I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and beta reader wallaceb.
CHAPTER 1 - Our new life
Mavis chuckled while watching Jonathan. She was not yet used to seeing him with glasses and the rectangular frames gave him an acculturated aspect that did not suit him.
"Have you read the Daily Inquisition today?" The maid asked as she served breakfast to the three while displaying a newspaper on the table in front of the vampire.
"No, thanks, I'm not going to read how they speak out against me..." He said, moving the newspaper away.
"There seems to be a fairly debated subject. When you were part of the Monstrous Supremacy party it was the majority party..." She said, "And when you went to The Hidden People party many followed you, making it the new majority party. Do you think you'll want to change your mind again?"
"In favor of the Humanists?" Drac asked.
"Yes, do you have any statement to make about it?"
The vampire looked at her puzzled, "Do I have any "statement"?" He said emphasizing this term rarely used in a colloquial speech.
The maid began to worry.
"Who are you? You're not on my staff!" Drac roared, standing up, angry.
"I-I ... People deserve to know!" The witch defended herself.
"No, not now!" The vampire replied.
"Then when?!"
"Please, stop shouting..." Mavis lamented, attracting the attention of the two, and then lowering her face, putting a hand to her forehead, as if she seemed to feel bad.
"I ask you kindly to leave this castle and don't come back. Don't force me to call the guards." The Count said to the journalist.
The journalist-witch took off her apron, "I just want to ask you some questions, what's wrong with that?" She insisted.
"I just want to be able to relax after everything I've been through... after everything we've been through..." Mavis said in a low voice, without even looking up.
Jonathan approached her and hugged her squeezing her to him; he shot a contemptuous glance at the nosy journalist and then he whispered in his girlfriend's ear a few words of consolation that made her feel better.
"Are you satisfied to have reopened my daughter's wounds?" Dracula muttered in a moderate tone painstakingly maintained to not annoy his child, "The reason I won't kick you away by force is because I don't want to give you anything to accuse me with and blacken my name."
"Without using force you won't get rid of me so easily!" The woman said defiantly.
"So go away and stop waiving the press report you're writing about me." Exclaimed the vampire with an imposing voice, he was trying to use his hypno-eyes.
"Well, thanks, the first page tomorrow will be mine, I can already see the headline, "Dracula tries to hypnotize journalist to censor the public information service."" the witch said, brazenly.
The vampire was about to lose his temper and throw the witch out of the window with no broom, but Mavis looked into the journalist's eyes saying:
"Stop pestering us, now." Her voice was so serious that she almost didn't seem herself.
The witch turned and left the dining room, her eyes were wide and staring into space, visibly in a state of hypnosis.
"Whoa! Mavy! You did use hypno-eyes!?" Jonny exclaimed, excitedly, "And even better than your father! You're great!"
"Hypno-eyes?" Asked the confused girl.
That's what Jonny calls the hypnotic look." Her father said, "My little girl, before today had ever done such a thing?"
"No, but... it was awesome!" She exclaimed, trilled.
"Well, every cloud has a silver lining, even though the demon is dead, maybe it left you with some new powers, right Drac?" The young man said.
The vampire seemed a bit worried about this, but he did not want to ruin the enthusiasm of the young couple, therefore he chose not to alarm them.
"Avoid straining yourself, my little hypnotist; you're still tired from what has happened. I myself took hundreds of years to hone my skills and although you are the daughter of one of the most powerful monsters in the world, if you don't have perfect control of your magic you can hurt someone." Then the Count sat up, returning to a bad mood, "Damned paparazzi... I'm afraid I'll have to close the hotel for a while."
"What?" Mavis asked, surprised and a little angry, "Why?!"
Jonathan wanted to ask the same question, but he was tasting his breakfast of caramel cockroaches; monster food was not so different from human oriental cuisine, he had eaten worse things in the local markets in China.
"Before I easily casted out paparazzi who importuned guests or me, but this is really too much!"
"But they have nothing to do but bother us?" The daughter complained banging her fist on the table. "It's been just two days since we've solved my problem, and they cannot give us a little truce?!" The vampiress concluded, angry.
