Once Upon a Midnight Dreaming I woke up to a ghostly screaming
so I gazed into the crystal ball to see what was new.
And what I saw was truly shocking!
The Demon Chest it was Unlocking!
Unlocking the thirteen ghosts of Scooby Doo.
...
In a decrepit ghastly temple, two spirits lazed. One looked like a glove stretched into a human shape with red eyes a crooked nose and a deep sneering frown. The shorter of the two was round almost perfectly like a ball.
"Du' Weird, You here that?" The shorter of the ghosts asked his companion, "What is it?"
"It's the thirteen ghosts inside the chest of demons, they sense mortals close by and want out, Bogel,"
"I don't see any mortals..." Bogel leaned out the crumbling window.
"They come by air," Weird replied, "We're going to make them stop here"
"How?"
"With a little magic, what else? Now, stand back"
...
Meanwhile, In the bluest of skies, a modest red twin-engine plane whizzed. Inside, Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers sat in the pilot seat already dreaming of the golden sandy beaches of Hawaii. The Mystery Inc. gang was on an unexpected break after a terrible falling out. As always Shaggy was accompanied by his best buddy, Scooby-Doo, dressed for their beach vacation in a flower-printed shirt and yellow sunglasses with a map in his paws. Behind the bigger dane was one Scrappy Doo excited to spend time with his favorite uncle.
"Scoob?" Shaggy peered at the snowy mountain landscape below them, "Can I see the map?"
"Sure Raggy," Scooby handed it over.
"Scoob this is a map to the himilayas we're like, seven thousand miles in the wrong direction"
"Rorry,"
"That's okay, Bud, we can like, go snowboarding instead"
Right as he said this, engine one started to make an unwelcome noise slowing to a complete stop much to Scooby's horror as he began nervously chewing his claws.
"Like, this isn't the time to panic Scoob, we still have engine two"
"Uh," Scrappy piped, "I wouldn't count on that..."
Engine two had also died.
"Now this is the time to panic," Shaggy amended his earlier statement as the plane took a nosedive toward the snowy terrain below. Desperately he engaged the landing gear, fighting to regain control over the aircraft, a town coming quickly into view below them, sadly however, the wheels had no traction on the ice so they sped dangerously toward a frightened crowd of locals, crashing into carts of oxen along the way.
"Like, time for plan B," Shaggy tossed the Doos each a parachute, the trio scrambling for the door.
Scooby pulled the ripcord too early causing the cabin to fill with his bright yellow rubber ducky. With an unexpected, unexplained burst of strength, Shaggy managed to push the massively suffocating thing out of the door where it caught the plane's tailwind taking Scooby, clinging dangerously to the wing with it. The plane slid through town picking up animals and a stowaway before finally stopping in front of an old temple, the ducky parachute becoming tangled on tilted statues.
"Finally," the trio discarded their parachutes hopping from the plane into the thick cold powdery snow.
"The plane's out of gas," Shaggy noticed, "That's odd I like, was sure I filled it up," he scratched his head confusedly, "How are we supposed to get to Hawaii now?"
"Maybe I can be of service?" A smiling Hispanic boy in a yellow hoodie and sweats with red sneakers tugged Shaggy's arm, "My name's Flim-Flam"
"And how can you help us gt to Hawaii?"
"Simple, I'll just call my travel agent.." Flim-Flam started to dial.
"FREEZE YOU'RE ALL UNDER ARREST!" A gangly mustached man in a constable uniform shouted.
"Like. What's the charge officer?"
"Crashing in a no crashing zone as well as aiding this fast-talking fugative"
The rag-tag group was marshaled to an antique courthouse already crowded with residents who seemed to have stepped from a history book based on their style of hair and dress.
"So tell me," Shaggy whispered to Flim-Flam, "Why are they like, mad at you?"
"I'm kinda a travlin sales person," the boy shrugged, pulling a glass bottle with a label reading Lots A Luck from his hoodie pocket, "No buyers, shame too, this stuff does everything, breaks curses, hexes, evil spells, shampoos, conditions and refuels, I have an entire cart in the square"
"Order in the court!"
There wasn't much of a court case, the townspeople already decided they were guilty without trial by jury so they were forced to wait for whatever sentence they were given. Scooby hides behind Shaggy's legs while keeping hold of Scrappy's collar to keep the wily pup from acting out.
"I want you all out of town by sundown!" the gray-haired portly mayor in a blue suit and top hat that had seen better days thundered with a scowl.
