Shaggy the Vampire
Chapter 2 – Missing
"Police are still looking for 17-year-old Norville Rogers, more commonly known as Shaggy. The young man was last seen purchasing popcorn from the local shop near his home on Monday the 15th shortly before he disappeared. A blood-stained jacket was found in an alley on his route home but there are no other leads. Please, if you have any information concerning his whereabouts, contact the police at once."
Daphne stared glumly at the TV screen. It had been nearly three weeks since Shaggy had gone missing and the police had nothing to go on. Out of the gang, Scooby had suffered the most from the loss of their friend: he mostly just lay on Shaggy's bed all day and wouldn't let anyone move anything in his room. The three remaining gang members were pretty miserable, too, but at least they could find a reason to get up every morning. Daphne spent the most time with Scooby as she lived the closest – it was a 10 minute walk between her and Shag's apartments while Fred took an hour driving and Velma almost two by train and taxi. Velma also had to travel a lot for her job so lived near the airport while Fred preferred living in the city centre. Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby were more the suburb type.
They'd all been in Shaggy's apartment when his disappearance went national, having coaxed Scooby out of bed in the hopes that it might raise his spirits. But time went on and there were still no new leads; all the many search parties were starting to die down and time was running out. What frightened everyone most was the 'blood-stained jacket' that kept being mentioned. It had been identified as Shaggy's blood and was mainly around the jacket's collar. There'd been no trace of blood anywhere else in the alley and no signs of a weapon. No clothing fibres, no cigarettes, no footprints or DNA. No sign of struggle or foul play. No trace of anything. It was as if he had walked into the alley and 'vanished into thin air'. The case was on the verge of being dropped, police stating they were doing and had done all they could to find the boy. This had not been said to Scooby yet; false hope of finding his friend was the only thing keeping him going – even if it were bad news, Scooby would rather know and gain closure rather than keep wondering.
But there was nothing. The alley was open to the public again, having been combed through for clues and found lacking, and Scooby had been insistent on going there himself for a look around. For once, it was the scaredy dog pushing to solve a mystery. But his friends had refused point lack, fearing it would trigger a negative reaction and arguing that if the police had already search and found nothing, then what could they hope to find? When Scoob still seemed determined, they'd began taking it in turns staying over to ensure he didn't sneak out. Again, Daph spent the most time staying over and had taken to staying overnight, too, taking residence in Shag's spare room and living between the two apartments. Fred, being a writer, could work for long hours in the apartment when Daph wasn't available while Velma, as an important scientist constantly on the move, made a point of making surprise phone calls to ensure Scooby was home to answer. The three of them had also tried to come up with ideas that might cheer the Great Dane up. But, sadly, Scooby was there to answer and came up with ideas that might cheer him up. Sadly, none of them worked. Nothing did. Scoob only wanted his best friend back.
And it was on this night that Shaggy was to be found again – and the discovery would change things forever…
After the newswoman went on to something else, Daphne switched off the TV and rubbed her eyes. It was late and she was tired. She went round the apartment, checking all the locks were on and all lights and equipment turned off before heading for bed; on passing Shag's room, she paused and checked in. Yep, there was the dog-shaped lump on Shaggy's bed, hidden under the duvet. Daph smiled and whispered "Good night" before entering her own room and getting into bed.
But about a minute later, she sat up. That's odd, she thought. Scooby doesn't normally sleep under the covers. He always lay at the bottom of the bed where Shaggy's feet would have been; he'd never even owned his own dog bed. Though Shag loved his dog dearly, he drew the line at sharing a bed with him as he was big and heavy and left hairs everywhere and never let him sleep under the covers. So why would he be there now?
With a sinking feeling in her heart, Daph got up and went to listen at the bedroom door. There was no sound. No movement… not even any breathing. "Oh, no," whispered Daphne. She stalked over to the bed and whipped off the duvet cover.
There was nobody there. Just a big, soft pillow moulded into a large dog-like shape. "Oh, no!" moaned Daphne. "Why you little…" She threw the cover back and sat down. "But how did he get out? I checked on him only half an hour ago and he was definitely here! Surely I'd have noticed him trying to sneak out? Well… I guess I'd better go after him. It's obvious enough where he's gone!" She quickly got dressed and threw on an old raincoat as it was pouring outside again. In fact, it was exactly like the night Shag had disappeared.
Scooby hadn't even noticed; he was so intent on trying to find Shaggy that he never thought about being scared of the dark or the weather or the possibility of history repeating itself. He peeked out through the wardrobe doors as Daph left to get dressed. She was right – he couldn't have left the house without her noticing and thus be dragged back so he'd tried another tactic: lure her out first and then follow her out. Stiff after hiding for so long, his patience paid off as she'd finally noticed his absence and immediately set out for the alley after him. As soon as he heard the door slam shut, he breathed a sigh of relief and slipped out of his hiding-place. I'll rive her a five minute read-start, he thought, then I'll ratch her up – and rhile we're rhere, we may as well rook round the alley.
Poor Daphne, not knowing his plan, walked through the dark and the rain, rather scared to be walking alone at night and heading to a dark alley where a friend had been attacked and presumably been murdered. Although it was dark, street lamps lit up the start of the alley so Daph could see a good way in. The shadowed corners scared her but she wasn't about to abandon Scooby. So she headed in, keeping an eye on all the shadows and watching for any movement. Little good would it do her…