Surprise!

As Drac looked around, he thought he finally understood why it was that humans liked dressing up as them. Everywhere he saw, his guests seem to be having a good time at this party having dressed as someone else, and even he felt a little livelier in his outfit: A sci-fi style costume with glow-in-the dark lines that reminded him of how Susan's suit looked when she grew or shrank. He saw Frank dressed up as Link, Wayne and Wanda dressed up as him and Martha, Murray dressed as….Drac guessed it was supposed to be a ghost?

Then there was Link dressed up as Frank and Dr. Cockroach dressed up as Murray. BOB came dressed up as a pirate: He even used an eye-patch for his costume. The only problem was that he'd insisted on wearing it over his only eye and wound up running into everyone, so Drac had to confiscate that part of his costume, promising he'd get it back once the party was over.

Then recently Johnny and Mavis came in: Johnny dressed once again as Johnnystein and Mavis looking something like Eunice. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Only a couple of people happened to be missing tonight. First was Griffin, who'd called earlier to say he was on his way, but is now unreachable. The other person currently not here was…

Drac smacked his head in disbelief. How could I be such a chowderhead? Drac thought disparagingly, In all my efforts to make preparations for this party, I completely forgot to get a costume for Susan! Where am I going to get a costume for her now at such short notice?

Just as Drac had decided to go ask Jonathan for advice, the ballroom doors opened an Drac's jaw just about hit the floor. The person who entered looked so much like Martha that Drac thought he must be dreaming, then he saw that he wasn't the only one who had that reaction. In fact, nearly the only ones who didn't react to the newcomer as if they weren't seeing a ghost was Mavis, who gave the newcomer a smile and a thumbs up, and Susan's friends.

As the woman got closer, Drac could see subtle differences between this woman and Martha: her hair was straighter and not as wavy, her face wasn't as long or her chin as pointed, her lips were fuller, her eyes bluer. Then all the pieces suddenly came together in his head.

"Susan?" Drac said, "Is that you?"

Looking somewhat self-conscious, Susan said, "Your daughter insisted. I didn't really have anything else to wear."

Of course she did, Drac thought to himself. Aloud, he replied, "It's okay, that's my fault. You do look lovely though."

"Thanks," Susan said shyly.

"How'd you do the hair and the fangs?" Drac asked despite himself.

"The hair I colored with some simple hair dye. I don't suppose it'll last long though: the Quantonium will burn it away just as it did my original coloring," Susan explained, "The hands were Mavis' baby fangs that she hag some spiders attach balls of webbing on so they may be attached to my own canines, though I imagine that I'll experience the same problem with stayability with them too. Still, I'm sure I'll be good for an hour or so."

As the Day of the Dead Mariachi Band start playing a slow song, Drac asks Susan, "Would you like to dance?"

Susan hesitated for a moment, appearing to struggle internally before saying with a smile, "Yeah, sure!"

As they settled into a slow waltz, Drac saw out of the corner of his eye Mavis, who was in a slow dance herself with Johnny, look at them and smile. What is it that she thinks she's seeing? Drac wondered. Still, as he looked into Susan's eyes, Drac couldn't deny that he felt a pull that he hadn't felt since he was with Martha. When he was with her, a spot in his chest that had been empty for the longest time now felt filled again. He still believed that it wasn't possible to Zing more than once in a lifetime, but he was starting to think that it may be possible to be happy again.

Before he could decide what he wanted to do with this new revelation, the ballroom door opened again and Griffin came through saying, "Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!"

Frank, Wayne and Murray all went over to confront their invisible friend. "Darn right you're late!" Frank said roughly, "Where have you been?"

"We couldn't play because you weren't here!" Murray said crossly, his arms on his hips.

"Don't you realize what went on outside just a moment ago, what nearly happened to me and the family!?" Wayne barked, "We were worried sick!"

Before the beleaguered Griffin could think of which question to answer first, Dr. Cockroach approached slowly, Link and BOB right behind, as he said with disbelief in his voice, "That voice! It can't be! Nick? Is that you?"

His glasses twinkling as he turned towards them in surprise, Griffin exclaimed as he rushed over to them, "Hey guys, you're here! I can't believe it! What are you guys doing here?"

"What are we doing….what are you doing alive!?" Dr. Cockroach countered, "You died of a heart attack back in '86! I checked your pulse myself!"

