As Dracula exited the elevator back into the lobby, he let out a content sigh of happy satisfaction. The hotel was full of monsters who wished to get out of the shadows and relax for the weekend. His daughter's birthday tomorrow would be spectacular. And best of all, his little girl no longer desired to venture out into that wretched human-infested world; she would stay home safe and sound in his hotel forever more. Everything was going his way. The zombie bellhop, Porridge Head, walked up to his boss while removing his human mask and smiled, hoping he did well for Dracula, whose smile turned into a frown.
"Yes, what do you want, a cookie?" Dracula snarked sarcastically and pushed the zombie aside. "You did alright, man, move on already."
As the zombie bellhop sulked off, something strange caught Dracula's eyes. Some kind of strange figure, probably a new guest, trying to budge through the revolving door until he pushed himself loose. However, it was no monster. It was some kind of large backpack, and it turned around to reveal the carrier; Johnny. While another being stepped out from behind him, Dracula recognized her; Elona.
"Whew! Yeah." Johnny smiled happily.
Elona looked a little surprised to see monster-looking people walking around. "Wow!"
Dracula froze in shock. His face paled at what he was seeing. Two humans. In his hotel. Images of angry mobs carrying torches and pitchfork screamed accusingly and viciously at him, "Vampire!" flashed in his eyes, invading the hotel and ready to slay every innocent monster. Including his precious child.
"Humans!" the vampire whispered in dread.
Dracula flew at them like a speeding bullet, a hateful snare on his handsome face as he intercepted them, hoping no one else noticed them. Elona had little time to shriek, as she was the only one who noticed him a second before the vampire tackled them. All three of them became trapped inside the revolving door, causing it to spin rapidly fast.
"Who are you two? And how did you find this place?" interrogated the scowling vampire.
"Oh, I'm Jonathan and this is Justina, but everybody calls me Johnny..." the red-haired boy introduced himself and to the young woman wedged between his backpack and the glass door, "…and I was just mountain climbing with some dudes…"
Johnny casually recalled back to when he was mountain climbing up the edge of a cliff when the rope slipped, and he fell.
"…they ditched me, but Justina came to my rescue…"
Out of nowhere, Elona frantically took hold of the rope and began pulling with all her might.
"…she invited me back to a bar she works at for lunch…"
Elona kindly leads Johnny through the entrance of the Bats and the Belfry.
"…and we heard this story about a spooky forest…"
A frightened Nicholas and Catarina are telling Johnny about the spooky forest. Elona looks on while drinking a cup of coffee, and Johnny snaps of photo of the old couple while eating a sandwich.
"…and who's not going into a spooky forest, right?"
"You decided." Elona's voice corrected, muffled from behind the backpack.
Together, Johnny and Elona venture into the spooky forest. Elona trips and falls down a hill while Johnny continues to walk onward. Moments later, Johnny is snapping a photo of a spider with a skeleton face, but then he trips and falls downhill, where the view before him reveals the isolated village.
"So then I find Justina locked inside an old shed because she sent a text message that some butthead locked her in there..."
Johnny unlocks the door and lets Elona out of the shack, just as she comes running out at full speed, obviously trying to break it down, only to fail and run into a wall.
"…and then we see these goofy-looking dudes on fire…"
Johnny watched the burning zombies walk by in excitement, but Elona looks on in concern. The burning zombies trek down into a hidden underground tunnel. Johnny and Elona follow them, except Johnny trips and falls downhill, and Elona trails after him while trying to watch her step.
"…then we just followed them to like this amazing castle."
The two humans glance up at the large castle of Hotel Transylvania before them. Elona stares up at it in awe before she walks onward to check it out. Johnny, on the other hand, takes another picture.
As Dracula listened to the story, he gasped in realization, suddenly remembering the word of warning from the troll construction worker two centuries ago. An image of him in Dracula's eyes appeared as he said those words:
"But, of course, be smart. No bonfires, no fireworks shows."
Dracula had forgotten the most crucial rule for his hotel, and now realized that the fire started by the zombie bellhops had led two humans to his isolated sanctuary. Even building the village had gotten the attention of the female human and in turn she summoned her companion to the village, and the zombies lead them right to his home. His perfect plan to forever protect Mavis had backfired and blown up in his face. He then leaned in closer to the young boy's face as he asked worriedly, "How many of you are there?"
