First Meetings
"That's your big plan?" snarled the little bat creature, "To play around on some damn machine boxes while I messed up the key tags? I wonder if it's even worth it to team up with you if that's all the trouble we're going to do."
"No, no, my little friend," Quasimodo said amusedly, shrugging off any insult he felt, "Far from it, zat was only ze first step. Patience, Bela, I know you are eager for true destructive fun. But first, we must start small, creating a few annoyances and inconveniences for all ze guests, enough so ze humans start not wanting to come to ze hotel. But zat won't be enough, I promise you we'll do more damage zat'll make Monsuir Dracula look like a complete incompetent fool, but not just ze physical kind to buildings and property, but also his 'shining' reputation."
Bela scowled at this, because this was not what he had hoped for or what he had in mind for revenge at all. Quasimodo read this clearly on the Bat Demon's beastly face as he continued,
"I know you are itching for action, my friend, but zink of it zis way, ze longer you wait for it ze more your eagerness and hunger for it will grow, which in turn shall make it all ze sweeter in ze end."
Bela thought about this, and while he hated to admit it he knew Quasimodo was right in a way. So while he will continue to go along with Quasimodo's insufferable long term plan, he will only on one condition that must be done very, very soon.
"Fine," Bela snarled, "But I want my size restored as soon as possible, by that traitorous Vlad or pathetic Dracula, I don't care, I just want it done soon if not now."
Quasimodo smiled malevolently as he said, "Agreed."
In another part of the hotel, a woman awoke from a sound sleep and stretched awake as she finally felt refreshed.
For nearly two days, Elona just stayed in her room to allow her biorhythms to adjust to the new time zone as well as a need to be alone for a while. She mostly spent her time doing some personal exercises and watching TV, though the hotel's selection of channels and movies to watch in her opinion left much to be desired. She turned to her laptop/tablet for entertainment with her personal selection from a streaming account or even YouTube, or occasional reading from downloaded ebooks.
She also had finally eaten the last of her packaged food and ordered room service at least once to keep from going hungry.
She finally decided to see more of the hotel, as her curiosity and adventurous spirit have also been refreshed and she knew she would go bug crap crazy if she stayed in isolation in her room for too long.
She dressed in slim fold up jeans and a long sleeved navy blue shirt, grey slip on tennis shoes, and pulled her long brunette hair into a ponytail, and soon made her way back down to the lobby to take a better look at what sort of activities the hotel offered, the itineraries and brochures were at the front desk.
She noticed a few of them were quite strange, but interesting as they too carried over with the resort's monster theme, such as a spin class with a giant spider, which she will skip as she doesn't really care much for spiders. There were also tennis lessons with a real werewolf for an instructor, which might be fun so Elona will set that aside for later. There were also the spa and the gym, which offered health classes and activities with a giant Fly while beauty treatments in the spa offered things such as a classic mud bath and a more weird sounding massage by a giant squid. The weirdest activities she read about so far had to be Bingo with another old gremlin lady and a trivia game with floating brains. For now she'll skip those.
Elona decided she needed to relax and decided to get a classic manicure/pedicure in the hotel spa, even by monster beauticians, which to her was a start and good enough to be somewhere between normal and weird.
It seemed pretty lucky for her the spa wasn't overbooked for now, nor was it too crowded when she got there as they got her an appointment in ten minutes.
As she was shown to a reclining seat for her treatment and to relax, it intrigued and freaked her out a bit how the spa looked to be designed almost like a Medieval dungeon, complete with what might have been torture devices, such as an Iron Maiden or a table with wheels and ropes for stretching, but were really just more stylized spa equipment and the guests in the them looked really relaxed and content.
The seat she was shown to was surprisingly comfortable as it looked like a reclining spike chair, but the spikes were actually made of some kind of plush foam that both massaged and adjusted to her body shape, and she was immediately comfortable.
It wasn't long before her manicurist arrived, a strange yet familiar looking kind of monster with pale gray blue skin with stitches, a beehive hair style with a white streak, and she had a very voluptuous curved figure shown off by her short black skirt and fuzzy pink sweater shirt, and matching pink and black striped head band. Her attractive face with covered in a bit too much make up, she wore very large hoop earrings, and her bright pink nails were almost more claw like for being so long.
