NOTE: I don't own either Glee or the 2012 film Hotel Transylvania - I wish I did though!
Chapter One
2012
The haunted forest was quiet that night - so quiet you could practically hear that something noisy would interrupt the peacefulness of it.
And boy, did it.
A hearse came rattling out of what seemed like nowhere; it was travelling at top speed, and any woodland creatures that happened to be on the path had to dart away quickly before they became road kill. The hearse, decorated with the name plate "UNDEAD", hurtled forwards through the trees recklessly; the curtains were pulled over the windows, hiding the passengers inside of the vehicle from view. Just as they reached what seemed like the end of the road, a portion of the ground fell down and created a slope to an underground tunnel to travel down - the hatch closed back up as soon as the hearse was safely down there.
This shortcut took the hearse to a drawbridge: across the bridge was a giant castle, the windows lit up from the inside and giving off a faint warm glow. It pulled to a jerky stop outside of the hotel's revolving doors, and the headless horseman who had been driving got out of the front to open the passenger doors at the back; immediately, at least half a dozen litters of wolf pups fell out, yapping and scrambling over each other. While the little ones started to play-fight loudly, the elder ones either rolled their eyes in content or joined in; the headless chauffeur jumped on the spot, his mouth turning down in a scared expression.
A female wolf with ginger fur pulled herself out, eyeing the frame of the door nervously for germs. Her belly was swollen with yet another pregnancy, and she rubbed it while looking around with kind brown eyes that reminded one of a doe.
Her husband emerged behind her and grudgingly pulled out some bills to hand to their chauffeur. "Yeah, it's a mess back here," He muttered before rubbing at his eyes tiredly with his paws. He had the appearance of a kind wolf, what with his curly brownish-blonde fur and blue eyes - however, his hunched posture and outfit of a tie and shirt made it clear that he was overworked and exhausted.
As the family of werewolves entered the hotel, a group of zombies descended on the hearse; they pulled the suitcases and bags out, groaning with exertion as they started to carry them inside. A couple of the zombies lost an arm trying to carry so much, but thanks to their slow nature they didn't notice.
Inside, it was clear that the hotel was successful and busy; guests were running, flying, buzzing, crawling, speaking gibberish and rushing around the lobby to greet each other excitedly. Some of the cleaning witches were down there too, wiping up at the floors as they gossiped about the latest issue of Monsters and greeted any guests they knew from other years.
"Welcome to Hotel Transylvania!" A low voice boomed, and some monsters turned to see who it was; the owner of the hotel, none other than Count Burt Dracula himself was standing by the stairwell, arms thrown up and grinning in a greeting.
As he started to make his way through the different guests, the Mariachi band of skeletons who worked in the lobby for entertainment purposes started to play an upbeat Spanish-sounding song, much to the delight of the guests.
"This place has been human-free since 1898," He recounted cheerfully, and he pulled some red invitations out of his trouser pocket. He started to hand them out to any guests he passed, continuing talking loudly so he'd be heard by everyone. "Completely safe - here, take an invite. Anyway, we've got a lot going on this weekend - a lot of fun stuff - all leading up to my son's birthday party tomorrow night."
A gremlin couple walked up to him, taking an invite each. "We always look forwards to coming, Count. I mean, we just enjoy the safety so much!"
Burt chuckled. "Yeah, well...that's why I built it."
"SIR! SIR!" Burt looked up and saw that one of the suits of armour he'd employed were running up to him. "Sir! We have an urgent plumbing issue in Room forty-eight!"
"Plumbing?" Great, he thought, mentally groaning to himself. "I'm on it...Mister Hooligan!"
An old zombie came over, slouching and letting out a moan to show he was listening. "There's a clogged toilet in Room forty-eight," The suit repeated.
All three of them looked at the giant yeti who was standing above them; in response, he let out a roar and shrugged his shoulders in confusion.
"Dude, it's okay," Burt chuckled, unable to help it. "We all get stomach aches, Big Foot."
The zombie froze, eyes trailing down to look at his equipment - there was no way he had a plunger big enough to unclog something like that. He sighed before leaving to try and get the job done, dragging his feet as he did.
At that moment, the wolf litter that had just arrived outside came rushing through the revolving doors, yelling and screaming at each other - and suddenly, the hotel lobby was full of them. A few had raced to the organ at the other end of the lobby and started jumping up and down on the keys; another few simply resumed their play-fighting, knocking over several items of furniture in the process; one pup even went as far as lifting his leg and peeing on a chair.
