I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and the beta reader wallaceb.
CHAPTER 3 - Painful scars
Jonathan, stunned, felt himself falling down but the darkness and silence enveloped him quickly.
"Jonny?" A faint and distant voice broke the silence.
"Jonny?" It repeated louder.
"Eeeer..." The boy replied with a zombied groan.
"Finally you're waking up."
The human opened his eyes slowly, still sleepy.
"What happened?" He asked in a tired voice, trying to figure out who the figure beside him was, and then the boy's mind was crossed by a flash of the incident on the broom, to the terrible dark monster,
"I'm alive?" He exclaimed, sitting up on the bed in the infirmary, "Who was that horrible and evilly creepy creature that tried to kill me?" He concluded in the grip of panic.
"Horrible and evilly creepy creature?" Dracula echoed him, somewhat altered.
"Yes Drac, he tried to kill me!"
"That was me, you idiot!" The Count screamed in Jonathan's face, "I just wanted to stop you, but because of the wind and fog I failed, and then you crashed into me! Nobody wanted to kill you, even though now I'm changing my mind..."
"Woh, I'm sorry friend, I could be wrong, but why were you not turned into a bat? I would have recognized you better. With that fluttering cloak you appeared to be an evil spirit!" The human defended himself.
"In your opinion. If I turn into a bat how can I fly with this arm? Do you have any idea how strenuous flying is while using telekinesis?"
"Well, in any case, I don't understand what you were doing up there, if you wanted to play it would have been enough to get a broom." The boy continued, making the vampire pout, who replied angrily:
"But what were you thinking? Was I not clear enough when I said that a technical committee will come to monitor the safety of the hotel and we cannot afford any mistakes? We also have a little more than three weeks to prepare the castle for the Council meeting to be held here, among other things, exactly on the night of Ghosts' New Year, so there will be a lot of monsters."
"But monsters are here to have fun!" Jonny replied, almost angry about Drac's old bigoted behavior.
"No, not now, you taught me what it means have fun, but convincing members of the Order will not be as easy. Among other things, many believe this place is insecure because you were able to find it. Not to mention those who can't tolerate my approaching the human world ... So please keep order at least until the situation has calmed down. In addition I cannot accept that you arranged two teams for a game like this without inviting me!" The vampire concluded, laughing to dispel his worries.
Jonny replied with a friendly smile, and then held out his right hand to the vampire, who gave him the left hand however.
"Oh, yeah, sorry..." The boy whispered, remembering Drac's problem, so he shifted his hand and took the Count's, with which he helped the human to get up.
"Jonny!" Mavis exclaimed enthusiastically as he opened the door.
"Mavy!" He answered, just as happy to hear that voice.
The girl came to the door leaning on it with her shoulder.
"How are you?" She asked him.
He shrugged, thoughtfully, "I can't complain, after the blow and the fall I could have been much more bruised... but now you can see I'm fine!" He concluded, romantically, placing a hand on the door, just above Mavis's shoulder causing her to blush. But the loving moment was abruptly interrupted by Drac who passed forcibly through the two, separating Jonathan from his daughter with his shoulder.
"There is a lot of work to do; three weeks will pass by quickly." The vampire said, gruffly.
Dracula was right, the days did pass quickly, also because the new hotel policy was very restrictive, more than it was before Jonathan's arrival there was nothing interesting or out of the ordinary. But for the young couple that was not a problem, it was enough for them to be together to be happy.
…
It was dark; the only visible light was that of Jonathan's portable torch. He was with Mavis who accompanied him everywhere during his explorations of the castle.
"This place is awesome, two weeks were not enough to map all the secret passages, and thank goodness I have the help of talking spiders and of you who can turn into mist!" The boy commented.
"Well, we've already finished the basement, the hard work is done." Mavis replied.
"Maybe... but the more we walk into this place the more secrets we discover." The human continued, not hopefully while stopped for a moment to check out the old map of the hotel to which he had added all the secret corridors that they had found.
The two explorers had arrived anywhere and everywhere in the hotel thanks to the hidden tunnels and luckily only a few monsters had remained at the hotel because many of the passages led to the bathrooms in many rooms.
"You're doing a great job Jonny!" Mavis exclaimed with a smile, this compliment brought back a little confidence in Jonathan, "The many corridors my father forgot to built are reported and can be used as emergency escape routes."
"We did a great job," The boy pointed out, "But you're right, we need to finish this work if we want this place to not be closed."
"Jonathan! Mavis! This way!" A shrill voice echoed through the corridor, "We have found a chink between the stones!" It continued; it was the voice of a spider.
The two went forward until they reached a group of spiders, some attached to the wall and others hanging on cobwebs on the ceiling.
Jonathan took a candle from his pocket and Mavis lit it with her new pyro-kinesis powers.
With this done he approached the candle to the wall in the area indicated by the spiders and the flame began to move, there really was a passage between the rocks.
"Well done guys, now let's see if we can find the mechanism..."
Having said this, he blew out the candle, took the torch in his mouth and began to touch every stone in search of the right one, helped by Mavis. It was not long before she pushed the right one that caused the wall to open down like a drawbridge.
For a moment the air was filled with dust that had accumulated for decades making them cough.
"Where are we?" The vampiress asked.
"If my calculations are right we should be above your father's room..." The boy said checking the map.
"Your calculations are incorrect..." A sore and oppressed voice pointed out, "You're not above my room, you're above me!" It concluded.
The young couple looked at each other puzzled and moved immediately allowing Dracula to raise and close the portal, which was crushing him.
"Forgive us Drac, my fault; I must have miscounted our steps... It seemed strange to be above your room as it is in the attic..."
