Chapter 2: Prologue

It is nighttime at Hotel Transylvania. Guests were retiring to their rooms for sleep, all except for one. In a newly refurbished and completely living quarters (the same bedroom from the HT game Wolf Pup Wrangle) for a couple which included a bathroom and a large balcony, a human man sat in a chair by the fireplace. When he looks up, it is an older face of an apparently sinister-looking man.

As soon as the old man notices the audience (readers) watching him, he smirks in a dangerous manner. "Ahh, good evening." He greeted in imitation of Dracula's voice, until he smiled jokingly in a pleasant British accent. "Hey, relax, I'm not gonna suck your blood. The name's Charles Parker. I just wanted to give you a little scare. I'm just visiting the famous Hotel Transylvania, and as you can see I'm helping my nephew unpack, but I'm taking a break from packing." He gestured to several moving boxes full of household items that his nephew owned. "You might have already heard the story of Dracula and his first love, Martha, and how he built his hotel. But what you don't know is that there's more to his story than you think," he added, feigning sinister behavior. "While I take a break, let me tell you a tale of love... suspense... tragedy... and a monster christmas vacation. A tale of Dracula and his encounters with two humans," his behavior became friendly, "one of them is my nephew, Danny, and how he changed the courses of their lives, including our families."

Charles walked over to one of the boxes where he picked up a novel, the title of the book read Dracula and the author Bram Stoker. "But first, you have heard of Bram Stoker's novel of Dracula and probably seen the movie, right? But did you know that the story isn't entirely based on fiction. It's actually based on true events that happened long ago. Most parts were exaggerated like Dracula killing most of the people, but the biggest cover up was his zing with my great-grandmother, Mina Harker. My grandfather, Quincy Parker, made Stoker cover up the love affair to avoid a scandal."

Flipping through the pages of the book, Charles introduces illustrations of Dracula and his misadventures or encounters with other characters as he told the events of what truly happened. "First off, Dracula wanted to move out of his old castle and live in London. He grew tired of his father's controlling nature and wanted to live his own life. He hired my great-grandfather, Jonathan Parker, a solicitor to assist in the move. That's when Great-Grandpa Jonathan found out that Dracula is vampire and things sped downhill from here. Especially with the wolves obeying Dracula like they were dogs and he was their master, and those three pretty vampire girls living in the castle; Verona, Marishka and Aleera. Picture them as mean-spirted high school girls who think they own the Count, but they did flirt with Great-Grandpa Jonathan, attempting to make the Count jealous. In case you're asking, he fed them pigs, not babies. They were Dracula's three mistresses since he had an eye for the ladies, but he grew tired of them and left Grandpa Jonathan to them when he found Great-Grandma Mina's picture and he instantly felt a zing toward her. With assistance from the Szgany gypsies, whom served him for years, Dracula left for London on the Demeter."

The next several pages featured the rest of the story."When Dracula first arrived in London, he took the form of a wolf to escape the Demeter after it crashed ashore. He was making out with a sleepwalking Lucy Westenra in the graveyard, which lead to her illness from being out in the cold night. Settling himself in the abandoned Carfax Abbey, he didn't know what to do around the humans, but then he found Mina, who was kind enough to help him around London, while he seduced her. At first he thought he could keep Mina for his selfish reasons he called love. However, he became fond of her. Over time he grew to love her, and he knew she was his zing. Now, you may be wondering about Renfield, that crazy bug-eating maniac from the mad house. He was Great-Grandpa Jonathan's predecessor who was supposed to help Dracula with the moving, but he became Dracula's minion. He was caught and sent back to London in the asylum."

More pages were flipped through the story. "As for Lucy, her loved ones called Professor Abraham Van Helsing to deduce what's wrong with her. Van Helsing knew at once Lucy was bitten by Dracula. Despite his attempts to 'save' her life, she did become a vampire. For you see, right after Mina got a letter of Grandpa Jonathan in Budapest, she wrote a Dear John letter to Dracula, ending their relationship so she could get married, and Dracula took it pretty hard. Oh and poor Lucy, it's tragic of what happened to her. When Dracula saved her from her illness by turning her into a vampire, she was so grateful to him, convinced that he truly loved and cared about her. Except she find out that he was falling in love with Mina, her friend no less. This got her so upset, so angry even, that her broken heart poisoned her mind, transforming her into a true monster set on revenge and bloodlust. The newspapers called her the 'Bloofer Lady' stalking children and leaving marks on their throats. But don't worry, these children weren't seriously harmed. Van Helsing and Lucy's three suitors confronted her in the graveyard, where Lucy's fiancée, Arthur, hammered a wooden stake through her heart."

