Chapter 5: In the hallway and the gruesome discovery
It was mostly an awkward silence between the gang as they walked down the hallway, during which Fred and Daphne chatted idly.
"You look like you've got something on your mind, Freddie." Daphne remarked. "What's up?"
"Nothing much." Fred replied.
"Doesn't look like nothing to me, Freddie." Daphne frowned. "It's graduating, isn't it?"
Fred paused briefly before he nodded hesitantly. "As you know, Mayor Dad's been pushing me to follow his footsteps and enter politics. To that end, he's been pushing for me to take law for Grades 11 and 12."
"And you still haven't finalized your timetable for the next school year." Daphne interjected.
"No, I haven't." Fred shook his head. "Besides, I've gathered a lot about the Grade 11 law class next year. With Mr. Bergan retiring at the end of this school year, it leaves Ms. Powell as the only teacher who's teaching law, and plenty of juniors that took her law class have advised against me taking her classes."
"You're not even interested in studying law, Freddie." Daphne placed her hand on her hip.
"Yeah, not to mention spending most of my days meeting with special interest groups and campaigning isn't what I have in mind as a future career." Fred added.
As Fred and Daphne chatted back and forth, Shaggy exhaled. Listening to their chatting reminded him that he has not yet finalized his Grade 11 timetable for the upcoming school year, not to mention he hasn't even contemplated his plans for after graduation.
Aware that Velma has her eyes trained on him, Shaggy paused as he turned around towards her.
"Like, what's up?" Shaggy asked. "Something you want to say to me?"
Velma paused her lips as she stopped in front of him. "I hope you don't mind me asking if your left arm is alright."
Taken aback by Velma's question, Shaggy arched his eyebrows. "How'd you figure?"
"The unnatural way you're holding your left arm, coupled with the tremor I'm observing in your left hand." Velma said, prompting Shaggy to look at his left hand. "Besides, don't take this the wrong way, but I can also smell cannabis from your clothes."
At Velma's last remark, Shaggy sniffed his T-shirt before he turned back towards her as she continued, "So my observation is that you're on medical cannabis as a result of a botched surgery in your left arm."
Shaggy glanced around awkwardly before he exhaled. "Sounds like someone has read a lot of Sherlock Holmes."
"That and besides the fact that my father is a surgeon and my mother works at the Medical Examiner's office." Velma shrugged. "With parents working in those occupations, it is easy for me to pick up simple conclusions from minute observations."
Shaggy nodded thoughtfully. However, before he could offer anything, the lights on the ceilings began to surge before flashing on and off periodically.
Being the only to stop, Shaggy arched his eyebrows as he looked up towards the lights while Fred and the girls continued on walking.
"Like, does this happen outside school hours?" He asked as he resumed his pace and catch up to the trio.
"Well, the school does have to turn the lights off at night to conserve energy." Daphne offered. "They can't afford to keep the lights on all day."
"Maybe, but having the lights flashing on and off isn't exactly what I have in mind to conserve energy." Shaggy said.
"The transformer is likely busted." Fred suggested. "Must be the equipment showing its age."
Shaggy raised an eyebrow briefly before it started to become windy inside, and he began to feel the temperature dropping rapidly, as did the others.
"I don't suppose the air conditioning is malfunctioning now, eh?" Shaggy asked, exhaling fog as he spoke.
"It has happened before." Velma explained as she rubbed her arms. "But I don't recall any instance of the temperature dropping at this rate."
"Or the air conditioning blowing cold air like a hurricane, for that matter." Daphne interjected.
Trying to keep themselves standing still, which was difficult to do given the wind speed, the four soon find the locker doors in front of them torn open, and items began to fly out.
"Like, I know that hurricanes can be fierce, but this is really ridiculous!" Shaggy exclaimed before a flying lunch box hit him in the head.
"It's not just that." Fred said as they all ducked to the floor to avoid the objects flying out from the lockers. "Tornados last struck California back in '66, not to mention there was no tornado warning."
As the four continued to lay flat on the floor with their hands covering their heads, they all could see the lights above exploding.
Before long, the unusually strong winds died down and the objects stopped flying out from the lockers, prompting the four to slowly get up.
Just as they were sure that nothing else was going to happen, a massive and thick hard cover book suddenly burst from the ceiling and landed right in front of them, scaring the wits out of them.
The book opened on its own, and the four looked on as the pages flipped around before stopping right at the middle and began rippling.
And then, the same two spectres that scared off Scooby at the cemetery the past Monday emerged from the book and stared menacingly at the four.
Horrified by the rotting, undead look on the spectres' faces, no words came out from the mouths of any of the four.
The two spectres reached forward towards the group menacingly with a growl, prompting Shaggy to involuntarily place his hand on Velma's shoulder as he suggested, "Like, let's get out of here!"
The others all needed no further urging as they promptly took off running, and the two spectres wasted no time giving chase.
