"Have a good day, Mr. Miller!" Oxana said to her human guest. "We're glad you enjoyed your stay here at the Scare B&B!"
Mr. Miller smiled and shook Oxana's hand. "Thank you for having me, Oxana! I had a delightful visit!" The man took his luggage and left the hotel.
Demi the Ghost popped out of the dusty suit of armor. "Phew! It's good to be out of the armor! ACHOO!" He sneezed out the dust that filled his nose.
Gregoria collapsed from exhaustion off her pedestal. "Man, oh man! Why couldn't I just disappear like Demi?! I'm tired of being a statue! My back is all in knots!"
"And I am tired of constantly concealing myself!" Chef Remy Bones said as he clacked out of the basement. "Must we always hide from humans?!"
"That's because you have to, Chef Remy." Vampirina said. "You all know what happens when humans see anything spooky like ghosts or talking gargoyles or skeletons!"
The skeleton chef harrumphed. "Well, if anyone needs me, I'll be in the kitchen where the chef belongs!"
Demi sighed. "I'm with Chef Remy. I wish we didn't have to hide from humans all the time."
"Same here." Gregoria said.
"I know it's hard." Oxana said gently. "But you both know how it is. If humans knew our bed and breakfast was really haunted, then we'd be out of business! My lifelong dream of running a monster hotel will forever Rest In Peace!"
"And that's the last thing we want." Vee slung her bat backpack on. "Anyway, I'm off to school. Bye, everyone!"
Vee's family waved their goodbyes as the little vampire left.
"I still wish we didn't hide from humans..." Demi said, depressed. "We could mix and mingle and have fun with the humans and they can see what wonderful people we are!"
Oxana put her hands firmly on her hips. "Sorry, Demi. But things are what they are. Now, back to your hiding spot. We have another guest coming tonight."
"If that's the case, then I'm hiding in the basement." Demi said. "No more hiding in the armor for this ghost."
"I'm with you." said Gregoria, following Demi.
Oxana went to tell Chef Remy about the guest. "Chef Remy-"
"Don't bother." said Chef Remy. He was carrying a tray of his specially made spooky snacks. "I overheard you. Since we're having another human guest over, I've prepared dinner for Demi, Gregoria and myself. Just because we're banished to the basement, doesn't mean we can't enjoy a good meal!"
"Chef! We're not banishing anyone!" Oxana protested. Before she could continue, the doorbell screamed.
"Oh, bats! Our guest is here!" Oxana panicked. "Chef! Quick! Hide!" She rushed to answer the door.
Sighing, Remy returned to the dark basement.
"Welcome to the Scare B&B, Miss Bloomington!" Oxana greeted a woman wearing a pink floral dress and white sun hat. "A pleasure to have you here!"
"Nice to meet you to, Ma'am." Miss Bloomington said politely. "This place is just darling! I mean, it looks haunted, but it's not! I love it!"
"Uh...yeah. R-Right, definitely not haunted..." Oxana chuckled nervously.
That night, everyone was in bed fast asleep. Despite vampires sleeping during the day, Vampirina and her family have gotten used to the human habit of sleeping at night once they've settled into Pennsylvania.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Vampirina jolted awake when she heard a woman screaming. She jumped out of bed and came downstairs to see Ms. Bloomington running toward the door, still in her nightgown and carrying her suitcases.
"Ms. Bloomington! Where are you going?!"
"OUT OF HERE!" Ms. Bloomington shrieked. "This place really is haunted!" She kept screaming as she ran out the door.
Boris and Oxana rushed downstairs. "We heard screaming! What happened?!"
"Something scared Ms. Bloomington out of the house!" Vee said.
"But that's impossible! We double checked her room and there's nothing scary in there!" Oxana said. "Unless..."
"Unless what?"
Oxana wrinked her nose. "Chef Remy must have scared Miss Bloomington away! He must have did it just to spite me for making him hide!"
"Mama! How could you say that?!" Vee said. "Remy would never do that!"
"Vee's right, my lovely!" said Boris. "Chef Remy is part of the family! He would never-"
"AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!"
A ghastly laugh filled the house. The Hauntleys huddled close together. That's when they spotted an unnatural being at the top of the stairs.
It was a suit of armor that was kept in the hallway! But it was alive! Two red eyes glowed behind the visor. In it's metal hands was a big, sharp sword!
"LEAVE THIS HOUSE AND NEVER RETURN!" roared the haunted armor. He hurled his ace right at the Hauntleys!
"RUN!" Boris screamed. He, Oxana and Vampirina ran with their vampire speed right out of the house.
Once they ran outside, the door slammed shut.
Vampirina couldn't open the door. "We're locked out!"
