Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the Dark Witch

The Legend

Scooby and Shaggy felt their hair and fur stand up on end. "Zoinks!" "D-D-D-D-Dark Ritch?" Helga leaned in, her eyes wide. "Ja! Ze Vitch attacked Ginger and Sparrow Hood vhen zey vere valking down ze halls last night! She traumatized zem!" Velma pushed her glasses up her nose. "Witch? From the Ever After dimension?"

"NO!", Gus screamed in agony, dragging his hands down his face. "Zis Vitch is from zis dimension! She is ze most evil, diabolical creature! She has cursed zis whole wedding! Conner's choice in a bride has DOOMED us all!!" "Enough." All heads turned to the entrance. Standing in the doorway was King Dexterous Charming and his beautiful wife, Queen Raven. Their clothes were regal and beautifully made, but their faces were tight with anger.

"Enough of all this talk!", Dexter boomed, banging his tall golden scepter against the floor. "There is no such thing as the Dark Witch!" He turned to the gang. "My most sincere apologies. Gus and Helga tend to make up wild stories and blow things out of proportion. They take after their parents." He straightened his tie. "I can assure you, there is no Dark Witch."

"Tell zat to Ginger and Sparrow!", Helga exclaimed. "Miss Crumb!", Miles exclaimed. "You and your cousin leave the kitchen at once!" The Crumb cousins walked out. Gus whispered towards the gang. "If I vere anty of you, I vould sleep vith one eye open!" Shaggy and Scooby gulped.

Dexter turned to his staff. "Miles, tell Conner to meet me in the throne room in one hour. Candy, you and the rest of the staff get ready for the engagement banquet tonight." Shaggy and Scooby forgot their fear and rolled their tongues out in hunger. The staff did little bows and curtsies. "As you wish, Your Majesty." Miles hurried out of the room while Candy and the other cooks turned back to the stoves and ovens.

Dexter turned back to his wife, smiling brightly. "I'm going to check with the armies.", he told her, holding her hands. "I'll be back in a while." They pecked each other on the lips. "Alright. Be safe.", she said. He walked out of the room, his dark blue satin cape dragging behind him. Raven waited until he was gone before turning to the Mystery gang. "I need your help."
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She creaked open the door to the master bedroom, peeking in to make sure no one was inside. "Follow me." She opened the door wider and hurried the gang in. Once they were inside, she closed the door and locked it securely. "Your Majesty—" "Call me Mrs. Charming." "Mrs. Charming, what's this all about?", Fred asked.

Raven sighed. "Gus and Helga Crumb have exaggerated a bit in the past.  But not this time."  "Jinkies!  You mean there WAS a witch attack?"  Raven sat down on the edge of her bed, sighing as she clasped her hands over her lap.  "Yes.  And I know why she's here in the first place."  She began to weave the Legend of the Dark Witch.
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When Dexter and I were teenagers, we were best friends with the Grand Duke's son and heir, Sir Oscar. Every now and then, all three of us would sneak out to the village to escape the daily pressure of royal life. We each had our own personal reasons for loving the village square. For me, it was dancing to the fun, upbeat music at their daily jamborees. For Dexter, it was getting to personally know all the villagers, so he could better himself as a King.

But for Oscar, it was a certain peasant girl that led him to the square—Estella DuBoir. She had smooth, tanned olive skin, flowing raven locks, and eyes as black as two tiny pieces of coal, that seemed to pierce into you and capture your very soul. There were rumors that she was a witch, fluent in hexes and voodoo. But that didn't stop Oscar from falling madly in love with her.

You could imagine the scandal that emerged when Oscar announced his plans to marry Estella!  The entire royal court was furious!  His father and my mother were especially mad!  They had arranged for Oscar to marry a duchess from the next kingdom, and now he was marrying a peasant girl!  When he told everyone his wedding plans, my mother, as the current Queen, forbid him to marry her as long as he lived in the palace.

Did that stop Oscar?  No!  No, it did not!  The very next evening, he snuck out of the palace and ran into the woods to elope with Estella! Mother sent a group of our best soldiers to follow them in and bring Oscar back, no matter what the cost.

They returned a few minutes after midnight, covered in all sorts of injuries, from deep bleeding cuts to broken bones. They said that they had found Oscar and Estella...but it was too late. They claimed that the rumors were true, that Estella really WAS a witch...and Oscar was her victim. They had found her in the middle of an unholy ritual, which involved her hanging Oscar's lifeless body on a tree branch as she chanted a spell and threw some sort of cursed oil at him.

The soldiers interrupted her sick dance and trashed her things, her spellbooks and her bottles of potions. But Estella fought back. She zapped them with all sorts of horrible black lightning and chanted spells to cause damage to their bodies. But our troops were strong. They pulled through. They pinned Estella to a tree and started a fire on their sticks, jamming them into her, putting her body on fire. Before she burned, she raised her hand and cast her spell.

"Double double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble,
To every royal that lives today,
To those who are born in a future day,
Your luck just went from bad to worse,
For to all of you, I give my curse!
If a royal finds a love that's true,
In one who isn't royal like you,
If this person you plan to wed,
And royal and peasant blood to interbred,
From the underworld I then shall rise,
And rain down terror from the skies!
On that day, you royals will at last pay the price,
For messing with ME, the Empress of all vice!"

Raven finished her story. Shaggy and Scooby were hidden underneath the thick velvet comforters, shivering like leaves in the breeze. The others had shocked expressions on their faces. "Your family is under a curse?" Raven sighed. "That's the assumption. Estella swore to rise from the grave and terrorize our family if any of us ever married someone who isn't royalty. For the first few years, everyone lived in fear of Estella's curse. No one even dared look at a commoner. But by the time Dexter and I had our first child, the curse seemed to be forgotten."

"Of course, no one in the court married someone who wasn't at least nobility—not because of the curse, but because it went against tradition and society, and not too many royals like to break the rules. This is the first time since the incident that a member of the royal court is marrying a commoner. After they got engaged, there were a few whispers about Estella, but none of it was too serious—until what happened last night."

Fred shrugged his shoulders. "Why did you tell us all this?" Raven went over to her nightstand and held up a bunch of newspapers. On them were large photos of them from their previous mystery adventures, like unmasking the Phantom of the Opera where they held Talent Star, solving the enigma of the Frankencreep in Germany, revealing the hoax of the Ghost Bear terrorizing Wrestlemania, even exposing the Moon Monster from outer space as a phony.

"I've followed almost everyone of your adventures, admired your stellar work as detectives. I'm not sure whether or not this is really Estella's ghost trying to ruin my son's wedding. But if it isn't her, if its really a hoax...I want you to find out." Fred looked at his friends. "Well gang, looks like we've got another mystery on our hands."