Chapter 5: Family Troubles
Sometime later when the two men were alone inside the hotel attic, Dracula sat beside Danny and pushed a button on his cell phone, and the phone beeped in response.
"What can I help you with, Lord of Darkness?" the phone's female voice asked.
"Eh, uh, I'm looking for a zing for my friend here." It felt so awkward for Dracula to ask the question to this device.
"Okay, changing phone ring."
"No, no. I'm looking for a date for my friend." Dracula tried to explain to the voice.
"The date is Friday, June 13."
"No, no, no, no. I want to help my friend to meet someone," Dracula corrected.
"Understood. You want to eat dim sum.
Daniel snickered, trying not to grin.
"Are you kidding me right now? Don't you get it? I want to HELP my friend go on a date! He's... lonely," his voice fell into sadness, realizing that he himself wasn't the only one who was lonely in the past when he had no one to love, other than raising the daughter he loved and cherished, he was glad to have finally met Ericka .
The phone beeped. "I understand." The tone was softer, making Dracula's face light up in a hopeful smile. "You want baloney."
"Uggh!" Dracula groaned, frustrated.
"I don't think it understand your accent, mate," Danny chuckled, finding it amusing.
"Then why don't you try it, smart guy!" The frustrated Dracula shoved his phone in Daniel's hands.
Rolling his eyes, Danny spoke to the phone loud and clear, "Listen up, I'm looking for a website where I can zing with a girl. I want to meet someone and go on a date. I'm lonely."
The phone beeped in response. "Of course." Danny smiled in relief. "You want a pony."
"Argh!" Danny smacked a palm in his face, irritated.
Dracula burst out laughing at the phone's answer. "I don't think it understands your accent either!"
"SHUT UP!" Danny snapped, clearly fed up with the phone and shoved it back in Dracula's possession. Sighing, Danny glanced in the monster's direction, not understanding why this creature he hated so much wanted to help him with his love life. But he didn't have time for girls. He was supposed to focus on his mission to kill Dracula. "Why do you want to help me so much with this?" he questioned.
Dracula sighed mournfully, remembering what he said about being lonely, "Because I know what it's like to feel that you'll never find love. Even after you lost it."
"I don't think using a phone is going to work, Drac," Danny grunted.
Dracula groaned in annoyance, "I thought this would be easy. Things were much simpler in the past, people met face-to-face to look for somebody to zing with."
Then out of nowhere a question came to Danny's mind that he hadn't thought of since meeting the vampire king. "Drac, did you ever zing with my Great-Grandmother Mina?" When the vampire had his back turned, Danny fumed disgustedly to himself, "Wait, why am I asking him this? I hate Dracula to my very core, why do I want to hear his relationship with that viper?"
Thrown off track by the question, Dracula didn't know how to answer that. True, he did love Mina with all his heart, but did they zing? He knew he had to give his answer quickly so he replied, "I don't know if we zinged, but I can tell you I did care for Mina and I loved her very much. She was the first human to ever show me kindness, so I thank her for that."
Upon hearing that, Danny for some reason wanted to know more about Dracula and Mina's relationship, despite the idea of learning about his great-grandmother forbidden in his family. "How did the two of you meet anyway?"
"Uh, didn't your family tell you?" Dracula asked, trying to avoid the question.
"No, it's different than what my family told me about her." Danny shrugged his shoulders.
"Really, then what did your family tell you?" Dracula became curious about his family's side of the story of him and Mina.
"Only that she betrayed humankind when you showed up in London, then she abandoned her husband and my Grandpa, when he was a young boy, to elope with you."
Hearing this, Dracula felt even more guilty that he caused this rift with Mina's family.
"Ever since that happen, Grandma Mina was shunned and disowned by the family forever. Heck, we don't even have any pictures of her."
"Wow, really?" Dracula was clearly surprised by this, but he secretly blamed himself for this.
"Yep, my family just didn't want to acknowledge her, other than acknowledge her as a traitor, and that she wanted to be with the monster who destroyed the lives of the people she knew. So my grandparents removed or destroyed every photograph of her," Danny explained, sighing. "I don't even know what she looks like."
