Velma couldn't believe her ears. Headmistress Quinlan was The Freak? How could this be?
"You kids really thought that I was just so helpless that I couldn't figure out how to stop the murderer?" Headmistress Quinlan hissed. "I didn't stop the murderer because I am the murderer! Those kids needed to die!"
"H-H-Headmistress Quinlan?" Shaggy stuttered, his facial expression turning into a stricken look of horror. "Why would you do this?"
"You don't need to know, because you aren't going to be alive much longer!" Headmistress Quinlan hissed, as she ran for the kitchen.
She wondered for a moment why Headmistress Quinlan would head in the opposite direction of the bathroom, where they were currently standing. That's when the terrifying thought hit her: she was running to get the knife.
"Shaggy, grab the knife!" Velma shouted at Shaggy, who was standing closest to the kitchen of any of them.
Shaggy must have also realized on his own what Headmistress Quinlan was doing, as he started racing towards the knife right as the words began to leave Velma's lips. Thankfully, Shaggy was closer to the knife than Headmistress Quinlan was, so he was able to grab the weapon, which was still covered in dried blood, out of the sink.
Velma heard the noise of the window sliding open, which her eyes quickly attributed to Dusk.
"We have to jump out the window! It's our only way to escape Quinlan!" Dusk exclaimed, busting out of the open window in a shockingly quick move.
"She's right!" Fred shouted, as he jumped out the window after Dusk.
"You should have put screens in the budget, Quinlan!" Velma could hear Dusk shout as she leaped out the window.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god." Luna panicked. She looked utterly terrified, and for extremely good reason. The idea of leaping out a window didn't thrill Velma either, but frighteningly, Dusk was right. Quinlan was clearly a crazed psychopath, and if they didn't jump, she would kill them.
Given it was from the second floor, it was at least a 25-foot drop, so what they were doing was extremely unsafe. However, the alternative of staying in a room with the homicidal Headmistress was even less safe.
One by one, the friends quickly leaped out of the window. First it was Thorn, then Daphne, then Luna, much to her disdain. Now, just Marcie, her and Shaggy were left.
"Marcie, are you able to jump?" Velma asked.
"My legs are a little numb, but I think so." Marcie stuttered. She winced as she leaped out the window, but a quick glance showed she made it.
Now, it was Velma's turn. Her general lack of athleticism caused her to worry about the jump in a different way than she guessed the others were. She worried that she was so clumsy and uncoordinated that she'd probably trip on the windowsill on her way out. The burst of adrenaline she felt to escape Headmistress Quinlan caused her to be able to easily get past her fears though, as she would quite literally die if she didn't jump immediately.
Velma felt her body tense up with panic as she freefell through the air to the ground. Thankfully, she smoothly landed on the grass on her rear end. A quick look around showed her that the others appeared unharmed as well.
"Is everyone okay?" Velma inquired, despite that her disorientation from falling 20 feet caused her to not even be sure if she was alright.
Everyone nodded their heads and gave a "yes."
"I'm not sure if Shaggy is, though. Look!" Thorn pointed up to the window. Shaggy was currently shuddering as he stood up on the windowsill with the knife, as Headmistress Quinlan began to walk towards the window and loom over him like a villain out of a horror movie.
"Shaggy, she's right behind you!" Fred shouted.
"I know you're scared, but you have to jump!" Daphne urged.
"Like, zoinks!" Shaggy cried, as he closed his eyes and jumped into the air. Watching Shaggy fall through the air as he jumped made Velma realize what she'd just done was even more terrifying than she had thought. Unluckily for Shaggy, he fell onto his back and let out an "ouch" as he hit the ground.
"C'mon guys, we've got to get moving!" Marcie exclaimed, as Headmistress Quinlan climbed onto the windowsill and prepared to jump out after them.
"Like, this has to be some kind of nightmare!" Shaggy whimpered, as he got up off the ground and began sprinting. Velma totally agreed with him, if she were entirely honest. This seemed more like a surreal hellscape than reality to her; she couldn't believe the Headmistress of their school had just jumped out a window and was chasing them in a murderous rage.
