Sponge: Welcome back, and thanks to those who have reviewed! Warnings for this week include more weird May-December stuff and a reference to cannibalism (someone is rumored to have eaten a human toe, but that scene is not actually described in any great detail). Enjoy this chapter! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna Barbera.

Chapter 9: The Big Toe

Fred and Daphne blinked in confusion. "What do you mean Ben called you?" Daphne asked.

After Velma had hung up, she had raced out from under the umbrella to where Fred and Daphne were sunning themselves, Shaggy following reluctantly, and hurriedly explained what had happened.

"He says he wants to come over," Velma finished. "There's a new story in the book. It has something to do with Gary."

Fred furrowed his brow. "Gary? Ethan's friend?"

Velma nodded. "He's going to meet us at the beach house in twenty minutes. Do you guys want to come?"

Shaggy did not want to come. After the way Ben had treated them this morning, particularly Velma, he'd thought they were done with the man. But Velma, who was usually famous for holding a grudge, had apparently decided to forgive and forget now that the mystery was continuing.

Fred and Daphne looked a little skeptical too, but nodded all the same. "I'll go let Brad know we're heading back," Fred offered.

"Don't tell him what's going on," Velma pleaded.

"I won't," Fred promised, heading to the shoreline where Brad and Ricky were heading out on their boogie boards.

Shaggy sighed and glanced down the coast to see the women walking back with the dogs.

"I'll like, go get Scooby and Nova," he said, resignedly.

x.X.x

Twenty minutes later, the gang was back at the beach house with Ben, who had brought along the Book of the Dead. They sat in the kitchen with the book open, Ben looking alarmed.

"I don't know how it happened," he explained to them. "After I left here this morning, I went back to my beach house and put the book down. I didn't touch it for several hours. When I looked at it again…there was another story written on the page next to Harold. It's called The Big Toe."

The gang was reading the newest short story. It was about a young man – Gary – who had discovered a mysterious pot of stew in his refrigerator. The stew appeared to contain the big toe of a corpse, but Gary was hungry and ate it anyway. Velma's eyes widened as she read aloud, chilled.

"Gary was alone in his room when he heard a rattling voice calling from far away. 'Who…took…my…big…toe?' it said."

Ben nodded. "From there, the corpse gets closer and closer until it's inside his house, and then inside his bedroom. And then it attacks him." He shuddered. "I know it doesn't sound like much, but after you told me about what happened with your friend Ethan and the scarecrow, I read the story for myself…" He looked at them all penitently. "I really do owe you all an apology," he told them. "I'm so sorry for the way I acted this morning. I know now that obviously none of you had anything to do with the stories written in the book. But in any case…you have my deepest apologies."

"Thank you," Velma said, brows still furrowed as she scrutinized the page.

"We appreciate that Ben," Daphne replied sincerely.

Shaggy shared an incredulous look with Scooby, who merely shrugged.

Fred cleared his throat. "As it happens," he said. "We do know someone named Gary. He's Ethan's friend. We just saw him this morning – he was helping to look for Ethan at the vineyard."

Ben's brows creased. "Do you have any way to check on him?" he asked.

Nova shook her head. "No," she said. "We don't have his contact information."

Shaggy glanced down at the table, where his phone was laying. He didn't really want to do this – he wanted to leave well enough alone and let this mystery go unsolved. But with Ethan missing and Gary potentially hurt, it seemed cruel to do nothing. "Actually," he said. "I like, might have a way to find out." He picked up his phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Mai Le," he said, purposefully avoiding Velma's gaze. "Like it's Shaggy."

"Hi Shaggy!" Mai Le exclaimed. "Are we still on for this evening?"

Shaggy paused. In the wake of the revelation about Ben's character, he had been starting to regret his rash decision to go on a date with Mai Le. But now Ben was back and everyone seemed keen to forgive him. Shaggy was still on the fence. He didn't want to get into all that now though, so he bypassed her question. "Um listen," he said. "You don't happen to know where Gary lives, do you?"

"Gary?" Shaggy heard the confusion in Mai Le's voice. "Why?"

"We like…need to ask him something. In person." Shaggy knew it would be better for everyone if they could see that Gary was okay with their own eyes.

"Well…all right." Mai Le sounded a bit skeptical, but she gave Gary's address, which Shaggy dutifully repeated. Ben punched it into the GPS on his phone.

"That's not too far from here," he announced. "Would you like a ride? I'd be happy to drive you."

The gang glanced at each other, shrugging. "Okay," Fred agreed.

The ride to Gary's was indeed short. Less than fifteen minutes later, Ben's van had pulled up in front of a quaint two-story home on a quiet suburban street. He parked on the curb as everyone got out.

"No cars in the driveway," Fred observed. "Including Gary's."

Ben glanced over at him. "What does his car look like?"

