Chapter 9

Later that morning, Dracula angrily burst open the large doors to the ballroom, before realizing he was still only wearing the towel he wore in the sauna, naked underneath. Using his powers, Dracula quickly changed into his regular clothing and then entered the ballroom like nothing happened. Ericka followed after him with a frown, but Dracula realized she too was still in a towel from the spa she left from and, in a flash of indigo mist, he changed her back into her vampire disguise and her hair neatly braided up again.

"I can't believe you stuck around, woman. You don't get it. Bad things are coming your way!" Dracula looked away with an embarrassed face as he tried to clear his head of that awkward moment he had with her in the sauna. "I got to...I got to get my thoughts together." After taking a deep breath, Dracula indicated to all the white clothed tables. "Okay, you see these tables? You can spend the entire day pulling them out and placing them, Wedding Planner!"

"Fantastic! I'm trapped here. It feels like the tower all over again." Ericka scowled as she walked up to a table.

As Dracula stood by the other side of the room, he fixed his hair and sighed. Then a loud scratching noise sounded behind him. Ericka struggled to push with all her might to place the table in the right spot. Dracula tried to hold in his anger but that noise was getting to him.

"Enough! Enough, stop!" Dracula shouted as he rushed in front of Ericka. "Go to a corner, you're in a timeout!"

"Timeout?!" Ericka repeated in anger. "I'm almost eighteen! I'm told big for timeouts!"

But Dracula used his powers to throw Ericka into a corner and make her suck her thumb as her back was turned to him.

"Okay," announced Dracula as he clapped twice, "Table 57, please move to position 23."

Ericka turned her head and her eyes widened when she saw the table next to her have a face and then float away to the spot the Count told it to go. "Whoa! That is amazing."

While Dracula continued to order the tables to fly to their positions, Ericka yanked her thumb out of her mouth and ran to the other side of the room. She began counting the tables until she picked one she thought was right.

"36 up, please!" She said as the table's face appeared, looking surprised to see a girl on top, but it followed her orders.

Dracula heard the human girl's excited laughter as he looked up to see Ericka riding the floating table in the air. "31 to 19!" he ordered, frowning.

This caused a table to fly into Ericka's table and knocking her on top of another table. Dracula smirked triumphantly for his little prank.

Getting back up, Ericka glared at Dracula with a challenging smirk. "24 up, please!"

When the table floated up, Ericka leaned forward and it flew in the direction she wanted. She flew straight past Dracula, only just avoiding him. The Count stared at the human girl in surprise, but then he smiled deviously.

Floating around the ballroom, Ericka looked around for the vampire. "Where did you go?" she muttered.

"Don't freak out, gravity face!" teased Dracula, as he appeared upside down on a table in front of the startled Ericka.

"Eat my dust, gray fangs!" Ericka teased back, as she flew away.

"56 and 43 to my side!" ordered Dracula, as two more tables appeared at his side and the chase was on.

Ericka looked back to see the Count right behind and she laughed. She ducked down a few times to avoid the other floating tables.

"Prepare to cry, Blonde Baby!" Dracula laughed, as he came close enough to her table as he tried to capture her, but the girl was smart enough to escape his open arms and she used the table to grind across the roof.

"That's how we do it, Handsome!" Ericka hollered as she laughed.

"Whatever!" Dracula shouted back with a grin.

Quasimodo and Esmeralda sniffed around at the stone floor, looking for the human that the rat smelled earlier at the pool and back at the lobby.

"Yes, keeping smelling," said the excited hunchback chef. "You catch the human, and then I will make human POTPIE!" he shouted at the end.

They ended up at the door to the ballroom and listened closely when they both heard laughter.

Both tables continued to fly like crazy around the ballroom, with Ericka avoiding Dracula.

"27, 45, 65, 76, 48, block her path!" ordered Dracula. "Block her path!"

Ericka gasped when she saw all of the tables create a wall with only slight gaps. "That's not going to stop me!" she shouted as she flew towards the wall and jumped through a gap with a spin, smiling happily. Then she landed on another table.

"Aw, c'mon, baby! Nice!" Dracula shouted, looking impressed.

Using his table, Dracula flew closer to the wall. One of the tables started to pray nothing would go wrong. But Dracula jumped at the last second through a gap with wide eyes and laughing hysterically for the first time in decades. Feeling a strong sense of excitement, Dracula leapt from one table after another laughing joyously and spread his arms wide after doing a little spin in the air. It was then he noticed he was falling but Ericka quickly caught him in her arms as she said, "I got you, Drac!"

The table carrying its two passengers flew past the doors and into the hallway. They both continued to laugh as they started pushing each other.

"Do not disturb!" shouted every shrunken head on every door. "People are trying to sleep here!"

A witch maid ducked for cover as the flying table flew over her. Dracula and Ericka pulled some towels off their faces the witch maid had carried and just laughed it off, until they noticed their table was heading for a suit of armor. The armor gasped when he saw the oncoming table. Dracula and Ericka held each other as they screamed. The armor tried to run but the table came too fast and crashed into the suit of armor.

Dracula was in an odd position on the ground but he had a very large smile on his face, laughing. "Did you see that?" He grabbed the armor's helmet. "Who is that gal, Lady Freaks-a-Lot?" He tossed the helmet away, wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh, boy! I have to say...THAT was fun."

