The sun was rising to signal that every monster had to go to sleep during the daylight, but not everyone was inside their cabins asleep in their beds.
Melany sat weeping on top of the pole, her head tucked between her knees (the same pole Ericka first introduced herself), feeling incredibly crestfallen over the events of last night. How can her parents betray each other like this? Wooing the sea captain and a red-haired stranger? It wasn't right, but her father doesn't seem to care. She had been told he was a liar to get his way to feel special in the past, but this time her father had gone too far.
"How can Mom and Dad fight at a time like this during our family vacation?!" the little girl sobbed. "It's all that stupid Captain Ericka's fault! She made my Dad go on a date with her and she made my parents fight!" Then she realized something else. "Everyone knew Daddy had gone on that date with that dumb captain in the first place and never told me anything!" she snarled, eyes turning laser red. "I HATE THIS VACATION!" She bellowed out loud and started to wail hysterically.
At that moment, Melany stopped crying when she noticed two bouncing figures down below racing across the deck.
Wayne and Wanda were on the deck, running around and jumping onto lifeboats and having a great time. The two werewolves were still so grateful to be on the cruise with each other while the fish men watched the pups.
"We've been up all night!" Wanda said, smiling.
"Let's stay up all day, too!" Wayne suggested, chuckling.
"Let's get wild," Wanda agreed.
They howled together at the rising sun, and then ran off on all fours, happy and carefree.
As they raced on the deck, a saddened Ericka and a silently fuming Daniel stepped out of the way as the two werewolves ran by. She had cleaned herself up from the garlic guacamole, but the stench was still there. Daniel was completely cross at not just Ericka for lying to him, but at Dracula for attempting to steal his woman away for himself. He never said a word to her since last night, giving her the silent treatment.
Ericka had quite enough of being ignored. "Why are you still mad at me?!" she questioned.
Then Daniel snapped his head up, responding, "Oh I don't know, maybe it's because you lied to me about where you were and that you tried to finish of Dracula on you own without me! I thought we were partners!" He grumbled at the last part so she wouldn't hear it, "Not to mention, I saw you were close to kissing him."
"We are, it's just that..." Ericka thought back to what occurred on last night's date with Dracula, until she realized she wasn't the only one keeping secrets behind his back. "Hey, wait a minute! Why were you with Dracula's wife?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"I was only with her so I could distract and poison her! Unfortunately, that plan failed." Daniel retorted, however his face softened to last night's memories of his time with Elisa. "But, I don't regret the time I spent with her. She's an amazing dancer!"
Hearing those words, Ericka grew so jealous that she slapped him right on the back of his head.
Daniel cringed, grasping his head. "OOW! What was that for?"
"Nothing, I just felt like it!" Ericka acted like she did nothing wrong, but as she neared a large pipe, Van Helsing's head popped of the hole.
"ERICKA!" the old man caught her off guard, surprising the captain.
"DANIEL!" Charles appeared from behind the corner, his threatening scowl followed by his figure towering over his son.
"Ahhh! What?" The woman in white and the man in red cried out in union.
"Just where have you been, young lady?" Van Helsing interrogated. "And what have you been up to, boy?" He fixed a hard stare at Daniel.
"Doing work," Ericka and Daniel replied in union.
"Wearing that?!" The older man gestured to Ericka's sunflower outfit. "You were with him. I knew it!" Van Helsing shouted, accusing her.
Ericka still tried to play dumb, chuckling awkwardly, "With who?"
"You know who," Van Helsing raised his voice angrily. "You've been sneaking around behind my back trying to kill Dracula, haven't you?"
"How did you know what we were doing?" Daniel asked.
"A little birdie named Levon told us everything of what you two disobedient brats were doing!" Van Helsing answered sharply.
"Snitch!" Daniel whispered, reminding himself to get even with chubby.
"So what if I have?" Ericka leaned up in the older man's face, standing her ground. "I'm a grown woman! I have the right to kill whoever I want!"
"It's not just about you," Van Helsing tried to reason with her and her partner. "You two could have ruined the legacy. What if he discovered who you were?"
