Chapter 14: Kidnapped

Danny had just been able to relax in his bed, having had to move Ellie's stuff off it so he could lay down, when his sister burst into the room, her hair messy and a bruise beginning to form on her cheek. Her eyes were filled with such panic that Danny jumped out of bed instantly, fully awake, flying over to her to try to soothe her. His mind instantly went to Johnny. He must've done something to her. How could have let his sister be alone with a man he didn't trust?

His train of thought (and the murderous ideas that had begun to form of how to make the redhead pay for hurting his sister) was broken as soon as his sister shoved his hands away and caught his attention.

"Plasmius took Mavis!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Panic began to fill his chest. "No! She couldn't have been! I told her not to leave the castle without me. Mave wouldn't have-"

"Well believe it." Ellie said, bluntly.

"Johnny and I saw her walking into the forest and we followed her. She told us to leave her alone. To not bother her because she had to do something in order to help you." His sister explained, her hands waving around as she did. "She was trying to talk to Plasmius but he didn't give her a chance. While we were trying to get her to come back to the castle, he attacked us. He overpowered me and knocked both Johnny and Mavis out. When I regained my thoughts, she and Plasmius were gone."

"Are you and Johnny ok?" Danny asked, concerned for his sister but glad the redhead hadn't done something to her.

"I'm fine. He just knocked me out of the way and I ran into a tree. Sally is tending to Johnny but he hasn't woken up yet. Drac is going mental right now though." Ellie explained, her concern for the redhead clear in her voice. "Jack managed to calm him down but he's trying to gather monsters to try and go save Mavis."

Danny nodded, his attention now on the vampiress' abduction as he gave his sister a look of 'I'll take care of this' as he flew off through the door to his room.

As soon as he got out to the main area of the rooms, he was bombarded by a very upset vampire who was being held back by his uncle. Holding up his hands protectively, Danny glanced over to where Johnny was laying on the couch with his aunt sitting beside him with a damp towel in her hands. She gave him a nod that confirmed that the boy was going to be fine based on what she saw, he was just unconscious.

"Calm down, Drac!" Jack said, his tone hard and stern toward the upset vampire.

"She was completely happy with staying in the hotel! This boy kept going out with her, taking her on adventures in the forest! That must be why she went out alone! And with that ghost in the forest, she must've underestimated him!" Drac was wailing. "My mavey wavey is lost! We have to go get her!"

"It'll be fine, Drac. Just calm down." The pumpkin king waved his boney hands in front of the count in an effort to calm him. "Danny would never let anyone be in danger if he could help it. It's not his fault."

"Of course it's his fault! Ghosts are his kind! They would listen to him if he ordered them to steal her!" The vampire fumed. "You've been trying to take her the whole time you've been here! It was your plan all along!"

"That's enough!"

Sally had stood and stepped forward, her normally calm, friendly face held a scolding glare that made both of the men and Danny reel back in fear. She walked over to Drac and fixed him with a glare that made both her husband and son shrink.

"Now listen here, Dracula. I will not have you making such accusations towards my son in my presence!" She scolded, a finger raised and pointing at the abnormally pale vampire. "This may be your hotel and it may be your daughter that's missing but you do not have any right to blame my son like that. If you utter another disrespectful word in my presence, you will have to answer to me. Do you understand? You will calm down this instant and we are going to discuss this as adults before deciding on what to do."

"Yes ma'am…" Drac had sat in one of the loveseats beside the couch, his hands in his lap and his shoulders hunched in a way that made him seem slightly smaller than he was.

Turning to her husband and son, who both flinched at the calm smile that was now spread over her face, Sally nodded to them to sit as well. The two couldn't sit down fast enough.

"Now then, Danny," Sally said, holding her hands together in her lap. "Do you have any ideas of what could have happened to Mavis and why she was abducted?"

"Yeah…" Danny said, still trying his best to be small due to the amount of terror his aunt had shown to be capable of. "There's a ghost in the forest named Plasmius. Uncle Jack and I ran into him during our walk. He was the reason why Uncle Jack lost his arm. He had attacked us and claimed to be my father. That was after he had attacked Mavis and I when we went for a fly during our first night here."

