I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and the beta reader wallaceb.
CHAPTER 2 – The postman
The day went peacefully for the young couple who spent their time talking about their lives, even if the discussion soon became a monologue from Jonathan who was unable to finish talking about all of his adventurous travels. Mavis meanwhile noticed that despite having lived six times longer than the boy, she had never experienced anything to make her feel really alive, but now she could finally start a full life next to the person she loved.
Unfortunately Dracula's day was not as carefree as that of the young couple. He was in his office at the top of the tower, but the view of the forest that he had up there was obscured by hundreds of flying creatures of all kinds, from small insects to big birds of prey, bombarding him with correspondence from all over the world.
The advertising the newspapers were doing was more or less pleasing to the vampire and his hotel. Bookings had increased dramatically, so much so that it was not enough to check the identity of all future guests one by one to prevent the entry of other journalists and the merely curious that would have been annoying, and so he was forced to reject all requests for overnight stays that were not those of his trusted acquaintances.
The letters were piling up every minute and the more the vampire read them, the more they entered from the window, it seemed an impossible task even with the help of his super speed.
There were letters of all kinds, mainly reservations, but also birthday wishes for Mavis delivered late, all sorts of questions regarding the safety of the hotel and on humans, congratulations for the defeat of Van Helsing, but also worrisome threats to Dracula and Jonathan for the opening that the famous vampire started to have towards humans. It was especially these that gave even more anxiety to the already too worried old count, but he could not do anything but ignore them.
"If I go on like this I'll become crazy before dawn..." The Count said to himself, dropping his head on the stack of unread mail, "I need a relaxing break... Housekeepers!" He concluded and in a moment a group of witches riding brooms arrived.
"Ladies replace me for a moment, read the correspondence and answer only to reservations saying that we are not accepting new arrivals, and we apologize for the inconvenience blah, blah, blah ... invent something! The others leave them, I'll read them later."
"Yes, sir!" The Witches said in unison, standing at attention.
That said Drac walked toward the door, but just before leaving he turned giving a new order:
"If you receive a letter with the seal of the Order of the Dragon let me know immediately."
After that he left the room, closing the massive door behind him.
"You know where Dracula went, right?" Asked a witch to her companions, who responded with a shrug of their shoulders questioningly.
…
"We just wanted a relaxing break!" The vampire exclaimed as he let himself bask in the warm waters of the hot tub in the underground spa.
"I can finally forget about the worries and responsibilities of my hotel..."
But the vampire did not have time to finish the sentence as the water in which he was immersed started swirl more and more, until the whirl became a waterspout a couple of meters high but suddenly fell to the ground.
"You should join the water aerobics session of Mr. Fly, you put on a belly in these last hundred years!" Dracula exclaimed, amused, as he stood up in the tub now almost completely empty.
"Look, I'm in perfect shape, it's your pipes that are too clogged with lime scale!" The old merman friend said, stuck from the waist down in the tub drain.
"I thought you blamed the fresh water as you usually do."
"Of course! You know that the fresh water from this lake swells my skin! Come on; help me get out of here."
"And why? We could call a council here, you like that idea?"
"Yeha, why not? So between us the most embarrassing thing is you with that ridiculous swimsuit!" Neptune exclaimed, pointing to Dracula's yellow swimsuit with a black stylized bat.
"Of course you do not like it, you have no style! Now just give me a moment to pull you out." Drac said, holding out his hand to the awkward king of the seas.
The merman took the vampire's hand, but a slight tug was enough to rip the zombie arm prosthesis from his body and the ensuing hilarity caused the warrior to laugh out loud.
"You're old dude, you know? You even started to lose pieces!"
"But look at yourself," Dracula replied, reattaching his arm, "You're so fit that on your chest you have the turtle... in the shell side!"
"You're right man; we're dumb and dumber..."
"Enough talking, I'll call for help. Mr. Ghouligan!"
With the usual slow pace, typical of zombies, the plumber reached Drac and waited for orders.
"Clogged pipe in the hot tub." The vampire said.
At these words the zombie looked at the "cause" of the obstruction and then shifted his gaze to his little plunger and let out a sad and dejected groan.
