I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my followers, reviewers and beta reader wallaceb.
CHAPTER 24 - Where am I?
Mavis was lying down with her eyes closed and felt the cool wet grass tickling her neck. She saw nothing, but she smiled as she let herself be lulled by the gentle breeze of the wind that stirred her hair, by the scent of grass and flowers and by the joyous singing of birds.
The girl opened her eyes and saw the blue sunny sky, crossed by some small white cloud that occasionally gave shade to the Sun.
She rubbed her eyes and realized that she had neither bandages nor wounds on her face, then she put her hands through her hair and with enormous relief she felt that her ears were back to normal. Finally he stood up, realizing that she no longer felt the wound in her abdomen.
She was dressed as usual, high"necked black dress with tulle sleeves, but with her black stockings up to the knee, a red belt with three rows of studs and red boots and Converse with white laces that reminded her of her old style.
The only thing that was unusual was her resistance to the Sun, but in comparison to the rest of it, it seemed the lesser problem.
Mavis looked around, she was in a grove, but it was less dense than the one surrounding the hotel and mostly very well cared for, so as to seem like a huge garden. Many trees were in bloom and the sun was able to illuminate the grass that covered the ground clean and free from undergrowth.
The place would have been great if it was not for a single detail, she was alone, but she stared at the horizon of the Hotel Transylvania which assured her, so she walked in that direction.
During the walk Mavis' mind was empty of all thoughts. She did not care how she got there, or when, or why...
Time passed, the vampire began to walk faster, then to run, but the tiredness came soon, so she decided to stop in a small clearing.
She remained motionless, looking at the Hotel on the horizon, it seemed she had not approached; indeed, it seemed farther away than before because of the haze in the distance blurring the castle.
While she was standing she realized there was too much silence, no noise, no wind rustling through the leaves of the trees, no birds chirping. Everything was as still as if time had stopped.
"Is anyone there?!" The vampire asked aloud, looking around, but not even an echo replied.
Mavis was even more anguished; not only she was alone in an unfamiliar place, but it seemed that nature itself had deserted her.
He ran desperately toward the castle which had now disappeared behind the mist of the horizon.
She ran, despite already being exhausted; into that lovely woodland; but which had turned into a nightmare.
Mavis stopped, she heard noises in the distance, so she decided to continue walking silently, she had no idea what was hidden beyond the vegetation.
The girl came in front of a small village of humans, she did not know if they were good or bad towards monsters, so she tried to not do anything"unusual."
She came out of the woods and in a short time the sky grew dark, so as to seem like night time and it started to rain.
The vampire went through a stone bridge and continued on a dirt road, now muddy, which seemed to be the town's main street.
This village was very similar to what Dracula had built to convince Mavis of the dangers of the world. The houses were made of wood and stones and the city lighting was poor, given only by a few torch street lamps.
Mavis looked around thinking:
"How strange, Jonny told me that human cities used electricity to supplant fire and that cement had replaced wood, but this place seems to have stopped in the past... could it be because it is a remote country village?"
The vampire kept running in search of someone to help her, but everyone was too busy trying to find shelter from the rain, until she reached the only two people who were still ignoring the water.
They were dressed in dark raincoats and armed with muskets.
Mavis slowly approached while smiling and asked them:
"Hello, my name is Mavis and I'm lost, can you show me the way to Transylvania?"
One of them dropped his gaze to the girl, but instead of answering he raised his rifle and hit the girl on the chest with the butt of the weapon with such force as to knock her on the mud.
"Go away beggar! Dr. Frankenstein does not want to be disturbed!" Said the man, rudely.
"Uncle Frank is here? Take me to him!"
Mavis was very bewildered by the rude answer, then, realizing the familiar name said:
The two guards laughed contemptuously.
"There is no Frank here, but only Victor." Said one, then the other continued:
"Now go away and go back on the road, the doctor has just married and he doesn't need someone like you!"
Having said this, he humbled Mavis, who was trying to get up, kicked her making her fall back to the ground.
The vampiress looked at their frown. She wanted to lay them out, but she preferred not to attract too much unwanted attention, so she went back to her feet and walked away without saying anything.
"What a rude man, why would they treat a girl who got lost so bad? I have not done anything to make it clear to them my true identity. I cannot believe humans are so bad even among themselves... maybe daddy had a point about them..."
Mavis continued to walk toward a pub that seemed busy looking for more information, but she had many thoughts in her mind.
"Dr. Frankenstein... cannot be just a coincidence..."
The vampire tried to enter, inside were various round tables full of glasses of beer and all the seats were already occupied by rowdy people, visibly drunk.
Mavis approached the counter, but she stood looking at the mirror behind the bottles of alcohol.
By now she had lived to see her own reflection, but it was different from what she expected. Her eyes had returned to their normal blue hue and her teeth were not sharp, but normal, too normal... even the canines were no longer or sharp than the other teeth.
The bartender, a disheveled and red"haired young man, approached her asking:
"It's the first time I've see you, you're a stranger?"
The vampire looked at him a bit before answering:
"Yes, I'm lost... Do you know where I am? And how can I go home in Transylvania?"
"You are very far from your home, much farther than you can imagine, you know?"
"What do you mean? Where am I?"
"Continue to follow your instincts and you'll find out soon." Said a boy who went back to work without allowing the girl to ask more questions, so she decided to leave.
Mavis turned to the inn, the two armed humans were still there staring at her, but something on the roofs had attracted her attention. It looked like a person, very large, with a long black coat.
"Uncle Frank?" Mavis said in a low voice, but full of hope.
