by the tree adjacent to it. The figure was wearing what appeared to be an old-style hat, and was slim in its outline. Daphne already felt scared enough in the woods alone, so she quickly looked straight at the road again and made sure to keep the figure out of her line of sight. All of a sudden, Daphne could have sworn she saw the figure directly under the streetlamp, holding up its bony-looking hand. Daphne made her eyes do a long blink, and when her sight cleared, there was no figure. She wondered if she had simply imagined it, or if there truly was someone there.

After miles of long, windy roads, and creepy forests, Daphne finally reached a bridge, which appeared to lead directly to the house.

"Isabel?" Daphne attempted to wake her friend up one more time.

Isabel's eyes flew open this time, simply uttering a questioning "Hmm?"

"We're almost there!"

Isabel ran her hand across the length of her hair, to make sure it was still flat, before replying "Ooh! Exciting!"

Daphne had already gotten so used to the other female's voice that she didn't even notice the squeak in her tone this time. She envied Isabel though, she was not an early bird and hated being woken up. She wished she could be instantly awake and cheerful like her friend seemed to be.

Daphne's vehicle crossed the length of the bridge, and their destination seemed to appear out of nowhere. The house looked colonial in style, and appeared to have at least 75 rooms. It had a grayish blue color to it, and was surrounded by several trees and another forest area directly behind it, along with a large, shimmering lake.

As the girls got out of the car, they looked in awe of all the beautiful forest scenery and the house.

"You got everything okay?" Daphne asked.

"Sure, Daph!" Isabel hauled out two large suitcases, one blue and one purple.

Wow, Daphne thought, Isabel is sure prepared for this weekend! She had only brought a single suitcase with the essentials, toiletries and clothes. She always felt like she overpacked for trips anyways.

The two walked up the dark pathway, where barely anything could be seen. As they approached the doorway, they were almost frozen with the harsh blowing winds.

Isabel rang the doorbell.

A man promptly answered. He wore a black suit with a matching tie, along with dress pants and brown shoes. The man appeared to be very slim, and well groomed.

"Welcome to Cerrie Mansion. You must be Daphne Blake and…" the man had a very high-pitched voice for a male, but seemed relatively eager-to-please.

"Hi, I'm her friend Isabel. So nice to meet you!" her voice squeaked on the word "meet" as she inflected it.

"The pleasure is all mine." The man said. "My name is Joe. Joe Momma."

Isabel couldn't help from snickering, but Daphne was not amused by the man's apparent attempt to be funny.

"Please, ma'am, be merciful! Not all of us have loving parents." The man wiped away a tear and sniffled, appearing to be genuinely sad about what was apparently his real name.

As the man brought himself together, the wind howled and caused the door to slam.

"It's a very stormy night tonight, so I've had all the other guests go up to their rooms. Why don't you bring your stuff up to your room and turn in for the night?"

"Ok, see you tomorrow...Mr. Momma." Daphne felt the urge to giggle herself, though the man's name was very unfortunate.

"Joe will be fine, please." The man hobbled off into the other room, still visibly sad.


The girls finished hauling their luggage upstairs in their room, which was marked with a sticky note highlighted with "Blake."

Isabel looked around for a place to set her luggage, and found a spot in the corner over by the window. As she rummaged through her bag, she glanced over towards the right corner of the room and held her hand up to her heart.

"Awww, such a pretty kitty!" she squeaked.

Daphne looked over to see an orange cat with neatly tidied fur, and a light pink collar. The cat had its tail stuck straight in the air, and appeared very aloof and entitled, as cats often are. It let out an authoritative meow as Isabel lifted up its collar to see the name "Sabrina" etched on it.

"Hi Sabrina? Who's a pretty kitty?"

Sabrina meowed, as if she were responding to Isabel's question.

"Yes, you're a pretty kitty!"

"Hmm, I wonder what they'd have a cat for in a place this huge? You could barely find it with all these rooms." Daphne inquired.

