Chapter 28: Ghost Club

Happy Halloween :)

It was a chilly night in the month of October, the time when Halloween was approaching and people were buying candy for treat-or-treaters, costumes, decorations, and the time of day to go pumpkin picking or riding a hayride tractor within the farm country. To the relief of monsters everywhere, there is no Pumpkin Guts to spoil the holiday, so the monsters were finally allowed to celebrate without hiding in the shadows.

The kids of Hotel Transylvania had recently bought costumes whilst preparing to throw their own Halloween party at the hotel; Mavis and Johnny decided to go as Ariel and Eric from the Little Mermaid (mostly because after Mavis saw the film, she discovered to having a lot in common with Ariel), Hank, Alex and Pedro and Wendy wore the costumes of the Ghostbusters (a pregnant Eunice who dressed as belle while Frank was dressed as beast they took a photo of their precious son and daughter in their cute costumes ), and finally Winnie put on a red dress and hood thus becoming Lil' Red Riding Hood.

However, the only person not able to participate in their plans for Halloween was Ericka . It usually happened on every Sunday of the month, whenever everyone tried to ask her for help or to spend some time with the family, the brunette woman always responded that she wanted some alone time by herself. For example, when Frank and the others wanted her to go out to dinner with them, Ericka gently turned them down because she had to go return some books to the library. When Mavis asked her stepmother for help to hang up a string of glittering black bats at the lobby entrance, Ericka had to politely refuse cause she knew the kids are able to handle it after finishing most of the preparations and she was going to the tea shop in the village. And when Dracula longed to have a romantic date night with her, Ericka had to remain firm because she wanted to go for some alone time at the hotel sauna.

Poor Dracula spend most of his free time in his office, alone. He placed his head on his hands whilst his elbows leaned on the desk, neglecting the paperwork he needed to sign. Why can't Ericka spend her alone time with him, like they would normally do? The vampire always looked forward to seeing what costume she wore for him, to impress and entice him to drag her into their bedchambers for a night of passion. He missed her so much that Dracula thought of once going out to find her and spent their night on the town, but it agitated her when he persisted in his attempt to go with her.

Someone knocked at his door, but he didn't want to be disturbed. "Go away!" the vampire barked. The door opened and there stood a concerned Mavis, making Dracula change his attitude and giving her a sweet yet lopsided smile. "Oh, it's you, Mavy."

"Hey Dad, why are you so glum?" Mavis asked her father.

"Ohh... nothing," Dracula sighed, discouraged. "It's just that I wanted to spend time with your mother and have a date night, but she said that she was busy and wanted some 'alone time' at the sauna."

Mavis raised a baffled eyebrow. "Huh, she said the same thing to me, but she said she was going out?"

Hearing this, it got Dracula very suspicious. Earlier, she told him that she had been going to the sauna, instead telling Mavis she had planned to go out. Unless it was the village sauna she mentioned and he didn't hear her right. "Really? But why would Ericka lie to me about her whereabouts?"

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Johnny asked, coming into the office with Wendy, Hank, Alex and Pedro trailing behind him.

Dracula silently fumed at the intrusion of these kids, but he never minded allowing his daughter visiting him. "We're discussing what Ericka has been doing behind our backs. From what Mavis told me, Ericka has lied to us."

"But Auntie Ericka would never lie to us!" Wendy protested, refusing to believe the horrible truth. "Maybe she has a good reason."

Mavis thought about what her green blob friend told her. True, her stepmother might have a reason for leaving every Sunday of the month, but creating excuses to get out of the hotel and later finding out she had been lying sounded quite suspicious. Ericka never truly explained where she was going, so she must be hiding something.

"Perhaps she goes to the village to run errands," Johnny suggested, innocently.

Dismissing it as ridiculous, Dracula decided to take matters in his own hands. "I think it's time I find out what's going on with my wife!" Multiple thoughts rushed inside his brain, wondering what could it be to make Ericka leave the hotel every Sunday. Being the overprotective husband he is, he gasped as he assumed something must be wrong. "What if somebody is blackmailing her into doing things she dislikes and she is helpless against his power over her?! Oh, no!"