"Just us," Johnny replied, "I like to hit it alone, but Justina wanted to tag along because she's been in the spooky forest before since she was a kid."
Dracula quickly glared over at the woman, especially because Johnny revealed she has the nerve to call him butthead. Elona was giving him a death glare as she squeezed her way out of being suffocated by the giant backpack, for she was still furious the vampire had tried to erase her memories, and for imprisoning her in an empty shack.
"You meet so many awesome people in the youth hostels," Johnny continued, still as cheerful as ever. "Hey, speaking of awesome..." he eyed Dracula's cape and touched it as he squealed, "...that cape thing is KILLING IT! Is there, like a costume party here or something?"
Dracula glared at this 'Jonathan' with annoyed anger, as if saying 'Don't touch the cape,' while Elona had at last freed herself of the giant backpack. Then suddenly he grabbed them both and smothered the two humans in his chest, trying to hide them from view. "What have I done? This is all my fault!" Dracula's voice whimpered, as if he made a deadly deal with the devil.
Hoping to salvage the situation, he told the humans in near panic, "You have to leave." The Count ran out of the rapidly spinning door and began to run with enhanced vampire speed to the bridge, when his eyes widened as he mumbled worriedly, "Oh, no."
"Excuse me, one of your piranhas in the lake is very rude, he ate my sister-in-law," a female gremlin complained as she walked up to the entrance.
"B-B-Be right with you." Dracula stammered, rushing back into the hotel, once again he is stopped, this time by the Hydra; six heads, different personalities, and one of those heads was a female.
"Mr. Dracula, we asked for a room with a view of the pool," one said.
"The rooms fine, we wanna book a massage," another said.
"Yeah, Swedish."
"Shiatsu!"
"Aroma therapy!"
"We don't want hot stone!" All of them shouted at once.
"I'll get back to you Mr. Hydraberg," Dracula said hurriedly as he left.
"I hope so!"
"I doubt that!"
"See that you do!"
"That's Ms. Hydraberg."
Elona's nose couldn't stop inhaling the vampire's scent. For a creature of the night, he smelled like pine or fragranced roses which, in her opinion, smelled better than creepy cologne. "Mmm… I didn't know he smelled so nice. I wonder if he smells this good when he sleeps… UGH! Quit thinking like Bella! This isn't Twilight!" She scolded herself. As she breathed in his chest, Elona could feel the vampire's heavy breathing and listening to Dracula's heart beating rapidly.
Meanwhile, a dreadfully nervous Dracula dodged and navigated his way around the crowd of monsters, while desperately keeping the two humans hidden from view and very close within his grip.
"Seriously, what's up? It's kind of funky to breathe under here," Johnny said, not completely used to the old scent he inhaled.
Dracula hissed at him to be silent under his breath, until he heard a familiar voice.
"Drac! Hey Drac, how'd it go with Mavy?" Frank asked as he walked down the staircase, but the vampire fearfully hid behind a pile of guest luggage before throwing himself into the storage room. "Hey, where'd you go?" Frank looked around but there was no sign of his friend.
Inside the storage closet, Dracula pressed his ear against the door, making sure no one was coming in. Elona was straightening her skirt out whilst Johnny looked around in amazement.
"Wow, this room is kind of small for a big castle. No bed but check out these awesome dustpans they give you." He held up a skeleton dustpan, impressed with the design.
"All right, I've got something to say to you, Count!" Elona clearly wasn't in the mood, determined to put the idiot vampire in his place for what he did to her.
"Quiet, you fools!" Dracula hissed, and then he pushed Johnny to the wall and rapidly dug through his backpack. "What weapons are you keeping in this container? Your pitchforks?" He pulled out a t-shirt, that hasn't been washed since who knows when, only to be overpowered by its stinky stench. "OHHH! I can't breathe! It's killing me!" Dracula yelled in agony, while he used his cape to cover his face as he fell to the floor.
"Phew! And I thought Gerald's brother never washes his underwear." Disgusted, Elona held her nose.
"Yeah, definitely due for a fluff and fold," Johnny tossed the shirt back in the backpack's pocket.
