Chapter 14
Dracula awoke with a yell as the skull phone next to the bed started screaming loudly, causing him to hit his head in pure irritation and grumpiness at having to wake up so early.
"OW!" the skull cried as Dracula slammed his receiver down hard to make it stop screaming, "Hey, you set me to go off at this time, Boss, I'm just doing my job."
"Whatever, bone head," Dracula moaned as he tried to go back to sleep, but then he shot up with a start when he suddenly remembered what time it was and what he was supposed to do, he gasped loudly, "Holy Rabies, we're going to be late!"
Ericka woke at the sound of the alarm and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she moaned sleepily, "Drac, what time is it? What are we late for?"
He looked down at his new sweetheart with a nervous smile as he said, "Uh, eh, Ericka my Honeybat, it's your birthday, and I want you to have the bestest, specialest birthday ever, so uh, I uh... can't tell you because, erm, it's a surprise, and I won't spoil your surprise birthday present."
Grinning hugely, Ericka remembered what day it was and embraced her lover as she gushed excitedly, "Oh, Drac, I can't wait to see it! The other day was the greatest of my life, and now you have another surprise for me."
She quickly got out of bed and started to get dressed, but Dracula told her to put on her normal pink dress instead of her disguise so she agreed. While Dracula smiled about the surprise he planned for her, his heart ached with guilt behind it as he remembered his deception. He tried to push it away as he remembered why he had to do it. Now he can redeem himself for it by keeping his word and taking her to see what she had dreamed of her whole life.
A few minutes later, Ericka was back in her old pink and purple dress, which made her wonder why the Count wanted her to wear her old garb instead of her vampire disguise, until he told her to wear her cloak to cover her true human form.
Dracula quickly redressed and he even redid Ericka's long, long golden hair in it's original elegant and intricately ornate braid. Ericka thanked him, and then decorated her hair with dozens of beautiful kinds of flowers (Dracula had picked them out for her the other night). As she twirled around looking herself over in the mirror, Dracula's heart soared at his first sight of her appearance.
Quick as a wink, he took her out to the driveway where an old hearse waited for them with the pumpkin headed Headless Driver waited for them, although Dracula told the driver he intended to drive Ericka himself.
"Before we go," Dracula then told his human sweetheart, "I need you to wear this."
He held up a black blindfold for her, but she only looked at it with confusion as he smiled wily at her.
"Why?" she asked suspiciously as her own wily smile grew.
"It's part of the surprise present for you, and I want to make sure nothing ruins it," he answered with a mischievous smile.
Ericka caved in with a sighing laugh as she finally allowed him to put the blindfold over her eyes. Dracula then guided her into the hearse and quietly drove the hearse out of the hotel driveway at crazy speed like the metaphorical bat out of heck.
Dracula and Ericka were buckled in nice and tight but still she bounced around and about beside him as it raced through the rugged terrain and dirt roads of the dark forest before it finally smoothed out as the forest disappeared and the trees opened to clearer mountains and views of valleys, since Dracula had memorized instructions secretly earlier that morning to get to the village.
Yet Dracula was unaware the forest was not completely devoid of things other than it's hidden creatures, for as the hearse sped through the forest a party of searches sojourned through the forest in search of the woman's beloved 'flower' and as though in slow motion saw the hearse rapidly approach, forcing herself and her ogre posse to leap out of the way to keep from being hit, and through the hearse's driver's window was her hated enemy, and worst of all sitting next to him was a blindfolded Ericka.
As Gothel watched the hearse disappear through the forest, her face twisted with a hateful seething sneer as she felt the smooth and cold metal of her dagger in her hand, hidden in her dress. No sooner the hearse had gone, Gothel lead the ogre posse across the bridge to the monster-inhabited hotel. As soon as they reached the revolving door, Gothel halted. She will easily be recognized as a human and will surely be killed. An idea came to her as she ordered one of the ogres to check and make sure if no one was inside the lobby yet.
The ogre slipped inside the revolving door and poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear. Looking around the lobby, the ogre could see no one and signaled with a hand gesture, "All clear!"
The ogre posse squeezed through the revolving and collapsed on top of each other when they made it out. Rolling her eyes, Gothel scanned her eyes for what she needed to disguise her human appearance until... Bingo! A storage closet. Going inside, she told the ogres to wait outside for her.
A few minutes later Gothel emerged in a witch's garb; her face and hands had been painted green, a long plastic nose attached to her nose, her costume a black dress with a maid's apron, and a witch's hat upon her head. But the second she came out of the closet her eyes widened to find not a single ogre waiting outside for her. Her eye twitched and a snarl of frustration escaped from her lips.
