Ezra's Treasure An original story told from Velma's perspective Part 1

Part one:

In the quiet of a small study in the Blake mansion, two people sit talking to each other. "Daphne, we've known each other for a very long time." She feels her heart rate quicken. "There's something I have been meaning to tell you, it's long overdue..." Freddy slips his hand into the pocket of the jacket he is wearing, appearing to grasp a small box inside. "I think I need to say this to........." Freddy is cut off by a loud clamor as Velma comes bursting into the room with Shaggy and Scooby in tow. "Ok, guys!" she says, "We need to find some work! The bill for fixing up the Mystery Machine was almost Eight Thousand Dollars! Our insurance doesn't cover it. They said that we are not covered for paranormal vehicular events! And that's not all, We got a bill for that restaurant Shaggy and Scooby trashed, Thirty Six Hundred Dollars!!!" "Wrorry..." Scooby and Shaggy look at each other in a rather sheepish fashion. Daphne collects her thoughts and then speaks up. "You know my dad will cover the expenses. We did make a very good profit on a couple of the cases we worked on recently." Velma has calmed down. All are now seated in the study, which has become the unofficial home office of Mysteries Inc. She speaks up "I know Daphne, but I really enjoy this work! Mysteries are what make me feel alive! But at the same time, I want to feel we are succeeding at it from a business sense." Freddy is about to speak but pauses when he hears the phone ringing. Mr Blake peeks his head into the room long enough to say, "Velma, you have a phone call."

With Velma on the phone, Daphne is dying to ask Freddy what he was about to do earlier, but notices Scooby and Shaggy staring at them. Everyone is dead quiet, watching the snow fall outside, with the exception of Velma, who is in the next room. Velma finishes up the phone call and returns with a somber look on her face. "Be careful of what you ask for in life!" she says.

Velma phrases her self in a series of short thoughts. "My great uncle Ezra passed away. He was 94. He was also really strange. I was always his favorite grandniece. I remember him from when I was a baby. A fuzzy image above me. Then I got glasses. I asked him what all those things were on his face. He said they were wrinkles." Daphne notices that Velma is really acting strange, almost nervous. "Velma, maybe you should sit down for a while and collect your thoughts. Something is bothering you, I didn't know the two of you were that close." Velma plops onto the sofa. She takes her glasses off and rubs her eyes. For a few moments, the room is quiet. In a calmer voice, she begins to speak. "No, we were not close. In fact, I have not seen him in many years and I am not heartbroken by his passing. He had a good long life, there's just some things about him that you all don't know. He was an eccentric genius who made a fortune. He loved to test my mental skills by playing very complicated games with me. My parents always would say: That's where you get your smarts from! Anyway, it seams Uncle Ezra is going to play one last game with me, and that's where all of you fit in." Shaggy and Scooby look at each other, then Shaggy speaks. "But he's dead! How can you play a game with a dead person! Zoinks! I don't even want to know the answer to that one!" Freddy, who has been pretty quiet, finally speaks. "It's the will! He left you in his will, but there are some conditions.." Velma puts her glasses back on. Now looking more like her old self, she continues. "Very good Freddy! That's exactly it! I stand to inherit a small fortune, but only after solving one last mystery of his. Something he worked out before his death. Kind of a test. But it is not going to be simple, things with him never were. And It's not going to be danger free. There's about three other relatives that stand to inherit the money if I fail. People from a dark side of my family tree, who like him, are very strange! Oh, and there's one other thing about him you all need to know before you agree to help me out... He believed he could talk to the dead and that his mansion was quite haunted!" "Hauu..Haauu..Haunted?" says Shaggy. "Come on you guys!" Daphne adds. "We've been doing this for years, now it's one of our own that needs our help" Freddy jumps up off of the sofa. "Daphne's right! I say it's all for one and one for all!" The enthusiasm dies down as everyone notices that Velma is quite quiet. "What's wrong?" Daphne asks.

Velma is standing in front of the large window, the lifeless trees of winter behind her. She closes her eyes partway and speaks, "Well, these people know me. They know my weaknesses and how to trip me up. Knowing Uncle Ezra, this test will be tough." She explains. "Well, maybe you've changed since they knew you. Besides, they don't know us, and we'll be right by your side!" adds Freddy. Slowly, Velma begins to smile. "Your right Freddy, And I'm getting some ideas on how I could use what they knew about me to our advantage! The formal kickoff for this thing will be tomorrow night at the office of my uncle's attorney, which is in Philadelphia. I think I have a little shopping to do before we head out tomorrow!"

The Mystery Machine exits the expressway and heads into the heart of Philadelphia. "Where now?" Freddy asks. "You need to make a right up at the third light, that will take us into the historic district." Says Velma. As they head up the side street, Shaggy asks, "Just how much money do you stand to inherit?" Velma ponders for a while before answering. "Humm... Hard to say, I don't know who else may be in the will, but he was worth almost two million dollars." Shaggy and Scooby look spellbound, as if pondering how many pizza pies that would buy. "There it is, Freddy. Pull in after that next building."

