Chapter 2

The summer home that Dracula had acquired was modest for a castle, but still impressive for a second living space. It was located deep in the swamplands and was only two stories tall so it could not be easily seen or found. Moss and algae clung all around the bottom of the stone castle due to the swampy moat that surrounded it. Not a single road leads to the castle; which is why Dracula made sure to have his stage coach horses enchanted. The black horses could easily take off and trot a few feet above the ground and over the swampy marshland.

The moment that the coach stopped in front of the castle's doors, Sibella hopped out and quickly walked up to the castle. The last 45 minutes had been mostly silent except for Dracula's attempts to get a conversation started. It took every last ounce of will power to keep Sibella from snapping at her father and now she just wanted to go up to her room and lie down in her coffin.

"Sibella, please!" pleaded Dracula. "Just tell me what you want me to do. How can I make it up to you?"

She froze at the foot of the staircase. Sibella had tried so hard to keep her emotions in check, but now her father had pushed her over the edge. Her hand tightened around the banister while she fought back her urge to yell. But it was too late, as much as she wanted more time to organize her thoughts; Sibella had to get her father to stop his groveling.

"You think you can just stop me from being angry with you in a single gesture!?" she cried. Sibella spun on her heels and gave the best angry glare she could muster, but the hurt in her eyes was causing tears to bead up in the corners. "What you did to Shaggy was horrible, Daddy. Are you even aware of how many awful things you did? You changed him into a werewolf against his will, kidnapped him and his friends, blackmailed him into participating in your race and endangered all of their lives. Your only saving grace in this whole mess was when you turned him back."

Dracula's mouth went dry and a sudden itch now irritated the back of his neck. He reached back to scratch at the nuisance while he looked away from his daughter. "Well…actually I had nothing to do with turning him back. He took off with the Grimness Book and changed himself back."

Sibella's brows angled themselves deeper with rage upon hearing the news. Now she had to add dishonoring the Dracula name to her father's misdeeds. At first she didn't know what to say next and the silence was becoming unbearable by the second. So she decided to just speak the first thing that came to mind. "The Grimness Book? But I thought that you left Vanna Pira in charge of looking after it?"

He let out an aggravated sigh before moving his hands to rub at his throbbing temples. "Yes, I did; but she had to be a blabber bat and tell Shaggy that the reversal spell was in there. I had to track him all the way here to America just to get the book back." As he remembered the turmoil of swimming in the ocean, he got an instant migraine. It was bad enough that he was getting chased by sharks, but the two idiots, known as The Hunch Bunch, had been little to no help at all. It was a miracle at all that he had been able to get on his own sail boat that The Hunch Bunch had been using at their own leisure. "But everything is alright now, Sibella. Shaggy is a back to being a boring human again and no one got hurt." Although, Dracula could certainly complain about all of the injuries he sustained in trying to sabotage the race track and his attempts to keep Shaggy and his friends from leaving- but he didn't want to anger Sibella any more than he had already.

"What I can't believe is that this was all because Winnie's father retired and moved away. It's not as though they are the only werewolves in the world. Why him? Why Shaggy?" she demanded.

"Because he hurt you and the other girls," he said with firm anger. "He and his hounds may have acted as though they were adjusted to the monster world, but they ran in terror the second the new students arrived. They couldn't handle it, they couldn't handle being around our kind. I needed to get back at him for abandoning you and the other students."

"So turning Shaggy into a werewolf was going to fix all of that?" she asked while crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you know how much of a setback you have probably caused in human-monster relations?"

"Bah! He was just one human with a couple of talking mutts. Is this why you are mad at me? Are you upset because you think this has something to do with your mother?"

"This had everything to do with mother!" she cried. "Mother is one of the founders of Ms. Grimwood's school and getting humans to accept our world is why it exists. Shaggy was a step closer to Mother's goal and you ruined it by getting him involved in your stupid race!"

"Now you listen well, young lady," he hissed. "One human does not count as a step. Just because one human managed to stay a whole semester at Grimwood, does not mean your mother is going to just quit her job and come back. She is never coming back, not for you or me!"