Gothel made her way further down the seemingly endless halls of the castle, not really knowing where she was going or what she was looking for, only that Dracula had kept her precious flower somewhere in this castle for his own sick purposes. Maybe she'd find an advantage by getting to know even a small portion of the castle's interior layout.
She suddenly heard the ding of a descending elevator and quickly hid again to the side of another hallway in the alcove with another weird and frightening potted plant was. A witch in a maid's apron exited the elevator pushing a cart full of towels and sheets down the right side of the hallway.
As she waited for the witch maid to leave, Gothel followed the witch maid at a distance, hoping she would at least lead her to Dracula's hidden chambers or some kind of private layer where her flower had been kept. The witch then seemed to freeze, and Gothel nearly panicked, but then went through some large wooden doors to hide the second the witch turned around to see if she was being followed. Seeing no one behind her the witch maid shrugged it off and continued on her way.
Gothel sighed in relief at not being seen as she grasped her chest, but her relief turned to surprise and then irritated outrage as she realized she was in some kind of room that looked to be a mockery of a torture chamber trying to be a kitchen. But what really peeved her was the sight of seeing her remaining loyal ogre cronies pigging out on various foods and stuffing their faces like savages with atrocious table manners.
"What the hell are you doing in here?!" she seethed in anger, "You were supposed to be waiting for me!"
The ogres only looked on blankly at being caught. The tallest ogre opened his mouth to answer his mistress only to let out a loud belch, causing Gothel to feel disgusted at the stench of his repulsive breath.
"We were, Boss," he explained, "But the food here smelled so good we thought we could have a quick snack."
Gothel growled in frustration as she hissed, "Fools! You listen more to your stomachs and your horny urges more than your brains, if you even had any! Get back out there, put on disguises so no one would know what you are, and find out what those monsters know about my flower, or what that damn Dracula plans to do with her!"
One of the ogres then got distracted again as a gray rat when Esmeralda came out of the shadows and started squeaking angrily at them, protesting at their eating food that clearly wasn't theirs.
The second tallest ogre then grabbed the little rat and said absentmindedly, "Heh, heh, lookie here, fresh rat snack, my favorite."
"Hey, I want a piece, too," demanded his shorter friend as he reached up for the poor rat as she squeaked for help.
Gothel was about to yell and berate them more when she heard a muffled yell from somewhere in the shadows as she told them, "Wait, what's that? And put that filthy vermin down!"
The ogres groaned in a disappointment as Esmeralda was released. Her nose twitched when she picked up that familiar scent from Gothel A human in disguise. The rat quickly skittered to the same shadowed area Gothel heard the muffled yelling.
"Find out what that is," she ordered, and one of the ogres reached over and pulled a wheelbarrow out from the shadowed corner with a pint sized hunched back monster man wearing a chef's hat and uniform and seemed frozen or petrified as he held a frying pan in one hand and his other hand with a finger up his long nose.
He muffled what might have been a cry for help as Gothel walked up to him gracefully in a seductive manner with a sway of her hips and spoke in smug coyness, "Well, well, what do we have here? A little hunchback chef too stiff for picking his nose."
"You brainless fools!" Quasimodo strained to say through his frozen mouth, but it came out as incoherent muffles, "Stop eating my food or I'll have Esmeralda scratch your eyes out! And you, woman, you're no maid! Esmeralda can smell you're a human! I should cook you into a stew for that and feed it to those savage ogres for this indignity!"
Gothel scoffed at his threat, "Oh, please, you're hardly a threat to me in your state. Somehow I think somebody would have noticed you missing by now, and the monsters in this place are stupid or they don't care, either way it's not my problem."
The ogres scratched their heads at the conversation between their mistress and the frozen chef, exchanging questioning looks at what was going on.
Gothel rolled her eyes as she simply droned out, "I can understand 'frozen,' years of experience. You fools wouldn't understand."
The ogres shrugged again as Quasimodo continued to muffle, "Get out of my kitchen! Help! Somebody, help! There's humans in the hotel!"
Gothel gave him a look that piqued her interest at the mention of 'humans,' indeed she wasn't the first one to come here and she became all the more certain. She got a little more flirtatious as she tickled Quasimodo's fat chin with a sharp finger tip and said, "There's another human here, hm? Now, how about you be a good little monster and tell Good Mother Gothel where her daughter is. I know she's been here, a pretty young girl with the longest golden hair that glows and heals the sick and injured?"
Something in Quasimodo's mind seemed to light up at this, he even became a bit scared of the woman more and not just because she was another accursed human.
