Chapter Three

Ferralle, The Entity's Favorite

The Fleach Residence, Crystal Cove

February 6, 2014, 9:25 pm

Marcie finally showed up to her father's household after being stranded on the Crystal Cove docks hours ago. She sighed as she noticed nothing unusual outside of the home, her hand went to the door. While looking for her keys, she quickly noticed that the door was already open.

"Dammit dad… Can't you just listen to me for once…?"

Her eyes furrowed at this, knowing very well what might have happened. Normally, the house would only be open if Winslow was in the house already, yet the house didn't even have the outside lights on. She pushed the door open slowly, looking around the living room for anything suspicious.

When she didn't see anything in the living room, she went to the kitchen, and noticed a figure leaning on the counter. She slowly frowned as she got closer to the room and saw the figure in all their glory.

Marcie gave a low growl. "I'm guessing you're one of his minions too..."

The demon turned around, smirking inside of her mask. From Marcie's view, it looked like the demon cared a lot about their appearance. A stylish black coat with small white designs on the shoulder pads, covering a grayish vest. Her white hair slightly ruffled in some places up to her shoulders.

"So glad you could join us, Marcie Fleach. I've been meaning to meet you face to face for a while now." Feralle said, a slight German accent escaping her. She leaned on the counter of the kitchen, not caring about the situation. "I was just about to have a talk with your father about your recent activities, You seem to be very interested in meddling in the affairs of my master too much."

Winslow looked up, trying to break free of the knots on the chair he was sitting on. "Marcie, ru-"

"Where is she..?"

"Hmm?"

"WHERE IS VELMA?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Marcie exclaimed, anger evident in her voice. "I swear… If you ever as much as touch a single hair of HERS-"

"Oh, no no no, I didn't do anything. I'm just the messenger. But, I will tell you this... 'Your' Velma will be very much dead at this point. So, as the kids say today… Tik tok, the clock is ticking..." Feralle gave a slight smirk, as to taunt the teenager. She waited for Marcie's response, staring intently at the body language of her opposite.

"LIAR! You're lying through your teeth and you know it!" Marcie exclaimed, pointing a finger at Feralle. "Tell me where she is now!"

Ferralle chuckled, standing straight as she explained the situation. "You seem to not get it, Fleach. You do not have power over me, You can not boss me around… It'll only get you killed in the long run.. Which reminds me, how are your wounds? The parrot really must have done a number on you, just look at your face…"

"Keep making fun of me and I swear I will put you down…" Marcie threatened, gritting her teeth slightly.

"Keep making threats all you like, you're a dog who can bark but can not bite. Because you know that if you do something stupid, We will take care of your precious Velma just in the blink of an eye."

Marcie growled more, "I'm willing to bet on that…"

"The entity told me to capture you as soon as possible. Now, we can do this the easy way in which you surrender yourself to me and we'd be on our way- Or the hard way… In which I beat into a pulp and carry you to the caverns…"

Marcie shook her head at this. "Hah, no way in hell am I speaking to that thing. Tell your dumb Entity that if they really want to talk, they should tell me face to face, not have some demons try to kill me or try to negotiate."

"Hm… Very well then, Since you so dearly desire to do this the hard way..."

"You thin–"

Suddenly, Feralle gave Marcie an uppercut, sweeping Marcie off her feet and making her hit the ground hard.

Marcie cried in pain, wrapping one arm around her waist while the other held on as she tried to stand up. It was in vain though, as she felt the weight of the demon on her right hand.

"Marcie!" Winslow Fleach yelled, his fatherly instincts kicking in.

"You will do as I say, or I will make sure that neither you nor your precious family is ever seen again. Do you understand where I'm coming from?"

"F-Fuck you–"

Feralle frowned, grabbing Marcie by the throat and slamming her into the kitchen counter. Meanwhile, Winslow kept trying to break free slowly making his way towards the demon attacking his daughter.

Marcie felt her throat getting tighter and tighter as she tried to fight off her attacker. She clutched her right hand into a fist and swung at the demon without a second thought.