"Hello, Darling," she said with a very nasally and high pitched voice, but was still friendly nonetheless, as she held out her clawed and stitched hand, which Elona took politely if a bit reluctantly, it felt cold and smooth and yet a bit leathery, "I'm Eunice. Ready for a mani-peti and for you to feel one step closer to being fabulous?"
"Yes, thank you, Eunice," Elona said, "My name's Elona, and I'm just here to relax and have some me time."
"Better that, Darling," Eunice said as she took Elona's right hand and started filing one of her nails, her hands surprisingly nimble despite her own long nails, "You're just in time for girl time." She gestured to other women near her, both different monsters.
"Salutations and many welcomes," said the monster to Elona's left with an accented voice with clear high class to it, yet friendliness. She was a mummy with eerie glowing green eyes, an ornate headdress and matching shoulder piece, like she might have been an Egyptian princess or even a queen, and she had the most pronounce and seductive hourglass figure Elona had ever seen, even for her own slim and lithe muscular figure. She laid back in her own chair while a long squid looking tentacle massaged her feet.
"I'm Nefertina, but you may call me Nefi."
"Hi," Elona said with a polite smile, impressed with another monster costume, though a bit uncomfortable to now have company as she didn't really want to talk to anyone.
"This is my good friend, Wanda," Eunice introduced the other woman to Elona's right.
"Hello, Elona," Wanda said with a friendly smile, a very realistic looking female werewolf, a pregnant one nonetheless if Elona was judging correctly by her rather large belly. Wanda was relaxing with another squid tentacle giving her a massage as well.
"And I'm Carrol," said a voice from thin air, making Elona look around in confusion.
"Right here," it said again, Elona looking to the seat next to Wanda where there seemed to be a floating pair of pink horn rimmed glasses, with dozens of curlers where hair should have been, and a pearl necklace.
"Hi," said Elona, a bit amazed at the special effects for this 'invisible woman.' Somehow it was a costume designed to bend light around an entire human figure.
"Have we met before?" Wanda suddenly asked as she gave Elona a strange look, making her very uncomfortable.
"No, I don't think so," Elona quickly stammered out, "I might just have one of those faces."
She gave a bit of a nervous laugh.
"I'm sorry, Sweetie," Wanda said, "It's just for a moment, you reminded me of someone I knew."
"Yeah," Eunice breathed in agreement as she started on another finger nail, also giving Elona the same look, "You almost look a little like…" Wanda gave Eunice a look, "Well, it doesn't matter, you're clearly not her."
"Who?" Elona was suddenly interested in who these women though she was.
"We're sorry, but we try not to talk about it out of respect for our friend," Wanda said with sadness in her voice.
"Oh, okay," Elona said with sympathy, "I understand, I lost someone close to me, too."
"Well, no more depression," said Eunice, "We're here to have a good time, right? So, Elona, where you from? What brings a nice and pretty human girl like you to the now famous Hotel Transylvania?"
"Well, I'm originally from Chicago," she said, "But I've been traveling Europe for several months now."
"Like our friend, Johnny?" Wanda asked.
"You mean the guy with wild red hair and wears a garish yellow and orange shirt, talks like a California surfer?"
"That's Johnny," confirmed Eunice with a smile, "He told us stories of traveling the world before coming here, and boy were they exciting. I bet you've got some stories to tell."
"Yeah, I guess I do," Elona said with a small smile, though she was just being polite as it was only half-hearted.
"It would be delightful to hear them," Nefi said.
"Well, um…I'm not sure…" Elona said low.
"Oh, that's alright, Elona," Wanda said reassuringly, "We understand, you don't really know us and you're probably still getting used to being around monsters like most humans. Well, not only are Eunice and I best friends, I'm also a children's activities instructor here at the hotel for the many kinds of children that come here. I supposed it's obvious, I just adore children."
Wanda rubbed at her belly with a dreamy look.
"First one?" asked Elona.
