I woke up at sunset. Never in my life I had slept for so long but I wanted to rest some more time, so I wrapped myself in the sheets just like a caterpillar inside its cocoon and closed my eyes again.
I opened them back when a howl echoed through the whole castle.
I jumped instantly out of my bed as if I had a spring in my bottom. My first thought was that a wolf had intruded the castle. Having the doors open, as I found them the night before, and being in a wooded area, it seemed probable. Then I considered it to be Dracula because, according to the legends I had heard, vampires could change their forms. Whatever it was, it was scaring me.
I peeped out. I could only see darkness–of course, the count had made sure that the curtains were closed during the day.
I grabbed a torch which was hanging on the wall and I walked out of the bedroom towards the hall, the place where I thought the howl came from.
"Okay, wise guy. Let's suppose it's not the count. What are you going to do when you find it?", I asked myself. "I don't know, but I can't go back to sleep as if I'd had heard nothing.", I replied. It wasn't a fit of courage. It wasn't at all; I had goosebumps. I remembered the day, when I was five years old, when my neighbours' German shepherd made me fall to the ground and barked at me with his fangs a few inches away from my face. I cried for hours.
Walking as silent as I could, I reached the stairs. I sharpened my hearing to check if there was something or someone down there. I heard some heavy steps, like a heavy man with metal shoes. But, luckily, I heard no paws. I doubted for a while whether I should go down or not. It could have been another intruder just like me, who would be scared of me. Then I remembered Dracula said some friends would come to visit him. In that case, I had to introduce myself, didn't I?
I descended slowly, with the torch in my hand while I tidied my clothes with the other. I headed cautiously towards the living room, whose door was half open and through which I could see the warm light of the fireplace. Yes, the count had visitors. I could hear his voice, the laughs of other two individuals. I reached the door, combed my hair with my hand–how useless in fact, because it was completely invisible–, and I placed my hand on the doorknob to open it.
Before I could do it, the door opened all of a sudden and I found myself in front of a person whose limbs, bluish, were sewn as if he was a rag doll, with green eyes and black hair, who crouched down to look at me as he grunted. I couldn't help jumping.
"WHAT-IS-THIS?"
Dracula leant out the door, saw me and smiled.
"Easy, Frank, this is the guest I was telling you about.", he calmed him down, patting his log-thick arm. "Come in, boy. Don't be shy."
The big man stepped aside to allow me in, even though he didn't stop looking at me with a frown. I got inside of the room, truly intimidated. Another individual, who had shiny green eyes which looked like fireflies, watched me from the armchair and got up to greet me. When he did, I saw it was a mummy, ¡a real mummy! It was obese and all his body was covered in bandages yellowy because of sand and time. The only part which was exposed was a small stripe where the eyes were. The mummy came to me, looked at me from head to toes and cackled.
"It's true, he's invisible! Hahaha! I can SEE you pretty well from here!"
He stretched his hand to touch my face. When he did, he laughed loudly again.
"That's amazing, dude!"
I giggled timidly. Then, I heard someone sniffing at me at my back. I turned around and I saw the one responsible for the howls I heard before. A werewolf. I had also heard stories about them when I was little. In spite of the different versions about their appearance, this one was identical to a normal wolf, the only difference was that this one walked on two legs and wore a nice-looking suit. He looked at me with distrust and I didn't know what to do or say.
"He smells like a human.", the werewolf commented.
"He'll get rid of that." Dracula replied, placing his hand on my shoulder. "My friends, allow me to introduce you to…" he looked at me, waiting for the answer. He seemed to have forgotten my name.
"Griffin. My name is Griffin. Pleased to meet you." I said.
"The pleasure is mine, Griffin. I'm Murray." The mummy shook my hand with much enthusiasm.
"I'm Frankenstein, but you can call me Frank if you want.", the blue giant introduced himself after him, kneeling down to give me a friendly hug…Maybe too friendly, because I heard my vertebrae crack. "Drac's been telling us about you. You don't know how sorry I am for you, it must have been horrible what those humans did for you!"
"Well, it wasn't that bad…But thanks." I murmured.
"Have you slept well, young invisible man?" Dracula asked me.
"Griffin. Fine, thanks." I replied.
"I'm sorry if I woke you up. It's full moon, you know, and I get very silly. I'm Wayne, by the way." Said the werewolf, offering his hand.
"My pleasure."
Dracula grabbed one more chair for me and the five of us sat by the fire–which Frank avoided to look, I noticed. There were various drinks, but I chose water. Just woken up, I didn't have stomach for alcohol.
"Do you want some snacks, Griffin?" Frank asked.
"Oh, yes, please. I'm so hungry.", I nodded.
"There you go."
He gave me a tray which had some bowls full of…insects still alive…
"Uh…You know…I'll wait a little bit." I rectified.
"As you wish." Frank shrugged. He took with his thumb and index fingers one big beetle and put it inside his mouth. I had to repress a heave when I saw him chew it with delight and heard the cracks.
"I see you're not used to this stuff. How long have you been in the club?", Murray asked, serving himself a handful of earthworms.
"I'd say…A month, more or less." I replied.
"It's hard at first," Wayne said, "but you'll get used to it. We all did."
"Yes…It'd be much easier if those confounded humans stopped bothering, though." Murray mumbled.
"Have they bothered you much?" I asked.
"You don't know how many times they've tried to loot my pyramid." Murray sighed, shaking his head as he looked up at the ceiling.
"And all the times they've chased me with torches and pitchforks. All because of some weenie flocks of sheep!" Wayne complained.
"Yes, they are terrible. Martha told me they tried to burn her alive once." Dracula nodded. He had served himself a cup of blood. "But we should better leave the subject. I'm afraid Frank is starting to remember again."
I looked at Frankenstein. He was certainly getting paler and looked into space.
"N-No, I'm fine."
Since it didn't look so, I took the initiative to change the subject.
"Forgive me if I'm meddling, but…Who is Martha?"
"His fiancée." Frank smiled. His terror was gone instantly and looked at me with a naughty grin.
"She's a real beauty." Murray laughed. Drac looked at him with a not very pleased expression and he played down by letting out a laugh. "And a beautiful person. You're very lucky."
"Yes, that's true." Drac smiled tenderly. "I was lucky that she was my zing."
"Emm…What's a zing?" I asked.
"Have you ever felt like a shiver when you met someone, like you know that's the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with? That's the zing." Frank replied.
"I didn't believe in zings until I met my Wanda. I used to think those were silliness from a count in love." Wayne chuckled, putting a cockroach inside his mouth.
"Oh, I understand." I said.
"I'm sure you've felt it some time, haven't you?", Murray inquired.
I thought back.
"I think I did. There was a girl who worked in a tavern near the place where I studied which I liked a lot. But I was too shy to speak to her and one day I saw her walking with her boyfriend." I remembered.
"That's a pity. Well, if it hasn't come yet, it will some day." Drac smiled.
Oh, Rose…Where was she then?
"And tell me, what did you study?" Murray asked.
"Medicine at first. But when I was twenty-two I shifted to Physics. That matter was fascinating to me."
"And where did you go? To London? I heard it's beautiful." Wayne asked.
"Yes. It wasn't bad indeed, although…"
I don't know for how long I spoke. Not because I liked to tell all details from my life, but because each thing I said gave my partners new questions. They wanted to know everything about my country and our customs. Murray interrupted me frequently to contrast them with Egypt's. I wasn't bothered by that, actually, he said very curious and interesting things. I laughed a lot with the jokes and comments of those four.
I think that is the moment when we became friends. If not, at least it was a good first step. Not even when I was normal did I feel so comfortable with others.