Their parents entered, and their father sighed in annoyance. "Guys - and girl, Santana - reel it in! You're only supposed to make Mom and Dad miserable, not everyone else!"
Burt smiled to himself, deciding to intervene; it was the right moment too, since one of the pups started to chew on the end of his cape. He picked the pup up by the scruff of the neck and smiled at him. "Hey!" He said jokingly. "This is a hotel, not a cemetery, kid!"
"Sorry, Uncle Burt," The pup apologised, and Burt set him down - the pup was off in no time, no doubt to cause more trouble.
The two wolf parents walked up to their friend, giving him smiles in greeting. "Burt!" The male wolf cried, and the two put their arms around each other.
"Will!" Burt chuckled, giving him a small hug. "Great to see you!"
"Yeah, well, we couldn't wait for this weekend," Will stated, and his wife, Emma, nodded in agreement. "It's always great to be out of the shadows, to just let our fur down."
"Well, the family looks great," Burt told him, putting his hands on the wolf's shoulders. Both Will and Emma gave him wide smiles. "Let me just clean up their mess." Both of their smiles vanished, and they looked at each other. The vampire cleared his throat. "HOUSEKEEPING!"
A few witches zoomed into the lobby on their brooms, using their hands to cast spells to return the room back to it's former glory; furniture became placed correctly again, the wolf pups scampering off to avoid getting hit. The pup who had been peeing on the furniture finished and scampered off, so a witch grabbed a sponge from the cleaning bucket on the back of her broom and placed it on the pee; the sponge giggled and rolled around, soaking it all up.
Meanwhile, the wild wolf children had ran into a couple of zombies carrying in large boxes; because zombies aren't the most co-ordinated monsters out there, one of them tripped, sending the box he was carrying flying. A head flew out of the box and bounced on the floor of the lobby, letting out a yell. "HEY, MAN! WATCH IT!"
Burt caught the head in his hands before it could go any further, and laughed when he saw who it was. "Finn! Dude! Good to see you! Still traveling by mail then, like a cheap-skate, hey?"
Finn's smile disappeared. "Hey, it's not a money thing...it's those planes. At any minute those jets could catch-"
"Fire," Will finished, taking pleasure in mocking their friend - after all, he did have to deal with a large amount of kids, and this was the first chance at fun he'd had in months. "Yeah - 'Fire bad!'. We know."
Burt rolled his eyes at his friends' banter - but then he saw what the zombies were doing with the remainder of his friend's body. He passed Finn's head to Will before moving to stand in front of his employees. "Guys, that's not his head," He said disapprovingly. "That's his hand, and it sure as Hell don't go on the top of his shoulders."
"Hey, Burt," Will called, raising an eyebrow. "What's going on with your cape there?"
Burt looked at his cape and saw that someone was lifting it up - seconds later, he felt someone pinch his back. "Ow! What in the-"
A chuckle came out of thin air; seconds later, a pair of floating glasses were in front of him. "Sorry, but it's just...you're irresistible!"
The vampire realized who it was. "Artie, I should have known..." He sent the glasses a joking glare. "Haha, Mister Invisible Guy - great to see you!"
As the friends laughed at the little inside joke between them, a gust of wind blew in what can only be described as a huge amount of sand into the lobby. Burt spat out the sand in his mouth, glad that he didn't have any hair for the grains to get caught in, and squinted through the mess to see who had arrived - as if he didn't already know.
"YO! WE CAN PARTY NOW!" A voice yelled; a figure clad in bandages came flowing into the hotel with the sand, laughing loudly as he slid across the floor. "Burt! Hey, dude!"
"Puck," Burt greeted, not able to keep his chuckles in - as immature as the mummy was, he was still so amusing. "Good to see you. Look, I hate to sound like a Grandpa-"
"I know, the sand," Puck finished, shrugging. "But, hey, I like to make an entrance!" He noticed his fellow monster friends and ran forwards to give them hugs. "Will! Emma! Artie, I know I can't see you, but you're totally here! FINN!"
"PUCK!" Finn yelled back in his face, and the two laughed; they'd been friends for the longest time out of the group, and so it was perfectly normal for them to be acting like this.
"I love this guy!" Puck chuckled, picking up his head and squeezing it in a hug. "Always the life and electricity of a party - and you've totally lost all that weight, now that you're just a head!"
