As a holiday present to you I'm giving you this very special chapter. Not only is it the longest chapter I've ever written on any story (over three thousand eight hundred words long), it is also a very unique chapter, as you will soon find out.
Dedications for this chapter go to dArkliTe-sPirit, Chaos inducer, and HiddenAuthor.
Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, or whatever you happen to be celebrating or not celebrating at this time. And a happy new year!
Vlad was relieved when he woke up the next morning and was still alive. Until the door bell rang again. His ghost sense went off and he walked into a closet before he changed into his ghost form. Usually he wouldn't even care, but now that he knew that Molly was watching him he was more cautious.
He opened the door and felt his jaw drop open. This woman was even prettier than Spectra. She was wearing a long emerald skirt, a white blouse, and her eyes matched her skirt exactly. She had shoulder length black hair and tan skin, and she smiled at him.
"It's not polite to stare." She said, pushing Vlad's chin up with her hand. Vlad shook his head. What was wrong with him? She had a strange effect on him, and he knew that he was falling under some sort of spell but he couldn't stop it. "Tell me, how does such a handsome ghost like you stay single?"
"I… um…" She stopped him by putting her hand on his lips.
"That's okay, I don't need to know. May I come in?" She didn't wait for an answer and walked past Vlad anyway. "Why don't we go someplace quiet and talk?" Again she didn't wait for an answer. She strode away towards a different room and Vlad followed her slowly.
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"Who does she think she is?!" said Molly, pacing back and forth, "Coming in here like she owns the place and then walking away with him? And he just stares at her like she's a ten pound diamond or something. The other ghosts were fine, I knew that he was going to get rid of them, but this new chick's already got her talons into him. What are we going to do?"
Danny and Sam looked at each other and then back at Molly. "So… you don't even know the ghost's name?"
Molly blushed embarrassedly. "No, I don't. That's not the point though. We need to figure out a way to get that seducer away from him."
"I think we should let him fend for himself." Danny said, still angry from being beaten up by Vlad the night before. "If the ghost makes him fall in love with her and then breaks his heart or something then it's his fault." Sam glared at him.
She hadn't told Danny her idea yet, but Sam had already decided to try and pair Vlad and Molly up. But unfortunately her plan hadn't been working well so far. Especially since Danny hated Vlad and didn't want him to fall in love with anyone who was actually sane. Sam sighed and said, "Well if we want to see how this turns out we had better follow them."
"Follow me." Molly said, turning and walking in the direction Vlad and the other ghost had gone. Sam was about to when Danny grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"I found a loophole in what Vlad said last night." Danny said with an evil smirk. "He said that I couldn't tell Molly about him beating me up, but he never said that you couldn't."
"Danny-"
"Look, I know that Molly is in love with Plasmius, but she hates Vlad. When she finds out that they're the same person she won't love Vlad's ghost half anymore anyway. Just tell her what he did to me last night. If we're lucky she'll make Vlad let us go." He gave Sam the puppy dog look. "Please? If she can at least get him to take the bracelets off us then we can leave"
Sam said nothing. Danny smiled at her, thinking that she was going to go along with his plan, and ran to catch up with Molly. Sam sighed again before following.
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"So Vlad," The ghost said once they were in a different room. It was one of Vlad's many living rooms. "How long has it been since someone sweet and caring actually came to meet you, hmm?" She led Vlad by the arm over to the couch and made him sit next to her on it.
Vlad half smiled. "To meet me? A long time. It's not like many sweet and caring people are ghosts." There was a short pause. "You know my name, but I don't know yours."
"I'm Bloed." She said. "You poor ghost, all alone for so long. How do you stand it?"
"I don't know." Vlad said honestly. He already didn't like Bloed. She made him feel powerless, and that was definitely something he didn't want to be.
"Well don't worry. I don't plan on leaving for a long time." Bloed had a sinister smile on her face as she said this, and she moved closer to Vlad. "That is, unless you want me to go." She smiled at Vlad, who just looked overwhelmed.
"Eh hem."
Vlad and Bloed turned and saw Molly standing in the doorway holding a feather duster. "Hi, it's me, the maid." She said, struggling to keep the jealous tone out of her voice. "Just because you have… company," there was a pause while Molly looked at the feather duster, trying to stay as long as she could. "I really think Mr. Masters wouldn't like it if I didn't do my job."
"That's fine." Bloed said, her eyes flaring orange in anger. "We'll just go to another room." She stood up but Molly blocked the door.
