September 20th
Dinkley Residence
Employment Status - Apprentice Research NASA Scientist
5:00 PM
It had taken Velma nearly nineteen days before she would gather the remaining courage within herself to speak with Fred after Shaggy had broken the news about their "detour." Most of her energy had been absorbed by trying to insulate much of her own shock and countless thoughts and fears that raced inside of her head during full time work hours. It was a ceaseless battle against her own gut instincts which can be easily rationalized. Which was also coupled with a deep sense of loss and suffering the longer she spent in isolation.
It's an ache that settles inside of her chest and her heart and it sits there while she thinks of a long term solution.
10:00 PM
Fred helped serve as the gang's anchor before everyone "split up" so to speak. He's pretty much grounded in reality but he always left room open about supernatural possibilities when dealing with the unexplained element. A few minutes before she dials Fred's phone number she runs a few lines of rehearsed dialogue she may encounter but it's tough to gauge someone's responses no matter how illogical Shaggy's exploits may sound.
She decides she's ready to take the plunge knowing she couldn't bear to hold her breath any longer to compile their own strategy that would finally answer her questions.
A few minutes of dial tone.
Followed by a soft click.
"Hey, Velma, I haven't heard from you in months. How are you doing? You're lucky you caught me. I was about to head to bed." Fred says, his response as expected is met with a warm reception after he finally picks up his phone.
"...This isn't about me, Fred." Velma tells him. She uses an even tempered voice after she promised she would shove away her anxieties that kept tying knots up in her stomach.
"What happened? Family emergency or-"
"No, Fred, it's about that trip to Hawaii Daphne and Shaggy planned."
"I remember what about it?"
"Apparently they left for Transylvania instead…" Velma says, and it's met with tonal whiplash and long apprehensive silence that followed.
"Transylvania!" Fred yells.
"It's not so much about the location," Velma points out. "It's much more about the reason why Shaggy had vowed to uphold his end of a bargain."
"You're putting me on, aren't you?" Fred says, and he pressures Velma into yelling "surprise!" "It's some kind of Halloween prank?" because really, he's not sure how Velma could have been expected to say anything unusual.
"It's too early for Halloween pranks," Velma informs him. "Shaggy told me both of them are hostages of a fictitious Count from a certain novel I've read cover to cover."
"No."
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes, it can be!"
The longer Velma pushed the narrative Shaggy and Daphne had somehow succumbed to mental illness the more aggressive Fred became.
"Maybe all of this splitting up wasn't the best of ideas after all," Velma says. It's purely a speculative conclusion. "Maybe it was the stress, you know? Shaggy always got so strung out whenever we pushed him into luring those criminals out of hiding. For all we know they both could be suffering from PTSD and they aren't equipped with coping with those previous mysteries as well as we thought they were."
"But why Transylvania?" Fred asks.
Both of them are aware of Transylvania's current political climate.
"I don't know. I do know we don't have all the answers right now but they are our friends," Velma exclaims. "Even if they don't share the same reality as we do I told Shaggy I'd offer them our help. In return we'd keep the bridge of communication open before we're able to arrive."
"It is the least we can do." Fred agrees.
Both of them blameless.
"We keep throwing out life buoys." Velma says, with a sigh.
"Let's talk some more about this tomorrow," Fred says, through a yawn. "It's getting late and I got some work to do in the morning." suddenly by virtue he regains a new commitment.
"Same time tomorrow?"
"We've got a mystery on our hands, haven't we?"
Velma was much too afraid to respond to this question. Why bother calling it a mystery at all if both of them were aware of the answer?
