Daphne was absolutely flabbergasted by this piece of information. She couldn't believe her roommate was missing, but she realized that they needed to act quickly. She still had the last few bites of barbeque chicken sandwich on her plate, which was scrumptious, but sadly, she didn't have time to finish it.
"We need to go up to our room and look for Dusk now." Daphne said, looking directly at Luna.
"On it." Luna nodded.
"We'll come with you." Fred confirmed, as he and the other five rushed out of the dining hall. Oddly, his emotional state seemed to become more put-together, which presented a great contrast to the unusual vulnerability he was showing before.
"Like, where do you think she could be?" Shaggy inquired nervously. Daphne felt a little bad, as Poetry Club was the first time she'd seen Shaggy happy in the entire time they'd been here. Of course something anxiety-producing like this would have to pop up right when he'd finally found happiness.
"Hopefully she just got sidetracked doing something else." Luna optimistically said. There was a bit of a nervous undertone to her voice, so Daphne could tell that Luna's words and her beliefs didn't quite match up.
"I hope so as well, but I think it's more likely that she may have gotten kidnapped by The Freak." Velma commented, as all six of them rushed down the hall and into the elevator.
"What are we going to do if she's not in her room?" Thorn asked, seeming very rattled.
There was a silence for a moment, which admittedly was more frightening than any answer that could have been given. Nobody seemed to know how to handle this situation.
"Let's not go to that square yet." Daphne finally answered. "We'll just have to hope she's in our room."
The elevator opened once they got to the third floor. The group did not waste any time pivoting off to the left towards room 317. The door was shut, which was a good sign, as at least it meant nobody had busted into the room and taken Dusk. Daphne knocked on the door to see if Dusk would answer, but alas, there was no response at all.
Once she'd waited an ample amount of time for a response, Daphne reached in her pocket to grab the key, and unlocked the door to her room.
"Dusk?" Daphne called.
Daphne and Luna headed into their room to search for their roommate, while the rest of the group waited outside.
"Is she in there?" Fred questioned.
Daphne felt a lump in her throat when she stepped into the room and glanced around. There was no sign of Dusk there, nor was there any sign of her having been there. Daphne was too dismayed to verbally respond to Fred, so she simply shook her head in response.
"Oh god." Thorn gasped.
"Like, do we tell Headmistress Quinlan or one of the residential assistants?" Shaggy inquired.
Velma was quick to give a firm response. "No. She hasn't been helpful in the past, and I imagine she'll just tell us to stay out of it and leave it to the police if we tell her. Thus far, the police haven't done much, so I think our best chance of finding Dusk is to act fast."
"I agree with you, Velma." Fred nodded. "Gang, I think this calls for a thorough search of the school."
"I hate to suggest this, but I think we need to start in Marcie's room. That's where we saw The Freak last, and that may be where he's keeping her." Velma suggested.
"Like, do we have to?" Shaggy gulped.
"As much as I hate to say it, I think you're right." Thorn agreed. "Let's go down to the second floor and see if we can find her."
Daphne wasn't entirely sure she agreed about not telling Headmistress Quinlan, but Velma did kind of have a point that she had not been much help thus far. Besides, she was likely gone for the night, and she wasn't confident the resident assistants would be able to help either. If they were going to rescue Dusk, she agreed with Velma that their best chance was acting as fast as possible after the kidnapping, and trying to find Dusk. The longer they waited, the more that Dusk would be in danger.
Cautiously, all of them creeped down the stairs, making sure to be extra quiet so as not to alert anybody as to what they were doing. Once they got to the second floor, they quickly headed to room 209.
"Like, should we knock on the door?" Shaggy whispered to the others.
"No." Daphne shook her head. "We want to catch The Freak with the element of surprise."
Clearly hungry for answers, Velma reached down for the doorknob to see if it would open. Daphne didn't know how Velma could have such voracious curiosity as to try the door to a room where a murderer might be lying in wait. She was scared witless right now, and she imagined her level of fear had a great potential to quickly rise if The Freak was in there.
