While the rest of the gang came together in the main room, Velma was left by herself upstairs. Tucked away in the room that Shaggy had stayed in during his last stay, Velma had been placed into the very same bed. Elsa had made sure to slip her under the covers, and make sure she was warm and comfortable before they left her earlier.

But unlike the relaxed beatnik, the brainy woman was struggling, even unconscious.

"nngh... were...wolves can't ngh, exist. Fire... must have been a..." Tossing in the bed, she struggled with more than the sheets surrounding her. "...Must have been a trick."

But best her mind could come up with; was halfhearted theories and inconclusive information. It had to be something falsified, like a puppet or automation. Rigged to react to movement or remote controlled from further away. Maybe with the use of cameras and such... It looked so real... But dragon seeming creature aside, she was having trouble with something else as well.

The hardest thing that she was struggling was the fact that Shaggy and Scooby were acting out of their nature. She had grown up with these two, and known them almost her whole lifetime. But this was breaking all concepts that she knew of the duo.

It was dark, it was creepy, and all key points for a proper scary place. Heck, even she was hesitant after all the years of spooky places and damp locations, to enter this location without pausing first. And yet, they strode into the scary environment without hesitation. Like coming home... They walked in without a second look.

Lurching awake, Velma panted against the covers around her. A second ticked by before her whole body locked up in fright. Immediately, her hand went to her face. Her whole body loosened as she found the all too familiar frames were still set upon her nose. Relief flooded her being as she took in the situation; as she removed her glasses to clean them from the fingerprints she had just placed upon the lenses.

Squinting about the room, nothing looked familiar. Though strange as it were, it was not the first nor last time this would probably happen. So she was calm. At least more relaxed, since she still had her glasses. Without them, she would have been a nervous wreck in a strange place like this.

Placing them back upon her nose, she squinted against the darkness and tried to recall what had happened last. She remembered they had been on a long car trip somewhere. And the guys had been acting strange...

"Guys?"

Looking around the room, she noticed that she was the only one there. Straining her ears, she couldn't hear anything nearby. There were some faint sounds of the wind blowing outside, but nothing inside to help her in any way.

"Hm... Ok Dinkley, think. What do you last remember? Are we on a mystery?" But her memory was fuzzy, as if a part of her didn't want to reveal what she had seen a bit ago. Denial was a strong thing, especially for Velma. Her minds best defense for things she couldn't explain, or didn't want to comprehend.

Shaking her head, she would just have to find more clues and figure out where she was, and how to find the others.

Pushing the covers away, she took stock in where she was. The material looked old, yet well maintained enough to not seem unusable. There was dust here and there, as if the room hadn't been cleaned in a while. But it wasn't to the point of seeming abandoned. She found it odd, that when her feet touched floor, she was still wearing her shoes as well. But she couldn't think of why that could have been, since she never slept with her shoes on. Well, unless they had to crash in the van for the night. But still. Pushing that mystery aside, she moved to the window to check out the view. But as her hand reached for the drapery, a knock came at the door.

Turning her head towards the knock, she found that the door to the room that she was in was closed. And with what little moon light coming from a crack in the drapes, she was able to see the room she was in was pretty spacious.

The knock came again, and there seemed to be a muffled sound beyond the door. But it had been too soft for Velma to make out anything. Curiosity beating out everything else, Velma started to move towards the door. As she almost reached the door, something unexpected happened!

Like a glowing ball of light, suddenly a head appeared through the door! With a blue-ish hue to it, the face seemed to have passed right through the door and peeked into the room. Catching a glimpse of Velma, (who backed up in shock) the face seemed pleased and moved as if to go towards her. Shoulders followed the glowing head, but there was a sudden loud bang on the other side of the door. The glowing head peered back and seemed to pout, before bringing up a hand towards Velma.

"One moment..." Came a squeaky voice from the ghostly form of the woman, hoping that Velma would give her a second to figure out some problem she was having.

All the while, Velma's eyes had been growing wider and wider. A cascade of information was now flooding her from earlier, added with the fact that she was now seeing something phasing right through the door. It was too much information to take at once.

"AHHHH!"

Stumbling back, Velma let out an uncharacteristic scream!

Caught off guard from the sudden shriek from Velma, the glowing head disappeared back through the door. But Velma had been freaking out too much to notice the worry upon the face as it vanished.

As Velma huddled against her own thoughts, she was trying to calm herself down.

"There is a logical explanation for this all. There has to be... There can't been ghosts... We have seen it all before. There is no such thing as ghosts..." Chanting it like a mantra, Velma gathered herself up and tried to get her mind straight.

