Chapter 16
The ballroom was booming with the Drac Pack's newly birthday song for the party, with an electro dance mix to it. A ghost table floated above the crowd of dancing monsters with a group of Wayne's unruly pups rocking out to the music, but their baby sister Winnie was so annoyed by this she beat her brothers off the table and finally danced alone while still sucking her binkie. Sirena and Bianca were dancing happily together, earning many approved whistles and cheers from a group of male partygoers. Salem spun on the floor while Pascal did the wave close by.
Elsewhere, Dracula had arrived at last, proudly overseeing the party. Monsters all around were congratulating him on the success of the party.
"Terrific party."
"You really outdid yourself, Drac."
"Gotta be the best one I've been to in 200 years!"
While he smiled and basked in the praise, Dracula felt a small bit of disappointment because the person he hoped to see wasn't there yet. Monsters continued to praise him, until his wide blue eyes finally saw who he was hoping to see.
Ericka , the girl of the hour, the Birthday Girl herself, had arrived in a lovely rose red gown and gazed at Dracula with a smile. The dress she wore was a fuchsia sleeveless gown, and her new cape was similar to Dracula's while she wore golden glass slippers on her feet. The dress had golden sun patterns sewn on the dress, resembling the very crest of the royal family of Corona.
"Wow! You look beautiful," Dracula greeted in deep awestruck, as he looked her up and down.
"Thanks," she replied bashfully, "Thanks for the party."
"Oh, yes," Dracula added with a wide smile, "You like my little touches?"
Glowing brightly in different colors, thousands of little fireflies flew in a pattern forming the image of a big red heart surrounding the forming letters which read 'Happy Birthday Ericka.'
"It's… amazing," Ericka gasped in awestruck at Dracula's birthday present.
The Count held out an arm for her to take, like an old-fashioned gentleman, which she took as he escorted Ericka to the dance floor. Both were then flanked by two security suits of armor guards.
Dracula bounced his head in rhythm to the pounding dance music, with Ericka still on holding his arm. As the monsters opened a space to let them through, the world's most famous vampire then leapt onto the dance floor to bust some moves in a break dance spin and a Russian style dance upside down, as his cape came alive to boogie off to the side.
Everyone cheered, even Ericka as she stared at his sudden dance moves in surprise. Dracula momentarily in a ta-da pose before breaking into dancing again. Then Dracula got a mischievous look in his eyes. He let himself fall back as Ericka tried to catch him, but he transformed into blue mist and pulled her further onto the dance floor and began to dance enthusiastically with her when he resumed his true form.
As the couple were enjoying their own dance together Ericka momentarily bumped into the large foot of Bigfoot, who growled in annoyance, but Ericka quickly apologized, "Sorry, Mr. Bigfoot."
But before she could resume dancing, Ericka halted. Dracula was no longer in front her. Looking around in mild concern, Ericka suddenly heard his voice which seemed to echo everywhere in the room.
"Can I have your attention, please?" Ericka looked towards the stage to see Dracula speaking through a microphone. The music ceased and the crowd stopped dancing to focus their full attention to the hotel manager. "I have a special announcement to make. But, I would like Ericka to come on up here."
The spotlight landed on the surprised birthday girl, not knowing what Dracula was up to. Behind her, the others monsters cheered or encouraged her to go. Especially Sirena and Bianca, Salem and Pascal. With a smile, Ericka boldly approached the stage just as Dracula stepped towards the edge of the stage and held out a hand to her. She placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her up on stage.
"Ericka... this one last gift I hope you will take." Dracula presented his small gift to the birthday girl, who took it eagerly and began tearing it open, determined to find out what it is.
It was only a small black box, but something was inside the box. Slowly, she opened it. What Ericka found inside the box took her breath away. A gold ring with a blue gemstone on it.
"Ericka... my love..." Dracula gazed up at her with an expression filled with hope and love, "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Ericka felt happiness pass through her. Eyes filled with tears, she was about to respond to his proposal when...
BANG!
Suddenly, there came a loud crack of thunder as lightning flashed from somewhere and the great hall door burst open to reveal an old and cranky looking vampire, with a menacing red background behind him.
All of the monsters froze at the old vampire's sudden arrival when he then demanded loudly with a raspy voice, "Alright, where's my future daughter-in-law?!"
Everyone stared at him in silent shock, not knowing what to do or say. One yeti even let his champagne glass fall and shatter, the only noise to be heard for a few long seconds.
"DAD?!" Dracula yelled in hysteria. "What are you doing here?!" Then he groaned sourly, "And still having to make a dramatic entrance."