"Nope, you can't do that because…" she thought for a plausible excuse. "Because there are some ghost hunters walking around!" Bloed didn't appear to believe Molly's excuse. "You can't leave this room or else they'll catch you."
"Right…" Bloed said, rolling her eyes. She walked over to Molly and whispered in her ear. "Look honey, this ghost is mine. I don't know what you see in him, but I see a rich lonely guy who would do anything to please me. Now you are going to walk out that door and leave us alone."
Molly glared furiously at her and was about to say something when Bloed shoved her out the door with ghostly strength. She slammed the door in Molly's face and locked it. Vlad, who had watched the whole thing, finally spoke. "What did you say to her?"
Bloed turned around and walked back over to Vlad. "Nothing that concerns you, darling." She wrapped her arms around Vlad and pulled him back down onto the couch. "Now where were we?" Bloed smirked and brought her face close to Vlad's. Just as she was about to kiss him the doorbell rang again.
Vlad stood up off of the couch, nearly knocking Bloed to the floor. "Someone's at the door! I'll be right back." He phased through the door as Bloed sat on the couch and pouted.
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Molly had been standing right outside the room where Vlad and Bloed had been. Vlad ran into her and they both fell down on top of each other. "Excuse me…" Molly said embarrassedly. They both stood up and looked anywhere else besides each other.
"I'm sorry that Bloed was so rude to you Ms…" Vlad caught himself just in time. Sometimes being two separate people was hard. He knew that Ms. Virga hated his human form, so if she found out that he was half ghost… well he didn't want to end up in a government lab somewhere.
"Please, just call me Molly." Molly said. She had a small smile on her face. At least Vlad was paying attention to her for once. "I'm sorry if I ruined your date or anything."
"You didn't ruin anything." Vlad said. "To be honest I was glad that you stopped her." There was an awkward pause until the doorbell rang several times. Whoever was at the door was getting annoyed. "I should probably get that."
There was another pause and the doorbell rang once more before Vlad left Molly and answered the door. It was another female ghost. She had very long black hair with a silver streak, green gold eyes, and she was wearing black. "I was wondering when you would finally open the door." She held out her hand and Vlad shook it. "I'm Zeena."
A small hissing sound came out of nowhere. Vlad looked down and saw that on the ghost's hand there was a small lizard looking thing staring up at Vlad. It crawled on Vlad's hand and bit down. Hard. Vlad yelled and shook his hand until the thing let go. Two wings opened up from its back and it flew over to Zeena, hissing angrily.
"Aww, he likes you!" Zeena said, holding the dragon in her arms. "May I come in?"
Vlad glared at the dragon and said, "I'm sorry, but animals are not allowed in my mansion." He didn't know what would happen if Bloed discovered that he had another woman in the castle, but he didn't want to find out. He had to get rid of Zeena quickly. "And I'm kind of busy."
Zeena's eyes turned blood red. "That's too bad." She said, her voice sounding like a growl. "For you." Vlad noticed that the dragon was gone, and that Zeena seemed to be transforming.
"Okay! You can come in!" he half yelled. Zeena instantly returned to normal and the dragon appeared on her hand again. It made a noise that sounded like laughter as Zeena passed Vlad and entered the house. "Follow me please." He led her down the hallway opposite the one Bloed had gone down.
Vlad and Zeena went into another living room. The dragon sat on one of the chairs and began ripping it apart. "Well my dragon likes it here. I could get used to living in a place like this."
"This is our first date." Vlad said, dreading what was coming. "I don't really think that you should be getting to comfortable yet."
"Oh really?" she said, anger edging into her voice. "Why? Are you seeing someone else?"
"No, it's just that I really don't think you should assume that we would take our relationship much farther." He noticed that the dragon had vanished again.
"You're dumping me already?" she said. Her skin rippled for a moment. "That isn't in your best interests you know." Vlad watched in horror as her face became more lizard like.
"Alright, I'm not dumping you." Vlad said quickly. Zeena's lizard face smiled and then returned to normal. The dragon was on her palm again. Suddenly the doorbell went off. Vlad jumped in surprise. "Could you excuse me for a moment?"
He almost sprinted out of the room.
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Danny glared at Sam behind Molly's back. He was very angry that Sam hadn't said anything about Vlad to Molly yet. Sam avoided looking at him and acted like she was innocent of all wrongdoing. Her plan was finally starting to work. Molly and Vlad had talked to each other for more than a minute.
She felt sorry for Vlad, even if he wouldn't stop calling her Samantha, and she didn't know what to do. Sure, she wanted to go home, but she also wanted to help Vlad and Molly. So she pretended not to notice Danny's glares.