"Quick, back in the school!" Fred shouted to his friends. Velma had no idea whether or not Quinlan was still chasing them, but she wasn't going to take the time to stop sprinting in order to check.
"Like, are you crazy? Shouldn't we be going to the police?" Shaggy gasped.
"This is our best chance! Just trust me." Fred said, as he ran through the front door. Velma didn't really know what he had in mind, but she trusted her blond friend completely and did as he said. She agreed with him that running into town to get the police was not a smart idea. Given she was an adult and they were kids, Quinlan could catch up to them and make up some sort of story about them if they went to the police station. The most frightening thing to Velma was because Quinlan was an authority figure and they were kids, unless they found a way to catch her red-handed, the police would trust her instead of them.
If anyone would have told Fred a week ago that he'd be spending his first weeks at his new school running away from the Headmistress, who was dressed up like a ghoul, he would have said they were crazy. However, now Fred felt like the one who was going out of his mind. He ran as fast as he could.
"Like, I don't know how to tell anybody this, but I've got some bad news!" Shaggy shouted as he continued to run.
"What do you mean?" Thorn asked.
"I…uh…may have sort of dropped the knife." Shaggy informed in a nervous voice, before immediately launching into defense mode. "I'm so sorry! I'm, like, such a clumsy idiot! I should have given the knife to Fred."
"You dropped the knife?" Dusk snarled. "How could you do such an idiotic thing?"
"Now Quinlan will get us for sure!" Marcie cried out in a panic.
"Shaggy, it's okay." Daphne comforted. "Dusk, I know these aren't the right words as we're running away from a crazed maniac, but please calm down."
Fred didn't realize it was possible, but in the main entryway, he saw the person whom he feared the second-most, all while the person who he feared the most was chasing him. That second-most loathed person was Red Herring, who was currently loitering in the hallway.
"Hey Jones!" Red sneered in an annoying voice. "Why are you running? Oh wait, let me guess, it's because you sucked so badly that you realized you had to start practicing a year in advance just to make next year's team! Hahahaha!"
Red sure had a way of being just the perfect balance of annoying and cruel.
"I never thought I'd say this, but….like, not now, Red!" Shaggy shouted, as the gang kept running.
"Why'd Daphne say that she's running away from a maniac?" Red asked, in a way that did not express genuine curiosity, but rather in an attempt to get under their skin with a barrage of inane questions. "Are you the maniac, Shaggy? You're certainly weird enough to be in an insane asylum."
Fred was happy Shaggy didn't even dignify that horrible remark with a response; all of them just kept running and tried to ignore Red. They'd made their way past him now, but they could still hear him blabbering some nonsense. Fred tried to tune it out, as he obviously had other things to worry about. He wondered if Headmistress Quinlan had picked up the knife that Shaggy had dropped on the ground.
"Headmistress Quinlan?" Fred could hear Red exclaim. "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be in your office or something, doing paperwork?"
Red's tone was so mocking that it immediately irked Fred, even though he was not the recipient of Red's taunting.
"Out of my way!" Quinlan screamed, as a loud shriek could be heard from Red.
Well, that certainly answered his question. Fred didn't look behind himself to see how close Headmistress Quinlan was, as he knew it would only cause him to be even more anxious.
"He's dead." Dusk gasped. "Headmistress Quinlan killed Red Herring."
Fred hated himself for this, but he didn't feel entirely bad. He felt a small sense of delight within him, simply because Red was such a cruel person. Fred was aware that some bullies harassed others because they themselves felt disempowered, but Red just seemed cruel. He would intentionally say things that he knew would get under people's skin, and was regularly hateful to pretty much everyone around him. He'd never heard Red say a nice thing to anybody, ever. Still, Fred felt bad for feeling happy that Red was dead, as he didn't want to be the kind of person who was happy about others' extreme misfortune. In fact, he felt he was no better than Red for being happy about the bully's demise. Bullies took delight in other people's suffering, so by being glad that Red was gone, didn't that make Fred no better than Red?
