Chapter 4:

Danny sat, clutching his head, as he fought back rushes of painful flashes of memories. He could never actually remember anything. It was just flashes of several images as they flashed through his head. A experimentation table. A large orange beast and a thin blue monster. Both with shining red eyes and large sharp teeth. They'd use their claws to cut him open and tear out organs. Green blood would splatter everywhere but he couldn't move.

Danny shook his head as he tried to force the memories to go away. He looked down at the water below as it crashed hungrily at the rocks.

'A nice dip would help my head.' He thought as he let himself fall into the cold waters.

As he submerged, he let himself spread out, his low body temperature not affected as much by the chill of the water. He let himself sink to the bottom and lay on the floor of the lake. He thought he had those memories under control, he was able to hide those thoughts. The feeling of the metal table and the straps around his wrists and ankles. The inability to run. It rushed through his mind, making his head hurt and spin. Now all he could do was lay there. Reliving the memories that were forever etched into his mind. Each scream and laugh that echoed in his ears. It was always brought back by the mention of parents. Maybe it was his parents from when he was alive. He couldn't remember. But whether he is able to put them in the back of his mind or not, those images were always there.

Danny sighed from under the water, glad he didn't need air to breath, before he noticed a figure above the water. Sure his head was clear, he let himself float up to the surface before popping his head out of the water, expecting to see his aunt or uncle. He was shocked to see it was the girl.

"Danny?" She called, looking around and freezing when she saw his mop of white hair covering his eyes as he stared at her, only his head showing.

She jumped slightly before morphing into a bat. Her eyes widened as she realized it was only him and morphed back to human before stepping forward.

"You scared me." Mavis explained unessecarily as she sat on one of the rocks.

Danny chuckled as he floated out of the water and sat next to the vampire.

"I tend to do that, being a ghost prince and all." Danny said, pushing his wet hair out of his face, all signs of his earlier panic attack gone.

"Ghost prince?" the girl asked, her blue eyes shining in the moonlight, making them look like stars in the moonlight.

"Well, yeah. You know my uncle is the pumpkin king, right? He usually proclaims it whenever he introduces himself."

The girl laughed, her hand covering her mouth as she did and Danny just stared, mesmerized by the sound.

"You know, you could probably be a singer if you wanted to." he said unconsciously.

The girl blushed and looked down at the water.

"I never got your name."

The girl laughed dryly.

"Maybe because you keep leaving before I can introduce myself." she teased.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck shyly.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm running off of two hours of sleep and thirteen hours in the car." he explained.

"You didn't just sleep in the car?"

"No, my aunt had a bunch of books for me to read. I'm homeschooled and having your teacher living in the same house isn't fun. Aunt Sally doesn't really like it when I take too long to study. She thinks I'll forget everything. I can recite shakespearean quotation almost as well as my uncle but she still had my reread the book." Danny rambled.

The girls laughter caused him to pause and realize what he was going. His face lit up with a bright green blush.

"S-Sorry, it's weird to talk to another teenager. Your name?"

The girl smiled, tucking some silky black hair behind her ear.

"It's ok. I feel the same. I'm homeschooled too." she explained and Danny felt the knots loosen in his stomach before being replaced by butterflies. "My name's Mavis. Mavis Dracula."

"And you're related to the owner? What's his name? Dracula?" A nod. "Then is his full name Dracula Dracula? That's new."

Mavis giggled and stood, stretching her limbs.

"Nope. It's just Dracula. No last name. Wanna go for a walk? I wanna check out that town." She said, looking over the forest as Danny stood.

"A walk through the forest is fine but I don't think the town is a good idea. When I went back, it was completely gone." Danny smirked at the young vampiress' disappointed face before wrapping an arm around her waist. "How about a flight instead of a walk?"

Not waiting for a response, he took off, smirking as Mavis pulled him closer out of nerves.

"You can't fly without being in bat form, can you?" he asked.