Unfortunately for her, the minion caught the fist with ease. Deciding that enough was enough, the demon's eyes glowed bright green.

At first, Marcie didn't feel anything, but then she felt her whole arm getting numb and then she felt pain. She felt a lot of pain, almost like her arm was being ripped apart. She screamed as her arm turned into a shade of purple and black.

Feralle gave a dark smile at this. She pushed the arm closer to Marcie's face, readying to spread whatever she had done to her arm more rapidly. "Honestly dear Marcie, you should have just stayed dead. At least then you wouldn't have to see yourself lose your senses. You'll thank me for this lat–"

Winslow pounced the demon into the counter hard, knocking the wind out of her. She fell to the ground hard, clutching her abdomen. "You little…"

Marcie quickly stood, ignoring the pain on her arm as she tried to set her father free from the binds. She hissed as the pain slowly overwhelmed her to the point that she couldn't move her arm anymore. "D-D-Dad… I can't m-m-move my arm-"

Winslow held her close, hugging her tightly. "It's okay, right now we need to get out of here and-"

Feralle screamed, giving Winslow time to push Marcie away from the demon's claws. Feralle mercilessly clawed the man, in an act of bloodlust. She didn't care if she was going to regret this in the long run, she just wanted to get everything over- To get to the objective.

To get to Marcie.

Marcie's father clenched his teeth hard, staying still as the demon kept attacking him. He could almost feel the claws get through his muscles already.

"Stop…" Marcie said, staring at her father.

Feralle didn't listen, she kept going in animalistic fashion.

"I said stop." Marcie said again, this time a little louder than before but it wasn't enough for the demon to hear. Her arm kept hurting, almost to the point of being unbearable to say awake any longer.

She closed her eyes, blacking out the second she heard her father scream in pain.

Crystal Cove Maximum Security Prison

February 6, 2014, 7:40 pm

Two hours earlier...

Alice May slowly crawled out of the debris, hissing from the pain on her left arm. She tried to open her eyes, quickly realizing that she could only open her left one. She cursed herself for running away from a fight as she had been taught to do for many years.

'How could I have ran? I should have fought like the fighter that I am.' Alice thought to herself as she slowly but surely stood up. "No time for that now..."

She quickly ripped off a part of her jumpsuit and wrapped her left arm with it.

"That should do it for now..." Alice gave a sigh, trying to think of what to do next. She had something to do, but she wasn't convinced that she was really the right one to do it.

"In order for the world to return to what it was, you must find Marcie."

She turned around and saw the small Cocker Spaniel dog sitting beside the Great Dane, Scooby Doo. Alice frowned at the brown dog.

"You! You're the stupid dog that Mr. E wanted out of the picture!"

Scooby Doo growled at the blonde. "Rand rou're the girl rhat ralmort hurt ry friends." He looked towards Nova and asked, "Rhy her? Ran't we pick romeone elre's?"

"I understand that you have history with Alice May, but in order to finally seal the Entity's fate, we must find a new group of mystery solvers, something that only the Entity would do, and use that against it." Nova explained, staring at the blonde girl intently. "Alice May, you must find Marcie and work together to–"

"Woah, woah, woah, no. I won't do that. I almost got killed by some demon... thing... something entirely different from what I'm used to. I am NOT going head first into that."

"You must. Without you, everything as you know it will cease from existence."

"I'm okay with that."

"You don't understand. Everything that has ever happened, anything that involved this accursed town... it was all him. Why do you think you ended up working for a man with unimaginable wealth just to try and bring down some kids? Didn't it make sense for you the first time around?"

Alice frowned, "Well I-"

"Let me ask you this… If Mr. E hadn't taken an interest in you, where would you be right now? At this very moment in time?" Nova asked, staring blankly at the blonde. "I understand that you are a fighter, I know you can't be one to give up on things."

Alice shook her head and sighed. "Okay, I get your point. I'm in a mess of things, but what's in it for me?"