Plenty more pages were skimmed through the book. "Everyone decided to team up as hunters to take down Dracula, but left Mina out for her sake. They destroyed his sleeping chambers at Carfax Abbey. And Renfield, it's shocking what Dracula did to him. He promised him immortality if he helped him, but he was betrayed when he learned he was going give it to Mina. So as revenge, Renfield ratted Mina out to the humans about her being in love with a vampire, but before that during his combat with Dracula, he got seriously injured and passed away. And get this, even though Mina was angry at Dracula for lying to her and what he had done to her friends and husband, she was desperately in love with him and begged him to change her. Can you believe that? It's like she doesn't care about what he had done! Anyway, Dracula decided that a different way to turn Mina into a vampire was, not only did he bite her neck, but to have her drink his blood. They got caught by the hunters, but Dracula escaped. Grandma Mina was taken away and used as bait to get to Dracula, though Grandpa Jonathan was against this he determined that the only way to get Mina back was to kill Dracula."

The remaining pages of the book were coming close to an end. "Van Helsing hypnotized Mina to learn of Dracula's whereabouts, and their pursuit lead them all the way back to Transylvania, when it started to snow. The hunters split up into groups. Mina had to stay with Van Helsing outside Dracula's castle. And guess what? Verona, Marishka and Aleera attempted to manipulate Mina to join them, but they secretly wanted to destroy her because they were jealous of her. Van Helsing fed the horses garlic to make them fart and drive the three brides away. The next morning, Van Helsing staked those three women, but they had it coming anyway. Now this is where it gets interesting, mates. Dracula's gypsies carried him back to the castle in a race, pursued by the hunters. It turns into an old fashioned Western shoot out between the gypsies and the hunters. Mina tried using her new vampire powers to save Dracula, but the leader of the gypsy gravely wounded the Texan cowboy Quincy Morris, whom my grandpa Quincy was named in honor of, but he almost staked Dracula. Mina stepped in to defend the vampire, and the hunters began deeming her a traitor. Knowing he didn't want that life for her, to be hated by her own kind, Dracula made a sacrifice to save Mina. He denounces her in front of the humans, 'Don't you get it! I used you! And I could never be with someone like you! I HATE HUMANS!' Then he faked his death by falling off the cliff and the only thing people could see is his cape up from the water, but what they didn't know was that he's still alive, or rather undead."

Finishing the story, Charles closes the book shut and turned to face the audience. "Grandma Mina was heartbroken by Dracula breaking up with her, and everyone else believed she was saved from becoming a vampire when she looked more human. But that wasn't the case. Vampires can telepathically link to the other's mind to communicate with them, so when she learned he was alive she was overjoyed. Since Dracula's blood is in her veins, she still had vampirism in her. So, Mina abandoned her family to be with him. Great-Grandpa Jonathan died of a broken heart and Grandpa Quincy... well... he took it the wrong way and he developed a seed of hatred for the vampire, including his own mother. However, Van Helsing's famous pursuit caught the attention of - the Belmont Clan, another family whose been slaying vampires for centuries thanks to Leon Belmont. Leon, a famed monster hunter, formed a rivalry with Van Helsing over who destroys Dracula first. So why don't you go back to the 19th century where Great-Grandma Mina met up Dracula again, this time on a train with his buddies, while they were on the run from Van Helsing and Leon, though Dracula was starting to get annoyed by this guy following him wherever he goes, he knew Leon was no amateur when it comes to hunting vampires."

Transylvania, 1897

The Transylvanian Express barreled down the tracks and exited a darkened tunnel at top speed. Passengers, wearing 19th century attire, kept themselves amused by reading or engaged in conversation.

The conductor walked down the aisle calling out the next stop, "Budapest, Budapest! Ze next stop, Budapest." He stopped as he approached five very strange-looking old ladies. They were all dressed in oversized overcoats and kept their heads covered... so that the only skin showed was their hands. The train conductor didn't seem to care how odd these passengers appeared. "Tickets, ladies?" he asked casually.

The five women each took a turn handing over their tickets to get punched by the conductor.