The head rolled his eyes. "Ha-Ha. I'm totally getting back at you for that, bro." Before he could, however, one of the zombies had grabbed him and tried to fit him onto his body - safe to say, it was the wrong place, and he found his neck connected to his shoulder. He frowned grumpily. "This isn't right!"
Before Burt could intervene, a tiny spider dropped down from the ceiling and swung in front of his face. "We're ready!" She chimed cheerfully before returning to her web. The vampire looked up and grinned to himself in satisfaction when he saw what they had spun out for him.
Happy 118th Birthday, Kurt!
There were some 'aw's from his friends, and Emma let out a sniffle. "Oh, if only Elizabeth were here to see this," She sighed.
Burt smiled at her. "She's always here, Em. Just in spirit."
"Everyone! Listen up!"
The guests all fell silent; Finn let out a satisfied grunt as his body parts were suddenly fit into the right places but then quietened as well as he looked at the Count.
"It's great to see you all," Burt continued, addressing the crowd around him who had gathered. "It's great to have you all here to celebrate another birthday for my son, Kurt, and another year of safe refuge from...from them."
On the last word, his smile disappeared noticeably; the subject was a touchy one for him, even after all these years. He switched off the lights with his mind powers before nodding to a nearby zombie, who slowly reached over and flicked a switch on the projector that had been set up. Immediately, gasps sounded from all of the guests as a picture of a human couple out for a walk appeared on the white wall opposite.
"So, these are the most recent pictures we've uncovered," Burt told them, watching as the slides played with slight disgust on his face. "As you can see, they're getting fatter so that they can overpower us - like that guy there - and they're also wearing less clothes...probably so that they can strangle us or cut off our heads."
The slideshow came to a stop at a picture of a chubby human boy eating an ice-cream, and the guests started to mutter in rather frightened tones. "I don't want my head cut off," A gremlin lady whispered, terrified, to her husband.
"But don't worry," The Count added reassuringly, giving them all a small smile. "They'll never find us here! Anyway," He said, and the lights turned back on. "All the fun stuff starts in thirty minutes - right now, I need to see my boy."
He turned away from them and headed to a nearby elevator - that was until he heard one of his friends - Finn, to be exact - yell out something. "He's not a boy anymore, dude!"
Burt spun around and glared at the flesh golem; Finn flinched on the spot when his eyes glowed bright red dangerously. "He's still my boy," Burt growled. The elevator made a 'ding!' noise from behind him, and he turned away once again to get into it.
As soon as Burt had left, there was a thumping noise on one of the boxes that had been carried in with Finn's. "WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE?! ARE WE AT THE HOTEL?!" A muffled voice yelled loudly - a nail suddenly stabbed its' way out of the box, ripping it apart. The hand it had belonged to appeared then, lifting up the head of a pretty brunette woman; the head scowled at Finn. "Finn! Did you book me my massage? Did you book us a table at Hunchback's? Did you do anything I asked you t-"
Suddenly, the flaps of the box shut, and it appeared as if an invisible sat down on it; everyone heard Artie chuckle to himself. "You're welcome, Finn!"
Kurt frowned to himself, taking a deep breath. "Dad. You said that when I turned one-hundred and eighteen that I could go out into the normal world like every adult that gets to come and go from this hotel," He recited to the mirror, not bothered when his reflection didn't show up. He straightened up on the spot and made sure to drop his voice so it was lower. "But Kurt," He said gruffly, mimicking his father as best he could. "It's not safe, bud, you know that... But Dad, you promised me that you'd let me," He continued, turning around and pacing; he ended up walking up the wall and onto the ceiling. "It was over thirty years ago, and I remember because we were eating mice and you gave me your word..."
"Do not disturb!"
"Do not disturb!"
"Do not disturb!"
Burt just ignored the talking heads, keeping an eye out for his son's room. From across the hall he briefly registered one of the cleaning witches calling a, "Good evening, sir!" but he didn't have much time to sit there and listen to her trying to flirt with him yet again.
His son's room was near the end, and he stopped to grab the door knob. "Do not- Oh, it's just you," The talking head sighed, yawning.
"Is he up yet?" Burt asked, not opening the door yet.
The head snorted. "Oh, he's up. He's up and ready to go - go as in go to check the world out!" She gave him a beady eye. "What you gonna do? What you gonna say?"
He sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck - he really didn't want to have this conversation with his son again, but it had to be done. He had a plan, anyway... "Look, I ain't paying you to hang there and be smart, Mercedes - do your job."
As Mercedes made a noise of displeasure, Burt pushed the door open and poked his head inside - his son was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, Kurt!" He called, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him. "Happy Birthday, son!"
Before he could walk further into the room, a familiar face appeared next to his, hanging upside down. "Thanks, Dad," Kurt said testily, frowning. "I know it's my birthday."
Burt just smiled. "So, we've got a lot to do today - I was thinking that maybe we could just hang out...I mean, sure, I won't force you to play bat sports or anything again, but we can do whatever you-"
"Dad," Kurt repeated, dropping off of the ceiling and onto his feet. "Please just let me speak; there's something we need to talk about."
The older vampire just smiled to himself, already knowing. "You want to go out there and see the world, don't you? Well, I guess you can if you really want to."
"Aha!" The brunette spun around, sending his father a triumphant smile. "I knew you'd say that. But Dad, you gave me your word! And you know that I know that a Dracula's word is sacred - that our trust is the core of our-" He stopped, suddenly realizing what his father had said. "Wait? What?"
"You can go, kid," Burt repeated, folding his arms and shrugging.
The teen-aged vampire also crossed his arms and examined his father hesitantly. "You're just kidding."
"Nope," Burt disagreed, giving him an encouraging smile. "Look, you can drive a hearse by yourself now, so...knock yourself out."
There was a few - but long - seconds of silence where father and son just eyed each other up; suddenly, Kurt threw himself at the older vampire and pulled him into a tight hug. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" He pulled away and zoomed across the room; he threw open the large wardrobe he had and stepped inside. Burt tried to see what he was doing, but only a second later his son had thrown a tasteful summer shirt over his own clothes, grabbed a pre-packed suitcase and ran out again.
Kurt gave a happy laugh to himself and changed into a little brown bat, carrying his bags in his talons. He started to fly for the window, ready to feel the wind in his fur, the smell of-
"Wait a second!"
Kurt stopped, smile fading as he turned in mid-air to face his father. "Yeah?"
"You going someplace far away, kid?" Burt asked, looking at the bag and shirt in amusement.
The brunette gave a nervous laugh. "Well...uhh...I'm going to Paradise. It's just what I thought I'd need...you know, clothes, pyjamas, facial products. That kind of thing."
Burt raised an eyebrow. "Paradise?"
Kurt nodded, changing back and landing on the windowsill with his bag in his hands. "Yeah. You know, it's that place where you and Mom met." He paused, reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a postcard from his pocket. He handed it to his father, who just looked at it with wide eyes. "Auntie Rachel said that you guys were just like...zing!"
"Well, I..." Burt sighed. "Where did you get this thing, anyway?"
"Oh, I was going through your drawers," Kurt replied innocently. "Why won't you ever tell me about how you guys met?"
Burt ignored the question and pointed to the post card. "Kurt, this is actually Hawaii."
Kurt blinked, this time out of confusion. "Ha-what-what?"
"Look," The Count continued, deciding not to repeat the actual pronunciation of the state. "I know that you're excited, Kurt, but you know that everyone's come from far away to see you on your birthday."
The brunette looked down at his shoes guiltily. "I...I know," He admitted, turning on the spot, putting down the suitcase and morphing back into a bat on top of the bag. He wrapped his wings around himself and looked out at the moon. "It's just...I really want to see new things, Dad. Maybe even meet someone my age."
Burt felt his heartstrings tug in his chest when his son sniffled, looking back at him with an adorable pout and watery blue eyes. "Ah, come on! That's not fair and you know it!" When Kurt just continued to make this face at him, he let out a groan. "Fine. There's a little human village just past the cemetery - you could go and be back in the next half an hour."
Kurt sniffed, wiping at his tear-stained fur with his wings, but nodded. "It's not Hawee-wee or anything...but I guess...it's still out there! Okay!" He flew upwards, grabbing his bag in his talons, and flew back over to the wardrobe. He disappeared for a few seconds, clearly putting his bag back - he must have morphed in there too, since when he came out he was back in his normal form. Kurt walked back over to his father, straightening out his jumper, and wrapped his arms around Burt to give him a big hug. "Thanks, Dad. This really means a lot to me."
Burt almost felt guilty, knowing what he had planned - but it had to be done. "Yeah, well..."