"Aww, don't tell me that you fell for that gag!" Griffin said, "I'd expected that the General might buy it, but not you! I just applied a bit of my invisibility formula to a mannequin that I sat in my chair, then I faked a heart attack while I rattled the chair a bit. Then I followed General Monger out to freedom!"

"Brilliant!" Dr. Cockroach exclaimed.

Drac, his mind whirling with the barrage of information he was getting, could only think to ask, " 'Nick'?"

"Hi Drac!" Griffin said, "Yeah, Nick is my first name: Dr. Nick Halloway Griffin, but I just go by Griffin these days." Turning back to Susan's friends, Griffin continued, "But never mind all that, How did you guys get out? I guess that not all of Dr. Cockroach's escape plans could end in abject failure!"

"Actually, they did. The General gave us release from our cells when we helped him fend off an invasion of hostile aliens!" Link said proudly, cracking his knuckles.

"No way! Get out of town!" Griffin exclaimed, "That was you guys!?"

"Actually, it was mostly Ginormica, that young lady dancing with Drac there!" Dr. Cockroach interjected, "I mean we did help a bit, particularly when she got captured by the alien leader, but our beating the aliens was 90% due to her."

"Yeah, I even got me a girlfriend out of it!" BOB added, "She's waiting for me to return to our cell at Area Fifty-Something!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Drac asked loudly in confusion, turning back and forth between Griffin and Susan's friends, "Government holding cells….escape plans….what is all of this?"

When Drac felt a gentle touch on his back, he turned to see Susan, a sad and somewhat guilty expression on her face as she asked, "Is there someplace private were we can go and talk?"

Drac felt his head spinning and his heart splintering and sinking though to the center of the Earth as, on the hotel roof, Susan told the whole story to him: from her wedding being interrupted by the meteor and her being locked up, to her working together with her captors to defeat the aliens, to (most importantly) her activities since Gallaxhar's final defeat.

"I don't know what to say about all this!" Drac said as be paced back and forth, agitated confusion with a hint of heartbreaking loss in his voice, "I built this place to provide a haven from those who would kill or lock up those of our kind, and now you're telling me that you're one of them?" Drac dropped to his knees and grasped one of her hands in both of his, a pleading look in his eyes as he said, "I don't know what to do with this!"

Susan started to open her mouth to defend herself, then closed it again having apparently thought better of it. Then she turned her sad gaze away as she said, "You don't have to do anything about it because you're right. I've been working with the humans in charge to keep the rest of the human race in the dark about the existence of monsters. As far as the rest of the human race knows, we're the only monsters around, and they only know about us due to our efforts to save the planet from alien invasion."

As she straightened up and turned back towards the roof access, her hand pulling free from Draks', Susan continued, "Speaking of which, I suppose it's time that we get back to work. Those aliens that attacked Wayne and the others are still a threat, after all."

Finding it too painful to look at her, Drac said in a voice that somehow managed to remain even despite his turbulent feelings, "Yes. It'd probably be for the best."

Then Susan led the way back into the hotel with Drac following at a removed distance.

Back in the ballroom, the party had yet to pick back up again before Susan reappeared in the doorway, her face and voice a carefully constructed mask that couldn't conceal the sadness in her eyes as she said, "Come on, guys. It's time for us to go back to work."

"Aww! We haven't even had any cake yet!" Bob complained.

Link and Dr. Cockroach, both of whom saw this look on Susan's face once before, understood that something bad had happened and that this wasn't the time to argue with her. As Link patted BOB on the back, Dr. Cockroach said consolingly, "Come on, BOB, let's go."

As the last of Susan's friends leave the room and Susan follows them out into the hall, Drac re-enters the room. Mavis, clearly upset by what was happening, asked, "Dad, just what is going on?"

Addressing the room at large, Drac said in a voice that was as grave as it was sad, "My friends, I'm afraid that I have some bad news for you. I'm sure that you all remember from one year ago that I'd convinced you all not to leave when I revealed that Jonny was a good person and admitted that I did not know if humans were bad anymore. While I still believe that Johnny is a good person, based on what I now know I cannot discount the possibility that some, if not many, humans are still bad."

"The truth is that the reason that the world has been so quiet and peaceful as far as our kind is concerned is because that the human race, as a whole, have been led by their governments to believe that we monsters do not exist. They've kept our secret by locking up those of us who threaten to expose it. I've learned all of this tonight from Susan, as she and her friends work for those people."