"Here you go!' said a high pitched voice. It's owner was a giant woman whose hand was blue and covered with stitches.

"Here's mine!" said the next voice with a Romanian accent. It's owner's hand was pale and had long nails.

"And mine!" said another voice, whose hand was covered in animal fur.

"Mine too," said the next woman, whose hand was stubby and covered in bandages.

"Here you go!" said the last woman, whose ticket came from a gloved hand, but the wrist was invisible.

The conductor didn't seem to care or notice, since he was used to weird-looking passengers. He went back to punching tickets, and these 'women' felt relaxed.

What he didn't realize these weren't women, nor humans, at all. In fact, they were a group of Transylvania's infamous monsters, known far and wide as the Drac Pack: Count Dracula and his friends, Frankenstein, Griffin the Invisible Man, Murray the mummy, and Wayne the werewolf. They were all disguised as Eastern European old ladies.

"Eh, thank you, young man!" said Dracula, imitating an old lady's voice and batted his eyelids.

"Man, I hate wearing disguises. These heels are killing me," Murray grumbled, looking down at his feet crammed into tiny red shoes.

"I love it! I never get to dress up," Griffin exclaimed happily. Since he was invisible, he usually just wore glasses so his friends know he was there, but this time he wore a mask to appear human-y.

"Take it down a notch, fellas," Dracula warned. "We don't want to alarm the humans."

Too late. Frank has just noticed a little human Switzerland boy was staring at them... and he started to whimper. "Pssst. Drac?" Frank whispered.

"I'm about to undt freak out!" the boy cried in a German accent.

Dracula acted quickly by hypnotizing the boy to make him think he was a cat. "You're a nice kitty," he said.

The boy began to meow like a cat. "I'm undt kitty cat. Meow, meow, meow." He licked his hand as if it were a paw.

Dracula smiled at Frank for his success, but no sooner he did, a beautiful dark brunette brown-eyed lady wearing a lovely Victorian scarlet dress approaches him, speaking in a British accent, "Did you make that boy think he's a cat?"

In his high-pitched whine at being caught, Dracula responded, "Ughh... no miss, you're just imagining-" But he cuts himself off as he realizes who's talking to him when he sees her face. After he snaps out of being shocked, he gasped her name, "Mina!" then whispers to her, "What are you doing here?"

Looking up at him while taking a seat beside him, Mina grinned, "I'm looking for you, Dracula."

Dracula's friends are confused and shocked at how this human lady knows Dracula personally. They didn't know whether to panic or remain hidden.

Griffin seemed to catch on what was happening here. "Wait a minute... is she the same Mina that helped you escape those crazy monster hunters?"

Giving up at being caught, Dracula groaned, "Yessss." Then he resumed back to his question. "Why are you looking for me? I was very clear of what I told you when I broke up with you."

"Come on, Dracula," explained Mina, sliding an arm around him. "I knew you just said it to protect me from being killed and I knew you faked your death so I went to search for you."

"But why?"

"Because I don't care about anything else. I just what to be with you."

Suddenly the doors in the back of the train burst open. Entering the train car, there stood Abraham Van Helsing carrying an impressively large device. The passengers gasped at his unexpected entrance, but no on gasped the loudest than a terrified Mina.

"Oh no, not this clown again," Dracula sighed.

"Good evening, travelers!" he announced. "I am Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Yes! One of the Van Helsings! For centuries my family has battled monsters, so you can believe me when I tell you - there are monsters hiding amongst you!" His beady red eyes scanned the baffled faces of the passengers, one of them had a chicken. "But fear not, for I am a professional and I know how to flush out these beasts and bring them into the light!" Van Helsing cackled, taking out a box of matches from his jacket. He lit a match and held it under Frank's nose.

No sooner he did this, Frank jumped up and ripped off his disguise. "FIRE BAD! Raaahhh!" he roared.

The passengers started to scream in terror at the sight of the exposed Drac Pack. The boy whom Dracula hypnotized earlier reacted in the same manner a cat would do fearfully. The five monsters started to flee, just as a man with a cart offering root beer and pies came down the aisle, until he was almost trampled by the Drac Pack and the cart came rolling down the aisle.

In a fit of fury, Van Helsing tried to blast the monsters with his Tesla Rifle energy gun, but he missed. Mina looked on, deeply concerned for the vampire she loved. But she knew she had to stop this madman at once.