"I have told them more than once, but they don't care, the only thing they want is to make the news... And if I continue to refuse to answer their questions, they will begin to publish their assumptions as if they were truth, and it will be much worse... I'm afraid I'll have to hold a press conference now that the situation is still under control."
"I think that would be a great idea!" Jonny said, "Maybe they'll understand that humans are not as dangerous as they believe!"
"I am afraid that will not be so easy, the issue of humans has been debated since the Order was founded."
"You mean those political parties that witch was talking about?" The boy asked.
"That's right; we monsters don't give much importance to the policy, also because we live in small self-managed groups isolated from the rest of the world. The only thing that affects us all is to clarify how to deal with humans, and about that there are three different thoughts that have given rise to three political parties.
"Monstrous Supremacy" is the fundamentalist party composed by those who see humans as animals to be exploited, especially as sustenance, but fortunately it's in decline, especially since Martha has convinced me to change my mind and abandon it.
"The Hidden People" is the majority party, moderate, to which I belong; we want to live in peace, hidden from humans.
And the "Humanist" is a new party, their dream of a peaceful world where monsters and humans live together, and after the meeting with you, I think theirs might not be just a dream..."
"Thanks man, that means a lot to me." Jonathan said as he knew this would be one of the greatest compliments that Drac would ever have made, then taking the newspaper ""The human being likes those who knew him."" The boy read. "I am on the front page! It didn't happen that time I was caught by drug traffickers in Brazil ... I still remember the title "Kidnapped American tourist, captors turn themselves into police after few hours.""
"How can blame them..." Drac sighed.
"Would you say that I'm unbearable?!"
The three laughed.
""Jonathan is his name; last name still remains a mystery..."" He continued to read.
"Yeah, we don't yet know your last name!" Mavis exclaimed.
There was a moment of silence, and then the boy went on reading without answering:
""We were able to contact 537 monsters that have stayed at the Hotel Transylvania during the period between September 27 and October 4 and by the statements it was found that 99.6% of the monsters, though at first frightened, are delighted to have known the human who they described as kind and partying; the only ones who are not entirely convinced are Mr. and Mrs. Skeleton who have said: -He would be a nice guy if he would learn to keep his hands to himself.-""
"Do you see? You're loved by everyone!" Mavis exclaimed, excited about the news.
"Drac, there is also an article that talks about you." The human continued browsing the newspaper. ""Another great stir was the death of Simon the monster hunter Van Helsing by Dracula that has earned him many admirations and that makes him one of the most influential monsters of the moment. But the story of Van Helsing is still surrounded by an aura of mystery. Nobody except Dracula, 580, daughter Mavis, 118, and the human, 121 (unconfirmed), saw him, and it has been impossible for us talk with them until now. Witnesses said that at 9:13 PM of 1st October, Miss Mavis Dracula, injured, came into the hotel, bringing with her the dying human. Both were injured by silver arrows, which are typical of the hunters.
According to preliminary unofficial reports the two young people ran away from the castle after an altercation with the girl's father, for unspecified reasons, at about 4 PM.
We know nothing of what happened in those five hours; the most likely hypothesis is that the human was injured accidentally during the struggle between the vampiress and the hunter.
In addition, some witnesses claim that Mavis had told to her father she he had bitten the human to save him, in which case he would have to turned into a vampire, but during his last appearance last night, some experts have certified he is still a human being. This shows that there is still much confusion and the stories are unreliable.
But the thing that worries many is how it could have happened after 114 years of peace to have not one, but two humans arrive at the Hotel Transylvania. Was it just a coincidence, or perhaps the hotel is no longer as safe as it once was? Or maybe the man is an accomplice of Van Helsing...?"
"What the hell!? They wrote that!? This man killed me!" The boy yelled, angry.
Mavis took the newspaper and read on:
""Even if he has the confidence of those who knew him, most other monsters think he is a threat.
However, we are waiting for an official communication from the protagonists of this story. "...
"Those bastards, they invent anything to make headlines!" Mavis said.
"Mavis!" Drac exclaimed, "I'll not tolerate such language at this table!"
