Chapter 3

The blond teenage leader of the world famous detective agency known as Mystery Inc., Fred Jones stood at the side of his girlfriend and fellow member of Mystery Inc. Daphne Blake's bed while another member of Mystery Inc. Velma Dinkley was sound asleep in her bed; both of them had accompanied the blond teen to visit his uncle at the family's ancestral home in Germany in hopes of solving a strange mystery that the leader of Mystery Inc.'s uncle had presented the trio with, however all was not well with the three sleuths as the two female members of the gang were unaware that while they slept, the unofficial leader of the group of detectives had been hypnotized by the caretaker of the Jones family ancestral castle, in addition the blond teen had been turned into a frightening vampire in order to assist the care taker in his evil plans; right now the blond haired teenager was preparing to transform one of his best friends in the entire world into a monster, of course he didn't know it at the time because he was under a sinister spell.

As the two female sleuths continued to be entrenched in dreamland, the blond teenager drew his neck closer and closer to the attractive redhead, naturally because she was a very sound sleeper she didn't know what was going on in the room; however while the other female member of the group was a sound sleeper as well, at this very moment she happened to slightly open her right eye, and as she did so she saw a sight that for all intensive purposes scared her to her very core.

"J-J-Jinkies a v-vampire! D-Daphne w-wake up, quick!" Velma gasped as she quickly sat up in her bed.

After hearing the bespectacled girl's shriek, the red head blinked her eyes a couple times and after a few moments opened them; however, as she awoke she saw the same thing that Velma did, mainly a frightening figure wearing a red and black cape standing at the side of her bed, trying to drink her blood.

"Yikes!" Daphne shrieked; thinking quickly the redhead ducked underneath the covers of her bed, while Velma ducked underneath the covers of her bed as both of them were hoping to avoid being part of the fierce creature's next meal, although they were still unaware that the vampire was actually the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. who was still under the care taker's hypnotic trance and who was still attempting to find the female detectives so he could transform them into vampires.

The blond teen vampire then growled as he looked underneath the covers of Daphne's bed for the red head, the hypnotized young vampire then ran quickly over to Velma's bed and looked underneath the bespectacled teen's covers but failed in his efforts to find either one of the female investigators, unbeknownst to the hypnotized unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. Daphne and Velma had already pulled the old crawl underneath the covers and try and escape trick which as it usually did in these cases worked; before the blond vampire knew what had hit him the red head and the bespectacled teenager had gotten out of the bed and were now running out of the room.

After escaping the clutches of their hypnotized friend, Daphne and Velma decided to do the only sensible thing that an red blooded American young woman would do in a situation like the one they were in: they decided to see if Fred could help them, although at the moment they were still completely unaware that he was actually the one who tried to turn them into vampires just a few minutes ago.

"It figures this vacation would turn into a mystery" Daphne remarked after she and the bespectacled girl walked the short distance over to Fred's bedroom.

"Daphne, quit complaining; after all, if we didn't solve mysteries, then you and Fred wouldn't get to spend as much time together as you when we split up and search for clues" Velma replied.

"And what exactly does that mean?" Daphne asked with a somewhat annoyed look on her face.

"Well, Shaggy, Scooby and I know what you two do when we split up during a mystery; I mean it's pretty obvious that you and Fred go together because you two are boyfriend and girlfriend, plus you two are in love with each other; besides, Shaggy and I do the same thing, we're boyfriend and girlfriend and we're in love with each other, even though Scooby's with us that's the main reason why Shaggy, Scooby and I always go together during a mystery, we love spending time with each other, and I have no problem with you two doing the same thing" Velma replied.

"Actually Velma, when you put it that way, I guess those are the main reasons why Fred and I always spend so much time together, and I can certainly see why you and Shaggy spend so much time together too" Daphne remarked.

"Yeah, he's a great guy, I just never realized it until a few years ago; he seemed like he really needed support after Crystal left and I knew that he and Scooby were there for me after Ben Ravencroft used me and tried to take over the world, so I decided to spend a lot more time with him and Scooby; and during that time I discovered that we had a lot in common, so we decided to start dating and things really took off, overall he's probably the most kind and caring person I've ever met, well aside from, you and Fred Daphne" Velma replied.

