Chapter 9
Panicking, Johnny turned into his bat form and started clumsily flapping through the corridors to find where the screaming was coming from...every few seconds a sob would sound before another shriek, and it was painful for him to hear.
It was only a minute or so later when he found himself flying into the room connected to the door to the pool, and there was a huge crowd gathered. He immediately spotted Mavis and morphed back before pushing through various monsters to get to her.
"What's going on?" He asked quickly, looking around. Lucy and Jack were both there too; Lucy was crying, looking absolutely terrified, and even Jack looked quite scared as to what was happening. "Where's Mina?"
"S-She's outside," Mavis stuttered, trying to edge closer to the door: a ray of light stopped her, and she let out a yell of despair. "WE HAVE TO GO OUT THERE AND GET HER!"
"I'll go!" They heard a voice above them say, and they realized Frank had been standing nearby; the tall flesh-golem started to push through the crowd of monster hurriedly. "ALRIGHT! EVERYONE MOVE!"
There was no hesitance - all of the guests stopped talking and parted to let Frank push through to the door. Johnny pulled his family further away from the door forcefully, not wanting them to get hurt too. As their friend went outside and shut the door behind him, the red-head couldn't help but get visions of how his father-in-law had looked all those years ago after going out in the Sun...if that had happened to a tough older vampire, what would it have done to a tiny child?
No. He refused to think too much about it.
It was one painfully slow minute before the door opened again and Frank came back in; he was carrying something carefully in his arms, as if shielding it, and he kicked the door shut before turning to find Johnny and Mavis. "I've got her," He said quickly, and he stretched out his arms for them to take her.
Mavis was the one who took Mina into her arms, and she started to cry out of both relief and shock; the vampire child was covered in red marks and burns, her clothes having singed holes in them, and she was sobbing at the pain. "It hurts, Mommy!" She cried tearfully, clinging to Mavis tightly. "M-M-Make it stop!"
Frank looked around at the other guests and waved his giant hands around. "Come on, give them some room!"
"Thank Goodness you're okay," Lucy breathed, wiping her eyes, and even their brother looked quite shaken by the experience.
"What on Earth were you doing out in the Sun?" Mavis questioned, clutching Mina to her chest. She didn't wait for an answer though; she turned to face her husband, annoyed at him. "You were meant to stay with her!"
"I did!" Johnny argued, feeling that this was rather unfair. "I told her to come inside, and she did...she must have gone back outside or something!"
Mina lifted her head - the burn marks, luckily, were starting to heal and fade on her skin. "I saw Martha-bat," She mumbled, sniffling lightly. "S-She was on the floor, with some candy...a-a-and..."
This didn't make much sense to any of her family members, but they decided silently that she was probably just delirious from her experience. The crowd of monsters parted, and Count Dracula came rushing to see what was going on: his eyes widened as he took in the situation.
"Let me hold her," He cooed, and he hurriedly pulled Mina into his arms. "Oh, you poor little bat...you'll be okay, baby, you will..." He looked around at all the guests, knowing they were probably waiting to see if he blamed anyone or something. "I don't care how she got hurt - as long as she is no longer in pain, then it...it will be fine."
"But it's not," Another voice said, and everyone turned: this time, it was a stern, brunette vampiress, who looked quite disgusted as she eyed up Johnny. "You see now, everyone? Humans are incapable of even the simplest tasks, such as looking after their young-"
And that was it - Johnny had had enough.
"Shut up!" He interrupted, glaring at Ava. The other vampire froze in shock, not used to being treated in such a manner. "First thing: I'm. Not. A. Human. You see these?" He opened his mouth wide and pointed to his fangs. "Yeah! I'm a vampire now!"
"But you used to be a human," Ava reiterated coolly. "And your hatred still hasn't-"
"What hatred?!" Johnny snapped in a rather uncharacteristic way. "I'm a vampire now! I'm married to another vampire and our kids are all vamps too! My friends are all monsters!" He threw his hands into the air out of defeat. "I never hated anyone at this hotel, not even when that weird guy tried to eat me, and I totally never thought I would...but then you walked in and just changed that!"