To everybody's surprise, Velma was able to open the door.
"No one say a word." Fred instructed, as he began to tiptoe into the room, with the others quick to follow.
Daphne was almost speechless when she saw Dusk sitting in the living room in an ugly green armchair. The blonde had her arms and legs tied with a rope, and had a gag around her mouth. Not seeing any sign of The Freak, her friends were quick to rush over to untie her.
Oddly, Dusk became a bit frantic, shaking her head vigorously and making sounds through the gag. It almost seemed like their presence there panicked her more, but that didn't particularly make sense to Daphne. She figured maybe Dusk was just eager to be rescued. Daphne rushed to take off the cloth gag around the blonde's mouth.
As strange as it was, Dusk's facial expression still looked panicked rather than relieved.
"Dusk, we're so happy you're safe!" Daphne exclaimed, as she hugged her roommate.
Dusk looked even more panicked than before now, and tears looked like they were welling up in her eyes. "But I'm not safe…and neither are you. It's a trap. He's still in here!"
Daphne quickly realized that her previous presumption that her fear level was about to rise was terrifyingly correct. She began frantically looking around, and nearly had a panic attack when she saw The Freak creepily crawl out from under the bed, dragging itself by its icky, excessively long claws to pull itself up from under the mattress.
"Your friend is right, you're in for a fright!" The Freak menacingly rhymed.
"Like, zoinks!" Shaggy shrieked. "It's him!"
"Dusk knows too much, and now she will feel my scorn! Now, my young meddlers…it's your turn!" The Freak growled.
"Let's get out of here!" Shaggy screamed, as he began running at top speed out the door.
"We can't go to the classroom this time, so where do we go?" Thorn panicked.
Despite the state of sheer panic and disbelief she was in, somehow, an idea was able to sneak its way through into Daphne's anxious mind. It was still early, so if they went into the dining hall, there'd likely still be quite a few students eating there, and The Freak would thus avoid it.
"Just follow me." Daphne exclaimed as she began running out into the hall, not wanting her plan to be overheard. Room 209 was thankfully pretty close to the staircase, so they were able to make a quick getaway down to the first floor. Daphne didn't bother looking behind her to see if the others were following; she figured they were, and there was no use causing herself more worry by seeing how close The Freak was. She felt horrible about having to leave Dusk behind, though, but they hadn't had time to untie her before The Freak attacked.
Daphne was thrilled to see that there were still a large amount of their classmates eating in the dining hall. That would mean there was a good chance The Freak would back off and not continue chasing them. It would be very unlikely for him to follow them into a busy area with lots of people, particularly given his past record.
She quickly ran into the dining hall, and slowed down to a fast-walking pace. Although she was hesitant to, she glanced behind her, and saw only the gang running towards her. There was no sign of The Freak.
"Like, is he gone?" Shaggy inquired.
Fred looked behind him to confirm. "Yeah, thankfully. Good thinking, Daphne."
"As much as I hate to say it, we're not out of the woods yet." Fred said. "The Freak still has Dusk. We need to rescue her."
"But, like, how can we if he could be lurking anywhere?" Shaggy gulped. "We thought it was safe to rescue Dusk, but like, he was under the bed!"
Daphne didn't blame Shaggy for being reticent. In fact, she was feeling the exact same way. If not for Dusk, she would have run back to her room by now and called her parents to come pick her up.
"I'm starting to think this place is just too dangerous for us." Velma stated. "Maybe I was wrong, and we need to tell the resident assistants to call our parents and get us out of this school. The Freak is clearly more sinister than we had ever imagined."
"We can't do that." Luna sighed, to the shock of everybody. Besides maybe Shaggy, she was the most timid and cautious of any of them. It was incredibly unlike her to voluntarily offer to do something this dangerous. "Whether we like it or not, this situation is bigger than us. Dusk has been a great friend to Daphne and I, and to all of us. As much as I'd like to run away, I think the right thing to do is to help Dusk."