What were once tiny beads of tears in Sibella's eyes now became full, gushing falls. Her father's words stung worse than any wooden stake she could ever imagine. Without a word, a golden glow radiated all around her and in a flash of light, she had turned into a small, purple bat. Sibella flew as fast as she could up to her room and slammed the door shut with her wing. She didn't even bother to change back into her human form when she flew into the satin-lined casket and curled up upon the lavender pillow. Tears stained the fabric and her shrill, sobbing screeches soon died down to mere murmurs. Not only did she hate how her father had made her feel about her mother, but she hated feeling like this period. At least none of her friends could see her like this. She'd hate for any of them to see the tiny, pathetic bat crying her heart out over a fight that she had with her daddy. All she could do now was cry and sob until she was too tired to continue on.

Dracula stood in what felt like a 10ft pit of shame and regret. With his face buried in his palms, he slowly shuffled his feet towards the parlor. He knew he had made a mistake by bringing Sibella's mother up in the argument, but he was sure that was the real reason she was upset over this whole "Shaggy business". As soon as he felt his leg bump into the leg of the red velvet couch, the count collapsed into the seat and draped his head and arms over the back of the furniture. His first instinct was to go upstairs and apologize to his daughter. But he knew that it would not be the best time and he would just get on her nerves.

Not knowing what else to do, he looked over to the end-table on his right, and stared at the black rotary phone that sat there. In front of the phone was a notepad with the name, address, phone number and room number of the motel Vanna Pira was staying at. His fingers drummed anxiously on the arm of the couch until he finally leaned over and picked up the phone. His index finger hovered over the rotary pad as he tried to think of what he should say. But that all depended on whether or not his girlfriend would even pick up the phone. But why wouldn't she? She was the one to give him the information on where she was staying. She was the one who said for him to call her when he was ready to talk to her. He may not have been ready, but he needed someone to talk to.

It took four tries for Dracula to dial the number correctly. Either he was much more nervous than he thought he was, or he was in need of a blood feeding. His hand was so shaky that he called three wrong numbers without realizing so until he was greeted by some angry people who yelled at him for waking them at the dead of night. When he finally did reach the motel, he felt his blood run cold as he listened to the painstakingly long telephone rings. After the 11th ring, he gave up and figured that Vanna Pira must not be in the mood to talk to him either. Tired, he slammed the phone back onto the end table before he lied down on the couch and wrapped his cape around himself. Depression and loneliness had taken over too much of his body to leave him any strength to go up to his bedroom. He just stared at the back of the couch until his eyes couldn't remain open and he fell into a restless sleep.

The growl of her stomach woke Sibella up in the early evening. The fur on her right cheek was cold and damp from having fallen asleep on her tear-drenched pillow. Not wanting to have to deal with the uncomfortable feeling a moment longer, she changed back into her human form as she sat up in her coffin. On the other side of the room was a window on the north wall. All of the windows in the castle only faced north and south so as to avoid direct rays of sunlight from shining in. One thing Sibella had always been thankful for was being immune to the sunlight, unlike her parents. But even she couldn't stand being in direct sunlight for too long without feeling light headed or getting burns on her pale skin.

After she wiped off the wetness from her now fleshy cheek, Sibella climbed out of her coffin and approached the window. Although the trees took up half of the view, she could tell that the sun was just beginning to set and it would be about an hour before complete nightfall. She must have slept for a good 15 hours or so by her calculations; no wonder she felt like she was starving. Sibella left her room and glanced down the hallway towards the master bedroom, hoping that her father was still asleep. Quietly, she descended the stairs and headed to the kitchen. She was just about to cross through the parlor but froze mid-step when she saw her father on the couch. He was curled up and snoring softly with his face half-buried into a throw pillow that was smeared in his green sunblock. She almost felt sorry for her father as she saw him in such a state. The once feared and proud count of Transylvania was asleep on a small couch while every woman he had ever loved or cared for was mad at him or simply not speaking with him. It served him right for what he did, but as angry as she was at him, it was still hard to see him like this. In spite of all her anger and hurt feelings, she still loved her father and wanted things to be right between them again, even if it wasn't going to be the same as before.

Not wanting to disturb him or bring about another painful conversation, Sibella levitated herself off of the floor so she could float on through the room. As she passed by the couch, she saw the notepad on the end-table with some things written on the first page. Nimble fingers scooped up the pad so she could get a better look at the playful and feminine handwriting. It certainly didn't belong to her father so it had to be Vanna Pira's. Sibella was a bit surprised that a woman with such an airhead could have such nice handwriting, even if she did make her m's into little bats and dotted her i's with spiders.