Several monsters, including his family, gasped, shocked by his admission. Ava glared at him, eyes hard and cold with hatred. "And yet," She said coldly, sending chills up his spine. "It's not my youngest child who is burnt all over."
This time, it was Lucy who spoke up and stepped in. "Mina's healing quickly," She pointed out, trying not to show any bias towards her father's side of the argument. "She's going to be perfectly fine - a little weak and shaken, perhaps, but otherwise fine."
Everyone turned to look at Mina; true to Lucy's word, she was perfectly pale again now - besides quite a few severe burns - and had even started to fiddle with the neck of Dracula's cape happily.
"I think it has been a long night," Dracula said slowly, knowing that only his word would put a complete stop to the confrontation going on. "I think we should all return back to our hotel rooms and rest until the night."
There were a few grumbles, some monsters clearly wanting to hear more about what had happened, but everyone started to slowly leave the room to get some sleep; it truly had been a long night.
Johnny turned to look at Mavis, scratching the back of his neck. "Look, I brought her inside," He insisted desperately. "I sent her to the kitchen to get some candy while I looked for her bat, and she must have gone back to look again."
"You shouldn't have sent her to the kitchen on her own," Mavis retorted, clearly not ready to completely forgive him yet. "She's only thirty one, Johnny - of course she would wonder off! And it's a big hotel too - she could have gotten lost!"
"No," The red-head disagreed, snorting slightly at the idea. "She knows this place like the back of her hand, Mavis, just as well as you do."
"That's no excuse!" She snapped, turning away from him swiftly and towards their children and Dracula. "We need to get some rest - Dad, can you bring Mina upstairs for me?"
Dracula nodded wordlessly, knowing his daughter was not in a good place at that moment.
She sighed, looking down at the floor. "Lu, Jack, can you guys go to your rooms? I'll be up in a minute."
"Sure thing, Mom," Jack agreed quickly, turning into bat form and flying away quickly.
Lucy looked at her mother for a moment, wondering is she should say something to comfort her - when nothing came to mind, she just nodded and morphed into her mist form before floating away.
"I'll just...bring Mina upstairs," Dracula decided quietly. "Will you be alright, Mavy?"
Mavis nodded, not looking at him.
The older vampire looked between his daughter and son-in-law; he, too, had no words in that moment. "Come on, baby bat," He murmured to his granddaughter as he walked out of the room and left the two alone. "I'll tell you about your Grandmother."
"What about my bat?" Mina asked tiredly.
Dracula paused, thinking for a moment - he remembered it was probably still outside somewhere. "Ehh...I shall get one of the zombies to get it."
Johnny looked at his wife as they left, sighing heavily. "It's not my fault," He stated quietly. "I told you, she...she must have gone outside again and not realized about the Sun." He stopped, an idea occurring to him. "You don't think...that I did that on purpose, do you?"
Mavis looked down at the floor, shaking her head. "No. Not really."
Well, that's kind of a relief. "I'm sorry," He apologized sadly, scuffing his shoes against the carpet guiltily. "For letting her go around alone...and for snapping at that crazy lady. Maybe she won't do anything bad to the hotel, you know, to punish us."
His wife shrugged, clearly at a loss for words. "She hates us, for some reason. That's why she wanted us to stay, and I should have known...but she's just..."
"Too scary to say 'no' to," Johnny finished, nodding in agreement.
Mavis leaned against a wall, folding her arms across her chest protectively. "We might lose our home," She sighed, trying to hold back tears. "None of the monsters will have a safe place to go to every year if we're shut down; my dad will lose his job and home. And the kids...they won't have this castle to come back to, to have when they're older."
"It'll still be here," The red-head said defiantly, moving forwards to put his arms around her. Her anger melted away, all bad thoughts forgotten; she tightly hugged him back, a few tears rolling down her face as she burrowed into him. "Whatever it takes, we'll make sure that crazy lady doesn't shut down the hotel. She can't shut us down for this - I mean, what's she gonna put?"
"That you argued with her," Mavis replied, voice muffled by his chest. "And that because you're a human then you're dangerous or something."
"Well, she's gonna look real stupid," He muttered darkly. "'cause the monsters reading the report will investigate it or whatever and see that I'm a vampire." He sighed to himself. "Come on: you need to rest, 'cause of the baby."