"Blue," Fred answered. "Dark blue. I think maybe it's a Honda Odyssey."

Shaggy looked at him incredulously. "Like how do you know that?" he asked.

Fred shrugged. "He gave us a ride home last night, remember?"

"Well yeah, but like I don't remember the exact make and model of the car. I don't even know what the Mystery Machine is."

Fred looked aghast. "You don't know what kind of car the Mystery Machine is?!"

"What's the Mystery Machine?" asked Ben.

"It's our van," Fred replied, still looking at Shaggy in disbelief. "We've had it for years."

"I think it's a Chevrolet G-body panel van," Daphne spoke up.

Velma shook her head. "I thought it was a Dodge A100."

Shaggy and the dogs stared at the girls, a little awestruck.

"You're both wrong," Fred told them gently. "It's a 1972 Bedford CF." He looked over at Shaggy. "It belonged to you first! I can't believe you didn't know what kind of car it is."

Scooby snickered, and Ben continued watching them all with mild amusement. But Nova was staring at the closed garage door.

"Speaking of cars," she said softly. "I think Gary's is in the garage."

Everyone looked in her direction. "How can you tell?" asked Ben.

"I can smell it," Nova replied.

"Re too," Scooby realized. The scent was permeating from under the garage door – he couldn't believe he hadn't recognized it earlier.

"So maybe Gary's home after all?" Velma suggested.

Fred walked up the path to the front porch and rang the doorbell. "Gary?" he called, peeking through the sidelight beside the front door. When no one answered, he knocked – and was astonished to find that the door swung open under his touch.

He glanced behind him at the others, who were all staring in alarm.

"The door's open," he said needlessly.

It seemed inevitable that they'd all go inside.

The group tread cautiously through the front door, glancing at their surroundings. Gary's house was neat and tidy, with a small entry hall leading further into the house, where a cozy kitchen and living room waited beyond the stairs to the second floor.

Fred opened a door on the right. "This is the garage," he said. "And Gary's car is in there." The others peeked over his shoulder to see that he was right – the dark blue van was indeed parked in the garage. "And it is a Honda Odyssey," he went on.

"Not the time, Fred," Velma murmured, walking further into the house.

"Gary?" Daphne called tentatively.

A sudden gasp from the kitchen startled everyone. "Zoinks!" Shaggy exclaimed. Of course he and Scooby had headed right for the room where the food was kept, and in doing so had made an upsetting discovery.

There was a large pot on the stove, still warm from being heated up recently. And it was empty, apart from…

"Oh my God!" Daphne shrieked, covering her mouth. "Are those…toenails?!"

"Okay, that's actually disgusting," Velma murmured. She backed away from the stove looking slightly green.

"What the hell?" Fred gazed into the pot, nauseated and tense.

"You don't think…" Shaggy gazed at his friends. "...Gary actually ate toe soup, do you?"

Velma, who had taken the book back from Ben earlier, took it out of her messenger bag now and flipped through it. "He did according to this story."

Daphne glanced at her friend uneasily. "What exactly does it say happened to him at the end?"

Velma's eyes darted back and forth behind her glasses as she re-read the story. "Well, the corpse comes looking for him in the house, makes its way upstairs until it reaches his bedroom, calling out 'who took my toe' the whole time, and he goes to hide under the bed." At this point, she took over reading the narrative as written. "Gary scrambled under the bed. He tried to muffle his breathing by clamping a hand over his mouth, as his bedroom door slowly creaked open. Gary shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see whatever was about to come through the door."

Shaggy put a hand on Scooby's head to reassure himself. Scooby himself trembled with fright.

"When the creaking of the door stopped," Velma read on. "Gary opened his eyes at last. But he saw nothing in the room. He looked around, trying to steady his breath, but could only see the silent, empty room. There was no decaying corpse stumping her way into the room on her hindered foot. Unless…" Velma trailed off, eyes growing large.

"Unless what?" Fred whispered, in spite of himself.

Velma swallowed and continued reading. "Unless it was on top of the bed, above him," she read, her voice very quiet. "The thought seized Gary's heart in fear as he slowly crawled out from under the bed and pulled himself up to a sitting position to cautiously look up on the mattress."

Daphne clutched Fred's hand, and even Nova looked unnerved, holding her breath in anticipation.

"But there was nothing," Velma read. "With a sigh of relief, Gary moved to finish sliding out from under the bed. But suddenly, he felt something grab his legs under the bed, something cold and strong and dead. The thing violently dragged him back under the bed, and –"

A sudden shout from upstairs interrupted the story, causing all of them to scream with fright. They jumped together impulsively, gazing in apprehension at the staircase, where heavy footsteps were racing down.

They breathed a collective sigh of relief when they realized it was just Ben. "Jinkies," Velma gasped, relaxing significantly. "You scared us, Ben. I didn't realize you'd gone upstairs."

