(A/N: Before we get started, I want to personally thank iamacliche for the great review. I honestly thought that most people would just ignore this story and just bombard me with a bunch of criticism saying that I'm wasting my time and that I should just give up. So just knowing that at least one or two people believe in me is enough to keep going and I know they'll have my back if my fears of stupid people basically acting like the people described in the song "Lifestyles of the Rich And Famous" decide to bad mouth me. Even if no one stands up for me, I can always just tell them to "Shut up!"
So, yeah, unlike what happened with "Dark Secrets" I already have a plan for the haters. I hope they like rock music! ;)
Anyway, sorry about that, like I said in the last chapter, the cast of "Civil War Gold" and the Scooby Gang will be colliding in this chapter. I hope you're as stoked as I am!)
0-X~O~O~O~X-0
Beulah, Michigan
Thanks to the weather, traffic jams, and Shaggy and Scooby's ravenous appetites, by the time they were out of the traffic it was already well after eleven o'clock. The van's wheels and wheel wells were completely covered in numerous layers of both dried and fresh mud.
Fred glanced at the gas meter just they got to the downtown area of the small town they were driving through. "Oh, swell," he commented, "we're low on gas."
Shaggy looked outside the window, fearing that they were driving through yet another ghost town, and laughed in relief when he saw some people walk into the stores they were driving by. "Like, for once we're not driving through some spooky forest or ghost town!"
"Reah," Scooby agreed.
Velma looked at a map of the area on her phone, "Looks like there are some hotels just up ahead."
"Maybe we can stay in one of them for tonight," Daphne suggested.
Fred grinned, "That's what I was just thinking."
He drove the van to the closest hotel, just a half mile from the downtown area. Everybody got out with their luggage in hand and walked inside before they got soaked.
Shaggy rang the bell at the clerk's desk, "Like, hello? Anybody here?"
A dark-skinned woman walked behind the desk from around a corner. "Yes? Can I help you?"
"Can you get us a room for the night?" Daphne asked.
Sbe typed something into her computer and put two envelopes on the desk. She grinned and said, "You're in luck, we have two vacant rooms for you."
Fred opened the two envelopes and looked at the room numbers on both key cards. Their rooms were 315 and 317.
"The third floor, right?" he asked. She nodded with a smile. "Thanks a lot, miss."
"Have a good night," she said.
They walked over to an elevator on the opposite side of the room and pressed the button. A thin man with dark hair in his thirties stepped out into the lobby when the metal doors opened. The gang could see that he had tattoo sleeves running all the way up his arms and one on his neck, a red and black feather with orange and white fiery markings, that looked brand new and still in the healing process. He didn't acknowledge them or even the clerk as he walked out the door.
"Zoinks, what a creepy looking guy," Shaggy commented.
"Reah, reepy," Scooby agreed.
Fred yawned, "You can worry about him later, right now I think we can all agree to some shut-eye." Nobody could really argue with him, because it was true. They all walked in and he pressed the button for the third floor.
Shaggy laughed and cracked a little joke as the doors closed, "Like, going up!" The others groaned, but Scooby laughed.
Unbeknownst to all of them, the man from just a minute earlier was staring at them through the window. It had started to rain again, though it was much lighter than the rainfall earlier that day by comparison. Despite that, he didn't go back inside and even lit a cigarette and rested his forearm on the cold glass.
A 'ding!' sound could be heard when they hit their desired floor. They walked out and went to their rooms. The guys went to their room and the girls went to theirs, right across from them.
Fred yawned again, "Well, goodnight girls."
"Goodnight guys," Daphne replied with a slight yawn of her own.
The five of them turned in for the night, and this was one of the rare times where Shaggy and Scooby didn't eat anything before bed and went right to sleep. Though this could have been due to them wanting to build up their appetites for their tour the next day.
June 2 Muskegon County, Michigan - 6:30 AM
Kevin, his brother Al, and team members Brad, Frederick, and Jeff were at his workshop gathering together all the evidence of the fabled gold they had uncovered or had been given to them. They had to make sure it was safely and securely packed since they would be taking most of it with them on their trip up to Traverse City.
Kevin was inside placing the last of some of the documents they had uncovered a little while ago inside a manila folder, while the others were outside packing the vehicles. They would be traveling in two cars instead of one because of all the stuff they were taking with them. He was just about to head out when his phone rang.
He took it out of his pocket, it was Marty. "Hey, Marty, what's up?" he asked.
"Not much," he replied. "You fellas are coming up today, right?"
"Yeah, we're going to be leaving here in a few minutes. Is there something wrong?" he asked.