"No!" Wanda exclaimed in disbelief.

"Even if Susan and the others decide to keep this place a secret, the truth is that human technology is progressing so rapidly that her human allies could have tracked them to this location anyways." Drac continued, "The sad fact is that I can no longer guarantee this place as a safe haven from a human world that may still be hostile should they learn we're more than ink printed in horror novels."

"If you maintain the habit of remaining out of sight out there, then I believe you should be fine. However, for your own safety, It'd probably be best if you were to check out now. I thank you all for your loyalty, my friends, and hope that we may meet again one day."

As he finishes, the guests file out of the ballroom past him until only Mavis, Murray, Frank, Eunice, Griffin, Wayne, Wanda and their boys are remaining in the room with him.

"Dad! That can't be true!" Mavis said in disbelief, "You must have misunderstood what Susan was saying!"

"Susan told me everything, Mavy," Drac countered sadly, "There was little room for misunderstanding there."

"Drac, I'm sorry," Johnny said, "I guess I should be going too.

"Yes," Drac agreed, "And take Mavis with you."

"What?" Johnny said as Mavis countered, "Dad? No!"

"It's okay, my voodoo doll," Drac assured her, "I'm just going to remain behind to make sure everyone gets out okay, and that nothing is left behind that someone could use to track us down again. I'll rejoin you once I'm done here."

"Come on, Mavis," Johnny said gently as he led Mavis out of the ballroom and the others followed. Griffin lingered for a moment as if he wanted to say something, then he left the room as well.

As her friends had settled into their positions aboard Butterflysaurus, Susan was about to step on herself when she felt a piercing, needle like sensation running down her right leg that was almost painful, even for her. Looking down, she saw the young cub Winnie clinging to her right leg begging, "Please don't go, Miss Ginormica! Don't go!"

Smiling sadly at her, Susan gently disengaged Winnie from her leg as she said, "I have to go. I need to make sure that those big, bad aliens don't come back to hurt you or your family. Do you understand, little one?"

"No!" Winnie countered, hugging her werewolf doll tight.

"One day, you will," Susan assured her, then she kissed her on the forehead as she said, "Now you be good and mind your mother and father."

Feeling her façade breaking, Susan turned and stepped aboard Butterflysaurus. As she nudged him into the air, she finally let the tears she'd been holding back stream down her face as they flew through the air, not looking back even when Winnie started howling mournfully into the night. If she had looked back, she might have spotted Drac looking out one of the windows, a tear making its way down his own cheek.

As Butterflysaurus made his descent around half an hour later, Susan was glad that the speed of the flight had dried most of the tears from her face: the remaining wetness could simply be attributed to irritation from the wind. Emerging from his tent, General Monger greeting them, "Welcome back, Ginormi….what on earth are you guys wearing?"

Looking at herself and the others, Susan realized that they were still wearing the costumes from the party. Gently sliding the dress off and folding it carefully, Susan replied, "There was a costume party at the hotel we were at and we forgot to return them before we left. We'll deal with that later, What's the situation?"

"Turns out you hit the nail right on the head, Ginormica!" Monger answered, "Without you guys to fight them, those alien robo-storks just plum didn't know what to do with themselves. Afraid that we didn't get much useful information by watching them, other than they seem to want to fight you real bad. After looking around for you for a while, those droids just up and flew back the way they came."

Pretty much expecting this, Susan nodded and asked, "Anything else?"

"Yeah," agreed Monger, "Shortly after the droids left, short range radar picked up the Mothership tracing a path between here and coordinates 45.096 by 25.781."

Confused, Susan said, "I don't understand, we just came out from that way. There's nothing out there except…" Susan froze with a horror-struck expression on her face as the realization struck her, then she finished with a whisper, "…the hotel!"

Turning and sprinting back the way she came, Susan yelled, "Everyone get back on Butterflysaurus!"

"Wait!" General Monger hollered, "Where are you going?"

"We're going back!" Susan yelled back, already starting to change sizes as she urged Butterflysaurus to take flight, "I just pray we're not too late!"

As he finished making his rounds, Drac found that the guests and servants had taken his advice seriously. The only ones that were still here was himself and the suits of armor, who stalwartly refused to abandon their posts. And while many of them had left some luggage behind in their haste to leave, no one had left anything that would tell anyone less intelligent than Sherlock Holmes where they came from or where they're going.