The Drac Pack climbed onto the top of the train and ran for their lives. Van Helsing climbed up too, and the monsters just barely managed to dodge those energy blasts. As they jumped from one train car to the next, Van Helsing kept on following them in pursuit. However, Mina had climbed up onto the top as well, determined to stop the hunter who intended to harm her beloved.

When the Drac Pack reached the end of the train, a flash of silver cracked at the monsters' feet forcing them to recoil. The silver chain cracked at their feet again, its fiery explosion made the impact knock Frank backwards and landing on the rest of the gang, except for Dracula, who's arm stung with an agonizing pain as the chain grazed his arm. The monsters looked up and to their surprise, there stood a man, wearing a trench coat with a fedora hat. He had dark brown locks of hair, whiskers on his chin, and a strange coat of arms crest imprinted on the left side of his coat where his heart is, wielding the Vampire Killer, a magicked silver chain whip.

"Leon Belmont, I should've known you'd be here," Dracula growled, his eyes narrowed upon recognizing the Belmont coat of arms crest. Unlike Van Helsing, this man was someone the vampire took very seriously.

Leon lifted his head, his sharp green eyes piercing right through the vampire's calm blue ones. "I've had spies tell me that I'd find you here." And then, he performed the infamous Morning Star trick with his whip, where fire shot out of the sharp edge of the chain.

Thinking quickly, Dracula used his own magic to create a shield to protect himself and his friends. When it was done, Dracula looked back at Van Helsing, then to Leon, and then to his friends. "Sorry guys," he apologized as he pushed them off the train car for their safety, except his friends made crash landings in the forest.

Then Van Helsing appeared, cornering Dracula at the end of the last train car. "Now I got you right where I want you!" he sneered triumphantly.

"Not unless I get him first!" Leon retorted, swinging his whip ready to strike another blow.

"STOP!" Mina threw herself in-between the two monster hunters and the vampire, shielding her arms out to protect her beloved vampire.

Recognizing her, Van Helsing shook his head in disgust. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Mina Parker still trying to help monsters."

"You should be ashamed of yourself, you little viper!" Leon spat at her in loathing disgust. "Besides, shouldn't you be at home with your husband and son."

This piece of news shocks Dracula as he turns to her. A saddened Mina looked away from his gaze, feeling ashamed for not telling him while hiding her wedding ring with her other hand. "Wait, you're married and you have a kid!" he shouted in disbelief.

"Y-yes," Mina admitted hesitantly.

"Then why were you looking for me when you have a family?"

"Dracula... please understand, years ago when you left in hiding it was hard and painful to be without you. But I did try to get over you, so yes I did marry my fiancée and had his child. I do love my son, but I don't love my husband because you're the only man I truly loved. So I couldn't take it anymore, I just had to find you and see you again."

While Dracula was amazed from what she said to him, Leon decided to take action. "Well I hate to interrupt this touching reunion, but I have a vampire to kill."

He then aimed his weapon at Dracula and cracks his whip, where the sharp edge began to glow ready for another fiery explosions. Mina noticed this and quickly pushed Dracula out of the way and takes the blast for him, falling off the train.

When Dracula sees her do this, he cried out her name in despair, "MINA!" He glowered at Leon for what he had done. "That was so low, even for a creep like you!"

However, Mina survived as she staggered up to lean against a tree and watch as the train left. Though not far behind her, the Drac Pack looked at her concerned.

"Finally! First I kill Dracula, and then the rest of the monsters!" Van Helsing growled in victory.

"We'll see who gets him first, old man," Leon challenged.

Despite his anger at the hunter for hurting his ex-girlfriend, Dracula remained calm at the both of them. "Why do you keep doing this?" To Van Helsing, he said, "Your dad, your grandfather, and your great-great-granny... I defeated them all." Then he turned to Leon, "And you, I did the same thing with your father, grandfather, and great-granddaddy, even though it wasn't easy. When will you Van Helsings and Belmonts ever learn to let go of the hate?"

"Never!" snarled Van Helsing. "Because you, monster, are a-" But he didn't have time to finish.

A smirking Dracula transformed into a black mouse. "Eh, squeak, squeak."

Van Helsing was confused. "What? A mouse?"

