From the Diary of Daphne Blake

Chapter 21 - Burn in hell

You can do this Daphne I assured myself as I got to the bottom of the staircase and crouched down tiptoeing to the study, I let out a soft breath before heading over to his desk and carefully opening each one before finding the gun, and just as I took hold of the object I heard my phone go off, "Crap." I whispered to myself as I heard a noise coming from outside.

"Get in." I heard Mr. McCullen say as I slowly crept to the door and watched him shove my friends inside, even Scooby seemed panicked.

"You guys have a friend here?" He hissed, and they stayed silent, "Answer me!" He yelled as he took hold of Velma and pushed the gun to her head, "Or I'll kill your little friend."

His back was towards me as I shakily stood up and slowly walked towards him, I watched as the gang's eyes grew in worry. I raised the gun to his head trying to steady my hands, I took in a deep breath as my eyes began getting misty, "Burn in hell bitch." I mumbled quietly before pulling the trigger.

Then everything went black.

But it wasn't me who pulled the first shot, once I built up the courage to open my eyes I watched as Velma stood over Mr. McCullen's now lifeless body with her right hand tightly gripping a gun. I watched as she sighed in relief, it was over.

"Are you all ok?" Velma broke the silence that flooded over the room, I stayed quiet, not sure what to say.

I looked down at the gun wondering why it didn't work and along with that thought, I had wondered where Velma got hers from, and why she never told anyone she was carrying one.

"Are you ok?" Shaggy asked Velma as he slowly crept up to her. Her gaze shifted from the dead body to Shaggy who seemed less frightened and more concerned.

Velma's voice cracked, "I don't know." she took in a deep breath before slowly backing away, "He deserved it, he killed all those girls." Velma mumbled.

Fred stepped forward, "He did deserve it, if you didn't pull that trigger he could have killed all of us, you included."

"Fred...is right...there was nothing else we could have done," I said, trying to piece together what to say, "W-what do we do now?"

A sudden period of silence flooded the room.

"I know what you can all do." I heard a voice call to us, looking up I watched as Caitlin Stone made her way down the staircase, "I say we torch the place before the cops get here."

"About the cops...I haven't called them just yet." Shaggy said sheepishly, "There wasn't any cell service, and before I could try to move to a better spot Daphne was running into the house, and you two started following her," Shaggy pointed at a puzzled Velma and Fred, "No way was Scoob and I going to wait outside, so we kinda forgot about the cops and went straight into following the group."

I let out a heavy sigh, "So there's no one on their way here right now?"

Shaggy began nervously playing with a strand of his downy hair, "Nope."

I ran a shaky hand through my hair as I began pacing around the room, "Let's just burn the place down, we can say that Mr. McCullen didn't want the cops to get to him first so he set fire to the house after you four found out what he was doing, but before he torched the place you rescued me." Caitlin mumbled as she made her way towards us. I looked over at Fred who seemed to be considering her plan, and then I shifted my gaze to Velma who seemed to be doing the same thing.

"I don't see why we should do that though; he's dead, what's the use of burning the house down with him inside of it?" I asked with a raised brow, "I heard that the only way to get rid of evil spirits is to burn them, sure Mr. McCullen is dead but the demon inside of him is still alive, dormant for now, but alive." Caitlin said as she crouched over his body in an almost eerily ghoulish way which made me feel more than uncomfortable.