"Mr. B's classroom is open." Marcie pointed out, quietly enough so that her friends could hear, but not Headmistress Quinlan.
"Let's go inside and shut the door." Velma whispered as she ran down the hall.
Fred doubted the plan would work, but it was the best idea they had. He didn't know how much longer he could keep up running, as they'd been sprinting ever since they jumped out the open window. He and the others quickly ducked into Mr. B's room.
"I don't think she saw us." Thorn whispered once they got in the room and shut the door. "I looked behind us, and she was still taking the knife out of Red."
"I can't believe she would kill a student right in front of our eyes! She must really be going out of her mind." Luna said.
The group panicked when they heard a voice behind them in the room. "What in the world are you kids talking about?"
Fred spun around to see Mr. B still at his desk, a stack of papers and a pen in front of him.
Daphne couldn't believe Mr. B was still in the classroom. How were they ever going to explain to him all the crazy stuff that was going on? The room was completely silent for a moment, as everybody looked lost for words. Daphne always wanted to be a cheerleader for her friends, and lift them up when they were down, sad, afraid, whathaveyou. However, now, even she wasn't sure how to explain any of this or defend her friends. She felt completely helpless, as she didn't even feel she had enough control over her own panic to be able to formulate a response. Mr. B seemed to like Headmistress Quinlan from their previous conversations, so she had no idea if he'd even believe them.
Nonetheless, Daphne's tendency for being the moral support for her friends overcame her fear. She decided to be the one to speak up, and try to explain this shocking situation in a way Mr. B would believe it.
"Mr. B…I didn't realize you were still here." Velma stuttered.
"Yeah, I needed to stay late to grade papers tonight." Mr. B informed. "The real question though is what are you kids doing here? And Marcie! Why are you here at 7 at night when you didn't even show up for class today?"
"I don't know how to tell you this, but we know who the murderer is…and she killed Red." Daphne stated. She thought it would be better to tread lightly at first, before detailing the full shocking story.
"Another student is dead?!" Mr. B exclaimed. "Oh lord. We need to tell Headmistress Quinlan immediately."
"I'm not sure how to tell you this either…but the murderer…it's Headmistress Quinlan. She's been doing all of this." Marcie stated.
"What? No, it can't be her. Why would the Headmistress of a school do any of this?" Mr. B shook his head.
"We don't know, but if you don't believe us, you might want to look out in the hall." Velma said, her voice quivering with anxiety.
Mr. B quickly set aside the paper he was working on grading, and scurried over to the door. Daphne feared the worst as he ventured out into the hall, but a quick peek outside showed her that same eerie silence they'd noticed so many times before after The Freak had attacked. Headmistress Quinlan was nowhere in sight.
"Well, I don't see anyone, but…oh good god." Mr. B gasped, when he saw Red's dead carcass at the end of the hall. He looked hesitant at first, but he began to walk towards the end of the hall to see Red's body. The eight teenagers were quick to follow. "You're right about Red, kids. But I just don't see why Headmistress Quinlan would be the one to do this. What proof do you have?"
"The most conclusive proof of all: we watched her do it." Marcie informed.
"You what?" Mr. B shouted. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I fully believe that Headmistress Quinlan would have done this."
"You're right to think that." a voice that sent chills down Daphne's spine said. Daphne rapidly realized it was Quinlan's voice. "These kids are lying to you. Red was teasing them a little, but it was just schoolyard-type teasing that was all in good fun. However, all of a sudden, I saw Fred get irrationally angry, and start punching Red in the face ruthlessly. Red begged him to stop, but he wouldn't. Shaggy and Luna actually held Red down while Fred kept punching him. I walked into the hallway to stop them just as Red was pleading for his life, but that's when Shaggy pulled a knife, and stabbed Red to death. I confiscated the knife from him, and was chasing them down the hallway so I could turn in Shaggy and his friends to the authorities."