A snort interrupted Dracula's otherwise fluid snoring and it made Sibella fumble with the notepad. Thankfully she didn't drop it or doing anything else to make a sound that could awaken him. After floating over to the kitchen, she found a basket filled with rotten crab apples sitting on the counter. She could tell right away that they had come from Ms. Grimwood's garden and it brought a small smile to her face. It must have been a gift basket she had sent to her father as a welcome present for his summer stay in the country. Wasting no time, she plucked a green apple from the basket and took a couple of bites before sinking her fangs into the sour fruit and sucked out every last drop of it's juices. She went through a couple more apples while she read over the notepad again. Maybe she could go over to the motel and talk with Vanna Pira. If she could convince her to return, she would at least bring her father's spirits up a bit and keep him out of her hair until she was ready to talk to him again.

Sibella knew she wasn't going to last long with just the two of them in the castle. She knew after a few days of the silent treatment and avoiding him all together that he would start pestering her again, to try and force her to forgive him before she was really ready. Of course, in order to get Vanna Pira to come back that would mean actually talking with her. Alone. Just thinking of trying to maintain an adult conversation with her brought a knot into her stomach- but that could also be from the fact that three crab apples do not make a sufficient meal. Luckily, the motel wasn't too far away. It was on the outskirts of a small human town that was about a 30 minute flight from the castle. It looked as though she would have to thank Ms. Grimwood for including local areas to her geography lessons.

After tossing out the crabapple husks, Sibella floated back into the parlor and left the notepad exactly as she had found it. With her father snoring away on the couch, she was able to make it to the front door and quietly sneak outside before closing the heavy door as softly as she could. She shifted into her bat form and took off towards the human town. It was a scary thought, going to a human town even if it would be night by the time she reached it. She wondered why and how Vanna Pira could get a room in such a place. Then again, Vanna Pira could easily pass for human since the only thing that hinted to her vampiric nature was her yellow eyes. Plus it meant that Dracula would most likely stay away from her, leaving Vanna Pira to come back when she was ready and on her own terms. Sibella just hoped that she could talk the woman into being ready much sooner.

The stars had just begun to shine into view when Sibella made it to the small human town. Only a handful of cars were on the road and most of the local businesses were already closed up for the day. As soon as the single story motel came into view, Sibella made a B-line for Room 19 and transformed back into her human body when she reached the door. She took a few seconds to catch her breath from the long flight as well as muster up the courage to knock on the door. She made a couple of soft knocks at first and started to twirl a lock of hair around her index finger as she waited. When no one answered, Sibella knocked harder and glanced around her. Standing out in the open in a human town made her feel so vulnerable and her fear was getting closer and closer to the surface. Finally, the doorknob turned and opened a crack at first so the person inside could get a look at Sibella before the opened the door completely.

Sibella quickly dropped the hair from her fingers and smoothed down the front of her dress. The last thing she wanted was for Vanna Pira to catch her in the middle of some childish behavior. The woman who answered the door looked down at Sibella with wide, yellow eyes. It seemed as though Vanna Pira was actually ready to go to bed as opposed to just waking up as Sibella had done. Her long, dark brown hair was neatly brushed and hanging over her shoulders. She was dressed in a black Type O Negative T-shirt that she must have had for a while since it was a little faded and hugged every curve to her alluring body. The red gym shorts she had on must have been just as old since they only reached half-way down her thighs at best, leaving the rest of her long legs and bare feet exposed. Sibella was sure she had just made the top most uncomfortable interactions with her father's girlfriend in her life…so far.

"Why, Sibella! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" asked the confused Vanna Pira.

"Actually I'm out for the summer. I just arrived home yesterday," she said softly while also keeping her eyes to the ground.

Vanna Pira gasped and threw her hands up to cover her mouth. "Oh no! Oh this is horrible! I didn't even realize you were going to be out of school already. Here I am, in the middle of a fight with your dad and I didn't even plan to do anything special for you when you came home!"

"It's alright, Vanna Pira, really. In fact my father is the reason why I came over to talk to you. But first, would you mind letting me come inside?" she asked while taking another nervous look around her.

"Oh, of course! Silly me; please Sibella, come right on in and make yourself comfy," she said with a smile and stepped aside so Sibella could walk in. There were some vampire rules that Vanna Pira still needed to get used to.