"I feel the same way Velma, and I just hope nothing happened to Freddie; I care just as much for him as you do Shaggy, and if anything happened to him I don't know what I would do" Daphne responded as a small tear escaped from her eye and began to run down her right cheek.

"Don't worry Daphne, if there's anyone who can help us solve this mystery, it's Fred; come on let's see if he's in his room" Velma replied after giving Daphne a handkerchief to wipe her eye and cheek with.

The two female investigators stood in front of the blond teen's door, attempting to figure out just what had happened to the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc.; of course the two teen sleuths were still unaware that as they entered the room, the blond teen had followed them and was watching them from only a few feet away in the hallway.

"Well, we're in Fred's bedroom, so what should we do Velma?" Daphne asked.

"Simple, look through the room for any clues; basically look for anything out of the ordinary or weird, or anything that would tie in to whatever happened to Fred" Velma replied.

With that the two sleuths began searching the blond teenager's room; however they were unable to find anything, that is until a few moments after they began searching Daphne happened to look at the bed, she was naturally hoping to see Fred sleeping and then he could help them figure out what was going on, but since the teen sleuth was hypnotized and a vampire, he wasn't in the bed which made the red head very nervous.

"Velma, I think we have a problem," Daphne said.

"What is it Daphne?" Velma questioned.

"Freddie's not in his bed, in fact I don't see him any where in this room!" Daphne replied with a somewhat shocked and look on her face and a scared tone in her voice.

"What? That's impossible, Fred must be in this room somewhere, come on let's keep searching" Velma said.

So with that the red head and the bespectacled teen girl continued looking around the small bedroom for any sign of the blond teenager, however they didn't find it and for all intensive purposes about ready to give up; which Daphne felt like doing as she sat down on the bed.

"Velma, I really hate to say it but Fred isn't anywhere in this room, I really think Freddie's vanished, or maybe something's happened to him, or maybe he-he's been kidnapped, or worse, oh Freddie!" Daphne said as she buried her face in her hands and began crying.

It was then that Velma decided to walk over to the bed and sat down next to Daphne to attempt to comfort her; she pulled out another handkerchief that she had been carrying with her and gave it to Daphne who wiped her eyes and blew her nose with it; Velma could see that the red head was quite upset over Fred's disappearance and tried to figure out someway to take her mind off of what was happening.

"I knew we shouldn't have come to this stupid castle, I should have figured something was going to happen; Freddie might be seriously hurt or sitting in some dungeon somewhere, I-I just don't know what to do" the red head said as she continued crying.

"Daphne, please: you have to get a hold of yourself, what would Fred do if he saw you like this?" Velma asked as the red head attempted to dry her eyes.

"I don't know, I just want him back and I want whoever took him to rot in jail for the rest of their life!" Daphne replied with just a bit of anger in her voice.

"Daphne, don't worry, we'll find Fred and we'll take care of whoever did this; but first we have to figure out what exactly happened to him, I know maybe a good book will help" Velma said.

"How can you think of reading at a time like this?" Daphne asked.

"Well, maybe one of the books on the bookshelf will give us some information on this castle and then maybe we can figure out what happened to Freddie" Velma replied as she walked over to the bookshelf.

"I still don't know how a book can help us" Daphne said, still somewhat confused by her friend's plan.

"You would be surprised; come on over and help me search through the shelves, who knows maybe I'll be right, maybe they'll be a clue up here" Velma replied as she began searching.

"Velma, if you actually do find a clue on the bookshelf then I'm the president of the United States" Daphne observed.

With that the two sleuths began searching the bookshelf for any semblance of a clue, and after a few moments Velma had found one; the bespectacled teen spotted an old looking red book on the third shelf, but couldn't get it down, she pushed it and pulled it, but couldn't get it to budge; finally Daphne decided to help her out and when she did, the two sleuths ended up turning the book to the right and after it did, the wall that contained Fred's bed began sliding open to reveal a doorway.

"Well, what do you say now Madame President?" Velma quipped before chuckling a little, in addition to humming Hail to the Chief.

"Very funny Velma, although it looks like you were right about finding a clue on the bookshelf" Daphne replied.

"Thank you Daphne; now if my guess is correct, this book that I pulled triggers the opening to a secret passageway, which must have been built into the castle behind Fred's bedroom wall; it was probably constructed by an ancestor of the Jones family, maybe during World War II, or maybe earlier" Velma stated.

