I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and the beta reader wallaceb.
I again thank The Revenge Of The Red Pen who gave me the idea of Jonathan's amnesia.
Also I would like to thank all the reviewers who have expressed their opinion and their advice on the story. I never thought to go so far, in fact yesterday, out of curiosity I tried to filter fanfictions by the number of reviews and I discovered that this story is the second most commented of this section, it's amazing! And this I owe to you readers who were close me in these nine months! I hope that you continue to like the story in the future too, although we are approaching the end.
Chapter 35 - Magic Trip
Dracula was petrified by Jonathan's words.
"Oh, no... I do not have time for this..." He muttered to himself running a hand through his hair and rolling his eyes, and then he put a hand on the boy's shoulder, who looked at him confused.
"That's my Xperia Ray?" Jonathan asked looking at the phone in the vampire's hand.
"T - This? Yes, of course, here."
The boy took it and held it in his hand.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"Hmmm... let me think for a moment..." Jonathan said, scratching his head and rolling his eyes, "Yes, I remember I was doing a climb..."
"And about Mavis and monsters do you remember anything?"
"Yes, in the city there's a monster festival this week. There's a lot of strange dudes!"
"No, I meant these monsters." Drac said, and turned into a bat and then back to human.
Jonathan sat up on the gurney and stood dazed for a moment.
"Damn, I knew that I should not have gone overboard with those hallucinogenic mushrooms I bought in Amsterdam... But I must admit this trip is one of the most fantastic I've ever experienced!" Jonathan commented, excitedly.
"Hey, this is reality, you are not under the influence of drugs... even if this would explain why you're so..." Said the vampire to tease him.
But Jonathan, oblivious to the bizarre situation in which he found himself, sat up on the gurney with his arms clumsily outstretched imitating Frankenstein and began to sing in a hoarse voice:
§I was working in the lab late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise…§
Then he got up and continued to sing doing a wacky dance:
§He did the mash
He did the monster mash
The monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
He did the mash
It caught on in a flash
He did the mash
He did the monster mash…§
Drac was speechless by the young man's strangeness, he knew he was not so 'normal', but he did not think he could reach these levels.
Jonathan did not pay much attention to him; indeed, he took Dracula by his hands trying to involve him in the dance, while he continued to sing:
§From my laboratory in the castle east
To the master bedroom where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To catch a jolt from my electrodes…§
"If you don't shut up I'll turn you into a monster mash with my own hands!" The vampire yelled, but because the human continued to sing he pushed him off and with a gesture of his hands he shot a lightning bolt that flashed the boy causing him to fall to the ground, smoldering.
Silence.
Dracula had a sigh of relief.
§They did the mash§
The vampire's eyes widened.
§They did the monster mash§
And the young man continued to dance on the floor.
§The monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
They did the mash
It caught on in a flash
They did the mash
They did the monster mash§
The count put his hand to his forehead, muttering:
"Why... why... why... What have I done so wrong to deserve this torture? Since you set foot in this place you messed up everyone's life like you have your hair!"
Jonny got to his feet and stood next to Dracula who looked at him puzzled.
§Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring…§
The boy began to walk around the vampire and to interact with him to place him in the spotlight.
§Seems he was troubled by just one thing…§
"Do you think I'm worried about just one thing?" Drac said, annoyed.
§He opened the lid and shook his fist
And said-§
"Whatever happened to my Transylvania Hotel?" The Count interrupted the boy's song
The human's eyes widened and he made a toothy smile, full of happiness.
"Did you see that you finally dipped yourself in the party?" He said, making the vampire raise an eyebrow puzzled.
§It's now the mash-§ The boy tried to continue, but he was brutally interrupted.
"I told you shut up!" The vampire yelled, angry, then snapped his fingers and Jonathan's mouth became sewn shut.
"Now you will be a good child, right? Will you stop with that stupid song?"
The young man nodded his head several times, so the vampire with a slight wave of his hand dispelled the sutures from Jonathan's mouth.
"Aaaaahhh!" The human started to scream and run around the room like a madman out of control.
"Damn, here we go again..." The count muttered, leaning forward and letting his arms dangle demoralized.
Meanwhile, Jonathan stumbled on Victoria's legs and fell on the floor, and then looked at what had tripped him and noticed the girl sitting against the wall. He slowly walked to her and touched her cheek with his fingers, but he withdrew them immediately when realized that she was too cold.
"A corpse?" Jonathan commented with a calm and coldness, unnatural for him, but soon after he returned to himself starting to scream and run around the room.
Drac used his powers to move a folding screen, that he placed in front of Victoria to cover her.
Meanwhile, Jonathan went through the door slamming it behind him, and walked down the corridor and entered inside a room; it was dark and to hide himself better he took refuge inside a wardrobe.
He turned on the phone to call for help, but when he began to dial the number he noticed the reflection of two bright green spheres on the screen.