Daphne didn't receive a response, so she glanced over at Isabel, to see that she was nuzzling the cat's face, to which the feline was clearly not pleased.

Daphne simply rolled her eyes and grabbed her pajamas from her bag, so she could get changed for the night.

Daphne had fallen asleep with the book "The Mystery of Haunted Island" on her lap, which she had been reading and subsequently dropped as she felt into a slumber. Isabel was asleep as well, lightly snoring once again.

Thunder boomed across the sky and seemed to shake the floor, which woke Daphne out of a snooze. Groggily looking around, Daphne heard a scratching noise, which seemed to be almost right next to her. Glancing over, she saw nothing, other than an empty room, though she still heard the scratching as clear as day. The frightened redhead looked over at Isabel, who was softly snoring, though upon looking it appeared she was slightly moving her arm. She glimpsed down right beside her, to see that Isabel was unconsciously making a pawing motion at the sheets. Immediately realizing that's where the noise was coming from, Daphne laid her head to rest and wondered what could be going on in her friend's perky mind right now.


Sunlight.

That was the first thing seen by a groggy Daphne as she awoke from the bed, as she patted down her messy red hair at a sloppy attempt to straighten it. Her first thought was coffee. A nice, fresh-brewed cup of it. Her second thought was Isabel, and it conjuncted with her first thought, causing her to ponder if Isabel drank coffee. She imagined an off-the-wall version of her friend, as she was already perky enough without the liquid stimulant.

Daphne stretched in bed as the sunlight reflected on the salmon-colored walls of the bedroom.

Isabel quickly awoke minutes after, doing a big stretch and yawn before she chirped "Rise and shine, Daph! Ready for a fun day of mysteries?!"

It figured Isabel was a morning person. Daphne couldn't stand mornings herself, it was always so tough for her to force herself to be fully alert. Daphne paused for a moment and simply responded to the girl with a groan.

"Oh come on, it's a beautiful morning! The sun is shining; the birds are chirping!" Isabel commented perkily, after doing another large stretch immediately subsequent to her effortlessly getting out of bed.

Daphne couldn't make her brain find the right words to respond, so she simply responded with another tired groan that was somewhere between an affirmative noise and an inaudible grunt.

"Does someone need coffee?"

I know who doesn't need coffee, Daphne nonverbally replied in her thoughts.


Isabel fast-walked down the stairs, but occasionally slowed down to wait for her friend. When they got down the stairs finally, they both saw something they didn't expect.

"A murder!" Joe shouted.

Not being alert enough to remember that these mystery weekends often involved faux murders, Daphne was caught off-guard.

"Who was he?" Daphne questioned, while trying to force herself awake in this seemingly-dire situation.

Joe calmly replied "one of our guests, Jack Miller."

"Psst." Isabel nudged Daphne's arm and whispered. "You know this is part of the game, right?"

"Oh. Oh. Yeah." Daphne replied in a scatterbrained voice.

"So, ladies and gentlemen, as you may have seen, the game has already begun!" Joe announced in a radio DJ-style voice. His voice carried across the large room. "The clues start now, so START LOOKING!"

Daphne, Isabel and the other guests glanced around the room, which was decorated in old, colonial furnishings. The wall across from them had a grandfather clock bolted to it, and had several Revolutionary War antiques scattered across it, all neatly put on shelves. The room was painted a light blue color, that gave Daphne a sense of home.

"There is a murderer among us! No hints will be provided from me, the host! And, as you have seen, guests CAN be murdered!" Joe's voice boomed, which was quite different from the impression Daphne had of the seemingly-meek man the previous night when they had arrived.

"So, WATCH YOUR BACK!" his voice echoed and bounced off the walls, causing the house to have an even spookier feel than before. "Various clues have been placed around the house for your finding convenience! GOOD LUCK!" Joe pulled a magician's smoke bomb from out of his jacket and spontaneously lit it and threw it to the ground, leaving the guests in a cloud of smoke where nothing was visible. When the smoke finally cleared, Joe had vanished.