A buzzing sound came from his pocket. Dracula snatched it out of Johnny's pocket and examined the electronic device, puzzled and angry. "What is this? A torture device? A secret mind-controller? You won't read my thoughts! I won't let you!"
"Dude, it's just music. Here, try it." Johnny placed two earplugs in the vampire's ears and played the song, 'Sexy and I know it' by LMFAO.
The music blasted in his ears. Dracula's face dropped to confusion and fear. He screamed in agony and took out the earbuds. "OHHHH! IT'S TAKING MY SOUL! AAHHH!" He screamed once more, having his hands on his ears as if in pain.
"What? It's a good jam. Don't be a grandpa." Johnny teased, offended but still smiling.
Elona giggled at the grandpa comment, especially with the vampire overacting because of an electronic device. But she ceased her giggling when Dracula began going through her own backpack. She tugged hard at the backpack's arm, glaring daggers at the vampire.
"What do you think you're doing?!" she argued. "Don't you know it's impolite to look through a lady's belongings?!"
"Shut up! Let me see what you are hiding in your container." Dracula growled back at her, forcibly pulling her bag back again. He pulled out a white I Heart NY t-shirt. Confused to what kind of clothing it was, Dracula questioned, "Where did you get this? Did you steal it off a poor Gremlin lady?"
Rolling her eyes, Elona snatched the shirt out of his grip. "Ugh. No, I didn't steal it from a Gremlin lady."
Another strange device caught the vampire's eye. Dracula reached into the backpack's pocket and pulled out a black, portable, digital camera. "What is this box for? Some secret weapon? A head smasher?"
As he examined the camera suspiciously, Dracula unknowingly held the camera facing in his direction and pressed a button. The camera flashed right in his eyes, causing him to scream.
"OHHH! I CAN'T SEE! I'M BLIND!" He screamed once again, covering his eyes in agony and accidently stumbled upon the crates that had been kept inside the closet, and the crates toppled over and fell upon the vampire.
Elona started to laugh at the vampire's reaction to having his picture taken, and the events that unfolded afterword. This did serve him right for imprisoning her in the shed. "If you wanted a picture, we'll do a selfie later," she teased.
Emerging from the pile of crates, Dracula's sight finally cleared of dancing dots and starbursts. He towered over Elona and Johnny, glaring at them with deep hatred. "You both need to go. No human has ever entered this castle. And if someone should see either of you… the safety of the hotel, the sanctuary… No one would ever come again!" He hunched over, shutting his eyes fearfully.
"Oh, yeah, go for it! 'Ever come here again!' I love your Dracula voice it's so over the top," Johnny commented, none the wiser.
Dracula fell to his knees, his face paled when another horrifying thought came to him. "And Mavis, if she saw the two of you, she would know that I lied. Nooo!" He sobbed; his head dropped in his hands.
"Wait a sec!" Elona interrupted his wailing. A suspicious eyebrow was raised. "You're saying you lied to this Mavis person... what exactly did you lie about?"
"None of your business!" The vampire snarled defensively.
"Who's Mavis? Is this her room?" Johnny didn't seem that concerned. "I'm good with a roommate. I've had six brothers growing up so I can totally share."
"Are you're going to kill us both, since we discovered your castle?" Elona asked worriedly when something else made her consider what else vampires are capable of.
"I can't kill him or you," Dracula responded. "It would set monsters back hundreds of years."
Elona sighed in relief. "Oh, good."
Johnny continued to blabber on like the chatterbox he was. "One time in Hamburg, I roomed with this dude who I caught stealing my shampoo and I said 'Whoa man,' and he threw a flowerpot at me, but he was cool."
"What are you babbling about?" Dracula glared at him, clearly not in the mood for senseless chatter.
"What are you talking about?" Elona asked, at the same time the vampire spoke. Even she had no idea on what the boy was saying.
"What-whoa! Check out these awesome costumes." Johnny's attention instantly goes through some old uniforms and clothes.
"Costumes." Dracula's eyes lit up, as if a light bulb appeared above his head.
Elona looked at him suspiciously when he said this.
Johnny looked startled as his backpack is taken off his back and Dracula sets down at the corner. "Uh, sorry man, I can't leave here without my backpack you know everything I own is in there."