"No, nothing's wrong," he assured. "I just wanted to double check with you because I forgot to write it down."
"Alright," he replied with a laugh.
"Drive safe, there was quite the storm not too far away from you guys are. So there's probably going to be a lot of traffic and road blocks," he informed him.
"Thanks for the warning, we'll be up there as soon as we can," he told him.
"Alright," he responded. "Well, see you guys soon, bye."
"Bye," he replied before he hung up.
He put his phone back in his pocket and grabbed his jacket and the folder with the documents on his way out the door. He went over to his truck and opened the back door to put the folder inside on the seat.
"Kev, are we ready to go yet?" Al asked.
"Yeah," he replied, then asked his brother, "do we have everything?"
"Yep, we just finished loading the other car up," he answered.
"Great, we better hit the road here shortly, according to Marty, there's going to be a lot of traffic," he informed him.
"Not to mention that there's always the chance for more rain," Frederick added half-heartedly from where he stood, on the other side of Kevin's truck, and pointed up at the grey sky to prove his point.
"Good point, Fred," Jeff agreed in the same half-hearted manner as his friend and fellow teammate.
"Alright, so let's make sure we have everything and get going," Kevin closed the door and tapped it with his palm.
Beulah, Michigan - 8:30 AM
The guys woke up about a quarter to eight and spent the next fifty-five minutes getting ready for their visit to the vineyard the waitress from the other day recommended. They wanted to look presentable since it wasn't everyday that they got to go to a non-haunted place. Frankly, Shaggy and Scooby couldn't remember the last time they had gone more than a day without some supernatural occurrence scaring them half to death!
Fred checked his phone when he heard it make a 'ding!' sound, "Daphne says that she and Velma are going to meet us in the lobby."
"Like, that's perfectly fine with us," replied Shaggy. "Right, Scoob?"
"Right, Rhaggy," Scooby agreed.
"Are we ready to go down to the lobby?" Fred asked.
"Not yet, I still need to put on my shoes," Shaggy replied. He sat down on the bed he and his best friend shared the night before and put them on. "Like, now I'm ready."
The three of them left their room and headed straight for the elevator. It opened almost as soon as they pressed the button. They walked in and hit the button for the main floor, before the doors could close all the way, the man from the night before ran in. He just looked at them blankly then leaned up against the adjacent corner to the elevator panel. He took his phone out of his pocket and started to play with it in silence.
Although he wasn't really paying any attention to them, both Shaggy and Scooby were still terrified of him nonetheless. Especially now that they could see his tattoos much more clearly, one of them was a rupturing human heart with rusty chains wrapped tightly around it. Another was dragon skeleton with the membrane of its wings in relatively good shape, with the exception of a few holes.
The entire trip down to the ground floor was filled with silence that was only broken by a familiar 'ding!' sound. He put his phone away and took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket as he walked out.
The three boys walked out, headed in the direction of the breakfast buffet. The girls weren't there yet, so they decided to get some breakfast.
Fred got a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. Not surprisingly, Shaggy and Scooby each got at least one of everything. They sat down at a table and began to eat.
Just after they got started, Daphne and Velma came up to them. They were dressed in their usual clothes except Daphne was wearing ivory pearl earrings and Velma had on just a little bit of makeup.
"Hey, girls," Fred greeted them after taking a sip of his coffee.
"Morning, guys," Daphne smiled.
"We're just going to get breakfast and come right back," Velma told them.
"Alright," he replied.
They left the table and came back just a couple minutes later with full plates. Daphne got a couple fried eggs, two pieces of bacon, a half-sliced piece of toast and a mimosa. Velma got a croissant, a small bran muffin and a glass of milk.
By nine o'clock everyone was finished with their food and ready to continue their journey to the vineyard up in Traverse City. After stacking their plates on the table for someone to pick up, they went back up to the third floor to pack up their things.
The boys packed relatively fast since they had only taken out a few things and most of those things were just toiletries. The girls also packed quickly, but they took a little longer since they had taken out a fair amount of makeup and a couple pieces of jewelry.
They meet outside the elevator and went down to the ground floor for the last time. They went up to the clerk's desk and handed the key cards to her.
She smiled politely and said, "Thank you, come back any time." Scooby grinned and waved back at her as they walked away.
They walked out the door and into the parking lot, heading straight towards the Mystery Machine. They loaded up the back of the van with their bags and climbed in once everything was inside.
20 miles away from Traverse City - 9:45 AM
It took them a long time to get out of Beulah because of the traffic, due to it being a bit of a resort town and all the power outages from the storm, and because they had to stop for gas. But they eventually managed to drive out that town and onto the open road.
