The door opened to one of the spare hotel rooms. A screaming Johnny ran in, frantically pounding on the door windows. Elona followed after him, just as scared as he was. Who wouldn't be scared when you're in the presence of one of the most feared vampires in the world? Especially if it's the infamous Prince of Darkness.
"Please don't kill me, I'm so young!" Johnny cried, banging on the window to try to escape, while Dracula slunk towards them with a glare on his face. "I have so many places I want to see. I got tickets to a six-day Matthew Band concert."
Elona began to wish she had packed the relics Nicholas wanted to give her, but she picked up a candlestick on a dresser close by, took off the wax candle, and held up the two objects combined to make it into the shape of the holy cross, hoping it would repel the vampire. "Stay away from us!" she exclaimed. "I know you're terrified of the holy cross!"
"Ohh, I'm getting out of here." Johnny opened a cellar door and quickly jumped down through it.
A sudden, loud roar shook the whole room with bones thrown out. Johnny screamed and sprinted back out, zooming towards the bed and climbed up the red drapes. Elona screamed at the roar and was immediately at Johnny's side in a flash.
Slouching, Dracula walked towards the open trap door. "Shut up already. It's impossible to think with all your noise." Through the open door, Dracula smiled and spoke politely, "Sorry Glen, go back to sleep." He shut the trap door and slunk towards the bed while Glen roared in response, causing the room shake again.
Hoping she could attempt to reason with the vampire, Elona spoke frightfully but as politely as she could, "Mr. Dracula, we mean you no harm and I apologize for my friend crashing into your daughter so... please don't suck his blood or mine!" Still holding the candle and its stick as a crucifix, Elona fearfully and cautiously held it up in the unamused vampire's face.
"Why on earth would I want with your blood? The only thing I want is the both of you to shut up!" Dracula grunted in irritation, before he gazed credulously at her made up crucifix. "And stop doing that! A cross doesn't scare me." He knocked the candle and its stick out of her hand, surprising the young woman that the Prince of Darkness was not even a teensy bit repelled by the crucifix.
"Wait, aren't you gonna suck my blood?" Johnny asked, still clinging off a drape from the bed.
Dracula sighed before he sat down, gripping his head in frustration. "Ugh! Classic human paranoia. Human blood is so fatty and you never know where it's been."
"So, Dracula doesn't drink blood?" Johnny carefully climbed down from the drape and approached the vampire.
"Does this mean you're a vegetarian?" Elona stared at him with a puzzled look, as she sat down beside the Count, this time not the least afraid.
"No, I use a blood substitute," Dracula replied, "either near blood or blood-beaters, you can't tell the difference."
Once his fear was gone, Johnny's cautiousness was replaced by awe and astonishment. "So, wow, you're like, the real Count Dracula, like, 'I am Dracula, bleh, bleh, bleh.'" He did an impersonation of the Count, mimicking the Hollywood style of Dracula.
"I've never said that in my life. 'Bleh, bleh, bleh.' I don't know where that comes from," Dracula frowned, disgusted by this phrase humans made of him before he stood up.
Elona snickered at the mention of 'bleh, bleh, bleh.'
"What are you laughing at?!" The vampire growled at her angrily.
The blonde woman ceased her giggling. "Sorry, it's just…" She took a deep breath with a grin on her pretty face. "I never would have thought that the infamous Count Dracula from folklore legends actually exists. It's like: wow!"
Dracula stared confusingly at the female human. Why on earth was she behaving as if she wasn't afraid of him? And what did she mean of him being 'infamous'?
"Uh, can I just ask? What exactly is this place?" Johnny looked around, slightly curious.
"What is this place?" Dracula walked over to the door windows. They suddenly opened, allowing the wind to blow his cape back and the moonlight to illuminate down on him, like a spotlight. "It's a place I've built for all those monsters out there lurking in the shadows, hiding from the persecution of humankind. A place for them and their families to come to and be themselves. A place void of torches, pitchforks, and angry mobs. A place of peace, relaxation, and tranquility." He finished with his fist clinging to his chest and his head bowed down in a dramatic manner.
Elona watched quietly in awe when he had finished his speech. She felt like it was an honorable thing he did, protecting his species from the harms of discrimination, and she walked up to him. "Is that what you meant when you said this place is a sanctuary for monsters?"
Dracula turned his gaze towards her. "Yes." His cape blew in her direction, as if reaching out to beckon her into his embrace. The vampire's expression softened while his eyes stared deeply into her own. She understood the serene emotion from his performance and his devotion to protect monsters.
However, the touching moment came to an abrupt end when Johnny clarified what the vampire really meant with a grin. "Cool, so it's like a hotel for monsters?"
