Daphne slowly opens her eyes a fraction. She looks up and around her, and her heart pounds so hard stars erupt in front of her. Fred is lying next to her, his eyes closed, blood coating his neck and parts of his face. His ascot is stained through, and Daphne gasps as she sees something so familiar so dreadfully altered. On her other side, Velma is gently wrapping a bandage round Shaggy's arm, which is bleeding. Shaggy is wincing but trying not to let her see. Scooby lies next to his friend, whining softly. Velma looks over and sees that Daphne is awake, and tosses her a bandage and some wet cloths.

"Daph, get the dried blood off Freddy's neck. From what I saw, it's not that big a wound, it just bled a lot."

Daphne nods and picks up the equipment, crawling over to Fred's side and watching for a breath, not completely convinced he is alive. She relaxes as she sees the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and starts rubbing at the blood, trying to get the majority off. His eyes flicker, but don't open.

"Freddy, if you can hear me, give me some sign."

He gives a faint moan and his lips form a word, but Daphne doesn't quite make it out.

"Sorry, Freddy?"

"What happened?" he whispers, trying to open his eyes. Daphne gently puts her hand on top of his, trying to reassure him.

"Just lie still for me."

He opens his eyes a fraction, and watches as Daphne begins rubbing at the blood on his skin. Blood begins coating her fingers and the wet cloths, but she doesn't want to stop; with every rub she feels like she is helping him, cutting away at the congealed blood and one step closer to getting to the wound.

His question, however, has brought up a query in her mind which is very similar; in fact, she is wondering the self same thing.

What had happened and why to bring Mystery Inc. to this room, with two members injured, one maybe badly from what she had seen so far, and why had it happened?

Slowly the questions begin to unravel themselves in her mind, and she finds herself thinking of a day or so ago, when they had received a call from a girl living in Minnesota…

"Please, is this Mystery Inc.?"

"Yes," Fred replied, leaning one elbow on the wall as he spoke. The voice paused, and then continued, somewhat more agitated.

"I need help from you. My name is Kristina. I live in Minnesota, and a load of people living near my house have gone missing and I think they've been abducted by the Chimera… The neighbours are avoiding me like the plague, but my friend said that you had helped her before and that I should call you."

"A chimera?" Fred asked, unable to keep a hint of scepticism out of his voice. "OK, we'll come. What's your address?"

Kristina told us her address and Fred jotted it down, then cut the call.

Velma glanced over and sighed.

"You could try having a touch more tact, Jones."

She tended to call him by his surname when she was trying to make a point, and his eyebrows rose a little at the sound of it.

"What?"

"The scepticism. Look, I know we've had a lot of fake ghosts and that, but that tone of voice isn't the kind of thing that people want to hear, especially if people living near them have disappeared."

Fred rolled his eyes, but Velma had a point and he knew it. One of Fred's weaknesses is that he hates criticism, in any shape or form, and Velma was being a little too frank for his liking.

"OK. Fine. Sure."

He walked out and Velma glanced over at me.

"Someone's touchy today…"

I nodded.

"Out of bed on the wrong side, probably. You know the saying."

"Mm."

It was then, just as we exchanged rolled eyes and giggled with each other that the Chewsome Twosome made their entrance, back from the pizzeria and loaded with about twenty giant pizzas, all of which filled the house with their pungent smell and drowned out even my perfume. I made a mental note to spray the entire house with air freshener as soon as the pizzas were eaten, maybe sooner.

"Guys! How much did all that cost?"

Shaggy laughed.

"Like, you know the guys at the pizzeria- after we solved that Rogue Delivery Ghost mystery for them, they've lowered the prices so far that, like, they're almost paying us to eat their pizzas!"

Scooby gave his trademark laugh.

"Ruh-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"

Velma stood up and put her hands on her hips.

"We saved their business so that you could bankrupt them? Guys, I don't think so. Have a little consideration!"

They had the grace to look a little guilty.

"Rorry…"

"It doesn't matter, anyway," Velma continued, "well, not right now. We're going to Minnesota, we just got a new mystery."

"Rew rysrery?"

"Yes, Scooby, a new mystery."

"Ruh roh…"