After more than an hour of doing nothing but wait out painfully slow traffic and watch the landscape fly by while his game on his tablet was locked, Shaggy decided that he had enough of all the silence. He stood over the back of the front seat and started to search through the radio stations.
"What are you doing, Shag?" Fred asked.
"Like, looking for a radio station," he responded. "I'm getting tired of all this silence." He kept station searching until he heard a song he likes.
"I'm winning, you're losing
I'm falling, your agony
Lower than lower, before your forgotten memory
My heaven, your hell
I'm killing, your fantasy
More and more, you follow your divorced reality
You're trying to take me
You're trying to make me
This is the only
Give me the only thing
I'm tired of trying
I'm tired of lying
The only thing I understand is what I feel
Identity, fantasy
Heresy, killing me
Lower than lower, before this thing to feed
Hypocrite, lunatic
Fanatic, heretic
More and more, you follow your divorced reality
You're trying to take me
You're trying to make me
This is the only
Give me the only thing
I'm tired of trying
I'm tired of lying
The only thing I understand is what I feel
Hypocrite, lunatic, fanatic, heretic"
The song was only three minutes long and by the time it ended, his game was finally unlocked. "Wanna get back to our game, Scoob?" he asked.
"Reah," he replied happily and they went back to playing in the back of the van.
Fred looked at the time on the positioning system's screen, "We should be there by 10:30 at least and eleven o'clock at most."
25 miles away from Traverse City - 10:00 AM
Kevin, his brother, Al, and Frederick were on route to Mari Vineyards for their meeting with Marty and Alex. Brad and Jeff were tailing closely behind them, both teams made a point to stay close to each other to make sure they arrive at the same time and to assure everyone that all the research and evidence they have with them arrives safely and not in the wrong hands. They made sure to stay in constant contact, even though they have been traveling together since leaving Muskegon.
"How are you guys doing?" Kevin asked Jeff, who was on the other end of the line, which was on speaker.
"We're okay," he responded. "We're still right behind you."
"Well, we're almost there," he told him.
Al put their current location and their final destination into his phone. "Hey, guys, it's Al. We should be there between 10:40 and eleven."
"Okay." Was the only reply he got.
"Fred, how's everything back there?" Kevin asked.
"So far, everything's doing good," he replied. He had his hand flat on the files, briefcases, and other things sitting on the seat next to him. They were using these items to transport all the papers, artifacts, and other pieces of evidence. He kept his hand on it to weigh it all down and make sure that it doesn't go flying if they were to hit a bump or pothole.
"That's good to hear," he commented.
"Have you called Marty or Alex and told him that we're getting close?" someone asked, this time it was Brad.
"Not yet, we will when we're a bit closer," he responded.
"Well, you might want to call them pretty soon 'cause we'll be there before you know it," he told him pointedly.
"I know," he replied, then continued, pointedly, and slightly melancholy, as well, "but you never know with the weather this time of year. Not to mention that he could be busy with his guests, despite what Mother Nature has been throwing at us."
"Hey, hey, have some optimism. Nothing's ever stopped us from pursuing this theory of yours before," Jeff reminded him in an attempt to brighten his spirits.
"Yeah, I just can't get those painted bricks out of my head," he admitted. He was referring to the gold painted bricks the team found the previous year with help from a couple professional divers. "I've just been having nightmares about it ever since."
"That's understandable, but don't dwell on that," he told him, then continued a little jokingly, "especially not now, when we're less than an hour from Traverse City."
Kevin, Al, and Frederick all chuckled at that. "Yeah, you're right. Good, good point." He looked at the time on his phone, "Speaking of Traverse City, we should be calling them here shortly."
Traverse City, Michigan - 10:50 AM
It might have taken almost twenty-four hours but they finally made it to their designated city. Now all they had to do was follow the GPS' directions to the vineyard.
"Get ready, gang, we should be there in less than fifteen minutes," Fred told them.
Daphne and Velma were looking at pictures of Mari Vineyards on Velma's laptop and were excited to get there and see what they were seeing in the pictures. The imagines were primarily the entirety of the vineyard, the villa, and the lake.
Shaggy and Scooby were sticking their heads out the windows, they were staring at all the restaurants they were driving by. Every restaurant they passed made waterfalls of saliva run off their tongues and pour out of their mouths.
They arrived at their final destination, Mari Vineyards, just after eleven o'clock. The journey had finally come to an end, now they could fully relax and forget about everything creepy.
Fred parked the van and they all got out, headed for the twin wooden doors they assumed was the way inside. A woman, presumably a hostess, came up to them.