Mavis let him lead her towards an elevator, exhausted by the stress of the night - deep inside, she still feared that things were going to slowly fall to hell.
Once they had gotten to the right room Dracula had dutifully brought his youngest granddaughter inside and, carefully avoiding the more sensitive areas as best he could, helped her get ready for bed. A zombie came upstairs and delivered her Martha-bat from outside as the Count helped her put on her pyjamas, and for now he wasn't the owner of the hotel - he was a merely a loving grandfather protecting a child.
"I remember when I went outside in the sunlight," Dracula recounted softly as she watched with wide eyes. "I have to admit, it is not nice."
"It hurts," Mina whimpered in agreement, sniffling slightly and cuddling her toy closer to her body. "Make it stop."
He felt his heartstrings give a tug in his chest at how much pain she was obviously in. "Oh, baby...I wish I could, I really do." He put a hand over her own tiny one, squeezing it tightly as if it would give her some comfort. "It will get better, baby, trust me." Because she was so young, he knew that she might take a little longer than he had because of how weak her immune system was still.
Mina gave a small yawn but kept her eyes open so that she could look at him. "How come you got burnt by the Sun, Grandpa? You're always so careful."
He smiled slightly at the last bit. "I know. I had things to do, Mina, and I had no choice but to go outside - it was worth it though."
She just shrugged and snuggled down deeper into her pillow. She didn't quite understand how important that particular incident had been - after all, if the Count hadn't flown outside on that day she would not have even existed. Yes, he thought to himself privately as he looked down at her. Definitely worth it.
"Anyway, I think that it's time you got some sleep," He decided and she didn't even protest. "It has been a long night, and you need to rest so that you can heal properly."
"Stay with me," Mina requested, reaching out and grabbing at his arms weakly. "Please?"
Dracula nodded immediately, not needing to hesitate. "Of course. I shall stay until you fall asleep, don't worry." Satisfied, his granddaughter relaxed and shut her eyes - he could tell that she wanted to hear a story of some kind, and so started to tell her a tale of a rather funny incident involving his late wife and some library books.
Even though he put on a smile and told her stories of happier times, Dracula couldn't help but find his mind pre-occupied by what had happened that night - or rather, what this would mean for the hotel.
By the time the next night had fallen, the sun incident was far from forgotten; in fact, it was all any of the guests wanted to talk about - although, their hushed voices were still overheard by those who it concerned.
"It's fine," Mavis tried to reason with Johnny at breakfast when he stopped eating and looked down at his plate dully. "Seriously...we checked on Mina this morning and her burns are nearly all gone."
He just sighed, slumped over in his seat. "She's hurt. I should have kept an eye on her..."
"She won't remember it," Lucy assured him but he didn't even look up. "It's not your fault, Dad."
"Yeah, it's not," Jack agreed quickly, abandoning the book he had been reading. "I mean, it was an accident - she wandered off outside and got hurt."
Mavis shot them both grateful smiles. "See? No harm done, Johnny."
Finally, the red-head looked up and frowned. "'No harm done'?" He repeated incredously. "Seriously? She went out in the sun and got burnt - she could have died! All 'cause...'cause I left her on her own..." He looked away again, trying to hide the fact that his eyes had glazed over. "I'm an idiot."
"I think I'm going to go and get a second plate of food," Lucy decided quickly, and she nudged her brother in the ribs. "Jack, do you want to come with me?"
The middle child looked up at her in confusion. "But I'm not..." He trailed off at the look on her face and realized immediately. "O-Oh, yeah! Okay then."
The two stood and hurried away to the buffet table, leaving Johnny and Mavis by themselves. "You're not an idiot," She told him sternly, and he snorted to himself. "You're not, so don't say that. She's going to be fine-"
"She's going to hate me," Johnny interrupted sadly, ducking his head down lower.
Mavis could only blink in disbelief. "Why would she hate you? It's not your fault she went outside."