"That's all well and good, but how exactly do we do that?" Thorn questioned. "The Freak knows we know where Dusk is now, so he's liable to either move her, or lure us into another trap."
"Honestly, I think Velma had a good idea." Fred said. "If we tell the resident assistants, then more people will know about The Freak. Anytime a large group of people is around, The Freak sneaks back into hiding. Thus, a large group of people going into the room to get Dusk will hopefully cause The Freak to back down and surrender Dusk to save his own hide."
"That's actually not a bad idea." Daphne replied. The idea seemed quite insightful, and even if it wasn't perfect, it would probably provide them their best chance possible at saving their friend.
"But, like, the resident assistants are on the second floor, where we just were! How do we, like, know The Freak isn't gonna be waiting at the top of the stairs?" Shaggy gulped.
"If I remember correctly, the resident assistants are stationed in an office right near the elevator. If we can make it up to the second floor again through the elevator, we should be able to quickly slip into their office without The Freak seeing us." Fred pointed out. "Come on, guys."
"Like, I'm not so sure about this." Shaggy gulped, as he reluctantly tiptoed over to the elevator.
"Nor am I, but I'll go along with it." Velma sighed.
"What happened to your inquisitive spirit, Velma?" Thorn inquired. "I mean, I'm scared too, but you always seemed the most eager of any of us to solve the mystery."
Daphne had admittedly wondered about this as well. Even back when they'd decided there was nothing else to investigate, Velma had been the only one of them that pushed to keep working towards solving the mystery. As much as it saddened Daphne to admit this to herself, that felt like forever ago to her now, despite that it was only just last week.
"I don't know quite how to admit this, but…" Velma stayed silent for a minute. At first Daphne believed that perhaps she was just pondering what she was going to say next, but as the pause got longer and more awkward, it became apparent that Velma was not just trying to figure out how to express her feelings. She was afraid to.
"It's okay, Velma." Daphne smiled, trying to express sympathy for her friend and provide some comfort.
"I'm scared." Velma finally admitted in a whimper. "This mystery got way deeper and more twisted than I had ever imagined it could, and I don't know how to process it."
"That totally makes sense." Daphne empathized. "I don't think any of us ever expected the mystery to get this messed up when we started investigating it. Hopefully, it'll all be over soon."
The elevator door opened, and thankfully, nobody was there. All of them quickly piled in, and Fred pressed the "close door" button, as to prevent any unwanted people from getting in the doors.
"What are we going to tell the RAs?" Daphne asked, realizing they had no evidence for their claims about The Freak. "They aren't exactly going to believe us if we tell them our friend was kidnapped by a supernatural creature."
"I don't think we need to disclose that it was a supernatural creature." Velma pointed out. "We just say that some freak got into a fight with our friend, and brought her into room 209 against her will. They can see for themselves."
"Some freak." Thorn let out a small chuckle. "That's good."
It was about to be the moment of truth, as the elevator had just stopped on the second floor, and the doors had just swung open. Everybody inhaled deeply, expecting the worst, and subsequently breathed a collective sigh of relief as the doors opened to an empty floor.
"Alright gang, let's hurry." Fred instructed, as he rushed into the hall and took a sharp right.
"Where's the office? I don't see it." Luna whispered.
"Hmmm…it must have been further down than I thought." Velma replied.
Daphne felt a bit eerie walking through the hall. She felt like at any minute, The Freak could jump out and scare them. Daphne wanted to get out of this creepy hallway as quickly as she could, so she frantically looked around to see if she could locate the office. On a lark, she glanced behind her, just to make sure nobody was following them. Thankfully, she did not see anybody watching her, but she did see the office.
"Guys!" Daphne whispered. "We're not going the right way. Velma, you must have remembered the wrong directions. It was to the left, not to the right."
"Good eyes, Daphne!" Fred exclaimed quietly, as everyone reversed course and headed in the other direction.