"A man of few words." Daphne said sarcastically. "Sure not the impression of him I got last night."

Isabel simply giggled in response, but something else caught Daphne's eye. Three younger people about her age, two of which were males. The first male sported a brown shirt with green pants, while the second male donned white pants with a blue shirt. The only female wore a red shirt and orange skirt. All of them reminded Daphne so much of Fred, Shaggy and Velma.

"Like, voinks!" the brown-shirted man shouted. "Is that Daphne Blake, of Mystery Incorporated?" He pointed over in Daphne's direction.

"I think it is!" the female observed.

"Like, we're huge fans, man!" the green-trousered fellow replied.

"We based our whole mystery-solving group after you!" the male in the blue shirt added.

Daphne simply nodded, but was too surprised to immediately reply. She knew they had been in the news a few times, but never imagined Mystery Incorporated was popular enough to have a cover group.

The female spoke again. "I'm Thelma, this is Dred." She pointed at the man in the blue shirt.

"Hey." he replied coolly.

"And this is Saggy." Thelma continued.

"Wassup my dude?" the brown shirted man said in a very hippieish voice.

Before Thelma could speak again, Daphne's blonde friend opened her mouth and said "Hey Daph, you never told me you were in a mystery group!"

"Yeah, I was." Daphne responded. "It was called Mystery Incorporated, but we really grew apart as friends. That's why I decided to start my show."

Thelma, Dred and Saggy looked up at her in awe, shocked that they were talking to the actual Daphne of the Mystery Incorporated gang.

"Wait, if you guys are a cover group, where's the Daphne of the group? And Scooby?"

"We could never find another Daphne." Thelma looked disappointed as she articulated her words. "Well, there was one, but she left. We could never seem to find anyone like her, or you, for that matter."

Maybe Thelma was right. Daphne affirmed mentally, Is it possible that everyone brings something unique to a group, that can't be replaced by another person?

"But we DO have an animal mascot!" Thelma said, her spirits suddenly lifting.

As Thelma spoke, a small orange tabby came down the stairs. It distinctly had its tail pointed straight up, causing the two friends to have an epiphany that it was the same cat they had seen last night.

"Meet Professor Sabrinus Flufftailius!" Dred announced triumphantly.

Thelma leaned over to Daphne and whispered "We just call her Sabrina."

"Without the professor, we'd never survive! She's the true brains of our group!" Dred continued.

Sabrina began lifting her paw up, causing Dred to have a look of awe on his face. "I think she's about to tell us something mind-blowing!"

Everyone's eyes turned to the orange tabby, though instead of speaking, she simply licked her front right paw.

"Wait...wait…" Dred left everyone in suspense. "She's saying...we need to lick the plate of life to the fullest to stay clean from eternal sin!"

Sabrina began itching her ear, and after finishing simply meowed and rubbed up against Thelma whilst purring.

Despite the distractions, Daphne realized she needed to look around at the other mystery groups, which were essentially her competition. It appeared to her that the other contestants were far more normal than the group they had been speaking to. All of them were dressed very proper, the men in suits and the women in formal dresses.

"Well, we might as well start searching!" Daphne suggested, eager to begin the actual mystery solving aspect of the weekend.

"You guys wanna come with us?" Dred inquired, while keeping a close eye on Sabrina.

"Well, sure...but isn't this supposed to be a competition?" Daphne reminded.

"Yeah, but no one said we can't have allies." Thelma added.

"Ummm...I guess we can." Daphne was still unsure. It hadn't been made clear exactly what the reward was for winning the mystery weekend, but whatever it was, she wanted to win it! "You ok with that Isabel?"

"Of course!" Isabel replied in her usual cheerful manner.

"Then it's set." Thelma affirmed. "Come on, Saggy!"