He didn't get to finish; the door to the bedroom banged open, and both of the vampires turned to see who it was. Kurt grinned as he saw his Dad's various friends. "Hey, guys!"
"Hey!" Finn grinned back, bending down so that he and the vampire were actually eye-to-eye. Finn wasn't that much older than Kurt, only a few years or so, but he - just like Puck, Artie, and his wife Rachel - liked to consider himself an older figure to the vampire. "So? Excited about tomorrow, little dude?"
Kurt rolled his eyes at the nickname but nodded. "Yeah, but not as excited as I am right now! Did Dad tell you? He's gonna let me go out on my own to see a human village!"
He didn't quite get the reaction he wanted; all of the other monsters gave gasps of shock and surprise. "What?" Puck asked, looking quite terrified for once.
Rachel, now pieced back together, pushed through the huddle of friends and glared at the older vampire. "Burt!" She scolded, moving over to Kurt and giving him a hug - of course, she was much shorter than him and only came up to his chest. "How could you? Humans are dangerous; I mean, that's why you built this place!"
"Calm down, Rach," Finn said quickly. "I mean, he's gotta have a good reason, right?"
"Well, he better," Artie's voice agreed.
Kurt pulled himself away from Rachel's grip. "Rachel, maybe they've changed." Rachel clearly didn't believe this, since she folded her arms and looked away from him. "Look, I'm only going down there for a little while...just to see how it goes."
"Well, alright," Emma sighed, but she gave him a warm smile. "Remember what I taught you, Kurt - when going near humans, make sure to bring warm clothes and-"
"And a sword," Kurt finished, slightly amused. "Got it."
Artie's glasses floated in front of him, and he felt a hand pat him on the shoulder. "Main thing to watch out for? Pitchforks."
"Don't let anyone scoop your brains out, dude," Puck advised. "Once they're gone, you're screwed - I learnt that the hard way."
"Maybe just stay in the shadows, Kurt," Will added nervously, scratching his ear. "Sometimes it's more fun just observing from a distance...you know, seeing the whole picture instead of being in it."
Finn gave them all an eye-roll. "Guys, be real here; Kurt is a Dracula. He can handle anything...although..." He went a ghostly pale blue, eyes widening. "Always watch out for fire - fire's bad."
Slightly overwhelmed by all of this information, Kurt moved away from them and towards the window; as he stepped onto the window ledge, he looked back at his father and all of their monster friends with a smile. "Well...Bye, guys!" And with that, he jumped backwards off the ledge and into the sky.
To a passer-by, it may have looked like he was trying to throw himself out of a castle window for slightly darker purposes; however, before he could hit the ground, he turned into his bat from and flew back up into the sky. Kurt laughed as he felt the wind under his wings, cool and welcome, and he dived down when he reached the nearby moat to dip his wings into the water.
Even if this was practically just down the street, it still felt good.
Back in his bedroom, Finn had leaned out of the window to get a better look; he let out a whistle. "Burt, man, you're so calm about him leaving...it's actually quite..." He trailed off when he turned around and realized that the older vampire was no where in sight. "Uhh? Burt?"
Burt, when no one had been looking, had also morphed into a bat and managed to escape out of the window; he flapped his way clumsily through the trees, trying to see if he could find where Kurt had gone and at the same time not be seen.
"WAHOO! THIS IS SO COOL!"
He hurriedly ducked onto a branch, out of sight of anyone else, and looked out across the land; he could see his son's bat form stop just above the cemetery, and made sure to keep his eyes trained on him.
"Oh! That must be the cemetery, just like Dad said...does no one ever clean it?" Kurt shrugged to himself and continued flying.
Making sure to not go the same way as his son, the Count took a detour and went around the outside of the forest - it would take longer, but he couldn't risk being seen. Occasionally he'd hear the young vampire let out an exclamation or yell of pleasant surprise, clearly thrilled by what he saw, and Burt couldn't help but feel just a little bit guilty about what he was doing.
Surprisingly, Burt got there before Kurt; it was probably because the younger vampire was taking his time to examine the surroundings. The Count morphed and dropped next to a building in the village, looking around for his son...and then he saw it. He quickly hid in-between two of the buildings, safely out of sight, and peered around the wall to see what his son was doing.
Kurt, who'd been having fun just flying, grinned as he morphed back into his normal self on top of the roof of a clock-tower type building. There was no one in sight, but he could see that all the different buildings were shops and such - in the middle of the town square there was a fountain which was running smoothly. Taking a deep breath and hoping that his Dad's stories about humans had all been fiction, he walked down the wall of the tower and onto the ground.