Dracula thought for a moment and then remembered something he happened to have kept hidden in the attic. "Wait, I think I have an old picture of Mina up here. I'll look around and find it." He told Danny as he went over in the corner looking through the pile of junk.
While Dracula was looking through the junk, a malicious smirk spread across Danny's lips. He realized since he was distracted it would be the perfect opportunity to finally kill Dracula. He knew his grandfather told him of the original plan to kill Dracula, but he thought he could just do it now and get it over with.
Unbuttoning his jacket and reaching in for his weapon, he withdrew a dagger, made entirely of silver, he secretly carries. As stealthy as a predator, Danny slowly approached over to Dracula, one step at a time, ready to take him by surprise, stab him in the heart, and put an end to his family's curse.
But his plan utterly failed when Dracula had finally found the photograph. Danny desperately tried to back away and hide the dagger, but he ended up tripping over and sitting on his own dagger, thankfully it didn't stab him in the bottom, but the sharp point poked him in the butt making him cringe slightly in pain.
"Ahh... here it is I found..." When Dracula turned around, he saw Danny sitting on the floor. "Uhh, why are you on the floor?" he asked, confused at what he was doing.
"I uhh… tripped." Danny shielded the knife before Dracula could see it.
Dracula just shrugged, then helped him up to his feet, and showed him the picture. It was a small self painted portrait of Mina Harker. Gazing at her photograph for the first time, Daniel was amazed at how beautiful she was. But then he noticed something else, despite the dark brown eyes and dark brown hair and slightly different facial features, Mina kind of looked liked Ericka .
"You know this might sound crazy but she almost looks like Ericka ," Danny told the vampire.
"What? Nah! That is ridiculous." Dracula laughed, thinking it was silly. "True, I agree with everyone that Ericka looks a lot like Martha, but I don't think she looks like Mina."
"Who's Martha?" Danny asked, wondering who he was talking about.
"Martha was my first wife, Mavis's mother." Dracula's voice cracked, starting to sound broken. "I met her after the whole ordeal with Mina. She was a vampire like me so we zinged pretty quickly. But a violent mob of humans killed her when Mavis was just a baby." Then Dracula showed off to Danny the small painted portrait of him and Martha holding Mavis as an infant (the same portrait from the first movie's opening).
Danny studied the darkly dressed vampire woman's features. She did indeed look like Ericka , except the facial features were different, so was the hair color and eye color. "I can see why everyone assumed Ericka was your deceased wife." But he wanted to change the subject to avoid talking about his pathetic great-grandmother and move on with the date situation, thinking he could use that as an advantage to kill the vampire when he expects the unexpected. "How about we forget talking about your past love life and focus on me finding a girlfriend, mate."
"That's a splendid idea!" Dracula beamed.
In the upstairs hallway, Mavis walked toward her suite to retire for the day, clicking away on a large tablet to check over the hotel and the guests. When she heard a noise coming from behind the attic door, she stopped to listen.
Upstairs in the attic, Dracula was still frustrated at failing to find the perfect woman for Danny . Now he was trying to use ZINGR, a monsters-only dating app. He paced back and forth, groaning at a series of hideous female monsters and swiped left to show he wasn't interesting in setting up Danny on dates, knowing these female monsters weren't exactly Danny's type. As for Danny , he was attempting to overpower the vampire and slam that dagger in his heart, but the vampire's speed pacing was too much. He had to keep hiding the knife behind his back and wait for the right moment.
"Ugh, no. Ugh, too many eyes. Too few eyes. Not into tentacles. Whoa, look at that hair. No... I can't..." Dracula had a hard time dismissing them, but couldn't figure out how to swipe correctly with his long fingernail.
When his back turned, now it felt like the perfect opportunity to strike. Smirking wickedly, Danny withdrew his dagger and swung it at the vampire's head, but unfortunately the dagger got wedged into the wooden plank nailed to the window. Growling at his miss, Danny struggled to pull his dagger free.
Back to Dracula, he accidently selected the photo of a gorgeous busty witch with the screen name: Wicked_1.