There came a brief moment of silence as the beauty and the beast frowned at having their moment killed. Dracula frowned at this human boy for ruining his drama, while he sarcastically remarked, "Yes, exactly. 'A hotel for monsters.' Way to sum it up."
"Thanks for killing the mood." Elona grunted flatly, looking equally annoyed as was the vampire for ruining the moment.
Dracula swiftly sped up to him in a flash. "Okay, hop on my back. We're leaving." A blue mist replaced where he stood and a black bat with red eyes flying in the Count's place.
"Whoa, man! You're a bat now. I always wanted to fly. What's it like?" Johnny asked, easily amazed.
"Wait! How are you going to carry the two of us?" Elona asked.
"Just hang on to his legs!" The little bat replied sternly.
The bat picked up Johnny by the collar of his jacket. Elona abruptly took hold of Johnny's two legs and held on tightly. Then the little bat proceeded to fly them out the window, with a little strain on his strength and the weight of carrying two humans out the balcony window.
Johnny continued to ramble on, excitedly. "This is insane. Wait! Wait, I want to stay. Can Frankenstein sign my costume? Can I meet the Invisible Man? Hey, if I suck my hand in the Invisible Man's mouth, would it disappear?"
No sooner her feet left the balcony, Elona looked straight down, and her face turned to a shade of pale. In her mind, the drop was suddenly replaced to a foggy cliff. The blood-curdling screams of her child self were ringing in her ears. Her pulse quickened and fear gave way to panic.
"On second thought, I agree with Johnny! I think we should stay here for the night!" Elona began to hyperventilate. Struggling desperately to cling onto to Johnny's waist, eyes shut tight refusing to look down again. The boy giggled, feeling her fingers tickle at his feet and waist.
"Stop moving!" Dracula snarled.
He attempted to fly these two nuisances out of the room, and out of the hotel, for good. But his plan failed the second a female black bat with blue eyes flew in front of him, halting her father in his path and greeting, "Hi!"
"Mavy!" Startled, Dracula nearly froze upon seeing his daughter show up out of nowhere. "Wha-what are you doing here, my sweet little blood-orange? Our friends were just leaving."
"Yeah, he was flying us out the window," Johnny answered, earning the bat a confused face from his daughter.
Dracula chuckled nervously, as he flew back inside the room with his two passengers, transforming back to his normal form, "This guy is so funny. Oh look, Miss, your friend has something on his face." He moved them to the back of the room and spoke in a soft yet tense whisper to the both of them. "Play along if you ever want to see your precious backpack," he threatened the frightened young man, and to Elona, he warned, "or if you ever want to leave here alive."
Johnny gulped fearfully of his threat. Elona was not as concerned about her backpack like Johnny is, but she was intimidated by Dracula's threat of getting out of this alive.
However, Johnny's fears vanished when he noticed Mavis fly into the room and transformed from her bat form back to her original form, right before his eyes. He was quite impressed. "Whoa! So, wait, you didn't have any clothes on when you were a bat, or were they bat-sized?"
"Johnny!" Elona scolded through her teeth, believing that questioned sounded inappropriate, especially when asking it in front of Mavis's father.
Mavis stared at him, looking slightly freaked out. "Who exactly are they?"
A whimpering Dracula had to think of a lie and quick. He turned around and gave her an awkward smile. "Honeybat, you see, it's your birthday and, you know, I want you to have the bestest, specialist party of your life. So… well… I…needed some help."
"You needed help?" Mavis was not entirely convinced, as if she never heard him say that before.
"Well, look, I am very good, but I thought it would be even more bestest, specialist if someone closer to your age helped planned the party," Dracula fibbed, whilst he adoringly poked his daughter's nose before holding Johnny closer to his cheek.
"You're my age?" Mavis asked excitedly, suddenly up towards the red-headed stein boy's face.
"Sure! Well, how old are you?" Johnny asked.
"118."
This almost made Johnny shout in hysteria, "ONE HUNDRED AND-UGH!" But Dracula elbowed him hard in the ribs. Recovering from the air knocked out of his stomach, he grunted in a strained voice, "Yeah, um… I'm 121." Johnny secretly figured if 118 sounds like close enough to the average age of 18 for humans, he should upgrade his age in order to blend in.
"Really?" Mavis' eyes widened in excitement.
Johnny nodded, still aching from the blow to the gut.
"And who is she?" Mavis curiously stares at the blonde banshee standing behind her father.
"Oh, uh... she's um..." Dracula stuttered, trying to think of another lie.
Luckily for him, Elona had immediately thought of the perfect lie for him. "I'm your dad's new assistant manager. My name's Justina." Holding out her hand for a handshake, the woman felt Mavis place her gloved hand in her own and shook it in a friendly manner while the two of them smiled. "He hired me to help run the hotel while they party plan for your birthday."
