You only zing once.
This was a fact that was well known among all monsters, but especially Dracula.
He had spent the last 128 years without his zing, without his wife, Martha.
As he looked out across the forest bathed in the sunlight of the day, he watched as airplanes flew overhead, one of which he knew contained Kate.
He had the opportunity to eradicate a member of the family that had lead to his wife's death, the last direct descendant of Ludwig Van Helsing himself, and he couldn't do it.
When Martha had died, he had focused on taking care of his infant daughter. Revenge had always been on the back of his mind, but taking care of Mavis took all his attention and that desire had faded. As more time passed, he was convinced that the Van Helsing family was no longer a threat once Ludwig was gone.
That apparently wasn't completely true.
Kate had brought back the anger and vengeance he felt for the Van Helsings full-force and had even given him an opportunity to enact that revenge upon her, let him kill her.
But even with the rage of revenge roaring through his veins, he could not bring himself to kill Kate Van Helsing.
He watched another plane fly overhead and he wondered if she was on it. Then he tossed that thought out of his head. He wasn't going to dwell on Kate Van Helsing anymore. She was out of his life and he wanted it that way.
He would focus on his family, just like he had in the past. As angry as he still felt against the Van Helsings for the death of his wife, he knew that revenge wouldn't bring her back. He would focus instead on keeping his family safe.
There was no need to think about Kate or any of the other Van Helsings ever again unless Kate broke her promise and they showed up on his doorstep. If that happened, he would be ready.
6 months later...
Dennis flew across the forest and farther from the castle.
With Mom having a baby, Dad and Papa Drac were running all around and paying no attention to him. He felt so left out. Why couldn't anyone hang out with him?
There was Winnie of course, but she had left with her family a bit ago to go on a trip and he was lonely. Besides, she always had her brothers and sisters around.
Whatever! He would just go out on his own and find new friends who didn't have any little brothers or sisters that could hang out with him all the time, he didn't need his family or his old friends.
He flew and flew for what felt like forever before stopping and transforming back to human form. There was a park and he was excited to see if there were any other kids hanging out there.
He stepped out and started running around, looking for someone to hang out with.
He ran and ran, but still didn't see any other kids around. Maybe it was too late for human kids? It was closer to midnight at this point.
He sat on a bench and let out a sigh. What was he going to do now?
He sat there for a long time when he realized that someone was sitting next to him. He turned and looked at an older woman with gray hair and dark green eyes. She was glaring at him.
"Hello?"
She narrowed her eyes at him, which only made Dennis more uncomfortable.
"Okay..." he stood and started to walk away. Suddenly he felt a hard crack to the back of his head and he descended into darkness.
Dennis woke up in a dark circular room. He looked around with wide eyes, fear filling him.
Then he heard a scream.
He jumped back from the sound, finding a small round window on a door.
He stood and hurried to the door and tried to open the door. Locked. He looked out the window and his eyes widened in shock.
Across the room was a woman hanging facing a wall, her feet just barely sweeping the floor. Wearing only a pair of dirty sweat pants, a cloth of some kind around her neck, her back bare to him. The same woman was standing next to her, a stern look upon her face. There was a man off to the side.
"Now," the stern woman said, "I will ask you again. Where is he?"
The woman hanging said nothing. The stern woman turned to the man and nodded. Dennis watched with shocked eyes as that man stepped forward with a whip in his hand. He flicked the whip sharply and hit the woman, who let out another scream. Dennis watched blood drip from her fresh wound at the strike.
It was at this moment that he realized that this was just one of many marks on the woman's back.
"Now, let's try this again. Where...is...he?"
The woman hanging didn't answer, not once during the remaining hour that this continued. Dennis' fear continued to grow at watching this. What would they do to him?
Finally the woman must have passed out from the pain and they released her from the wall, forcing her arms back into a tank top and covering her wounds. The top instantly became dark with the blood from her wounds.
They dragged her and laid her against the wall before lifting her arms and chaining her to the wall.
The stern woman turned back and looked over at Dennis, her eyes filled with hate. He tried to control them, but found that somehow he could not reach them. They had him trapped and he couldn't get out. Dennis took a few steps back and sat back on the ground, hoping that woman would stay away from him.
He didn't know who these people were, but he couldn't control them to release him. Fear filled him. Would they hurt him like they did that woman? Would they do something worse to him?
He shouldn't have ran away. He should have stayed at home and talked to his parents, talked to Papa Drac.
He wrapped his arms around his legs and placed his head on his knees, then he started to cry.