Velma was stirred awake by the sound of the door creaking open. She lifted her head to see what she could make out without having to get up.

Across from her, Daphne was still asleep in her bed, so it wasn't her moving around. Scanning the rest of the room, Velma couldn't spot any unusual shapes until she made it to the door. Standing in the doorway was a figure, the hall light bright enough to outline what looked like a human shape.

Then it started towards her.

The sudden movement jolted Velma upward and had her reaching for her glasses. But not to try and escape from the room like she normally would in this kind of situation, just to see who or what was approaching her.

She slipped on her glasses to see it was in fact a who that was now at the end of her bed, a who that would have been a pleasure to see even in regular circumstances.

"Velma!" Debbie greeted in a whisper-shout. "Good, you're awake. Come on, I have to show you something."

"What is it?" Velma asked, already sliding off the bed and into her slippers.

"I have to showyou!" Debbie grabbed Velma's arm and began dragging her out of the room. "It's at the end of the hall."

As she was being led away Velma took the opportunity to shut the door behind her. "You know, it's a nice change of pace to get pulled from my room in the middle of the night by someone whoisn'tplotting my demise."

Debbie was planning something else instead. At the end of the hall, she let go of Velma and confidently pointed at the window. "See?"

Velma took a moment to collect herself and then peered out the window. It didn't take long to spot what Debbie was talking about. "The light is on down the road. Didn't the owner of this place say that house was abandoned?"

"He did, but I saw that light on as I was headed to bed and knew I had to get you." Debbie left out the part where she checked to see if the light was still on multiple times before doing so. "I think it's suspicious and we should investigate."

Velma nodded. "That is strange. Let's go wake the others and-."

"Hold on," Debbie interjected, placing her hands on Velma's shoulders. "I saidweshould investigate it. We don't need to get anyone else."

"Why not? It would be unwise for us to leave without letting someone know."

"Because..."

Debbie looked away, trying to come up with a decent excuse.

"... what if the light goes out while we're getting everyone? The light could be on some sort of timer, you know. We need to hurry!"

Velma gently took Debbie's hands off her shoulders. "I suppose that's a possibility."

Debbie wrung her hands. The lack of overwhelming agreement from Velma was making her second-guess herself. "Well, do you wanna go or not?"

Velma observed Debbie before responding. She noted how Debbie had faltered when lightly questioned, but also how she had gone to her specifically to share what she had seen, and her seeming eagerness to get physically close to her.

It didn't take long to deduce that she had other things on her mind besides the mysterious light. But Velma found herself not minding; she wasn't one to turn down an investigation, and if someone like Debbie wanted to participate, then all the better.

"I do think it would be a good idea to see what's up with that light," Velma said. She held out a hand before Debbie could get too excited. "But I do insist that we tell someone we're leaving first."

That insistence is how they ended up in the garage.

"Speedy," Debbie whispered, tapping on his hood. "Speedy, I need to tell you something."

Speed Buggy partially opened his eyes, not awake enough to look up at her. "W-what is it?"

"If anyone asks, Velma and I are investigating the house down the road. But only tell them if they ask first."

"If we find out anything you'll be the first to know," Velma felt the need to add.

Speed Buggy closed his eyes again, too drowsy to care. "S-sure thing girls. Whatever you say."

Debbie nodded in satisfaction. "Thanks, we can head out."

She was the first out the door. It was dark, cold, and quiet, all the hallmarks of a spooky evening. She assumed that was perfect mystery solving weather.

Debbie then jumped at the sound of the door closing behind her, and after confirming it was just Velma, instinctively leaned on her for warmth. "Chilly out here."

"Indeed." Velma let her eyes adjust to the darkness. With only the light in the window as a target and a little bit of moonlight to help illuminate the path, it wasn't going to be the easiest to get there, but it was doable. She linked her and Debbie's arms together so they wouldn't get separated during the walk over. "We should be fine as long as we follow the street." She started pulling Debbie along with her.

Debbie took the opportunity to wrap her free arm around Velma's linked one to further her warmth huddle.

It was quiet as the two of them traveled down the road, and the further they went, the more it was starting to get to Debbie. She glanced over at Velma to see how she was reacting.

She thought Velma looked unfazed by it all, keeping right on towards the house. She was determined, but also considerate in the way she kept a hold of her without grabbing too tight. She liked that about Velma.

Still a little unnerved but wanting to match Velma's stride, Debbie decided to fill the silence.

"So, Velma. When doing these investigations, what do you think the best first step is?"

"Bringing a flashlight."

"Of course, very practical." Debbie paused for a second. "What about the bestsecondstep?"

"Realizing when you've found somewhere to investigate." Velma stopped in her tracks, still holding onto Debbie to prevent her from stumbling over.

All things considered it was a very average house they had arrived at. Two stories, little damage to the outside, not even any foliage covering the walls. Besides the unknown light in the window, there was no real reason to look at it.

But looking at it is why they were there. Velma unlinked her arm from Debbie's and went up the porch steps, Debbie close behind her.

She tried the doorknob. "Locked. Funny, you'd think that if this house was abandoned as quickly as the story says, the owner wouldn't have bothered locking the door."

"So, our culprit is someone who would have access to the house," Debbie said, trying to think of a conclusion to jump to. She wanted to show off her investigative skills right away. "Obviously our first suspect should be the town locksmith."

Velma disagreed but didn't get a chance to voice that opinion.

