The third time he is alone with Pericles, he hears frantic banging on his bedroom window.
Scooby freezes. He's lying on the double bed he shares with Shaggy, who has been dragged out for a haircut by his parents, one hand on the remote and the other popping meatballs into his mouth. A Vincent van Ghoul movie plays on the TV, he doesn't remember which one (which is a sign of how shocked he is, all by itself).
The banging comes again, harder. He remembers that this is the second story, and his skin prickles with dread.
"Let me in!" yells whoever it is, hoarse and desperate. Scooby recognizes the thick accent instantly, and crosses the room to pull aside the curtains.
Pericles is framed in the window, one hand holding onto the top edge of the long frame, feet balancing on the bottom corners. His right side is soaked with something dark, and he grits his teeth when he knocks again.
"Let me in, Scooby-doo!" he repeats, wide-eyed, and the force and fear in his voice have Scooby throwing the latches and opening the window before he has time to stop and think clearly about what he's doing.
The man almost falls inside, all long limbs and eyes and black-feathered wings (wings, that's new, why didn't he notice before). He kneels on the floor, clutching his side and panting as his breathing slows to a less frantic pace.
"What did that?" Scooby asks, shutting the window again as quickly as he can. He peers out the window, fearful that whatever it was won't be stopped by latches.
"Boggan," Pericles gasps. "Nasty little creature. Can't enter without permission." He glances over his shoulder. "Do you have a first-aid kit?"
As it turns out, they do, although Scooby is no use with it. He ends up handing Pericles the things he requests, turning away and going green at the gills whenever there is a hiss of pain or too much blood.
In the end it is done, and Pericles is sitting on the edge of his tub, which is now streaked with blood. He should be worrying about the mess, he knows, about what Shaggy's parents will say when they get home (what Shaggy will say, oh shit), but all he can think about it how gaunt and frail Pericles looks without his overcoat and scarf.
Come to think of it, he looks a lot skinnier than he did last time Scooby saw him. He wonders where he's been sleeping, where he's been getting his meals. "Are you hungry?" he asks, before he can stop himself.
Pericles glances up at him sharply, and hesitates a moment before giving a terse nod.
A thought occurs to him, and he hauls himself to his feet. "Be right back."
He returns a moment later with the bowl of meatballs, which he feels a little ill to look at after helping Pericles dress his wound.
Pericles mutters a "danke" before digging in, wolfing it down like it's his last meal. Scooby feels more ill, now, watching him, and goes into the kitchen to look for cleaning supplies.
They don't talk much after that. Pericles manages to stagger into the living room and onto the couch, where he falls into exhausted sleep almost immediately. Scooby cleans up the mess, buries the used first-aid stuff in the trash, and drops onto the other sofa with a whumph.
Vincent van Ghoul plays faintly from upstairs. A snarl rises sharply above the rest of the soundtrack, and Pericles shifts in his sleep. Scooby watches him, until the warm, lazy afternoon air and the soothing background noise of one of his favorite movies lulls him to sleep, too.
He wakes up after dark, to Shaggy and parents coming home; they ended up having more errands to run in town than they thought, they explain. (Actually, as Shaggy tells him later, it took them a few visits to realize that trying to give a werewolf a haircut is pointless.)
Scooby glances at the other couch, fighting a thrill of panic.
But it is empty, and there's no sign that Pericles was ever there.
It makes him feel lonely, for some reason, and he can't imagine why.