Having satisfied himself that his guests were safe, there was only two places he had to visit one last time. The first was the room he used as his wife's memorial shrine, to say goodbye. The second was his daughter's room, to pack a few extra clothes for her, as well as some other things he thought she'd need. As he struggled to get the overstuffed suitcase closed, he heard from the doorway behind him, "Gee, dad, think I didn't pack myself well enough?"

Turning in surprise, Drac saw Mavis and Jonathan standing in the doorway. After gaping for a moment, Drac got out, "Mavis!? Jonathan, I thought I told you to get her out of here!"

"Yeah, you be a puny human trying to take a super-strong, shape-shifting vampire somewhere she doesn't want to go!" Johnny said with a slight smile, "She was worried you might take too long in here and get snatched up by some government goon squad. Truth be told, so was I!"

"That 'goon squad' is exactly why you kids can't be here right now!" Drac retorted, "You have to leave now! I'll be right behind you!"

"Johnny's right!" Mavis countered, "Neither he nor you can make me go anywhere I don't want to, and I'm not going anywhere without you!"

"Heh," Murray's voice piped up from behind Johnny and Mavis, "Glad to hear that I'm not the only one here that feels that way!"

Drac eyes bugged out as he saw, appearing out of the shadows of the darkened hallway, Murray, Frank, Eunice and Wayne step into position behind Johnny and Mavis. "What are you all doing here!?"

"Did you think that we were just going to leave you behind to save our own skins?" Frank said.

"We've been through too much together to do that!" continued Murray.

"Wanda wanted to come back in with me, but I convinced her to wait in the woods with the kids, promising I'd get you out of here even if I had to drag you out by the scruff of your neck!" Wayne added.

At that moment, Drac couldn't decide if he wanted to hug them all or strangle them each one by one. Before he could decide he heard an amplified voice from outside saying, "Attention all monsters! Come outside immediately with your hands in the air!"

Drac urgently whispered to the others, "You've got to get out of here now!"

"Not without you!" Mavis insisted.

Drac growled in exasperation as he whispered, "Fine, fine! Just stay out of sight and keep quiet!" He then approached the window as the voice said, "I repeat, all monsters exit the building now, or we'll destroy it with you inside!"

As he opened the window and stepped out on the balcony, he saw that the demands were not being issued from the humans he feared it was, but from a craft far stranger than anything he's ever seen. Drac concluded it must be the aliens Susan said she was fighting, the ones who sent the probe that came close to killing Wade and his family.

"You're not one of the ones I was wanting!" The voice complained, then one of the ship's cannons swung down on an arm, revealing a humanoid female at the controls. She might have looked human, but there were several things about her that seemed too alien for that: Her olive skin tone, the spike-like that ran around the perimeter and down the center of the bald crown of her head, and her pointed teeth. Gesturing wildly, she asked, "Where is the enormous female?"

Of course! Drac thought, they're after Susan and the others! Not wanting to give in to the alien's demands, Drac said cordially, "If you're looking for Ms. Hydraberg, I regret to say that she checked out about an hour ago. I cannot say where she is now."

"I'm not looking for any 'Hydraberg'," the alien growled, "I'm seeking the platinum-haired female monster known as Ginormica! Where is she!?"

Looking as if he was trying to recall, Drac then said, "Nope, sorry! We haven't had any guests matching that description since this hotel was founded. I should know, since I'm the one who founded it."

"Don't play games with me!" the alien snarled, "Our readings show that she definitely was here! Now tell us where she is, or…"

Leaping down from the balcony, the cannon following his movement, Drac sincerely hoped that the other would make it out after he was gone as he said upon landing, "Madame, I can not tell you what I do not know, so if you're going to fire, then fire."

As the cannon started humming as it warmed up, Drac braced himself. Then he heard a voice off in the distance yelling, "Hold your fire!"

As he watched, Ginormica bounded over the nearest range of mountains and landed on the cliff near far side of the bridge with an impact that shook every window in the hotel and caused large ripples in the lake far below. "Don't shoot!" Ginormica repeated, "You want me, I'm here!"

"Really?" the alien said scornfully, "And why shouldn't I erase this annoying male from the universe?"

"Because if you spare him and this place, you'll get me without a fight," Susan said as she shrunk down and extended both arms out in front of her, "I'll surrender."

End of chapter