"Uhh, I'm not sure that's the brightest idea to suggest," Johnny disagreed. "We should trust Ericka with whatever she's doing, I'm sure it's fine.

"Hold on, Johnny!" Mavis instantly shut down her husband, curious to what her stepmother is up to. "I agreed with my Dad. A little snooping won't hurt anybody."

Everyone else volunteered to go with the vampire father and daughter duo to search for Ericka and investigate her whereabouts. Johnny had no choice but to relent. Taking the hearse, the group drove to the human village where the neighborhood and downtown area was beautifully decorated and special events took place that Mavis recognized from years before. They searched high and low throughout the village, but nobody could find her anywhere.

Johnny suggested they try going to the Bats in the Belfry, assuming she might be there and she used to work there, being friends with the owners. Upon their arrival, the group found Nick and his sister losing up the Tavern and Inn, ready to turn in for the night and take part in the festivities.

"Uh, good evening," greeted Nick , ironically using the same greeting the vampire Count once used in the past.

"Same to you, Mr. Muller." Dracula bowed his head in response. "You haven't by any chance seen Ericka , have you?"

"No, I haven't. Why do you ask, is she okay?"

"She's fine, but we're just wondering where she is," Mavis answered. "Mom keeps making excuses to go out for alone time every Sunday during the month-"

Then, Nick started to chuckle amusingly. "That explains it."

"What do you mean?" Dracula eyed the older man with a dark, suspicious glint in his hard eyes.

"Oh, she always goes off somewhere at night on Sunday nights in October."

"Do you know where she goes?"

"I'm afraid not." Nick shook his head. "My sister and I asked her many times before, but she always gives us half-answers, like going to the library or to the tea shop, but if she is lying, perhaps she has a reason."

"Oh, well, thanks anyway." Dracula felt his wife's former boss wasn't so helpful at all, this was a waste of time.

After leaving the Tavern and Inn, the group tried debating where Ericka goes and what she is doing. Her former boss and his wife had no clue, and nobody else in town who have seen her before weren't helpful either. One thing is for sure, Ericka is not at the library nor the tea shop or anywhere else.

"Where could my brunette beauty be?" worried Dracula, as he grasped his forehead in irritation.

"You don't think she's secretly doing some sort of prostitute job, is she?" guessed Hank, rather stupidly.

At this, Dracula's head shot up and he scorned at the young golem. There is no way in the world Ericka would ever do something so disgusting, except prostituting for him and him alone in their bedchambers is something he'd want her to do someday. The corner of his eye caught Mavis covering Wendy's ears so the female blob can't hear what Hank recently said, finding it inappropriate to speak such things in front Wendy. This isn't the time to say stupid things. Right now, the vampire needed to figure out where his darling Ericka is and what she is doing.

"Do you think Aunt Ericka has a hobby she likes to do and won't tell us about it because it could be embarrassing?" Pedro suggested, as a crazy idea came to him. "Maybe she's a spy! Every Sunday, she goes on a mission to stop big time criminals and mafia!"

Everyone just stared at him with blank expressions, as Wendy droned, "We're talking about actual possible things Aunt Ericka might actually be doing, not something from a stupid movie!"

"W-well it could be you don't know!" Pedro retorted, defensively.

Just then, Sam came rushing over to them wearing a Luke Skywalker costume. "Hey, guys! Mr. Muller told me you were looking for Ericka ," he said.

"What's your point?" groaned Dracula.

"There is a rumor about Ericka paying secret visits to the abandoned Sweeping Soul club on the high hill top, not far from the village," Sam explained. "Although, I don't really believe in that rumor since nobody goes there cause they believe it's haunted."

This revelation shocked everyone as they all simultaneously yelled, "HAUNTED?!"

"My wife is at a haunted club?!" demanded Dracula, and the words of Hank's theory of Ericka prostituting was gnawing at his inner core. "No, no, no! She can't do this to me!" His own theory of somebody, probably the owner of the club, blackmailing Ericka into performing such atrocity made his eyes glow a familiar scarlet red. "If any man touches her, I shall drain his blood!"