Several minutes went by before the scene shifted to a deserted hallway, during which the two spectres flew by, only to find that the four were nowhere to be seen.
Looking around, the two spectres turned towards each other.
"Where did they went?" The first spectre asked.
"Now that's funny." The second spectre replied after looking around before shrugging and added, "Oh well. We don't have much time to waste. Better be off before the sun comes out."
"Right." The first spectre nodded before they took off and disappeared.
Once the two spectres had flown out of view, the scene shifted towards a nearby closed door that is slowly creaking open.
Fred was the first to bravely peek out from their hiding spot. Upon surveying the hallway on both sides of the door, the blonde turned back towards his companions in the janitor's closet.
"The coast is clear, guys." Fred declared with a whisper.
"You sure?" Velma asked.
"Yes, we're sure." Daphne nodded as she gently pushed the door open.
Seeing that the ghosts were nowhere in sight, Fred and the girls sighed in relief.
"I wonder what on earth was that all about." Velma said as they stepped out of the closet.
"Forget about that, did you see those two ghosts?" Daphne asked.
"Ghosts?" Velma asked. "What I don't understand is how we could see ghosts, not when there is no such thing as ghosts to begin with?"
"That was probably a projection from a projector." Fred offered.
"Could be, though their voices sure sounded haunting." Daphne said. "Not to mention the mess we encountered was real enough."
As the redhead made the remark, she noticed that Shaggy didn't join them in stepping out of the janitor's closet.
"Well, question now is, how are we going to explain that mess we ran into at the hallway?" Fred remarked.
"And another question is, where is that guy that was walking with us when we spotted those two ghosts?" Daphne asked. "I don't think any of us got his name."
In the confusion of trying to get away from the two spectres chasing them, Shaggy unintentionally split up from the others and ended up at the stairs leading to the upper levels of the school.
Wasting no time climbing up the stairs, Shaggy swiftly stepped out the door leading to the main floor, where he saw the area was deserted.
Like, this is really peculiar. Why's the school deserted? Shaggy wondered as he looked around for a place to hide, in case those two spectres managed to follow him up the stairs.
Seeing the tall plant at the nearby corner, Shaggy quickly rushed over and crouched down without missing a beat.
Several anxious moments went by before he was convinced that the coast was clear, and he slowly stood up.
Catching his breath and surveying his surroundings, Shaggy swallowed as he felt the pain in his left arm acting up once again.
D*mn it. Shaggy thought as he slowly made his way towards the principal's office and the school's main entrance. Forgot how much it hurts when I run like this.
As he walked past the glass window overseeing the principal's office, Shaggy paused when something in the office caught his eye.
Meanwhile, it didn't take long for Fred and the girls to surmise that Shaggy must've split up from them in the confusion of trying to get away from the two spectres.
"We better go find him." Daphne advised. "Because I don't think it's a good idea to be alone when there are two ghosts, or whatever those were, out there and capable of G*d knows what."
"Right, let's go." Fred agreed.
Searching around the basement, the trio first dropped by the entrance to the library, though when they peaked through the glass window, they could see no indication of anyone being inside, given how dark it was inside.
"This is getting stranger and stranger." Velma mused as they looked through the glass window to the library. "When we were on the way out, Vice Principal Grimes had dropped off three guys to serve detention in the library."
"Yet there's no one inside." Fred interjected.
After several more minutes of searching around the school's basement, the trio decided to head upstairs to the first floor.
"G*d, I hope that storm we encountered didn't impact our lockers." Velma remarked as they climbed up the stairs. "Because I've got some stuff inside that would be hard or expensive to replace should they get damaged by that storm."
"Tell me about it." Fred said as they stepped out onto the first floor.
As soon as the trio stepped out of the stairs, they saw Shaggy standing by the window overlooking the principal's office.
"Oh, there he is." Daphne recognized.
Fred nodded as he and the girls made their way towards Shaggy, who was staring right through the window.
Seeing the way Shaggy's left hand was shaking, Daphne was the first to notice something was very wrong as they approached Shaggy.
"Hey." Fred said softly as they approach Shaggy, who didn't move. "We lost you when we spotted those two...ghosts downstairs, and we were worry that something happened to you when we didn't see you hiding in the janitor's closet with us..."
As Fred was speaking, Velma picked up on the look on Shaggy's face and frowned as she followed his lead in looking into the principal's office.
When she did, her stomach churned at the sight at the other side of the glass window.
"Guys, you'll want to see this..." Velma trailed off, prompting Fred and Daphne to follow their lead in looking into the principal's office.
Seated in his chair in his office, leaned back with his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, was Principal Deedle.
The principal's face was noticeably pale with foam at his open mouth, there was vomit staining his suit jacket, and the four could see the glass smashed onto the floor with its contents inside forming a puddle by his chair and desk.
"Oh my Holy G*d..." Fred managed to say at the gruesome sight in front of them.