He listened to the footsteps as they creeped their way up the stairs. A brief pause and then the door before him creaked open. The sound was eerie, long and drawn out. It was the kind of a sound you would hear in an old 80’s horror flick. The light switched on an and a young brunet breezed into the room. “Norville? You guys in here?” A young man sitting at a desk winced; squinting hard. The light stung.

He had been sitting in the dark all night. He had been trying to figure out a good way to tell a secret he had been keep since just before the sun went down. Should he tell her? Could He? Would telling her be worse than the sick, gnawing feeling he felt eating away at him in the pit of his stomach? How would the rest of the gang react?

He and the gang had been together for a long time now and he already knew exactly what she and the others were going to say. He shifted his weight in the chair uneasily as she drew in close to him. Her eyes narrowed. “What’s going on? The gang’s waiting outside. We need to- “ “I know, like split, right?” he interrupted. “Well ya see it’s like this-” he stammered, not wanting to finish his explanation.

“Norville Roberts!” she scolded. “We’ve been here two weeks trying to solve this mystery and just when we’ve finally got it you go and disappear. What gives?”

Norville sheepishly lifted his arm pointing towards a closet door nearby. “Like, over there. It’s bad; really bad! Zoinks it’s like putting too much ketchup and chocolate sauce on your french-fries bad!” Again, he pointed at the closet.

A large red drag mark led the way to the door. The doorknob was also covered in red. She stretched out reaching for it then suddenly turned to look back at Norville. She took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. Then released it sharply jerking the door open. There; half covered in shadows, in a pool of red, lay the motionless body of a large dog. It too was covered in red. The girl gasped. Thinking the worst; she knelt down placing a hand on the dog. It moved slightly, let out a labored groaned, and rolled over.

A large three-foot sub-sandwich lay on the floor, broken in half. A large gash on the back of the dog’s head was the only other clue as to what had happened.

“What did you do Norvelle?”

“I like snapped; ya know. We were looking for clues all night and I got real hungry so I decided to have a little snack. I put together my latest, greatest four meat, three cheese, bacon, letus, tomato, sweet-and-sour mustard sauce, and bubble gum-flavored ice cream sandwich.” He paused for a moment rubbing his head remembering. “But I like, snapped. For years that crazy dog has been gett’n over on me, stealing my snacks right out from under my nose. I like; lost it man, and cracked him over the nugget with it, but the bread was kinda stale and then there was blood all over. I Panicked! I’m like real sorry!”

The dog stirred and groaned again. Lifting his head off the floor letting out a high pitched shaky sound. “Raggie?”

Velma laughed and turned around. “It’s ok. I’m sorry too Shaggy.”

The young man just sat there returning a puzzled, fearful gaze as Velma slowly stepped forward moving towards him. Just them Velma, Daphne, and Fred burst into the room. “Wait! What? Two Velmas? My mind must really be spun out man!” Shaggy argued as he moved back leaning away from the first Velma, against the wall.

Fred rushed her grabbing her around the waist pinning her arms to her sides. “I’ve got this” He elated, but the girl quickly overpowered Fred’s grasp and threw him off. Fred landed hard his back, dazed.

The real Velma and Daphne also rushed the imposter but they two were quickly overpowered and subdued. The imposters laugh slowly morphed from the familiar friendly voice the gang new so well into a horse, raspy, chortle. “It’s time for me to get you meddlesome kids and your little dog too!” The imposter ranted, she grabbed the hair on the top of her head pulling sharply. Her face stretched grossly out of proportion and then suddenly pulled up and off and a mask dropped to the floor.

In that same instant, the whole gang yelled in unison. “Old Man Jenkins?!?!”J

enkins stepped back distancing himself from the gang. All of them standing there in disbelief. Stunned they could only watch as Jenkins pulled a revolver and it leveled it on Shaggy. “Time to end this.”

Suddenly a small dark figure came bursting through a nearby window shattering glass throwing all over the room. Surprised, Jenkins turned to draw down on the figure but it was too late. The figure collided with him send them both crashing to the floor. The gun sent spinning across the floor to Daphne’s feet.

“Da da da DAAAAA! PUPPY POWER!” the small figure exclaimed. “Betcha didn’t see that one coming did-ja? Yah old baddie. Scrappy Doo laughed as he bounced up off the man and onto his feet.

Jenkins just slumped down onto his back.“Foiled again. I’ll get you meddling kids. If it’s the last thing I do.”