"I was invited, of course," Vlad replied, clearly less than impressed with his son as he continued in a disapproving scoff, "So you run a hotel now. From Prince of Darkness to King of Room Service."
"Yes, so good to see you, too." Dracula greeted unemotionally.
Dracula turned his attention to Ericka, not knowing why she was smiling when his father had so rudely interrupted the party. He knew how much his father hated humans and if he discovered Ericka humanity, he would have her killed. He had to keep her away from his father, for her safety. He swiftly tried to block Ericka from Vlad's view as he started scooching her out of view.
"I want to say hello to your father!" she exclaimed, trying to push the vampire aside.
"No, you don't!" he retorted harshly, before whispering to Frank after he ate an entire plate of raw fish eyes, "Keep Vlad distracted!"
"I'm on it." Frank's mouth was full of food as he gave his friend a salute. Then Frank quickly made his way over to the newly arrived Vlad as he greeted nervously, "Hey, Count, how goes it? I'm Frankenstein. Actually, I'm technically 'Frankenstein's monster' you know, Frankenstein he's the doctor who..."
But Vlad started to walk away as he responded to Frank in boredom, "Would love to hear more. Call my people."
But Frank jumped in front of him again as he tried to say friendly, "So let me, uh, introduce you to my new wife and some of your son's other buddies."
"This is my new beautiful wife Eunice", Frank said while his wife blushed as she approached them.
"Charmed I'm sure", Eunice said, who was feeling flattered when Frank introduced her to Vlad.
"Enchanted Mademoiselle", Vlad said as he kissed her hand.
The three walked up to Murray, who was busy kissing the hand of the Mummette, as Frank introduced him, "Uh, this is Murray."
"Ah, please don't kill me!" Murray shrieked, then tried to play it cool as he cleared his throat and smiled, "I mean, uh, yo, V! What's up?"
"Talking toilet paper," Vlad drolled, looking unimpressed, "Well, that's a new one."
Murray seemed to shrink into himself.
"Alright, where's this girl my son is crazy over? That's who I want to meet," Vlad announced with authority as he straightened out his high collar.
Ericka peeked out from behind a group of socializing monsters and skipped up to her future father-in-law in a perky, excited mood. "Here I am!"
"Is this the girl?" Vlad asked, pointing to Ericka.
"Heh, she sure is," Frank answered.
"My name is Ericka," she greeted, curtsying before the powerful vampire. "Thank you for coming to my party."
"Of course, when I got your invitation..." Vlad put on his best friendly smile to the lovely female white ampire as he replied, "I just wanted to meet the girl whose drove my son crazy."
Dracula's face dropped in horror at what he overheard, and his heart felt like it had been ripped out from his chest. Ericka, the girl of his dreams, had invited his father to her party? How could she do that?
In a second, an enraged Dracula zigzagged through the crowd easily in a trial of blue mist. He separated the two with a look of murderous anger on his face and he stared down at Ericka in betrayal, who had a look of fear on her own face.
"HOW COULD YOU?!" Dracula snarled furiously, "AFTER I SHARED MY PAIN WITH YOU?!"
"But… No…" Ericka stammered in a frightened voice.
Vlad immediately came between his angered son and Ericka. "What's the matter with you?! Can't you see we're in engaged in polite conversation?!"
"You stay out of this, Dad!" Dracula blew him off.
"That's how you talk to your father," Vlad said accusingly with a finger at Dracula, "You bite necks with that mouth?"
"Drac, listen," Ericka decided to step in and explain herself, "I invited your dad to my party so you two can patch things up."
"And how would you expect me to do that?" Dracula questioned in a rude sarcastic manner. "You don't know my father like I do."
"But, if you just give him a chance..." Ericka pleaded, until Pascal crawled up braid to her shoulder, just to stick his tongue out at the vampire.
"What is that? A frog?" Vlad pointed his boney finger at the chameleon.
"No, this is a chameleon," said Ericka, "This is Pascal, my friend."
"Friend?!" Vlad mocked manically. "Ha! First, my son used to be in love with a baby raccoon, and now his girlfriend is in love with a frog."
"Alright, Dad," Dracula groaned, as if trying to keep something quiet.
"Wait!" Ericka asked, catching on, "Drac loved raccoons?"
"Yeah. Ever since he was a boy." Vlad answered humorously. "What? He's always pretended he's Mr. Tough Guy? The boy was in love with a baby raccoon."