"A chance to start a new life."

She gave it more thought, and while she wasn't really interested... She still had a job to do, with or without Mr. E. After all, he was paranoid enough to actually ask for her help. Which was rare from the man, even after death. "Okay, If you need me that badly… But this is because I want to get out of the city as soon as possible!"

"Understandable. Scooby Doo, do you accept the terms?"

Scooby sighed. "Rell, we rave nothing to lore..."

"Very well." Nova said, walking away from both the blonde and the dog, "And now, for the last two."

"HEY, WAIT UP!" Alice May exclaimed, wiping small debris off of her shoulder and following the small dog out of the area.

Scooby stood still, looking at the stars as they shone in the night. He was worried for his friends. He knew they were alive somewhere, forming a plan, just like when Pericles captured everyone in Crystal Cove months ago.

He just hoped that they would reappear soon, and try once again to destroy the Entity..

Marcie opened her eyes slowly, looking at her surroundings. Then, a pain on her right shoulder intensified as she used it to sit up.

Someone had come near her quickly, which in turn made Marcie quickly give a hiss at them before realizing what she was actually doing. 'Where did that come from?' Marcie thought as she shook her head.

"Sorry about that. Guess I scared you pretty good, huh?"

"Daisy? Daisy Blake? You're alive?!" Marcie exclaimed, her eyes widening as she stared at the Blakes' second oldest child.

Daisy sighed and shook her head. "No, I'm dead. Of course I'm alive! What made you think I would die in the first place?!"

"The manor burned down, we saw how it collapsed– we thought you were all dead! How did you survive?"

Daisy frowned, looking away from Marcie as she began to remember. She took a deep breath before saying, "After the ground shook yesterday... Delilah and I went to look for mom and dad..."

...

"D-Daphne?"

"Ding ding ding! Bingo! We got a winner!"

"If you ever so much as hurt my daughter, I will–"

"Oh please, like you care so much about her. You didn't help her, you didn't listen to her, you didn't treat her fairly. That's right, I know all about your family problems, and oh boy, are they huge..." Seraphim smirked, a dark laugh coming out of her while she looked at Bartholomew Blake.

"We got the man of the house, who was too stubborn to accept that three of his precious daughters didn't come out like he wanted them to be." She turned her gaze to Nancy Blake. "The mother who follows her husband's directions and tries to stay in line while trying not to snap."

"We don't know what you are, or what you're trying to do..." Dawn yelled, irritation evident in her voice.

Dorothy continued for Dawn, "But whatever it is, we can work it out like adults!... Right?"

Daisy frowned, "I don't think it'll work like that anymore…" She said, staring at Seraphim intently. Waiting for an opportunity to put her down. "It'll take more than sweet talk."

"Oh you kids and your 'diplomatic' solutions, I came to deliver a message as I've said- Your sister? The one that's missing? I may have had a few… Hmm let's just say a few moments to break her apart and study her closely... And I must say the things that she said must be shared with you all!"

"What are you, her therapist?!" Barty snapped, being held down by Both Dawn and Dorothy just in case things escalated quickly.

Seraphim smirked, "Daphne hates you. She hates every single one of you in this accursed room. And for once, I agree. So she asked me to get rid of you all completely, starting with the matria-"

Nancy Blake narrowed her eyes at this. Kicking the demon's leg as hard as she could, the she-devil screamed in pain as she let go of Nancy before treating her leg.

Nancy then tumbled on the ground, trying to get away from the demon as fast as possible. Once she was standing, Nan stared the fire demon in the eyes, determination drawn on her face. "I don't want to hear another word from you any more. So why don't you just shut up and die?" Nancy questioned.

"Well, now I know where the kid got the temper from–"

Nan lunged at Seraphim, slamming the demon into the ground. She quickly started to repeatedly punch the demon in the face. As she kept hitting Seraphim with all her might, Nan's hand started to bruise and bleed.

"Nan, stop! That's enough!"