"Like, no problem, your honor we'll be gone as soon as we can refuel our plane-"
"Plane or no plane I want you all OUT! the last stagecoach leaves at sundown! Be gone by then!"
"Y-Yes sir, come on guys!"
The group skeddaled as far from the town as they could get. Back to where they left the plane only to find it gone.
"Like, it didn't grow legs and walk away," Shaggy face-palmed.
"It looks like someone dragged it inside that temple, Shaggy," Scrappy pointed out the wheel tracks in the snow.
Shaggy gulped. The place screamed abandon all hope ye who enter here but they had to get the plane back. Trying the weathered doors with rusted ugly knockers revealed the temple to be locked up tight.
"Hey, don't worry guys, I've got a friend in town that knows everything about this temple, c'mon"
What choice did they have but to follow the strange but cheerful kid back into town leaving a pair of disgruntled ghosts behind?
...
"YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO LOCK THE DOOR!" Weird choked Bogel angrily.
"Sorry, I forgot," Bogel wheezed dramatically.
"JUST UNLOCK IT YOU DOLT!"
...
Back into town they went ignoring the unwelcome sneers of the townspeople. Flim Flam led them into a shadowy saloon, bypassing the bar and tables he knocked on a door.
"Vince, you here?" he called.
"Come in, Flim-Flam"
The door opened with a shuddering moan into a small dark room filled with oddly colored smoke and bizarre smells. The only light came from a small rectangular window casting the waning sunshine on the floor. In the center of this room, a cauldron bubbled, behind the cauldron stood a tall gray-haired man with intense blue eyes in sorcery robes.
"So, Flim-Flam, what trouble did you get into...this...time..." the man started to ask only to stop, his mouth dropping open with surprise, "Shaggy?"
"Do I like, know you?"
"No, I suppose you wouldn't you were very little the last time we saw each other," with a wave of his hand the cauldron disappeared, replaced by a round table and chairs, "I'm your uncle Vincent, come sit, we have plenty of catching up to do"
"This is your nephew?" Flim-Flam was more surprised than Shaggy, "The werewolf?"
"Half, Flim-Flam, half," Vincent corrected right as Shaggy said:
"WHAT? I can't be a-a-a-"
"You're birthmark says otherwise," Vincent chuckled as they sat around the table, "You inherited the gift from your father's side of the family but your mother didn't want to tell you about it, she was sure we were mistaken, she and I quarrled terribly and I haven't seen her since"
While Vincent explained the past events unfolded in the crystal ball on the table.
"But, I've been keeping an eye on you," Vincent explained, "You're father reached out only a few weeks ago wanting me to contact you but you'd already left for your vaction and I've been here for a year trying to help the townspeople"
"I'm like, completely lost"
"I know it's a lot to take in," Vincent smiled, "Now, why are you in the himilayas?"
"We got a little mixed up on the way to hawaii and then our plane ran out of fuel," Scrappy answered.
"Someone dragged the plane into the temple," Shaggy added, "Flim-Flam said you could help us get inside"
"Ah, I've afraid you've been lured here, you cannot go into the temple, evil spirits dwell there"
"Re rave ro reave rown"
"The townspeople don't want you to learn their awful secret, their cursed you see"
"Cursed?"
" every night when the sun goes down they become feral werewolves, I've been trying to end the curse"
"Like, is that what's going to happen to me then?"
"No, your mind will be very much intact but I suggest getting as far away from the town as you can manage for your own safety"
"Yes, Sir right away," Shaggy didn't need much convincing.
...
However, when the group emerged from the room they were strong-armed into a stage front table, the lights going down for a show.
"Like, we've got a stagecoach to catch!" Shaggy argued.
"No, no, stay for the show"
"Like I really don't think..."
The townspeople would hear none of it, the sappy show music drowning out any further arguments. A singer emerged from a shoddy replica coffin wearing an equally shoddy costume as he trailed the group around the building backing them into a corner as the moon climbed into the sky.
There's no such thing as werewolves. There's no such thing as werewolves, there's no such thing... Shaggy tried to calm his pounding heart only for it to freeze in horror. The persistent performer was now covered in fur with a mouthful of sharp teeth. Shaggy wanted to scream in fright only to be overcome with a squemish feeling of ice down his back.
"R-Raggy?" Scooby backed away in fright.
"Scooby-" he reached for his best buddy only to freeze.
Fur.
Fur and claws.
