When no one had been looking, Dracula had transformed into a bat, and started flapping like crazy to chase after Mavis. But he did his best to stay unnoticed, keeping himself hidden within the shadows.
"This is awesome!"
The vampire father heard her cheer as he spotted her silhouette illuminated in the moon's light above the cemetery, and now heading straight towards the village nearby.
"There's the cemetery! Just like Dad said."
When he heard Mavis say that in the distance, Dracula wasted no time as he flew at great speed through the clearing and at last came to small hidden village within the forest.
Not far from the village, Johnny was distracted by looking at a different graveyard and Elona heard a cawing sound as she turned to one of the trees to see what made that noise. It was a raven, a very unique and beautiful raven, it had piercing black eyes and shiny dark feathers. Elona was very drawn to the raven, despite its large size and sharp beak and sharp talons, though she wasn't always afraid of scary creatures after her childhood experience.
"Well, aren't you a pretty bird," she commented.
Then she got out her iPhone to take a picture of the raven, but before she was able to snap a photo, the raven swooped down towards her and snatched her phone right out of her hands.
"Hey!" Elona shouted. "Give me my phone back!" She chased the raven through the forest, leaving the clueless Johnny behind.
But when she almost caught up to the raven, Elona didn't watch where she was going, and she tumbled down a small hill. When she was able to pick herself back up, the raven dropped her phone and flew away. But as she reached down to pick up her phone, relieved it wasn't broken, she found an unknown area she had stumbled upon, much to her surprise. It was an 18th century village, out in the middle of nowhere.
Within the village, the streetlights illuminated the darkened streets, just as Dracula flew in and transformed back to his original form. The anxious Count looked around to see if the coast was clear or to make sure no one suspicious was nearby. Suddenly, there came a strange rustling in the bushes. The vampire hid himself in an alley and peeked out to watch warily for who the intruder was.
Through the bushes, a mysterious figure emerged and walked further into the area. Her garb consisted of a white jacket with a blue long-sleeved shirt underneath, dark indigo skirt, and dark walking boots. On her back, a big silver backpack she carried weakened her strength, so she placed the backpack down. But the most horrifying part about this stranger was that she is…
"A HUMAN!" Dracula's eyes widened in terror. Images of angry mobs wielded burning torches and pitchforks flashed through his very eyes.
Elona cautiously walked into the light of a nearby streetlamp. Looking at her surroundings, the village seemed pretty old to her, like it was from the 1800s. There was a fountain in the middle, a vintage dress shop, and a church.
"I've never seen such a village like this one before." Elona gazed at the town in awe. "Maybe this is all part of an upcoming tourist attraction. I better call Jo... UMPH!"
She couldn't finish her sentence, for a cold hand covered her mouth, and she felt herself being dragged inside the alley. She struggled to get out of the aggressor's grip, but to no avail. It was almost as if his hands were made of metal. Elona used her right elbow to strike him in the stomach, causing Dracula to release her as he cried out in pain. She turned to confront her assailant and paused.
Elona froze, shocked at the sight of the man before her. He was dark-haired and wearing an elegant gentleman's outfit. His dark hair was slicked and groomed back without a single strand loose. His features were pointy in a rather charming way. All of his clothing was pitch black. To top it all, he wore a black cape to crown it. What really dazzled the woman were his eyes: bright blue eyes that seemed to shine so brightly despite the darkness of the night. It was almost as if some sort of familiar purple zing cast over his eyes.
Dracula was prepared to tackle the female human right after she elbowed him in the stomach. However, the second she turned to look at him, he was speechless and bewitched.
How was this possible? She was a human, the species he hated most, and yet she was the loveliest creature he had ever seen since he lost Martha. As a matter of fact, she slightly looked a lot like Martha. Except she had long wavy curls of golden blonde hair, her skin tone fair with a rosy tint on her cheeks full of life like pink roses, a slender hourglass figure, thin fingers, and those pale pink lips. And her eyes - they may not be as crystalline blue as his - but those emerald-green eyes were reflected in the moonlight. He couldn't take his eyes off this woman. The vampire could have sworn that he saw a familiar purple zing twinkled within her eyes. Dracula felt his head sweating, and his heart was beating fast and loud. He kept his gaze sincerely focused on the young human female.
Elona was almost entranced by this handsome man when she realized how he looked exactly like someone she knew from her past. The memory of her childhood and the cliff comes back, and the realization sinks in. "Y-you?" she gasped.