"Not only that, you could've ruined our whole plan!" Charles added, then he fixed a hard glare at Ericka and snatched the sunflower out from her short white hair. "This was your idea, isn't it?" Ericka nodded in defeat. "You already got Dracula's wife and daughters suspicious of you because of your actions!" Then he promptly crumbled the sunflower up and threw its shattered pieces at Ericka's face. This action shocked Ericka deeply. "Stick to your roles for the plan from now on!" Charles instructed very strictly, glowering at Ericka like it was her fault, towering over her. "And I want you to stay away from my those monsters! If they find out about us as a result of your idiotic carelessness, it will be your fault!"
"Are you sure we can't just kill Dracula now... so, it will be easy for our plan later?" Daniel hesitantly suggested, although he wasn't sure what side he wanted to stay on.
"No, you just stick to the plan and everything will fall into place!" Charles responded. "Furthermore, we will discuss a punishment for the both of you."
Daniel tried to grin sheepishly in obedience, but he felt completely torn; following his family's legacy to kill the monsters or abandon the legacy to stay with the monsters, who treated him like he was a part of their family.
Ericka sighed. She was totally confused; torn between her discovered romantic feelings for Dracula or loyalty to her family's legacy to kill Dracula. "I know, I know! I wasn't thinking. There's just something about him that drives me crazy! I see him and I want to-"
"Punch him," Van Helsing guessed sympathetically.
"I guess," Ericka knew that wasn't the answer. "I just can't wait to get this over with." But that wasn't the whole truth.
"Don't worry. It won't be long now. Once we recover the orb, then you recover the device, no one can stop us... not even Dracula," Abraham assured her.
Just then, Wayne and Wanda burst around the corner, howling happily. But they halted in their tracks upon seeing Ericka and Daniel engaged in conversation with an old man in a pipe and a middle aged old man.
"Oh, excuse me," Wayne pardoned casually, not recognizing the old man was the former monster hunter from centuries ago.
"SPIES!" Van Helsing accused angrily.
The old man and Daniel blew tranquilizer darts at Wayne and Wanda. The two werewolves fell to the floor, paralyzed. Ericka, Daniel and Vincent immediately stuffed the limp werewolves down the pipe, and in Van Helsing's face.
The smirking Ericka, Daniel and their grandfathers dragged Wayne and Wanda down to one of the rooms below deck, where they stuffed the wolf couple into a closet, still paralyzed from the darts.
No sooner the deed was done, a little black bat with red eyes and a pink bow came flying in out of nowhere. "LET THEM GO!" It was Melany, who had witnessed what these horrible people had done to her werewolf friends.
She flew straight towards Ericka, latched her wings onto her face and started attacking her; pulling on her white locks of hair or punching her in the face with her wing tucked into a fist. Ericka had no idea over what just happened and was startled by the little vampire's attack.
"YOU ARE A VERY BAD, EVIL, UGLY LADY!" Melany shouted as she pulled Ericka's hair with all her might and scratched her face.
Ericka was flailing all around the hallway, struggling to yank the little bat off her face. "Aaah! Get her off me!" she cried.
Van Helsing tried to shoot the little bat with his tranquilizer darts, but the darts were frozen in mid-air by Melany's telekinetic powers and directed the darts in Abraham's head, knocking the old man unconscious. Daniel was chasing after them, trying to make sure the Captain doesn't hurt Melany, nor did he want to get in trouble with her parents if either of them harmed their child.
Charles was the only one who did nothing. Having come to dislike Ericka, blaming her for his son's disobedience, he chortled humorously at the Captain's predicament. Finally, Ericka got a hold of Melany, pried her off her face, and threw the little bat aside harshly.
"You alright?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but where did the kid go?" Ericka looked around, slightly irked.
"I don't know." Daniel shrugged his shoulders.
The two of them looked around the hallway, but neither of them could find her. They assumed that she ran off, so they assisted Vincent to carry the unconscious Abraham Van Helsing back to his room. But what Ericka didn't know was that she threw Melany straight down one of the huge pipes that led down to the hidden bunker where Quincy and Celia reside in.
"What do your visions see, my love?" Quincy asked his wife soothingly. "Can you find the orb in its whereabouts?"
"From my indication and analyzing the ancient text. I can see that the exact hidden location of the orb will be somewhere in the stadium like temple grounds." Celia explained, as if she was in a hypnotic trance.