She had to reach him, but she could not be seen by those overbearing men, so she ran behind a chariot of barrels still in a dark alley at the side of the pub. She leaned down and looked around. Seeing no one she tried to change into a bat, but nothing happened.
"What the..." She muttered confused.
Then she tried to focus more, but still nothing.
"Damn, what happened to my powers?"
Mavis, unable to fly, had to invent something, so she looked around and saw a large tree with which she could reach the rooftops.
Without wasting any time she began to climb. At the hotel climbing was one of her favorite activities that she could do without her father caring, since in case of necessity she could fly, but this time she did not have the luxury of making mistakes.
Climbing high enough she walked along a branch to where it was sturdy enough to hold her up, but she was still too far to get to the roof of the house where she had seemed to see Frank.
Mavis, not really knowing the pain of a fall, she did not scruple; she got up her tulle sleeves and tried the risky jump.
She gave a strong momentum and jumped as if seemly to fly, but it was not high enough to land on the house, in fact she struck her chest on the ledge, while only her arms were above the roof.
The blow knocked the wind out of the girl, but she managed to resist, while the rest of her body swayed dangerously in the air.
Even before she had recovered completely she tried to pull herself up, but the tiles wet from the rain were slimier than she thought, so she began to slip.
Mavis sought a hold in vain, she also tried slowing her fall with her nails, but the only result was that she broke them as they were no longer the hard and sharp claws of a vampire she was used to having.
She managed to stop herself only when she clung to the edge of the cornice and before she was too tired, she tried to get up, but a tile to which she had clung took off, leaving the girl sustained by only one hand.
The vampiress looked down and saw the tile shatter to the ground. She was tired and sore, but if she did not want to end like that she could not waste time. She gave a momentum and succeeded in bringing her free hand to the beam now discovering, finally came up with a last effort to reach the roof where she lay exhausted.
She had skinned her arms, but he was satisfied and even a little amused, she had never had such strong emotions due to the safety that her powers gave to her.
"I didn't think it was so hard to live without magic..."
Mavis looked around, but Frank was gone, she wanted to call him, but did not want to attract the attention of the guards.
"If I don't find Uncle Frank I can try to talk to this Dr. Victor, maybe he will help me."
The problem was to get to the inn across the road, too far away to be reached directly from where she was. The only way she could, without going off the ground, was to jump from one roof to another, separated by narrow alleys, and cross the main street by an arch that connected two houses not so far from her.
Mavis began to run, at the risk of falling several times. She reached the roof of the inn, but suddenly she heard the harmonious sound of a flute near to her.
She tried to look around, but the darkness hid everything around her and shortly after the music faded away leaving only the roar of the rain.
"Elizabeth!" The cry of a worried man from the street.
The girl came down from the roof to the balcony and walked to the window of the only room lit by many candles, but when she tried to look inside a flash of lightning blinded her.
"Elizabeth!" Again that voice, but this time it came from inside the room.
The girl opened her eyes, but it would have been better for her if she had not.
"I kept my promise!" Said Frank sitting on a woman in white dress dripping with blood.
Then a new flash of lightning room illuminated the room, but this time Mavis remained with open eyes, she did not have the strength to close them, or to move herself by how that scene was horrible.
Frank was holding the still"beating heart of the woman and kept it well in evidence to the three upset men who broke into the room, and then he pushed the corpse down from the bed against an oil lantern.
"It's not really happening, it's not really happening... Uncle Frank is one of the more good people I know, he cannot be a murderer. This is just a nightmare... Now I wake up, now I wake up!" Mavis said to convince herself that what she saw was not real.
She closed her eyes, hoping that when she reopened them she would find herself in her own bed, maybe just being woke up by her father who cared for her, but it was not so.
BANG, BANG, BANG
The dins of rifle shots brought her back to reality startling her.
Her father had told her about the horrible modern weapons that had replaced the rudimentary pitchforks and lanterns, but she had never seen one in action.
Frank was a direct hit, but the small bullet could only do small damage against that giant, who went out of the window breaking it and then vanishing into the darkness of the night.
Even Mavis fled by jumping from the terrace. The fall was devastating, but she was too disgusted by what she had just seen to realize that she had hurt herself.
The guards were gone, so he walked limping towards the bridge through which she had arrived in town, but as she was about to cross it she heard the cries of many people. For a moment she thought it was always Frank who caused panic through the village, but then a black shadow reached for her from behind. Of it she could feel only the windage and a tremendous pain on her arm.
Mavis fell to her knees on the ground; her arm had four deep lacerations, probably caused by a clawed hand.
"Argh, what pain, what was it?" Said the girl clutching her wounded arm.
Then she stood up and heard a howl coming from above her, then she lifted her eyes and on to the roof of a house she saw the outline of a werewolf slicing through the light of the full moon surrounded by clouds. He had no clothes on, but Mavis had no trouble recognizing him.
"Wayne, no... You too..." The girl said with a faint voice resigned to the shameful reality.
The wolf jumped down to the street overwhelming a woman and knocking down the people who were near.
A dozen men armed with pitchforks, hoes and sticks tried handling the beast, but a paw was enough to throw them to the ground wounded.
"Uncle Wayne, stop it!" Mavis yelled running towards him, but the werewolf did not scruple to attack his niece again with a punch to the stomach knocking her back a few feet.
That hit hurt the girl who was coughing up a spat of blood. If Wayne had unleashed a claw with that strength, it could kill the young girl instantly.
Mavis was helpless on the ground to see those innocent humans perish under the fangs of the wolf until the vision began to blur and then falling into darkness.
Eh eh eh! No, it's not the second part of the fight, it was a little break. You must to wait the next chapter to read it.
See you soon! And remember to review it, please!