Chapter 4 Sighting of the Spirit

The gang decided that the only way to solve this mystery was to go back to the scene of the crime and investigate. They waited until Parker went out to the store. After that, Mystery, Inc. had about an hour to dig up whatever they could before the caretaker would surely return.

"Like, what do we do now?" Shaggy asked as they stood in the living room. "What if Parker comes back too soon?"

Fred sighed. "We'll split up. You and Scooby can keep watch outside while Velma looks around to see if there's anything out there that's useful. Daph and I will snoop around in here and see if we can find anything."

"Like, roger that," Shaggy said, saluting and skipping merrily to wait on the porch. He was rather pleased that his only duty for the day was to keep watch, for whenever he did anything else, bad things would happen. He and Scooby plopped down in rocking chairs that were placed by the door.

Velma, who had spotted a patch of freshly dug dirt, went over to see what someone had buried.

Meanwhile, Daphne and Fred were looking around, trying to find anything that seemed out of place. As she was walking toward a large cabinet, Daphne tripped, causing her to fal flat on her face. She blushed as she quickly jumped up and brushed herself off. Embarrased, she didn't even try to see what had caused to fall. Fred, however, was staring at the place where she had tripped. He bent over next to a floorboard that seemed to be sticking up farther than the others.

"Hey, Daph, come check this out," he said, indicating his find. "It kind of looks like someone loosened this board so they could hide something."

Daphne walked over and helped Fred lift the board, praying the whole time that it wasn't concealing Marks' body. Thankfully, there was only a small shoe box that was hidden under the plank. Fred gingerly lifted it out and took off the lid. What he found inside was something that seemed to be the reason for everything that had happened in the past few days.

It was Marks' will.

"Oh my God, Daph," Fred said to her. "We just found his missing will!" He smiled and hugged her without thinking. "This is great. I mean, couldn't this really help us out?"

Daphne held it in her hand. "Yeah, this could be the key to solving this mystery. Can you believe that this whole thing started over these few pieces of paper?"

"It does seem kind of stupid now that I think about it." Fred grinned happily as he noticed that Daphne was fiddling with her necklace - the one he'd given her - while she thought about their new find.

Just then, Fred got the feeling that he was being watched. He sensed a presence behind him and turned, finding himself face to face with a creepy figure. It was wrapped up in a ghostly white sheet that looked different than any Halloween costume he had seem little kids wear. This specter, much like the one the gang faced on their first case, had some sort of white mask over his face. While the pair of teenagers stood before him in shock, the spirit reached for the will, but Daphne refused to let go, so she was roughly fought. Fred tried to help her, but the creep simply swung back his arm and hit Fred in the stomach, sending him flying into a cabinet. The ghost grabbed on to Daphne's wrists and spun her around, causing Daphne's head to smash into a nearby door frame.

The eerie figure was running away and Fred began to chase it, but he noticed the vulnerable red-head lying unconcious on the floor. He knew he couldn't just leave her there, so he allowed the phantom to flee and bent down, gently stroking Daphne's hair. He could already feel a bump forming from where she had been struck.

"Daphne," he said softly, trying to wake her. After several tries, her eyes finally fluttered open.

"Fred," she said. "What-what happened?" She tried to sit up but was stopped by a throbbing pain. "Ow."

"That ghost-thing attacked you," he said, feeling stupid for not defending her when he had the chance. He could've stopped this all if he had just been able to get up after the ghost hit him. As far as Fred was concerned, this was all his fault. "Here, I'll take you out to the van. I think we're done for the day." He gently lifted Daphne up, bringing her close to his chest.

Daphne could tell that Fred was upset about something, but her head hurt so bad that she didn't know how much comfort she could provide.

As soon as they stepped outside, Fred knew something was wrong. Shaggy and Scooby were gone from their posts and Velma was nowhere to be found. He made his way over to the car, needing to put Daphne down before he could do anything else. Surprisingly, as soon as he opened the door, he found that the rest of the gang was already in the vehicle.

"What are you guys doing in here?" he asked curiously.

"L-l-l-like, the ghost was chasing us," Shaggy managed to spit out.

"Reah," Scooby said, imitating the intimidating figure.

"What happened to her?" Velma asked, pointing at Daphne, who was now asleep in the passenger's seat.

"The ghost," Fred replied simply. His voice had no emotion in it, something that was a clear indicator that he was still beating himself up over what happened in the house. The one real breakthrough they had was now in the hands of some specter, Daphne was hurt, and it was all his fault. "We found the will but that freak took it before we got a chance to look at it."

He pulled out and prepared to leave the house.

"Jinkies!" Velma said. "Look, that's Parker's car. When did he get back?" No one got a chance to answer, for their attention was soon directed to a familiar figure creeping around the side of the house.

It was Stephen Marks.

"Like, what's that guy doing here?" Shaggy asked.

Everyone else in the van was wondering the same thing and Stephen Marks began to look more and more guilty.