"Hey, I hope that you don't also use that plunger for clogged toilets!" The merman said.
"Oh, don't worry..." The Count replied, sniggering mischievously.
…
"This place hasn't changed at all since the last time..." Said the dragoon, looking around, "How long has it been? A hundred years or so?"
The two were walking along the lobby of hotel.
"Yeah, why did you stop coming here on holidays?" Dracula asked.
"I liked the idea of a hotel for monsters, so I restructured the city of Atlantis, transforming it into a holiday resort suitable for saltwater monsters."
"Yes, thinking better I remember receiving your invitation to the opening, but I couldn't come, you know, between Mavis just become a teenager, working at Hotel Transylvania, and the difficulty to relax without air over two thousand meters under the ocean forced me to reluctantly give up..." Dracula replied sarcastically, "But I guess yours is not a visit of pleasure, right?"
"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I'm here to deliver this letter to you from the Order." The warrior said, pulling out a letter from his tunic completely drenched and faded, "... Oh well, the Council of the Order of the Dragon was set for midnight on October 31 2012, you, your daughter and the human are obligated to be present. So you still have three weeks to get everything ready. It will be better to organize everything well for the Ghosts' New Year. There will be many people here on vacation in addition to those who will follow one of the most important Council meetings of all time."
"You want to test me? Challenge accepted." Said the Count sure of himself.
"You know, Drac?" Neptune began to speak, "About guests, I remembered this place being a lot more crowded."
The vampire looked around; there were actually only a few zombies and a handful of guests.
"I know as I stopped the check in, but this place has never been so deserted, where is everybody?"
"Moreover, the few monsters that are here are looking at me in a strange way; they seem almost amused to see me..." The merman commented, a bit confused.
"Don't worry; it is because you're a famous monster..."
The words of Count filled the dragoon with pride, but the truth was that during the removal operations from the tub drain his comb over that hid his baldness was un-done and the plunger was stuck to his bald head for the most part.
"Come with me? I would like to also warn Mavis and Jonathan." The vampire concluded.
"Sure, I'll take advantage to take a tour of this amazing place."
…
The two sought the young couple everywhere inside the hotel, but without success, and in addition to them many guests were missing and also the staff seemed to be reduced, but nobody they asked for information had been able to help them.
They crossed the door that led into the garden. The sun had already risen, but there was fog that morning, so much so that from the garden you could not see the roof of the hotel.
Immediately Neptune looked at the colossal statue of the fountain that the Vampire had melted in his honor, but a moment later his proud expression became puzzled.
"Drac, is that statue missing something...?" The warrior asked.
"Some belly? Yes, I should add that." Dracula replied, jokingly.
"No, the trident! What happened to that fantastic replica of my trident? And why did you change it to a pot of flowers?"
"Oh, well..." The vampire paused a moment, remembering the horrible story Mavis told giving him a stomach ache at the thought, "It's that... the people saw it as something too formidable, it overawes anyone, you know? So I wanted to show the most benevolent side of water, that is the source of life, your great power is already well represented by the imposing nature of your statue."
"Oooh... I see... now I feel like the cooler monster!" The dragoon said appreciating the false words of the count.
"However, they're not even here..." Exclaimed Dracula still puzzled and a bit worried about where everybody had gone, "At this point where else I can look for them?" He concluded thoughtfully.
But his thoughts were interrupted abruptly by a wooden ball as big as a soccer ball that grazed his nose at full speed and a moment later Drac would have been run over by a yeti riding a flying broomstick if the vampire had not turned into mist just in time.
Once he escaped the danger the count returned to normal clearly angry and roared at the reckless monster, but was ignored by the Abominable Snowman who struck the ball with a cricket bat sending it flying towards the lake.
"What the hell are they doing?" Exclaimed Dracula, approaching the wall to try to see where the monster of the snows came from.
He saw three circles arranged in a triangle, floating a few dozen yards above the lake and beyond they could see a dozen or so people flying on brooms and other balls being thrown around, perhaps a version of "flying" basketball?