Dracula immediately came to his senses, as if he had been paralyzed himself. He looked confused when the human first spoke to him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The man's Transylvanian accent. So rich and thick, Elona knew at once it was the same man. "Over twenty-two years ago? At the edge of a cliff?"
Dracula didn't seem to get it until it hit him. The image of that small, fearless, blonde-haired, curiously green-eyed little girl flashed through his mind. He thought he had seen the last of the human child, until she had returned - all grown up. "You mean... you were... that child?" He gasped. "But... how is this possible? No human is supposed to be here!"
Elona raised an eyebrow. "You're making it sound as if you aren't human."
"Of course, I'm not!" Dracula frowned. "Haven't you noticed that I look no different than the last time we met?"
Elona squinted, realizing that he was right. While most people show signs of aging and wrinkles as the years fly, this man clearly showed no signs of any of those things. He looked like the same man she had met in her childhood. She was confused, until she noticed two particular things that made her face turn white as snow: his incredibly pale skin and two particularly sharp canine teeth.
"You're a... a vampire?"
"Indeed."
Elona pinched her arm in exasperation while the Count curiously stared at her to why she did that. "I must be dreaming. I find out that the man of my childhood is actually a vampire." Her face turned paler at a dreadful thought. "Oh, man! My boss is gonna freak!"
"I don't suppose you'd want me to erase your memories. The less you remember, then the more it will be like a dream." Dracula offered slyly, leaning in so close that she felt his cold breath touch his face, and he felt her own warm breathing touch his face.
"Thank you... but, no thank you. I'd rather keep my memories intact." Elona felt uneasy at the thought of losing her memories, even if vampires like this one before her can take them away.
"I have to erase them. It's for the good of my kind." Dracula's cold demeanor started to return.
Elona gaped at him in shock. "More of your... there are more of you?"
Dracula did not answer her. He slunk towards her, glaring. His arms reaching out to take hold of her. "Now stay still so that I can erase your memories and you will forget this encounter."
Elona backed away nervously, but she knew her only way-out would-be self-defense. However, she read about vampire lore how these creatures are physically stronger and have powers that can enthrall her to his power and become helpless. "Heh-heh. Look, it was really nice seeing you again, and I appreciate your concern for your folks since I'm a human being, but frankly, I'd rather not have my..."
"Woo-hoo!" A familiar distance cheer echoed in the night, and it grew closer.
"What was that?" Elona had heard a girl's cheer and looked around confused.
"Oh no!" Panicked, Dracula stared at the human woman. What was he going to do with her?
The second the vampire was distracted, Elona realized it was the perfect opportunity to seize the moment and make her escape. "Hee-yah!" She charged at her target, kneeing him in the stomach and thrusted her fist in his chin, hoping it was enough to knock him out and to make her getaway.
Dracula grasped his chin and stomach, grunting from the pain he received. The vampire had never felt insulted in his undead life, except on a couple of times, but a human woman could never fight back like this. He had quite enough of her and wanted to get rid of her. But Dracula knew he could never kill her as a result of setting monsters back again.
With no other choice, Dracula tackled the human woman by catching hold of her wrists and snared her in his grasp. He clapped his hand over her mouth and snaked his other arm around her body to keep her from fighting back. Elona was unable to struggle out of the vampire's embrace for he was much stronger than her. He carried her to the alley, and he felt that despite her normal human strength, she was strong enough to fight back, but relieved she lacked his own physical strength to do so.
Glancing over at an empty shack, Dracula used his powers to toss, or rather float, Elona right into the shack, then he made her nearby backpack levitate and tossed it in the empty room beside her, closing the door and locking it.
"Ragh! Aargh! Let me out, let me out!" An enraged Elona resorted to furious threats, banging at the door. "If you don't open this door right now, I'll twist your legs into a pretzel! Or worse, I'll chain you to the roof of a barn until the sun comes out and you burn to ashes!"
Sighing with relief and ignoring her taunts, Dracula chuckled, "That was easy." He peered out from behind the corner of the alley and waited until Mavis showed up.
Mavis landed by the clock tower and peered around the mysterious town in excitement. For so long being locked away in the hotel she didn't know how big the outside world was like. And now, she was given her chance to explore it all, even if it was going to be for thirty minutes. Not wasting any time, she walked down the wall and further out in the street.
"Uh, hello? Anybody here?" She called out to the deserted town, but there was no answer. Then Mavis noticed a window display case with two beautiful dresses. She ran over to it and peeked through the glass to admire the dresses.
Suddenly, an angry villager holding a pitchfork appeared in the display case and snarled, "Vampire!" Another one appeared with him as he sneered, "Bite toes!"
