Chapter 18: The Fight For Life!

MEANWHILE...

Sibylla and Simon walked down the street holding hands. The Vampire is fully aware that Dave is following a couple of blocks behind them. She looks down to Simon, who is looking both sad and scared.

"Your father is quite brave for a mortal." She tells him.

"You don't know the half of it," Simon replies while still keeping his eyes to the ground.

Simon slowly looks up at Sibylla with pleading eyes. "Please don't hurt him."

"I do not want to make promises I can not keep." She responds flatly.

That was when Simon gave her a sad expression that if her heart still were beating it would break.

"What if I kept an eye on him instead...would that be alright?" She finally said.

"Yes, thank you." Simon smiled.

Once Sibylla and Simon arrived at the park they saw Dracula standing beside the Jungle Gym with the two male Vampires standing beside him. Simon's heart began to beat faster. Was this really happening?

Dracula stood with a grin on his face. He held out his hand and motioned that he wished for something to be handed to him from one of the Vampire males. The one male handed him a brass cup. Dracula then held the cup in his hand in front of the other male. With a slight bow, the other male poured some liquid from what appeared to be a wine bottle. The liquid came out red and a tad thicker then real wine.

"I-I-Is that what I think it is?" Simon stuttered.

"Your quite observant, little one." Dracula said in a proud tone. "It is my blood. Having you drink it this way is so much less messier then the old traditional way."

"I-I see." Simon wished he could just melt away from this scene.

"Here, drink this and all your confusion and fear will go away. It is now time to circum to what you really are."

Simon never felt so much fear before in his life. Slowly he accepted the cup, but froze. He just couldn't bring himself to drink the content inside. With an obvious cringe Simon pushes the cup away from his face. That was when he felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looks up to meet Sibylla's neutral gaze.

With a heavy sigh, Simon looks at the cup in his hands again. He closes his eyes and inch-by-inch, he pulls the cup to his lips.

"WAIT!!" Cried a familiar voice.

"Dave?" Simon said as he dropped the cup out of shock of hearing his voice.

Dracula looks down at the mess from the spill of the cup and his face grew irritable. He looks up at Dave and growls.

"Impatient fool!" Dracula spat in a booming voice. "You know not of what you've just walked into."

"Oooh, I have an idea..." Dave said with a bit of noticeable nervousness. "But know this...I will not allow you to harm my son!"

"You cannot stop me. For I have the strength of twenty men." Dracula gloats.

The Dark Prince walks up to the Merry-go-round that sat near by and picked it up from the ground with little effort.

"Dave! Run!" Simon shouts.

Seeing that Simon did have a point, Dave begins to hoof it before Dracula spun the Merry-go-round at him. It lands at the very spot where he stood. In that very moment, Dave didn't realize that he had dropped the walkie- talkie. It nearly got crushed when the Merry-go-round crashed onto the ground.

Dracula looks over to his three Vampire children with a serious look on his face. "Finish him." He demanded.

Right away, the one Vampire males hands him the wine bottle then both men ran off to begin the hunt for Dave. The woman stood for a brief moment and just looked at her Master with uncertainty.

"Run along, Child. I'll take care of our little one here." He assured her as he picks up the cup from the ground, and re-fills it with the blood from the bottle.

Slowly Sibylla bows away into the shadows.

Dracula smiles when she leaves and looks down at Simon. He, again, hands him the cup. "I believe this is where we left off before we were interrupted?"

"Dave? Dave? Are you there? Come in!" A familiar voice came from the object that Dave dropped.

"Alvin...?" Simon whispered when heard Alvin's voice coming from the walkie- talkie.

Dracula walks up to the small box and picks it up.

"Your limitate family with their foolish toys can not protect you from *my* power." Dracula says with a forceful tone in his voice. With a single motion of his hand, he crushes the walkie-talkie and breaks it like a brittle cracker.

"I condemn you to the living death...to internal hunger...for living...blood." He tells Simon. Again, he attempts to hand the young chipmunk the cup.

Slowly Simon looks up at Dracula with eerie glowing eyes and opening his mouth to expose his small fangs. While panting and grunting with the pain he feels through his body, he comes to the need and abide his Master. Simon brings his hand up to meet Dracula's cup, but then stops.

"No!" Simon says as he comes to realize what is happening.

"You shall *not* refuse me, child." Demanded Dracula.

Simon begins to chuckle at the irony of this experience and falls back down to the earth.

"I assure you, young one, that all of your pain in this mortal world will be cured once you drink from this cup." Dracula says in a calmer tone.

Again, Simon looks up at Dracula as he pants for a breath to breathe.

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A FEW MINUTES LATER...

Alvin, Theodore, Jeanette, and Eleanor come running up to the park.

"Are you sure that this is the park that Vampire girl was talking about?" Eleanor asks Alvin.

Alvin looks ahead and Sees Dracula with Simon standing in front of him.

With a gulp, Alvin answers, "I'm sure of it."

"I-I-Is that who I think it is?" Theodore quivered.

"I'm afraid so, Theodore." Jeanette answered in disbelief herself.

"Come on! Now's our chance." Alvin orders.

He runs up ahead and charges at Dracula with his wooden stake in his hand. To add to the dramatic affect, Alvin even gives out a warrior cry.

Dracula looks up at the little chipmunk running at him, and calmly smiles. He then transforms into a bat and starts flying off.

"That's it! You better run, er, I mean, fly!" Alvin threatens while waving his stake in the air. He then lets out a chuckle and pokes Simon with his elbow. "Did you see that? I scared away Dracula."

Simon didn't answer him. He had his eyes closed, but he did drop an object that he held in his hands.

"Huh?" Alvin said as he noticed the brass cup. "Simon?" He looks up at his brother as he swallowed his last gulp from what was in the cup.

"Aahhh... Simon?" Alvin said his brother's name again.

Just then Simon shot his eyes wide open. They glowed an eerie yellow color. He let out a loud hiss and exposed larger, sharper fangs.

"Whoa, not good!" Alvin yelped.