"Lucy! Leni! It's time!"
A bowl of popcorn under her arm, Lori stood at the bottom of the stairs. Upstairs, she could hear her roommate leave their room. "Sorry, Lori" the ditzy blonde said as she walked down the stairs. Like Lori, she was wearing make-up that gave her an ashen complexion, alongside thick black eyeliner and a pair of sharp fangs inside her mouth. "I couldn't find my vampire teeth."
"Let me guess: They were inside your mouth?" Lori asked, rolling her eyes as her sister nodded. She glanced at the TV, on which an ad for Zombie Brans was running. "Lucy, the show's about to start!" Lori shouted up the stairs. "Lucy?"
"Right here."
Both Lori and Leni jumped and shrieked. Right behind them, their little sister Lucy was standing, with the statue of her beloved Edwin under her arm. "When did you-?" Lori was about to ask, but then shook her head. "Never mind."
The three girls sat down on the couch, with Lucy between her older sisters. "I made us beet smoothies" Leni said, pulling out three cups filled with red juice from behind her back. As she handed one to each of her sisters, Lori glanced skeptically at her cup.
"You didn't make them right after last week's episode in anticipation of the next, did you?" she asked as she placed the bowl with the popcorn in front of Edwin.
Leni shook her head. "Nope, these are absolutely fresh! Made them right before I lost my vampire teeth."
Knowing very well her sister could have had the teeth in her mouth for days without noticing, Lori took a careful sip from the smoothie. It tasted fresh, so she nodded to Lucy, who also took a sip. Meanwhile, the commercials switched from product advertisements to show announcements. "It's about to start - turn off the light, Leni!" Lori said.
Jumping up from the couch, Leni hurried to the switch. Eerie shadows were cast over the living room as the TV became the only source of light. After an ad for a show about Frankenstein's third-grade cousin, the screen changed into the still of an old castle. "You're watching Fright TV" a voice from the TV announced. "Next up is Vampires of Melancholia."
"I'm so excited!" Leni squealed as she sat down again. "You think Tristan is still wearing his make-up?"
"He didn't put on make-up Leni, he became a vampire" Lori reminded her.
"Oh, right."
On the TV, the camera moved through a dark, gloomy corridor. Alongside torches burning with blue fire, the walls were littered with stone faces of monsters and demons.
A shudder went through Leni. "Yikes! I don't remember the castle being this creepy."
"That's not Edwin's castle" Lucy said "These are the corridors of the underworld."
"Underworld?" Leni repeated. "You mean like the basement?"
"…sort of."
"According to the internet, today is gonna be a flashback episode" Lori said. "We'll see what Griselda did in the underworld and…" She paused, looking at Lucy. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to spoil anything. I know you want to stay as uninformed about the show as possible."
"It's okay" Lucy said. "I figured they'd do something like that – the last season ended with Griselda going on a quest to the underworld. Skipping her entire journey and encounter with the guardian of Tartarus would have been weird."
Lori frowned. "How do you know this stuff when you didn't read the spoilers?"
"That's what happened in the books, so I figured they'd adapt it."
"Oh, right. Sometimes, I forget the show is based on a book series."
After showing some shots of eerie stone faces, the camera moved to a young woman with long black hair walking through the corridors, carrying a torch in her hand. "Wonder what's up with those stone faces" said to herself, speaking with a dry, melancholic ring in her voice. "Are they supposed scare people away?" She flashed a smile, showing her sharp fangs. "I've seen cemetery decorations way creepier than that."
As they watched her walk through the darkness, the three Loud sisters sipped on their smoothies and snacked on the popcorn. "What's that?" Griselda asked after a while, holding her torch near a dark spot on the wall. Deep rills were going through the hard stone, looking like claw marks. While she inspected them, Lori leaned a little closer to Lucy.
"Hey Lucy, if you've read the books, shouldn't you know what happens next?" she whispered.
Lucy shook her head. "The show stopped following the books after two seasons."
"Why? Did the author have trouble keeping up with new episodes?"
"No, the books just got too dark for prime-time television."