"No, I've lost count. I've had dozens of pups though."
"So your husband can't keep his paws off you, can he?" Elona teased with a laugh.
"No, he can't," Wanda laughed.
"You're lucky, Frank and I can't have kids," Eunice said with a bit of sadness but acceptance nonetheless.
"Neither can I, such a pity really," said Nefi.
"If I had kids, no one would see them," Carrol said.
Elona suddenly became uncomfortable again as a silence built, the other women clearly waiting for her to continue the conversation but she was blanking on words. Finally she just said,
"I don't think I should have kids, I don't think I even can."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Wanda said with sympathy, "But why do you think that? You look like a pretty healthy human woman to me."
Elona just tensed as she fidgeted in her chair, an apprehension grew within her. Costumes or not, what if these people saw her as an abomination as well because of her condition?
"That's personal," she said in a low voice.
One of them was about to ask why when Eunice said, "The closest to a daughter I've had was Mavis, such a good kid. She and Johnny are lucky to have Zinged. And now they have little Dennis."
Eunice, being the closest to Elona, must have seen her discomfort and had tried to divert the conversation away from her. Elona would have thanked her when there came a sudden screech not too far away.
One of the heater chairs where another human woman was getting a hair treatment had sparked wildly and now started to smoke, as well as the poor woman's hair, and then nearby another chair with a female gremlin sparked and smoked making her hair smoke, too.
Murmurs and worried mumbles spread throughout the spa now, worrying the small group of Elona's would be new acquaintances.
"What the hell is going on?" Eunice nearly shrieked as another chair sparked and smoked, startling the clients who tried to relax in them.
"Aah!" Carrol screamed as her own chair suddenly did the same, making her get out quickly.
For some reason, Elona chose that moment to leave them and finish her treatment at a later time.
"Elona, wait," Eunice called after her, "I'm not done, I've only just gotten started."
"I'm sorry, Eunice, maybe later," Elona said a bit harder than needed, "Thanks anyway."
"What's her hurry?" Wanda asked.
"Did I say something wrong?" wondered Eunice, but then she became concerned for the other clients with the smoking hair, and all of them wailed or gave off angered rants of their hair now being ruined.
Gustav, the manager of the spa, was less than happy with this electrical inconvenience and unhappy clients.
Elona ran into a nearby bathroom to wash up, though she was a bit disappointed with herself for running out like that, but she just didn't like the conversation she had with those strangers, and while she thought they were being nice enough it also felt they were prying too much. She also felt sorry for them and the sudden electric surge their equipment suddenly had.
She splashed some cold water onto her face, immediately feeling a little better, but as she tried to turn off the faucet, the water just kept going. The next thing she knew all the other sinks started to have water flow quickly and the toilet stalls started to over flow as well making any occupants exit quickly with startled yelps and shrieks.
The women's bathroom was quickly evacuated, as well as the nearby men's bathroom as Elona saw overflowing water flood through. Dozens of people, humans and monsters alike, yelled and shouted anger and irritation at the sudden plumbing issue.
Elona was among the loudest as she shouted, "What the hell is this, the Poltergeist?!"
She just tried to push her way through the swelling crowd and nearly had someone or something run into her.
"Excuse me, watch where you're going," she growled.
"Pardon moi, Madamoiselle," said a French accented ruff voice.
Elona looked down to a see another weird looking costume, but this one looked the most human so far if very deformed with a think hunchback, a very long noise on a round face with bloodshot yellow eyes radiating an inner craziness, and salt and peppered hair on both sides of a bald round head shaped almost like horns, and he wore a plumber's uniform, clearly here to fix the problem with the bathrooms.
"Uh, that's okay," Elona said a bit nervously, something about this actor made her even more uncomfortable than the women in the spa, "I should really watch where I'm going, too."
"'Tis nothing to worry about, Madamoiselle," the hunchback said pleasantly as he took her hand and lightly kissed it, making Elona feel like it made her skin crawl, "Zese zings happen."