"It'll be right here," Dracula reassured.
"Okay, it's just, I love my backpack."
With a wave of his hand, Dracula forced Johnny to stay still and made him fall asleep. He snored loudly but the vampire made him close his mouth by making him suck his thumb.
"What did you do to him?" Shocked, Elona growled in a worried tone for her friend.
Dracula did not respond. He smirked in her direction tapping his fingers together. "He'll be fine. Now, hold still." A pale blue dress levitated out of an old box in the back of the room and drifted into the Count's waiting hands. A white paint bucket complete with a brush resting on top drifted in the Count's free right hand, gripping on the bucket's handle.
Elona carefully studied the vampire's smirk, then at the dress, and then at the pain bucket. She felt her stomach drop in an instant. "Oh, no. I know what you're thinking. Please, no…"
Dracula ignored her as he walked towards her. Elona frightfully backed up against the wall as the handsome vampire came closer to her with the face of a pervert, although what she wrongly assumed he has plotting in his mind is not what she thinks.
A witch maid kept herself busy sweeping the stone floor with her magic broom, humming to herself. She thought she heard a woman's squealing as she made her way past the storage closet. The sound of a slap and a male 'Oof!' came not long after. Shrugging it off, the witch resumed back to her sweeping.
Back to the inside of the storage closet, one part of Dracula's cheek looked slightly red and swollen, having been slapped from undressing and redressing his human target in her disguise. Despite his dislike of humans, Dracula is a gentleman, and he had made his cape come to life and cover up Elona's form, so he won't have to see her in undergarments while magically putting on her new attire. Finished, he stood back and examined her appearance.
"Well, how do I look?" Elona implied. Her entire body was covered in white paint to make her look ghastly and black markings on her eyes used for eyeshadow and black lipstick. She wore the bright blue dress which has a v-neckline and loose sleeves, and blue high heels on her feet.
"Perfect!" Dracula responded, after a moment of examining her appearance and deciding the disguise is a good choice; she will be seen as a banshee. Then he waved his hand, making Johnny wake up from his slumber. He blinked and yawned, stretching his arms out.
"What happened? I had an awesome dream about meeting a girl and… Whoa!" Johnny glanced at the woman in surprise. "Justina, is that you? You look awesome!"
"Thanks." Elona blushed, and then she examined herself in a small mirror. "Hmm, not bad."
Without warning, Dracula instantly shoved the startled woman out of the closet, just so she doesn't have to be present when it comes to doing Johnny next.
"Your turn." Dracula smirked at the younger man.
"Huh?" Johnny blinked, confused.
From outside the storage closet, Johnny could be heard laughing and yelling whilst Dracula forced him to wear a 'costume.' Elona grew quite worried as she waited for them. A few monsters walked by, not paying attention to her. A few minutes later, Johnny came out. He was painted a pale bluish-gray color with black stitch marks on his neck and hands, his red hair was straight up, and he wore a trench coat over his shirt.
"Check it out I'm a Franken-Homie!" Johnny grinned in excitement as Dracula pushed him and Elona, stunned by the boy's costume, away from the storage closet.
"Yes, hello." Dracula's grin was awkward.
"Look at meee!"
"This is totally normal, not a problem here. These are just monsters with me." Dracula smiled, pretending as if nothing weird is going on.
"You'll only make yourself look more suspicious than ever when you talk like that." The obvious was pointed out in Elona's voice, but the vampire wasn't concerned.
A blue Gillman let out a wolf whistle, following his gaze on Elona with a lustful grin. Even in a costume, she was still very lovely. The poor woman shuddered in fear when the Gillman forcibly took her arm and began kissing it. Elona tried to free herself to no avail.
The Gillman's inappropriate actions suddenly made Dracula very protective of her. He shot the Gillman a harsh death glare, his upper lip twisted in a threatening snarl and an animalistic growl rumbled in his throat. He wrapped am arm around Elona's waist, pulling her closer to him.
The Gillman released his hold on Elona's arm, smiling innocently. Then his girlfriend, a pink Gillman, began screaming at him in an unknown gibberish language and began smacking him swiftly. Elona could not believe Dracula did that for her, despite their not so friendly encounter. Nonetheless, she was secretly grateful to him.
