Chapter 8

"What the hell is that?" Velma asked.

Like Daphne and Fred, Velma and the boys had found an 'clean' room, except everything was green.

"Like, it's my trophy when I was a kid!" Shaggy exclaimed.

"What for? You've never played a sport in your life!" Velma exclaimed.

Shaggy and Scooby both laughed at that, "There is one sport, Velma. Like I won this trophy for the number of hot dogs eaten in a minute." Shaggy said proudly.

"And how many did you manage?" Velma asked.

"Thirty."

"Thirty?"

"Not my best record, but I was only ten, so like cut me some slack."

"I don't understand why this would be in here?" Velma asked.

Shaggy shrugged, "Neither do I. But like now that I think about it, I haven't seen this thing in years. Like our house was broken into whilst we were out at Sugie's dance recital when I was fifteen."

"And you haven't seen it since?" Velma asked.

"No." Shaggy replied.

"That's weird." Velma muttered, "Is there anything else in there?"

Shaggy looked in the box, but there was nothing else in there, "No."

"Was there anything else of yours stolen during the robbery?" Velma asked, Shaggy shook his head, "Nothing else of mine, only this. But like, they did take my Dad's wallet and my Ma's watch."

Velma sighed, "Alright. I suggest we go and search the other houses. We've nothing in this one, but I hope Fred and Daphne had found something."

After the ordeal in the purple house, Fred and Daphne decided to search the house next door, which was blue. But it was the same as the purple house; all the rooms dusty and unlived for years, but at the top of the stairs was a room, completely blue and Fred realised it was the layout of his own room at home.

"What do you think this all means, Freddie?" Daphne asked as Fred opened the blue box which sat on the bed.

"All I can think is that the jewel thief knows a lot about us than anyone else does." Fred said, "Maybe more than we know each other." Fred had opened the box and he pulled out the item inside, at first, he didn't recognise it, but slowly it started coming back to him.

"What is it?" Daphne asked. "It's my dad's watch." Fred replied.

"Isn't your dad-

"In jail? Yes. But my mom gave all his shit away, she gave his clothes to charity and sold his jewellery and watches, including this one."

"Who did she sell it to?" Daphne asked, Fred shrugged, "I don't remember, I was ten."

Fred got to his feet. He grabbed Daphne's hand and dragged her out of the room, "Come on, let's look in the other houses."

Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were about to walk into the next house, which was orange, when Scooby caught Daphne and Fred out the corner of his eye.

"Guys!" Fred exclaimed.

"Fred, Daphne? What did you guys find?" Shaggy asked.

"Nothing, apart from an undisturbed room in both the purple and blue houses, and an item belonging to both Daphne and I." Fred explained.

"Let me guess, like it's an item you haven't seen in years?" Shaggy asked.

"Yeah? How did you guys know?" Daphne asked, "Did you find something?"

"We found something in the green house." Velma said.

"My old hot dog trophy." Shaggy said, waving the trophy above him.

"Hey, wasn't that stolen years ago?" Fred asked. "Yep our house was broken into." Shaggy replied.

"We found items that we haven't seen in years!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Uh guys, you know what I just noticed?" Fred asked, "What happened to the other houses?"

"Huh?"

The gang looked around, they noticed that nearly all the houses in the little village had gone, and all that were left were the houses, purple, blue, orange, and green.

"What is going on?" Shaggy asked.

"I don't know, but something tells me we should look in this house." Velma said, and she pushed the door open, and the gang followed her in.

"Was it like this in the other house?" Daphne asked, flapping a cobweb out of her face.

"Yeah, it was." Velma replied.

"Do we even bother searching the other rooms, and just go upstairs?" Daphne asked. "Let's go." Fred said, heading up the stairs and the gang followed him.

They got to the top of the stairs and found the other door, Fred opened it and the gang stepped in.

"Jinkies! It's my bedroom!" Velma exclaimed.

"Well not exactly, but it almost is." Daphne replied.

Velma opened the orange box on the bed.