"Mr. Ghouligan! Quasimodo!" Shouted an angered man's voice from the crowd and the little hunchbacked man said,
"Til we meet again, Madamoiselle. Au Revoir." He then limped quickly to the man who called him, but all Elona saw was the back of a black cape with a high collar worn by a tall figure, next to who stood a zombie looking janitor.
She stood for a few moments longer at the growing crowd and the problems with the spa and bathrooms, but decided there was nothing she could do to help at the moment. All she wanted was to relax and do something enjoyable.
She decided to check out the gym and see about taking an aerobics class, but soon heard the gym had been shut down do to equipment breaking down around the same time as in the spa.
While Elona groaned at this, she decided she needed to relax and returned to her room for the afternoon to keep her blood pressure down. Looking through the brochures again, she decided to catch a magic show performed by an aquatic semi-squid like monster called Harry Three-Eye in the hotel lounge.
The show was entertaining enough if a bit gory at times, and Elona got a bit squeamish from it, but the magician was actually quiet talented and did tricks Elona had never seen before and applauded along with the rest of the audience.
The next act up was a stand up act by an albino Gillman introduced as Marty. But since he only spoke in inaudible blubbers, most of the humans didn't understand a word of his alleged jokes, though all the monsters broke out laughing.
A gargoyle waiter finally came up to Elona's table and asked in a very professional and genteel fashion if she would like to order anything, and while she'd had a couple of virgin drinks, she finally realized she was getting hungry.
She looked at the menu, which had a lot of interesting selections but couldn't really decide what she wanted. The waiter then offered to bring her a plate of samples, and Elona accepted eagerly, feeling once more adventurous.
The waiter soon returned with a silver platter of some very unusual looking food samples that somehow seemed alive as they all snarled and growled and bounced up and down on the platter.
Elona gave an unsure twisted look at the food samples, and asked the waiter, "Are you sure about this? Is this even real food?"
"Absolutely, Ma'am," the gargoyle waiter said positively in his unbroken genteel fashion, "These are samples of only a few of our finest dishes."
He stood there proudly and waited for her to try the strange living food, how they were able to make it move was still an amazing effect.
She tried to take a sample of bouncing food from the platter but it evaded her fingers with an impressive small jump, she tried to grab another sample but this one jumped high enough and bit her finger hard with tiny sharp teeth like needles.
"Ow! Son of a bitch!" she shouted in pain and outrage as she suddenly stood up, drawing a few stares to her and the suddenly startled gargoyle waiter.
For some reason, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for Elona, and there was once a time she wouldn't have cared so much about 'sweatin' the small stuff,' but her life had been far from perfect since her ex's betrayal, and she just seemed to take out her anger on almost anyone for the wrong reasons.
"That does it!" she shouted at the now cowering gargoyle waiter, "Where's your manager, I demand to speak with your manager, immediately!"
"He's…I-I…," the gargoyle could only stutter in growing apprehension.
Elona just glared at the tuxedoed stone gray creature, not even noticing a new presence appear behind her as though out of thin air.
"Is there a problem here?" asked a raspy male voice thick with a rich Romanian accent, clear with authority and an air of Eastern European aristocracy to it.
"I'll say there is," Elona hissed as she whirled around quickly to face the owner of the voice, "I…"
Time seemed to come to a complete halt as she looked up and locked eyes with the man in front of her. It was the Dracula costumed man she believed to be the hotel manager she had seen doing a meet and greet in the lobby, and then at the flooding of the spa bathrooms. Now all of a sudden like a bolt from the blue, here he was in front of her and she saw the role fit him perfectly.
Now that she had a better look at him, he was pretty tall, about 6'4'' or 6'5'' as he was clearly taller than her at 5'6'' and his healthy figure was slim, wiry, and graceful with broad shoulders and chest; his face was long with sharp features such as a long sharp chin and high cheek bones and a sharp, curved hawk like nose upon skin that was like pale polished marble, all which told of a clear ancient noble upper class heritage. His raven black hair was slicked back with nary a hair out of place and formed a slight widow's peak upon his high forehead. He wore a long nobleman's cape of an expensive ebony black material with a high collar and royal purple inner lining, beneath which he wore all sleek black late nineteenth century clothes, including a silk shirt, vest jacket, ascot tie with an onyx jewel, silk dress pants, and sharp dress shoes, and he clearly carried himself with an air of nobility and prestige.