"Like, I didn't do any of that!" Shaggy cried out, tears streaming down his eyes.
"Yes, you did." Headmistress Quinlan shouted firmly. "I was planning to bring the knife into the authorities so they could test it for DNA. Based on what I saw, I imagine they'll find Shaggy's DNA all over that knife."
Shaggy's jaw had completely dropped now. While Daphne didn't have a physical facial reaction, she was feeling equally as shocked and terrified. Because Shaggy had taken the knife briefly before dropping it, his DNA would be on the knife, and Headmistress Quinlan's fake story would check out. She could put Shaggy behind bars. Given her Pinocchio-grade lies, Daphne could easily see a scenario in which she had them all locked away. Because she was the authority, they'd believe her, and the kids would have no defense.
Just as Daphne felt like she was about to have a complete mental breakdown from the surreal situation they were in, an extremely unexpected voice chimed in with an equally unforeseen comment.
"No, he didn't." Mr. B firmly said, glaring at the Headmistress.
"What did you say?" Quinlan gasped.
"I don't mean to countermand your authority, Quinlan, but I've had these kids in my class the past week and a half. I don't know them too well yet, but I know them well enough to know that Shaggy would never do that." Mr. B sternly rebuked. "Shaggy's a nervous guy who seems to have a few self-esteem issues, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. He and Luna are two of the most mild-mannered students I've ever had, and I just can't see them holding someone down to kill them. You on the other hand - I have to admit I find it very suspicious that you haven't closed down the school, or sent kids home after there have been multiple confirmed murders here. There's been little to no communication to us teachers about what is being done about these crimes, besides generically saying you're working with the police. I'm tired of having to assure these kids every morning that things are going to be okay when their Headmistress isn't even doing that much to keep everybody safe. Even all of that aside, your story doesn't even make sense. You said Fred punched Red in the face, but I see no bruises anywhere on his face. Just a stab wound to the stomach. You've got a lot of explaining to do, Quinlan."
"I guess I do." Quinlan's face shifted from an authoritative and professional look to a dark, seething grimace. "I'll have to come up with a good explanation for the other teachers by tomorrow morning, about how you met your untimely demise trying to protect poor Red from the big bad murderer!"
"You're a monster." Mr. B gasped. Quite frankly, despite that Daphne knew Quinlan was the murderer, even she was close to gasping in shock. She couldn't believe Quinlan had just threatened to kill one of the teachers. She'd completely lost her grip on reality.
"Run for our room, guys! We need to hide in there!" Thorn suggested. Daphne found the black-haired girl's idea to be incredibly smart, and she expressed it in a way where everybody knew what she meant other than Headmistress Quinlan…and, as now became evident, Mr. B and Marcie.
"Don't tell her that!" Mr. B exclaimed.
"Yeah, now we'll have to find another hiding place!" Marcie cried out in frustration.
"Just trust us." Velma informed.
"Okay…if you say so." Marcie replied cautiously.
The group proceeded to run back to Velma and Thorn's room, where the trap was set for the unsuspecting Headmistress Quinlan. Little did she know, she was in for the surprise of her life…hopefully.
"Which one is Velma and Thorn's?" Mr. B inquired.
"It's this one right here." Daphne informed, as she glanced behind her. She expected to spring the trap as Headmistress Quinlan manically ran towards them, but she did not see any sign of the Headmistress.
"Like, I wish she'd stop disappearing like that! It makes me kinda nervous." Shaggy shuddered. He was clearly a bundle of nerves at this point.
"Kind of?" Thorn asked with a laugh.
"It feels weird suggesting this with a murderer potentially chasing us…but I guess we could wait and see if she comes? That way, we'll be ready." Fred suggested.
It did indeed feel like a weird suggestion to Daphne, but it felt like the most promising one for capturing the heinous Headmistress.
"Wait, did she seriously…disappear?" Marcie asked in confusion.
