From the Diary of Daphne Blake

Chapter 28 - We're Mystery Incorporated

"Can anyone get hold of Velma?" I turned to look at Fred and Shaggy who were just as confused as I was. It was her plan and she was late. Velma is never late.

Fred huffed, "Maybe we should call her parents, they might know where she is."

"Yeah..." I nod in agreement, "Do that."

A part of me kept thinking the worst, Landon was still out there and who knows what he is capable of. He could have easily taken Velma. I'm sure Fred and Shaggy are thinking the same thing judging by the look on their faces. I made my way to my window Which looked out onto the road in front of our house to check if there was any sign of her car pulling up, but nothing.

"Hey, Miss Dinkley." my gaze shifted to Fred who luckily got hold of Velma's mother.

He stood up and began pacing around the room, "I wanted to ask if you knew where Velma was."

A few seconds had passed before he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me with furrowed brows, "What do you mean she left hours ago?"

My heart immediately dropped to my stomach.

"Yes, okay thank you Mrs. Dinkley I'll let you know when I see her." He put down the phone and shoved it in his back pocket, "Shit." He mumbled under his breath.

"What did she say?" Shaggy questioned.

"She said she left home hours ago and said she was on her way here."Fred said with a worried look in his eyes, "There must be something wrong."

I darted towards my closet and pulled out a jacket, "Maybe she's at the Museum getting a couple of things, we should go check it out." I said hastily shutting my closet door behind me. All I could hope was that she was safe and running some last-minute errands at the museum. That was where she kept most of her research anyway.

Making my way for the door I reached for the handle but before I could pull it open I watched it jiggle from one side to the next and suddenly there she was. A loud sigh of relief left my mouth as I dragged a hand through my knotted hair.

"You're okay," Fred said breathlessly as if he had been running track.

Shaggy quickly got up from his seat going to hug Velma, "We thought something terrible happened to you." he mumbled, barely loud enough for the rest of us to hear.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" I said rubbing my temples trying to keep a headache at bay, "We were worried that something happened to you."

"We tried calling but you never answered," Fred said holding up his phone, showing Velma the dozens of missed calls he had left her.

Velma - without answering any of our questions - walked straight past us and made her way to my bed where began to unload her duffle bag which seemed to be filled with a scary amount of things.

I stood up and walked over to her, "Hello, earth to Velma, did you hear what we just said?" I waved my hands in front of her face to try to get her attention to us.

Still nothing. All she could do was keep her eyes on the things on the bed, I watched in confusion as she spread out a bunch of different things ranging from pieces of paper to dusty old boxes.

"What is all this?" I said picking up one of the letters as I began to read, but I quickly stopped and dropped the letter back onto the bed once I caught wind of what it was, "Where the hell did you get this?"

"Get what?" Fred asked moving in next to me, without hesitation, I handed him the note with a shaky hand.

I watched as Fred scanned through the letter in horror, "Velma, where the fuck did you get this?"

Shaggy cocked his head to the side, "What are you two talking about?"

"It's Madison's suicide note," I said under my breath.

Shaggy's eyes grew to the size of saucers, "Wait-uhm M-Madison the girl wh-who was possessed and killed Taylor and her sister Kailey?"

I took in a heavy breath as my heart began to race, "Yup that's the one."

"Why do you have all of this, I thought the police had her note after they found her body at Landon's parent's lake house." Fred's voice was riddled with angst and confusion.

There was a moment of complete silence before Velma stopped and looked down at everything she had laid down on my bed as if analyzing what she had gotten one by one. I watched her take a step back letting out a deep breath, running her hands through her hair, "This is insane." she mumbled.

"What is?"Shaggy asked what Fred and I had been thinking.

"I found this at Landon's lakehouse." She said breathlessly before sitting down on the floor in defeat, "I grabbed as much as I could before he goes there."

Fred scoffed, "Have you all learned nothing, look at what almost happened to Daphne when she went out on a mission alone. Damn Velma, you could have gotten caught, or worse!" As he stared at me and then at Velma, he pursed his lips and raised a slight furrow between his brows.

"Why were you at the lake house?" I looked at Velma who looked back at me with a shrug.

"For answers Daphne, I was looking for answers." Velma said, "I need more answers."

Fred shook his head as he paced up and down the room, "We all need answers V, but you can't go putting your life in danger like that."

"Our lives are already in danger," Shaggy mumbled. He was right, they were.

"Not if we stick together, we are a team remember?" Fred was a natural-born leader, he had a knack for this stuff.

Velma scoffed as she slowly made her way back up to her feet again, "Do you have any idea what it feels like to lose someone you care about and feel completely helpless cause you know no matter what you do you'll never be able to bring them back?"

Shit.

"Velma, are you kidding me? The whole reason I came to Coolsville was to look for answers about my parents and you know that!" Fred's voice cut like a knife, as I watched his hands begin to shake, "I'm not going to lose anyone else, not if I can help it." His features softened.

I looked at both Fred and Velma who stood on the opposite ends of the room, "Look a lot is going on, Fred is right we need to stick together," I said looking over at Velma, "But Fred you need to understand that you can't what happens to us, we all know the risk and from what I can tell we are willing to accept it." I shifted my gaze to Fred,

"You're right Daph, we are a team," Velma said looking over at Shaggy then turning her gaze to the rest of us.

"We're Mystery Incorporated," Fred said with a proud smile which only made me smile.

"Let's bust this mystery right out of the park," I said putting my hand out ready for my friends to follow suit as they each placed one of their hands on top of the others.

"All we are missing now is Scooby-Doo." Shaggy chuckled.

I raised a brow, "Where is Scooby?"

"Watching Keeping up with the Kardashians with Grandma."

The thought of a Great Dane watching reality Tv sent a little giggle running through my body and the same applied for Fred and Velma who bust out into a fit of laughter.

"Who would have thought Scooby would be the normal one out of the group." Fred chucked.

I watched as each of my friends laughed, wishing I could freeze this moment in time forever. It was one of the more normal experiences I've had with this group yet it was also just as special as the numerous times where we were running from monsters.

"So everyone, we have our work cut out for us," Velma said looking down at my bed, "I say, let's get jinky with it!"

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