"Like, no way, man! Mysteries give me the hibbidy-dibbidies!" Saggy replied.

"I believe the phrase is heebie-jeebies, unless you've suddenly become Bill Cosby." Thelma smirked.

"Would you do it for Saggy Snack?" Dred offered.

Dred's words caused Isabel to gag. She didn't know what a "Saggy Snack" was, but it certainly didn't sound appealing to her.

"Hit me up, man!" Saggy opened his mouth, as Dred tossed him the snack, as if he were a canine. Saggy caught the snack in his mouth and chewed it, before replying "Let's go, my dudes!"

Daphne wasn't sure if Saggy was just acting or if he just really loved hearing the buzz words "man" and "dude," since he had used them a lot.

Daphne had been so distracted, she hadn't noticed the other mystery solvers had all gathered around a wooden table near the dining room. She motioned for the others to join their fellow mystery solvers, and they quickly followed to see what the commotion was. As they went into the next room, everyone continued staring at the colonial decorations which littered the house from top to bottom.

As the friends got up to the table, they realized that the other mystery solvers had discovered the clue in the form of a riddle.

Daphne read the clue aloud to the group. "You don't have much time so watch the tick tock, your next clue hides behind the paper of rock."

"Oh good lord, what could that mean?" Thelma immediately blurted out, as the clue was very vague and repetitive.

"Paper of rock...maybe we just play rock-paper-scissors until Joe comes back and tells us the next clue." Dred said.

"Nah! Paper of rock means like a tablet. You know, like those ancient scroll dealies." Saggy hypothesized.

"But that's not paper." Thelma replied.

"What about a rock poster?" Isabel chimed in. "There was one last night, when we came down the hallway."

Daphne hadn't noticed any rock poster, though, to be fair, she was still quite exhausted when she had gone up the stairs.

"We don't need rock posters! Professor Flufftailius shall give us the key." Dred announced to the group.

Sabrina looked up, as she had apparently been napping while her human companions had been sleuthing. She simply gave the group a "what-are-you-looking-at" stare and curled back up, placing her head on the tile floor.

"Well, I like Isabel's idea," Daphne stood up for her friend, "Let's go upstairs and see what we can find."

"Yeah." Thelma affirmed. "What other lead do we have right now?"

The friends all nodded in agreement and began walking up the stairs together, with Isabel leading the way.


As Isabel walked down the long hallway, the floorboards squeaked as she took each step. The mansion was obviously quite old, Daphne assumed it dated back to the 18th century. With Thelma behind her, Daphne continued taking steps until Isabel stopped in her tracks and pointed.

"There's the one I saw!" the blonde pointed to a poster which had three girls on it, with one particularly sticking out, as the female had jet black hair with red highlights and large fangs. She wore a black dress with red overtones, and a bat necklace around her neck. The other two women in the poster looked less intimidating, though they did look very Gothic. One female wore a greenish-black dress and had her hair in pigtails, also donning green lipstick. The remaining woman wore a purple dress and had her reddish hair standing on end. The poster had the band's name displayed prominently in red, which read "The Hex Girls."

Relooking at the poster, Isabel looked in awe at the black-haired girl with fangs, simply uttering "She's so cool."

As Isabel continued to be impressed by the bat-necklaced female's gothy beauty, Daphne lifted up the poster, and found a scrap of paper, neatly cut, taped to the back of the rock poster.

"Do not wait until you're older, look no further than the soldier." Daphne read the clue aloud.

Everyone looked to Isabel immediately, causing her to blush inadvertently. "Sorry guys, I don't know this one."

"No problem Mrs. Dude!" Saggy said loudly, causing Daphne to wonder if he was trying to be overly hippie-ish to mimic the real Shaggy. Daphne glanced over in Isabel's direction, to see she had her sweatshirt sleeve up to her face, trying to make the fact she was snickering (Daphne assumed to the "Mrs. Dude" comment) unnoticeable.