She finally stopped, looking towards her husband. Nan frowned at him, "You're joking right? This... this thing knows where Daphne is and is not telling! I'm tired of sitting around and waiting to see if she comes back!"

Seraphim chuckled, slowly turning to face Mr. Blake. "She's right, I know where she is... and I might tell you right about now."

Nan looked at the demon, but before she could say anything back, she covered herself with her hands before Seraphim blasted the woman away from her, sending her flying across the room and into the wall. Nan fell to the ground, knocked out from the impact to the wall.

"NANCY!" Batholomew exclaimed as he ran towards his wife, but he was stopped in his tracks by the fire demon.

She had him in a chokehold, raising him up like he was just a feather. Fire emitted from her free hand, ready to scar the man permanently. "Any more interruptions? Will I have to rip someone's limbs out to get anyone to calm the hell down?"

"Let go of my dad, you bastard!" Delilah said as she pounced the demon to the ground.

Seraphim quickly let go of Mr. Blake before being pounced on by the military veteran Delilah. She tried to get out of her grasp quickly, but failed as she was pulled by the horns.

Delilah grunted as she pulled the demon off the ground and slammed her into it, face first. "You won't terrorize MY family on MY watch! Got it?"

"Delilah… w–" Daisy started to say but was cut off by Seraphim.

"You fool. You shouldn't have done that… Now you and your family will die without knowing where your little sister is..."

"What?"

"Delilah, get out of the fucking way! Now!" Daisy screamed, as she pushed her sister away from the demon before part of the roof collapsed on them both. The roof sizzled as it burned down to the floor.

Daisy didn't give a second thought as she got Jenkins' arm around her. "Let's go before we're burned and buried alive! Everyone out! Now!"

As everyone stepped out of the room quickly and into the hallway, Seraphim busted out of the room and stared at the Blake family with a smile that would haunt anyone.

Bartholomew stood in front of Seraphim, and as his brow furrowed, he took a stance to defend himself, quickly exclaiming to his family, "GO! I'll handle her off!"

"Yeah, go on without your dear daddy. I'm sure you'll be better off without him anyway." Seraphim taunted as her clawed hands started to smoke.

Delilah frowned. "Dad! Come on! Forget about her! She's trying to bury us alive while doing this!"

"NO! GO! I'll stop her in her tracks, just go and save yourselves!"

"Dad–!"

"I said GO! NOW!"

Without another word, Delilah and Daisy rushed towards the entrance of the manor, catching up with both Dorothy and Dawn, who were holding their unconscious mother.

Delilah, after seeing half of the manor collapsing, had tried to go in to save her father, but Daisy stopped her before she could do anything.

"What are you doing?! Dad's still in there!"

Daisy shook her head.

Delilah stared as the burning manor collapsed entirely into the ground. She watched as a clawed hand broke out of the collapsed part of the manor, slowly pulling its body out of the debris.

"I'm sorry."

"Daisy–"

The body of the demon Seraphim came out of the debris, slowly standing up straight—their eyes looking over at the two.

"D-Daisy–"

"Why do you care? You're one of the people he was disappointed in. Daphne wasn't the only one you know. You were on his list of failures." Daisy said, not daring to look her twin sister in the eyes.

Delilah opened her mouth to say something as she kept her eyes on the demon, but she stopped herself and pointed. "We can talk about that later– she's still alive!"

Daisy turned quickly, but she did not have enough time to dodge the fire demon's attack.

Seraphim quickly disposed of the doctor by punching her straight in the chest, the flames encased around the demon's hand burning into Daisy's torso quickly. The doctor soon lost consciousness from the impact, falling to the ground flat.

...

"And that's all I can remember. When I woke up, everything was a mess." Daisy said flatly.

"... Hey, at least you're alive. That's gotta count."

"By sheer luck. Anyone with a grave wound in the chest like me would have been pronounced dead. Then again, you survived an attempted murder..." Daisy said, looking at Marcie with a smirk on her face. "I guess anything can happen."

