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The next night, Mona was seated comfortably on the bear rug in the main hall of her tower and was showing Froderick how to make shadow shapes with her hands, using the light coming from the cackling fireplace. She was just finished forming something that looked very much like Inky when Shrowdy appeared nearby.

"What do you want, Shrowdy? Leave us alone!"

"Do not frown, my beauty! I have one request from you..."

"No."

"But my dearest..."

"NO!"

"I must ask you..."

"Froderick, do you want to hear one of my lullabies again?"

"Sure, Mona."

"... to go up to your room and wait there for a while..." continued Shrowdy.

"La, la, la ma belle fille..." hummed Mona, now seemingly oblivious to his presence.

".... because I have a surprise for you."

"La neige, c'etait si blanche... a surprise? I swear to you Shrowdy, if it's another one of your colored crayon portraits of me I shall scream so loudly that you will go deaf."

"No, no this time it is something truly magnificent! Now please go up to your room" he chuckled and tried to usher Mona upstairs.

The moment the girl and her bat were in the boudoir, they heard the door click twice and, before long, realised that Shrowdy had dared to lock them inside.

"Ugh! You terrible, horrible midget!" screamed Mona in frustration, after trying in vain to open the wooden door.

"Do not be upset, I shall return shortly and release you!" Shrody's voice echoed on the hallway.

"Return shortly? Does that mean he's leaving?" whispered Mona.

"Could be. Let's take a look outside and see what the sucker is up to."

Mona sneaked on her balcony and tried to hide behind one of the wooden pillars, while Froderick took cover in the nearbly barren flower box.

"Do you see something?" she asked, trying desperately to get a better look as Shrowdy crossed the bridge.

"He always stops right between the first and second gargoyle, so one of them must be it. I think."

"But we've looked at all of them. They're identical! How are we supposed to find the key?"

The fact that the balcony was at a rather uncomfortable angle did not help, either. Once again, operation "Ditch Castle Warg" failed. This time, Mona looked like she was about to cry.

"There, there. Don't cry, babe. We have to keep trying and at one point we'll get lucky for sure. You'll see" spoke the bat while patting her cold cheek with his claw.

Mona wiped a small red tear from the corner of her eye.

"Thank you, Froderick. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Don't sweat it. You know I care about you."

The dark haired girl smiled and turned to enter her boudoir again when her friend suddenly noticed something and flew from her shoulder.

"Hey Mona, check this out" he pointed towards the lake shore.

True enough, a group of people was gathered there. Mona could see a row of horse-drawn carriages filled with something she could not identify.

"I didn't know he ordered take-outs" mused Froderick.

Soon, they saw Shrowdy's boat gliding on the murky waters of the lake. The spare boat was tied with a rope to the one the Baron was currently rowing in. Froderick had in vain tried to explain to Mona that the reason why she and Shrowdy could not simply fly over the lake was because they were vampires, but Mona had been (and still was, for that matter) in denial. In fact, the only reaction she had when she learned that vampires were repelled and weakened by crosses was "Then I hope this curse will go away or else I shall never be able to wear grandmama's pretty golden cross necklace!"

"Why is he taking two boats?" raised Mona an eyebrow.

"It would appear that he intends to bring someone else inside the castle."

"But why?"

"No idea, but it's sure to cost him his membership in the Socially Inept Misanthropists Club."

"Put a little more faith in him, Froderick! I'm sure he'll mess up like he usually does" smiled Mona reassuringly.

That moment, Inky surfaced from the cold waters of Warg and, before Shrowdy could hypnotize him into submission, gave him a healthy splash right to the face.

"All according to the prophecy" nodded Froderick appreciatively.

Rubbing his bloodshot eyes with his sleeve, Shrowdy pointed his green, stubby finger at the blob-like monster and screeched:

"You!! Down. Now."

Inky chuckled strangely (the Baron was not sure if the creature had lungs at all) and continued to float omniously in front of the boat, oblivious to the death glares thrown at him. Because he was not a patient man, Shrowdy decided he had enough and focused on subduing the thing with his vampire powers. After a few moments of looking into the vampire's bizarre eyes, Inky felt inexplicably drowsy and slowly sank to the bottom of the lake. The one in the boat growled and continued to row until he reached the shore.