Some of the listening monsters nearby started snickering at Dracula, who seemed to shrink into himself in more humiliation and annoyance at his father. Ericka only thought it sounded adorable as she gushed, "Aww."
"I had to terrify the sweetness out him," Vlad told the story to Ericka, "Sort of like a wussy exorcism. Let's just say I took away his security blanket."
Hundreds of years ago, in what might have been an old and large castle fortress, a five year old boy with slicked back raven black hair and a moon round face showing one day they will grow into sharp handsome features, slept in a child sized bed styled like an open coffin, or a regular toy box, with an adorable baby raccoon sleeping by his side, and the little boy wore raven black pajamas with red lining.
A dark shadow flew by swiftly to the open window like the wind that blew through. A much younger Vlad then peeked out from behind a curtain with a menacing smile on his long face as he raised a hand and red tinted mist enveloped it as his eyes began to glow a laser red.
The baby raccoon by the little boy's side woke up surprised to find herself levitating away from her best friend, so she chittered loudly to wake him up for help. The boy felt for his friend and realized she was gone. He looked up and watched worriedly as the little raccoon continued to chitter for help as she reached out to him.
But then her little head began to spin around. The boy whimpered in fear from behind his pillow. What was happening to his sweet little friend? All of a sudden the raccoon's eyes glowed a demonic red as she growled sinisterly at the boy, and when the possessed baby raccoon roared dangerously at him, the boy screamed in terror as two long and sharp fangs suddenly burst in his mouth and he gave his own fierce roar at the little raccoon.
Whimpering in fear of whom was once her friend, who didn't mean to frighten her, the baby raccoon recoiled and ran away and out the door. Little Dracula watched her run off with tears slowly welled up in his bright blue eyes from guilt and sadness, as a proud Vlad emerged from the shadows of his bedroom.
"Lulu..." a now grown Dracula moaned sadly, as tears slowly welled up in his bright blue eyes at that sad memory.
"Still resents me for it," Vlad said as he concluded his story.
Ericka put a hand to her chest as she thought about how terrified Dracula had been as a child to lose his closest and best animal friend he only had as a child. She turned to Pascal, who still sat on her shoulder, showing he felt terrible for the vampire as she did. Having heard about Mother Gothel's crimes from Dracula, Ericka began to wonder if her own mother would ever do such a thing to Pascal to get her fangs to come out, if they were vampires. She felt nothing but anger and regret for inviting Vlad to her birthday party.
"How could you do that to your own son?!" Ericka seethed at him with rage.
"I had to do it. I had to get his fangs to come out," Vlad said dismissively as though he had done nothing wrong.
"I told you that you didn't know him like I do," Dracula mocked.
"Okay, okay, I get it," Ericka held up her hands in defeat, "You were right about your father, Drac. He's just as cruel as my own mother."
"Your mother?" Vlad questioned, raising an eyebrow before he remembered something else. "Now that you mentioned it, if you're going to marry my son I need to meet your family, so I can know what's your family bloodline."
"Oh! Uh, she's a direct descendant of the..." Before Dracula could come up with a name, Ericka had cut him off.
"I just found out my mother is a horrible person after she tried to cut my hair in the village."
"Village? What village?" Vlad asked suspiciously, causing Dracula to sweat in terror.
At the mention of the village in the forest, Ericka suddenly perked up. Because of her adventures in the Kingdom of Corona, Ericka thought about giving the outside world another try, perhaps the people in the village might listen to reason now and show them her true identity. "Now that you mentioned it, Dracula, as soon as my party is over can you take me back to that village past the cemetery?"
Dracula was shocked by her request, as he grabbed Ericka by her shoulders, "WHAT!? You saw it, y-you said you didn't like it!"
"Maybe I want to give the village another chance," she retorted, "I just need to learn, you know, how to make peace with those people, like in Corona."
"No, no!" Dracula fearfully tried to dissuade his girlfriend, "You can't go to the village again!"
"Maybe you can make them see that we can be friends."
"No, that isn't possible!"
"Well you can't be sure. It's all in how you present yourself!"
"NO! That won't make a difference!"
"How do you know?"
"Because it just won't!"
"WHY? Why WON'T it?!
"BECAUSE THAT VILLAGE DOESN'T REALLY EXSIST!"
And a half moment too late he realized what he had just said because the next thing he knew, save for the flashing party ambiance, the music stopped and everyone ceased dancing. Everyone, including Ericka, was in a state of shock. The snapping on one of Frank's guitar strings was heard.
"What do you mean…'doesn't exist'?" Ericka asked with hurt and confusion in her voice.