"Then it shouldn't be hard to find it then," Quincy said, thinking the job was going to be easy.
"Wait!" Celia stopped him in his tracks. "From what my predictions tell me, there is an ancient beast guarding the Orb. And from what I can tell, not one of us in our family is strong enough to take it on!" She explained to her husband.
Quincy grunted angrily and slammed his fist on the table. "Urgh!"
All of a sudden, Melany slid out of the vent and crash landed in the couple's resident quarters. They grew alarmed by the sudden presence of an intruder.
"How did a bat get in here?" Quincy questioned, but then he noticed the little pink bow on the bat's hair curl, his enhanced sense of smell caught her scent, and he knew at once who she actually was. "Bats don't have bows on them! She's not just any bat, she's a vampire!"
Before he can take action, Celia stops her husband by grasping his shoulder, exclaiming, "Honey, let's not be rude to our guest!"
Quincy didn't know what was going on so he whispered, "What are you doing, woman? I can smell from her blood that she is a spawn of Dracula!"
"Yes, and she is exactly what we need!" Celia told him off.
Then she whispered in his ear of using her as part of their plot to steal the orb and confront the orb's guardian. A light bulb lit up over his head as Quincy smirked deviously. If neither of them could predict where to find the orb, what if a child, a vampire, could be of assistance to them.
As Melany woke up, she grew scared by these strange people staring at them. "Who are you, where am I?" she gasped.
"Don't fret, child," Quincy assured her in a calm soothing voice. "My wife and I never receive any visitors, especially vampires."
Melany caught a glimpse of the old man's fangs, realizing who he truly was. "You're a vampire?"
"It's complicated." Quincy shrugged. "Dracula was the reason why we're half vampires."
"He is?" Melany gawked at him in disbelief. "What did my Dad ever do to you?"
Quincy was puzzling at coming up with a lie for this, even though he knew he can just convince her the truth about her father's past to win her over, this little vampire-human girl was also smart, so he knew he had to come up with something to convince her. Then he knew what to say. "Let me introduce myself, I am Quincy Harker, and this is my wife, Celia. Unfortunately he knew my mother, Mina, and they used to be a couple," he said to her with a slight disgust at the end. "And we really wanted to meet Dracula."
"Oh... so Dad doesn't know about you?" Melany asked, and everyone shook their heads. "Then maybe we can go up the ship so he can meet you" She headed for the door, but her way to the door was blocked by Celia, not letting her leave just yet.
"We can't go up on the ship at the moment!" Celia said, quickly leading her away from the door.
"Why not?" Melany was confused.
"Come over here and sit with us. We have a lot to discuss." Celia guided Melany to the table so they could sit down and talk. "Do you like sponge cake and tea?"
"Who doesn't!" Melany responded delightfully, excited about the idea of eating cake.
Celia immediately set up a plate of mini Victorian sponge cakes beside a cup of hot tea. Melany took her first sip of tea and loved the taste. Then she began eating the mini sponge cakes, and it was so delicious that she had to eat more, but still drank more tea to swallow it down. When the elderly couple and Melany sat down together and poured themselves some tea in cups, they began to chat with the little girl.
"How is the cake?" Quincy asked.
"It's good," Melany muffled, stuffing her mouth with the mini cakes. When she finally finished chewing, her face fell into a dismal hurt frown.
"You seemed troubled, what's the matter?" Celia asked.
Melany pouted, remembering the events of last night. "My parents were fighting."
"Oh, and why is that?"
"My Dad went on a dumb date with that stupid Captain Ericka, and now my Mom is really mad at him!" Melany explained upsettingly.
"Is that so?" Celia drank her tea, secretly smirking and pleased that her enchantment on Dracula was working, and judging by the look on Quincy's face told her that he was also pleased.
"It's all that stupid Captain Ericka's fault! I know she's trying to steal my Dad away from my Mom." Then Melany started to tear up a bit. "But I heard my Dad said he wished he never met Mom. He doesn't care about her or me." She sighed mournfully. "He just walked out on us for... a monster."
Pausing at the teacup, there was a flash of mortified shock in Quincy's eyes when he heard those last words. Vaguely remembering his mother leaving home, abandoning him to no relative to care for him until Abraham took him in, his father passed on due to shame and a broken heart, and his expression softened.