"Well, we better go check it out to see if she is there," Mavis suggested. "After all, it is just a rumor, right?" Though, she wasn't so sure anymore.

Using the directions that Sam had draw up for them, the group boarded in the hearse and drove down the road, leading them through some abandoned village homes where it appeared no one had lived there in years and only strange characters stalked the streets in the shadows. Exiting the village, the vehicle delivered its passengers to the Sweeping Soul club, where it stood mysteriously on the top of the hill and in front of a glowing round moon.

As the hearse pulled over in a small parking lot close by, a slightly scared Mavis turned to her father and asked, "Dad, why is Mom at a haunted club?"

Of course, Dracula didn't have the answer to her question. "I don't know, sweetie," he admitted. The vampire was starting to worry over what might happen when they get there. Part of him hoped Ericka was not engaged in prostitution by an evil blackmailer.

Suddenly, Johnny gave a cry of surprise as he pointed to a mysterious figure dressed in a red coat and fedora hat rushing up the hill to reach the club. "Look, it's Carmen San Diego!"

Catching a glimpse of this strange woman, Dracula uses his clairvoyance to see who it is. Underneath the red fedora, he recognized the features of the woman as she entered the club's front entrance. "It's Ericka !" he cried.

Panic overtook him. He could see her face colored in apprehension and fear. Somebody is threatening Ericka with blackmail. Dracula's eyes widened and his fangs clenched together. In a flash, the vampire sped up the pathway with a trail of blue mist behind him.

"Dad, wait for me!" Mavis took off after her father with a trail of purple mist falling behind her.

Everybody else raced up the path as fast as their legs could take them, but the vampires overtook them in two mini-comets of blue and violet mist. The vampire father-daughter duo were the first ones to reach the door. Dracula peered through one of the large windows to see where she is inside. The windows were smeared and there was no way to get a glimpse inside the club, unless they go in.

As they entered the haunted club, their eyes were full of wonder from this magnificent place. It was a nice shindig of the place with ghosts everywhere. It had a lot of fancy furniture and tables with ghosts either eating, drinking, chatting or smoking, a bar with a ghost bartender serving a lot of 'spirits,' and a nice huge stage with a piano and a ghost pianist playing a smooth jazz-like melody. This place had a 'haunted mansion' kind of vibe to it.

"Whoa, this place is off the hook!" Pedro admired, thinking this ghost club was cool.

"You can check out the club later, Pedro." Mavis told her friend. "For now, we need to find my mom."

"She's right," Dracula agreed. "Now stay close and let's hope we don't draw attention to oursel-"

Just as they were about to walk in and enter the club, a huge bulky ghost emerged form the floor. Not looking too happy to see them. By the looks of him, Dracula assumed this huge ghost was the bouncer of this club.

"What are you doing here!?" The bouncer ghost asked them demandingly.

Dracula, being the gentlemen he is, calmly told him, "Excuse me, my good sir, we mean no trouble. We just want to take a look around so I can find my wife."

"Well A: That's impossible unless you're wife's a ghost and B: you're not allowed in!"

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked.

"Uuugh! Can't you read the sign?" Then he wiped away all the dust and moss on the sign from outside. "GHOST ONLY! NO MORTALS ALLOWED!" he shouted at them.

And with that, the bouncer tossed them out of the club as they were all hurdling through the air and crash landed to the ground, landing in a pile on top of each other. The door slammed shut behind them, creating a massive echo in the night. Dracula and the others gradually got back on their fight, dismayed.

"Who does that bastard think he's messing with?" Dracula scorned, fuming. "I'll send him back to hell where he belongs! But first..." he thought hard, trying to contemplate a plan, "we have to get inside and find Ericka ."

"Except for one problem, Dad," Mavis interjected. "How do we get pass the bouncer?"

"Well..." Pedro gave them a sneaky grin, "there's always my way."