"What did you do?!" Frank demanded accusingly as he and all of Dracula's friends, including Bianca and Sirena and Salem, gathered around with looks of disgust and confusion.
"I… I did what I had to do," Dracula responded defiantly as he crossed his arms.
"What was it?" Ericka interrogated the Count with obvious suspicion, "What exactly did you have to do? TELL ME!"
Her anger showed strong at the last two words, making Dracula actually flinch and have a look of guilt on his face. The same guilt after telling Ericka about Martha. The same guilt after he took her to Corona to fulfill her dream.
"I... I built the town," Dracula confessed, "The staff put it all together, the… the zombies dressed up as the townspeople."
Two nearby zombie bellhops groaned in admittance, "Uh-huh."
Ericka stared at the vampire before she turned her back on him, completely heartbroken and shocked by what she had been told as the truth sank in. If it was true the zombies disguised themselves as the villagers then that means - her mother never intended to cut her hair or betray her hair's magic to others. And maybe, just maybe, the story he fabricated of Gothel murdering Martha was all a myth. But, right now she felt anger. Anger at the vampire who claimed to have loved her, only tricked her to keep her for himself.
"Please! I…" Dracula pleaded, "If you really went out there and something happened to you, I, I… I just couldn't live with myself!"
"But you can live with this?!" Ericka accused him as she turned to face him in hurt anger, "Lying to me; tricking me?! Keeping me here forever when you knew my dream was to go see the floating lights?! You really ARE a monster, and I will NEVER marry you!"
And with that, she smacked him the face so hard a faint red mark began to form on his pale face, causing everyone in the room to gasp. Taking the box, containing the ring, out of Pascal's waiting mouth, Ericka threw the box at Dracula's face with such force it hurt him for a moment before the box fell to the floor at his feet.
Saddened, Dracula opened his mouth to say something in his defense, but the next moment there came a kind of loud groaning. It was the still frozen chef, Quasimodo, being rolled into the ballroom in a wheelbarrow by his pet rat, Esmeralda.
"Liar! Liar!" Quasimodo muffled loudly for everyone to hear.
Almost as if his face could say 'uh-oh,' Dracula could only hunch into himself, as if guilty of something besides his deception to Ericka.
"Oil?" Murray guessed.
Gaping in fear, Ericka gently took Pascal and she quietly slipped away through the crow of monsters, knowing all too well why the psychotic chef was there.
"Uh-uh, Uh-uh," Quasimodo continued to say gibberish in a muffled voice.
"English, please," Eunice groaned, "Your voice is really annoying."
"Wait, I speak frozen," said the Fly as he flew up to the petrified chef, "He says Dracula has brought a human into the hotel."
The crowd released a chorus of shocked gasps, not believing what they were hearing. A gremlin couple held each other in fear.
Ericka was near the door, momentarily thinking she and Pascal were home free when Quasimodo muffled again and the Fly translated, "He says, 'There is ze human,' he has a French accent."
Just as she was about to step out the door, it was shut closed by an angry Esmeralda, who growled at her. Ericka gasped, as did Dracula in shock. Then the entire crowd, including Vlad, gasped in shock at the accused suspect, who only looked back at the crowd in fear.
"Ericka's not a human," Frank announced with clear doubt in defense of her, not noticing his vampire friend slinking behind his own cape in fear, "She's a vampire. He's lying." Frank leaned in close enough to be nose to long nose with Quasimodo at those last two words.
"Yeah," agreed Griffin, "And why is he picking his nose?"
The chef muffled again and the Fly translated, "He said 'It's a long story.'"
"Hey, wait!" Ericka cried as Esmeralda started crawling all over her face, "No! Get off me! Oh, Ew!" The rat licked her make up off and pulled her false fangs out of Rapunzel's mouth, "Pfft, blegh! Rat fur!"
Now her make up was so badly smeared and licked off by the rat, her real skin tone shone through, and her blunt teeth exposed, her identity has been exposed.
The rat squeaked loudly to get everyone's attention and Quasimodo muffled smugly, as the Fly translated in his monotone, "He says 'Behold ze human.'"
Pandemonium broke out. Every monster in the room started to panic, there was screaming and rampant running around as if their lives were in danger. The only monsters who never panicked were Sirena and Bianca, and especially Salem, knowing all too well it was their fault a human had discovered the hotel.
"I don't believe it." Frank gasped horrified.
An exposed and regretful Ericka tried to calm everyone down to no avail, "Wait, I won't hurt you! I'm your friend, remember?!"
