"Lets get some more gumbo Scoob, maybe less peppers this time." Shaggy helped himself and Scooby to a large portion of food first. "Brrrrr a second ago I was on fire, now it's freezing."
"Reah, rit's freezing."
"Tell you what, let's split this big pepper, that should warm us up a little."
"Rokay Raggy."
Unbeknownst to the pair, a wisp of grey air was circling behind them, causing their chills.
"Great library Simone! It really is impressive." Velma complimented, scanning across all the shelves.
"I'm glad you like it, I enjoy my books." Simone was talking to Velma about how old the books where and other things that only a bookworm would enjoy, meanwhile Daphne was searching the other half of the library. She looked up as she heard Fred laugh across from her, and saw Lena giggling back. "Freddie could you come here a second!" the words left Daphne's mouth before she had the chance to comprehend it. All she knew was that seeing them together flirting angered her. Fred began walking over to her and she realised she had no excuse as to why she just called him. Shit! She thought to herself. "Everything ok Daph?"
"I-uh do you think-" Luckily for Daphne, she was cut off yet again by Shaggy and Scooby screaming in the kitchen.
"What this time?" Velma said with a small laugh.
"Peppers again?" Daphne said as they entered the kitchen to find the pair of them holding each other shaking.
"Riting." Scooby said, pointing to one of the kitchen walls.
"Writing?" Velma translated. Everyone turned to face the wall and gasped as they saw what Scooby was referring to.
"Rhost riting." The writing read 'GET OUT' in a spooky type font.
"Wow! Fred get a shot of that." Daphne instructed, moving closer to inspect the mysterious activity.
"On it Daph."
"Jinkies."
"Simone, could you come stand next to me please?" Daphne looked towards the short haired woman who began to approach her already before. "Here we are in Ms. Simone Lenoir's kitchen where we've had our first encounter with supernatural spirits of Moonscar mansion. You can feel the chill in the air-" just as she spoke, a gust of what felt like wind hit Daphne, blowing her hair. "Cut! Who opened a window?"
"No one did Daphne." Velma responded, rubbing her chin with her fingers trying to offer an explanation.
"Gang look! Get out beware!" Fred said, as he pointed to the new word that had appeared.
"After sundown, the ghosts get more restless." Simone commented.
"Keep rolling Fred. Maybe we'll have another ghostly manifestation. Freddie, I'm over here!" Daphne became annoyed that the camera was not focusing on her, and crossed her arms as usual. "It's Velma, look!" Fred replied, panning the camera to Velma again where she was being levitated.
"There must be a magnet somewhere!" Velma's voice sounded worried as she tried to believe what she said was true.
"No magnets here, a real case of levitation! This just gets better and better."
"Anybody want to try getting me down?" Shaggy hurried over to where Velma was levitating and tried to pull her legs and arms but it was no use.
"Like this is super creepy!"
"Ro kidding!" Scooby covered his eyes with his paws, typical. Fred moved around Velma and Shaggy with the camera, until Velma just dropped. Luckily, Scooby was there to catch her. "Jinkies, thanks Scooby."
A short time later, the gang and Simone and Lena were analysing the footage on Fred's camera. "Play it again Fred!" Velma said. "I think I saw something."
"Sure."
"There! Enhance this shot."
"Yeah. Let me darken the image a little, bring up the sharpness and- WOW it looks like a ghost!" Everyone gasped as they spotted what Velma and Fred had noticed.
"It's the ghost of Morgan Moonscar." Simone explained, pacing up and down. "Over here." The gang followed Simone back to the front room they were sat in earlier. She showed them one of the paintings mounted on the wall, of what looked to be a pirate. "This is Morgan McReight. The moon-shaped scar is why he became better known as Morgan Moonscar."
"Wow, a real-life pirate ghost. Thank you so much Simone for letting us into your haunted house." Daphne beamed at her, much to Simone's confusion on why anyone would not fear the situation.
"So you're not going to heed his threat?"
"Pfft, we don't scare that easily do we gang?" Fred rhetorically asked.
"Like speak for yourself Fred." Shaggy said as he and Scooby were cowering in the corner.
"There has to be a logical explanation for this. I'm going to take another look at that wall." Announced Velma, picking up her bag and heading into the kitchen again.
"Come on Scoob. Let's go outside and pick some peppers." That just left Fred and Daphne alone with the other two women. "Feel free to have a look around yourselves." Simone instructed, deciding to take a seat on one of her armchairs.