"My dad can, but I can't." Mavis said, wanting to scold herself when Danny flinched. "Sorry."

Danny put on a brave face and smiled.

"It's ok. That's how you see him. I can handle it."

Mavis nodded and watched as the ground zoomed by beneath them. A silence passed, accompanied by the rushing of wind in their ears.

"So," Mavis said as they landed on a high branch and sat down. "How old are you?"

"Well, that's actually kinda complicated. I was 19 when I died..." Danny said, then turned to her curiously. "Why?"

"Mrs. Sally said you were around my age."

"Don't vampire age really slowly? Or don't age at all after they hit a certain age?"

"Yeah, we age slowly. What about ghosts? How do you age?" Mavis asked, nudging the ghost boys arm.

Danny chuckled.

"We don't." he explained. "When we die, we stay like that for the rest of time until we get a new body. The humans seem to refer to it as reincarnation. I just call it getting a life."

Mavis laughed. Her voice echoing through the forest. Danny found himself staring. She was so familiar, yet different. With each passing moment, she triggered more feelings of nostalgia. Memories of people, whether appearance or name, would flash in his mind at her words, her appearance, her personality. Sam. Tucker. A boy with black hair and blue eyes. A girl with long red hair and a blue headband. Danny felt if he spent more time with Mavis, he'd remember more. He lowered his eyes in thought. What was it about this girl that caused memories to reawaken? What was she able to do that others couldn't?

"-ny...-anny...Danny!" Mavis called, shocking the halfa out of his thoughts, making him almost fall out of the tree.

After he balanced himself, Danny rubbed his eyes.

"Sorry, I kinda zoned out."

Mavis smiled and stood up, balancing easily on the branch.

"Come on. Let's head back to the hotel so you can get some rest." she said as Danny stood, floating slightly over the branch.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to leave you alone." Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck with an apologetic look.

Stupid hero complex.

"We'll have plenty of time to hang out while you're here."

Danny nodded, holding the vampiress close as he flew back to the hotel. After dropping her off in her room, Danny glanced at Mavis.

"Are you sure?" he asked again.

"It's fine. Get some rest. See you tomorrow." Mavis grinned as she closed the window.

Danny smiled and flew to his room and landed on his bed. He sighed, wide awake. He knew he should listen to Mavis' advice and try to sleep but she didn't know what his dreams were like. A knock on the door caused him to turn to his aunt, who smiled at him. (Not like the smile wasn't always there)

"Hey Aunt Sally..." Danny said, sitting up.

"Enjoy your time with Mavis?"

"Yeah, it's nice to talk to someone more my age." He paused. "Or at least in vampire-ghost terms."

Sally laughed silently and sat on the edge of the bed, the ghost boy scooting to sit next to her. She pulled out some cloth and unwrapped a bottle filled with black liquid.

"I brought something to help you sleep. Made with deadly nightshade from the graveyard back home." she said, handing it to him.

Danny smiled at his aunt and took the bottle. Sally stood and walked to the door.

"Make sure you change into your pjs before you drink that. It'll knock you right out."

"Goodnight Aunt Sally." Danny said before changing and drinking the liquid.

Laying back into the soft sheets, Danny fell into a dreamless sleep. He was forever grateful for his aunt. He let his thoughts roam as he drifted into unconsciousness accompanied by thoughts of a familiar vampiress and the large hotel.

"Oh Daniel, you shouldn't have left that little town. Now you're out in the open. You should've let me train you when you had the chance. Now you're mine, little badger..." A voice said, accompanied by glowing red eyes in the darkness.

Oh my god! Chapter 4 is done! Sure it's a little longer than the other ones but I didn't really know how else to do it. The mysterious figure at the end is kinda obvious but how could I have not put that in!? Also, there will be a new character introduced (not the evil dude from this chapter but a new one) That you'll probably recognize from the movie Hotel Transylvania. See you next chapter!