"Where's my dad?" Marcie asked, quickly standing up from the uncomfortable bed. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, surprisingly… Those kinds of wounds he has could have been deadly… Mind telling me what happened?" Daisy said, stepping away from Marcie to let her move, vigilant to any dizziness Marcie may experience in the time being.

Marcie grunted a bit, holding onto her arm for a bit. "I… We were attacked by one of those monsters… She… She started to hurt my dad and… And… I don't remember anything after that… I blacked out before I could do anything."

Daisy hummed, brushing her fingers against her chin. "Interesting, from what he told me… You stood up and just attacked her mercilessly, I guess what goes around comes around.."

Marcie's eyes furrowed, "I don't… remember that…"

"Maybe when you blacked out… You decided to take matters into your own hands." Daisy jokingly said. "But it's still impossible."

"What about..."

"He's gone. We looked all over what's left of the mansion. He didn't make it."

"I'm sorry about your loss." Marcie said, trying to be as genuine as possible. From what Daphne had told her, just by the sheer look she'd give, she would do a lot of stuff to get her parent's approval.

The doctor shrugged it off. She didn't know what to say. On the other hand, it was her father; the man who took care of them for the longest time, and now he was gone. She wondered if Daphne found out about it...

Would she actually care with how little they cared for her, after all the attempts of being noticed?

The Caverns, Crystal Cove

Feralle kneeled before the Entity slowly, her wounds giving her an ache she hadn't felt in a long while... "Master, I come to you for your approval to kill her."

"No."

"We've taken the most valuable thing from her, and I've infected her with the virus you have created. It won't be long before she either dies or succumbs to the corruption." Feralle explained, rising up to stand. "Please, master."

"No, I want Marcie Fleach and end her myself. With her alive and breathing, I won't be at my fullest… and my source of power has gone missing again." The Entity growled, looking over at them. Walking towards the minion.

"What? How? We had her secured, she couldn't have escaped... unless..."

"They have come out of hiding finally, it was only a matter of time. And now that the meddling Nova has decided to form a group of her own to destroy me... we must get her back."

"What will I have to do?" Feralle asked, her breathing almost heavy from the wounds inflicted on her.

"Get me a new vessel. I will make sure that Mystery Incorporated the Second never shows up to neither Marcie nor their families."

"What about the others?"

"While looking for a vessel for me to walk around unnoticed, make sure that Marcie Fleach doesn't succeed in making her little mystery solving club to stop me."

"Of course, master..." As Feralle stood up slowly and walked away from the Entity, she stopped for a bit and heard her master clear its throat.

"A little word of advice for you, Feralle... If you encounter Marcie Fleach once again, I suggest to not let your feelings of familiarity get the best of you. You are not human anymore, you've lost that privilege a long time ago when you were at your deepest end..."

It took a while before Feralle spoke. "Yes master, I'll keep it in mind for next time..." As she walked out of where the Entity was residing, Feralle noticed Sovrano waiting for her. She sighed and tried to stand as straight as possible for him.

"What?"

"I figured you'd do something as atrocious as what you've done. I thought you were better than this."

"Isn't that what you were told by someone else before they were murdered in front of you? Who was it? Someone close to you, right?"

"At least I've tried to redeem myself, unlike you–"

"Don't compare me to you, I came out victorious!" Feralle responded.

"You let your family and friends die for the treasure, your dear loved ones aching for you to forget the treasure and come back home. You were never victorious from the get go, Feralle..." Sovrano countered, his eyes glowing in a threatening way.

She frowned and pointed at Sovrano. "You were a coward from the get go, Sovrano. You let yourself be manipulated by the very person you trusted. This is YOUR curse."

"Wouldn't that mean that this is also YOUR curse, then?"

Feralle's eyes grew wide, and her head fell slowly as the realization of where she stood grew clearer and clearer. But something in her pushed it away. She was doing this because she was stronger than those she was with all those years ago... they were cowards, while she was victorious.

And that was better than anything.

"Only I know what's best for me." she finally said, walking away from the water demon.

"You don't know half of what's best for you..."