"Match found!" the phone announced, making the app ring to connect the call between him and the mystery woman.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Dracula shrieked.
"What is it?" Danny asked, half struggling to free his dagger.
"Oh! I, um, found you a match!" Dracula answered nervously, turning around.
Daniel immediately stood in front of the wedged dagger, trying to act innocent. "Uh, you did?"
Not asking why the man in red was standing by the window, Dracula held up the phone to show off the picture of the attractive witch.
"Oh, wow!" Danny wiggled his eyebrows with deep interest.
But then, a witch's face emerged on the phone's screen and she looked totally ugly than in her picture, probably a hoax, and was surrounded by many cats.
"Oh, no!" Danny's face fell in disappointment and shock.
The rude witch got straight to the point before either man could say anything. "First things first, I'm not into games, you better have a job, and my cats have to like you."
The huge group of cats all around her starting hissing and meowing threateningly.
"Wooah!" Dracula freaked out at all those angry cats.
"Is this some kind of joke?!" Danny hissed, feeling insulted.
"No! I..." Before Dracula could explain, there was a knock on the door.
Mavis stuck her head in from the door. "Dad? Mr. Parker?" she asked, noticing the cellphone in her father's hand.
"Woah! Miss Mavis!" Danny moved an inch backward to hide the stuck dagger, hoping the young vampire wouldn't get suspicious.
"Ohhh! Mavis!" Dracula whirled around, his eyes squished together comically becoming one, shoving the phone in his pocket. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just checking on the honeymoon suite, then I was checking up on Mom, and then I heard something," Mavis answered, eyeing the two men suspiciously.
"Oh, uh, I'm sorry, my little bedbug. I uh... I mean, we..." He remembered Danny beside him. "I mean, I was helping Danny in cleaning the attic!" Dracula whipped out a feather duster and started dusting at the old chandelier in the room, then began dusting around the attic. He hummed an awkward tune to himself. "Oh, so dirty!" He forgot about that ugly witch on the phone.
"And why are you standing by the window instead of cleaning the attic?" Mavis asked the red haired human suspiciously.
"What? Me? Oh! I was, uh, checking to see if these windows were tightly secured!" Daniel pretended to budge or set the wooden planks in place, desperately trying to hide the dagger.
"Who is that?!" the witch demanded, her voice muffled since the phone was still in Dracula's pocket.
Mavis was confused about where the voice on her father's phone. "Are you on the phone?"
"What? This?" Dracula pulled the phone out of his pocket, trying to create an excuse. "I was just trying to find a maid to help me with the mess."
"A maid?" the witch's voice shouted angrily. "Who do you think-"
Quick as a wink, Dracula spoke into the phone, "Thank you. I'll check your references and get back to you, goodbye!" He pushed a button to hang up the call and resumed dusting and humming nervously.
Mavis smiled, believing she saw right through him. "Stop trying to hide it from me."
"Hide who, I mean, what? Me?" Dracula suddenly stiffened up, instantly nervous at being caught.
"Yesssss!" Mavis smirked, floating up to her father's eye level, forcing him to back away. "And I know what it is."
Both Dracula and Danny gulped, though Daniel believed she had seen right through his act of trying to kill the vampire and planned to expose him.
"You're stressed out from working too hard. And you're trying to drag poor Mr. Parker into it," Mavis guessed, lowering herself to the ground, her face more calm.
Dracula exhaled with relief, though none was more relieved than Daniel. "Okay, you got me. It's a big hotel, lots to do," the vampire decided to play along. "But what about you? You're pretty busy yourself."
Mavis agreed. "I know. It seems like now that we're working together more, we're seeing each other less."
Dracula thought it over and then smiled. "Oh, hehe, you're absolutely right. I am working too much. You're working too much. You're mother's working too much. We should really take a break, but until then, night-night!" He quickly escorted her out and shut the door behind her.
With a sigh of relief, he leaned against the attic door. However, he began to think deeply about what his daughter recently said. True, neither of them had time for family bonding due to all the work they had been doing. Before he could walk back to Daniel, Mavis peeked her head back in.
"And Dad?" Mavis asked.