Mavis stepped back, a bit startled, but she presented herself with a friendly greeting, "Oh! Hi, humans."
At that moment, the lights in the streetlamps turned off, all Dracula's doing to make the situation more threatening.
Mavis tried to convince the two men she meant no harm as she continued, "Everything okay? Uh, my name is Mavis Dracula and..."
"Vampire!" more angry villagers slinked out from another building, with torches and pitchforks, as one of them growled, "We take your candy!"
The villagers started surrounding the poor vampire girl, as she tried her best to reason with them, "Calm down, please. I'm friendly, really. I just wanted to say hi."
One of the townspeople tripped on his own feet and fell to the ground. His head came loose... revealing him to be a zombie, one of the hotel's staff. Giggling, the headless zombie stood back up. Dracula saw this and, in a flash and with much stealth, he scooped up the zombie head, screwed it back on his rightful body like a doll's head, placed the human mask back on the zombie's face, and zoomed out of the chaos again, just as Mavis turned around but did not see her father.
"Please, I've never hurt anyone! I'm... homeschooled!" Mavis explained, but the angry townspeople didn't seem to care. One of them held out a stick of garlic bread in her face. "Is that garlic?"
One villager stabbed one of his comrades in his head, shocking Mavis instantly and causing Dracula to face palm. The disguised zombie who got stabbed in the face, or mask, fell over and dropped his torch, setting all of the villagers ablaze. The flames caused the 'townspeople' to go aflame, creating one big bonfire.
"Holy rabies!" Mavis shouted in horror at the burning villagers on fire, not even flinching in pain. "You're on fire! Can I do anything? Can I help you?"
But the villagers nearly shoved pitchforks in her direction, not even caring she would want to help them.
As Mavis was cornered by the burning villagers, she became upset and disheartened after realizing the harsh truth. "Dad was right."
Dracula, who was still hiding, went wide eyed at what he heard.
Mavis's face saddened in despair, realizing her dreams were thrown away into the flames by the truth. "Dad was right." She turned into a bat and retreated back to the safety of the hotel.
A fog of violet mist swirled past the burning 'villagers' and transformed into Dracula as he watched the disappearing form of his daughter.
"It worked." He smiled and sighed in relief. "Now my baby will be safe... forever." His plan had worked to put an end to her wanderlust, though not as originally planned, but he was glad as he watched his little girl fly away, believing that the outside world wasn't safe, and that she would stay in his hotel forever.
Hearing the groans of the 'villagers' behind him, Dracula turned to look at them with a serious frown. "Alright, everybody. Get back to work." The villagers, though still slightly aflame, took off their masks to reveal themselves to be the zombies that worked at the hotel.
Spotting one of the zombies in front of the dress shop and trying to take a mannequin with him, Dracula scolded, "Hey! You don't need a mannequin!" The zombie silently pleaded to the Count, but he was resolved, "Leave the mannequin here! C'mon!" The zombie sulked as he dropped the mannequin.
The zombies began to tear down the village, revealing it all to be hollow and empty, like the set off a movie studio. Once Dracula was assured the work would be done soon, he transformed into a bat and took off, heading back to the hearse to check up on his daughter.
But as he did so, he failed to notice the silhouette of a familiar figure, having witnessed the entire episode in the shadows, but decided to check it out anyway.
Not wishing to waste another minute being trapped inside the old shack, Elona backed up a few paces and prepared to ram the door down to free herself, "Raaaaagh!" Before she could, it was opened for her. Johnny had to step aside so not to get bowled over by a charging Elona, and she slammed her entire body into a nearby wall like a cartoon character, "Oomph!"
Johnny cringed in sympathy. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Elona removed herself from the wall and brushed herself off, suddenly finding herself in a bone crushing hug by Johnny.
"I was so worried about you! I've been looking everywhere for you!" he exclaimed in relief. "But I got your text message. What were you doing in there?"
Elona retrieved her own backpack as she explained the recent events that occurred. "That guy I told you about back at the bar, the one who saved my life twenty-two years ago?"
"Yeah?" Johnny nodded.
"He's a butthead. He knocked me out and locked me in here. What a jerk!" However, she briefly had a slight romantic look in her eyes. "Although... he's a really cute jerk."
"Huh?" Johnny was confused.
"Never mind." Realizing what she just said, Elona shook her head trying to act like it wasn't important, "Let's just get out here, I don't want to run into him again."
But then something caught Johnny's eye and he pointed it out. "Whoa, check out those goofy-looking dudes! They're on fire!"