"Wait, no! She's not my..." Dracula tried to object, only to then have Elona elbow him in the ribs, albeit much more roughly than he did to the red-headed stein boy. "Oh, yes," he grunted while he shot the blonde an equally hard glare, "Yes, I did."
Mavis glanced at her father a confused look since hiring an assistant manager was not like him, and she once dreamed of being an assistant manager of the hotel herself in her early teen aged years but didn't expect her father to hire a young banshee to take that kind of job. However, Elona was very kind to her and witnessing someone stand up to her father convinced the young vampiress that with her as an assistant manager sounded perfect, and who knows, perhaps Mavis might get a job that requires being co-manager herself.
Dracula then recovered to say more, interrupting the teen's thoughts, "You see, everything is very, very normal. I'm throwing a party, and they're helping."
"SIR!" The room' suit of armor spoke up all of a sudden, catching all four of the occupants' attention. "There's an emergency!"
"Not now!" Dracula shouted, "Can't you see we're in the middle of something very normal here?"
Startled by the suit of armor suddenly coming to life, Johnny got spooked and hid behind Dracula when he spoke to it. Elona was spooked at first, but then stared at it in fascination. No longer frightened, Johnny got the courage to go check out how the armor worked. Elona decided to follow him, her curiosity piqued as well.
"Wait! What's going on here?" Mavis raised a puzzled eyebrow, crossing her arms and looked up at her father suspiciously. "There's an emergency in your precious hotel and you're not rushing to fix it? Why, is it because of them? Why not have Justina fix it since she's your new assistant manager?"
Meanwhile, Johnny flicked at the visor of the helmet. "Whoa, look at my face! Rragh!" he exclaimed in enthusiasm. He began making ridiculous faces on the reflective surface of the chest, which annoyed the guard as it tried to push Johnny away, but it broke out into a hilarious slap fight between them.
"Incredible..." Elona examined the armor's figure, trying to figure out exactly how the armor can walk and talk like a human being. "How is this possible?"
"Uh... because, uh, she's not fully trained yet, and I have to train her because she's not ready," Dracula replied, pleasantly. "And no, Precious Bones, it's not because of them."
In the midst of the spat, Elona got accidently elbowed in the face by the guard. "OUCH!" In retaliation, she karate-chopped the guard's heard off its body. "HI-YAH!"
"Good," Mavis concluded. "Then go check on the emergency and I'll keep them company." She nodded over to the pair.
"NOOO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" Dracula shouted, nearly panicking as he gripped his daughter by her shoulders, looking rather frightened by that notion.
"What?" Mavis was startled by his outburst, but she was confused.
Realizing he almost gave himself away, Dracula quickly calmed himself down to recover. "I mean... because he needs time to plan, and I have to train Justina. And if you're keeping them company, then... he's not planning and she's not training. They're, uh, company keeping." He opened the door to let her out. "And the plan... it doesn't get planned."
The Shrunken Head on the doorknob, which may have been on to the Count's pathetic lies, remarked sarcastically, "Mm-hmm. Good one."
"Shut up!" Dracula snarled at the voodoo head while his hands tightened into fists.
"Okay..." Mavis decided to buy her father's excuse, for now, and going to lift the helmet's visor, which somehow got onto Johnny's head, over his face. "Then, maybe if you're not planning later, or if you're not training, we could hang out."
"Sounds good." Johnny liked the idea immediately.
"Alright." Elisa agreed, hopefully.
"Yes, it sounds good. So you will hang out." Dracula butted in, still smiling and gently scooting Mavis out the door. "See you later, my Honey. Heh, heh, Lovely." Suddenly, he instantly slammed the door shut, glaring back at the two disguised humans. His hardened voice aggravated, "Okay, you are not hanging out... NOBODY is hanging out! Because you're both leaving."
"But, the opposite you said..." Johnny argued in confused disappointment.
"Don't take it personally, Johnny," Elona added in her own disappointment, correctly deducing the obvious. "He's an overprotective parent, so nobody's good enough for his daughter."
Dracula briefly shot her a scorning frown while he searched for a switch panel to the hidden passage concealed behind the stone wall, and when he finally found it, he pressed against the stone. The secret door opened to reveal a secret entrance and blew a wind current into the room, blowing Dracula's regal cape behind him.
"But, sir, the emergency!" The armor's helmet tried to remind its master of the problem, its visor moving in Johnny's face while he still wore it, but Dracula ignored the helmet.
"Follow me!" The Count commanded to the two humans and flew up the stairs with a trail of blue mist behind him, with both humans following close behind whilst Johnny threw the helmet aside. The doors rumbled close shut behind them.
"Boy, that kid smelt," the helmet grumbled to itself, left behind on the floor.