Ellie had walked in during his explanation and found her place leaning against one of the arms of the couch. She frowned at the information and each of the older monsters had their own reactions to this information as well. Jack had crossed his arms, not knowing about the attack that the ghost had made on Danny and Mavis when they first arrived, but he nodded, allowing the teen to continue. Sally had a frown on her lips, she was slightly upset that both her son and husband had kept this from her but she also understood that they hadn't wanted her to worry so much. She also knew that Danny had wanted to tell her and felt bad about not telling her.

Drac, on the other hand, was holding himself back just enough as to not explode in the presence of the surprisingly intimidating ragdoll woman, his anger and worries amplifying at the information that the teens had run into this ghost more than once.

"You've been trying to get her out since you met her, hm?" Drac seethed, not caring about how the ghost boy shrunk slightly at his words.

"Continue, Danny." Sally instructed, sending Drac a warning look.

"Y-Yeah…" the ghost boy stuttered slightly, avoiding meeting the vampire's eyes. "I had no idea she was going to try to go out by herself. She didn't say anything about going out into the woods to me and I left her in the dining room."

"It's true." Ellie spoke up. "When Johnny and I saw her from the lake, she was going across the bridge into the woods alone and she had quite the look of determination on her face. We had tried to go after her and stop her and she told us to leave her alone. She said she was trying to help Danny."

"Aha!" Drac exclaimed.

"But!" the girl cut him off, sending him a glare that made him flinch. "She hadn't told Danny that she was going out to the woods. Mavis had told us that she was going to do something for Danny. Not that she was told to come out by him!"

The vampire slumped.

"Do either of you know where Plasmius could be keeping her?" Jack asked, holding a hand to his chin.

"If I know Vlad, he's staying in a nearby town in something lavish and fancy. His home base is in Wisconsin so he's a bit far from home." Ellie explained. "And he's got a human form like I do, so he's probably using his human form to walk around. His name is Vlad Masters. He's clever and confident but he's also a fruitloop that makes stupid mistakes."

"The town just on the other side of the forest would be the best bet then." Danny nodded, agreeing with his sister.

While yes, he did remember the ghost, he couldn't remember much about the billionaire. He'd have to make sure to ask Ellie for the full run down on Vlad Masters when he got a second.

"So we will go into town then?" Ellie asked her brother, who nodded. Their plan was clear between the two of them.

"Neither Sally or I will be able to go into town unnoticed by any of the humans there. I think the two of you would be best to go alone." Jack decided. A look from Drac caused him to frown and shake his head. "You won't be able to go into town either, Drac. You're too old school. It'd be a dead giveaway."

The vampire seemed to want to argue for a moment before slumping in acceptance at the pumpkin king's reasoning. A beat of silence passed through for a moment before Drac straightened and turned to Danny, who flinched slightly, raising his hands protectively.

"You bring my mavey wavey back safe and sound, young man. If I find out that you took her away, I will come and find you." He warned.

"Yes sir." The ghost boy nodded, his voice a bit smaller than he had wanted.

Rolling her eyes, Ellie sent Jack and Sally a nod and grabbed her brother by the arm, yanking him backwards and toward the door. Letting himself float behind her, Danny took a deep breath as his sister transformed into her ghost form. He was determined. He was going to find her.

No matter what.

—-

As soon as they got into the woods, they had packed just enough for a couple days worth of supplies if they ended up needing it. Not sure if they were going to end up camping out or staying somewhere in town, Sally had packed some food, toiletries and clothes for them, claiming that even though it was a rescue mission and they were trying to find Mavis as fast as possible, they still needed to make sure they were at one hundred percent.

It hadn't been a very long flight. Definitely further away than the village that had burnt down back when Danny had first arrived at the castle. He had actually found out that it was Drac's doing that the fake village had been built and then dismantled so quickly. It had been mentioned when the vampire and his uncle had been drawing out a map for the siblings so they could find the town a bit easier.

He'd have to make sure to tell Mavis about it when he found her.

Danny frowned, as they arrived in the town. It wasn't very different from Halloween town, only less Halloween-y and there were humans everywhere instead of monsters. The ghost boy had pulled his hood from his hoodie up over his white hair and pulled on a pair of sunglasses in order to hide his glowing green eyes. Ellie had transformed back into her human form and seemed to have made an introduction to the humans of the town before she came to the hotel since there were more than a few humans that either sent her nervous looks but still greeted her or ones that praised her for apparently surviving the woods.