"It must be a projector... That's it. It's a projection or a hologram. I've seen this before. And it was probably just a speaker with the image. Yeah."

Convincing herself otherwise, Velma moved to try to find the projector. It had to be somewhere in the room. And she guessed it was triggered by a pressure, or a trip switch that she had come across while she was moving towards the door. It just had to be.

Caught up in her search, Velma didn't notice the door opening and letting in a small form. Closing the door behind her, the new arrival was hesitant to move further into the room. She didn't want to cause any more harm then had already occurred.

"Excuse me? Are you ok? Can I help with something?"

Turning around, Velma could just make out the silhouette of a young woman. She seemed to be holding something, and leaning to see what Velma had been doing. But since it sounded like a person, Velma paused to divert her attention to the lady behind her.

"Where am I?"

Ever the detective, Velma kept her distance and tried to gather information. She didn't know what was going on, and without the gang there, she was going to have to get as much information as possible to be able to find them.

"Oh, you are at... Wait; let me turn the light on."

Turning back, the woman went over and fumbled a bit before finding what she was looking for. A quick flick of the switch flooded the once dark room with light. It caught Velma off guard, making her flinch against the sudden brightness. She had been in the dark room so long, her eyes had gotten adjusted to it and she forgot to brace for the light. Plus, she was accidentally looking at the light as it turned on suddenly. Blinking a bunch, her world was covered in little dots as she tried to drive them away. Reeling back a bit from light.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Rushing over to her side, the young woman fussed over Velma, helping her up from the floor where she had been searching and to the bed she was on earlier. The woman's grip was strong, but gentle, and led her over without much trouble.

"Here, hold on." Moving away for a second, the other woman seemed to open another door and there were sounds of water being turned on and off. And soon, the woman returned to press a damp cloth into Velma's hands. Cupping them slightly to place the cloth in such a way that she could use without her sight.

"Place that on your eyes."

Feeling the cloth, she figured this woman was only trying to help and complied. Removing her own glasses, she shifted it in such a way, that she could hang the glasses on her own sweater's neckline. With her glasses secured and nearby, she felt comfortable pressing the cool cloth against her eyes. The feeling was definitely nice after the sudden brightness. And so was the darkness.

"Do you live here?" Velma surmised, since the woman seemed to know her way around the room she was in. Plus if she did live here, she might be able to give her valuable information.

"Yeah, I'm a teacher and resident here. You're at Grimwoods."

That name sound familiar Velma thought, as the name of the location came up. But she couldn't remember from where. Listening to just the voice of the woman next to her, she was finding herself feeling quite relaxed. She seemed nice enough, and her voice almost felt similar to her own. There were certain tones in the woman's voice, that conveyed being worried, and Velma felt like she could trust her gut instinct about her.

"Oh, you're a teacher?"

"Ah, yes... I'm a science teacher. I teach the kids here and love doing experiments. It s the best when you can see the look on the kids faces, when something new and amazing... happens..."

This of course, caught Velma attention. With her love of all things and especially leaning, Science was high on her list. But Velma had been lost in her own thoughts and fun memories of her old science classes, to notice the woman's voice trailing off and she just noticed who she was sitting next too.

"So what kind of science do you teach? Genealogy? Biology? Geology? General sciences?..."

"...Um, Hello?"

Expecting the woman to react to her questions, (as any good scientist would love to talk about their favorite subject) there was instead, a long bit of silence. But she could still feel the woman sitting next to her, so she had to still be there.

Something must have happened...

Moving the cloth away from her eyes, Velma plucked her glasses from her collar and placed them back on their normal spot upon her nose. Blinking once or twice to focus her eyes, she came upon the look of shock on the face of the woman beside her. Well, what she could see past all the bandages...

"Are you o..."

Just as Velma was about to ask if the woman was alright, the young lady sitting beside her dropped what she was holding and clasped her hands tightly in front of her over her chest.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe that I really am meeting you. Here! You're 'The' Velma Dinkley! I knew Shaggy knew you from his stories, but I never thought that you would ever be coming here! It's an honor Miss Dinkley!"

Velma didn't know what to think. Here, she had been not only recognized, but the woman seemed to also know Shaggy as well... This really confused Velma! Add on top of that, the woman seemed bandaged head to toe, due to some accident, Velma really didn't know what to say.

"Oh my, where are my manners? I'm sorry! My name is Tanis, the Mummy's Daughter. Nice to meet you."

Velma started to outstretch her hand in greeting to meet a fan and fellow scientist, till the last part stilled her hand...