"Well, whose is it then?" He asked, shaking his head. "I left her all alone, and she went outside again-"
"Because she was looking for her bat," His wife stressed. "Okay, so I don't get why the bat wasn't outside while you were both by the pool and then appeared when she was on her own. I don't know why she went back outside when she knew the sun was coming up - but I know that it's not your fault."
Johnny leaned his head on his hands and sighed. "I'm awful at being a Dad," He muttered. "Seriously, I suck at it."
"Okay, now that's ridiculous," Mavis stated, rolling her eyes at how absurd it was. "You're an amazing Dad and you know it. Our kids get hurt all the time but that doesn't mean we suck as parents." When he didn't respond, she put a hand on his shoulder gently for some kind of comfort. "You're really upset about this."
He nodded in agreement. "Well, yeah. It was torture seeing her like that...all burnt and upset..."
She pressed a kiss against his cheek, and he finally looked at her with wide eyes. "See? You care about her - about all of them - so much...if you were awful at being a Dad then you wouldn't care this much. I mean, look at how my Dad was with me."
Johnny thought about it and realized that she was right. "Yeah, I guess so." He gave her a small smile. "How come you always make me feel better?"
"Because I'm your zing," She reminded him, smiling brightly and he was suddenly reminded as to how beautiful she was when she smiled. "How about we finish breakfast and then go check on Mina?"
He agreed and quickly turned back to his breakfast feeling much happier; he didn't see Mavis wince and reach to rub at her stomach as more sudden sharp pains made themselves present.
"Do you think they're done talking yet?" Jack asked, craning his neck to try and see their table. "I'm hungry and want the rest of my breakfast."
"Give it a few more minutes," Lucy muttered. "Just to be sure."
Her brother sighed, leaning against the buffet table. "Why exactly do we need to let them finish talking alone? It's not like they were arguing or anything."
"I just thought it would be a conversation for them to have alone," She defended, shrugging to herself. "You know, the kind where Mom will say really lovey-dovey stuff to make Dad feel better, and then they'll kiss or something to make up."
Jack opened his mouth to say something only to be cut off by the sound of someone dropping what sounded like a lot of plates onto the table from behind them. They both turned to see who it was and immediately recognised the tall lanky frame of Freddie.
"Uhh...hey?" The waiter offered awkwardly, straightening up. "I was just...uhmm...you know...putting the plates down for...you know...guests."
Jack looked between Lucy, who was desperately trying not to stare at the man in front of them, and Freddie before smiling to himself knowingly. "Cool. Well, I'm going to leave you two alone so that I can go finish my breakfast."
Before his sister could protest, he had walked away trying not to chuckle to himself and left the two alone. Lucy and Freddie looked at each other for a moment, smiling shyly and awkwardly, both unsure what to say.
"So," Freddie said finally, voice nervous all of a sudden. "So... You're Mina's sister?"
Lucy nodded. "Yeah. I'm Lucy...and you're Freddie," She remembered aloud. "Mina never stops talking about you."
He gave a small laugh. "Hehe...right..." He paused and his smile faded slightly. "I heard the kitchen staff talking about what happened to her last night. Is she going to be okay?"
"Oh, yeah!" She answered quickly, and the waiter breathed out in relief. "She got a little burnt, but apart from that she's going to be fine." The red-head smiled nervously, never having spoken properly to a guy besides family members for this long - especially not cute ones. "Mina told me that you just started working here."
He gave a nod. "Yeah. My Uncle got a job here, and he managed to get one for me too. He's the new chef."
"Oh...well, you can tell him that his food so far is pretty good," Lucy complimented. "And what about you? Do you cook?"
"Uhm...not really..." He gave an awkward cough. "Actually, I can't cook...at all. But I'm an okay waiter, I guess, so it's not too bad." To his surprise, she gave a small giggle out of amusement and smiled even more. Huh...okay, so far so good. Just be smooth and don't ask anything stupid or weird. "So, do you guys stay here often?"
Lucy nodded. "Yeah. We only live like ten minutes away, so we can just come whenever we want...well, that and because my Grandpa owns this place."
