Chapter Text
The Nevada daylight had slowly faded into the pale dusk of early evening. Heat rose from the road and shimmered in the air, illuminated by the headlights of the garish blue and green van. The van passed under a lone streetlight, it cast a bright shine on the letters on the side of the van: The Mystery Machine .
"Alright, gang." Fred said. He tapped the steering wheel and then turned down the radio. "Let's go over the plan again."
"Like, Freddy." Shaggy said from the back of the van. He slung one arm over the middle seating where Daphne sat pouring over a practice test for the Bar Exam. "We've been over it a few hundred times already."
Scooby poked his huge head over the seat. "Rah!"
From the passenger side seat, Velma sighed. "Just humor him, guys." She said, looking over her shoulder. Then she sat back in her seat and straightened her glasses. "We're going to check out the estate of the late Taylor Kent, who killed himself six months ago."
"Which is a good reason to leave his house alone." Butt in Shaggy. "I have no problem leaving dead guys be. Like- him haunting his house is his choice, man… I don't want to get mixed up in it."
"Come on, Shaggy!" Fred said eagerly, looking in the rear view mirror with a smile. "This could be an actual ghost we're dealing with here! Uh-" He paused then added, "God rest his soul, of course… But a real ghost! Not a lawyer or tax man!"
"Him being dead does make it more likely for him to be an actual ghost, but I doubt it." Velma shrugged. "With everything we've uncovered my opinion that people are the real monsters has only solidified." She reached down and pulled out a folded up newspaper from the compartment in the side of the door.
"Let's see…" Velma muttered, unfolding the paper, effectively taking up half of the front of the van. "' Taylor Kent was found dead in his home by his own hand. He was found hanging from the chandelier in his library by police who had a warrant for his arrest.'" She read. "' Kent was to be arrested for committing over $100,000 of tax fraud and for various scams involving local charities in an amount no less than $30,000.'" Velma flipped to the next page where the story continued. "' Authorities attempted to confiscate the money Kent stole to no avail. His bank accounts had been closed weeks before his death. Officials believe that due to plane tickets and fake information found in Kent's room, that he was planning to flee the country. Those who have tried to search Kent's $3 million mansion for his funds have reported wailing, paintings falling off walls, and bleeding wallpaper. Due to this, many believe the mansion is haunted by Kent's spirit, and are too afraid to search the property for the money he stole.'"
Closing the paper, Velma took a large breath. "Now that's a mouthful." She muttered. "Anyways, it's very clear what's happened here. Fred, I hate to disappoint you but I just don't think this place is haunted. It's another Amityville 'haunting'."
"Hey, the Amityville haunting was real!" Fred said, he chanced a glance over at Velma before turning his gaze back to the empty road. "I've actually visited the house too. Check the glove compartment."
" What ?" Velma opened the glove compartment and rooted around. Just as Fred had said, there was a polaroid of him giving a double thumbs up in front of the acclaimed ' horror house'. "You have this in there, but you don't have the owner's manual for the van?" She asked, rolling her eyes. Despite her attitude, Velma carefully put the polaroid back inside the glove compartment and shut it.
"Aw, leave him alone, Velms." Daphne said, speaking for the first time in an hour or so. She shut her practice exam booklet and stretched her arms above her head. "You have an autograph from Big Bird in your journal." She smirked.
"Like really?" Shaggy grinned. "That's sick! I've always kinda wanted to meet Grover."
"Rus he as rice as he is on TV?" Scooby asked, his tail thumping loudly against the side of the van.
"I tell you that one time!" Velma groaned, covering her face with her hands with such force that it was a miracle her glasses didn't break at the bridge. "Ughhhh!" When she took her hands away from her face, Velma's glasses were incredibly smudged. "Yeah…." She took off her dirty glasses and began to clean them on her sweater. "He was really nice."
Smiling softly, Fred put his hand on Velma's shoulder. "I think it might just be cooler than a haunted house, but-" He turned on his high beams and slowed the van, putting both hands on the wheel once more. "I don't know how it'll hold up to an actual haunted house."
Everyone in the Mystery Machine leaned forward as Fred pulled to a stop in front of a very lavish, albeit overgrown, looking mansion. Despite being unoccupied for six months, the mansion still looked pretty good from the outside. Compared to a good chunk of the usual "haunted" places they visited, the Kent Mansion showed no signs of vandalism. Perhaps the idea of a rich, yet suicidal, ghost was just too much of a risk to paint a dick on a door or to throw rocks at the windows.
After a moment of studying the house, something else caught Velma's eye. "Hold on," She said. She squinted, holding her glasses closer to her eyes. "Is that a Fiat?"