"Like, maybe she really is a ghost." Shaggy shuddered.
"Don't be silly, Shaggy." Velma rolled her eyes.
The group waited…and waited…and waited, but there was no sign at all of Headmistress Quinlan. It was like she'd completely vanished, despite chasing them in a manic rage a moment ago. Daphne could only assume she was disappearing like that to scare them even more, so that she could strike with the power of surprise and not take any chances of not capturing them. It was a frightening thought, but Daphne tried to push it from her mind.
"I never would have thought we'd be in the clear after Quinlan was just trying to murder us." Marcie remarked.
"We're not in the clear." Velma ominously said. "I think she's around here somewhere."
"We need to report this and get the police here." Mr. B stated. "I'll go up and tell the resident assistants to phone the police immediately. You kids can feel free to come with me, if you'd like."
"That's a good idea." Fred nodded. "No reason waiting here for Quinlan if she's not going to show for a while."
"Like, I have a creepy feeling she'll, like, show up when we least expect it." Shaggy gulped, as the group started walking.
The kids and Mr. B all arrived at the resident assistant office. Shaggy remembered how frightened he was up here in the midst of the incident with Dusk last night, but little did he know then, he'd be even more frightened now. His fear had been mounting the entire time he'd been at this school, to the point where he felt he was more afraid in this very moment than he'd ever been before in his entire life.
"Like, I'm ready to be done with this nightmare. Let's just call the cops and call it a night." Shaggy said. He didn't feel he particularly processed through that remark before he said it, due to his extreme anxiety.
"I'm not exactly sure we can 'call the cops and call it a night' after what we've been through, Shaggy." Daphne chuckled. "I see your point, though, and understand your reticence."
"I'd argue we have a responsibility to the other students to stop Quinlan and get her behind bars, before she kills again." Fred answered.
"I know." Shaggy hung his head. He felt bad for coming off as trying to brush off what Headmistress Quinlan had done. He was just really frightened. "I just want to, like, get out of this situation as fast as I can."
"Trust me, I think we all do." Mr. B sympathized. "I'll go talk to the resident assistant here. You kids wait outside."
"Oh, hello, Mr. B." John greeted. "What can I help you with?"
"We need to call the police immediately." Mr. B firmly stated. "A student named Red Herring has been murdered."
"Oh my god!" Will shouted, as he ran for the phone, immediately dialing the police. "Hello, 911? There's a student that's been murdered in our school!"
"I'd also like to phone the student's parents. Would you be able to give me their phone number?" Mr. B asked John while Will was on the phone with the police.
"The list is in Headmistress Quinlan's office, but I can open it for you since she's not here." John informed.
"Headmistress Quinlan's office?" Shaggy whispered. "Like, we don't want to go in there!"
"Actually, I think Mr. B has done us all a big favor." Daphne realized.
"She's right." Thorn added. "If we can get into Headmistress Quinlan's office, we can look around for clues of why she might have done this."
"Like, I came up empty the first time." Shaggy pointed out. With what a mad supergenius Headmistress Quinlan seemed to be, he couldn't imagine her leaving any loose ends around if she hadn't the first time.
"Right this way, Mr. B." John stated, as he led the teacher out the door. "Hey…I remember you kids from last night. Do you need help again too?"
"No, we're with Mr. B." Shaggy said. After the words left his lips, he questioned whether or not he should have said that. He didn't want to jeopardize their chances of letting Mr. B into Headmistress Quinlan's office by making it seem shady, or like they were going to search through her things.
"Those kids saw Red's body. I'm escorting them back to their rooms for safety after this." Mr. B stated. Shaggy was admittedly impressed with how much Mr. B cared about helping them, and made sure to include them in working towards taking down Quinlan. Shaggy felt most teachers would have told them to go hide in their rooms and called it a day, but he really admired how Mr. B treated them like adults.
"Man, I just can't get over how much has been going on ever since Orientation Day." John said.
"What happened on Orientation Day?" Mr. B inquired, as they walked through the hall to get to Headmistress Quinlan's office.