"Oh! Uh yes, Mavis?" Dracula froze.
"Mom wants to talk to you."
"Okay, sweetheart." Dracula nodded, then turned to Danny . "You mind if we continue finding you a date another time?"
"Uh, sure." Danny nodded his head rapidly.
No sooner Dracula had left the attic, Danny was so enraged at having missed his chance to kill the vampire that his inhuman strength had freed his dagger from the wooden plank, the force of the impact destroyed the plank, and an inhuman growl followed afterward.
Using his clairvoyance to find his wife, Dracula goes out to the balcony to check on his beloved Ericka , having found her looking forlorn and upset. "Ericka , are you okay?" he asked her.
"I-I'm fine, Drac." Ericka responded in a low voice, looking sullen.
Dracula could see how upset she was and knew she was lying. "Come on, Poison Flower, tell me what's wrong." He tenderly stroked her hand that lay on the balcony railing.
Ericka looked up at her husband. "Ugh... What Ginger said about us Drac, she's right."
Dracula was surprised by this. I mean how could she believe at what Frank's cousin said about their relationship not working. So then he put his hands around her, embraced her from behind, like a back hug. "Moon Beam, don't listen to what that vixen said about us. Yes, we might be different, but remember what I always say. Humans, Monsters, Unicorns, what's the difference." He added in a cheery, soothing tone.
"It's not about that, Drac."
"Oh, then what is it?"
"About you being immortal and that I'm not. You're going to live forever while I'll grow old and die." Ericka started to get emotional. "And since Luna is a vampire too, she'll live as long as you and I will miss out on most of her life. I don't know if Diavolo will be a vampire or not, but I don't want to miss out on his life either,"
The vampire hated seeing his wife so upset and was trying to think of something to say to her to make her feel better. But he couldn't think of anything.
"Drac... I've been thinking about this, a lot actually, and I wanted to ask you if..." Ericka hesitated. "If you can change me into a vampire!"
Dracula was so shocked by her request that it left him speechless for a moment. "WHAT?!" he shouted. "Y-you want to become... a-a vampire!?"
"Yes!" Ericka answered. "That way I can live forever and be with you."
Dracula had mixed feelings about this. But he decided to question her about her choice. "Ericka , do you know of the consequences that will happen when you make this decision. You could never go out in the daylight again and you can't eat garlic-based foods anymore." He hoped it would change your mind.
"Drac, I practically live like that anyway!" Ericka replied sharply. "I'm fully acclimated to waking up at night and I barely eat garlic-y foods anymore because of you. This isn't the first time I thought about this."
Dracula was surprised by this news. This is the first time that his wife thought about becoming a vampire? Then why ask him now? "If this isn't the first time you thought about being a vampire, then why are you bringing this up now?"
"Cause it didn't really hit me until Ginger brought it up. So please, Drac, make me a vampire." Ericka pleaded, as she presented her neck out to him so he could bite it.
Dracula was having a hard time with this decision. His eyes were bulging at her neck and the moonlight made her skin look so radiant that it made it hard for him to resist. Sliding his arms around her back to pull into his embrace, his instincts got the better of him and he leaned in to bite her neck... her, oh, so delicious neck he craved for so long. His fangs brushed against her skin, ready to puncture her smooth elegant skin. Just as he was about to puncture her skin with his fangs, memories flooded his head of the last time he did this... Lucy's once beautiful human face transforming into a terrifying monster with soulless black eyes... and he instantly backed away from Ericka , covering half of his face with his cape. "No!" he cried.
Ericka was hurt and confused. Why did he not bite her? "Drac, why did you stop?"
"I... I can't do it." Dracula hesitantly told her.
"Why?"
"I just can't."
This was starting to annoy Ericka , she could tell he was refusing to do it. "No, you just won't do it!"
"You're right, I won't!" Dracula grunted, trying to avoid her piercing gaze.
"Then why won't you! Tell me!" she demanded.
"BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED TO LUCY!" He yelled back at her.
Ericka drew back, frightened by her husband's outburst.
