Hey out there, mystery lovers! Please report any sightings of an African grey parrot with a scar on his eye to me. He is once again at large after a failed attempt to trap him with a bucket in my boss’s lair last weekend.
Two quick slices, and Brad and Judy are dead. Pericles as well. Now, Ricky is left as the last member of the first Mystery Inc.
Inspired by @slimeysodaa's art piece here.
He pressed the number.
It rang. And rang. And rang-
She had blocked his call.
He pressed the number.
It rang. And rang.
She had blocked his call.
He pressed the number.
It rang-
She had blocked his call.
He called again.
This time, the phone kept ringing. When it stopped, saying that the number couldn't be reached, he called again. It kept ringing. When it stopped, he started it again. When it stopped again, he started it again, staring at the photos on the monitors.
He should feel something, right?
Guilt? Isn't that what happened when you killed someone? Especially three of your oldest friends?
He couldn't feel a thing.
The phone stopped ringing.
"What?"
He nearly hung up.
"Velma?"
"Who else would it be?" she snarked. There was shuffling in the background- she was probably with the others. "What do you want? Why are you calling me?"
"Velma… put Fred on the line."
"What? No, just tell me."
"Velma," he sighed. "Put Fred on the line."
Something in his voice must have tipped her off. "What? What is it?"
"Put Fred on the line."
There was shuffling and hushed whispers. She was probably holding out her phone, shaking it when Fred didn't take it. After a moment, there was a breath and a hesitant "Hello?"
"Your parents are dead."
Just rip it off. Just take it off. That was the easiest way.
"…what?"
"…they…there was…" No. He couldn't say it, not like the way he told Pericles. "I killed them, Fred. They were unconscious and trusted me with a surgery. I killed them."
"Wait, hang on-"
He hung up.
-_-
It had been one random thought.
This had been the craziest plan yet, somehow even crazier than the whole mutant cows thing. Pericles had made him buy the abandoned movie lot and made it look like a post-apocalyptic Crystal Cove. He had bought a house and had a tunnel dug to connect the two.
The final piece had been Brad and Judy.
"Brad, you will assume the identity of Frederick. Judy, you will become Daphne Blake and have Frederick lead you to where die kinder are hiding the Planispheric Disk."
"Alright, Pericles! It'll be easy to trick those kids, right, Judy?"
"That's right, Brad."
"So," he said. "You want me to buy… realistic masks of Fred Jones-" He took a small amount of petty pleasure in how Brad's jaw clenched, trying to ignore the pain in his spine and the pain in his wallet. "And an older Daphne?"
"No," Pericles cooed. "No, die kinder will recognize a mask." That was a fair point. "You, my dear Ricky, will give them plastic surgery."
He really shouldn't have been surprised. Still, he was. "You went through my school records?"
"You know how to do plastic surgery?" Brad asked.
"Yes, I do." He had gotten bored. "Alright. I assume you already got the supplies?"
"Ja."
"Of course you did."
-_-
There were still two dead bodies. (Three.)
He summoned the janitors over the intercom. Thankfully, none of them started screaming or trying to call the police.
"There's a spare room down the hall. Place them there."
One of the janitors glanced down at something out of sight of the camera. He was willing to bet that he was looking at the third body. "…and the bird, sir?"
"…just leave him there."
"Yes, sir."
He turned his gaze to the new head of security. "When Mystery Incorporated arrives, let them in and take them to that room." They would come, at least to confirm the deaths.
"But, sir-"
"Let them in."
"But, sir, what if they do something?"
"Honestly, right now, I could give less of a fuck."
He pulled his finger off the button.
-_-
Everything had progressed as normal.
Pericles had stayed to watch him suit up and sedate Brad and Judy. When he was sure they were unconscious, he left without a word, leaving him alone with them. They didn't want to risk infection.
He had set to work. He took a marker and started marking the areas he had to work on. He had worked carefully. If one thing were off with these faces, the kids would notice and the disk would continue to evade them. Worse, Pericles would assume he had done it on purpose.
He set the marker down and studied their faces, making sure he didn't miss anything. He had to be careful. One slip…
And then the thought had come.
All it would take is one little "accident."
A slip of the scalpel. One. Two. And then it would be just him, Pericles, and Cassidy.
Pericles would never believe him. But, even though he was the smartest bird in the world, he was still just a little bird.
-_-
"Sir? Mystery Incorporated is here."
"I see them," he said. He had been watching the feed since he had given the orders.
On screen, the group was led down to the floor Pericles had commandeered. They passed by the room that had been the scene of the confrontation. Only Scooby-Doo stopped by it, glancing around. In the new angle, he could see that a small sheet had been used to cover Pericles.
