I'm back and not dead! Sorry ya'll! I've been doing the whole homesteading thing and going through a whole career change so my creative spark has been almost nonexistent as of late! I'm going to try to push this story out but I probably won't be as consistent as I was before. I think there should only be like 6 or 7 more chapters before the story is over. It's a little harder now because from this point on, it's going to be completely rewritten instead of just making adjustments to the existing chapters!

Anywhooo… let me know what you think and leave a review letting me know what you'd like to see from this story!

Chapter 15: Disagreement

Panting and exhausted, the siblings had managed to escape the ghost possessed guards and found their way to the town inn. The inn was a bit run down and shady but it was warm and gave them a place to rest so the weary, dirty teens decided to book a room. Checking in, they had noticed the looks that the villagers who were spread out around the small main lobby of the inn had been sending them. They were cold and untrusting. Some looked at them in fear and some in disgust. It seemed the villagers had already made up their minds about the two teens. Luckily the owner didn't seem to care much about the fact that the two teens had been the center of the event in the town square.

"Word around town is that the two of you may be convicts on the run from the law." The inn owner had told them. "But as long as you've got the money, you're paying customers to me."

Ellie fell back onto her bed in their room. While not as luxurious as the inn that Dracula had put his heart and soul into, the inn was comfortable. Despite the way his muscles seemed to complain at the movement, Danny found himself pacing along their room, his mind too busy with making plans to find and save Mavis.

"Danny, I get it." Ellie sat up, resting an elbow on her leg as she rubbed her eyes in an effort to remove the sleepiness from them. "You're worried but-"

"No. I don't think you do." Danny snapped. "We're just sitting here while Mavis could be in danger! Danger that I put her in!"

Ellie blinked at him in shock at his outburst.

"Listen, I know you're worried but it's only been a day. Mavis is a big girl. She can handle herself." she stood as she spoke, her voice firm and stubborn. "I know that you're upset and that you're worried but you need to rest!"

Sparks seemed to flicker between the two of them as they glared at each other, both stubbornly holding their ground for a few seconds before Danny looked away, his exhaustion showing itself as his shoulders slumped. Ellie's own resolve died away as soon as her brother's did and she stepped over to him and set a hand on his arm.

"I know you're worried but neither of us is going to be much help to Mavis if we're exhausted." She explained, softly.

She watched her brother's bright green eyes as they seemed to hold a silent debate of rest vs. saving Mavis before the idea of rest seemed to win and he stepped past her and fell back on the bed beside where she had been laying moments before. It only took a few seconds before Danny began to snore softly. Ellie gave a small smile as she turned and headed toward the bathroom for a much needed shower.

Everything was dark and cramped. Consciousness returned to Mavis and she found herself in a small enclosed space. Her first thought was that the small space reminded her of the time she had wanted to try out sleeping in a coffin like her dad did when she was younger and ended up hating how cramped it was. It was why she had settled for her own queen sized bed back in the castle hotel.

She was trying her best to remember just how she had gotten to this dark, cramped place. Mavis could remember ice skating with Danny, talking to her dad, showing their surprise to Ellie and Johnny and then…

What?

A painful throb pulsed in her head, reminding her of the headache that she figured was part of the reason for her being in this dark place.

Trying her best to ignore the headache, Mavis reached up and ran a hand over the smooth surface that made up her low ceiling. It was a smooth, cold wood. It had to be a coffin. She was stuck in a coffin with no idea how she had gotten here or where she was.

With an experimental push on the lid of the coffin, she could tell the lid of the coffin was either nailed down, buried under a few layers of dirt or the lid was weighed down by something big and heavy. Pounding a fist on the wall, Mavis let out a frustrated groan.

'Danny,' she thought, hopefully. 'Please help me…'

—

The next morning, the siblings felt well rested, well fed and cleaned. Now, the discussion of what to do next was upon them and of course, they didn't agree.

"All I'm trying to say is that Vlad wouldn't recognize us if we overshadowed a couple of his employees, maybe some of the more important ones." Ellie argued.

"And I'm telling you that we can't just possess some random person. It's wrong to overshadow people. Besides, we can just phase through his walls." Danny snapped, crossing his arms.

Ellie sighed as she plopped back down into her chair. She wasn't sure exactly when it had happened that Danny had begun to hate overshadowing so much but she had never really worried about it until now when it was clearly the best plan.

"And what are we going to do when we find out his walls are ghost proof?"

Danny only shook his head, standing and pacing, sending glances out the hotel window each time he turned.

"He wouldn't have had enough time to ghost proof his building. And even if he did, he wouldn't have turned it on while he was waiting for us to come save Mavis. He knows that we know he has her and he wants us to come and get her-"

"Which is why," Ellie cut off her brother, standing as well and placing her palms on the table. "We should use the element of surprise. He wouldn't even know we were coming if we overshadowed someone and snuck in. If he can expect us to come and is looking for us, it'd be even better to sneak in as someone else."

The ghost boy shook his head stubbornly, which caused another wave of frustration to course through Ellie's body. Sitting back down in her chair, she scowled at him as she crossed her arms as well. Danny met her eyes, knowing the level of frustration his sister was feeling.

"Listen." He explained, uncrossing his arms and gesturing them toward the Dalv co building. "I swore to never overshadow someone ever again. It's wrong to take someone against their will and use their body. I've been overshadowed enough to know how painful it can be and how confusing it is to wake up somewhere with no recollection of how I got there. Think about how angry Vlad would be if one of his employees showed up somewhere they weren't supposed to be. I don't remember everything about him but I do know that he's not merciful."

Ellie frowned at her brother's did remember exactly what kind of a man Vlad was and knew her brother was right. Vlad wouldn't just take the fact that his employees got overshadowed as a good enough reason to be somewhere they weren't supposed to be. He'd hurt someone with little reason. And they'd give him a reason if they weren't careful.

"We don't have the time to be careful." Ellie said, her voice hard. "What do you think we should do?"

"We need to learn where everything is. We can't walk in carelessly but Mavis can't wait long." Danny agreed. "I think we should sneak in invisible."

"And when he catches us because his place is ghost proof?" Ellie asked, raising a brow at her brother skeptically.

"Then we'll fight him and figure it out!" Danny exclaimed, waving his arms at his sister. "We don't have time to be sneaky!"

"We'll have time if it keeps us safe and helps get Mavis faster!"

Standing, Ellie met her brother's eyes as sparks seemed to form between the two.

"The best way to do this is overshadowing! I know you hate it but it's the quickest and safest way to get to Mavis!" She exclaimed.

"We're not overshadowing people!" Danny shook his head, almost growling at his sister. "End of story."

Ellie gaped for a second at her brother's words before letting out her own growl.

"Listen here, your majesty." She said, venom dripping from her words. "You do not get to order me around. Ever! If you're so against saving Mavis, then you should've just said that! I'll go save her myself!"

"I am not against saving Mavis! She's important to me! I want to save her! It's all I've been able to think about since she was taken! I just don't want to overshadow anyone! There are other ways!"

"No. I'm going to do this my way!" Ellie snapped, her transformation rings passing over her and changing her to her ghost form. Turning away from her brother, she turned intangible and took off through the window.

"Danielle!" she heard her brother call as she took off towards the Dalv co building.