"And I'll bet my trust funds for the next year that someone either knew about this passageway and secret entrance and probably entered into this room to kidnap Freddie" Daphne replied.

"I wouldn't make that bet quite yet Daphne" Velma said.

"Why Velma?" Daphne asked.

"Because if the only way to open the entrance to the secret passageway was to pull on this book then how could anyone get in here?" Velma responded.

"Which means there must be another entrance to the passageway somewhere in this room, right?" Daphne asked.

"Right, now all we have do to is find it" Velma replied.

With that Daphne and Velma began searching the blond teen's bedroom once again, this time looking for another entrance into the passageway, which they had discovered a few minutes ago; both of the sleuths took their respective portions of the room to search, specifically Daphne searched in the area around Fred's bed and Velma searched around the bookcase.

The two investigators then proceeded to knock on the walls, searched through the books in the book case, searched through the night stands, hoping that somehow, someway they would find another entrance into the corridor; in the minutes that followed Daphne and Velma went over every nook and cranny of the room, however once the red head and the intelligent bespectacled sleuth failed to locate another entrance into the passageway, they decided to give up.

"Daphne, I hate to say it but I think we're licked; except for some books, dust and Fred's clothes, there's nothing really out of the ordinary in here and there's definitely not another entrance to the passageway" Velma remarked with a sigh as she sat down in a chair near the bookcase.

"Come on Velma, we've got to keep looking, there's got to be some other entrance to that passage, besides if I was in the same situation Fred would try as hard as possible to figure things out and save me" Daphne replied.

"Believe me, I know he would, just like Shaggy would do the same for me, unless he was hypnotized or something" Velma stated.

"Yeah, he sure would; but back to the topic at hand: if I remember right every haunted castle, haunted house and haunted mansion we've ever visited has had secret passageways or corridors of some kind and they all usually had more than one…" Daphne said, before stopping herself in mid-sentence.

The red head then walked over to where the blond teenager had been sleeping and climbed onto his bed; Velma was somewhat confused by this and scratched her head as she decided to ask Daphne what she was doing.

"Um Daphne, why are you standing on the bed?" Velma questioned.

"I'm just admiring this painting that's hanging above Fred's bed" Daphne replied, with a somewhat curious look on her face.

"Daphne, I don't think this is a good time to start acting like an art critic, besides how does looking at a painting help us solve the mystery of what happened to Fred?" Velma asked.

"Simple, climb up here next to me and I'll show you what I mean" Daphne replied.

Naturally Velma complied with Daphne's request and she climbed up onto the bed to join the red head; the two sleuths then examined the painting that hung on the wall above the bed that the blond man had been sleeping in, at first glance it would seem that the piece of art that the two sleuths were observing was an ordinary painting but after a few seconds Daphne placed a finger on her chin and began thinking about the image she was studying.

"Hmm, my woman's intuition tells me that there's something very peculiar about this painting" Daphne remarked.

"How so Daphne? I mean it looks to me like it's just a portrait of one of Fred's distant relatives" Velma responded.

"It is, judging by the clothing the person is wearing and the person in the painting's hair style I would guess this was painted maybe in the mid to late 1700's" Daphne replied.

"Jinkies, that's incredible Daphne, I had no idea you were so good at identifying paintings as far as when they were painted" Velma responded.

"Thank you Velma, it's kind of a hidden talent; actually after looking at all the artwork in my parents mansion, I've become quite good at this sort of thing" Daphne replied.

"I guess I'll have some competition in the intelligence department now" Velma responded with a chuckle.

"Not at all Velma, you've always been the most intelligent member of the group and I'm fine with that, and I have no problems with it at all" Daphne replied.

"You're welcome Daphne; now about the painting, why do you think there's something weird about it?" Velma wondered.

"Simple, take a look at the eyes of the painting first of all" Daphne replied.

Velma then adjusted her glasses and moved closer to the painting, as she closely inspected the piece of artwork she noticed something very strange about the eyeholes of the painting, specifically that it looked like someone had cut the regular eyeholes out of the piece of artwork, although the two sleuths at first couldn't figure out why.

"Hmm, this is really strange, why would someone cut the eyeholes out of a priceless piece of art?" Velma thought aloud.

"Velma, I think I've got an idea" Daphne remarked.

"What's that Daphne?" Velma asked.