"Spiteful human!" he muffled in a festering frustration, "Somehow a human girl found this place and disguised herself as a pretty vampire to blend in with the hotel guests, but she didn't fool Esmeralda's sharp nose. I finally found her playing some ridiculous game with Monsieur Dracula, but I managed to captured her and bring her here to make a delicious Human Potpie for the guests. If Dracula wasn't going to get rid of an invading human himself, I would do it for him as well as make a tasty dinner for the distinguished guests. But Dracula was an even bigger fool than I thought. For some reason he came for her, saved her, and helped her escape from here. I asked what was with him and the human girl but he just barked at me in an obvious lie she was a vampire, like him. But when she didn't scare Esmeralda, I tried to warn the rest of the hotel but then I ended up like this."
But when Quasimodo explained how he almost made Ericka in a 'human potpie' Gothel's eyes lit up with an absolute horrified rage as her face twisted with that same rage.
"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" she sneered with a hiss as a silver dagger suddenly appeared and she held it to Quasimodo's neck as though to slice his throat, and he actually became terrified by her sudden movements, "You monsters are all alike, bloodthirsty and brainless, taking something precious that's rightfully mine!"
Quasimodo actually whimpered in fear at this.
Gothel then tried to calmed down as she remembered where she was and what she was here for, her lovely face then softened a bit to a dark smile as she got a better idea. She called to one of her ogre cohorts as she remembered Dracula had taken her precious flower somewhere in that hearse, and told him to have one of his friends follow the path back and see where that hearse had gone.
She turned back to Quasimodo and spoke with a mixture of seductiveness and arrogance, "Besides, you could be of some use to me, and maybe I could offer you a chance to get back at whoever did this to you."
"Dracula," he muffled.
"Really?" she said charmingly, then in more of a singsong voice, "Then help me get back my flower and you can get revenge on Count Dracula."
If Quasimodo's face was able to express any emotion, he would have smirked evilly at this despite being offered revenge by a human woman. Of course, Esmeralda would be uncomfortable and suspicious of Gothel and what she has to offer as she narrowed her beady eyes to keep a close eye on the woman with graying hair.
Meanwhile, the ogre who had made a total mess of the kitchen refrigerator had gotten orders from one of his friends to go search for the hearse and see where it had gone and come back ASAP. The brutish ogre scratched his head but he went on his way to follow Gothel's orders.
In the meantime the other ogres had their doubts about what they should do as they were told to wait with their mistress in the kitchen, so a few of them wanted to go with the ogre who had been given orders to track down the hearse, Gothel placed a hand on one of their stomachs to stop him and the others from leaving.
"Patience, boys," she smiled in a dark wicked expression, "All good things come to those who wait."
"Oh, I can't wait to see this surprise you have for me," Ericka squeaked in eager excitement.
While driving the hearse crazily through the haunted forest, Dracula's face dropped with a stinging guilt inside his heavy heart. The hearse began to slow down as it grew closer to its destination.
The hearse came to a gradual stop. Ericka smile grew wider as Dracula slowly removed the blindfold and said, "Welcome to the human kingdom of Corona,Eunice,Frank and Ericka, my darling."
Eyes growing bigger in awe, Ericka saw the hearse had stopped at the edge of the forest and a path lead to a wide and arching bridge over the largest lake she had ever seen and to an island upon which was an inhabited walled town dwarfed by a grand imposing and majestic castle at the center overlooking the entire island like a towering sentinel.
Ericka could only stare at the kingdom completely vexed and speechless, not know what to think or feel as she was only numb, completely unsure whether to rejoice with excitement and gratitude or fear and uncertainty as the memory of her horrible experience back in the village in the forest dawned in her mind.
"Is this...?" she asked, and Dracula nodded with a sad smile.
"The place where the lanterns come from," he replied with a choke as he tried to push away his lingering guilt.
He gave a startled gasp as he suddenly found himself being hugged by Ericka in a warm embrace, which he gingerly returned as she choked out tearfully, "Thank you, Drac, thank you so much for keeping your promise."
"Of course, my love, it's your birthday. After all, I gave you my word," Dracula responded with tenderness, showing another look of doubtful guilt Ericka didn't see.
She then released her tight hold on him but still held on to him as she spoke with some doubt, "But what do I do? I want to see the lanterns, but what if those people are like those others in that other village at the graveyard? What if they try to cut my hair or shove pitchforks in my face? I don't think I can do this, Drac."
Dracula smiled warmly as he gently kissed her forehead and spoke with encouragement, "You're going to be fine, this is your dream. Besides, you know what happens if your hair is cut and they're idiots for trying. And if that ever happens, I will be there to protect you. Now, go live your dream."
"Come with me," the blonde girl insisted.
"What?" the Count gasped almost in terror at the thought of wandering through a human village, "No, no, no. I'd like to,Ericka, but uh, eh, it's still day light out and you know what happens to me in the sun. You'll be fine without me, I'll wait right here until you're ready to go back to the hotel."