Boris crossed his arms. "Still think Remy scared away Miss Bloomington?"
"Not anymore! It was the suit of armor! Our armor must be haunted!" Oxana said. "But it was never haunted before!"
"Maybe a bad ghost is haunting it!" Boris guessed. "Or maybe it was enchanted by wicked trolls!"
"Well, whatever the reason, that armor took our house!" said Vee. "How are we going you get rid of him?!"
"We should call the police!" Oxana suggested.
"But our phones are inside! And we can't call the human police! What if they see Demi, Gregoria, and Chef Remy?!" Vee gasped. "Wait! That's it! Demi, Gregoria, and Chef Remy! They'll stop that walking trash can!"
Oxana bit her lip. "I hope so..."
Down in the basement, Demi, Gregoria, and Remy heard the screaming and scary laughter.
"What was that?!" Demi asked worryingly.
"Whatever it was, it scared away that Bloomington lady." Gregoria said. "I know a scream of terror when I hear one!"
"Oui! She screamed so loud, it made my bones rattle!" Remy said. "But what could have scared her away? Probably whoever yelled' 'Leave this house and never return!' I presume."
"I'll go check." Demi phased through the basement ceiling and searched around the house. He heard a loud banging noise from upstairs. He poked his head out of the floor and saw the sword wielding specter hacking away at the wall.
Demi gasped and headed back to the basement. "Guys! We have a scary situation! And not the good kind of scary!"
"What's up?" asked Gregoria.
"The suit of armor is alive and swinging a sword at our attic wall! That's what's up!" Demi said, pointing up to the ceiling.
"The suit of armor is vandalizing the attic?! Quelle horreur!" Remy exclaimed. "We got to do something! If he's going to tear apart the attic, he'll probably wreck everything else! Even the kitchen!"
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I say we show this bozo who're the real monsters haunting this house!" Gregoria said.
"But he's got a sword!" Demi said.
"So?" Gregoria scoffed.
"She's right, Demi! The Scare B&B is our home and no haunted armor is going to take it from us!" Remy said, shaking his bony fist.
"But what can we do?!" Demi said in full panic mode. "We're just a ghost, gargoyle and skeleton! How can we beat a haunted suit of armor?!"
"I propose we do what we monsters do best!" Remy declared. "Be scary!"
Demi's ghostly face broke out into a wide grin. "Oh, now you're talking!" He rubbed his hands together.
"Let's scare us a suit of armor!" Gregoria let out a growl.
Up in the attic, the armor was rummaging through the attic trunks after busting several holes in the wall. When a big, black spider dropped down in front of him, he jumped back, yelping a little.
Demi, Gregoria, and Chef Remy were watching from a safe distance.
"Huh. Why would haunted armor be shook up by a cute little spider?" Demi whispered.
"Perhaps our armored friend isn't what he appears to be." Remy deduced. "Let's give him a good scare treatment and see if he can take it."
The knight was about to swat away the spider until a stone hand grabbed his. "Hey, spiders have feelings too!" said Gregoria, glaring at the armor.
"AAAAAH!" The knight screamed and tumbled onto his metal back, his helmet was pulled off by Demi, revealing a human man inside! He looked up and gasped seeing Demi.
"How dare you make a mockery of us ghosts!" The angry ghost said. "Blaaaaaaaah!" He stretched his face and stuck his tongue out.
"GYAAAH! IT'S A GHOST!" The knight ran out the attic and tried to run out the back door, but his horror grew when he saw a skeleton in a chef hat and apron standing in his path. In his bony hand was a big butcher knife.
"Leaving so soon?" Chef Remy said with a twisted smile, his knife gleaming.
The man felt all the color drain from his face. "It's a sk-! It's a sk-! It's a skeleton!" The man wheezed in a sharp breath.
Chef Remy smiled. "Oui, I am a skeleton." His smile became a scary scowl. "Now get out of my kitchen before I make cheese out of you!" The skeleton hurled his cleaver at the man, the cleaver missed his head by inches and stuck to the wall.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The man raced to the front door. The moment he opened the door and stepped outside,
"HI-YAH!"
A foot in a fuzzy pink slipper kicked the man right up the chin, knocking him unconscious.
Vampirina's human babysitter Miranda tightened her fist. She was wearing her white bathrobe with yellow flowers, red sweatpants and pink fuzzy slippers. "You just stay there until the cops arrive!
The Hauntleys stared with slacked-jaws.
"Wow, good thing we brought Miranda here in time..." said Vampirina.
Miranda got a close look at the man with the glass jaw. She gasped. "I don't believe it! That's Henry Miller!"
"You know him?!" Oxana said.
"Yeah, he's Jennifer's uncle!"