"Quincy, what's the matter?" Melany asked.
"My mother walked out on me for a monster," Quincy admitted, his voice soft. "I was older than you."
Melany wiped the tears off her face and looked up at him with solace. "I'm sorry. It's awful, isn't it?"
"Yes," Quincy confirmed, regaining himself from this sudden pity he felt as his wife raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. "But, the monster who took my mother was Dracula."
"Wait! She left your dad for my dad?!" Melany gasped, this was news to her. "Okay, that is weird."
Returning to his normal self, Quincy knew this was his chance to win her over now that she was hooked. "My mother, Mina, fell in love with him, unaware that Dracula left her fiancée at Transylvania so he could keep Mina for himself. He convinced her to drink his blood so she can become a vampire like him. She didn't understand about all the horrid things Dracula had done to the people she loved. She claimed that she loved him and just left me and my father, without caring about how this affected her family. That is why we're half vampires." He clenched his other fist at the memory of his disgraced mother. "If you don't believe me, read Bram Stoker's book," he suggested, pushing the thick yellow hard cover book in the child's hands.
So Melany read the entire book with her vampire speed-reading. Emotions mixed within the child's body. Surprise at her father dating toward Mina. Sadness for what Mina's friends really had to endure, especially feeling remorseful for having to put up with him. Denial that she didn't want to believe her father was capable of such horrific atrocities. She felt anger at how he treated Mina's family and friends like that. It was too much for her to bare right now. Having seen enough, Melany slammed the book shut.
"How could he... why would he..." Melany paused as the rush of anger ebbed, the fury in her eyes. "I can't believe my Dad would be so awful!"
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Celia stroked her head as if she was a kitten, feigning sympathy.
"We all have family troubles." Then Quincy raised a sly eyebrow when he was set to put his plan in motion. "But, I think I know how to fix your family troubles."
This got Melany's attention, none the wiser. "You can? How?" she asked, wondering what he could do to stop her parents from breaking up.
Quincy got up from his seat and went over to the map. "The next stop the ship is going to make is at Machu Picchu because the Captain needs to refuel." He pointed out the x-mark on the spot of a supposed temple in the hills. "Hidden in the ruins of Machu Picchu theatre, there is a magic Orb that can grant any wish to your heart's desire."
"Wow!" Melany was truly amazed by this tale.
"The Captain plans to let her guests have a grand tour of Peru, we are going to get the Orb to give as a peace offering to Dracula for our shadowed past when we reach Atlantis, but maybe if you help us find it, you can use it to make any wish that you want!" Quincy explained to her, reeling her in. "Maybe... even wish to fix your parents' relationship!"
This made Melany extremely happy. "If I make a wish on the Orb, I can make my parents stop fighting, get rid of Ericka, and we can all be a family again!" She whispered to herself, but suddenly her eyes lit up. "Oh! I better go. My family will be looking for me."
"We understand, sweetheart," Celia responded understandingly. "And not a word about this to your parents or anyone, let's make it a surprise."
"Okay, I won't say a word. Bye!" Melany chirped, before changing into a bat and flew out of the open door that Celia opened for her.
No sooner had the little girl had vanished, Quincy and Celia exchanged malicious smirks. Their deception had worked like a charm.
"How could you lie to your own family!" Vlad bellowed as loud as a dinosaur to a cowering Dracula. "You lied to all of your family in fact? I'd thought you've learned something after my grandkids' birthday."
"Don't lecture me, Dad!" Dracula rebuked. "I lost Martha, and now I've lost Elisa, maybe forever this time! I don't see the big deal, I just don't want to be alone again!"
"You're not alone, but you should know better than to play with a woman's feelings, especially where you're still married!"
"Beside, as entertaining as it was at the time, remember what happened with those other three vampire girls, and those ignorant humans, Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra?" Lydia sassed back with a shady smirk.
"I know, I know!" Dracula retorted. "But why is this happening to me? I thought it was impossible to zing twice, but three times? Besides, I don't know if Elisa and I will still be together. I bet she hates me now and I still love her, but..." However, he got a dreamy look in his eyes as he thought of the second person who captivated him. "Ericka makes me feel special, too. What is it about her that I can't get her out of my head?"