"Please, come with me Drac," Ericka pleaded to him, "My dream doesn't feel worth it without you, and I'll feel so much better if you're with me. I'll find a way to protect you from the sun, please go with me."
She gave him that adorable frown and sad round eyes again. That pouty face both warmed and ached the Count's heart as he felt conflicted with himself from his still lingering guilt and going with her as he saw how much it meant to her.
Finally the vampire caved as he said reluctantly, "Oh, alright."
Ericka embraced him again as she thanked him profusely over and over again, though Dracula had a look of doubt and concern on his long pale face. They got out of the hearse together and slowly made their way to the edge of the forest. Dracula stopped short of where the shade ended and Ericka shot him a hard frown.
She quickly looked around and noticed other buildings at the edge of the bridge where she found some old laundry hanging by one of them. Ericka told Dracula to wait where he was as she quietly snuck away to grab a few pieces of laundry and other bulky looking clothes to disguise him, and hopefully protect him from being burned by the sun until they found a well shaded area.
Gradually, they made their way to the bridge and began to cross it, Ericka stared on and meandered back and forth on the bridge in a growing excitement as she turned back to Dracula and mouthed to him "Wow!"
It warmed and gladdened Dracula's heart to see her so happy, and a weight seemed to lift as he thought perhaps after this she won't want to see the outside world again, and maybe he really has done the right thing.
As they made their way into the city, Ericka looked around in awe as she turned this way and that with a big eyes and a wide smile, not really knowing where to look first while Dracula tried to stay close to her while staying as much to shaded areas as he could to avoid the sun should his disguise not be enough.
She then came to a bed of flowers near a shaded area and stopped to smell them, only knowing them from books in her tower. Ericka inhaled their scent deeply and she sighed happily at their enticing scent, signaling Dracula to come and smell the flowers. He shook his head in reluctance but she grabbed his arm and brought him over to the flower bed. He sniffed reluctantly just to humor her but he released a sudden sneeze that made pollen and petals fly about in a small cloud. Ericka giggled amusingly as Dracula shot her an annoyed face, but then he too smiled at how funny it was.
As they strolled arm in arm through the town some more, a large mural of what had to be the royal family caught her eye and she released herself from Dracula's arm to take a closer look as he followed closely. The faces of the king and queen were in shadows while the baby they held was an adorable baby girl with golden hair. This intrigued Ericka and made her wonder why the baby girl had white hair almost like her own when her attention then went to a family at the base of the mural where a little girl held a flower and explained to her little sister, "It's for the Lost Princess."
This also caught Dracula's attention as he studied the mural of the royal family, his curiosity piqued as his gaze shifted from the mural with the baby to Ericka and back again. Suspicions began to rise within him as he could see the strong resemblance between his new love and the baby princess in the mural. A chill went down his spine because of his suspicions, but he pushed it away as he nudged Ericka and pointed to something else she might find interesting.
A band of musicians were playing music in an open square and people had gathered in a circle to dance. Ericka saw what Dracula wanted to do, now that the sun was a bit further down and the square was becoming deeply shaded, they went to a hidden alley and quickly shed Dracula of his protective disguise (although Dracula still wore human clothes to hide his vampire garb). Ericka, Eunice and Frank joined in the dancing and tried to get Dracula to join her, but he again refused in reluctance, so Ericka pulled him into the dance anyway.
As they spent more time in town together, they found other surprisingly fun things to do and learn in the Kingdom of Corona. They visited the library, where they looked at many books both Dracula and Ericka had never knew existed, even maps and atlases of the world and tons of stories neither had never read before.
Shortly after the library, Dracula bought her a fuchsia flag with the royal family's golden sun crest on it, which made Ericka ecstatic as she held it up to see it against the many other royal family flags decorated throughout the square.
Soon they took some time to draw a large and intricate sun symbol together as Ericka showed off her artistic skills, and became amazed Dracula equaled her in skill as he helped her. The four of them smiled proudly as they drew the sun symbol together, impressing the human townspeople.
Dracula then bought him and Ericka cupcakes to share and ate them happily together, neither of the noticing a pair of royal pass by on patrol, one of them gave the now exposed Count a curious and suspicion glance, but they both shrugged it off thinking it didn't matter.
Shortly before the sun had completely set, Dracula and Ericka joined in for more dancing in the square, promenading with many other dancers in intertwined circles until they were suddenly in each other's arms, chest to chest, and their hand intertwined, both out of breath as the music ceased.
"To the boats!" someone yelled in the distance.
Dracula,Eunice,Frank and Ericka joined the villagers and got into their own personal gondola to have a good view of the lanterns as Dracula slowly rowed them out to the middle of the lake.