The mummy's plan was this; the group had to disguise themselves as ghosts to sneak in. He pulled out multiple white bedsheets and scissors and glowing paint buckets from within his linen-wrapped body.

"What is all this stuff?" asked Wendy.

"We smear the sheets with glow-in-the-dark paint so it'll look like we're glowing, then we cut eye holes in the sheets so we can see where we're going," Pedro explained, confidently. "Easy as pie, right?"

Hank was unsure if this plan will work. "I don't think it'll work."

"But it doesn't hurt to try," Johnny decided.

Everyone began coloring their sheets with Pedro's glow-in-the-dark paint, until their fabrics were glowing a bright bluish white light. Next, they took turns with the scissors so each of them can make two eye holes. After their disguises were complete, the gang draped the sheets over their bodies to hide their forms.

When Dracula put on his ghost costume, he felt the fabric of the sheet carefully. The smooth touch felt familiar. His eyes widened once he realizes he was using his own bedsheet as a disguise. That must mean everyone else is using his extra bedsheets for their disguises.

"PEDRO, YOU IDIOT!" the vampire exploded, his intimidating figure towered over the mummy. "These are the bedsheets for the coffin Ericka and I sleep in!"

Everyone froze, then turned to glare at Pedro as he realized he got busted.

"Please, don't tell my auntie !" the mummy pleaded.

Mavis groaned, rubbing her forehead in slight irritation. "We don't have time for this, we gotta find Mom."

She boldly approached the front entrance and used the handle on the door to knock. Everyone held their breath as the bouncer opened the door. His temples furrowed as he studied these strange-looking ghosts suspiciously, but then his expression changed into a polite grin.

"C'mon in, folks." The ghost pushed the door open further, unwittingly allowing the monsters and humans he recently kicked right back in.

Dracula took the lead as he gestured the rest of the group to follow him. Mavis stayed closer to her father, holding his hand so he will not get separated from her. Johnny, Hank, Alex ,Pedro and Wendy couldn't help but admire the restaurant with admiration. Twice, Hank bumped into a waiter or two when he failed to look where he was going, causing his left hand to fall off. Mavis used her super speed to retrieve the runaway hand and screw it back on Hank's arm.

"Hank, be careful!" she hissed a warning through her fangs. "We don't want to give ourselves away!"

"Sorry," mumbled Hank, Alex.

Locating a table close enough to the stage, Dracula ushered them to take their seats. He determined to see what Ericka is up to. If she is prostituting for a bunch of ghosts by force of blackmail, he intended to send the culprit hurling to the depths of the underworld where he belonged, and then punish his wife for participating in such gruesome acts rather than take him into her confidence.

A spotlight was switched on and landed upon the owner of the club; a small ghost with short arms and legs, a tail-like hairdo, and he wore a black bowtie. He grabbed the microphone to give his announcement, "Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for. Our special guest star tonight is that special lovely lady with a husband who's known world-wide in the monster world." He pointed to the curtains just as they parted open as he howled, "Countess Ericka Dracula is in the hooouuuse!"

Standing in the spotlight in the center of the stage was Ericka , clad in an off-shoulder sleeveless long black dress with a pattern of glittering silver spiderwebs, her brown hair groomed in wavy curls hung over her bare shoulders, the bottom of the dress reached above her knees, black high heels on her feet, and her makeup consisted of black lipstick and eyeliner, and white powder blanketed her cheeks to make her appear pale. She practically resembled a Hollywood starlet, a gothic version of a starlet, that is.

The music started up as a rock band of ghosts began to play a tune from Raven Symone's tune Superstition from the Disney movie the Haunted Mansion, and Ericka started to sing and sway her body to the rhythm.