"There are a bunch of soldiers figurines downstairs, why don't we look there?" Thelma asked.

"Lead the way, oh Knowledgeable One!" Dred cried valiantly to Sabrina, to which her response was to sniff Dred's sneakers. "You disappoint me, professor!"

"Dred, how many times do we have to tell you the cat is just a cat? She doesn't know any more than we do." Thelma rolled her eyes at Dred's stupidity.

"Oh yes she does! How do you think she obtained her Ph.D?" Dred said, in an announcer-type voice.

Thelma chose not to respond, and led the gang downstairs.


"There are hundreds of soldier figurines here, so we have to check all of them for the clue." Thelma instructed, as the gang split off.

Daphne began lifting up each of the figurines, beginning with one that had a moustache and donned a redcoat uniform. All of a sudden, she heard a shatter. Everyone turned in Dred's direction, including Sabrina.

"What? Isn't that the quick way to check them?" Dred said, in an "I-think-I'm-smart" tone.

"Dred! These figurines cost thousands of dollars, each! These are from the War of Independence!" Thelma whispered, hoping no one else would notice the fact Dred broke the figurine.

"Sorry, Thelma. I'll be more careful, this time!" Dred replied humbly, as he lifted up a figure holding an American flag."

"Ayyy my dudes, I found it!" Saggy said, in a very chill manner. Saggy held up a figure with a small hole drilled in the bottom of it, and pulled out a note.

He began to read it as the gang gathered around. "Uh, you'll find, like, what you're lookin' for, man, if you use the right mode, dude…"

Daphne grew very annoyed and snarkily interrupted Saggy. "Can you maybe read the note like you didn't just finish smoking a joint?"

"I'll read it!" Thelma asserted, in attempt to diffuse the growing disagreement between Saggy and Daphne. "You'll find what you're looking for if you use the right mode, to find what you seek go hit the road."

"Well, we know what that means, let's get out of here guys!" Dred said, in an inadvertently silly voice.

"No, it means the road outside of the mansion." Thelma corrected. "Everyone get their coats, it's chilly out there!"

"Ok, we'll meet back here in 15 minutes?" Daphne suggested.

"Sure, that sounds like a plan!" Dred replied. That was the first non-stupid thing Daphne thought she had heard him say for as long as she knew him.


The new friends began walking up the creaky stairs together. The stairwell had several old paintings, as you would expect a spooky mansion to, though these paintings were all of Revolutionary War heroes such as George Washington, Paul Revere, and Benjamin Franklin. Whoever owned the house (she didn't believe it was Joe) must have a fascination with history and that particular war.

Daphne looked behind her as she was about halfway up to the next floor, and saw Saggy following. She admittedly felt bad for her angry comment to him, so she decided to apologize.

"Hey Saggy, sorry about what I said earlier. That wasn't fair to you." Daphne attempted to keep the apology brief, as she didn't particularly feel any connection to Saggy, but felt bad she had offended him.

"Like, it's okay. It's cool, dude."

Saggy's response made Daphne once again annoyed with him, though she decided not to say anything. Well, until her curiosity got the best of her.

"Saggy, do you just use all those "jive" words to act like my friend, Shaggy?" Daphne questioned, but immediately regretted her decision as her words could be portrayed as offensive.

"Like, I don't know what you're talkin' about, my dude!" Saggy said, as he walked into his room with Thelma and Dred.

One thing was to be said though, Saggy was sure an interesting guy. He was somewhere between '60s hippie and '90s rapper, though he had a way of making his identity unique to himself.


Daphne walked back into her room spacing out thinking about Saggy and their conversation, and had briefly pushed her other thoughts to the back of her mind. She walked in and was briefly surprised to see Isabel, already wearing her brown jacket with a wool inner lining and hood. To her credit, Isabel hadn't said much for the last few hours while they were looking for the soldier figurine clue.