In a panic Jonathan turned himself slowly, shaking, and found he was next to a mummy who was watching him curiously.
"Aaaaaahhh!" The boy began to scream like a maniac and came out of the sarcophagus, lighting his way with the phone. He looked around and saw a half dozen other sarcophaguses that were opening which brought forth many women mummies, who woke up due to noise, who wore white coats and nurse's caps still stained with blood.
The young man was frozen with fear, he continued to shed light around him, but he was surrounded by nursemummys who were approaching him to help him, but the fact that they had just woke up made their movements unnatural and jerky, somewhat disturbing.
"I hope that will also not come out from some pyramid sarcophagi..." The boy commented to himself, with a humor that only he could understand.
Jonathan leaned his phone on the floor in the hope that those monsters were attracted by the light and fled out of the room running down the corridor. He looked back for a moment to make sure he was not being chased, but he bumped into someone falling to the floor.
The boy looked up, expecting the worst, but finally calmed down to see the face of a middle-aged man with a doctor's white coat.
"Please, sir!" Jonathan began to beg on his knees and clutching the doctor's coat, "Get me out of this hell!" He whimpered.
"Do not worry; I'll take you out, gi... z... gh... glh... tzbl... lololololol..."
Before the doctor finished speaking, his body was shaken by convulsions. Jonny remained on his knees in front of him confused, as the man began to fall in stature to become a stocky little guy as tall as the young man to his knees.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
Jonathan resumed screaming and ran down the hallway until he stopped; his feet were hanging off the floor.
Dracula left the room next to the guy and approached him unlocking his head.
"Please don't suck all my blood; I didn't want sing that old song about you!" The human whimpered, "I'll do everything you..."
SLAP!
The boy's words were suddenly stopped by a slap that turned his head almost to detach it.
"Ouch! I'm sorry, but don't hurt me, please!"
SLAP!
"S..."
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP!
The vampire gave no respite to the boy; still before he could speak he hit him with other slaps in his face.
"D..."
SLAP!
"Dra..."
SLAP!
"DRAC, DAMMIT STOP IT!" The boy cried with his arms covering his face so swollen to make him talk as if he had his mouth full.
"Oh, you finally resumed?"
"RESUMED?! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME BY SLAPS!" Jonathan complained, but the vampire, instead of feeling guilty, laughed due to the boy's wacky way of speaking.
"But where am I?"
"In the infirmary, safe."
"Hey, Mavis has bitten me," Jonathan said, then touched a canine, finding it long and sharp and continued very excited, "I'm a vampire, fantastic!" Finally he got to his feet on the stretcher and jumped down with open arms shouting:
"I can fly!"
But he did not fly...
The boy smashed to the floor cracking the last vampire's canine and broke his nose which began to bleed profusely.
Dracula made a face palm muttering:
"But how did Mavis zing with someone like you?"
Jonathan stood up and said, shooting an angry glare at the vampire, but could not stay that way for long and laughed dragging even Drac into laughter, but a moment later the Count ceased to rejoice and the boy, seeing the vampire become serious, stopped giggling in turn and began to worry.
Dracula used his telekinesis to bring him the magic cruet exclaiming:
"Essence of Dittany."
Then he poured a few drops on Jonathan's face, who was healed in a few seconds.
"Oh, thank you friend!" The boy said touching his face again healthy, "Drac, how soon I can fly?"
"Look, you're still a human being."
"But I had vampire fangs!" The human said imitating the long fangs with indexes over his mouth.
"You were turning into a violent vampire, so I blocked your transformation. However now you no longer have fangs, I broke one to keep you calm and the other you've done by yourself."
"What a pity, I would be the coolest vampire in the whole world!"
Ah ah ah! After me of course." Dracula replied laughing, but then scowled sighing thoughtfully.
"What's wrong, Drac? What happened after Van Helsing's attack?"
The vampire looked down; he did not know how to sweeten the pill.
"Where's Mavis? Why is she not here right now when I woke up?"
Dracula did not answer.
"Drac, please, what happened to Mavis?!" Jonathan raised his voice worried, and was already beginning to whimper.
"Mavis is alive." At last the vampire opened his mouth, but his voice was still sad as if it was not good news, in fact, the boy continued to be worried as before. "She's turning into a monster..."
The boy looked at him confused:
"But she's already a monster."
"Something worse than a monster, an evil and powerful creature ... already marching towards the nearest human city to vent her destructive madness and her thirst for blood.
"Drac! How can you insult your daughter! You know very well how good and loving she is!" Jonathan yelled at him, angrily.
"Her Soul is good and gentle, but her Spirit is cruel and ruthless, and because of the excessive power of your blood that she drank it has become so powerful as to overwhelm her and take control."
"A-and what we can do to save her?"