Very superstitious

Writings on the wall

Very superstitious

Ladder's about to fall

Thirteen month old baby (ooh)

Broke the looking glass

Seven years of bad luck

The good things in the past

When you believe in things

That you don't understand

Then you suffer

Superstition ain't the way

(Superstition)

Na, na, na

Very superstitious

Wash your face and hands

Rid me of the problem

Do all that you can

Keep me in a daydream

Keep me goin' strong

You don't wanna save me

Sad is my song

When you believe in things

That you don't understand

Then you suffer

Superstition ain't the way

When you believe in things

That you don't understand

Then you suffer

Superstition ain't the way

Turns out Ericka was never blackmailed nor forced into prostitution at all. She had been moonlighting as a singer show-girl for the ghost club. Of course, the audience exploded into a round of applause and whistles and "bravo!" Whilst his family and friends cheered their hearts out, Dracula was blown away by her performance. He realized how wrong his suspicions had been, feeling foolish for wrongly assuming the worst.

However, the vampire grew jealous and enraged when he noticed a lot of male ghosts drooling over his wife. How dare these disgusting ghosts gaze at his beautiful wife. She belonged to him, and him alone. When Ericka had exited the stage, Dracula immediately fly like a speeding bullet to get backstage and demand some answers.

In her dressing room, Ericka removed her makeup and was in conversation with the club's owner, Mr. Hauntington, who sincerely complimented her on tonight's performance.

"That was Spooktacular, Mrs. Dracula!" he praised. "You practically made the crowd come alive!"

"Thank you," Ericka replied, blushing.

All of a sudden, the door burst open and Dracula barges in, throwing off his disguise. He scowled at her for a few seconds, and then he scooped her in a very tight squeeze. Even though he was upset she never told him what she had been doing, he was relieved to find her safe and alive. A surprised Ericka had no time to react, not expecting her husband to find her here nor did she know how he tracked her down, and she could barely move with his strong arms coiled around her like a snake.

Mr. Hauntington was not thrilled by this rude intrusion as he yelled, "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Dracula suddenly snarled at the ghost, his eyes burned a scarlet red and his fangs bared. That shut up Mr. Hauntington instantly.

"Uh, hello Drac," Ericka greeted awkwardly, "it's nice to-"

"WHAT THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!" Dracula shouted at her as he released her from his embrace, his furious temper activated. "Why didn't you tell me you've been coming here? I thought you've been prostituting for ghosts or somebody was blackmailing you into doing it! Don't' you know how worried sick I was?!" He released some heavy breathing as the rush of his anger died down.

Before Ericka could answer him, the bouncer burst through the backstage door, holding a petrified Mavis and friends in his grip, all having been caught and captured by this terrifying security guard as he carried them by the scuffs of their necks and shirts. Not to mention out of their disguises, too.

"Hey boss, look who I found sneaking around." The bouncer looked over his boss' short head and he recognized an angry Dracula next to him and Ericka . "What! You again? You mortals never learn! Don't worry, I'll get rid of him and the rest for you!"

"Let go of those kids!" Dracula snarled, readying himself into fighting position in order to save them.

Just as the bouncer was about to start a brawl with Dracula, Ericka immediately stood in front of the bouncer and yelled, "HOLD IT! Don't you dare hurt them! They mean no trouble! Dracula is my husband, and this is my family."

Mr. Hauntington and the bouncer paused for a moment of befuddled shock as they contemplated what they had been told and what they recently heard.

"Wait? You mean these are the friends and family you're always telling us about!" Mr. Hauntington gasped. "And this is THE Count Dracula?" He pointed to the still silently fuming vampire in amazement.

"Yes! Now please let them go or I will sue you if you lay a hand on them!" Ericka demanded, looking just as equally cross as her husband.

Dreadfully embarrassed, the bouncer gently put down the kids and apologized, "My mistake, folks. A friend of Miss Ericka , uh I mean Mrs. Dracula, is a friend of mine." But he scorned at the still nervous Pedro. "But I'm gonna keep an eye on you, mummy boy."

"Oh by the way, how did you kids get caught anyway?" Dracula asked them, suspiciously gazing at Pedro.

Mavis, Johnny, Wendy and Hank, Alex aimed furious scowls at Pedro as he shamefully confessed, "Okay it might have been a little bit of my fault.

