Chapter 6
"Shall we try the next floor up?" Daphne asked dragging herself along after Fred. In contrast to the experiences of Rufus and Velma, and Scooby in the gardens, their search for clues had amounted to complete boredom. On and on the rooms seemed to stretch. Fred was seriously beginning to wonder whether this whole thing might be one huge elaborate wind up.
"Yeah...let's rock it..." Fred heaved. They turned round and made their way back to the elevator.
"I hate to say it Fred, but your big Rufus gamble ain't paid off honey." Daphne said.
Fred sighed. "I'm glad I made it clear that we were only having him on a temporary basis. It was a huge mistake, and as soon as we're done here, I'll be letting him go."
Daphne giggled. "Letting him go?"
"Yeah..."
"Very socially correct. Why not just say fired? Or sacked?"
Fred shook his head in playful disbelief, as he thumbed the elevator button, summoning it to their floor.
"Because, we are in America. Land of the free. I say as I want to say man."
They heard the grinding of worn cables, as the elevator creaked to their floor. "Doors opening." said the smooth, automated voice.
"You don't say." muttered Daphne, strolling into the elevator. Fred followed her, and hit the button for the next floor up.
The phone rang.
Sighing, Fred reached into his pocket and answered. "Any luck Velma?"
"Yes!" Fred perked up instantly. "We saw it!" exclaimed Velma.
"Awesome! How are you and your friend?" Fred momentarily took his mouth from the phone. "They saw it." he mouthed to Daphne.
"Well, Rufus tried to wrestle it. He failed. But, he has actually found us a clue. He got a bit hurt."
"Excellent! Right, well we've not ha-
And then, quite suddenly, Fred and Daphne heard it.
It was a high pitched laugh. Daphne froze, and huddle close next to Fred. The laugh was like nothing they'd ever heard. And the worst of it was, that the laugh was not coming from the intercom on the elevator, or another floor or anything like that. It was coming from above them.
"Velma..." Fred whispered. "There's something in the elevator shaft..."
"What is it?" She asked.
"I don't know! How should I know! I'm in the elevator! It's on top of us! The elevator roof is in the way!"
"Freddie, shut up!" Daphne snapped, grabbing the phone from him. "It's something laughing...listen can yo-"
The signal cut off.
"Hello? Hello? Damn it!" Velma heaved, snapping the phone shut. Something happened to them...they were in the elevator, and something was on top of the elevator...we got to go!"
"Don't worry Dinkster. They said that the laughing thingy was above the elevator right? All we gotta do is call it to the top floor, sister! Crush the damn thing to a pulp, dude! Let's do it!" Rufus merrily bounded off in the direction of the elevators.
"If you do that, I will personally see to it that you are not only tried, but convicted of murder." Velma spat. "Come on, let's go get Blaskov. Maybe the engineers might be able to get in there."
/
The elevator screeched to a halt. Early. And from the buzzing on the control panel, it was clear that it had broken down. Meanwhile, the hideous screeching laughter from above continued. "Daphne..." Fred whispered. "Next time I get scared, remind me of this..."
"Why?"
"Because then I'll be too scared to be scared of whatever we are facing."
Daphne scoffed "Go sit in the corner. I don't want you having one of your attacks." She knew that Fred didn't like enclosed spaces, but with any luck, the noise of above would provide a distraction from that.
"Why did I come here? Why? Why? First Rufus coming along and ruining everything, now this...it wasn't worth it Daph...big figures or not...it just weren't!" Fred was becoming hysterical.
"Freddie...please." Daphne soothed, trying to be heard above the noise above, which she noticed was becoming louder and louder by the second. "Calm it down. Just relax."
There was a bang from above them. Looking up, the two of them saw a small manhole on the roof. And whatever was above them...whatever was above, was trying to get in.
/
"There was something in the elevator room, Mr Blaskov." Velma exclaimed.
"Right...I see. 'Vell then, I get engineer to examine. But more to point...my flowerbed..." The hotel manager appeared angry.
"What of it?"
"Ruined. Ka-put. The dogs. 'Vhat did your leader tell me 'vhen I hire you? Discreet? Clean? 'Vell you fail on 'zat front, I must say."
Velma nodded understandingly. "I'm sorry sir. We'll gladly foot the bill to replace your flowers. But listen, if we get to the elevator shaft quickly, we might be able to catch this thing become it escapes."
Mr Blaskov sighed slowly and examined his fingernails, seemingly lost in deep thought. "'Zis country upsets me. Life a lot more simple at home." He shrugged to himself, and picked up his mobile phone. "Some'van open the lift shaft. 'Ve belief the monster to be there."
For the first time, Rufus piped up. "Mr. B" he said "What time does your restaurant close."
Mr Blaskov glared at him. "It close 'van hour ago, and at any rate, you 'vould not get in. 'Ve have dress code, you see? You do not fit those requirements."
Rufus just shrugged. "Posh snobs only, eh Blasky boy?"
"Anywaaaay" Velma said slowly "Let's not argue. Rufus, I want you to go to the garden and get Scooby, and Burch if he's around. Bring them in here, and with any luck we'll have this settled soon. I'm going to try Daphne and Fred again."