Johnny, on the other hand, didn't witness the incident. "Everybody stepped it up tonight. Wait, why are we going to the front door? Are we leaving?"
"Wait, you're kicking us out?!" Elona frowned at him, but he only responded to her with a chuckle. Dracula had a devious grin on his face. He would seem like he'd finally get rid of these humans when another obstacle came in the way.
"Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula!" Quasimodo, the head chef, came nose to nose with Johnny.
"Hey sniffy, what's going on?" Johnny greeted before he and Elona were pushed back behind Dracula.
"Not right now, Quasimodo." Dracula had no time for this, clearly distressed.
He suddenly came face to face with the little chef's pet rat Esmeralda, who began squeaking, jumped on him and sniffed his chest. Dracula broke into a cold sweat as the rat scurried and sniffed his body. She stopped when she caught the scene of something she disliked and squeaked again, signaling she found something.
"What?" The chef asked. Esmeralda squeaked again. Quasimodo scoffed. "No, don't be absurd, iz not a human iz Monsieur Dracula."
Dracula chuckled nervously, feigning innocence. "How ridiculous, of course it's me." He grabbed the rat and threw her into one of the open elevators.
"Monsieur, ze deviled lizard fingers." Quasimodo presented the tray held up by one the gargoyle waiters.
Dracula stopped his awkward laughing. He didn't like what the chef had made him. "Deviled lizard fingers?! I asked for spleens and blankets!"
Quasimodo turned to the gargoyle and began yelling at him, trying to scapegoat him for making the food their master disliked, while shoving the food at his face.
While Dracula was busy dealing with the crazed hunchback chef, Elona took the liberty to sneak away from the vampire and Johnny and looked around the lobby. It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen; it was like those medieval castles she read about during bedtime stories or the ones she learned about on school field trips and lessons, only it was filled with diverse species of monsters who were friendly to one another and behaved like normal people at a normal hotel. For some reason, Elona felt at ease and longed to learn about this place rather than try to sneak out of here. She was so amazed by the surroundings that she failed to notice somebody bumping into her.
"Watch where you're going!" came a brash female voice. Elona turned around and saw that she was looking at Eunice, the Bride of Frankenstein, dressed in a 1950s outfit. Eunice looked angry at first until she studied Elona's appearance. "M-Martha?! No, wait. Martha's dead. Who the heck are you?"
"What are you talking about?" Elona looked very confused. "My name's not Martha."
Eunice studied the woman's pale pretty features carefully and noticed the color of her hair and eyes, almost worrying Elona that she might get caught, only to relax when the female stein saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Oh, sorry. I've never seen you around the hotel before. Who are you?"
"Oh! My name is Elona." The blonde politely introduced herself. "Nice to meet you, uh…"
"Call me Eunice, darling."
"Nice to meet you, Eunice. Ooh! I love your hair."
Eunice smiled proudly at this compliment. She didn't know why but she was starting to like this new banshee.
Meanwhile, Johnny had made his way to a female skeleton standing in the lobby. "Whoa, check that costume out! Seriously, how are you pulling this off? It's like I can..." And when he put his hand through her ribcage, he only made her scream and she slapped him.
Her angry skeleton husband approached him threateningly. "Hey, what do you think you're doing!?"
Johnny trembled. If he can put his hand through someone's ribcage and there's nothing normal about these alleged costumes, the truth overtook him by this point. "Uh... she's... she's real. You're real."
"Yeah! And I'll give you a real beating! Keep your hand out of my wife!"
He punched the red-haired young man in the face so hard, sending him flying right at the back of the giant foot of Bigfoot. Finally, it was too much for Johnny and he began to scream in sheer panic, realizing that this was no costume party and every monster in the lobby is real.
Dracula heard the screams and turns around to see neither of the humans are behind him anymore. "Oh, no!" The vampire gasped, and then headed off to find them as soon as possible.
Elona became startled by the screaming, but Eunice wasn't worried. "Ugh. A redhead version of my husband."
"Uh, I have to go. Nice talking to you." A frantic Elona left the baffled Bride of Frankenstein behind as she left to go find Johnny.