"Well, you're going to have to get over Captain Ericka sooner because she's not your type!" Vlad strictly lectured his son.
But the bright purple sparks danced in Dracula's eyes, making him scorn bitterly at his father. "I can't, and I won't! Things are falling apart between me and Elisa, if I can have a chance to be happy again, I'll take whatever I can get!"
Vlad was so shocked by his son's words that his scowl darkened, towering over the younger vampire threateningly. "As your father, I'm warning you. This won't end well for you. You're making the same mistakes you did last time with those girls, especially that Lucy Westenra, even after she went feral because of you! If you don't come to your senses soon, I'm going to disown you, and you'll lose the rest of your family!"
Dracula gave a shocked expression as he realized what his father was saying. "But, Dad-"
"I don't want to, son, because we're finally getting along after all those years." Vlad shook his head dismissively, pushing past his son toward the door, followed by Lydia. "But in the end you're only hurting the monsters and people you love," he added coldly.
The two vampires shoved Dracula right out of the room in disappointment, slamming the door right behind him, and leaving Dracula alone with his thoughts.
However, Dracula wasn't the only one verbally attacked by family members. Elisa sat on the bed, pouting like a child when her parents confronted her for the incident at the restaurant last night.
"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU DID THAT TO THE CAPTAIN!" Andrei furiously scolded his daughter for her rash actions. "Are you proud of yourself, Elisa? Ericka smells of guacamole now, all because of you!"
Elisa only rolled her eyes at her father. "So what? She deserved it!" she retorted angerly.
"By having guacamole shoved in her face?" Monica questioned her stepdaughter. "This is very unlike you, Elisa!"
"You should have seen her! She was all over Drac!" Elisa desperately tried to explain to them. "I don't know what that tramp's game is, but I know she's after him!"
"That's ridiculous!" Andrei retorted in disbelief. "Captain Ericka would never want to steal Dracula from you!"
"I think you're just jealous that Ericka is a respected captain who looks out for everyone!" Monica added bitterly, not sounding entirely motherly.
When Elisa heard her stepmother accusing her of being jealous of another woman around her husband, it triggered her temper, remembering the true reason why she refused to accept Monica as a stepmother because she never understood her. "I am not JEALOUS!" she screamed. "She tried to steal my husband!"
"Look Elisa, jealous or not, you need apologize to Captain Ericka!" Andrei demanded, though it sounded like an order from a commanding officer rather than a father.
"I am not apologizing to that woman!" Elisa stood up, narrowing her eyes filled with fury that would've made Dracula proud. "You might not be able to see through her façade, but I do!"
However, seeing there was no reasoning with them judging by her parents casting cold looks upon her, Elisa decided this conversation was over. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to look for Melany now!" She stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
As Elisa entered her cabin, hoping to find Melany, she was relieved to find her daughter sleeping soundly on the bed. Adrian was still asleep in the bed where Elisa had left him. He wasn't bothered by his older sister snoring beside him. Then Elisa grabs her stiff in her luggage, gently places the sleeping children in Adrian's carriage, and starts to head out of her room. Not before leaving a note for Dracula, explaining that she no longer trusted him and needs time to herself after their falling out.
Elisa decided to stay with her sister-in-law, Lydia, realizing she's the only one that she can turn to with her situation. Once they arrived at Lydia's cabin door, she knocks on it. Though no dialogue is heard, Lydia answers, and Elisa asks if she and the kids can stay with her for a few days.
Reluctantly, but knowing of the situation, Lydia agrees and uses her magic to set up her couch bed for them to use. Elisa gently sets Melany and Adrian down in the bed to tuck them in, goes to get changed for bed, and then gets in the bed to sleep alongside her little children.
Meanwhile, Dracula had returned to his cabin hoping to at least talk to Elisa. To his surprise, she wasn't there and neither was his precious little girl, Melany, or his precious baby boy, Adrian. He spotted the note on the edge of the bed and picked it up. After he read the note, his eyes had a downcast sorrow from within his very soul.
"What is going on with me?" the vampire muttered sadly, thinking long and hard over his actions. "It's like I'm... not myself?"