"You might remember that the school was supposed to get a Welker Grant. Well, the delivery of the check was supposed to happen the day before Orientation. However, that all got messed up, and it ended up happening the day after Orientation instead. It seems the driver got his calendar mixed up." John informed. "That same day, Elliott Blender was murdered."
"Very interesting." Mr. B simply replied. His face looked deep in thought for a moment, before he snapped out of it as John unlocked the door to the Headmistress's office.
"Alright, here you go. Lock the door behind you. Do you want me to escort the kids back to their rooms? I remember where one of their rooms is from last night." John mentioned.
"No, I've got it. Thank you, though." Mr. B assured.
"You're very welcome. The police will call us when they get here, so I'm going back to our office to watch for their phone call." John informed, as he began walking away. "Thank you for taking care of this!"
"No problem." Mr. B smiled. "Thanks for letting me in."
The kids all waited outside as Mr. B went into Headmistress Quinlan's office. Shaggy figured it was probably smartest to wait outside for a bit until John walked a safe distance away, so he didn't suspect anything was amiss. They couldn't exactly explain that the culprit was Headmistress Quinlan without him questioning it, and they didn't have time to convince him that the school Headmistress was behind all of this at the moment.
"That was a smart idea getting into Quinlan's office." Dusk whispered.
"Quinlan mentioned some ransom notes she received, and she briefly showed them to us." Fred quickly followed Dusk's remark. "I'd be curious to see those again, if you could find them, Mr. B."
"I think John's gone now." Mr. B informed. "You can feel free to come in and take a look yourself. I thought it'd be a good idea to get into Quinlan's office to see if we could find anything incriminating on her."
"Like, I hate to admit this, but we already did that." Shaggy gulped.
"You mean you've suspected Quinlan for a while?" Mr. B gasped.
"Well, it's complicated." Fred explained.
"We sort of thought it was her at first when Elliott was murdered, but then we were convinced it was Marcie." Thorn tried to further clarify.
"Which is why we were extra shocked that it ended up being Quinlan after all." Daphne added.
"Sounds like you kids have been on one heck of a confusing journey." Mr. B lightly chuckled.
"Well, hopefully it will all be over soon."
"There may not have been anything in here before, but John provided an extremely helpful clue that may have cracked this whole case wide open." Velma pointed out.
"What do you mean, Velma?" Marcie wondered.
"I think I know what she means." Fred mentioned. "He mentioned the Welker Grant check coming in on the same day as Elliott was killed. What do you want to bet it was something to do with that?"
Mr. B rapidly dug through the top of Quinlan's desk, which was absolutely littered with papers. Shaggy remembered the stress of having to dig through Quinlan's extremely messy desk before, and worrying that he was putting everything back in the right place. Thankfully, this time, Mr. B would not have to worry about that, as Quinlan would hopefully be in jail soon.
Velma, Fred and Daphne began helping Mr. B search. There were at least 100 papers scattered across Quinlan's large desk, so it would take a bit of examining of each paper to see if it was useful.
"I think I found something!" Luna exclaimed. "There's a bank receipt here for $30,000. I think this is the grant money, and it shows it's been cashed."
"Let me see that receipt." Mr. B inquired, as the redhead handed it to him. "Wait a minute…this isn't the school's account! It says it was deposited directly into the account of Vanessa Quinlan."
"So that's what she's up to! That freak stole from the school!" Dusk deduced.
"That's not all she took." Thorn pointed out. "Look at these other receipts. There was a $2,000 alumni donation for the art department, another $1,500 donation for the football team, and a $1,000 scholarship fund. All of it should have gone to the school, but this receipt shows all of these funds were deposited directly into that same bank account as the grant money."
"So that's why she did it! Quinlan was embezzling money from the school!" Mr. B exclaimed. "Maybe you kids don't know this, but Quinlan was a teacher here for a few years before becoming Headmistress this fall. She always complained at faculty meetings about how teachers didn't get paid enough. Looks like she took that sentiment to heart a little too much, because she was stealing funds from the school."