The gang takes the elevator to the thirteenth floor and walks down the hall to suite 666, the offices of Grimm, Glum, & Grimmer, Attorneys at Law. Although the building is ultra modern, the door into the suite is not. It creaks as they open it. "Wow..." Shaggy says, as they enter the office. Stepping through the door was like stepping back in time. The office resembled Scrooge's office in the story A Christmas Carol. All five took a seat on the antique sofa sitting in front of a desk, and waited for someone to notice they had entered. After about five minutes, Velma gets up. "I'm going to go find someone, this is ridiculous!" She walks toward the back of the suite and notices a door that is ajar. "Mr Glum? Are you in there?" An old decrepit figure rotates around in a chair that is older then him and looks at her. She can feel a chill run down her spine. "You must be that Dinkley woman. Surprised you showed up. Well, lets get this over with." With that, he slowly gets out of his chair. Very slowly.... Velma is somewhat taken back. "What happened to Grimm and Grimmer? I remember them from when I was a kid. They were both so funny.." The old figure standing before her cuts her off. "Dead. Both dead." He pauses for a second, and then begins to shuffle towards the doorway. Velma returns to the front office and sits with the others. "Anybody back there?" Freddy asks. "Yea, but at his current rate of travel, I calculate he should get to this desk by, oh, next week!"

Mr Glum takes a seat at the old wooden desk in front of them. The phone begins to ring. It is an old dial phone, and the bell is very loud. He ignores it and proceeds to open his desk draw and remove a file. "In accordance with the will, I can not reveal the whole document to you. Instead, I am only giving you this hand written page of instructions." Velma reaches out to take the page, but he withdraws it. "You must understand that once you take possession of this page, you have only Twenty four hours to solve the puzzle." Once again, he moves the page toward her. This time, Velma reaches out and grabs it. Mr Glum picks up what looks to be a very old fountain pen, and dips it into an inkwell on his desk. "It is of record that you received this page at 7:05 pm..." He continues to speak as he writes in what looks like an old, leather bound journal book, but his words trail off until they can not be heard. "Thank you for your time Mr Glum!" Velma says as she spins on one heel and heads out of the office. The rest of the gang follow her. Safely in the hallway, Shaggy says, "That was creepy!" Velma stops in her tracks. "For once Shaggy, I agree with you completely! I don't think I could stand another second in there!" Freddy and Daphne both look very puzzled, Freddy speaks first. "So what's in the letter? What's our first step?" Velma, who has been reading the letter answers, "I don't know the whole story yet, but our first step is to head to the Jersey shoreline. His mansion is on a rocky island right off of the coast." Daphne looks even more puzzled. "Velma, Jersey is all flat sand, how can there be a rocky island off of the cost?" Velma chuckles, "He had it built!"

As the Mystery Machine zips down the backwoods roads of New Jersey, Velma reads and rereads the letter. "So tell us what it says!" Daphne pushes. Velma puts the letter down on her lap. "Not much! Let me read it to you; From the time you receive this letter, you will have twenty four hours to find it. At the end of this time, an agent for my attorney will come to the estate and you must present it to him. Once done, you will be entitled to all my remaining cash assets. Good luck, Velma, I know you are capable of completing the task! But beware, your distant cousins will stop at nothing in their effort to block your success." Shaggy sits with a totally dumbfounded look on his face. "What is it?" he asks. Velma ponders the question. "I don't know.." she answers. "Well all this talk is making me hungry, right Scoob? So lets take a look at some of the emergency rations I packed." Shaggy says, as he turns to the two large steamer trunks in the back of the van. Freddy, who is looking in the rear view mirror, says, "Those are full of food?! I thought it was Daphne's wardrobe!" Daphne turns and smacks Freddy on the shoulder. "Come on! I don't ever take a lot of cloths! Everything I brought is in those three purple bags in the corner." Freddy looks back in the mirror and sees three purple jumbo suitcases stacked in the rear corner of the van, but decides it is too risky to make a comment. Meanwhile, Scooby has flipped open the lid of the one case. Built into the lid is a milkshake mixer and a hotdog grill. Shaggy has flipped open the other case, it's lid contains a small pizza oven. "I don't believe it!"Daphne says, "They've turned the back of the van into a fast food restaurant!" Velma's attention has finally drifted off of the letter and on to the commotion occurring in the back of the van. "Mmm, but those hotdogs and pizzas do smell good cooking!" Freddy looks back. "I agree Velma, pass me a piece of that pizza please." As the pizza oven dings, Freddy reaches his hand back for a piece, when he goes to eat it tho, he notices it is only a crust! "Hey! What happened to my slice?" "He hee he he heee!" All three front passengers yell in unison "Scooby!"