/
"W...who are you?" Daphne stuttered to the creature above. "We don't mean you any harm." But the creature wouldn't listen. Whatever was up there was hammering violently on the little hole in the roof, trying to break in. "Talk to me!"
"Please don't hurt us!" Fred yelled. To this the monster above laughed. Daphne smirked. The laugh was too human. By far. Solid proof that, like ninety-five percent of the cases, the "monster" wasn't a monster at all. Fred however, wasn't a bit relieved by this. Being in enclosed spaces was a huge fear of his, and having an unknown force trying to attack him didn't help. "We're going to die in here, Daphne!" Fred wailed.
"Oh Freddie...you're going to look back on this day and want to skip the country out of embarrassment."
"If we get out!"
There was a huge smash from above them, louder than ever before- the manhole hadn't opened, but it had been knocked out of shape...it might take minutes for the creature to get in. And then what? From experience, Daphne knew that these type of people rarely had the guts to kill. She could deal with getting kidnapped. Happened all the time. But how was this so called monster going to kidnap them whilst they were locked inside a stationary elevator? Time would tell, she thought grimly, watching the manhole.
/
"Scoobles?" sang Rufus as he patrolled the garden. "Scooby Doodles? Where you at, hound?" Scooby grunted in exasperation at Rufus's inability to just call him by his name, but nonetheless stalked over to him. "Rello" he growled. Rufus beamed at him. "We're getting this stuff sorted out, y'know Scoob? I gotta bring you in little guy." Suddenly Rufus gasped loudly, and froze still as a statue, staring at a beautiful flowerbed, adjacent to the one that Scooby and Co had destroyed. "Pansies! And Petunias! Oh Scoob, my luck is in my friend." Rufus laughed and strolled casually over to an unruined flowerbed, where he began picking off the biggest and nicest flowers he could find.
Scooby was not as clear on the rules of Mystery solving as the human members of the gang, but even he could spot a slight problem with Rufus stealing the hotel's beautifully cared for wildlife.
"Rurus..." he moaned slowly.
"My flowers have all failed this year!" Rufus said. "And there are far too many here. Nobody would mind If I just take a few, to liven up my little garden." Scooby just shook his head and turned away, waiting for Rufus. When Rufus has finished, Scooby saw that he had taken considerably more than a few flowers. About a quarter of the flowers were now in Rufus's hand, and he had picked the nicest ones he could find. "Can you notice the difference?" he asked Scooby. Scooby cast an eye to the flowerbed. The honest answer was yes, but he felt he'd be being a bit hypocritical to criticize Rufus of ruining a flowerbed after what he'd done earlier, so he just shrugged and gave a little bark.
"Well, not that I'm doing nothing wrong dude, but it might be better if Blaskov dosen't...yes..." he reached into a small pocket in his jacket and tried to stuff them all in there. "Perhaps not..." he muttered to himself, "Ah! Perfect." he exclaimed as he stuffed them into his trouser pockets, and covered them over with his jacket. "C'mon girl, let's go inside." Scooby wondered if that was a joke. He hoped so. He gazed, perplexed and somewhat revolted at Rufus and trotted back to the hotel, being sure to keep a couple of steps behind Rufus.
/
Meanwhile, Velma was desperately trying to get a signal to Daphne's cell phone. Finally, she succeeded in getting a faint, warped reply to her call.
"Yes?" came a small, distorted voice.
"Yeah, listen, what's the crack? Are you and Fred all right?" Velma said urgently
"Me yes, Fred, not really. I think we're going to have some company soon though. Best hurry up with the engineers!" said Daphne.
"All right, yes!" Velma assured Daphne. "We're going to get right on it!
Just then, Rufus and Scooby burst into Blaskov's office, with Scooby dripping mud all over the floor and corridor. Blaskov leapt to his feet and yelled something obscene in Russian.
"Rot a clue, Relma!"Scooby barked happily, showing her the rope he had managed to retrieve earlier.
"Hmm...so...a rope...and this note. This note is a reminder...reminding someone that a room is booked. Now who would carry that around?" Velma asked, more to herself than anyone. But nontheless, Rufus piped up.
"The manager!"
Blaskov swore at him, this time in English.
"I knew there was something odd about this guy!" Rufus went on "And by the way...you say your name is Blaskov! So why are you wearing a suit that belongs to Bob?" he exclaimed, pointing at the letters sewn into the breast pocket of Blaskov's blazer.
"Vose are my initials you ridiculous fool!" he spat. "Come. Let us go and rescue 've friends of your's."
They all left the office. "One more clue..." Velma muttered.
"You know who it is yet Vel?" Rufus asked.
"I've got ideas. One more clue is all I need."
"Is is Bob Blaskov?" Rufus asked. "He's got that mean, cruel look in his eyes."
"That's only when he looks at you." Velma replied. "And no,I don't think it's him. Furthermore it's not Bob Blaskov...it's initials...it me...oh forget it. Let's just go. If we catch this thing, I won't even need another clue."
Note: Sorry for the delay, I had a minor case of total hard drive failure recently. To be honest I'm not hugely happy with this story, but I'm glad that it's getting read and reviewed positivley. Peace.