The group quickly scurried to the office, and were relieved when they made it in the doorway without running into The Freak. They were greeted at the door by a young male who looked to be in his twenties. He had brown hair, and wore gray shorts and a blue shirt.
"Hi. How may I help you?" the man asked calmly.
"Our friend Dusk, like, got into a fight with another kid out in the hall!" Shaggy blurted.
"The other kid brought her into room 209 to beat her up!" Daphne replied in a panic.
"Oh dear lord!" the resident assistant exclaimed, as he jumped up from his seat. "Back me up, Will!"
Another resident assistant, who was another young male with black hair, ran out from around the corner to help his coworker. The group of friends was quick to run after them, hoping to help out in any way they could.
"Alright, now we're doing something!" Fred said to his friends.
"Oh god, I hope this saves Dusk!" Daphne worried about her roommate.
"Hey, John, those kids are right! There's a girl tied up in here!" Will shouted.
"Oh, good lord. I didn't realize kids could be this twisted." John lamented. "I think they said her name is Dusk. Dusk, are you okay?"
Daphne and the others arrived at room 209 and stood in the doorway.
"Yes, I'm okay. I think you guys scared The Freak away." Dusk panted. She didn't seem panicked like last time, which was a good sign.
"Normally I wouldn't condone name-calling in a fight, but freak is right. What kind of crazy kid ties up another kid in a fight?" Will shook his head in disbelief.
"It wasn't…" Dusk started, until she made eye contact with Daphne in the doorway. She shook her head, as to signal to Dusk not to tell the resident assistants about The Freak yet. Thankfully, she listened. "It wasn't very fun being tied up like that. Thanks for saving me."
"No problem, Dusk! However, we have to ask…what was the name of the kid who did this to you? We'll definitely be punishing them for their sick, sick behavior." John inquired.
Dusk looked perplexed about how to respond to them. Her face began looking panicked, but Daphne quickly realized it wasn't because she was anxious about saying the right thing. The Freak was sitting right on the windowsill outside, looking inside at them from the darkness. In a flash of lightning, The Freak disappeared into thin air.
"What was that thing?!" Will shouted in terror.
"That's what tied me up!" Dusk began panicking. "We need to get out of here."
"Holy crap, she isn't kidding!" John pointed to the same bloody, gigantic knife lying in the kitchen sink that the gang had seen before. "That's not…y-y-your blood…is it?"
"No." Dusk confirmed. "It was here when he brought me into this room."
"Like, let me reiterate what Dusk said." Shaggy repeated. "We need to get out of here!"
"Kids, let's go back to our office." Will instructed.
"Can we please go to a different floor?" Luna inquired.
"While we're at it, let's go to a different school." Shaggy added hopefully. "It'll be much safer there."
"A different school, no. But a different floor, I think we can accommodate." John agreed. "Would you like us to escort you back to one of your rooms?"
"That'd be great, yes." Daphne nodded. She felt much safer having an escort back to their room, especially since having lots of people around seemed to scare The Freak away, for some reason.
"Sounds good. Dusk, we can take you back to your room, and we can bring the rest of you back to your rooms as well, if you'd like." John offered.
"So, starting from the beginning, can you tell us everything that happened?" Will asked.
"I was walking to band practice over on the first floor. I overheard this rustling in our history classroom, so I looked inside, and there was this brunette-haired girl sitting there in a striped blue suit. However, the girl quickly put a mask on - the same one all of us just saw at the window - and attacked me, snarling in riddles that I knew something that I should have never seen. That's when that freak captured me, tied me up, and brought me to room 209." Dusk explained.
"That sounds terrifying!" John exclaimed. "You kids said there was a fight, though. Where did the fight come in?"
"Fight? There was no fight." Dusk accidentally incriminated her friends. "I was dragged in there by that creep. She never even gave me a chance to fight back."
Daphne's heart sank. Now they were doomed for sure. Unknowingly, Dusk had called out their lie. Daphne knew she would have to think of something quick in order to save their hides.