"Like, what's inside it?" Shaggy asked. Velma pulled out a key, "I have no idea what this is."

"A key? Does it have any marks on it, or something that looks familiar to you?" Fred asked. Velma examined the key, but she did not recognise anything on it, "No."

Suddenly, they heard a noise outside, it sounded like rocks crumbling. Quickly, the gang ran downstairs and outside.

"What was that noise?" Daphne asked.

"Like I don't remember that being there." Shaggy said, pointing at a huge boulder outside the houses.

The gang exchanged looked, and Fred stepped carefully towards it, "There's something written on it."

The gang stepped towards it, "What does it say?" Velma asked.

"It says, Remembering the Munchkin Land Massacre of 1940." Fred read.

"Munchkin Land Massacre? That would explain why the town is pretty much abandoned." Shaggy commented.

"1940? The Wizard of Oz was made in 1939." Daphne said.

"Like maybe it was that Wicked Witch you talked about." Shaggy suggested. "No, she dies before the movie ends." Daphne said.

"So, what happened?" Fred asked.

"I have a theory." Velma began, "We know that the movie ran for nearly two hours, and Dorothy and Toto walked from this tiny village to the Emerald City. But how many days did it take her?"

"Ok, so let's say it took her at least two days to get to the Emerald City. What happened here in those days?" Fred asked.

Scooby began barking.

"What is it, Buddy?" Shaggy asked. "Jeepers!" Daphne exclaimed, pointing to a large bubble floating towards them.

"I remember her." Fred said. "Is it the witch?" Shaggy asked. "It is a witch, but she's a good witch." Daphne said.

The bubble got bigger and bigger, until it finally burst, and a beautiful woman appeared in front of them.

She wore a huge puffy pink dress and a crown on her head. In her hand she held a wand which had a huge star on the top.

"That's not the witch from the movie." Daphne muttered.

"You're looking for my mother, Glinda the Good Witch of the North." The woman said.

"Who are you?" Daphne asked. "My name is Gloria the Good Witch of the North." She replied.

"What happened here?" Velma asked. Gloria looked saddened, "Dorothy, when she arrived in Munchkin Land, her house crushed Wendelin, the Wicked Witch of the South and killed her, freeing the Munchkins from her terror. But her sister, Winnifred, she set out to stop Dorothy from reaching the Emerald City because my mother had taken Wendelin's Ruby Slippers and given them to Dorothy so she could reach the Emerald City. It took Dorothy longer to get to the Emerald City than my mother planned." Gloria explained.

"How long did it take?" Fred asked. "Five days." Gloria replied.

"Five days?" Velma asked, Gloria nodded, "She was joined in her journey by a Scarecrow who could barely walk and had no brain; a Tin Man who needed to be reoiled every few miles and had no heart, and a lion who was so scared of everything and kept holding Dorothy up."

"How long was it supposed to take her?" Velma asked. "My mother expected only a day or two. But even at the Emerald City, the Wizard would not see her until she returned with Winnifred's broomstick, but Dorothy was captured by her army." Gloria explained.

"But what happened to all the Munchkins?" Daphne asked. "Dorothy finally left Oz and returned home. But what we didn't know was Winnifred had a daughter, Hilda, when she learned of the deaths of her mother and aunt, she came for my mother. When she could not find her, she killed my mother and all the Munchkins, before she was apprehended by a group of soldiers from the Emerald City."

"Gloria, can you tell us why those houses are still standing?" Velma asked, but Gloria didn't answer, as she disappeared.

"Well that was helpful." Shaggy commented. "At lease we know what happened to the Munchkins." Daphne added.

"So, what do we do now?" Fred asked. "What if we carried on with our plan? We follow the story, and in doing so, we follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City." Velma suggested.

"I suppose we could, I mean what harm could it do?" Daphne asked. "Like, we could find the lion, the tin man and the scarecrow!" Shaggy exclaimed.

"Roh ry!." Scooby whined.

"Come on guys, let's follow the yellow brick road." Fred said, and he began along the yellow brick road.