The Mystery Within

44. The Man In The Mirror

"That's right Mayor Nettles. The place wasn't haunted . Daphne and Y/n found the neighbour's cat locked up in there. Poor thing had irritable bowel syndrome." Velma explains.

"Ew." Scooby says.

"Yes, that's why it was making those terrible noises. No, You're welcome." Velma says hanging up now. "It's 20 minutes past rendezvous time and still no Fred. I am virtually assured my first tardy ever." 

"I wonder what's taking him so long?" Daphne says. 

 "Perhaps we should go back in and find him." Y/n says now pushing himself off the van. 

"Hello friends." A voice says and every turns their heads to see Fred. "This place was a total bust. Nothing scary here. So let's get to school before we're late. Punctuality is an important facet of learning." Fred says as everyone looks at each other a little confused as Fred gets into the Mystery Machine. Everyone else gets in now themselves.

"If you step on it Fred, we can still make it to school on time." Velma says but as she does Fred tires to step on the gas too much and the engine splutters. "Careful or you'll flood the engine." 

"Huh?" Fred says. 

"Bad carburettor, remember?" Y/n says as he looks at Fred now. 

"Righty-o." Fred says as he successfully starts the Mystery Machine this time. "Okay, let's rolly-o." He then says as he starts to drive. 

Scooby and Shaggy licked their lips as they prepared to dig into two large sandwiches in he back of the Mystery Machine. Fred notices this is the rear view mirror and his brow furrows. 

"Hey, what do you two think you are doing?" Fred asks annoyed. 

"Having a little snack?" Scooby says.

"No eating in the van. Eating leads to crumbs. Crumbs lead to germs. Germs lead to sick days from work secretly crippling the nation's economy." Fred says.

The real Fred slowly woke up on the ground as he slowly looked around trying to work out where he was. Fred groans as he pushes himself and he looks to see the mirror from earlier behind him. "What happened?" Fred wonders as he looks at the mirror. He taps the glass but nothing happens. Fred looks around again now as he notices a set of stairs nearby that lead up to the surface from the basement he seemed to be in. Fred started to climb the stairs now. "Gang?" Fred calls out but he gets no reply. He takes out his phone now in the hopes of calling one of the gang. "No signal anywhere." 

Fred had been walking around for a while now as everywhere looked destroyed and run down. He finally reached the Crystal Cove sign of the town. "Anybody? Hello?" Fred cries out. But Fred gets no response. Fred looks at a nearby car now as he walks over to it. He gasps however as he sees two skeletons inside it and he backs away to see skeleton's litter the street. "No, no. This is all wrong. Crystal Cove has much greener lawns and fewer skeletons. Velma! Shaggy! Y/n! Daphne! Scooby-Doo, where are you?" 

The gang were still sat inside the Mystery Machine with the imposter Fred as he pulled over to the side of the road. 

"Uh, What are you doing?" Velma asks.

"Making a stop." Evil Fred says as he gets out the van now and heads inside a shop. The rest of the gang get out of the Mystery Machine themselves now.

"Fred's acting funny." Scooby says. 

"And not like ha ha ha funny. Not funny at all." Shaggy says grumpily.