"If I had to guess, I would say that someone cut the eyeholes out of this painting to spy on whoever was in this room, in this case Fred, although there's one thing I don't understand" Daphne replied.

"What?" Velma queried.

"Why would someone cut the eyeholes out of this painting to spy on Fred in the first place?" Daphne wondered.

"Good question, although I think I've just found another strange thing about this painting" Velma replied.

"What is it Velma?" Daphne asked.

"Take a look at what the person in the painting is wearing around his neck" Velma said; the red haired teen then took a closer look at the artwork herself and noticed that the man in the portrait was wearing what looked to be a strange piece of jewelry around his neck.

"Yeah I noticed it too, it looks like the man in this painting is wearing some kind of gold medallion around his neck, and come to think of it I think that vampire that we saw earlier in our rooms was wearing a medallion that looked similar to this around his neck too" Daphne replied.

"Hmm, you know Daphne I think you're right; I wonder if this is connected with the eyeholes in the painting being cut out" Velma remarked.

"It's possible Velma; you know I just got an idea about this painting and if I'm right, we should have part of this mystery solved" Daphne replied.

"What's your idea Daphne?" Velma asked.

"Simple, I have a sneaking suspicion that this painting slides open and there's another secret panel behind it; if I'm right it ties together everything that's happened tonight, and we'll be one step closer to solving this mystery" Daphne replied.

"Daphne, you might just have something there, come on let's see if we can prove your theory right" Velma said.

With that Velma and Daphne took hold of the painting and began attempting to pull it open, however after a few minutes they failed, but the two sleuths didn't give up and they tried sliding it open; this time their plan worked and they managed to slide the painting over on the wall, once the two investigators slid the painting they discovered that there was indeed a secret panel behind the artwork.

"Well now all the clues that we've found are beginning to add up, first we know someone walked over to the bookcase in the room and opened the secret passage, second we know that there's a secret panel behind the painting and that someone cut out the eyeholes of the artwork possibly to spy on Fred, and third we know that the vampire and the man in the painting are wearing what look to be the same medallion" Velma said as she counted on her fingers the number of clues that she and the red head had found in the bedroom.

"The only questions I have are why someone would want to spy on Fred and what's the connection involving that medallion?" Daphne asked.

"I don't know Daphne, but something tells me I think we might need some help in solving this case, and the only person who might know how to do that is Fred's uncle; come on Daphne, let's go get him" Velma replied.

"But Velma, how is Fred's uncle going to be able to help us?" Daphne asked.

"Simple, if there is a connection between the man in the painting and the vampire that we saw, then this mystery might just involve Fred's family and maybe Fred's uncle might know something about this and maybe he can help us solve this case" Velma replied.

"Good point Velma" Daphne remarked.

"Thanks Daphne, now come on let's get out of this room, it gives me the creeps" Velma commented.

"Yeah it does have a creepy quality to it" Daphne remarked.

With that Daphne and Velma slid the painting back to it's original place, made sure there was no damage to it and then climbed down off the bed; the two sleuths then made their way out of the bedroom and back into the hallway as they attempted to locate the blond teen's uncle, while they secretly hoped that he hadn't vanished as well.

While Daphne and Velma searched Fred's bedroom, the aforementioned blond teenager stood in wait in the hallway, waiting for the two female sleuths to leave the room so he could track them down and transform them into sinister creatures of the night like himself; the red head and the bespectacled teenager then began walking through the corridor that contained their bedrooms and Fred's as well, hoping that they could find the blond teen's relative, however they were unaware they were being followed by their mesmerized friend, at least he was following them until the two female investigators began hearing footsteps other than their own, which made the youngest of the pair quite nervous.

"Daphne, did you hear something?" Velma asked.

"I don't know why?" Daphne answered.

"Because I have the distinct feeling that someone's following us," Velma replied.

"Don't be silly Velma, there can't be anyone following us; it must just be your imagination" Daphne remarked.

"I'm telling you Daphne, someone is following us and I'm going to prove it" Velma said; the bespectacled sleuth then turned around, however as she did she came face to face with the same vampire that had been in their room earlier.

"Jinkies! See Daphne I told you somebody was following us!" Velma said with a look of sheer terror on her face.

"Velma, I don't think now's a good time to talk about that, besides there's a good chance we might not get out of this" Daphne said while the vampire bared his white fangs at the pair of sleuths, which caused them both begin backing up slowly.