"If the love you feel for her is so strong that it was able to awaken her Demon, then it will be strong enough to awaken even her Soul."
"I will have to let her bite me again?" The young man asked a bit worried at the memory of that pain, but ready to accept the sacrifice.
"No, the Soul doesn't need blood to be fed, it needs love."
"And then what should I do?"
"I have no idea."
There was a moment of silence.
"And this is your great plan, Drac?"
"Look, kid, I had to take care of my daughter who was turning into a Demon. You who was worse than a rabid dog first and then a crazy screaming forgetful man and of Van Helsing who was reaching the castle. I solved the second and third points by myself even risking my life. I'm sorry if I didn't have time to think about the perfect plan to save Mavis!"
"You defeated Van Helsing?" The boy asked his voice full of admiration.
Dracula smiled, proud of himself.
"Sure, no one gets away if he does something wrong to my daughter." Then the vampire leaned down face to face with Jonathan and continued with a threatening tone, "Including you."
Jonathan retreated back, scared, nodding his head; maybe he knew what Dracula was talking about.
"Well, friend, don't you think it's time to go and save Mavis?"
"Yes, I've wasted too much time here..." Then looked at the human from head to foot, "Maybe worn and bloody boxers and undershirt are not appropriate clothing."
And with a snap of the fingers the young man became dressed in his clean clothes.
The two made their way to the stairs of the basement and going through the secret passage they found themselves in the hotel lobby.
The few guests who had not returned home after the birthday party assaulted the two investing them with questions about the health of Jonny and Mavy, Van Helsing and the safety of the hotel, and about the causes of the lack of staff.
The lobby was soon filling with a multitude of hysterical, worried, angry voices to the point that neither Drac, nor Jonny had a chance to respond.
"Shut up!" Shouted Dracula rising up a few feet from the ground and generating a red aura around him.
Silence.
"That's better, Van Helsing has been defeated, as you can see Jonathan's fine, but now I have to go pick up my daughter, though there is nothing to fear."
"I do not trust you!" A gremlin complained.
"Blabbing Blabbling Blabbling!" A pink reptile man yelled in an incomprehensible language.
"Yeah, he's right," A swamp monster began to speak, "First you hid the presence of a human-"
"Hey!" Jonathan interrupted him, irritated by what he had heard.
"Yes, no offense, you're a good guy, but if you had bad intentions?" The reptile-man apologized.
Immediately after all the monsters once more began to grumble and complain, generating again a chaos of voices in the hall.
"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" Drac said with friendly voice, "If you want to leave the hotel, that is not a problem, I'll help you by zombies, but then you'll miss the great party which I'll throw to celebrate the healing of my two kids, totally organized by the party planner Jonathan!" Dracula said bringing the boy to himself to put him in the spotlight.
There was a moment of silence, broken shortly after by the joyful shouts of monsters.
"Very little is needed to calm them down, right Drac? But I will really organize a party?"
"Of course you will Jonny, by now I promised."
"Yeehaw! Then run to save Mavis!"
Dracula nodded his head and immediately after the two came out of the hotel, the sky began to be rosy, dawn was near.
"We have to hurry." The vampire growled worried, "We haven't much time; I just hope you are able to stop her..." He muttered to himself
"What are you talking about?"
"No, nothing..." Dracula sighed, after which he took the human by the collar, turned into a vampire and began to fly at the same speed that allowed him to reach Jonathan's plane a few days before.
The young man could not even open his eyes as they were flying too fast, but suddenly they stopped.
"No..." Dracula sighed, choking with anguish.
The bat began to lower in altitude slowly, while Jonny had opened his eyes, but saw nothing of what was worrying the vampire so much, until the two came under the branches of the trees.
Dracula landed and turned human. He had a resigned and sad face, as if he already knew what he was seeing, however Jonathan was paralyzed with his eyes wide with fear, his mouth was slightly open and was shaking as if to speak, but he was too upset to do that.
Around them there were hundreds of pieces of armor scattered everywhere, broken brooms and witches and gargoyles slumped on the ground.
The vampire breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the heartbeat of the monsters that were battered and unconscious but alive, and then he blinked.
"Frank! Murray! Wayne!... Griffin?" Cried the count running towards them, "Is everyone okay?" He asked once he reached them.
"Ouch... Hoff..." They complained.
Fortunately they were alive and did not appear to be injured, except Frank, who had all his pieces scattered around the forest and Griffin who Dracula was not able to find.
"Drac?" A timorous voice asked; it was the invisible man.
The two looked around looking for him, but of course there was no one.
"I'm sorry, but I got scared... When the situation has degenerated I preferred to flee, do you remember what happened the last time I was knocked out?"
"At the celebration for Mavis' birth... How can I forget...? You got drunk and you passed out on the hotel forecourt, we found you the next night!"