"But, like, why kill people?" Shaggy asked. "That takes things to the next level!"
Shaggy could have jumped straight out the two story window when he heard the voice that responded to his comment. Quinlan had dressed up in The Freak costume again, and was standing in the doorway, speaking in that awful raspy voice that frightened Shaggy to death.
"Because, Elliott saw those receipts when I foolishly dropped one of them, and told his friend about it. Both of them had to pay for what he saw! Nobody could ever know, and they won't, once I get rid of you!" The Freak growled.
"What is that thing?" Mr. B exclaimed. He had mostly kept his composure prior to this, but Shaggy could sense panic in his voice.
"That's Headmistress Quinlan!" Dusk informed. "She's been dressing up in that costume to scare us and commit her murders."
"Well, it certainly does the trick." Mr. B shuddered. "It looks like something out of a horror movie!"
"You shall soon suffer their horrific fate!" The Freak shouted, as she lunged over the desk at Mr. B and all the kids with her excessively large knife. Shaggy was thankfully standing the closest to the outside of the desk. Despite that he felt like he should be too paralyzed with fear to move, with a burst of adrenaline, he grabbed the receipts off the table and rushed through the door while The Freak was backing the others into a corner.
"Hey Freak! I've got your receipts!" Shaggy yelled. Shaggy was quite surprised at his own courage to taunt The Freak like that. However, he knew if he hadn't done that, The Freak inevitably would have captured everybody else and killed them. He knew the receipts would be enough to lure The Freak away. It admittedly took all the courage he had, but he let The Freak chase him down the stairs and to the first floor. He admittedly had very little confidence about how to work the trap, but he remembered Fred's explanation and had to hope that would be enough. He was pretty sure Fred had said to just pull the little strand of dental floss to spring the trap, so once he reached Velma's room, that's what he did. He leaped into Velma's room, to which the door was thankfully still open. He now finally realized why Fred had made the trap so elaborate: it provided just enough time for Shaggy to get into the room without the trap springing immediately.
Shaggy hadn't bothered to even look behind him to see whether or not The Freak was still chasing him, which he realized maybe he should have. However, he knew it would only scare him more to do that, and he needed all the courage he could get to make this trap work.
He felt his heart practically pounding out of his chest as he ran into Velma's room, hoping he hadn't lured himself into certain doom. The shaggy-haired man spun around in horror as he heard a loud roar behind him. At first, his terrified brain assumed that it was a roar of anger. However, once he mentally processed the sound in his brain, he realized something: the roar seemed almost like surprise or panic. Shaggy spun around, expecting the worst. When he looked at The Freak, his anxiety shockingly turned to relief. The trap had worked. The Freak currently had Fred's mother's mesh laundry bag over the entire top half of her body, which served as a net that immobilized her. He had captured The Freak of Crystal Cove High!
Shaggy was quickly met with the excited faces of his friends and Mr. B as they rushed into the room.
"You did it, Shaggy!" Marcie exclaimed, rushing up to give him a hug.
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it! You captured Headmistress Quinlan!" Daphne exclaimed.
"Great job, Norville!" Mr. B added in an impressed voice. "You're a hero to this entire school!"
Shaggy couldn't believe it. All along, he'd doubted whether he could even be of any help to his friends as they tried to solve the mystery of The Freak, due to his extreme fear and anxiety. Shaggy wasn't sure if he'd ever felt more proud of himself when the feeling sunk in that he'd not only helped, he'd single-handedly captured a murderer. Maybe he wasn't so much of a loser after all. There was no doubt that in this situation, Mr. B was right. Shaggy was a hero.
Thanks to Will calling previously, the police arrived quite quickly after Headmistress Quinlan had been captured. Shaggy was overjoyed that he had been successful, especially given he'd never planned any of this. He was still quite shocked that he felt such a surge of adrenaline when he saw his friends in trouble, but he knew if he hadn't gotten Quinlan to go after him, she likely would have kidnapped or even killed all of his friends. Maybe he was braver than he thought.