Scooby stared at it and then looked over his shoulder, right at the camera.
He was a little afraid. Of course he was. But, under all of that-
Understanding. Even pity.
He looked away. When he looked back, the gang had reached the room where Brad and Judy's bodies were. Fred stepped inside and walked up to the beds. Someone had covered them with sheets.
He stared at them. His face twitched, as if he were unsure how to react. After a moment, he turned, and Shaggy and Daphne opened their arms. He fell into their arms. His shoulders faintly trembled, but there were no sobs. He looked lost.
He nearly didn't notice Velma glance up at the camera, just like Scooby.
-_-
Judy and Brad looked so innocent asleep.
If he closed his eyes, if he let himself imagine, he was back in the Enigma Engine after solving a mystery. Brad and Judy were sleeping against the computer, where it was warmest, their heads pressed together like they couldn't bear to be apart even when asleep. Next to him, Cassidy slept, a faint smile twitching against her mouth.
He opened his eyes and was back in reality.
They were gone. All of those innocent kids were gone and buried, the years the dirt around their graves.
He cupped Judy's face. He pressed the knife down and sliced across her throat.
He turned to Brad as the blood started to flow and Judy, unconscious, started to gag and choke. He cupped his face and slit his throat.
Blood splattered across his smock.
He stepped back and watched as they gagged and choked, their eyelids fluttering to expose their eyes. The heart rate monitor beeped with their racing heartbeats and then-
Nothing.
-_-
He heard the elevator move down and then the door to his office opened.
"What happened?"
"…what do you think, Velma?"
"I think you called me in the middle of an investigation to tell me that you killed Fred's biological parents, and I definitely saw Pericles' little bird body." Velma came to a stop next to him. He looked up and her face was scrunched up, like she wasn't sure how to feel. "And I'm not sure how we reached that point."
"I told him I killed Brad and Judy."
-_-
"Brad and Judy are dead."
Pericles, for once, hadn't been watching. He was pretty sure that was why he looked so startled, turning to him with one furious eye. "Vat."
"Brad and Judy are dead," he repeated. "…a little accident, that was it. Just a slip of the scalpel."
Pericles' eye moved down to his smock. It filled with rage. "You…" He let out an angry bird squawk that descended into a litany of German that he was certain was a bunch of creative curses. "YOU! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA-"
He worried that he was going to pull out that button.
He didn't.
He flew at him, claws bared.
-_-
"…Oh. He wasn't happy." She said it as a fact.
"No. And I think I was just tired of him." He sighed.
-_-
He wrapped his hands around Pericles.
At first, it was just to keep him away from his throat and his face, like how he had clawed and ripped into Ed. He grabbed him and yanked him back, feeling his little bird body under his fingers.
He had never considered it before, but birds were so fragile. Their bones were hollow in order to help them fly. Under his hands, he could feel those hollow bones, pressing against his fingers.
He squeezed.
Pericles squirmed and thrashed, but he held on and squeezed. Slowly, he felt those motions stop and still. He kept hold, something blazing in his veins, and ordering him to hold on.
Under him, Pericles squawked.
And then he felt it.
A crack. Just one, at first.
He squeezed.
Pericles squawked and screamed as more bones broke, as he kept squeezing, as his heart ached.
And then-
"Ricky-"
And then nothing.
-_-
"…I don't regret it. I wish I did." He sighed, looking up at the water peeking through the skyglass above. "Now it's just Cassidy and me." It sounded nice, honestly, even though she would be horrified by what he had done.
"…oh."
He glanced back. Velma stood there with wide eyes, curled in on herself, just a little bit.
Dread began to build in his gut.
"What?"
"…you didn't know?"
"Know what?"
Velma's fingers dug into her sweater. "…Cassidy's dead."
She whispered it. It echoed off the walls.
"…what."
"I…I thought you knew. Pericles lured us to this underwater hidden base and blew it up. Our submarine was stuck. Someone had to stay behind-"
Of course. Of course she did.
Of course he did.
He had known. He had known, deep down, that she was dead.
He had signed her death warrant by agreeing with Pericles.
What are you going to do now?
You're all alone.
A laugh escaped him and kept coming. Velma stepped back as he began to laugh more and more, cackles escaping him with the question. What- what was he going to do now? Everyone else was dead. Even Ed was dead, and Hot Dog Water had fled Crystal Cove.
Brad was dead.
Judy was dead.
Pericles was dead.
Cassidy was gone.
At some point, the laugh turned into sobbing.
Faintly, he felt a hand pressed against his shoulder, paired with an awkward pat.