"Daphne, I hate to disagree with you, but there is a way out of this, in fact it's the only way I know of to escape a monster" Velma replied.

"You mean" Daphne remarked.

"Right" Velma replied.

"Run!" Daphne and Velma said in unison.

With that the pair of female detectives made like Olympic runners and took off down the hallway as they attempted to escape the red and black caped vampire that was following them; the two investigators made it half way down the hall before they realized that it was going to be somewhat difficult to escape the vampire so they decided to figure out a way to stop him; leaning on a wall in the middle of the corridor was a suit of armor, which Daphne and Velma decided to use for their plan, the two investigators then ran towards the armor, hoping the sinister creature wouldn't catch them, luckily he didn't and a few moments later the two sleuths hid behind the armor, where they waited, hoping for the right moment to slow down the vampire.

"Here he comes Velma, get ready," Daphne said.

"I see him Daphne, and I'm ready as I'll ever be" Velma replied.

"Okay, here's the plan: when that vampire comes by, you and I will put a shoulder to the suit of armor and push; I just hope this idea of mine works, I haven't had to think of a plan to solve a mystery in a long time" Daphne explained.

"Don't worry Daphne, this is a great plan and it will definitely work" Velma replied.

"Thanks Velma, now get ready I think I see him" Daphne said.

"That's him all right, and I'm ready" Velma responded.

"Good, now when I say three, we'll push the armor onto the vampire, ready?" Daphne asked.

"Ready" Velma remarked.

"Okay here we go: one, two, three!" Daphne declared as she and Velma put a shoulder to the suit of armor and pushed, as the red haired sleuth was expecting the suit of armor crashed right into the vampire, knocking him to the ground.

"Good going Daphne, your plan worked!" Velma declared as she shook the red head's hand.

"Thanks Velma, we make a pretty good team don't we?" Daphne replied, shaking the intelligent teen's hand.

"We sure do Daphne, now come on, let's get downstairs and try and find Fred's uncle" Velma commented with a smile.

With the blond haired vampire now temporarily incapacitated, the red haired sleuth and the bespectacled teen resumed walking; eventually the pair of detectives found the staircase which led to the main level of the castle, the two detectives then walked down the stairs and began searching the various rooms for Fred's uncle.

Meanwhile back upstairs, the castle caretaker Mr. Wilkins walked into the hallway to see if his hypnotized apprentice was able to transform the two female members of Mystery Inc. into vampires, however what he saw when he arrived in the hallway was particularly upsetting to him, specifically he noticed the hypnotized blond vampire underneath a suit of armor; when the castle caretaker saw this the expression on his face turned into one of pure anger and frustration, so he decided to help his hypnotized apprentice up from the floor, albeit reluctantly.

"Blast those two! I thought hypnotizing Frederick and turning him into a vampire would be enough to get those girls and Frederick's uncle out of this house, but apparently I was wrong; apparently those two young women are smarting than I thought, well I'll fix them and that blond kid's uncle as well, but first I have to regroup and come up with another plan" Mr. Wilkins said, still angry with the two female members of Mystery Inc. for defeating his apprentice.

"Come with me Frederick, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve to scare those two meddlers and your uncle away" Mr. Wilkins remarked.

"Yes master" Fred replied with what sounded like a hiss in his voice.

Once Fred had been helped to his feet by the caretaker, he and Mr. Wilkins walked inside the blond teenager's room; a few moments later the caretaker and the blond teenager headed over to the bookcase, once the pair stood in front of the bookcase the blond teen pulled the book that opened the secret passageway and once the passage was opened Fred and the caretaker walked inside; a few moments later the entrance way to the passage closed behind the two of them and the blond haired man and the caretaker began walking through the corridor, while they walked Mr. Wilkins began thinking of another way to capture Daphne, Velma and Fred's uncle, however he thought of it or whatever the idea was, one thing was for sure: it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Downstairs in the main floor of the castle, Daphne and Velma began their search for Fred's uncles bedroom; the pair tried knocking on several doors, hoping that one of them would be where the blond teen's uncle bedroom, although after knocking on the first couple of doors they failed to receive an answer, in fact they didn't hear a single noise coming from inside any of the rooms; soon Daphne and Velma came to a door in the middle of the hallway, both of them were quite anxious to see whether anyone was inside and whether this was Fred's uncle's room, so after some deliberation Daphne began knocking on the door: the pair of female detectives listened carefully to see if anyone was inside and after a few moments were about to receive their answer.

