Armed only with a flashlight, Detective Cam Clarke crept down the darkened hallway of an allegedly haunted manor. Behind him stumbled Thom McClain, his junior partner. "Dark down here, huh?" Thom joked, trying and failing to lighten the mood.

Cam nodded curtly, sweeping the beam of his flashlight along the dusty old furniture. "Nothing out of place here…" he murmured.

Thom suddenly cried out in horror, causing Cam to wheel around to see what was wrong. "Sorry," Thom gasped. "Just my shadows..."

"Shadows?" Cam echoed.

Thom turned to the wall and counted two shadows on the wall. "Must be two different light sources somewhere…" He twisted his fingers into a crude imitation of a bunny and made it 'hop' along the wall. Suddenly, the bunny lengthened and grew into a grasping hand with sharp claws!

"NO!" Cam grunted, but it was too late. The detective could only watch in horror as his partner was devoured by his own shadow! The shadow-monster turned to Cam and asked, "So where are we going this time?"

The spell broken, Velma looked up from her book to answer Shaggy's question."We're going to Louisiana to help Beau…uh, I mean, Detective Neville with a problem."

"Like, just writer's block, I hope?" Shaggy asked hopefully.

Velma shook her head. "Afraid not. You see, he thinks that one of the monsters from his books has come to life!"

"Zoinks!" Shaggy screeched, diving under a blanket in the backseat. Scooby followed suit; the blanket quivered as the dog-and-detective duo shook with fear. "Like, s-s-sorry I asked."

The Mystery Machine pulled up in front of a two-story house…although it was almost more appropriate to call it a mansion. A wide porch surrounded by wrought-iron railings ran around both stories of the mansion. Ivory columns stood as imposing sentinels, supporting a pointed pediment above the second-story porch. Hanging baskets, overflowing with flowers and vines, hung at various intervals from the porch railings.

"Hello, Mystery Incorporated!" came a voice from the second-story porch. Beau Neville, a tall dark-haired man, waved at them from his perch above. "I'll be right down!" He emptied his watering can over a basket of morning glories before vanishing out of sight. Moments later, he opened the massive front door and ushered the gang inside.

"Thanks for coming," Beau sighed as the oak door slammed shut with an echoing crash. "I'm about at my wit's end…"

"So what's been happing, Detective Neville?" asked Daphne, surveying the dim cobweb-bedecked chandelier.

"Ooh! Is it the Lagarto dar Miedo, the ancient lizard-god worshipped by the Serpiente tribe of south Spain?" Velma interrupted, referencing the events of Beau's third book The Reptile's Revenge. "Or perhaps the Zanzibarian witch doctor Pundamilia and his horde of zombified zebra-beasts?"

Beau chuckled. "My, you always do your research, don't you, Velma?" Velma blushed slightly. "But I believe it's someone a little more…sinister…"