Two cops, one male and one female cop, had removed the laundry bag from Headmistress Quinlan's head, and put handcuffs around her hands. The female cop, named Johnson, who had red hair, firmly held her arm around Quinlan so she couldn't escape.
"So you mean to tell me the Headmistress of this school was behind the murderers all along?" the male cop, who had said his name was Stone, exclaimed in shock. He donned a blue uniform, and had brown hair.
"I can vouch for these kids, and yes, she was." Mr. B confirmed. "We also have video evidence on the surveillance camera of her admitting guilt, and we also have the receipts to prove she embezzled thousands of dollars from the school."
"She wrote those fake notes to throw people off the trail. When you knew we were onto you, you dressed up as The Freak of Crystal Cove High to scare us away from investigating." Fred explained, pointing at Quinlan. "You also planted that bow for us, didn't you, Quinlan?"
"Yes, I did." Quinlan scowled. "When I accidentally dropped that key, I knew you nosy kids would probably find it and suspect me again. I had to throw you off the trail and get you to suspect someone else. When I kidnapped Marcie, I took the bow out of her hair, and planted it outside Velma and Thorn's window. I figured you'd find that as well, and then suspect Marcie instead of me."
"I have to admit, I was starting to question Quinlan as well." Mr. B admitted. "I didn't suspect her of being capable of the murderers, but it was suspicious to me that she claimed police would be increasing enforcement around here, yet we never actually saw any police after the first incident."
"I had to make everybody think I had the situation under control, so I lied and said I called the police after the second murder and the kidnappings. In reality, the police were only called for the first incident, and because I was lucky enough that Elliott had a heart condition, I was able to play it off that his death was from that condition." Quinlan begrudgingly explained. "And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"
"You'll have a long time to think about what you did in jail, Quinlan." Stone said, as he and Johnson began bringing Quinlan outside to the police car. "Kids, Mr. B, I can't thank you enough for what you did here. Particularly you, Norville. The school owes you a great debt of gratitude."
"She's right, Shaggy." Fred smiled. "You're a hero!"
This made Shaggy feel warm inside. There was no doubt Shaggy had poor self-esteem, but even he couldn't deny that what he and his friends had done was truly something to be proud of. Together, with his friends, he'd solved the mystery and put Quinlan safely behind bars. They were all heroes.
Author's note:
And that just about wraps things up for this fanfic! I hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it. It was fun getting to channel all the things that I would have liked to see in Velma into this fanfic, and while I'm disappointed we didn't get that in the actual show, I had a lot of fun creating what I would have liked to see in an adult Scooby-Doo show. Should they ever try to create an adult Scooby show again, I think it would be important for them to make a show using darker themes and a more mature message, rather than using cheap "adults only" gimmicks and going for the shock factor. I would much prefer a mature Scooby-Doo show to be in the vein of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, or the recent Addams Family spinoff Wednesday than I would get another terrible show like Velma.
If you didn't catch the little Easter Egg at the end of this chapter, the cop named Stone was intended to be a reference to Sheriff Stone from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
I hope nobody was too disappointed that I didn't include Scooby. I wanted to, but I didn't feel there was any realistic way to have him fit in this story, given a boarding school wouldn't allow dogs. As I'm sure you noticed, there was a nod to him at the end of this chapter when Shaggy mentioned his mother was getting him a Great Dane. I wanted to at least reference Scooby at some point in the story even if he wasn't included, rather than doing what Velma did, which was mocking him by showing his corpse buried underground.
There will be an epilogue that I will post next week. Just to be transparent so nobody's disappointed, the epilogue will be significantly shorter than the usual 5,000-10,000 words that the chapters have been.
In the meantime, if you want to share your thoughts or feedback, any reviews, likes/kudos, and favorites/follows are always greatly appreciated! Thanks so much to everyone for reading!