"Jennifer? You mean that awful girl who your ex-boyfriend dumped you for?" asked Vampirina. "Why would he do this?!"
Miranda took out her phone and dialed 911. "I say we call the cops and get some answer out of him."
A few minutes later, the police came and arrested Henry Miller. He confessed everything to the cops.
"From what we could get out of Miller, he was sent by his brother Hank Miller to ruin business for your bed and breakfast." the cop told Oxana.
"Hank Miller?!" Oxana gasped. "That man came to our hotel two days ago and checked out today!"
The cop nodded his head. "I see...must be sabotage."
"Sabotage?!" Miranda and the Hauntleys exclaimed.
"You see, Hank Miller runs a hotel on the other side of own. It could be possible he went to your hotel to get a layout of the place then send his brother to scare away your customers, ruining busniness for your hotel."
"But that doesn't explain why we was knocking holes in the attic wall!" Boris said.
"I can answer that." Oxana said with a regretful look. "I told Hank Miller that there's a hidden treasure somewhere in the house that's rightfully ours. He must have ordered his brother to steal it!"
"That's right! And I don't want the treasure anymore!" Henry said, trembling. "Just take me to jail!"
The cop sighed as Henry was taken away. "This may sound crazy, lady, but Henry said that you've got ghosts and monsters in that house."
Oxana blinked twice. "Oh, goodness, no! There's nobody here but our family!"
"Yeah, that's just what we figured. He's just saying stuff to make an insanity plea so he wouldn't get a lot of jail time." said the cop. "We get this kind of stuff all the time."
The cops took Henry away. Miranda and the Hauntleys went back inside to check on the rest of the family.
"Guys! You saved the house!" Oxana hugged Demi and Gregoria.
"You should have seen Chef Remy! He really put a scare into that guy!" Demi said.
Chef Remy smiled proudly. "I suppose I did scare him good."
"Well, thanks to you and everyone else, you saved the hotel!" Oxana kissed Remy's cheekbone. "I'm sorry I always hide you from humans, but I am happy you protect the Scare B&B! I couldn't ask for such loyal friends!"
Demi saluted. "It's our pleasure, Oxana!"
"Oui, the Scare B&B is our pride and joy! I am happy to work here with my friends with all my heart!" Chef Remy put a hand over his non-existent heart.
Vee and Miranda hugged the skeleton. "And we're happy to have you, Chef Remy!"
"And there are humans who are happy to have you as a friend, Remy." Miranda said. "In fact, this calls for a victory feast!"
"YEAH!" Everyone cheered as the beaming Chef Remy adjusted his apron and started cooking.
The next day at the park, Vampirina and Miranda told Poppy and Bridget what happened last night during a picnic. Hank and Henry Miller were arrested by the police.
"Wow! That's crazy, Vee!" Poppy said. "I'm glad nobody got hurt!"
"Except Henry Miller when I kicked him in the jaw!" Miranda said. The girls laughed until a dark shadow loomed over them.
"Sounds like you're having fun." It was Jennifer, Miranda's nemesis. But what really surprised them was the smaller girl standing next to Jennifer.
"Kimberly?!" Vampirina exclaimed. Kimberly was a girl who went to the same school as Vampirina. But that doesn't mean she liked Vampirina.
But today, Vampirina saw a new level of disdain in the girl's eyes.
"I suppose you're happy our dad and uncle are put in jail?" Jennifer said scornfully.
Bridget almost choked on her chocolate milk. "You're dad and uncle?!"
"That's right." Jennifer towered over Vampirina, curling her lips unattractively. "Consider yourself on my hit list, Vampirina Hauntley. You and your weirdo family somehow scarred my uncle for life and made him throw my dad under the bus! Better watch your back!" With a toss of her gold ringlets, she stormed away. Kimberly stuck out her tongue and stormed away with her sister.
The four girls sat there in shock.
"Jennifer and Kimberly are sisters?!" Vampirina nearly screamed.
"Oh, man. Evil must run in the family." Miranda said. "We're gonna have to be more careful with those two as our enemies."
"Well, I'm not afraid." Vampirina said.
"Really?!" asked a very worried Bridget.
Vampirina smiled her vampire smile. "After what happened last night, I learned I have nothing to be afraid of as long as I got my friends."
"You said it, Vee." Miranda said. "We're here for you 'til the very end."
"Yeah!" Poppy said.
"Absolutely." Bridget said.
Miranda raised her chocolate milk. "Here's to the Scream team!"
"Cheers!" Everyone toasted their chocolate milks to their strengthened friendship.
Vampirina knew things will get tough having to deal with bullies and fitting in with humans. But with the help of her loving family and supporting friends, she can handle it.