While Elona somehow took all of this in, her eyes locked with his which had to be the most stunningly amazing deep blue she had ever seen, like a pair of icy blue sapphires that radiated a deep 'soulfulness,' a blue that nearly put Paul Newman's to shame.
She was just mesmerized by those eyes.
For Dracula, he had decades of experience in dealing with difficult guests to his lavish hotel, though the allowance of humans was still a new and recent development and had proved a bit difficult at times than experience with monster guests. He had needed a break from the stress of overseeing the repairs to the somehow damaged spa and gym equipment and their flooded bathrooms, and decided to catch one of Harry Three-Eye's shows with his family with him for moral support.
Whatever this human had to complain about, he still had an obligation to see it resolved and his guest happy in the end.
Yet this became the furthest thing from his mind when his eyes met those of the human woman and he was all but speechless as he drank in the details of her looks. He had seen this same human woman around the hotel, in fact she was the same one who had reminded him of his late wife the moment he saw her walk in a few short days ago and he was beginning to understand why.
She had been complaining about one thing or another, mostly small things that got solved quickly enough, but now that he was seeing her up close and personal, it was like living in a precious dream from a nearly forgotten memory.
For a moment he once again thought he was looking at his beloved Martha, and though she had a slight resemblance to his late wife, the subtle differences were in her face which had a more pinkish Caucasian skin tone with a bit of a tan instead of a lovely flawless pale alabaster, and her hair was a deep medium brown color that was like both fire and earth and straight instead of a luscious midnight black and wavy, and her figure was not only a slim hourglass shape, but healthy and strong with a lithe muscular build of a long legged dancer, strangely accentuated by her comfortable and casual modest clothes.
Yet what stopped Dracula in his tracks and made his undead yet alive heart stop beating for eternal moments were this human woman's eyes, a pair of wide almond shaped eyes a deep azure sky blue he thought he would never see again. They held a wonder and mystery of a starry night, eyes that clearly held something deep and binding; life, passion, and beneath that he also saw something else that drew them; pain.
And loneliness.
In this moment, eternity stretched out they saw into each other's souls as two hearts began to beat as one.
In that moment, a bright magenta sparkle glimmered and flashed in their eyes.
They had Zinged.
Yet it has always been believed you only Zing once in your life, there is only one soul mate for everyone.
Yet, could it be, with a lifetime as long as one as Count Dracula had, maybe, just maybe, it is possible to have a second chance with a new kind of Zing.
Across the room, staring along with everyone else in curiosity, Dracula's family, daughter Mavis, son-in-law Johnny, and grandson Dennis, watched with wry smiles on their faces as they saw the moment pass between Vampire and human.
"Is that, like, what I think it is?" Johnny said with a wide goofy smile on his youthful face.
"It must be," Mavis agreed, smiling just as widely.
"Er, I…uh," Dracula stammered for a moment, then cleared his dry throat, "Ahem, what seems to be the problem, Miss?"
"I…I, uh," Elona stammered, having gone speechless at the sight of the hotel manager and what she suddenly felt. And it both invigorated her with excitement and filled her with fear.
He gave her small smile as he waited patiently for Elona to answer, yet words escaped her as her mind went blank.
She finally gathered as much of her thoughts as she tried to say,
"Uh, I just wanted to try some food samples and the food bit me. Me. It's supposed to be the other way around. Why did it bite me?"
Dracula looked at the platter still held by the now timid gargoyle waiter, and saw pieces of monster food samples still bouncing up and down as they gave off adorable snarls, growls, and high pitched shrieks.
"Oh, that's just the tasting method," he said casually.
"The 'tasting method'? Really? Are you kidding me? Does that mean the food has to taste me before I can taste it? What kind of twisted logic is that?" Elona began to argue, her tone rising a bit.
Dracula frowned, seeing where this might be going.
"Okay, okay," he said, a bit annoyed, "If you'd like something that doesn't bite you back, I'll see you get something that doesn't bite you back."