Inside of the bedroom a familiar dark blond haired man was lying down in his bed, he was wearing dark blue pajamas and looked to be sleeping peacefully, that is until he heard something that sounded like someone knocking on his door; although he was quite perturbed that someone would bother him while he was attempting to sleep, he decided to be courteous and woke up so that he could see who was knocking on his door; the man then got up from his bed and began walking over to the bedroom door, all the while notifying the person or persons who had woken him up that he was going open the door.

"Keep your shirt on, I'm coming, I'm coming" the man said before reaching the door; the man then unlocked the door before opening it so that he could greet his visitors properly, however once he opened the door he received somewhat of a surprise, because standing in the doorway were two familiar figures, whom the man had seen before and recognized instantly.

"Daphne, Velma, what are you doing here?" the man asked.

"Mr. Jones, are we glad to see you" Daphne said, wiping her brow as she and Velma greeted the man, which as you probably guessed turned out to be Fred's uncle Von Jones.

"Likewise" Velma added.

"What are you two ladies doing up? It's almost a quarter to three in the morning" Uncle Jeff stated.

"Well Mr. Jones, there's something very strange going on in the castle and I think you should know about it" Daphne remarked.

"Oh? What exactly is going on and why is it strange?" Uncle Jeff wondered.

"You see Mr. Jones, it all started while we were sleeping in our bedroom; we were sound asleep when I opened my right eye slightly and saw a vampire standing right next to Daphne's bed" Velma said.

"My goodness, what happened after that?" Uncle Jeff asked.

"Needless to say this scared as quite a bit and we made the decision to walk over to Fred's bedroom to see if he had seen the vampire too, or if he could help us in any way, but there was one problem with that; once we walked inside his bedroom we found that he was nowhere in sight, so we decided to search for him or any clues that would point to what happened to him" Daphne replied.

"Interesting, so what happened after that?" Uncle Jeff questioned.

"We searched every nook and cranny of his room, but didn't find any sight of him; it was almost like he either vanished or was kidnapped, eventually we decided to start searching for clues again and this time we found a few things that we thought we quite unusual" Velma answered.

"Like what?" Uncle Jeff asked.

"First of all we found a book on the bookshelf that opens a secret passageway that was built into the wall of the bedroom that Fred was sleeping in, second we found a painting that hung on the wall above Fred's bed, third we found that when we slid the painting over there was a secret panel which could and might have been used for spying on whoever was in the room, we also found that the eyeholes of the painting had been removed as well" Daphne explained.

"Was there anything else that the two of you found that would qualify as suspicious or strange?" Uncle Jeff wondered.

"Well there was one other thing, we noticed that the man in the painting that hung above Fred's bed and the vampire that's been chasing us were both wearing some kind of gold medallion; we figured out that there's some kind of connection between the man in the painting and the vampire, but we don't know what it is and that's where you come in Mr. Jones" Velma replied.

"Me? How can I help the two of you solve a mystery, I thought that was Fred's department" Uncle Jeff said with a somewhat confused look on his face.

"Yes usually, except for the fact that Fred's missing and we don't know what happened to him" Daphne replied.

"Hmm, let me think about this: now, you two both said that the vampire and the person in this painting were both wearing some sort of gold medallion, right?" Uncle Jeff asked.

"Right" Velma replied.

"Very good, now did the medallion that the vampire was wearing and the one in the painting look about the same?" Uncle Jeff questioned.

"Actually come to think of it, the medallion that the two of them were wearing did look the same, why?" Daphne wondered.

"I was afraid you girls were going to say that, I was really hoping that this wouldn't happen while Fred and the two of you were here either, but unfortunately it seems that things don't like to stay hidden for very long" Uncle Jeff said with a somewhat worried look on his face.

"What is it Mr. Jones? What's wrong?" Daphne asked.

Author's Notes: Yep, another cliff hangar; for some reason, I guess I really like cliff hangars, plus they really keep the audience or reader or viewer or listener guessing as to what happens next; I originally was going to make this the final chapter, but I decided to change things around and make this a four chapter story, hopefully everybody likes it anyway.