"I think we're almost there." Freddy says as the van pulls down a long unmarked driveway. After about one half mile, the roadway turns to a gravel path. "Are you sure about this Velma?" "Yep! This is it. Soon we will reach the beach. There is a stone road that takes us through the water to the mansion." As she is speaking, the pathway leads out of the woods, across some sand, and to the water's edge. Slowly, Freddy continues to drive along the path, which is lit only by the headlights. Water is lapping at the sides of the Mystery Machine only inches away from the tires. Parts of the drive are covered over in water. The shoreline disappears behind them as he continues along the barely visible drive. The darkness and the water play tricks on their eyes, leaving all five huddled in the front seat feeling like they could get swept away with one big wave. Finally, the drive leaves the water and heads up a steep incline. "He had this island built?" Freddy asks. There was a cold wet winter wind blowing past them, and all knew that a snowstorm was soon to hit. The drive twisted and turned up the hill of rocks until the house came into view. All five gasped at it's decrepit state. "I hope we can get out of here before that storm hits. I wouldn't want to drive down this drive if it were covered with ice!"

As the five of them enter the front door, Shaggy begins to shake. "This is the most frightening house I ever entered!" Freddy shakes his head. "Every house is the most frightening one you ever entered!" Daphne looks around. In front of her is a long winding staircase, to the side, a long hall. "Where do we start? We don't know what we're looking for, how would we know what it was even if we were holding it?" Velma scratches her chin. "There was always a pattern to my visits here. Usually, the visit would begin in the library with Uncle Ezra reading from my favorite book. Follow me, we'll start in the library." Velma started down the hall, the rest of the gang followed. Daphne was smiling. "How cute! I bet it was some old story book. What was it Velma? Mother Goose? Something by Mark Twain?" Velma has entered the library and heads directly over to one book. The walls are full to the ceiling with books, thousands of them. "Here it is! Advanced Calculus!" she says. "I should have known!" Daphne says. Velma opens the book and starts scanning a specific chapter. On the page is written "Congratulations Velma, your journey has begun!" Velma chuckles, "It's his handwriting! And look, he got some of the numbers circled in red!" She takes a paper and pencil out of her pocket and begins writing down numbers. Shaggy stairs at what Velma is doing for a while then speaks. "Well, this looks like it is going to take a while. Scoob and I are going to go hunt for the kitchen!" Velma, who now has the full page covered with numbers, breaks for a second. "It's down the hall to the left, right after the oil paintings of medieval torture, but before you get to the glass cases with the bones in them." Even in the dim light, Shaggy looks white "B..b..bb..bones?" "Yep, but watch out for those swords, they're real!" Velma adds. Daphne looks at Freddy, "Maybe we should look for the bedrooms and unpack. Velma looks really absorbed in this, and right now we are useless!" "Up the stairs and to the left." Velma says, without braking her concentration. Freddy and Daphne leave the room, Velma is alone..... Behind the bookcase, a set of eyes stair out of the darkness at every move she is making.

As Shaggy and Scooby are walking down the hallway, a strange groaning noise is heard. "Wrut rus rat?" Shaggy freezes in his tracks. "I don't know, but it didn't sound alive!" The two of them turn to look and see a green luminescent figure floating towards them! "ZOINKS!" In a bolt, Shaggy takes off running down the hall with Scooby on his heels. The two both do manage to make the turn into the kitchen, slamming the door behind them. As they look up, they see the figure somehow has made it into the room with them and once again, they bolt! After knocking into enough pots and pans to wake the dead, they see a hiding place and head into it. Yet another door slams and they are alone! "Ro Rob?" "Huh?... oh.. no knob! Uh oh, no doorknob! Well at least we are safe from green and ghoulish! Where are we.... It's a walk in refrigerator! What luck!" Shaggy pulls a small flashlight out of his pocket, and looks around. "And it's fully stocked!" With the flashlight in his mouth, he begins to make a Super Shaggy Special Sandwich. "Funny.. I'm feeling a little lightheaded.. Must be hunger.. Uh oh.. not hunger... gas!" Shaggy and Scooby plop on top of each other and slide down to the floor.

Freddy has lugged all three of Daphne's cases up the stairs and has stowed them in the first bedroom. Panting, he sits on the bed. "Thanks Freddy!" She sits down beside him. "Freddy, what was that you were going to talk to me about the other day?" Freddy looks into her eyes. He feels a weakness in his knees. She stairs back, waiting for an answer, but also starts to feel weak.. The two of them fall to the floor unconscious.

After hours of work, Velma screams, "That's it!" On the table in front of her lie scraps of paper covered in numbers and letters. The final sentence that she deciphered reads "Games in the solarium." Velma is so excited, she does not see the figure creeping up behind her. A pair of hands reach from behind and grab her glasses off of her face. "Hey! Who's that! What are you doing? Give me back my Glasses! I can't see without them!" A somewhat muffled voice comes from behind a mask. "That's the whole idea..."

Onward to Part 2 of Ezra's Treasure!