"Okay dad, but that's what they are." His daughter replied, "That's what you want? You'll close the hotel for a while?"
"I don't know..." The vampire said, putting a hand to his forehead, reflecting on the delicate situation, "If I close, monsters would see it as a sign of weakness and I would lose their trust, and now their trust is the only thing I have..."
Cheer up friend! Let's talk about serious things; this place needs a renovation from top to bottom!" Jonathan said, full of enthusiasm.
"What are you going to do?" Mavis asked him, as happy as she was curious.
"First of all, I noticed that the phones in the rooms are only in contact with reception and nothing has a line that communicates with the outside. How do you do your booking?" The boy asked Drac.
"Via airmail."
"Cool! Like Hoguarts' owls or the classic messenger pigeons?"
"Owls? Pigeons? Bad postmen, owls are almost blind at short distances, so they crash into all the obstacles when they are inside buildings, and pigeons are often mistaken for food by the recipients... I use bats for night service and ravens for the daytime, but in the case of important parcels there are flying monsters such as dragons, harpies, and others."
"You also use the human postal service?"
The two vampires looked at each other amused. They looked like they were about to burst out laughing.
"What did I say?" The human asked, confused.
"Uncle Frank..." Mavis began to tell, giggling, "After being in China he sent himself home to England using the cheapest shipping that he found... Two weeks after departure the parcel was opened by humans in the customs office with the police because the X-ray had seen a body in pieces..."
"What?" Jonathan exclaimed, amused, "How did it end?"
"It was intervened by the MCM, "Mind Cleaner Monsters", a team specializing in solving cases of humans who discover monsters. They erased their memory. Since then, Frank still uses human couriers for domestic travel or within the European Union, but for travel abroad he must fly by an expensive Dragon Mail. Fortunately, six years ago, Romania joined this organization, to the great happiness of that stingy guy!" Drac told them, "But why did you want to know?"
"Because if we create a phone line it will be easier to communicate with the outside world. Also, even if you use flashlights and candles that make the atmosphere even more gloomy and spectral, electricity would simplify many things, you can also open a video games room." Jonathan said.
"No." The vampire cut short.
"Why not?" Mavis asked, a little disappointed.
"I did some research years ago; both the telephone line and the power line would require me to lay cables from the castle to the human world, making the hotel too easily intercepted by anyone. Especially now as it will be good to keep a low profile."
"Because of me?" The human asked.
"Do not blame yourself, it's all the fault of prejudice... but the thing that will give me more problems would be to prove to the members of the Order and all the monsters in my hotel that they are in a safe place, otherwise they will force me to close it, shattering Martha's dreams."
"What? But they can't do it!" Jonathan exclaimed.
"Like all monster public places, Hotel Transylvania must comply with the strictest standards of security." The vampire sighed, thoughtfully, "Before thinking about all of your ideas for entertainment, we should relate the security systems. I can understand an expert monster hunter managing to move on hordes of zombies and haunted areas, but if someone like you was able to reach my castle that means anyone can do it!"
"What are you insinuating?" The boy exclaimed in a threatening tone.
"Can I be repetitive?"
The human looked at him, puzzled.
"The fact that you haven't understood it confirms my thesis!" The Count replied, laughing in his face.
"Ah, is that so?" Jonathan exclaimed, rising and approaching the vampire holding up his sleeves, "Look, my challenge to a duel is still valid, but remember that a gentleman doesn't hit someone who wears glasses!" He concluded beating Dracula's chest with his accusing index finger.
With a slight movement of his index finger the vampire took off human's glasses, bending them and making them to float until he placed them gently in their containers on the table.
Jonny, being in a bad situation that he had not foreseen, adjusted the collar and foulard of Drac, pretending not to have said anything.
"Males... worse than children..." The young vampiress said, lowering her head to rest her forehead on the table, embarrassed, but also amused by the childish behavior of the two.
A small glimpse of ordinary life, but not too quiet for the three. But the reality is that the storm is not over, they are now in the eye of the hurricane! For how long will they be able to enjoy this peace?
I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, and remember to review!