Johnny, on the other hand, continued to hysterically scream bloody murder. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
His extremely loud screaming caused a Mexican band of skeletons to start playing a tune. Johnny began running around like a mad man having his arms out waving about. He stepped on a brain which floated up and hissed at him. Johnny ran away in disgust until he bonked heads with the Headless Horseman who is the hearse driver making his pumpkin head fall off. Johnny screamed looking down the hole and took off. He encountered some more monsters like the gargoyle waiters, coming face to face with a large fly. A giant tarantula walked over him, and Johnny got even more freaked out, trembling with fear.
Dracula looked around for Johnny and he gaped when he spotted him sliding down a trail of slime made by the green blob monster. He bounced off and crashed into the witch who was still sweeping and grabbed her broom, which caused the broom to take off before Dracula could catch him.
Johnny went airborne on the magic broom, screaming his head off. The broom flew towards Elona and struck her, causing her to slide on the green slime trail left behind by the blob monster. Dracula only had little time to react just as Elona collided into his form. The landing for her felt soft but cold.
Groaning and opening their eyes, Elona and Dracula gazed at one another when they recovered from their crash. Everything suddenly seemed to slow down all around them. Their noses were touching, and their lips were close enough to a kiss.
Elona blushed a lot. To be honest, the vampire's handsomeness was too much for her. His blue eyes didn't stop hypnotizing her. She felt as if time froze between the two. Dracula felt embarrassed and disloyal. He had been a faithful widower, and yet, this female human was so captivating. How is it possible that she could be as lovely as his Martha when they felt something back at the village?
"Uhhh, are you alright?" Elona broke the awkward silence between them.
"Y-Yes..." Dracula brushed off the thoughts he had earlier, reminding himself that she is only a human and he despised humans.
He allowed her to pick herself off his body, and just as he got to his own feet Johnny flew right over their heads, barely hitting them. Johnny zipped left to right all over the lobby as Dracula and Elona looked on.
At that time, Mavis was walking down the staircase helping Wanda down the steps, whilst the female werewolf said, "Honey, we didn't know where you were. We thought you were still out."
"Oh no, I don't know why I ever wanted to leave," Mavis replied as she shrugged, not wishing to alarm her aunt. "The humans were so boring."
Little did Mavis know she was going to regret her words. Johnny flew over their heads. Mavis looked up to see who it was, but it was too late. He eventually crashed into her. The force of the crash sent them down to the floor with a thump. Both of them sat up, groaning from the pain. Neither of them was seriously hurt. Mavis rubbed her forehead for a moment, then looked up at who crashed into her.
Just like Dracula and Elona when the two first saw each other, the two teenagers were frozen in place, almost as if the entire lobby didn't exist to them. Eyes locked in each other; as if a spell had been cast over them. A purple shimmer in their eyes twinkled within both of their eyes. It told of a feeling they felt instantly the second their eyes had met.
However, Dracula got in the way, shielding off Johnny with his cape as he looked down at his daughter with deep concern. "Mavis, honey, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I think so. That was weird," Mavis replied, dazed.
"Ohh, my head hurts," Johnny groaned.
"What were you thinking!?" Elona's harsh voice could be heard scolding the younger boy behind the vampire's cape. "You could've seriously hurt that poor girl, or you could've caused an accident!"
"I'm sorry." Johnny whined in the pain of head.
"Umm, who are they?" Mavis curiously pointed to the strangers behind her dad's cape.
"Who is what?" Dracula innocently asked, but then smirked sheepishly as if it wasn't important. "Oh! Oh, that? That is eh… nobody."
"Seriously, Dad." Mavis replied in a deadpanned voice, knowing her father was trying to make up a lame excuse.
"DAD!?" Johnny and Elona moved aside the Count's cape, their eyes widened in surprise.
"Yeah, I know. Dracula's daughter. Everyone freaks out at first." Mavis rolled her eyes, as if she knew she got this question a lot before from newcomers.
"DRACULA!?" Johnny yelled, his hysteria got bigger.
"THE COUNT DRACULA?!" Elona gasped; it was just as thought.
"Okay, we gotta go." Hurriedly, Dracula swiftly took the both of them away with a swish of his cape, and rushed up the stairs, leaving Mavis completely suspicious to what her father was up to.