"Breakfast?"
Fred and Daphne had just arrived down in the breakfast room, which was small and claustrophobic with sheer metal walls and ugly pictures hanging on the expanses of grey. It smelled of strange food, a slightly crazy mixture of korma curry and treacle tart, but the other people around them were friendly and not intrusive, smiling at the pair but not talking to them. Not many people did talk with others.
A large woman with hair done outrageously high pulled out a chair for Fred and let Daphne do it for herself, smiling at them both completely normally. Looking round, everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing, so the pair assumed it was normal and ordered some food.
As the pair ate, in silence, Fred was thinking about how they were going to find this portal and Daphne was thinking of home. Fred had told her about what had happened to him the night before and she had been a little creeped out by his description of what had happened.
"Are you sure we were in hospital?" she had asked him as they walked slowly down to the breakfast room.
"Certain. They were putting something in me, I don't know what it was but it sort of took over my breathing."
"A ventilator. So they think we can't breathe independently. Anything else?"
"Drips, to feed us. And the guys were there as well. Scooby was really upset, crying and stuff, and Velms was trying to help him and Shag but she sounded pretty close to tears as well-"
Fred had broken off abruptly as he felt tears forming in his own eyes and his voice cracking, looking down at the hideous metal flooring. There seemed to be very little wood in this world; everything was this stern grey metal, similar to aluminium and obviously hard-wearing and plentiful. Fred had made the observation in his head to stop himself bursting into tears.
"Freddy? If you want to cry, cry. I'm not gonna tease you," Daphne had said softly, hearing his voice cracking and grasping his hand, bending her own head to let him see the tears in her eyes. Fred had smiled bravely at her and wiped away the glistening moisture from his face, allowing her to see the tears but making sure that she knew they were gone. They had carried on to the breakfast room in a companionable silence.
Now they sat together, each wrapped up in their own thoughts, moodily stirring their food with the strange one-pronged forks that people ate with in this world, their joint goal seeming distant and almost unreachable.
An alarm jolted both out of their reveries and they looked round, startled. All across the room, people were standing up and grabbing bags and such, walking towards the exit.
"Do you wish to be cremated?" one man called back at the pair as they sat motionless, wondering what was going on. "That's the fire siren. Move or you'll be burnt alive in this place."
Fred and Daphne leapt to their feet, rushing out after the other people to see them staring at the flames licking the roof of the staying-house.
"Cooking the breakfast?" one woman asked as a fire truck arrived. At least, it seemed to be a fire truck; it was a horse-pulled chariot-style vehicle with a huge container full of water and some kind of pump attached to the back and being pulled along. Several burly men and women were riding the front of the chariot, and one man was on one of the horses as well, steering until they drew up outside the staying-house and rushed in to deal with the rampaging flames.
Fred quickly drew Daphne aside as the fire was being neutralised.
"Daph- do you think this might be something to do with us? That guy said there are people who want to kill us or find us or something and we have to be on our guard. Something tells me this isn't coincidence."
Daphne thought for a second, frowning, her arms round Fred's waist as he held her close as well, closing his eyes for a second as the flames poured out of an upstairs window and trying not to think of what a close call they had had. If that fire had happened half an hour earlier, they would have been burnt alive.
"Something tells me you're right, but who wants us and why do they want us so bad? Why can't they let us leave and try to get home in peace?"
"The guy said something about the worlds being dominant over each other or something… I don't know the ins and outs of it all, Daph, but they want us and that's what we need to concentrate on."
Daphne nodded and turned as a fireman walked up to them, his face shiny and sweaty and his thick clothing covered in ash and black flakes that might have come from the metal that everything seemed to be made out of.
"The fire was set on purpose at the rear of the building. This is fire-setting and it is a crime. Did you see anyone?"
Fred and Daphne shook their heads in unison.
"OK. The staying-house will have to be demolished, the main structure is all but destroyed. Thanks for your time."
The man walked off to help extinguish the last few lingering flames and Daphne looked up at Fred, then swerved sharply as something- or maybe someone?- caught her eye.
"Freddy. That guy- he's over there."
Fred turned as well, and clocked the man standing in the shadows, with someone else at his side and beckoning them over.
"Come on, but quietly," Fred murmured to Daphne, and she nodded and followed him as they walked towards the pair.