Confused, Elona saw what Johnny referred to, and watched a bunch of weird looking people with sickly green skin like it was decaying, emotionless expressions, and strange moaning sounds as they walked with slow limps, and the fact their bodies were on fire didn't seem to bother them in the least. They seemed to be heading somewhere while some of the buildings were taken down, and one of them was carrying a mannequin in a pink 19th century dress from the vintage dress shop.
"Are those real zombies?" Elona questioned in astonishment.
"Let's follow them!" Johnny said excitedly, as he raced forward to follow the burning zombies.
"Johnny, wait!" Elona tried to stop him, but he didn't listen, so she followed him.
The two humans followed the zombies at a respectable distance. As they approached the hidden underground tunnel, Johnny looked around in amazement, but he lost his footing and tumbled down into the tunnel in a clumsy roll. However, Elona was more careful from her experience and watched her step.
Back at the hotel, the shadow of a bat transformed into the figure of a vampire in front of Mavis' bedroom door.
"Where have you been?" interrogated the suspicious shrunken head. "Why are you snooping around?"
"Shh! Quiet!" Dracula silenced the tiny head, before knocking on the door and asked as if he didn't know his daughter had returned home. "Sweetheart, have you returned so soon?"
"Come in, Dad." Mavis' voice sounded sullen.
Dracula opened the door and found Mavis, looking rather scared and distraught, sitting in on the bed. "How did it go? How was the big world?" he asked as he sat beside her.
Mavis didn't look at him, but she answered, "It was okay."
"What?" Dracula smiled gently. "What's the matter?"
Mavis knew he wasn't buying it, so she finally told him the truth. "Dad, you were right. Humans are awful. They were everything you said. They wanted to bite my toes!"
"Your toes?" Dracula pretended to be shocked by all this.
"And they had garlic..." Mavis stood up and walked toward the window, "On bread!"
"WHAT?!" Dracula feigned shock as he rubbed his arms. "Look at me, I'm so scared I'm getting goosebumps!" As he watched her distraught gaze out the window, Dracula added, "I am so sorry you had to see all that." He opened up his cape, allowing his daughter to hug him so he can comfortingly embrace her back.
Mavis sniffled, as she nearly sobbed, "I'm so sorry I doubted you." Those words made him smile slightly. "I'll never leave here again."
That last part made Dracula smile a little wider, secretly. "O-Okay, okay." Enlightened, he pulled out of the hug and comfortingly assured her, "Look, don't be sad. Daddy's gonna give you the bestest birthday ever! Look what I brought you - your wormcakes!"
He produced a plate of pancakes, with live worms squirming in it. Mavis graciously accepted his surprise birthday breakfast.
"Don't be sad," Dracula told her while stroking her chin up. "This is the year we open Mommy's present for you."
"What did she get me?" Mavis asked, smiling.
"We'll see." Dracula shrugged. "She said never to open it until your 118. We've waited this long," he continued in an overly sweet voice. He then walked toward the door, still smirking. "You eat your wormcakes, you come down whenever you're ready, Honey."
Dracula exited the room, and slowly closed the door behind him. Once that was done, he sighed in relief, knowing full well his plan had worked.
"Oooh. What did you do?" The shrunken head on the doorknob became even more suspicious of the Count's behavior.
"What I had to." Dracula's mood changed as he went all serious. The shrunken head scoffed in skepticism. But the Count reassured it, "She'll thank me one day."
But the shrunken head huffed doubtfully, "That's what the guy who shrank my head said."
Dracula tied up and gagged the shrunken head to keep her quiet. Then he walked casually down the hall acting like nothing was wrong and ignoring the muffled groans of the shrunken head.
The hidden tunnel didn't last very long or run very deep for Elona and Johnny. As they emerged at the end of the tunnel, the path led to a long stone bridge that led to a huge Gothic castle perched in isolation on an island in the middle of a huge inland lake and surrounded by tall, rugged mountains.
"Wow..." Elona followed the long bridge to the new castle, all the while staring in awe at how marvelous it looked. In the back of her mind, she vaguely remembered seeing this place before, like something out of a dream, but as a distant memory. Now here it was right in front of her in reality. It beckoned her. It called to her like here she will find what she had been looking for her whole life.
Maybe this is where that vampire she met before lives. Oddly, at the same time Elona never wanted to see him again, but at the same time desperately wanted to see him again. She made her way to the castle while Johnny took another picture, clearly in awe of the mysterious castle they had found as well, but still cool about it all.