"Just to clarify, we didn't say we saw the fight." Daphne replied. She wasn't entirely sure whether or not she'd contradicted herself, as the past few minutes had been so emotionally traumatic that she couldn't remember what specific words she'd used to get the resident assistants to come and help. "We heard Dusk struggling, so we assumed it was a fight."
"Oh." Will quirked an eyebrow inquisitively. Daphne wasn't sure if the look Will was giving was just to signal that the situation was odd, or if he actually didn't believe them. "Well, I'm just glad we were able to help."
Daphne breathed a sigh of relief. She was happy, and admittedly surprised, that her clunky attempt at explaining herself had actually worked.
"We will be telling Headmistress Quinlan about the situation, by the way, unless you'd prefer to do it yourself." John informed.
"Do you have to?" Dusk questioned, before quickly adding a caveat. "I mean, I'd rather just put the situation behind me. It was traumatic enough as it is."
"I'm sorry, but it's standard school policy. We're required by law to tell the Headmistress about all major incidents, and I would say a kid dressing up and tying up another kid is a pretty major incident, especially given there was for some reason a bloody knife in room 209." Will stated. "We may even have to report it to the police, depending on what Headmistress Quinlan says."
"Argh." Dusk lamented. "I heard you didn't make Marcie report it to the Headmistress when that same freak attacked her!"
"Dusk, they reported it directly to Headmistress Quinlan in Marcie's situation too, even if they didn't force her." Thorn corrected.
"What?!" Will's jaw dropped. "Are you saying this same person has attacked another student?"
"Yes. Didn't you guys get the report about it over the weekend?" Daphne asked.
"No. We only do the night shifts during the week. We aren't at work on the weekends, but typically we hear about these reports. It's very odd that we didn't hear about this one." John clarified. "Sorry Dusk, but we'll have to report it. Headmistress Quinlan may want to ask you a few more questions. She's quite nice though; I'm sure you'll love her!"
Will and John brought the kids up the stairs to room 317. Daphne was quite frankly exhausted after all the running from The Freak, so she was glad to be done with the stairs for the night.
"Now, would the rest of you kids like an escort back to your room?" John asked.
"Thanks guys, but I think we should stay with Dusk for a little while." Fred replied. "Just to help her process the situation."
"Alright kids. Thanks for letting us know about that situation, and please let us know if there's any other issues." Will stated.
"I'm so sorry you kids had to see that." John informed. "I still can't get over what a sick, twisted kid that must be."
"Neither can I." Will shook his head in disbelief. "Anyway, goodnight kids! Sleep well and stay safe."
Daphne assumed Dusk would follow-up with a thank you, but she was apparently too frustrated and stubborn to.
"Thanks so much!" Luna finally said, as to make up for Dusk's lack of appreciation.
"She's very nice, I'm sure you'll love her!" Dusk mocked John once he'd left the room.
"You didn't want to thank them for rescuing you?" Daphne laughed.
"Not particularly." Dusk sneered. "I was going to, until they pulled that 'we'll have to report this' crap."
"You're being awfully cynical, Dusk." Thorn criticized.
"Yeah, even if it's not ideal for us, they're just trying to do their part to keep you safe." Fred assured.
"Yeah, but in the process, they're gonna tell Quinlan, who isn't going to keep any of us safe with her complete lack of action." Dusk snarled. "What kind of stupid school literally has kids be tied up and murdered and doesn't do anything about it for over a week and counting?"
"You know, she does kind of have a point. We should have gotten a much clearer answer than 'the police are figuring it out' by now." Velma admitted.
"I know, right? How has the school not been closed already?" Thorn asked in disbelief.
Velma changed the subject. Daphne could tell she was still getting the hang of this whole 'how to talk to friends' thing. "Anyway, Headmistress Quinlan is probably going to halt our investigation pretty quickly once she finds out. We'll just have to make sure we don't tell her we were investigating. Dusk, I think the story you just told to those guys was a good one. Was it true?"
"Yeah, it was the truth." Dusk nodded. "I saw The Freak take its mask off, and it was a girl with brunette hair."