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Vlad opened the door for a third time and found yet another ghost. She was dressed like she was from the middle ages, and she had a large gold medallion around her neck. "I'm Dora." She said, dropping into a small curtsy. "May I come in to your castle?"
Now Vlad really didn't know what to do. "Um, I'm really very busy right now, so if you don't mind…"
Dora didn't take the hint. "I'll wait until you get done." She said as she floated past Vlad and into his house. Vlad sighed and massaged his temples. Things were getting really out of hand now.
The other ghost began walking down the hallway to where Bloed was still waiting. Vlad flew up to her and said, "No, that hall is…" He searched for an excuse, "Being cleaned by Molly! The maid." He added the last part just in case Dora thought that he had another woman in the house. Of course he did have two others…
"Please, would you mind waiting in here until I take care of something?" He showed her to yet another room. "I'll be as quick as I can." He left Dora and flew back down another hallway where Bloed was waiting impatiently. Vlad floated in front of the door for a moment, not really wanting to go in. Bloed chose that moment to stick her head through the door.
"Where have you been?" She said, her eyes blazing orange. "It's not nice to keep a lady waiting." Her eyes changed back to emerald green as she grabbed him by the collar of his cape and dragged him through the door.
"I've been so nice to you Vlad." she purred, still holding him by the cape. "And I was really hoping that we could take our relationship to another level," she put her face next to her ear and whispered, "Besides small talk."
Vlad grabbed her hands with his and pulled them off of his collar. "Look, I barely know you and I really don't think that this is going to work out." He didn't like the way things were going. The ghost in front of him was a complete stranger, and he was very much regretting letting her in the house.
Bloed's eyes flared orange and stayed that way. "But I was hoping that you would take the position of boyfriend number thirteen. Thirteen's my lucky number you know."
"Boyfriend number thirteen?" Vlad asked, feeling confused. As if he needed another conflicted feeling in his head.
"Or 'that other boyfriend' if you prefer. I go between boyfriends each month. You were going to be the lucky man who got me when I was bored. But now you're dumping me." Her hands started changing in Vlad's. "So you're going to be ex-boyfriend number two hundred."
Vlad watched as she grew taller - about six feet high – and began to transform. Her skin turned light green and became scaly as horns sprouted over her orange eyes. She became a long dragon with two arms, and two leathery wings spread out from her back.
"Prepare to die again, Vladdie." She said, revealing a mouthful of long sharp teeth.
Vlad dropped her hands, and saw that they now had two sharp talons instead of fingers. As soon as he did she attacked. Vlad dodged and turned intangible just as her claws flew through him. Bloed's new tail smashed many objects on a shelf, and all of them were antiques. Vlad knew he had to lead her out of the room before she destroyed anything else.
He turned and blasted the door off of its hinges before flying away through the hallways. Bloed screamed furiously and followed. She was getting closer and closer until Vlad was positive she was going to catch up to him. Then two hands suddenly pulled him into a room, causing Bloed to fly straight past him.
Out of the corner of his eye Vlad caught a glimpse of a ghostly aura. He didn't turn around though, and kept his eyes fixed on the doorway just in case Bloed figured out where he was. "Thank you Dora." He said.
"Who's Dora?" A very angry Zeena said. Vlad spun around just in time to be pinned against the wall by two clawed hands. Zeena had become a dragon about two feet larger than Bloed, and she had more deadly looking talons.
"She's, um, uh…" Vlad sighed and decided that he couldn't lie his way out of this one. "Another woman that came to my house." Zeena's eyes burned red and Vlad gasped as the claws broke through his skin.
"So that's why you were gone so long!" She said. "It doesn't matter what your excuse is though. I plan on biting your head off just because you left me sitting in this ugly room. Green and gold do not go together well."
"Biting off… my head? Now doesn't that seem rather harsh?" Vlad didn't wait for a reply. He phased backward through the wall and out of Zeena's grip. Suddenly there was a large smashing sound as her head came through the wall. And she didn't phase it through either. Vlad ducked just as her jaws snapped shut around the air where his head had been.
He turned away and flew as fast as he could until he was back to the main entrance to his castle. There was no one there except for him, and he took a moment to calm down. Until two clawed hands wrapped around his throat. Bloed appeared out of thin air, just as Vlad remembered that they were dragon ghosts. Zeena entered the main room and saw Bloed choking Vlad and Vlad turning blue. Well, more blue than usual anyway.
