DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

The line outside 1140 Royal Street stretched around the block, but the pirates simply walked past it and crept to the back of the house. The night was warm and humid, and the kitchen window had been opened. A few minutes of pulling and shoving later, they were all inside. "Right, now what?" asked Gout while the others helped him back up.

Scarf was about to answer when a pair of footsteps cut him off. "Are the doors locked, Renfield?" said a female voice.

The pirates scrambled beneath a table as the kitchen door opened. They peered out from under the tablecloth as the feet of Renfield and one of the sisters stopped right in front of them. "Renfield has locked the doors, Mistress. The humans will not escape." He waved a skeleton key in front of her face.

"Good. You are to put out the lights when Brother gives the signal." She tucked back a loose strand of hair, then shrieked as it came off in her hand. "A shame to be so old. Renfield, get me a glass of blood at once!" She stormed out while Renfield mechanically placed the key on the table and followed her.

The pirates crawled out as soon as they were gone. Scarf immediately grabbed the key and unlocked the back door. "Take care of the front door once it's clear and prop it open," he said, handing the key to Jenny and gesturing outside. "I want half of you here and half of you there. Go when I tell you." Putting his ear to the kitchen door, he waited.

A few minutes passed, and the loud rumble of a crowd could soon be heard from the other room. "Now!" Scarf whispered. He watched as the others dispersed, then quietly turned the doorknob, opened the door and stepped through.

He was in a corner of the foyer, standing on what seemed to be the last free spot available. The room was packed with people, all chattering and pushing past one another in an effort to get in front of the still-closed ballroom doors. He slipped his way into the confusion, keeping his head down and occasionally flicking his eyes up. No sign of Renfield...or the face he was both hoping and fearing to see, for that matter...

Everyone fell silent as the double doors creaked open. "The master shall see you now."

Hundreds of joyful shrieks shattered the silence as the guests stampeded into the ballroom. Scarf was among the last to enter, and the doors slammed shut behind him. He made his way to the nearest corner and plastered himself against the wall, trying to calm his racing heart. Come now, you're all they've got left. You're all he's got left.

From where he was, he could see everything; the dance floor, the food tables, the fireplace. Next to it, Dracula was sitting in a throne-like chair of mahogany and velvet. He rested his head in his hand, dark circles had formed under his eyes and his ears were looking slightly more pointed than usual. He watched the revelers for a few minutes, then sighed and shifted his head to his other hand. At the motion, his sisters came to join him while Renfield slipped away through a side door.

Scarf inched towards the doors, keeping a hand on the lumps of silver in his pocket. Here we go...

The music died, and the happy chatter of the guests turned to whispers of confusion as the lights of the wall lamps began to flicker and fade. Then the chandelier flashed, raining sparks down on them, and plunged the room into darkness.

"What happened?"

"Does anyone have some candles?"

"Count, is that you?" a woman asked. "Do you know what — AAAGGGHHH!"

"Over here!" Scarf shouted above the screams of terror that followed. "The front door's unlocked and the kitchen's on the left! You can get out through there!" He jumped aside as the crowd came barreling towards him. The strength of the doors was no match for their weight, and the wood gave way with a splintery crash. They streamed through the open doors, out into the night and down the street in all directions. The pirates pushed past them, running to meet Scarf at the bottom of the stairs. "Is that everyone? Did you see the captain? Where's Dracula?"

An inhuman roar of rage echoed through the halls and shook the timbers of the house. "YOU!"

"I think we have more pressing matters at hand..."

They raced up the stairs as the vampires came after them, fangs bared and eyes glowing red.

"Renfield knows that the creatures of the fur and feathers are here. Renfield can smell them!"

This was not true, but he could hear the dodo's claws clacking against the wood floors as it skittered down the hall. He rounded a corner just in time to see it dart into one of the mistresses' rooms, and when he followed it inside, he saw the wardrobe door hanging ajar. Laughing, he flung it open. "The feather creature shall make a lovely meal for the master...!"

There was no bird, only a single notecard. PSYCH.

He shrieked as a pair of hands shoved him into the wardrobe and slammed the doors. "Nobody eats Polly!" Albino Pirate shouted at him while Mr. Bobo locked the door and tossed the key out the nearest window. "That was rather fun, actually. Do you think the others are faring this well?"

Charles had done a fair bit of hunting back in his Cambridge days. If he lived through tonight, he was never even thinking about it again.

How had he gotten back into the cellar, anyway? He remembered Scarf giving him the bag of silver and telling him to hide someplace the vampires wouldn't think to look before going off to who knew where. Then he heard the the sisters' screaming and ran off in the opposite direction, hoping that he wouldn't trip on anything, and some part of him apparently thought it a good idea to hide where they stored the blood and coffins that they would surely be focused on defending...

No matter how he'd gotten here. What mattered was getting out. He crept to the double doors and was about to ascend the ladder when one of the bottles fell off a shelf and shattered. He spun around at the noise. "I'm warning you..."

An invisible force clamped around his throat and arms and threw him against the door with a force beyond that which any human possessed. They materialized in front of him; bald, red-eyed, faces sagging, fingers long and claw-like. They scratched at his skin feverishly, determined to dispense with the pleasantries and simply rip him apart. Narrow streams of blood were beginning to flow out from his neck and face when the doors above them were abruptly flung open. "Hurry!" Emma was shouting.

The vampires screamed in agony as the pirates dumped piles upon piles of silver on them. Charles darted aside as they burned, blistered and burst into flames. Two of them quickly turned to ash. The third used the last of her strength to reach up, grab Emma by the ankle and pull her into the cellar.

"Get away from her!" Running forward, Charles pulled the creature off her and tossed it aside. It flailed a bit before disintegrating.

"Thank you," he said as he helped her up. "Are you alright?"

"Need to work on my aim..."

"Yeh can chitchat all yeh want later!" the Pirate With Gout snapped at them from above. "We've got to find Scarf!"

"He isn't with you?" Charles asked.

Gout shook his head gravely. "Last I saw of him, he was goin' up to the attic."

Since I don't want to shortchange the next scene, I decided to push it to the next chapter. See you whenever I get that done. Hopefully sometime before the end of the month.

Toodle-pip! :)

~ A. Kingsleigh