Seeing the sharp fangs and murderous eyes of the monster faces on the walls, Lori shivered.
"But the show is still very good" Lucy said as Griselda continue to walk down the hallway. "I especially like how it puts a larger focus on the struggle between Edwin's feelings for Griselda and his vampire nature."
"I like his hairstyle" Leni said. "So outdated it's fashionable again."
Lucy sighed.
They all turned quiet as a growling noise came from the TV. The camera focused on Griselda as she turned around. Her eyes wide open she gasped in shock, as right in that moment – the show cut into commercials.
The girls moaned. "Literally should have seen that coming" Lori mumbled.
As ads rolled over the screen, the three Loud sisters leaned back against the couch. "So, everything after season two has been made up by the showrunners, not the original author?" Lori asked Lucy.
"Mostly" the little goth replied. "But they do incorporate ideas from the later books from time to time, like Griselda turning into a vampire or her quest into the underworld."
"What about Tristan?" Leni asked. "Does he still work out in the books? Cause if there is a chapter about him working out, I'd totally read it!" She pondered for a moment. "Um, the books do have pictures, don't they?"
"Tristan was completely made up by the show" Lucy told her. She would have added "obviously", but since she was talking to Leni she held back that remark.
Leni put a finger on her chin. "But if he wasn't in the books, then who did Edwin hang around with while Griselda was in that huge basement?"
"Nobody" Lucy replied. "There was barely anything mentioned about what Edwin did while Griselda was in the underworld. All the book said was that while she was gone, he was very sad and cried a lot."
Lori raised an eyebrow. "I thought the whole shtick of him was that he is always sad and crying?" she said, before throwing some popcorn into her mouth.
The eight-year-old hugged her statue. "That's why he is my soulmate." She then looked up at the ceiling. "Although now that I think about it, Edwin did mention a relative named Tristan at some point in the books. But I don't think he ever made an appearance."
Lori chewed on her popcorn, then swallowed. "Maybe that's how the writers of the show got the idea?" she wondered. "They wanted to add a new character and used that mentioned relative."
"Possible" Lucy said. "It was only a small remark though. I would have to re-read the book to be sure."
"Can you give it to me when you find it?" Leni asked. "Even if he doesn't appear, just reading his name and imagining him work out would make me wanna read it."
They all went silent again as the show continued. After repeating the segment of Griselda turning around, the camera showed a demonic monster with large horns and red eyes, staring down at Griselda as it towered over her. While Lucy didn't move a muscle, her older sisters flinched.
"Is… is that the Tartar guardian?" Leni asked.
"Tartarus" Lucy corrected her. "And yes, he probably is – although in the books, he was depicted as having eyes as dark as the soul of a sinner, with hellfire coming out of his mouth and-"
"Okay Lucy we get it he is much scarier in the books!" Lori cut her off.
The guardian opened its mouth, and white clouds emerged from his maw. "What does thee want that thy wanderst through paths that are forbidden?" His deep voice sent a chill down Lori's and Leni's spines. A breeze suddenly blew through the corridor, erasing all torches but the one Griselda carried. The flickering flames only cast a small circle of light, causing shades to dance over the guardian's face.
"The effects are pretty neat in this episode" Lucy remarked. "Of course, it would be even better if the monster faces started bleeding like in the books."
Her sister didn't reply. Horrified looks on their faces, they stared at the monster on the screen as it was shrouded in shadows.
As Griselda tried to explain her mission to the guardian, it suddenly lashed out its claw. Hearing her neck snap Lori and Leni let out a short, high-pitched scream. Wide-eyed, the two teenagers stared at the image of Griselda, her torso still turned towards the camera, but her face pointing in the opposite direction.
"D-Did her head just-?!" Lori didn't finish the sentence, looking at the back of Griselda's head with her jaw dropped.
Putting her feet on the couch Leni pulled her legs against her body. "Um, I'm not the best at that astronomy-thingy, but I don't think that's normal – or is it?" As if to check, she grabbed her own head, and tried to turn it all the way around.
"You mean anatomy" Lori corrected her. "And no, that's not normal."