"Ericka, I... I'm sorry..." she heard a familiar Romanian accented voice say her name as she turned to see Dracula come closer to her and embraced her lovingly, exclaiming, "I don't care what anyone says! I still want to be with you."
Remembering the tricks he pulled on her to crush her dreams and the lies he created to keep her locked away forever in this castle, Ericka pulled Dracula's embrace off of herself, and shoved him away hard as she glared furiously at him for his betrayal.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Ericka screamed, "I don't want to be with you, because…you're a monster! And I hate monsters!"
Dracula gasped quietly at what she said, clearly hurt by her sudden rejection as he watched her go to the door.
"GOODBYE!" Ericka growled, giving Dracula one last stare of hatred and heartbreak before she left through the door with another loud slam.
Dracula stared on in silence for a long moment, until Vlad grabbed him by the shoulder to turn his attention on him.
"YOU! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" he yelled accusingly as he pointed a long boney finger at his son, "You've almost ruined our bloodline! Thousands of years nearly down the trash, and worse, you've let a human into this place you claimed is sanctuary for monsters!"
Dracula had a frown on his face, a look of realizing in a way he knew this was coming and he should have fessed up in the first place.
"You're a disappointment to vampires everywhere, including me!" Vlad transformed into a bat and flew away, leaving behind a trail of a blackish red cloud.
The crowd of monster guests then too began to leave, several of them voiced their disappointment. Everyone was angry with Dracula for his lies.
"We're getting out of here!"
"I thought I smelled humans."
"I'm never coming back here again."
"'Human free'? What a rip off!"
Even Dracula's friends were mad and disappointed in him, following the crowd and giving him dirty looks at they left, but Dracula was oblivious to them. He continued to look up with a sad, shameful look on his face in the direction Vlad had flown off to.
Long minutes passed and he didn't move again until he was completely alone in the ball room. Head down, he slowly began to walk away when a blue sparkle caught his eye. He slowly made his way to see what it was and pick up the gleaming object.
It was the engagement ring he planned to give to Ericka, the same ring he once used to propose to Ericka. Suddenly overwhelmed with guilt and loneliness, he fell to his knees on the spot. Vlad was right. This was all his fault.
In the hotel's lobby, an irritated Ericka marched her way toward the revolving door to escape this monstrous place, and to freedom. Just then, a dark shadow loomed over her. She paused, gradually turning around to see who it was.
"Hello, sweetheart," the ogre greeted with an evil smirk, "Remember us?"
One by one, the ogres emerged from their hiding places (behind the sofas, inside the storage closets, and behind the reception desk) approaching the girl in a threatening manner.
"Oh no." Ericka felt dread pass through her as the ogres surrounded, blocking her escape. For the first time in her life Ericka truly understood what her mother meant about monsters wanting to kill her or steal her hair. She closed her eyes, waiting for it to happen.
Thankfully, Gothel decided to end the charade she had concocted with the ogres. Using a big candelabra, she struck down the ogres one at a time. She had known exactly where Ericka had gone to, for she had witnessed the devastating events at Ericka's party, and helped bring Quasimodo to the party to expose Ericka's humanity.
Slowly opening her eyes, Ericka noticed Gothel standing near the unconscious bodies of the ogres gazing at her with frightened concern. "Mother?" Timidly, Ericka came closer to the dark haired woman, uncertain if she was a zombie dressed up like her or not. "Is it you? Or are you another zombie in disguise?"
"No, no! It's me, darling!" Gothel tossed the big candelabra to the side, then rushed over to scoop up Ericka in a tight embrace. "I've been worried sick about you!"
Relieved this was her true mother before her and feeling her safe in her arms, Ericka slid her arms around her mother sighing deeply. "But, how did you find me?"
"I discovered the village in the forest where those wretched zombies were on fire, and I followed them through an underground tunnel, which lead me right to my precious flower," Gothel explained, feigning relief and concern in her voice. "Did they hurt you?"
"No, of course not." Ericka shook her head.
"Oh, good. Now, come. Let's get out of here before they wake up!" Gothel took hold of Ericka's wrist and quickly lead her through the revolving door to escape.
As she looked back at the monster-infested hotel, Ericka a mixture of emotions rushing through her. Frightened. Scared. Hurt. Angry. Heartbroken. All of these she felt due to Dracula's betrayal and lies. She ran alongside her fake mother, stifling a sob, "You were right, Mother."
"I know, dear." Underneath her hood, Gothel smirked malevolently. "I know."
Of course, little did they realize the only creature who saw the two women flee the castle was angry, suspicious Bela.