"Uhh...Hello?" He called somewhat nervously and smoothed back his hair so that he looked his best. "Is anyone here?"
There was no answer, so he stepped out further into the opening. Something to the right caught his eye, and he turned to look at it - he gasped in surprise and dashed to get a closer look.
It was a clothes shop, and the display window was filled with many beautiful clothes that he would have just killed to have in his wardrobe - a particularly nice green scarf caught his eye, and he pressed his face up against the window to get a better look. I wonder if they'd let me buy it...I mean, maybe once they see I'm nice, then they'll-
He didn't get to finish his thought; someone appeared in the window, a bright lit torch in his hand. "VAMPIRE!"
The dummy he had thought was wearing the scarf was display spun around and glared at him - instead of a dummy, it was none other than a human. "WE'RE CLOSED!"
Kurt jumped backwards, shocked, but nervously smiled again. "Oh! Hi, humans!"
This isn't moving fast enough, Burt thought. He's not scared yet...maybe... He lifted his hand and swooped it in the air in front of him: all of the lamps in the area went off, making the brunette look up in surprise.
"Is everything okay?" He asked worriedly, looking around. He turned back to the humans in the window and gave them a friendly grin. "Well, my name is Kurt Dracula, and I-"
He was cut off by the sound of doors banging open; more humans started to emerge, holding pitchforks and torches. "VAMPIRE!"
"So...I can't buy the scarf?" Kurt asked jokingly, hoping that they'd see he was normal. When he turned his head, starting to feel just a little scared, more humans had started to surround him, looking quite angry. "I'm friendly, I really am!" He told them desperately, backing away - of course, he just ended up nearly bumping into a lit torch. "Calm down now...I mean, there's no need to destroy such wonderful clothes...I just wanted to say hi!"
Behind him, a 'human' tripped over - it's head came toppling off his shoulders, the mask flying across the concrete and exposing him as none other than one of the zombie employees from the hotel. Burt's eyes widened in panic, and he quickly zoomed to fix it; before Kurt could turn around and see him, he'd grabbed the head, screwed it back onto the zombie's shoulders, and replaced the mask. He zoomed back to his hiding place just as his son turned around, giving pleading looks to all of the 'humans'.
"I would never hurt anybody," He promised anxiously. "I mean...I'm home-schooled!" One of the 'humans' shoved something into his face...he cried out when he realized what it was. "Is that garlic?! On bread?!" None of them answered him, instead shoving their torches closer to him.
And then it happened; as one 'human' took a step closer, his fork flew forwards and became lodged in the head of the man standing next to him.
As Kurt gasped, Burt face-palmed himself.
The 'human' flailed around, falling to the floor; as he did so, the fire on his torch touch the foot of one of his companions, setting him on fire...and then the next one caught on fire...and the next...and suddenly, it was like Kurt was in the middle of a bonfire. "Oh my God...you're on fire! Can I do anything? Can I help?"
And yet, despite his wishes to help, they still looked angry...they were still shouting at him...
"Dad was right," He realized, and Burt looked up in surprise from his hiding place. "I...Dad was right." Not wasting any time, he morphed into his brown bat from once more and flew as quickly as he could in the direction of the hotel.
Once he was gone, Burt took a few steps out from behind the building and towards the mob, looking up at the sky. "Thank God," He muttered to himself. "At least now...now he'll be safe forever."
I've done my job, Elizabeth.
A groan brought him out of his thoughts, and he glared at his employees. "Alright, he's gone. Back to work."
Slowly, thanks to their dim nature, the zombies yawned and pulled off their disguises before slowly trudging across the 'town' to pull down the buildings.
"Hey!" Burt boomed. "You! Yeah, you! You don't need that mannequin! Put it back!"
The zombie he'd been speaking to frowned sadly but dropped the item anyway. The Count waited for a few more seconds, making sure that his workers were all doing their jobs properly, before morphing into a bat and flying off back to the hotel - now he just had to talk to his son and make sure that his plan had been a complete success.
Everything would be fine.
However, at that moment, a giant mass fell down through some trees and found itself looking out over the fake town. It let out ragged groans, eyes immediately attracted to the sight of the flaming zombies, and started to make it's way down to them.
Next: Burt and Kurt talk, a human somehow finds his way into the hotel, and a zing occurs.