"That's right, I became red as a tomato because of the sunburns and you found me because Frank, while running, stepped on me! I didn't want that to happen again!"
Jonathan was confused by the first part of Griffin's speech, but he did not ask questions.
"Don't worry; you did the right thing to remain healthy to take care of others." Drac spoke, "What can you tell me about my daughter?"
Griffin sighed.
"It was... strange... we had positioned ourselves all around her and... A bang and... Darkness, a darkness darker than I've ever seen... and I fled..." The invisible man lowered his head in shame of having abandoned his teammates, "That thing..." He raised his eyes again, "It's no longer your daughter... get ready for the worst..."
"Griffin, what do you mean?" Jonathan asked, but also Drac wanted to ask him the same thing.
"Here's what I mean..." Griffin said pointing at something, hard to understand what and where he was pointing...
Dracula and Jonathan looked around, then the vampire took a few steps and bent down to pick up from the ground a torn and bloody white dress, it was what remains of his daughter's hospital gown.
"What happened to my daughter?" The count asked, worried.
No response.
"Griffin?" The vampire exclaimed, but still nothing, "I hate him when disappears..."
"Drac..." Jonny said, trembling, the words died in his throat.
The Count turned to him and saw the fear on his face, the fear of a man on the brink of losing what he holds most dear in the world.
The boy was not able to finish the sentence, but the vampire knew what he wanted to ask him, but he had no idea how to answer.
"We'll save her ..." He said, perhaps to give hope to the boy or to give it to himself, but the truth is that he was beginning to have doubts about the future of his beloved daughter.
He was demoralized, but the boy hugged him tightly, a hug that only a father can receive from a son and that left the vampire amazed, making him smile again.
Jonathan could not see what it was because his blast made him turn and now he was in freefall from a height of a few dozen meters.
He covered his face with his arms and closed his eyes; he was rotating on himself and had no idea when and how he was going to land, so he just waited for the imminent impact without thinking about too much.
The only thing he felt was the crunching of broken branches and the pain of cuts and abrasions, it seemed that this torture would never end, but it ended in the worst way, he landed on his crotch on a large branch, then he slid sideways and ended up falling on his back on the grass, filled with chestnut spiky cupules and some other rained down on him.
The young man was still lying on the ground with his legs apart, the pain of the first impact was too strong, and everything else compared to it was a shiatsu massage.
It took a few minutes before he could get up, but the pain had moved to the abdomen and after the first step he falls to his knees and bent forward to touch his head to the ground.
"I have to save Mavis... at the cost of losing my balls!" He chuckled to himself, finding the strength to get back on his feet.
He looked around and saw Drac a few dozen meters away and he reached him staggering. He was holding his balance so badly that he had to look at the land where he was going to avoid falling. Once he reached him, he knelt beside him who was covered by the mantle.
"Drac, how are you?" Asked Jonny in an aching voice as he shifted his cloak, but what he saw did not seem like him at all, the vampire had a severe laceration to his abdomen. Blood came profusely, but the edge of the wound was already starting to heal.
"Don't worry about me... Save my daughter!" He answered in a trembling voice.
Jonathan with the corner of his eye noticed a large shadow move slightly away from him, then looked up suddenly and then he fell to sit, scared.
A few dozen meters away from him there was a huge black dragon slumped to the ground, his head was bigger than Jonathan himself.
"W-What the hell are you?" Jonny asked, hiding himself behind the wounded vampire, but the creature did not answer and remained motionless staring at the human, then continued, "It was you who attacked Drac? No, you seem to be wounded like us, but then-"
"My baby... What happened to you?" The voice of the vampire interrupted the human, he turned toward him, but the count was not looking at either the dragon or Jonathan, his eyes were pointing upwards, behind the boy.
"Drac, what are you..." The young man tried to ask, but he stopped when he heard a soft sigh behind him.
A cold shiver ran down his spine and froze the blood in his veins.
Painful as a hand grasping the heart and squeeze it tightly.
His heartbeat stop for a moment.
A long moment.
And then...
Evil.
Pure evil.
Just pure evil.
A presence far worse than the wounded dragon in front of him.
The dragon stared at Jonathan.
Both motionless.
Both frightened.
In the eyes of that dragon there was not wickedness, but only resignation and impotence.
That monster was not a threat.
The real threat was another.
A creature so obscure as to generate darkness around itself was behind the helpless human.
And from that darkness widened two large glowing yellow eyes and a grin that slowly grew larger in a sadistic and evil expression.
Usual inevitable cliffhanger... I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As you can see I'm trying to write longer chapters (about 4000 words instead of the usual 1500) I hope it's worth it.
I added some details to the final, I hope that now you understand that the dragon and the Evil Demon are not the same thing.
Another thanks to wallaceb who advised me on the song "Monster Mash".
The links of my cosplay photos from Lucca comics are on my profile.
Let me know your impressions!
See you soon!