"Great investigating, Dusk!" Velma exclaimed. "Now we know that The Freak isn't real."
"Are you sure it wasn't Marcie?" Daphne inquired.
"No, I'm not. I couldn't really tell who it was." Dusk admitted. She seemed a bit irritable, which was reasonable given she'd just been tied up and locked in a room for hours. "Like I told you, I only saw a very brief glimpse of The Freak with its mask off."
"Well, it's a start." Daphne tried to be optimistic. "We at least know that The Freak is a woman wearing a mask. That's comforting, at least to me."
"What's not comforting though is that this school is getting more dangerous by the minute!" Shaggy exclaimed. "Dusk was just, like, walking through the hall and she still got captured!"
"Shaggy's right. Things are getting way more dangerous now." Thorn agreed. "Is there anything we can do? If we don't, based on what happened to Dusk, I think we have to face the likelihood that we very well may be The Freak's next victims very soon. He isn't going to just give up now that we've rescued Dusk."
"You both are right. Who knows what The Freak would have done if you guys hadn't rescued me." Dusk shuddered. "If anything, you guys rescuing me is only going to make him come after us more."
"Well, we know The Freak is a woman in a mask, and she may be Marcie. The Freak tried to set a trap for us, but what if we set a trap for The Freak?" Fred inquired.
"Like, I don't know if I like that idea." Shaggy gulped.
"Me either. Even if we are talking about somebody in a Halloween costume, this person has murdered two people, and captured at least one other person." Luna mentioned. "The culprit must be extremely smart to not have been caught by now considering everything they've done, so this could be very dangerous."
"I don't really see any alternative." Fred argued. "Clearly The Freak isn't going to leave us alone, and if we do nothing, we'll just be sitting ducks."
Daphne attempted to be the moral support for her friends. "We don't have to make any decision tonight. Given it's a person and not a supernatural creature, I don't think The Freak can get in our rooms, nor has he tried before. We're all too tired to think of a solution tonight, and we've all been through a lot today. It might do us good to think about this fresh in the morning with a good night of sleep."
"Yeah, like, I could definitely use some sleep." Shaggy agreed.
"We all could." Fred nodded. "I think that sounds like a great plan. We'll meet at breakfast in the morning, and we can talk about how to trap The Freak."
"Goodnight, everyone!" Velma replied, as Thorn chimed in with a similar sentiment.
The four friends headed back to each of their rooms, leaving Daphne, Luna and Dusk alone in theirs.
"Are you okay, Dusk? I can't even imagine how terrifying that would be." Daphne empathized.
"Yeah, it was pretty messed up! Clearly The Freak didn't like me knowing that he wasn't a real supernatural creature, and wanted to silence me." Dusk responded.
"I wonder what he was even doing in that room in the first place." Luna pondered.
"Who knows. I'm going to bed now." Dusk abruptly said. "I'm freaking exhausted. Sleep well, guys."
"Yeah, you too." Luna responded.
And with that, Daphne tried to turn her brain off as she headed to her dresser to get her pajamas, so she could change into them and go to sleep. Relaxing her mind was far easier said than done though, as she quickly realized the discomforting fact that Dusk being kidnapped made her really anxious. The Freak popping up and murdering people she didn't know was one thing, and Daphne was able to compartmentalize it more when she didn't know any of the victims. However, The Freak trying to silence Dusk like that and attacking them this morning had really freaked her out. Her mind started to spiral, wondering if she'd even be able to survive this hellscape of a school for much longer. This was a really messed-up situation for 16-year-old kids to be in, and she couldn't even fully come to terms with the fact that she was in it. Daphne knew she'd been one of the few people in her friend group to not be particularly anxious about the transition to the new school, but she rapidly felt that changing. She knew it was logical for her to be so anxious (any reasonable person would be given the circumstances), but she desperately wanted to just shove her fears and doubts to the side for the night so that she could get a good night's rest. Unfortunately for her, that seemed like it was going to prove to be much harder than she wanted.