Spinning to the window he caught sight of his reflection making him howl with fright, this wasn't happening. This wasn't happening. This. Was. Not. Happening.
Vincent had been telling the truth.
He was a werewolf.
A werewolf currently in danger of being eaten by other wolves. Spurred by fear, he busted down the saloon door, ducking the furry coach driver to dive into an open manhole, swiftly followed by Scooby, Scrappy, and Flim-Flam.
"Shaggy? Are you okay?" Scrappy managed.
"Not sure," Shaggy leaned heavily on the wall, "Like, let me wake up from this nightmare first"
"Come on," Scrappy declared, "Let's get the plane and get out of here"
They traversed the sewer tunnels unseen by their furry pursers to emerge next to the temple which looked even worse in the moonlight as if the very shadows were reaching out to gobble them up.
"Look there's a hole in the door, let's go!" Svrappy led the group.
"Nu-huh, no thank you!"
"I guess you could stay outiside with them," Flim-Flam pointed behind them.
They'd been found by the werewolf mob who now advanced licking their chops.
"MOVE!" the group stampeded into the dark space causing the walls to shake, rubble closing off the hole but not for too long.
Werewolves streamed inside Shaggy and Scooby ran to hide behind an ancient gong only to be quickly found by a pair of wolves thrown aside by a sudden wind. Seeing an out, the duo fled down crumbling steps unseen in the chaos. Scrappy and Flim-Flam meanwhile were holding their own against their attackers.
"Okay, you've asked for it," Flim-Flam cried popping the cork of the Lots Of Luck bottle and dousing the horde in its lemony contents.
There was a bizarre puff of smoke and the townspeople stood before them. Human once more.
"The curse has ended!"
"How did you end up cursed in the first place?" Flim-Flam asked, passing out all the bottles he had on him.
"Several years ago we captured thrirteen of the worst ghosts-"
"These ghosts were placed in a chest inside this temple but before the chest was locked the spirits placed a curse on the town turning us all into werewolves that's why we tried to chase you off so you wouldn't learn the awful truth"
"But, what did you do with our plane?" Scrappy demanded.
"Your plane? I haven't the slightest idea"
"I bet Vincent knows where it is, Scrappy," Flim-Flam reassured.
"Well, of course I do!" Vincent arrived in a burst of smoke, "The plane is down stairs in the crypt of darkness with the chest of demons"
"Uh-oh!"
...
Shaggy wasn't sure how. One moment he was searching for the exit the next they found themselves on the set of their favorite game show. Scooby was swooning over his dream dog house beside him while Shaggy's eyes drifted between their plane and the mysterious box on a shiny pedestal. It was so, so, so hard to think with the crowd screaming all around them while the host, a gangly, gaunt-faced man with his hair cemented to his head thanks to a load of hair gel watched intensely, drumming his fingers on the leg of his faded suit. The prize inside the box was supposed to be mind-blowingly amazing, something you could only dream of.
"Well boys what will it be?" the host pressed, leaning so close, they could smell his rancid breath.
"We'll take the box!" Shaggy declared much to the applause of the studio audience.
"So you took the box now tell us why?"
"I just have a good feeling.."
Scooby scampered over to the shiny oddly carved chest heedless of the panicked noise in the background he flung open the lid to a firey explosion.
"What we did we win?"
The studio blinked out of existence the host fading to nothing more than a strangely shaped specter who cackled with victory, "Thirteen ghosts in a wide variety of shapes and powers and they're all yours"
The boys cowered until the awful heat, the horrible cackling faded to nothing. All pin-drop silent once more.
"Shaggy," Vincent rested a hand on his nephew's shoulder.
"I'm soory, we're sorry, I-I-I-"
"You were tricked that's all"
"Now what do we do?"
"Now, you make it right," Vincent held out the empty chest, "I'm going to help you"
"But Mom-"
"It's more than time I spoke to my sister, here, use this crystal ball to contact me"
"Let's get going guys," Flim-Flam hopped into the plane, "I've filled the gas tank"
"With what?"
"Lot's A Luck"
"OH NOO!" the plane blasted out of the temple.
"Happy ghost hunting!" Vincent waved.
...
I've had this rewrite on the back burner for a year if not longer and I decided it had to be put out in the world and stop taking up space in my head. Now, as you undoubtedly noticed, Daphne is gone from this tale with good reason ;) . Instead of several little stories, this will be one story the episodes taking one to three chapters each. I hope you've enjoyed the beginning and I'll see you next chapter.