"Hey, lovebats!" Vlad appeared, out of nowhere, in a black cloud. "Lydia and I need a word with you." He looked back and forth between the couple, sensing trouble was brewing, but decided to overlook it for now as he and his daughter needed to tell them something important.
A little later, Ericka and Dracula were sitting at a table in the dining restaurant (from the HT series) with Vlad and Lydia, who wanted to warn them of the events the vampires discovered yesterday.
"Alright, brother, listen up," Lydia stated with authority. "Father didn't attend your little anniversary party is because he and I were attacked by humans!"
Dracula stared at his father and sister with deep concern, gasping, "You were attacked by who?!"
"What did they look like?" Ericka questioned.
"We don't know," replied Vlad. "They had masks on so we couldn't see their faces. But they had wooden stakes and threw garlic powder at my face."
"It was so foul!" Lydia shuddered at the mere mention of garlic.
"But I noticed a symbol on their coats," Vlad continued. "It was a vampire bat impaled by a crucifix."
Ericka and Dracula were immediately concerned when they heard that, because using a crucifix for a sick purpose to hurt innocent monsters told them that these human attackers must either be racist or people who hated monsters for stupid reasons.
"Son, I have reason to believe that the people that attacked us were vampire hunters," Vlad explained, a worried frown on his face. "They said our kind has plagued the earth for too long and must be eradicated."
"WHAT?!" Ericka and Dracula gasped in shock.
"There is no doubt that they are monster hunters!" Lydia growled.
"Monster hunters in this century? How's that possible?" Dracula said worryingly.
"Maybe some people aren't fans of monsters, but that gives them no excuse to attack you." Ericka frowned.
"By the way," Lydia spoke up. "We heard my nephew Adrian was almost crushed by your carelessness of not watching him?"
"Our new friend, Daniel, helped him," Ericka explained, though irritated that her sister-in-law was blaming her and Dracula for Diavolo's wandering off. "He happened to be coming to stay at the hotel when he saved Diavolo in time."
"Who is this Danny ?" questioned Vlad, who was curious about this stranger they met.
"Oh, you two are gonna love this," Ericka smirked sarcastically. "Danny just so happens to be the great-grandson of Drac's first human girlfriend, which he never told me about till now - Mina Parker."
Upon hearing the name, this caused Lydia to spit out her drink, monster martini, right into her brother's face, which Dracula was not happy about as he grumbled while wiping his face off with a cloth.
"You mean that... that man you met is related to MINA PARKER!" Lydia snarled, shocked by this news.
"Wait, you know about her?" Ericka was confused.
"Know about her?" Lydia chortled dryly. "Her and Drac's relationship was the biggest scandal in the monster world." She narrowed her eyes slyly at Dracula. "Remember, brother?"
Dracula finally cleaned his face of the martini, saying with dislike, "Yes, I remember."
"But it's strange that he showed up to save your son's baby bottom until the incident… I wouldn't call that a coincidence," said Lydia, thinking it over and becoming quite suspicious of this newcomer appearing at the scene of the chandelier incident.
"Drac, I overheard you and Ericka arguing outside earlier. What were you fighting about?" Vlad asked, concerned.
Dracula really didn't want to tell them this, but he knew he had to. "We we fighting because... ugh, because Ericka wants to become a vampire."
"WHAT?!" Vlad and Lydia shouted in disbelief.
"Because I want to be able to live alongside you without turning into an old lady! Is that wrong?" Ericka asked her husband, acting like her request wasn't terrible.
"It's not, it's just... ugh, you won't understand."
"How will I not understand?" Ericka yelled, not liking where this conversation was going. "I understand that you might be worried I will not handle the consequences, but I will."
"Those aren't the consequences I'm worried about." With venom in his voice, Dracula hissed, "You know, you sound just like her."
"Like who?"
"Like Mina!" Dracula's expression darkened. "She begged me to turn her into a vampire so she could be with me, but after what happened with Lucy I couldn't do it. She may have become a vampire, but she already suffered the consequences."
"Look, I know what happened with the whole ordeal of humans becoming vampires, but maybe what happened to Mina won't happen to me."
"I don't want to risk it!" Dracula retorted defensively.