"A LITTLE?! After you drank that weird 'Devils brew' you had a weird reaction to it that made you jump around the club like a beach ball and when you landed you crashed into us, you unraveled our disguises!" Mavis exploded at him, literally.

"That's enough, everybody!" Ericka cut in, preventing her husband from he almost strangling his sister for letting him go to such stupid lengths to sneak inside the club. "If everyone can just relax, I'll tell you everything."

"I hope you will," was all Dracula could say, still angry.

Everybody crowded around, eager to listen in on Ericka's story as she began her story, "It all happened back when I was twenty years old and still working at the Bats in the Belfry, I heard stories of this abandoned club. The villagers' stories described it as haunted, so they avoided it. Curious, I decided to investigate this club. When I came through the door, I was nearly terrified by Mr. Hauntington's attempts to scare me off. I managed to reason with him after he realized I can communicate with the spirits. He explained his crew weren't trying to scare the villagers, but to entertain. Mr. Hauntington owned this club back when he was alive, but he died when a piano crushed him."

"And even though I'm dead, I know how to keep the spirit of my club alive," Mr. Hauntington exclaimed with pride, then continued the rest of the story, "We'd always try to entertain anyone who comes through that door. Sadly, no mortals ever set foot in here. Nobody could see us either. People get scared whenever they see floating instruments and hear creepy music. You know how overreactive humans can be." He gestured to Ericka , grinning. "But when this woman told me we've been appealing to the wrong kind of crowd. We shouldn't be performing for the living, it's the dead and the spirits in our case. So, she helped us renovate out club for sprits and ghosts, and assisted in spreading the word to local graveyards. When it came to opening night, one of our acts was extremely late and we needed this show to sell for my club. Ericka volunteered to help us because she mentioned performing once on stage in her childhood. She worked really hard to attract guests the more sang and danced, the show was a big hit!"

"Ever since that night," Ericka added, "Mr. Hauntington asked me to perform for his club every Sunday on October because Halloween is a special time of the year for ghosts to wander the earth. I really enjoyed singing for them! At least, I never had a repeat of what happened back in my hometown where nobody would laugh at me if a rival tried to humiliate me or thought I was crazy."

"Hold on!" Dracula sharply put a hand up, questioning, "If you're singing and dancing for this club, why didn't you do it at the hotel?"

"Well..." Ericka hesitated, her cheeks flushed a shade a pink, "I was fine singing and dancing in front a crowd of spirits, not a living crowd. It made me feel happy. I continued doing this almost every October, until I met you. I had to stop because of our marriage and when Melany was born. I wanted to be there for my family. But right around the kids' fifth birthday, I missed performing."

"And why have you never told me this?!" the vampire demanded.

Ericka just gave him a hard look as she analyzed her answer, "Because I liked my secret life and I thought you'd stop me from doing this because you are overprotective of me and you're a bit of the jealous type, not to mention you overreact about things like prostitution and blackmail."

This caused everyone in the dressing room to burst out laughing as Dracula shrank lower into himself, scorning silently at the embarrassment he brought upon himself. Ericka can totally read him like a book.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, and he truly meant it.

"Now, before we go home, I'd like to do one last act," Ericka suggested, then placed a hand over her abdomen. "Since I'm pregnant with my first-born child, I want to sing and dance before I won't be able to anymore."

"I understand." Mr. Hauntington nodded.

"Of course you can," Dracula agreed, his grumpy behavior faded away to love and affection when he finally realized how important this is to her.

All ends well with Ericka performed her last musical number, this time her family and friends sitting up front to watch her in fascination and admiration, except Dracula made doubly sure that no ghost tried to climb on stage to harass his wife. Afterword, the entire gang returned the hotel where Dracula allowed Mr. Hauntington and multiple ghosts to visit the hotel where Ericka is scheduled to perform a Halloween dance number with the Drac Pack. Everyone finally got to have Ericka spend quality time with them, especially on Halloween night where Johnny, Mavis and her friends ventured out in the village for trick-or-treating and a spooky party at the hotel's gym, but at the end of the night, Dracula and Ericka earned their passionate quality time together in the bedchambers.