The gang ran into the room to see Cheryl sitting up on the bed, still in tears as she glanced at them.
"Are you okay?" Daphne asked, walking toward her.
"I'm fine," she promised, faking a smile and wiping the tears from her eyes.
Vincent became even more concerned as he noticed that her knee was bleeding.
"What happened? How did you get this injury?" he questioned.
Cheryl looked down at her knee, clutching it in an attempt to ease the pangs of the injury, but as she did so, it only made it worse.
"I- I guess I hit it accidentally when I fell through the floor."
"Wait.." Flim Flam added, holding the stained white sheets, "I think the blood from your knee got onto these sheets when you landed here too."
"Let me heal that for you, Cheryl, " Vincent offered.
She nodded, and everyone watched as he put his hand over her knee, using his magic to remove the injury. In a split second, the blood on her knee was gone, and then he made the stain from the sheets disappear as well.
"Thank you," she sighed in relief.
"You're welcome," he told her.
"I think it's time for us to leave this place," Shaggy said.
"Yeah, let's go," Daphne agreed as everyone followed her out.
When she walked outside, Daphne felt the wind blow through her hair and the bright sun was seen high up in the afternoon sky.
"Wow, the forest looks beautiful again," she observed.
"Rit sure does," Scooby added.
"Looks like our work here is done," Jayden stated.
Daphne now focused her attention on Cheryl, who still appeared to be uneasy after her encounter with Maldor.
"I know how it feels," she began, "Being under the 'Sleep Of The Centuries' curse, not knowing if you'll ever wake up."
"Were you aware of everything going on around you too? But not being able to say or do anything?" Cheryl wondered.
Daphne looked away for a moment, and then back at her, "Yes, I was, but you shouldn't have had to experience it too."
She hugged her for a moment. "It will be okay, I promise you," she told her before she let go.
Cheryl smiled at her, and then shared a hug with Jayden before Vincent walked up to her.
"I am glad that you were able to wake up from the curse," he smiled. "Daphne is right, you shouldn't have had to go through that, and that goes for her as well."
"Thank you, Vincent," she smiled back.
"Of course. When you were under the curse, we were all afraid that we might've lost you forever. I've never admitted this before, but I already once lost someone I loved. Not to any situation similar to this, of course, but…"
"I'm really sorry to hear that," Cheryl sighed.
"It's alright," he nodded.
Vincent then headed towards the van. "Well, we should head back to the castle now," he said.
Everyone then piled into the van and immediately drove off.
Later that evening, Vincent and Asamad were in the study room, accompanied by the rest of the group. Listening to them just talking and laughing about their past adventures with some of the other ghosts from the chest.
"Wait a minute, you're telling me that you got pulled into a comic book by a demon named 'Demondo?'" Velma puzzled.
"We did, and let's not forget when Zomba sucked us into that old movie," Daphne mentioned.
"Or like, when we got trapped in that weird mirror dimension by the Reflector Specter," Shaggy shared.
"We went through a lot back then. Hey, remember when we used to sing and dance?" Flim Flam recalled.
"I will admit, it got quite annoying at times," Vincent replied.
"You know, I really missed this. Just hanging out with you guys."
"Me too, and I am glad that our gang is officially back together for good," Daphne smiled. "To be honest, it was really pointless for me to fight with Vincent after Scrappy's disappearance, and have that be the other reason why we left him. I apologize for that, Vincent."
"You are forgiven, and I forgive all of you for leaving me. We can put that behind us now, and focus on capturing the rest of the ghosts," Vincent told her.
She smiled and then checked her phone, seeing that she got a text message from Fred, who was all the way in Honolulu, Hawaii, working on a project for his mystery writing job.
"Shaggy, Velma, guess what? Fred just texted me. He says he misses us and that he wants you, Scooby, and me to meet with him soon."
"Really? Man, I miss him too! We should totally meet up with him one day." Shaggy said.
"Exactly! I haven't seen him in a while!" Velma added.
"Who's Fred?" Asamad questioned.
"He's an old friend of Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne, and I," Velma told him, "We used to solve mysteries with him all the time in high school."
"What if all of us went to meet up with him one day?" Flim Flam asked.
"Rhat sounds like a good idea," Scooby responded.
"Can we do that?" Jayden requested, looking to Vincent for an answer.
Vincent thought about his answer for a moment. He never had the best experience with mortals besides the young group he was accompanied by. But at the same time, he didn't want to disappoint them.
After the room went completely silent for a moment, he finally said something.
"I'll allow it."
"Thank you," Jayden smiled.
Vincent and Asamad then looked at each other.
"Well, I am glad that everything is alright again for now," Asamad said. "Here's to recapturing all of the other ghosts."
The warlock then nodded.
"Yes, here's to that," he responded, raising a glass.
Vincent was satisfied to have the gang all here with him. Sure, there was still more work left to be done, and yes, the mystery of Scrappy's disappearance was still on their minds. But, he realized something today, something important.
He realized that he isn't alone anymore, and that he won't ever be alone again because of the gang. Just being able to talk and hang out with them meant so much to him.
They were his family after all.
'Well, they are going to stay with me for a while, and I will gladly accept that,' he thought to himself.
Notes: My rewrite of Episode 1: Sleep & Eternity is now completed! I just want to say a few more things very quickly.
Bogel & Weerd have a bigger role in the next episode. They appeared for only a little bit in Chapter 4 because when I was writing the OG version of this story, I was debating whether or not I should've included them in this episode or just wait until episode 2 to include them.
The mention of Vincent losing a loved one is about my OC, Valentina Van Ghoul, his sister, who is mentioned in some of my other stories.
Lastly, Vincent saying that the singing and dancing got annoying at times is a reference to when in the 13 Ghosts series, Vincent said, "This is beginning to get quite annoying," when water poured out of his crystal ball after the gang were done singing.