"Excuse me, but you can't be here," she said.
"Why not?" Shaggy asked.
"My boss is going to be having a meeting here soon," she said. "Besides, do you even have a reservation?"
"Yes, it should be under Fred Jones," he told her.
She looked through a list of names on the clipboard she had with her. "Fine," she growled, opening the doors, "come in!"
They walked and were immediately taken in by the gorgeous interior. If the outside was beautiful, the inside was absolutely breathtaking. There were rustic looking chandeliers, wine-tasting areas, couches, a coffee table with numerous candles placed in the center, a glass fireplace, tables, black wooden chairs, a cloaked figure above the fireplace, elegant crosses that flanked the figure on both sides, and many other things made of metal, wood, and stone. It appeared to take a lot of Southern European inspiration, possibly Italian. It was the type of place that would stand out from miles away and was very comforting and inviting.
While the others were intrigued by everything they laid eyes on, Velma was much more interested in the cloaked figure and the crosses that surrounded it. She thought the figure looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. The crosses didn't look like something out of Christianity or even one of Christianity's sub-religions. She thought they looked like something out of the Middle East, but she wasn't sure.
"Hello," a male voice greeted. They turned and saw a man behind a counter for wine-tastings. "Welcome to Mari Vineyards, I'm Luke. Can I interest you in some samples?"
"Oh, yes please," Daphne accepted his offer.
He put out four wine glasses and a darkly colored bottle. He uncorked the bottle and poured a ruby red liquid into each glass.
"This is one of our red wines, called Pinot Nero," Luke said.
Each took a glass and inhaled the alcoholic yet fruity aroma of the expensive beverage. They brought the brim of the glasses to their mouths and savored the smooth, berry flavor as it went down their throats.
They were so caught up in the interior of the villa and the wine that they didn't even realize that someone was missing. That someone was Scooby.
It was only after that first sip from the glass that Shaggy noticed his best friend was gone. "Like, hey, where's Scooby?" he asked.
The others put down their wine and started to look around for him, but they couldn't find him anywhere. It was as if he had just vanished.
"I thought he came in with us," Fred spoke.
"Scooby? Scooby-Doo?" Daphne called out.
"Where are you?" Velma called out as well.
"Did you see a dog come in with us?" Fred asked Luke.
"No," he said, "I didn't see a dog."
"Scooby-Doo! Where are you?" Shaggy called out in a manner that was similar to a mother wolf calling out to her pups.
"Excuse me, is this your dog?" an unfamiliar male voice asked.
The four of them turned in the direction of the voice and saw Scooby standing with five men, all in their middle ages. He was on his hind legs and he, along with the men, was carrying a large stack of folders and briefcases.
He carefully placed the stack on one of the tables and ran to his best friend and owner, "Shaggy!" He tackled him to the floor and licked his face, receiving laughs from him, the others in the gang, and the guys who came in with him.
Eventually he was able to ask in between laughs, "Scooby-Doo, where were you?"
He pointed back at the men, "Ri was relping them."
"You were helping them?" he repeated.
"We pulled up right after you did and started to unload our cars. Apparently, we over-packed and your dog saw us struggling with our stuff and helped us carry it inside," one of the men explained, after setting down the large stack he was carrying.
Fred came up to him and extended his hand, "Well, thanks for returning Scooby to us, mister…?"
He smiled and shook his hand, "Kevin. Kevin Dykstra."
0-X~O~O~O~X-0
(A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as much I did writing it. :) I apologize if there are any mistakes, I've been sick for a couple weeks now and the symptoms just won't leave me alone! Thank you iamacliche for your help in what they do at Mari Vineyards! :) Btw sorry if you guys have been waiting a little long, I've been busy writing a story for FictionPress.
The song in the middle of the chapter is "The Only" by Static-X. I don't know if you guys know this, but Wayne Static, the founder of the band (who sadly passed away a few years back), was from Muskegon.
I'm sure many of you know this, but the 50th anniversary of the first time "Scooby-Doo" aired was recently. I tried to get this done by the 13th, but I couldn't.
For those of you who are curious about the items Velma was so intrigued by, they're actually modeled after important symbols to the Knights Templar. If you watch "The Curse of Oak Island" (which I'm assuming many of you have), then you know how important the Templars are to the show. Speaking of the show, the next season will be coming in November!
I don't know if you guys realize this, but we're only 3 chapters into this and there's already 5 suspects to who's behind the Lake Serpent and ghost from chapter 1. Who do you think is likely to be the culprit(s)? Just know to expect the unexpected.)