"No, too obvious. She could never get away with it." Debbie pondered again. "Let's see... maybe it's the guy who owns the house we're staying at. If he was a friendly neighbor, he could have gotten a spare key for emergencies. Or maybe the sheriff? If the townsfolk trusted anyone in town with their spare keys it would be him, right?"

Velma still disagreed. She knew that if one was to draw conclusions about motive solely based on the technical ability to access the possible crime scene, the obvious suspect would be the banker who owned near all the property in the town. Yet, she didn't feel the desire to voice that opinion.

She liked listening to Debbie's deductions. Her conclusions were charming, and her voice matched the enthusiasm of her movements, it bouncing as she tapped her finger to her chin.

Not wanting to risk ruining her mood, Velma decided to switch topics instead. "We need to find a way into the building before we accuse anyone of anything. Let's look for another entrance."

Being spoken to pulled Debbie out of her head. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. Good thinking, Velma."

With that Velma took Debbie's hand - it was still dark after all - and led her off the porch and into the yard.

Debbie again took the chance to huddle close to Velma.

There wasn't much luck in terms of alternate entrances. The back door to the house was locked, the first story windows were all locked, and there wasn't even a cellar door to pry open. The only option they really had was the second story window that had caught their attention in the first place, the one the light was coming from and the only one that was open.

"Whoever turned on the light up there must have had the same problem we did," Velma said. She let go of Debbie's hand and began to look around. "You don't suppose there's a ladder around here, do you?"

But Debbie didn't answer. She was too busy thinking about how her plan to impress Velma with her detective skills wasn't working. She needed to come up with something else.

She had a vision in her head of how the next few minutes could play out. If there was no ladder, then she would need to help Velma crawl through the window - no, even better, she would go through the window first and pull Velma up behind her. Surely her bravery in being willing to go into the creepy abandoned house first would woo her, just like how her bravery in wanting to investigate it had convinced Velma to come with her in the first place.

"No luck with a ladder," Velma reported back. "One of us will have to get up on the other's shoulders and get to the window that way." She looked at the window and frowned. She didn't mind crawling through a window when she needed to, but the idea of scaling a wall in her slippers was unappealing. "I'll give you a boost, Debbie."

Debbie grinned to herself. "Sure thing, Velma!"

It was a shaky start, but soon enough Debbie was on Velma's shoulders and reaching for the bottom windowsill. She could touch her fingertips to the sill but couldn't get a grasp on it. She stopped for a second to consider a way to get just a little more height. She then ruled out jumping and had to come up with a second idea.

Velma was staring straight at the wall instead of up at Debbie during this, suddenly bashful. It wasn't until she felt the weight disappear from one of her shoulders that she looked up.

Debbie had placed one of her feet on the wall for balance and then launched herself upwards. That was just enough momentum for her to grab the bottom sill and pull herself up onto the sill and holding onto it with one hand for stability, she leaned down and outstretched her other arm to Velma.

Even when up on her tiptoes though, Velma couldn't quite reach Debbie's hand. She gave a small huff at the predicament before following Debbie's lead by placing a foot on the wall to push herself upward.

As she was able to grab Debbie's hand, she felt her feet slipping from underneath her, causing her to grasp onto Debbie's arm with her other hand as she tried to rebalance herself.

Debbie then panicked and tried to pull Velma up immediately, letting go of the windowsill so she could hold onto her with both hands. "I got you!"

But that lack of extra steadiness proved to be troublesome, as the moment she was able to get Velma onto the windowsill with her, the extra weight became too much to handle, and she fell backwards into the room.

This forced Velma to catch herself and crawl through the window after her.

"Are you all right, Debbie?" she asked, helping her into an upright position.

Debbie held the side of her head and sniffled. "I'm fine." She looked away from Velma so she couldn't see the tears forming in her eyes. So much for bravery.

Velma gingerly removed Debbie's hand to check for any obvious injuries, not seeing any. "We better wrap up this investigation before anything else happens." She continued to hold onto Debbie's hand as she glanced around the room. "At least we can see now."

Debbie nodded. Despite feeling defeated, she still wanted to find out the source of the light she saw.

As Velma got up to investigate the interior of the room, Debbie decided to stay on the ground and look around the walls. She was expecting to find a cord, and then to follow that cord and find ... something. Something that was worth investigating. But as she went around the room, she couldn't even find an electrical outlet.

"How can there be this much light without electricity?" She whined.

"With candles," Velma answered back. On the table across from the window were multiple burning candles. She picked one up to further examine it.

"Candles?" Debbie really wanted to cry. She stood up and trudged her way over to Velma, what was left of her previous excitement gone. She sighed and leaned against her. "What do candles tell us about the mystery?"

"A lot, actually." Velma gave Debbie a sympathetic pat on the back, then wrapped her arm around her waist in a more affectionate manner. "To start, it means that the person who lit them isn't paying any electric bills. These candles look recently lit, which would explain why we didn't see the light earlier in the day. They also look like the candles we saw at the general store-."

Debbie didn't really care about the mystery anymore. She instead closed her eyes and focused on the real reason she was there. She listened to Velma's voice, its blend of steadiness and joy, and how it didn't falter even in disappointing situations like this. She found it soothing, and let it relax her before opening her eyes again to see Velma looking at her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Velma interjected before she could.

"We could interview the store owner tomorrow about any candles she's sold recently," she seemingly repeated. "Just the two of us. Sound good?"

Debbie blinked as she processed the question. "I, uh… yeah, it does."

"Groovy."