"Doesn't matter..." The vampire said straightening his bleeding nose, "You're doing superbly this work is something I should have done many years ago. Well, if you give me the updated map I can make escape routes more visible."
Sure, here, I also marked the dead ends and areas that would need to be rearranged." Jonny said, giving the rolled up maps to the vampire.
"All right, go ahead and have fun, you've earned it."
"Really daddy?" Mavis exclaimed, trilled.
"Of course, my darling."
"Jonny please, can you take me to the real human village?"
"Well, for me its ok, but he must ag-" But the human was cut off by Drac:
"No. Absolutely not."
"Why ever not?" The girl protested, "You don't say why not anymore?"
"You know, I do it for your own good. This is not a good time to exit. The area is teeming with journalists and you know how annoying they can be, not to mention those who are opposed to peace between monsters and humans can be dangerous."
"But..." The girl began, but the words died in her throat, then she moved over to a wall where she rested her forehead, "It's not right..." She sighed forlornly.
"We could show everyone that you can take a walk in a city full of humans without being chased with torches and pitchforks. Maybe I'll start with something less crowded... for example the Lubode castle!"
At these words the father and the daughter replied with two opposite expressions, she was excited, and he was visibly upset.
"How can you even suggest such a thing? Have you any idea how much suffering there is in that castle?" The vampire protested, agitated.
"It's absolutely not true, I've been there and that place is still full of love, no matter what happened!" Jonathan said.
"But I don't want Mavis to review what has happened!" The count continued, raising his voice.
The boy was about to reply, but he was interrupted by Mavis:
"I'm not a child and I know what happened." She said in a cold voice.
"My little one, there are things that I preferred not to mention... For your own good." Drac's voice became calm and loving.
No, trust me, I know everything." The girl said, looking down and biting her lower lip.
"You were too young to remember."
Mavis sighed, her throat burned and her eyes were wet. She took a moment to calm down, so her voice was not shaky, and then began to speak:
"My love, make me a promise... don't pursue revenge, but protect our daughter and create a safe place for all of us while waiting for humans to become mature enough to be able to live in harmony with monsters."
Dracula froze, while Jonathan watched the two confused.
"You... how..." The vampire tried to speak, but the surprise was enough to stop him.
"I know more than you can imagine."
The father wanted to reply, but at that moment the atmosphere was broken by Frank, Wayne, Murray and maybe Griffin.
"Hey! I thought I heard your voices!" Murray exclaimed, elated, but his happy expression cracked when he realized that the air was so tense that it could be cut with a knife, "What happened?" He asked in a calmer manner.
"My father does not allow me to have fun." Mavis said, crossing her arms, pouting.
"It's not true! You can have fun without leaving the hotel." Drac said to her.
"Welcome to our club, since he met that fem-dragon he returned to being the tedious Duke of Boredomland!" Wayne complained.
"I am a Count! The Count of Transylvania!"
"You look like the voivode of Wallachia. "The girl muttered through her teeth, this was more painful and poisonous than the bite of a lamia, so that froze all the other monsters in addition to Dracula.
The vampiress turned into mist and across the wall penetrating into the hidden corridor and leaving her father with his heart broken in more than a million fragments.
"How did she find out? Drac, you told her?" Frank asked, timorously.
"Of course not! But she also knew the last words that Martha said before dying... I dare not even imagine what her soul has seen while it was subdued by that demon..." The vampire said, grimly, "She told me she doesn't remember anything that had happened before Jonny woke her, but I fear she lied to not make me worry. Now I understand why she was emotionally unstable in the last few days, what happened to her is upsetting her more than she wants to show." Then, turning to the boy, "Has she said anything to you?"
Jonathan stood for a moment in silence, thoughtfully, as if he had not even heard the question, but a moment before the man repeated it he said:
"No, she has not told me anything, but I realized that she was weird." Then he turned to the vampire crossing their equally sad and worried looks, "I'm sorry for what she said, but don't worry, it's not what she really thinks."
"I hope so, but maybe I deserve it. Now go to her, tell her that if she really wants it we will visit the castle of Lubode, but please try to convince her to give up her dream of traveling. She'll not listen to me, but maybe you do." The words of Dracula burned his throat as if they were garlic, destroying the dreams of his daughter, again, was a torture difficult to bear.
Everyone looked at him sullenly and disappointed, especially Jonathan.
"Why?" Asked the boy, coldly, "Why do you keep chaining your daughter?"
"I'm afraid..."
"Afraid of what? Humans are not as violent as they once were, you have seen it too." Frank said with his usual calm.
"I'm not afraid of what they can do, I'm afraid of what she can do. What has happened...? Demons don't die so easily."
"Do you think she can be transformed again?" Johnny asked, worried, and this hypothesis frightened everyone.
The vampire looked down sighing and taking a moment to think before answering:
"I don't know... Now do you understand my fear?"
"I will try talking to her, but I cannot promise anything. In the meantime, enjoy this little vacation; nobody wants to bite off more than they can chew." Jonathan said, smiling.
"Come on Jonny, go to her and do your job!" Griffin incited the boy.
Dracula gave an approbation look to the human, who nodded his head and walked toward the door. Venturing in the depths of secret tunnels without a map probably would have meant wandering for hours alone in the dark, a tempting proposition, but this was not the time.
But Jonathan took just a few steps before stumbling to his knees on the ground.
All monsters hurried to help him, even though he was already rising to his feet.
"What's wrong?" They asked in unison.
"No, nothing... I'm... I just lost my balance..." He said, unconvinced.
Dracula pretended nothing was wrong, but he knew the boy was lying.
I'm sorry if there was not yet a lot of action, but the situation will change from the next chapter.
If you liked the chapter, remember to review!