Velma sighed as she ate a muesli bar from a vending machine in the corridor and saw Shaggy and Scooby coming back in with what looked like half the food supplies of the hospital.
"Guys…"
"Like, it's comfort-eating," Shaggy said, with only half a smile. Velma allowed him to carry on eating, but swiped a chocolate and orange bar from one of the packets for herself and chomped on it as they waited for the doctor to return with the results of several tests they were running on Fred and Daphne.
The hospital-blue swing doors remained motionless and Velma fell slightly into the comfort-eating trap as well, her anxiety and impatience and icy anticipation sharpening her appetite and making her suddenly ravenous.
Shaggy, on the other hand, almost seemed to be savouring his food; he barely ate at half his normal speed, and Velma could feel concern rising in her as she clocked his slow munching.
"Shag?"
"Like, yeah?"
"Are you OK? You're eating really slowly today."
"Like, nervous… What if they're, like, never gonna wake up?"
Velma threw down the Boost bar she was munching and rushed across to hug him, feeling him leaning against her and squeezing his eyes shut to stop the tears coming.
"Shaggy, don't ever think that. Of course they're coming back."
Shaggy nuzzled his head against her chest and tried his best to stop crying. Velma put both arms round him gently, squeezing him and pressing her lips to the crown of his head, and slowly Shaggy seemed to calm down a little, smiling almost shyly at her and holding her back. Scooby just winked at his friends and avoided a muesli bar thrown at his head, then picked it up and ate it.
"Like, how do you know, anyway?" Shaggy asked gently, picking up a chocolate bar and ripping the wrapper off but his eyes on Velma.
"I just do. I don't know how. But just trust me, Shag."
"Oh, like, don't worry," Shaggy said gently, smiling at her. "I already do."
Fred gently helped Daphne onto the wagon they had hired as a friendly fireman put the bag containing their belongings on the back and made sure the reins were tight and taut and the horses were in good condition.
The man had taken them aside and quietly explained what they needed to do next.
"This is Amirira," he had said, motioning to the girl standing next to him, who had given them a small smile and then had focused on her feet again. "She is our inside spy, and she has confirmed that the Domination Group, the people who are looking to make this the dominant universe and enable us to take control over other universes, know of your presence here and are searching for you. You are no longer safe in this Ohio, and now is the time to leave and find the portal back home. I have gotten you a wagon and horses, and a bag to make out you have possessions; it contains food and water for your journey, as I believe you may have been deprived of your breakfast. I wish you a safe journey, and I will not rest until you are back home. Terrible things will happen if this universe defies the way things should be and becomes the dominant one; it is going against the very material of nature." The pair had agreed and were now getting ready to travel, the wagon standing just outside the burnt-out staying-house and the square in turmoil due to the evacuations of nearby buildings.
"Thanks," Fred said, turning and smiling at the helpful fireman and not noticing as Daphne suddenly grasped her chest, leaning back and giving a little gasp as she began to choke on something that wasn't there.
"No problem," the fireman called back, and Fred turned and gasped himself as he saw Daphne.
"Daph? Daph, sweetie, you OK?"
Daphne shook her head, the colour draining from her face. Fred reached out and gently rubbed her back, trying to ease her breathing, and gradually Daphne returned to normal, leaning against him and clutching his hand.
"What happened?" Fred asked her gently, taking up the reins with his free hand but his other still on Daphne's back. Daphne shook her head.
"I don't know… I just felt awful suddenly, as though something was blocking my wind pipe, and then it got worse and worse and then you started rubbing my back and it helped as well but it felt like someone was taking it out."
Fred put his arm right round Daphne and held her close.
"You're OK now." He lowered his voice. "Maybe they were doing something to you back home, we're in hospital there, remember?"
Daphne nodded and leaned against him once more as he flicked the reins and the horses began moving forwards, towards the north where the pair had been promised their return to their own world.
From the shadows, two dark eyes watched as the pair drove off, and flashed at the horses.
"They are here from the dominant universe… they will have to die to trap their mana here… I will contact the masters."
The person turned and walked towards the grubby little passageway away from the staying-house and the few small buildings around it.
The north beckoned- but, as of then, so did mortal danger.
A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating, only I have been revising and such for ages and these GCSEs (exams) are hard work… Anyway, it's up now. Please review and tell me what you think! Jazzola :)