Of course, Leon knew this was a distraction, so he ducked out of the way in time when he spotted an upcoming tunnel. Just then, the train went into another tunnel and Van Helsing, still standing, smashed into the bricks.

SPLAT!

"Ahhh." Van Helsing groaned, holding his aching head.

Leon laughed at Van Helsing's failure, but his own failure was about to come when Dracula used his menacing laser-eyed roar at him. The impact was so strong that it pushed him right off the train.

Although this wasn't the last of Leon Belmont, this was just the beginning of Van Helsing's pursuit in destroying Dracula, but his impulsiveness got him nowhere.

Next time they met again, Van Helsing controlled a plane. He chased Dracula, in bat form, as the plane swooped through the air, trying to shoot him down. "You can't run from me, Prince of Darkness! I will hunt you for all eternity!" he shouted when the bat dove to the right and Van Helsing's plane kept flying straight into the side of a mountain.

CRASH!

Next time, Dracula in the form of a black wolf ran through a street. This time, Van Helsing pursued him in a 1920s car. "I swear I will never rest until I destroy you!" Van Helsing shouted, but Dracula ran up the front of a brick wall and the car slammed into the wall.

No matter how many times he failed or got beaten up, Van Helsing refused to give up the chase. Whether he cornered the vampire at a cliff it would crumble and fall, crushed by a stalactite from the ceiling of a cave, crushed by a metal gate, slammed in the face by a wrecking ball, hit by a wooden cart, smacked by a large battering ram, a rock smashed his face, until finally cornering him at the ledge of a larger cliff over the ocean.

"And... every... other... monster! If... it's... the... last... thing... I... ever..." The cliff crumbled and Van Helsing plummeted into the cold waters below. "Doooooooooo!"

High above, Dracula watched as this nuisance landed in the sea. He sighed, "Boy, that guy is annoying. I wish I could say the same to the Belmonts, but they're not clowns. Maybe one day, there will be a place where monsters can go to get away from it all." He smiled dreamily into the flashing and thundering clouds, turning away from the cliff to daydream about his future dream to build a sanctuary for monsters. "Make a vacation. Who knows? Maybe even get married. Wouldn't that be something?"

Underwater, Van Helsing screamed, muffled since he was in water, in a rage at having failed to kill the vampire. Up on the shore, a tired Leon tossed a rope out to sea to catch Van Helsing and pulled the rope together to bring him to the boat. Sitting behind him was a young boy of fourteen years of age.

"I find your godfather to be insane, Quincy, but I'm willing to put aside differences and team up like you suggested," Leon explained to the young boy. "I'm sorry your mother abandoned you, but I hope she will get what's coming to her."

This boy, Quincy Parker, was actually Mina's son. He was a lot shorter than Leon or Abraham; slender with pale skin, shaggy dark brown hair like his mother's, a slight gap between his front teeth, dressed in 19th century street clothes for a boy his age as a result of the abandonment of his mother, the death of his father, and no other living relatives, so he was forced to live in an orphanage until he was adopted by his godfather, Van Helsing. The boy was fuming silently at the vampire who stole his mother away from him... silently vowing he will have his revenge against that monster someday.

Charles narrates the last of the prologue, "After those hunters failed time and time again to kill Dracula, they soon ended up stopping their pursuit and decided to team up and went on a quest to find another way to destroy Dracula. Not a lot of people cared, but that one particular young boy, whom you just saw, was not pleased about it. That's Quincy Parker, Mina's son. He was disappointed that his godfather failed to kill the vampire that tainted his mother with his blood, and abandoned him to elope with that monster. However, Mina met an unfortunate fate at the hands of an angry mob of humans, claiming she is a witch and she deserved to die."

Lightning flashed, and the years pass over quickly, while the scene shifts rapidly over the nightly fog-covered lake.

"As the years passed, my grandfather Quincy, Van Helsing , and Leon began to plot their revenge against Dracula," Charles narrates the last of the prologue. "Quincy married a lovely priestess turned witch named Celia Fortner, who shared his grudge against Dracula. Their generation expanded, and then Danny came along. We, too, were raised to share their hatred. We weren't a normal family because we believed Dracula's blood in our veins, that has been passed down to us, was a curse that made our lives miserable and rejected by society. So, after years of planning our scheme to get rid of the vampire, this is where it all began," Charles finishes, as the scene takes us all the way to the hotel.

Hotel Transylvania 3 A Christmas Vacation