Near the side of the house, a yellow Fiat stood parked. Fresh tire tracks followed behind it in the gravel. There was no way that car belonged there.
"Aw, maaan." Sighed Shaggy. "Looks like some other ghost hunters beat us here… Too bad, guess we should get going." He gave a small, hopeful smile. "Y'know I saw a Denny's on the way here, it's not a haunted house, but I'm scary hungry right now-"
Scooby nodded in agreement. "Rah! Ret's get a grand slam!"
Shaking his head, Fred turned off the van. The headlights dimmed off. "If these are other investigators, then that means we can help each other." He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his door. "The more the merrier, right?" He smiled at his friends inside the car. "Let's get cracking." He then stepped out of the car and shut the door.
"If they are investigators…" Velma muttered. She grabbed her knapsack from the bottom of the car and removed a flashlight from inside. "Don't worry, Shaggy. If this place is actually haunted I'll take you and Scooby to Denny's and let you eat all you want… It's not ghosts I'm worried about tonight." She said, eying the yellow fiat.
The promise of food put a spring in Shaggy and Scooby's step just as it always did. They hopped out of the back of the van in a second while Velma and Daphne got out.
Fred began to walk to the front door of the mansion, but Daphne stopped him. "Wait, a minute, Fred!" She said, "Let me get a better look at that car…" She clicked on her own flash light and started in the opposite direction towards the Fiat.
"Huh?" Fred asked, turning around. He shined his flashlight on Daphne's back. "What about it?"
The group followed behind Daphne, flashlights in hand, as she examined the car.
"Look at this!" Daphne pointed to the back of the Fiat where the engine was. "Bullet holes!" About five entry bullet holes scattered the back of the car. Daphne fingered one of them, gently touching the sharp metal with her fingers. "I don't think these guys are investigators…" She looked up at her friend's uncertainly.
"I've been thinking the same thing." Velma nodded. "This place is more likely to attract looters than investigators like us." She said, "The prospect of over $130,000 is enough to make anyone get over their fear of ghosts."
"Uh-nuh!" Shaggy's voice shook just as much as his flashlight in his trembling hands. "Not me, not me, man!" He looked around wearily, backing away from the car. "I think this is out of our job description… This is real danger. Maybe we should call the police, leave this up to them."
Scooby was shaking too, attempting to hide his bulk between Shaggy's skinny frame. He poked his head around Shaggy's leg, his ears were flat against his head and his tail was between his legs. "Rah… Rets reave!"
While everyone else was displaying at least a healthy amount of self preservation, Fred shook his head. "Don't be like that, guys!" He said, spreading his arms wide. "We've dealt with plenty of dangerous people before, and we've always got out with a few scrapes. We can do that now. If these guys are looters, then we'll need to stop them."
"Freddy, man, buddy, old pal," Shaggy pleaded. "Those were like lawyers and real estate agents with friggin' masks!" He pointed a shaking finger to the bullet holes in the Fiat. "These are bullets!" His voice cracked with fear. "I'm not the smartest, but I know guys who get shot at with guns usually have guns themselves." He said. " Guns. We don't have guns! We got a tire iron in the back of the van and Daphne's bear spray… Like- that ain't anything compared to a gun."
"Fred…" Daphne said slowly. "I think I'm with Shaggy on this… As much as I'm burning up with curiosity about this, this is dangerous."
Fred's smile faltered. "Yeah… What am I thinking? You guys are right." He shook his head. "We can't just go in there- no guns to have blazen. We gotta-"
What they had to do, however, the gang never found out. Because at that exact moment, the piercing scream of a woman rang out from inside the house. All of them froze.
"We gotta help her!" Fred said at once before bounding off in the direction of the mansion's front door.
"Freddy!" Shouted the rest of the gang.
Velma and Daphne immediately went to follow Fred while Shaggy made the quickest pit-stop at the van to grab the tire iron from the back. When Shaggy got to the front door, Daphne and Velma were nervously standing inside the threshold.
No one had noticed it when they pulled up to the mansion originally, but there was no front door. At least… not anymore. The door lay in little cut up slices, like pieces of a puzzle, on the floor of the foyer inside the mansion.
Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, and Daphne all stared at the pieces of the door in scared silence.
"Like…" Shaggy panted, the tire iron shaking in his hands. "We're really going in?"
"We can't just let him go in alone." Velma said. She looked at Daphne, Shaggy, and then Scooby. "Let's go, gang."
And then the three young adults and their dog rushed into the empty mansion after their friend.