The vampire looked down at the table cloth that he assumed his beloved human friend was under. "Okay, the fun you were talking about earlier? Nailed it!" he shouted as he removed the cloth. He then lost his frown because instead of Ericka being there, he saw the armor's torso.

"Ericka?" Looking around in concern, Dracula saw a bunch of footprints leading down one of the corridors. Instantly knowing who owned those tiny footprints and a feeling of protectiveness growing inside his chest, Dracula growled, "Quasimodo!"

Quick as a wink, he ran down countless hallways in a burst of speed. The sound of his feet sounded almost like a runaway locomotive. If something bad happened to her because of that suspicious chef, Dracula would never forgive himself. Whatever hate he felt for her melted away like ice replaced by love and concern. Unfortunately, he had to stop when he almost collided with Bianca and Sirena.

"Ladies? Why are you still up? The sun is out and you both need your beauty sleep." He slowly walked past them.

"We couldn't sleep. Do you know where Ericka is?" asked Bianca.

"Uh, I don't know, she uh..." he stopped when he suddenly realized something. Dracula was then leaning over the two women with narrowed eyes. "Why do you want to know?"

"Oh? Uh..." Bianca trembled nervously.

"Nice going," Sirena mumbled.

"But first, excuse me a moment." Dracula ran to the nearest suit of armor and ordered quietly. "Do you have a location on Quasimodo?"

"Yes, sir," replied the armor. "They're heading through the lobby towards the kitchen."

"I need them stopped immediately, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir! We are on it!"

As the hunchback chef walked through the lobby, carrying a tied up and gagged Ericka on his back, the elevator doors opened and a bunch of suits of armor with weapons came charging out into the lobby and towards the surprised chef. Quasimodo tried to make it to the exit when two suits of armor blocked his path.

"What is the meaning of this? Let me pass!" demanded Quasimodo.

"Quasimodo Wilson, you are coming with us!" One of the armors spoke, and reached out to grab the chef, but hunchback kicked him in the nuts. "Ow! Why did that hurt me?"

Quasimodo eluded the entire army of knights, all were now backed up by the gargoyle waiters, giving them the slip. Esmeralda beat up the spiders, all on the side of the knights and gargoyles, as Quasimodo destroyed the beautiful web banner that spelled out 'Congratulations Frank and Eunice.' Pieces of armor were scattered all over the floor whilst a cackling Quasimodo ran off with the terrified damsel in distress.

"Ha, ha! Quasi wins again!" The chef cackled in victory. "When bump with the hump, you land on your rump!"

"So, how do you know Ericka?" Dracula continued to interrogate Sirena and Bianca.

"We told you, since the pool party that you ruined!" scoffed Sirena. "Why are you interrogating us like this?"

"Because I want to know why you are looking for Ericka?" growled Dracula.

"We wanted to, uh...make sure she's okay since she became a friend to us at the pool party," replied Bianca. "Look, I don't know what it is your thinking, but whatever it is its not terrible."

"It's not that, it's..." Dracula paused, hesitating. He couldn't risk revealing Rapunzel's human identity.

Just then, one of the suits of armor appeared. "Sir! He made it to the kitchen!"

"He what?!" Dracula shouted in frustration. "What do I pay you for?!" He then looked at the two women. "I'm sorry, ladies. I have to go." he said, as he ran past the suit of armor and disappeared down the corridor.

The suit of armor followed but then came back to tell the women before leaving. "He doesn't pay me."

"Can you please let me say goodbye to Pascal or my mother one more time? I don't want her to know I didn't mean to leave without her permission, and I want to know if Pascal will be taken care of," Ericka pleaded as she was being cooked over the fire, with Quasimodo slowly rotating her.

Suddenly the doors slammed open and there stood a very angry Count Dracula.

"Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula!" greeted Quasimodo.

"Shut your hump hole!" Dracula snarled as he put the fire out with a swish of his cape, knocking the chef down, and untied Ericka. He was about to carry her away when Quasimodo blocked their path.

"Now you are helping her? What is it with you and this human?" asked a suspicious Quasimodo.

"She is NOT human, she's a VAMPIRE!" Dracula barked back, making the hunchback shrink back.

"That's right! I'm a vampire!" Ericka agreed, pleased that Dracula was here to protect her.

"If she is a monster, let her scare Esmeralda!" challenged Quasimodo, gesturing to the rat on a nearby barrel.

"The mouse? Pfft! Without a doubt." Dracula scoffed with a grin, before giving Ericka a look as if to say 'do it.'

"Okay, here we go." Ericka crept towards the rat and tried to pull on the same angry, red-eyed, vampire roar she had seen Dracula do before. But the rat wasn't even intimidated and just let out a bored squeak, causing a frightened Ericka to stumble backwards and into Dracula's arms.

"A HUMAN!" Quasimodo screamed at the top of his lungs. "A HUMAN!" He yelled again as he proceeded to swing around the kitchen. "Monsieur Dracula has brought a human into the..."

He was then frozen by Dracula to keep him quiet. Once that was done, Dracula took Ericka by the hand and left the kitchen together, the doors closing behind them.

"Esmeralda, help me!" muffled Quasimodo.

A gargoyle waiter then entered the kitchen, walked up to Quasimodo, took the hand that was pointing, and turned it around before sticking it inside the chef's nose and then walked away.