"Oh, yeah. Mina said something about that..." He trailed off, unsure what to say. God, what is so difficult about just talking to her?! "I'm so sorry," He blurted, becoming more flustered when she just stared at him. "I'm not really good with talking to people...well, I mean with talking to girls in particular...not that I talk to girls often of course! I just..." He sighed and gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it," She told him, laughing at how anxious he suddenly was. "I'm not all that good with talking to strangers either, so we're in the same boat." Her smile faded slightly as she hesitated and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Uhm...I was just wondering...purely out of curiosity of course...when you get breaks and stuff?"
Freddie blinked, not sure he had heard her right. "Right...uh...I guess it's every so often...I mean, when I don't wait tables I have to clean in the kitchen and stuff, so I kinda just wait until one of the chefs tell me to take a break."
"Oh. It's just that I...uhmm..." She took a deep breath and looked up at him hopefully. "Maybe you'd like to hang out some time, when you don't have to wait tables or anything?"
Holy crap. Freddie couldn't help it - his mouth fell open at the very idea that a girl - a cute girl at that - had just asked him to hang out. "Sure!" He answered hurriedly when he realized that he still had to answer. "I get a break after the lunch hour ends, so...maybe then?"
Lucy smiled and nodded, suddenly feeling as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "Cool. I'll meet you on the roof then...about quarter-past one?"
"Yeah," He agreed breathlessly, feeling as though he was flying sky-high in the air. "I'll see you then."
He watched her walk away, an idiotic grin plastered across his face, and leaned against the buffet table when his legs felt too weak to hold him up; not even knowing that he had to unclog a sink after his waiter duties were over could bring him down in that moment.
"Hey, Drac!" Johnny greeted cheerfully, waving his hand at his father-in-law goofily and taking a seat next to him at the bar. "How's it hanging?"
Dracula just rolled his eyes and stared down at his drink - water, of course, because a hotel owner did not drink alcohol while on the job. "I'm fine."
"Cool." The red-head looked at the older vampire in curiosity. "How come you're down here? You're usually always cooped up in your office or something doing 'important business'."
"I'm taking a break," The count said quickly, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. "This week has been rather stressful."
Johnny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I get what you mean; a baby, the hotel inspector lady, that accident yesterday...it's been wild. Oh, that reminds me!" He leaned closer to his father-in-law eagerly and sent him a large grin. "Tomorrow night we're having this huge party down here!"
"You are?" Dracula questioned, raising an eyebrow. "And who said that you could?"
The younger vampire just blinked. "Uhh...c'mon, Drac! It's a party!"
"Alright, fine," He gave in, lips tugging up in a smile - he really was getting too soft these days. "So what exactly is this party for?"
"We're celebrating 'cause of the new baby," Johnny stated excitedly. "It's been forever since we last threw a party or anything, so I thought it's be awesome to throw one now." He grinned at his father-in-law hopefully. "So? You wanna come? Everyone's invited - but you especially."
Nice to know. "I'll see. But I am a very busy vampire, Johnny-"
"But you're the Grandpa!" Johnny reminded him. "You have to come, Drac!"
Oh what the Hell! It had been too long since he'd last relaxed anyway, so he gave a nod and smiled at the other vampire. "Alright. I'll be there."
Johnny grinned, pleased with this. "Awesome. So, I told Frank and all the other guys that we were gonna start as soon as it gets dark tomorrow...oh, and there's gonna be food and stuff too, so...I dunno, tell all the chefs and whatever to just come and chill instead of working."
"After they have made the food for this party," Dracula guessed dryly.
The younger vampire just nodded. "Yeah, exactly!"
A party wasn't exactly what Dracula considered playing it safe, considering there was a very stern inspector staying in the hotel that week, but he decided that all of the guests needed to have some fun - maybe it'd make Ava loosen up a little (very unlikely, he knew, but he was still somewhat hopeful).
Besides, after all of the drama that week, celebrating something positive for the future was much better than dwelling on the turbulent present.
Warning: this will not be all happy fun and games from now on. Trust me. I think the end of the next chapter onwards will be VERY dark and depressing...but maybe we'll have a happy ending. Who knows?
I'd like to apologize in advance now: I start school again on Tuesday (I'm currently on half-term, so I've just had a week off) and I might not have as much time to write...I'll definitely try though!
Thanks for all the reviews and stuff, guys! I really appreciate it!