…
"I wanted to do this since I read the book!" Jonathan shouted, excitedly, more so then he had ever been, wiping his glasses wet by fog and badly attached to his head with a few turns of adhesive tape, while riding his broomstick over the water of the lake making it ripple behind him.
"Just because it's you who taught us this game doesn't mean that you can afford distractions!" A voice behind the boy said.
"And don't think that Mavis let herself be caught by you just because you're her zing. I warn you that in games she's very competitive, especially in play tag!" A pair of flying glasses exclaimed.
"You think you scare me? I played Quidditch thousands of times with my Play Station; I have some experience, even if it would be easier if the broom was equipped with a game controller..."
Griffin was about to reply, but the two were interrupted by a small golden ball that hit Jonathan defiantly and flew away, leaving a glittering trail behind it.
"You can't escape me!" They said in unison, starting to pursue the little bat made sparkling gold by some witchcraft.
The vampiress found the two at her heels who were reaching her, focusing and using magic she would have been faster than them, but she preferred not to cheat and put her agility to the test. She suddenly yawed heading towards the island on which the castle stands, forcing the seekers to make a curve longer than hers, at that speed their larger size made it a difficult tight maneuver, and then she made the game even more difficult by flying low to the ground between the legs of the spectators who watched the match, making them jump in her wake as she spawned a wave.
Jonathan and Griffin lost sight of her and stopped waiting for some movement, but seeing all too calm the human turned to the invisible man ready to say something, but the words froze in his throat.
Mavis was right behind Griffin's broom and she made grimaced faces behind the two; Jonny smirked defiantly, and then launched a quick attack to catch her, an attack that was suddenly blocked by something... something soft and invisible...
"Off! Are you crazy?!" Griffin yelled, angry, "Why did you hit me?!" He continued pulling a kick to the side of the guy who rolled on the broom leaving him hanging by his hands.
"Sorry mate! Mavis was behind you!" The boy apologized.
"What?" The man said, turning around and once he saw the golden bat he set off in pursuit.
"Griffin? A hand to pull me up?" The human exclaimed, dejected, "Guys? I need help!" He continued in a louder voice, hoping to be heard by his teammates.
The boy's eyes grew wide filling with terror, a bludger was reaching him at full speed and before he could react he was hit by the wooden ball. The blow was so strong as to turn the human who was now once again sitting on the broom, although a bit bruised.
Although his pain was heavy, his perseverance and his desire to win was stronger and he again started in pursuit of Mavis, who meanwhile had entered inside the playing field, forcing Griffin and Jonathan to do the slalom between the players and balls.
But among the throng the vampiress was hit by a basketball used as a quaffle making her destabilize. The blow was light, but Griffin took the opportunity to reach her. Mavis was so close that she could see the top of his broom and feel his hand touch her wings, but then something happened that she would never have expected, the broom overtook her and went straight on as if there was no one to driving it, although it was not easy to understand if it was empty or not.
The bat turned, Jonathan was still far away, but her attention was attracted by the cry of Griffin:
"Ouch! Damn! Stop throwing balls at me and let me down!"
Mavis could not hold her laughter back; the invisible man was hanging after the crash, from a floating ring used as a goal when she had passed through.
But she could not enjoy the comedy scene for long because Jonathan was approaching, and then she began to fly more and more toward the dense fog.
The visibility was very low, but the trail of gold dust that Mavis left made the boy's pursuit easy, but he felt something strange behind him, so he turned sure to see another player, but he saw little more than a black shadow fade into the fog, maybe just his imagination.
Shortly after he felt the blast of something that flew beside him and overtook him at high speed, again this time the boy tried to see what it was, but it disappeared again in the fog. It was not his imagination, something was flying around him and returned to the attack in a more direct way trying to ram him, but Jonathan managed to avoid it with a quick turn.
Whatever it was, it seemed immaterial, almost like a black ghost.
"No cursing! Everything but the Dementors!" The young man cried in panic as he looked around trying to figure where the monster would come out from next, but when he turned forward again that dark being was in front of him.
The boy made a loud braking with the broom, but it was not enough to prevent impact with the black specter.