Chapter 1: Preface
Velma reached out in the darkness for something - anything - but her hands only grasped air. Trying to steady her breathing, she backed up into the corner of the dank basement, cursing her luck. Usually Daphne was the one who fell through trap doors and false walls. Though Velma was sure that even Daphne had never stumbled into something this gruesome. If she stayed against the wall, she wouldn't have to see that butcher's table again.
Her stomach turned at the mere thought and she sank to the ground.
She needed to get out of here. But that was hard to do when she couldn't see two feet in front of her. And of course, it didn't help that she'd lost her glasses in her hurry to get away from the butcher's table.
Bile rose in her throat, and she forced her mind to think about something else. Her glasses would have to stay down here - there was no way she could go back for them. Besides, Shaggy had her spare glasses. She just needed to find him, even if she was still upset.
"Velma?"
Daphne's voice! It was far away - definitely not in the basement. It sounded like it was coming from the top of the stairs. But which way were the stairs? Velma stumbled in the direction she thought the staircase was, but bumped into something - a bookcase, or a cabinet? - and the contents crashed to the ground.
"Relma!"
That was unmistakably Scooby's voice, coming from the same direction as Daphne's.
"I'm here!" she called, picking herself up from the floor.
"Are you alright?" Nova this time, her normally calm voice uncharacteristically anxious.
Velma nodded, even though obviously none of her friends could see it. "I'm okay. But I can't see anything - it's too dark. Can you get me out of here?"
"I think the door is locked from your side," Fred spoke up. Velma heard him jiggling a handle. "We could try to break it down."
"No!" Velma shouted, panicked. She couldn't let them down here, not after what she'd seen. "Keep talking, I'll make my way up the stairs so I can try to unlock the door. I lost my glasses though - is Shaggy there? He should have my spare ones."
There was long silence from the other side of the door.
"Hello?" Velma called.
"He's not with you?" asked Daphne, her tone worried.
"No!" Velma cried. "Why would he be with me?"
"He was with you when we split up," Fred reminded her.
Of course, the others didn't know that Shaggy and Velma had argued and stormed away from each other. All anger forgotten, Velma's heart hammered in her chest. "He's not here," she told them. "I'm alone."
She heard Scooby whimper. "Rhere's Raggy?" he worried.
Velma's breath came in short, rapid bursts as she sank to the ground again, remembering the grisly sight on the butcher's table. She hadn't paid very close attention to the gore. But her mind went back to what she'd read in the Book of the Dead that morning. What if…?
No. No. She would not entertain the thought. Witches weren't real. That book wasn't real. The stories in it weren't real. They couldn't be, no matter what the gang had seen in this town.
But then where was Shaggy?
"Scooby, you and Nova go find him," she called, trying to keep her voice steady.
There was no answer. Maybe they'd already gone.
"Fred? Daph?" Velma called again. "Are you still there?"
But they didn't respond either.
"Guys?" Velma yelled. "Hello?"
Still nothing.
Heart pounding, she called them twice more, but they didn't answer. They were gone, and she was alone.
Suddenly, through her blurry vision, Velma became aware of a movement in her periphery. She whirled around and gasped. A strange figure on the other side of the room seemed to materialize out of thin air. Velma didn't need her glasses to know that it was the pale woman. She curled against the wall in fear, remembering now. This was how her story had ended. Trapped in a dark room with her friends incapacitated, the boy she loved gone, and a pale, spectral figure gliding ever closer.