Drac then spoke to the gargoyle watier, who looked at his master with an at the ready stance in apprehension and submission.
"Bill, get this lady another tray of samples," he ordered, "and make sure it gets the biting out of its system before bringing it."
"Yessir," Bill said quickly with nervousness and even quicker flew back to the kitchen.
"Thanks," Elona said politely, a bit unsure of how to feel about the situation.
Drac then gentlemanly gestured to her seat, and she graciously sat back down, knowing the costumed host was at least trying.
"May I join you, Miss…?" he asked courteously.
"Yes, okay. I don't see why not," she said a bit shyly, suddenly feeling very nervous and bashful, her face blushed a rosy pink, "And it's Parker, Elona Parker."
"Elona," Dracula said as though it were the chime of a crystal bell, or a renewing breath of life, "Very beautiful."
"Thanks."
"I am curious, though," he continued, "You could've ordered from the new more human friendly menu, though you're not the first human to get bitten and tasted by our regular food."
Elona pushed some loose silky brown hair behind an ear, feeling embarrassed and bashful at once.
"Well, I supposed that's my fault," she admitted, "I wanted to be adventurous, I always want to try something new when I come to a new place, though I have to be careful about it."
"Nothing wrong with that," Drac shrugged.
"Thanks, but it has gotten me into trouble sometimes so I need to be more careful in the future. So, uh…how exactly do you do it, with the food I mean, it's an impressive special effect, Mister…?"
Dracula raised a dark eyebrow at such a strange question and could only answer,
"Dracula. And it's Count, actually. Count Dracula. And that's how the food's always been made at my hotel."
Elona looked at the man with a slight puzzled look, but then just decided to humor her gracious host as he seemed take his role seriously enough to make it believable. After all, the monster themed hotel pulled off its Disneyland feel quite well and tourists loved that kind of thing.
"Okay. Count," she said with an amused if slightly awkward smile, "So, I saw you take a picture with a couple of families the other day, it was adorable."
"Thank you."
"Do you go around teasing your guests saying "I'm vant to suck your blood, bleh, bleh-bleh'?" she teased as she imitated his accent.
Dracula could only frown deeply at this, feeling very insulted. Again, another human and that ridiculous saying. Where the bat hell did it come from? And for that matter where did Mavis get it in the first place?
"I do not say 'bleh, bleh-bleh'," he said in an annoyed hard edged voice.
"Okay, okay, I'm just messing with you," she laughed.
"And I don't drink human blood," he continued, "I haven't for decades. It's fatty and I never know where it's been."
"Excuse me," Elona shot out, "I take very good care of myself, I exercise and eat a strict diet."
"Really? Then why order from a menu that isn't part of your usual human diet?"
"Like I said," she said, now feeling defensive and embarrassed, "I was feeling adventurous."
Dracula couldn't really blame her for that, as plenty of human guests had done it before and Dracula did his best to minimize injury and complaints.
He was about to say something else when Bill the waiter appeared, barring another silver tray of fresh human friendly food samples, his posture professional with pomp and circumstance with an underlying fearful apprehension for his performance in front of his master.
"Ah, here are new samples for you to try," he said as he stood up, "Enjoy. Now if you'll excuse me."
He walked away stiffly with a soft rustle of his long black cape, leaving a slightly insulted and confused Elona behind.
From the other side of the lounge, Johnny and Mavis could only frown as Mavis said, "So much for that possible Zing."
"Maybe we just read too much into it," Johnny said with a frown.
"Yeah, maybe."
Yet little Dennis saw something interesting there, and if he could convince his good friend Winnie to help him, Papa Drac might not need to be so lonely anymore.
From above in the shadows of the lounge, once more two pairs of malevolent eyes watched Dracula closely, and what they saw was repulsive to them but also very interesting.
"Hmm," hummed Quasimodo, "How interesting."
"It's disgusting," spat Bela.
"Wi, indeed it is. But perhaps this particular human could prove useful to our plans in ze future, no?"
Quasimodo smiled sinisterly, the wheels turned in his head smooth and sharp like icicles.