After securely tying the boat, he stepped out and approached the group of workers waiting for him. The man took off their hats and gave him a very awkward "Good evening, Baron" before leaving the tedious mission of talking to him to their chief. Shrowdy recognised the man he had spoken to the day before and addressed him in his usual stuck-up manner.

"Is everything ready?" the oddly colored man inquired.

"Good evening to you, Baron von Kiefer" began the older man. "We brought everything you ordered. Would you like to take a look at some of the materials?"

Von Kiefer did not answer, but marched straight to one of the carriages. The horse immediately became restless and one of the men took a firm hold on his reign, lest the animal panics and kicks their client into next week. Shrowdy sniffled once while inspecting the planks and various stage props. He stopped at the third carriage, where the memorial plaque was, covered with a large wool blanket. To his dismay, the two symbolic masks on the plaque did not have any fangs. He decided to voice his discontent, earning himself a few odd stares and raised eyebrows.

"Er... I'm afraid you did not mention that little detail, Baron" spoke the chief and coughed uneasily. Fangs on theatre masks? No wonder his mother kept him hidden.

"I suppose I shall have to take care of it later" conceded Shrowdy and threw the blanket back over the plaque again.

With Kiefer's inspection over, some of the men placed the lightest materials in the second boat, while others unloaded two rafts from a carriage.

"I shall keep the monster busy while you carry the things into my castle. Once all items have been deposited, I will join you. Hey, watch how you're carrying that chair! You'll get dirt on it!" he scowled, arms crossed.

A young lad had just finished loading the packages containing the curtains when he saw fit to pose Shrowdy a question that had been on the tongue of every citizen of Vlad's Landing.

"Baron, sir, how come the blasted creature obeys only you?"

Shrowdy sensed an upcoming headache.

"Because it recognises me as an infinitely superior form of life."

"No really, why does he obey only you?" continued the young man, unphased by Shrowdy's twitching hands and his strangely glowing red eyes.

"Well son, you ask the strangest questions" inteferred the chief, placing a fatherly hand on the man's shoulder. "He is the master of the castle, isn't he? Of course the... thing listens to his command" he laughed uneasily and shoved the youth discreetly away.

Shrowdy seemed pleased with the answer. Truth was, the monster was on nobody's side but his own and he was sure it would have gulped him down, boat and all, if not for his "persuasive" abilities. Soon, a part of the materials was loaded and secured on the rafts and in the spare boat. Shrowdy gestured to one of the workers to follow him in his own boat. It dawned too late on the poor man that it was probably a bad time to have left his carved wooden cross at home. Somewhat unnerved, the man sat down and watched as the Baron rowed with unusual strength towards the castle. The chief ordered his men to get on the rafts and stay behind the Baron, lest the monster decided to make yet another apparition. He did not have to worry for long because the creature splashed from the water in front of them as they were nearing the castle. It looked from one boat to another with an unsettling grin on his face, just like a child who had three huge sugar-frosted chocolate cakes in front of him and could not decide which one was the first to be gobbled up. Unfortunately, the situation had a rather anti-climactic solution as Shrowdy lost no time in hypnotizing it to the bottom again, earning him a few awed stares.

"Did you see that? The thing just bowed his head in defeat and sank back to his lair" one worker enthused.

"I think it fainted from his reeking breath, poor thing" whispered another from the last raft, believing himself safe.

Shrowdy frowned so hard it was a wonder the pressure did not make his eyeballs pop out. He pretended not to have heard that particular comment and made a quick mental note to introduce the offending human to his iron maiden. "After which I can feed the hard-to-dispose-of remains to Pyewacket" he thought, "so that she stops meowing about how I don't feed her. She's been so difficult lately. Wait... why do I keep her around anyway?..... Oh yes. Rats."

His musings were interrupted by the man behind him in the boat, who cautiously asked him where to place the items. They had entered the damp boathouse. He could hear the chief warning his men to watch where they stepped, as the place was only dimly-lit. Since he could see just fine in the dark, Shrowdy didn't see the need to waste lamp oil, especially when it was so expensive.

"Don't leave them here, the wood is not very sturdy. Just go upstairs and leave them in the dining room. Careful not to place any too near to the fireplace or heads will roll! And burn!" warned Shrowdy as he hopped from the boat onto the wet and half-rotten planks.

Crossing his arms, he waited for the men to unload the things and tried to decide which one he will keep for dinner.

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