"She's the girl you're dumping me for?" they both roared at the same time. Vlad glanced between the two dragons and wondered how they even knew that the other was a girl. Besides the eye shadow on Bloed, they both looked like they could be either gender. Then he wondered why he was thinking this when he should be trying to figure out how to escape.
Zeena came closer and glared at Bloed. "What do you see in this shrimp? She's only six feet long! And she doesn't even have legs. What is that stuff over her eyes supposed to be, makeup? She needs a lot more than that."
Bloed dropped Vlad on the ground and put her hands on where her hips would have been if she had any. "Who does this tramp think she is? She has no natural beauty at all! Why would you even consider trading a magnificent creature such as myself for someone so trashy?"
Vlad got to his feet and glared at the two dragons arguing. "I didn't invite either of you here! It was a prank pulled on me by a child. Even if I did I wouldn't ever go on a second date with either of you. You," he pointed to Bloed, "are a slut only interested in me for my money, and you," he pointed to Zeena, "are so used to getting your way that you bite peoples' heads off for no reason!"
The room fell into a shocked silence. Bloed and Zeena looked at each other and then back at Vlad. "Want to team up and make sure that there is nothing left of this ghost except for a piece of that red sheet he's wearing?" Zeena suggested.
Bloed shrugged. "Sure. I've got nothing else to do."
Vlad's eyes widened. He through up an ecto shield as flames engulfed him.
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"We've got to go help him!" Molly said. Danny and Sam were both holding her back to stop her from running in to fight the dragons. The only weapon she had was a fire extinguisher, but she was determined to go save Vlad.
"I'm sure he can save himself." Danny said. At that moment Vlad was launched across the room and into a wall by a blast from Zeena. "Okay, maybe he can't."
"Danny, we have to do something!" Sam said angrily. "Molly won't stand a chance against those dragons."
"We wouldn't have to be holding her back if you had just told her about Vlad! Besides, it's his fault for letting three ghosts all into his house at once."
"Three ghosts? That's it!" She let go of Molly, causing her to fall over. "Molly, the third ghost who came is friendly. We can get her to help us save Vla- I mean, the ghost."
Molly stood up and looked at Sam skeptically. "Yeah, or she might just go crazy and turn into a dragon like the other two."
"I trust Dora." Sam said. "Come on." She ran down the hall to the room where Dora was. Molly looked back at the battle for a moment before following.
Danny watched them both go. The last thing he wanted to do was help Vlad. Why wouldn't Sam just tell Molly about how evil Vlad was? Then they would be able to leave. He glared at Vlad and then went to the room Molly and Sam had gone into.
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Vlad sent blast after blast at the two dragons, but whenever one seemed to be weakened the other attacked. He ended up dodging most of their attacks, but what hurt even more than the fire was the fact that the two crazy ghosts were destroying a lot of his Packers collection.
After a particularly painful smack in the head he was knocked to the ground. He opened his eyes and saw Molly looking back at him. "You're okay!" she said, sounding relieved.
Then Vlad noticed that standing next to Molly was Dora. She looked like she was deciding whether to strangle Vlad or not. "You shouldn't toy with maidens' hearts." She said. "Especially when those maidens can become dragons." Vlad braced himself and waited for her to attack, but she didn't.
Instead she stepped past Vlad and turned into her dragon form. It was several feet larger than Zeena's and Bloed's combined. Zeena and Bloed stared up at Dora and gasped. She picked them both up with one hand and glared at them.
"I know that he's an evil ghost who only called us here to break our hearts, but he can't help it. Use your powers in a more productive manner. Like seducing princes so that you can become queen of their kingdom." Dora carried the ghosts away to Vlad's lab and took them with her into the Ghost Zone.
Vlad noticed that Molly, Sam, and Danny were all staring at him. Molly because she liked him, Sam because she was trying to figure out how to tell Molly that Vlad Plasmius and Vlad Masters were the same person without breaking Molly's heart, and Danny simply because he hated Vlad's guts.
"Yes, well… I'd better leave now." He floated through the floor and flew around until he was upstairs before changing back into his human form.
As he was walking down the stairs Molly was on her way up, determined to be as far away as possible from the mess in the main entrance. "Hello Molly." Vlad said without thinking.
Molly stopped and looked at Vlad. "That's… Ms. Virga to you." She continued up the stairs and glanced over her shoulder several times at Vlad.
Vlad continued down the stairs, now beginning to realize that Molly hated his human half but at least didn't mind his ghost half. Maybe his ghost half should be around more often.