Scooby Doo! Meet Ellie Machine

The Song of Mystery (Part 1)

On our way to school, I sat across from Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby, listening to Daphne's horror story from babysitting last night. "I just can't understand what got into Arthur last night," she was saying. "One second he's as sweet as can be, and the next, he's trying to kill me!" she exclaimed. I shook my head in disbelief at her encounter and racked my brain to figure out what could make kids act like that.

"Maybe he had too much sugar?" Fred suggested. "Sugar doesn't make you grow fangs," she responded. Shaggy laughed, waving a donut in his hand. "Good! 'Cause if there's one thing I love, it's sugar!"

"Me, too," Scooby agreed, eating one of the donuts from the box that Shaggy was holding. "Delicious!"

"Like, you said it, Scoob. Delicious."

Velma leaned closer to Shaggy. "Shaggy, you promised me you weren't going to use the word 'like' so much," she scolded quietly to him. "It makes you sound ignorant."

"Oh. Oh, right. Like, um, I forgot," Shaggy said with a sheepish shrug. Velma once again glared at him. "Oh, uh, sorry," he apologized again. I huffed and ate one of the donuts. "We're only a few blocks from Arthur's house," Daphne noticed. "Can we stop by and see how he's doing?"

"Sure," Fred said cheerfully. "We're not gonna miss anything at school. Oh, wait. I forgot about civics class. I'm flunking out. Coach says if I don't pass, I'm off the team." he lamented as he turned into the neighborhood.

"Hey, I'm great at civics," Daphne told him. "I could tutor you. I could come over and, you know, help you study. Just you and me. Alone," she hinted, leaning towards him. I bit back a snort. She was oh-so-subtle.

"Gee, Daph, thanks," Fred told her obliviously. "But my dad already hired a tutor. I'm supposed to meet her in the library during lunch,-"

"'Her'?" Daphne exclaimed. "Yeah, a senior. Dad said she's brilliant," he said. He pulled the van alongside the yellow police tape. "Whoa, look at this," I said, looking at all the families packing up and leaving their houses.

"Like, where's everyone going?" Shaggy asked, Velma punched his shoulder. "Oops. Sorry," he told her once again.

Daphne ran to the house where she babysat the night before and we followed her. "Wait! Mr. and Mrs. Baywoosenthal, what's going on? How's Arthur?" Daphne called to a couple as they were getting into their car. A little boy with pale white skin, glowing yellow eyes and beastly teeth leaned out of the window and snarled at us all, before slamming the window shut, making me jump and bump into Shaggy. "Sorry," I muttered to him, and he chuckled.

"Any other questions?" the man asked tiredly, and they drove off. "Jinkies! The whole block's leaving," Velma exclaimed, looking at all the parents packing their things.

"And a good thing, too," Mayor Jones said from behind us as he walked over with Sheriff Stone. "Who knows what these kids are capable of?"

"Kids?" I asked. "You mean-,"

"Afraid so," Sheriff Stone confirmed. "Every child on this block has become inexplicably spookified."

"Spookified?!" Scooby and Shaggy exclaimed and whimpered, shuffling closer to each other.

"Good-bye, Tiffany!" a woman called from next door. Another child, a little girl, snarled at her parents as Arthur had, and slammed the door shut. "Okay," the mom called awkwardly, and my heart hurt for her. "Don't forget to brush!"

Heat flared in my chest. "They can't just leave all the kids," I told Sheriff Bronson with flaring nostrils. "They'll be fine," he said nonchalantly. "We'll air drop in some freeze-dried camp food. Just 'cause they're spookified doesn't mean they can't reconstitute macaroni."