Chapter 9

Realization

In the witches' hut, Daphne finished preparing the cauldron. Truly, she didn't want to turn the town's people into frogs, in fact, she hated the idea, but if she needed to prove that she was no longer 'Danger-Proven Daphne'. She wondered if she was a little too harsh to her friends, then she remembered what their smoke visions had said about her, how they mocked her, belittled her, and how they called her nothing. The more she thought about it the angrier she got. She would show them she wasn't a damsel in distress, that she wasn't helpless Daphne and that she definitely was not 'Danger-Proven Daphne'.

Suddenly she was brought out of her thoughts when she heard shouting. Outside, Victoria and Mary were arguing so, she went outside to greet them. It began to rain the moment Daphne put her foot out of the house.

"How could you have dropped the jar of fly wings?!" Victoria accused her sister.

"It slipped out of my hands. Why didn't you catch them?" Mary retorted as Daphne approached them.

"Everything's ready for you, Victoria," Daphne informed her.

"Not quite. Mary, the blithering idiot, has managed to lose one of the ingredients," Victoria said crossly. "So we will have to get more fly wings."

"Where's Elvina?" Mary segued, noticing that the kind-hearted witch wasn't with them.

"She went to town," Daphne said.

"And you didn't stop her?!" Victoria yelled.

"Of course not, she was annoying me. Why?"

"Because that means that someone might have seen her and followed her back here! Meaning they could find us! You idiot!"

"How was I supposed to stop her?"

"With magic," Mary said.

"She would have just used her magic to escape." Daphne retorted.

"Elvina wouldn't use her magic even if she were forced," she said in a deadpan voice.

"How was I supposed to know that?"

"We'll discuss this later, you idiotic witch," Victoria huffed before turning to her sister. "Come, Mary, we have to get some more fly wings."

Her sister nodded, "Of course."

The two older witches hopped on their broomsticks and flew off into the night sky. Daphne stuck her nose in the air at them before heading back inside. Daphne made her way to Fred and removed the cloth from around his mouth.

"Looks like we have some alone time," she flirted, but Fred only glared at her. Daphne looked at him in confusion before remembering the deafening spell he was still under. She undid the spell. "So Freddy, what should we do now that the other witches are gone?" Daphne put her hands on her hips flirtatiously, but Fred still glared at her. "What?"

"I heard everything you said," he sternly informed her.

"Elvina," she muttered under her breath.

"Is it true, did you really almost kill Velma?"

"All I did was drop her in the sky."

"You could have killed her!"

"I was only trying to scare her." she retorted.

"And what about what you did to Scooby and Shaggy?"

"Hey, they wouldn't stop eating in the first place. I was only helping them?"

"But they'll starve to death!" Fred worried.

"Okay, that might have been an oversight on my part," Daphne admitted.

"And how could you even agree to turn people into frogs?!"

"I don't like it any more than you do but I have to prove myself."

"Prove yourself?! How does killing them prove anything?!"

"It will prove that I'm not the old pathetic Daphne Blake anymore." she justified.

"I think I prefer the old you better," Fred huffed.

"Oh, of course, you do," she cackled as her eye finished twitching. "You want me to be 'Helpless Daphne'! 'Danger-Proven Daphne'!"

"I want the nice Daphne! I want the Daphne who cared about her friends!"

"You want me to be your little damsel in distress because you think I'm nothing without you!" Daphne shouted.

"You really think I believe that?" Fred said in shock.

"Don't play dumb with me, Freddy. Victoria showed me what you said about me." Daphne said.

"You know I would never say anything like that about you."

she skeptically hummed.

"Daphne, this isn't you," Fred plead.

"Well, like it or not, this is me. I am a witch, so get used to it, Freddy."

"Fred," he corrected her.

"Pardon?"

"It's just Fred," the bound man said sternly.

"But you love it when I call you Freddy," Daphne worried.

"Only by someone I'm dating," Fred clarified.

Daphne's eyes widened in disbelief. "Freddy, you... you can't be serious?"

"I don't want to be with someone as cold and heartless as you."

"Freddy no," Daphne denied in a sorrowful voice.

"I'm sorry, it's over, Daphne," he said with teary eyes.

"You'll pay for this Fredrick Jones." the witch said through gritted teeth.

The young witch prepared a spell by raising her hand and Fred closed his eyes in fear. When she tried to cast the spell, she couldn't bring herself to because she could never hurt her beloved Freddy. Daphne lowered her hand, and slowly backed away before sprinting out of the house. She ran until she stopped deep in the forest. Daphne collapsed to her knees as the rain continued to fall.

Daphne saw her reflection in the puddles. As a tear fell off her long nose, it rippled in the puddle. When it stopped, Daphne saw Velma's terrified face beg for mercy before falling. She remembered how scared her friend was when she was dropped. Daphne realized that Fred was right, she had almost killed her. She then remembered how devastated Shaggy and Scooby were when she cursed them. Daphne cried harder as guilt overwhelmed her.

As more tears fell from Daphne's eyes, she realized that Victoria had tricked her with the smoke version of the gang. While they teased her, they were also kind and always helped her in her hour of need. Daphne remembered the case of the ghost skeleton. She was being held in a dark room, tied up and gagged. As she struggled to free herself, she overheard Fred talking to Velma in the hallway on the other side of the wall.

"Do you think Daphne's ok?" Fred said.

"She'll be fine. This isn't the first time she's been kidnapped." Velma said.

Daphne rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"I know… it's just, I don't know what I would do if anything bad happened to her." Fred said. "She means everything to me. I'm nothing without her."

Daphne's eyes widened and she blushed at his words. She continued to try freeing herself, the noise leading Fred and Velma to her and a clue that helped them solve the case.

Daphne never told Fred that she had overheard them, but it was one the sweetest things she had ever heard him say.

As her thoughts returned to the present, she remembered Elvina's warning. 'Never be able to turn back to normal.' Daphne put her face in her hands as the horrifying realization came to her, she was a witch forever. She cried even harder. She had lost everything, her friends, her life, and her boyfriend, just because she let her anger get the better of her.

Elvina was just flying above where Daphne was when she heard her crying, so she landed.

"Daphne, what's wrong?"

"I-I-I've made a horrible mistake," Daphne sobbed. " I almost killed my friends, I lost my boyfriend and I'm stuck as a witch forever."

"It's not your fault, Victoria manipulated you," Elvina assured her. "And I did say you might never be able to change back. There is still a chance we can."

Daphne immediately faced her. "You mean it?" Earning a nod, she hugged her, "Thank you, Elvina. You're a true friend!"

A small tear fell from Elvina as she felt a true friendship for the first time. Then she remembered why she came back. "Daphne, your friends have asked a sorceress to trap me and the others in stone again. Your friends have asked you to be spared but the sorceress might have to trap you as well."

"What? You shouldn't be turned to stone, you're too kind." Daphne protested.

"I don't have a choice. I'm a witch." Elvina said in a sorrowful voice.

"No, you're not, at least not for much longer," she pondered.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll find a way to change you into a human."

Elvina blinked in shock. "You mean it?"

"What are friends for?"

"Alright, but we'll have to hurry."

They got on the broomstick and flew off.