"How are you doing?" Daphne said in a concerned voice, as Isabel was acting more aloof than she had ever seen.

"Good, my dude!" Isabel said in a rather loud voice, surprising Daphne. The loud comment was immediately followed by a giggle, causing Daphne to look up and stare at her friend in confusion.

"What? You like Saggy or something?

"No! But those three are interesting characters alright."

Daphne couldn't disagree with that. "Yeah, especially Saggy. And Dred." She quickly changed the subject without warning. "You doing alright? You seem...detached." Daphne searched for the correct word to use, that wouldn't offend her new friend.

Isabel replied nonverbally by raising her eyebrows in surprise, though Daphne couldn't tell if it was actually surprise or simply a gesture to make it appear like everything was okay when it wasn't. "No, I'm good." the blonde shrugged, pulling a brush out of her jacket pocket and bringing it up to her somewhat messy hair.

Daphne figured everything must be relatively okay (after all, it was Isabel - when wasn't she cheerful?) so she looked at her watch and realized "It's almost five-thirty, we should get down to the door and meet everyone else.

"Ok!" Isabel squeaked, seemingly going back to her "normal" self. She let out a yawn, and began walking towards the door.


The two females walked through the hallway and down the stairs, to see the smiling face of Saggy waiting at the door.

"What up my dudes?" Saggy said enthusiastically, as if he hadn't seen them for months.

"What up my Saggy?" Daphne said, trying to mock Saggy's voice and tone.

"You guys ready?" Thelma asked, as she came down the stairs as well with Dred.

"Where's Sabrina?" Daphne asked.

"She's taking a little CAT nap. Get it? Get it?" Dred elbowed Daphne.

Annoyed at Dred's horribly bad attempt at a joke, Daphne replied "Yes!" in a passive-aggressive tone.

Thelma opened the front door, until the wind nearly swung it shut again with its hard gust.

"It looks like the weather today really BLOWS. Get it? Get it?" Dred continued elbowing Daphne in the gut.

"Yes!" Daphne was about ready let Dred "get it" right in the face.

The wind gusted hard against the group as they trudged out to the road. Conversing with each other, they looked for hours along the road but found nothing. There was a woods adjacent to the roadway, but it was far too dark and no one wanted to risk going out there to see who...or what…could be waiting for them.


10:00pm.

That's what Daphne's watch read just as everyone was ready to go inside out of being chilled from the icy wind.

Throughout the last few hours, Daphne felt she had gotten closer to Thelma and Saggy (Dred still was far too annoying for her taste) and began to think of them as equals, and maybe even friends. They talked about their mystery solving antics, compared some of their spookiest and silliest cases and discussed different aspects of their life casually, as friends do. She had been so busy talking to Thelma and Dred that she hadn't even remembered Isabel, who was still acting quite aloof and hadn't talked the whole time.

Finally, the blonde spoke up and said "Hey guys? Fish line usually isn't tied in trees, is it?"

The gang all came over and looked up to where Isabel was pointing. Sure enough, the fishing line had a note tied to it, which fell to the cold ground as her hand pulled it.

"I think you're starting to get the trick, go to the place where the foundation is of brick." Daphne read, so everyone could hear.

"The chimney?" Saggy asked.

"It doesn't matter now, Saggy, it's nearly 10:30. Let's get some shut-eye and get back at it in the morning." Thelma replied.

The group all trudged back in the house with tired eyes, all ready to go to bed. It had been a long day, and they needed to rejuvenate before more brainpower was used.


Daphne opened her eyes, to see that Isabel was not in the room. She knew something was up, but she couldn't figure out why Isabel was acting so odd.

Daphne put a robe over her pajamas and walked downstairs, presuming no one else would be awake to see her.

Heading towards the kitchen area, Daphne could hardly see anything as she refused to turn on the lights, as she could see well enough to avoid falling and she didn't want to wake anyone up.