The ghost boy caught sight of a limo that was having a surprisingly easy time getting through the crowded streets of the town. Not thinking twice, he ran towards it, not bothering to hide himself as he let his form flicker into invisibility and intangibility as he phased through the car easily. He was greeted with the familiar cocky face of Vlad Masters, who seemed to be enjoying a glass of what he could assume was very expensive champagne.

Or at least he hoped it was expensive as he shot a small green ray of energy at it and shattered the glass, letting the liquid spill out onto the surprised billionaire's lap as the ghost boy made himself visible.

"You made a mess." The older man said, annoyed as he let himself turn intangible and let the liquid fall to the floor of the limo.

"Where is Mavis?" Danny growled, his hands lighting up in green energy.

"Now why would I go and tell you just like that?" Vlad let a grin spread over his lips as he went to pour himself a new glass. "I gave you a choice before and you decided not to accept. Now is the consequence for your disobedience. Don't worry, she's safe and secure. I'm not some kind of monster."

"No. You're just a messed up fruitloop that really needs a cat." The ghost boy, now beginning to reach his limit. "Who's going to end up losing this stupid game. Now... Where. Is. She?"

"Patience. Patience, little badger." Vlad chuckled, seeming completely unnerved by the very angry teen in his limo. "You know what I want. Become my obedient son. Do everything I say and stay in your rightful place by my side. Do that and the girl is yours."

For a moment, the ghost boy hesitated. It'd be that easy? No. No it wouldn't be that easy. He knew Vlad. He knew Plasmius. The things the older man would make him do. The people he'd make him hurt and manipulate… He'd never be able to look Mavis in the eye if he took this deal. She wouldn't want him to do this for her. She'd want him to try to find another way to find her.

"No." Danny growled, causing the grin to slip from Vlad's face. "I'll never be your son. You'd take me from my friends and family. Halloween town is my home. Being the ghost prince is my place. Not being beside you."

The older man made a move to raise a hand but Danny was faster, raising his hands that he had lowered as they burst into green flames. The limo came to a smooth stop but neither man paid it any attention. Leaning back in his seat, Vlad let a grin form yet again, his fingers intertwining together in his lap.

"Well then. I suppose the hard way it is then." He gave a shrug but didn't move his eyes from the ghost boy as a scream came from outside. "Perhaps you should try to save that 'sister' of yours first. She has such a hard time staying out of trouble after all."

Looking back and forth between the direction of the scream and the older man, Danny sent him a glare, releasing the tension in his fists and extinguishing the glowing flames.

"We're not done here."

"Oh I think we are, little badger. Come back after you've made the right decision."

And with that, the ghost boy turned intangible and shot off through the door of the limo, coming out into the clearing where four large men (humans possessed by ghosts from what he could see by their glowing red eyes) were standing around Ellie, who already looked like she had taken a beating. It was clear she was trying her best to hold her own and by the way a couple of the men seemed to favor one leg or arm over the other by how they were standing, it looked as if she had managed to get in at least a good hit or two.

The citizens of the square were huddled to the sides in fear. Murmurs of what was happening were spreading over the terrified humans, words that the ghost boy was trying his best to ignore as he rushed to the aid of his sister. Kneeling by her, he grabbed Ellie's hand and pulled her to stand beside him, turning to face the men but kept an eye on the limo as it drove away down the road. He tried his best to make a mental note of the direction the limo was heading but couldn't keep his attention away from the four men that surrounded them.

"Danny, we may be outnumbered here…" Ellie spoke up, her voice sounding weak and broken but it was clear that she was still stubbornly holding her strength and clearly didn't want to run. But the two of them knew that strategy was better than stubborn will in this situation. "They're possessed, we can't hurt the humans. Especially not here."

The ghost boy nodded and looked around them at the villagers who were watching them, huddled together and murmuring in fear. He held back his powers, silently hoping that the humans hadn't seen him use them in his hopes of getting to his sister. Danny knew of the importance of keeping the existence of monster kind a secret from the humans.

But he had to find Mavis. She was in trouble because of him and every fiber of his being felt the need to get to her and save her. A darker part of him wanted to rip the older ghost molecule by molecule but he knew he couldn't. For now, they had to escape, they had to get away from these guards without letting themselves be discovered by the humans. Feeling his sister's hand grip around his arm tightly with what he knew was her way of telling him to hold back and that they could find Mavis after they've gotten some rest.

Reaching back and grabbing Ellie's hand in his, Danny backed up and pulled his sister along as they turned and ran off through the crowd.