"So, Simone and Lena are nice aren't they?" Fred asked, making conversation as he and Daphne walked onto the porch. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Yeah I bet you think Lena is real nice." She mentally slapped herself for saying that out loud.
"Huh?" Typical Fred, everything went straight over his head.
"Lena is kinda cute. Delicious lemonade Lena." Daphne half-joked about what he had said, imitating Fred's voice very badly which made him laugh.
"It was and you know what I meant!"
"Just so you know, we're here on business, not for your love life Freddie." Daphne said, walking slightly ahead of him. He rolled his eyes.
"Daph what's your deal? You're acting really weird." She hesitated for a moment. Why am I acting weird? She thought. Daphne quickly snapped out of it, she had to much to focus on. "I'm just stressed about making the show good." Fred noticed her face softened, whereas before she seemed almost… angry.
"Hey don't worry. Your show is always great and I promise you we'll get some good footage." Fred sent her a positive smile, hoping it would pick her up a little bit. "Now let's shoot some footage around the house."
Shaggy and Scooby were sat outside on a patch of grass, having a picnic featuring the red chilli peppers they had freshly picked. "Your turn Scoob." Shaggy said, handing him a large pepper. They had been taking it in turns for the past ten minutes, each practically breathing fire after they ate one. Scooby was about to eat it when something caught his eye. "RATS!" He yelled, as several cats came up to get some food.
"No Scoob!" Shaggy called, but it was no use. Scooby had already taken off running for his furry enemies, kicking several of Beau's flowers as he did. "Man that grouchy gardener isn't gonna like this." Shaggy got up to chase Scooby who was heading into the forest/swamp they had driven through earlier.
Velma knocked on the wall where the ghost writing was in the kitchen, scratching her chin as she moved back. "Hmm it isn't hollow, but maybe just maybe…" She took a spatula and began to scratch the writing. To her surprise, after scratching off the majority of the wall, large red letters on a wooden surface was revealed spelling Maelstrom. It was at this point that Fred, Daphne, Simone and Lena entered. "What are you doing to my kitchen?!" Simone half-yelled, staring on in horror at the scene before her. "Jinkies, I guess I got carried away. But look- according to this book from your library, Maelstrom was the name of Morgan Moonscar's pirate ship." Fred and Daphne's mouths opened wide as she explained her findings. Simone however, didn't seem very surprised. "Parts of my house are quite old. Pieces of the pirate ship were used during construction."
"Moonscar was rumoured to have buried treasure on the island, though it was never found." Velma quoted from the book she was reading, though Simone was still filled with rage at the destroying of her wall. "I knew it!" Fred exclaimed, "I'll bet its some guy disguised as a pirate ghost trying to scare everyone off the island."
"Why can't you just accept that maybe we really have found a ghost Fred." Daphne responded, sounding annoyed at him yet again.
"Come on Daph, this is basic stuff. Heck, how many mysteries have we solved that sound like this?"
"Scoob? SCOOB!" Shaggy yelled, using his hands to amplify his voice.
"Raggy! Rook out!" Scooby responded from behind, running beside him and ushering Shaggy to run too.
"Scoob, like what's going on?" Before Scooby had chance to reply, Mojo came into eyeshot, and Shaggy realised exactly what was going on. The two of them picked up full speed, running deep into the forest. "What did you do!"
"Ri ran to the dock rand scared Rona ragain!" Shaggy rolled his eyes, knowing that Snakebite and Mojo would have been trying to catch the catfish from earlier. The two of them continued running, occasionally looking back over their shoulder to see if they were still being chased. "I think he's gone Scoob- NEVER MIND!" Shaggy shrieked as Mojo appeared in front of them instead. Mojo was a local to these parts, so it was unsurprising that he had navigated his way within the forest to trick them. They turned around quick on their heels, running a different way into the forest. Scooby was in front, running as fast as his paws could carry him. He attempted to put his left paw down when suddenly the ground wasn't there anymore. Scooby tried to lunge back but it was too late, he dropped into a semi-deep hole in the ground. Shaggy didn't notice as he had just looked back to see if the pig was closing in on them. This was bad news, as Shaggy repeated the exact same thing as Scooby and plunged into the hole. "ZOINKS." The pair of them hit the ground heavy, looking up to see the blue sky that seemed so far away. Mojo stood at the top of the hole grunting before kicking dirt on top of Shaggy and Scooby. He then trotted away clearly pleased with himself.