Sure enough, the blonde was grabbing something out of the fridge. Though she couldn't see her face, she could distinctly hear Isabel sigh behind the refrigerator door. Isabel shut the door and jumped out of fright when she saw her red-haired friend standing beside her.

"Oh. Hi Daphne!" Isabel chirped. Even when the girl was acting odd, she was still cheerful!

"Isabel, I can tell something's wrong. You might as well tell me now, it'll save you days of badgering." Daphne vaguely threatened, out of concern for her friend's well-being.

"Fine." Isabel replied, expressing her dissatisfaction with a huff.

Suddenly, a burst of light appeared out of nowhere, and a loud moaning sound began coming from upstairs.

Both girls paused for a moment in fright. After several minutes of silence, they realized it may have just been one of the many things that were most probably wrong with an old house such as this one.

Isabel spoke again, saying something that seemed to Daphne like she was dodging their previous conversation and acting like it never happened. "You know how Dred, Thelma and Saggy mentioned their previous friend?"

As she ended her sentence, the light from the top of the stairs grew brighter.

"What is that?" Daphne said, slightly panicked.

The ghostly moaning resumed as well, as the light came closer and closer down the stairs. The sounds became more and more audible, and sounded like they were almost upon the two friends.

Just as Daphne thought she couldn't be any more frightened, Isabel finished her thought. "I'm Daphne."

Daphne just gave her a look of confusion, while her eyes stayed glued to the ever-approaching light and moaning coming their way.

Isabel looked up the stairs as well, frightened, but continued speaking. "I'm Thelma, Dred, and Saggy's friend that left the mystery cover group. I used to be Daphne."


Author's note:

So as you obviously can tell, this chapter isn't too paranormal-y (other than the end), which I apologize for as I told you all last chapter that it would be an oddity not to have a supernatural villain in a chapter. Truth is, this chapter was supposed to be wrapped up rather than left on a cliffhanger, though I decided to split the chapters up last-minute as this one was getting quite long. Pretty much all of this is leading up to the eighth chapter, which should be really exciting and I think this one ended in the perfect place to leave everyone in suspense for next chapter!

Before I get into the few things I want to mention for this chapter though, it's:

Reference time:

Menkle's (which is portrayed as a clothes shop in this fanfic) is a reference to the toy store featured in 2012's christmas special "Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays."

Daphne's book "The Mystery of Haunted Island" is a reference to The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode which features the Harlem Globetrotters, also titled "The Mystery of Haunted Island." (really good episode if you haven't seen it, one of my favorites!)

The Hex Girls poster is a reference to the wonderful Eco-Goth band The Hex Girls, who appear in several Scooby-Doo movies and episodes. And speaking of The Hex Girls, if you want another good Scooby fanfic to read, definitely check out Grumpydrawer's "It's A Hex Life" on this site if you haven't yet. It's a really fantastic read and one of my personal favorite Scooby fanfics out there, so definitely look it up if you haven't already.

This was a quite enjoyable chapter to write for me, so hopefully you all enjoyed it as well. The 'cover group' was a really fun add-in to the story, particularly Saggy was a humorous character to write. Though as I'm writing the next chapter I will have to think up some more phrases with "dude" in them lol.

Isabel was a particularly fun character to write for, and not only because she was a relief from having to write depressingly for Daphne's mood. Isabel isn't meant to be the "dumb blonde" type at all, she's just intended to be a perky, cheerful person who loves her life and is free-spirited so to speak. So I hope you enjoyed her as a character, as she will be appearing obviously in the next chapter plus likely in future chapters as well.

Lastly, I'll just say reviews are definitely welcomed and appreciated for this fanfic! That includes critical ones as well, if you think I should change an aspect of this story or I didn't include something I should have, let me know! Though when I say critical I do mean constructively critical - no "your fanfic stinks like monkey dung" please. That is, unless you can tell me why it stinks and how it could be constructively improved as a story overall, of course!