After stumbling around for a bit, the body of Griselda fell to the ground. Behind their make-up, Lori's and Leni's faces became even paler.
Lucy, however, remained calm. "Relax" she said to her sisters. "Remember, she is undead – look."
On the screen, Griselda slowly got back on her feet. Grabbing her head with both hands she twisted her neck, until her eyes faced forward again. An apathic look on her face, she sighed. "Never gonna get used to this…"
The way she said this in her dry and melancholic voice cut right through Leni's and Lori's nerves. "Does… does this happen often?" Lori asked, while digging her fingers into the armrest of the couch.
Lucy shrugged. "Occasionally. It happened once in the books, after Griselda became a vampire. The show then made a running gag out of it."
Leni gulped. "This is supposed to be funny?!"
"I guess they also do it to remind viewers of Griselda's immortality" Lucy said. As she looked at her older sisters, she noticed the frightened looks on their faces. "You guys okay?"
"We're fine, we're fine!" Lori assured her. "It was just a bit, you know… unexpected."
Her arms wrapped around her knees Leni shivered. "I think I need to sleep in Mom and Dad's bed tonight." She glanced at Lori. "Or in yours."
Lori took in a deep breath. "Sorry we're such scaredy cats, Lucy. But aside from Tristan's death, the show hasn't really been this dark so far."
"The tone of the last few episodes has been off from the show's usual atmosphere, true" Lucy said. "But it's rarely that visual – most of the time, it focuses on character interactions." As if to prove her point, Griselda was talking with the Tartarus guardian on the screen again, trying to convince it of her mission. Though it was skeptical, the guardian agreed to cooperate with her. Lori and Leni were about to relax, when the guardian suddenly slashed through the air, opening a dimensional rift.
"But stuff like this happens too" Lucy said as screaming ghosts streamed out of the portal. One of them was holding a key Griselda needed to proceed, while the others just screamed and made grimaces, their faces looking like they were melting.
Leni and Lori stared at the screaming ghosts on the TV, before exchanging a glance. Almost simultaneous both of them screeched, jumping on the couch and wrapping their arms around each other.
Stuck between her terrified sisters Lucy looked up at them, seeing them shudder and chatter with their teeth. She lowered her head. "Look, if you don't want to keep watching, it's fine..."
"No!" Lori shouted, and let go of Leni. "We want to keep watching, really. We just…"
She stopped. Leni was still clinging to her, shivering.
"Leni, could you please let go of me?" Lori asked. A bit ashamed, Leni let go of her older sister, who let out a sigh. "Okay, maybe it will take some time for us to get used to the darker portions of the show" Lori admitted. She then smiled at Lucy, and put a hand on her shoulder. "But we are not giving up spending some time with our little sister just because we are a bit scared."
Leni, who had also calmed down again, nodded. "She's right. I also don't want to miss on spending time with you – and of course Edwin" she said, patting both Lucy and her vampire statue on the head.
Lori winked at Lucy. "Besides, if our eight-year-old sister can handle the show, so can we."
The corners of Lucy's mouth rose a bit, just so much one could guess she was smiling. "Thanks, guys."
The three of them – four, counting Edwin – continued to watch the show. As Griselda left the guardian behind and continued through the corridors of the underworld with the key, the path eventually split in front of her. Approaching the crossing, she squinted her eyes. At the edge of her torch's light, something was on the ground. As she came closer the camera zoomed in, revealing a person was lying there. Lori nearly chocked on her popcorn, while Leni almost spit out her smoothie.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Is that-?!"
Slowly, the person sat up. "Ouch, my head…" Scratching his head, the man looked around. "Where am I? Last thing I know, I was jogging with Uncle Eddie on a dark and spooky cliff, and now I'm suddenly in some sort of huge basement." He then saw Griselda. "Hey, you look like that chic from the pic in my uncle's castle."
Screaming Leni and Lori jumped on the couch, wrapping their arms around each other.
"OH MY GOSH IT'S TRISTAN!"
"HE IS SO GORGE I CAN'T EVEN!"
Stuck between her fangirling sisters, Lucy sighed. "Guess I'll also have to get used to a few things…"