He grimaced apologetically. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. But I think you all had better come take a look at this."

Cautiously, the gang followed him back upstairs, bypassing a few closed doors for an open one at the end of the hall. The soccer paraphernalia and the Fighting Urchins pennant identified this room at Gary's. A wooden desk sat underneath the airy window, and a short bureau was against the opposite wall. Directly in front of them was a full-size bed with oak-paneled baseboards and an unmade comforter.

"What did you find?" Velma asked Ben.

In response, he pointed to the hardwood floor beneath the bed, and everyone crouched down to examine it.

Daphne gasped. "Jeepers," she breathed.

Marks etched into the wood trailed beneath the bed, which was dark and empty. But the marks looked an awful lot like they'd been made from fingernails.

Like someone had been dragged away against their will, and been fighting to save themselves with all their might.

x.X.x

At Ben's insistence, they called the police. Fred was not happy about this development. He never wanted to hinder an investigation, but in his experience, law enforcement should only ever be called as a last resort. Ben was adamant though, so about ten minutes after they'd discovered the marks, Officer Johnson and several other members of the force arrived, looking disgruntled.

"What are you kids doing here?" he asked the gang, arching a critical eyebrow.

"I brought them here, Officer," Ben spoke up, putting a hand on his chest as a way of taking responsibility. He explained that they had found mysterious fingernail marks upstairs and assumed that Gary was missing or in trouble. He deftly avoided explaining how the gang had entered the home in the first place. Daphne wondered idly if the cops would ask.

They didn't. "We'll take a look around," Johnson said. "In the meantime, please wait here on the porch. Do not re-enter the residence without our express permission."

The cops walked into the house, leaving the others to wait on the porch as asked. Ben paced the length, seemingly deep in thought. Velma watched him. "What are you thinking?" she asked him at last.

Ben came to a halt right in front of her, looking serious. "I'm thinking that two young men have gone missing in the space of less than twenty-four hours," he replied. "And I'm thinking that stories about two young men sharing their names appeared in that book." He pointed at the messenger bag that was slung over Velma's shoulder, which of course held the Book of the Dead. She followed his gesture, then looked back up at him to find him gazing at her intently. "And I'm thinking that it can't be a coincidence," he finished.

Velma nodded. "I'm thinking the same," she agreed.

Fred sighed, leaning against the railing of the porch. "I don't think it's a coincidence either," he admitted. "But how are these stories being written in the book?"

Ben looked at Velma's shoulder bag. "How often have the cases you've solved turned out to actually deal with supernatural beings?" he asked. His eyes were still grim, but his tone was facetious.

Velma snorted, unable to help herself. "Never," she replied. "Ghosts aren't real. Neither are witches." She smirked at him, a bit flirtatiously. "I respect you as a writer," she told him. "But if you think the spirit of Sarah Ravencroft has anything to do with what's going on, I'm afraid I'll have to question your sanity."

Ben laughed, and the sound set Shaggy's teeth on edge. "All right, my clever girl," he said, smiling wickedly at Velma. "What do you think is a logical explanation?"

"I'm not sure," Velma admitted. "But all the cases we've solved in the past have had logical explanations. Why shouldn't this one?"

Ben nodded slowly. "Why shouldn't this one indeed?" he murmured in agreement.

Officer Johnson appeared in the doorway at that moment. "We couldn't find any signs of a struggle," he said to Ben.

Daphne stared at him, flabbergasted. "What do you mean you couldn't find any signs of a struggle?" she repeated. "What about the fingernail marks on the floor?"

"Inconclusive," was Johnson's maddening response.

Fred made an exasperated sound. "What, so you're just going to do nothing?"

Officer Johnson narrowed his eyes. "Of course not," he replied, deadly calm. "We are going to open up an official police investigation to get to the bottom of this."

Shaggy glanced at Velma's bag. With a case like this, law enforcement should really have all the clues, right? But he knew he couldn't bring up the book. The police would never believe that there was a correlation between the stories and the disappearances, no matter how damning the evidence.

"We'd like to be involved," Fred began, but Officer Johnson laughed in his face.

"Fat chance, Cornhusk," he said. "You and your friends are impeding the investigation already. Besides, don't you think it's odd that this quiet little seaside town has seen no major scandals or crimes in several years, but the week that you all show up, two boys go missing?"

Velma frowned, confused. "What do you mean there have been no major scandals or crimes? I thought Crystal Cove was said to be the most haunted place on earth."

"Yeah," Johnson replied. "The most haunted place, not the most-likely-to-get-disappeared place." He pointed a thin finger at the group. "You're going to back off of this case, my young friends. I know Ricky and Cassidy have vouched for you, and I like them enough. But if I see you at any of my crime scenes again, then I swear to God I'll have you arrested."

Sponge: Thanks for reading! Keep those reviews coming! See you next week, friends!