"But you're fine knowing that I'll die one day!" Ericka snapped, hurt and confused tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you, Drac."
Dracula's expression softened at this, but before he could answer he was interrupted.
"I hate to intervene but I'm gonna have to agree with my son on this." Vlad spoke up.
"Why? Don't you want your son to have a long loving marriage." Ericka stared at her father in-law, shocked that he was against the idea of her living forever without leaving Dracula alone.
"Believe me I do want you two to be happy, you've proven to me your love for each other. But Drac is right, who knows what could happen if he tries to turn you."
"But that only happened to Lucy, it doesn't mean that could happen to me."
"Look I get what you're saying, Ericka , but there have been other cases that ended the same way. There have been many other humans that lose themselves in the process when they turn into vampires. They hunt and prey on humans, not thinking, just listening to their instincts. They become literal, feral, violent monsters." Vlad explained. "That's why vampires stopped turning humans to vampires centuries ago, so that can never happen again, not to mention it won't set monsters back again."
Ericka was so upset by this. They were basically denying the only way she can live as long as Dracula. It's like they didn't want her to be with him forever. "So you're fine with this? You're all okay knowing that I'm gonna die one day!"
"Honeyfang, that's not what we're saying-" Dracula tried to tell her but she cut him off harshly.
"You guys are UNBELIEVABLE!"
That did it for Lydia, she was so enraged at Ericka for not understanding this that she decided to send her out. "If you can't understand that he's trying to protect you, then GET OUT!" Her infamous laser-red eyes, hair on fire, and deep demonic voice bellowed.
"Fine!" Feud up, Ericka got up from the table, stormed through the dining area, and slammed the door.
After leaving the restaurant, a sullen Ericka exited the elevator to enter her bedchamber. Noticing the coffin that Dracula sometimes slept in whenever he wanted, she thought about what her life would be like to live in the shadows... eat monster food... drink blood... sleep in a coffin... avoid the sun, garlic and stakes... but now that she thought about it, she didn't know how her life in the shadows would make her happy. But she was determined to go through with it, scared of no longer living side by side with her vampire husband and leaving their children alone. However, she didn't want to think about her family's reaction to her decision of becoming a vampire. Thinking it over, they probably won't allow it.
Before turning in for the day to sleep, Ericka pressed against a stone in the wall that parted open to allow her entrance into Luna's room. She found her daughter snoring peacefully in bed. Nearby was the crib used for baby Diavolo to sleep in, where he slightly drooled on the bed. Grinning, Ericka gently tucked her children in by pulling the blankets close to their chins. Luna and Diavolo would be devastated if their mother died of old age and no longer had a mother to raise them until adulthood. Somehow, Ericka would have to get her husband or a relative of the Dracula family to turn her into a vampire.
Meanwhile, Mavis returned to her suite, where Dennis, Martha and Johnny were snuggling together beside the giant sleeping dog, Tinkles. The TV had been left on, playing a kung-fu movie that Johnny and Martha ,Dennis had fallen asleep through.
"Aww," Mavis cooed. Her family looked really cute together, and there was plenty of room close to the dog, so she cat beside her husband and son.
Feeling her presence, Johnny gave a huge yawn and stirred, "Hey, ready for daaaaaaate night?"
"No, Honey, it's okay. You rest," Mavis calmly said to him. When her husband fell asleep, she muttered to herself about the conversation she had with her father, "You know, Dad was right. We do need a break." She considered that thought for a while. "We need to all be together again, like a family. Like we used to."
Picking up the remote, Mavis decided to turn off the TV, but instead of clicking it off, she accidently turned up the volume. On the screen, a fish man was talking.
"Are you overworked and stressed out?" the fish man announced, and he seemed to be speaking directly at her.
"Urgh!" Mavis snorted, not in the mood to talk about stress. She fiddled with the remote, but then particular words the fish man spoke of caught her attention and she began listening to what the fish man was saying.
"Do you need some family time? Are you a monster? Then you need a vacation. A MONSTER Christmas Vacation!"
As the music from the commercial kicked in, this gave Mavis a brilliant idea for her friends and family to spend time together.