Chapter 9: Honeymoon p6
Early morning had come at Bucharest. Dracula and Ericka awoke in each other's arms at the same time. They exchanged loving kisses that almost turned into passion before getting out of bed. They brushed their teeth, combed their hair, dressed in their regular attire, and began packing all of their belongings and souvenirs in their suitcases and bags. The couple took the elevator down to the hotel's dining room one last time for breakfast before leaving for the trip home.
A few people recognized Dracula for who he really was and wanted to meet him before he left. He was uncomfortable with all the attention he was receiving, having been used to being shunned and feared by humans in the past, but Dracula couldn't help it milking at the humans in awe of him for better reasons than hate and fear. Plenty of them were disappointed that he and Ericka were leaving, just as some were arriving for their stay at the same hotel.
After breakfast, the couple walked to the reception desk to check out. One of the younger clerks asked for a picture and an autograph. Ericka and Dracula kindly obliged for the clerk's selfie with him. Not surprisingly, they had to do two pictures, because due to being a vampire, he didn't show up in the first picture, so Ericka told the clerk that Dracula can only appear in digital photos.
A crowd of employees and guests waved goodbye to the couple as they watched the departing newlyweds exit the RBH. The same cab driver, who had driven them to everywhere in the city in the week before, excitedly drove them back to the train stain, telling them the ride was on him as it was an honor to drive for the famous Count Dracula, for his legend and his heroics the past week.
"I had a wonderful time, Ericka . Thank you so much, for everything," Dracula said as he put an arm around her waste. "There is so much to see in the human world, and how much it's changed, but not for a little while. I'm just glad to be going home, since I have plans to train you to be a proper Countess, and my official assistant manager at the hotel - though I did promise that position to Mavis years ago, but I think two assistant managers will be perfect."
Ericka's face lit up ecstatically and she threw her arms around Dracula's neck for a big hug, shrieking, "Oh, thank you! That's wonderful!" And he returned the smile while he also returned the hug.
Suddenly Ericka felt her phone vibrating, and she looked down to see it was her friends calling. She pressed the answer button, but she was surprised to see a little werewolf girl on the screen.
"Oh, hello, Winnie, you little cutie," Dracula greeted affectionately to the screen when he saw who it was. "How are you? Has everything been A-Okay at my hotel?"
"Yes, Uncle Drac," Winnie replied, but suddenly the phone was forcibly yanked out of her grasp.
"Winnie, I told you not touch Sam's phone!" Wayne scolded, until he noticed Dracula and Ericka on the screen. Dracula had noticed something strange was going on in the background the second Wayne had grabbed the smart phone from his daughter. "Oh, hey guys," he greeted awkwardly. "How was the honeymoon? Are you having a good time? Uh, when are you coming back, tomorrow?"
"We are at the train station right now," Ericka replied, slightly concerned. "Is everything okay?"
"Wayne, what's going on?" Dracula asked, sternly suspicious. "Is my hotel still in one piece?"
"Yeah, Drac, everything's great," Wayne stammered, clearly trying to turn off the phone.
But Dracula and Ericka caught a glimpse of something suspicious in the background behind Wayne when some kind of giant cloth fell and Frank had fallen from somewhere and there was a loud crash followed afterward.
"I told you to watch where you were stepping!" Murray had shouted off-screen. "And that wasn't where that goes!"
"Keep it down back there!" Wayne shouted in the left direction where Murray stood, looking back at the phone and tried to play it cool as he continued to struggle turning off the phone. "So, uh, everything's great, A-Okay!" he gave his friends an awkward thumbs up, but there was another crash behind him.
Dracula directed an angered expression at his werewolf friend. Something wrong was happening at his precious hotel and his friends on trying to fix it seemed to make it worse. "We are coming back to the hotel right now, and everything better be perfect, as I left it, or I swear, Wayne, you and the others are going very sorry!"
The vampire surprisingly pressed the disconnect button on Ericka's phone, just as the cab arrived at the train station. Dracula stormed out of the cab, while Ericka struggled to carry their luggage and pay the driver at the same time. He practically stomped up to the ticket counter to check in, but by the time a tired Ericka managed to catch up with him the ticket clerk had told them their train back to Transylvania was delayed due to an unexpected landslide on the tracks.
"WHAAAT?!" Dracula hollered, and he furiously roared at the clerk. His eyes glowing an enraged red and his fangs lengthened to nearly three times their size, and the power of his roar was so intense it made the clerk's hair. Ericka covered her ears to block out the roar, which drew the attention of many people passing by, and the roar's vibrations almost made the entire station bustle come to a halt. When Dracula had finally stopped roaring, his face returned to normal and he shot the clerk a scorning frown. The clerk only stared blankly at him, clearly having dealt with past experience of verbal abuse from frustrated customers.
Ericka calmly put her hands on his shoulders and tried to reassure the frustrated vampire. "Honey, relax. We'll find another way home."
"I can try to renew your tickets for an early train to Transylvania tomorrow morning," the ticket clerk offered.
"No!" yelled Dracula, before he yanked something out from their luggage; his ridiculous sunhat and black sunglasses Ericka had gotten for him during their honeymoon before they left.
"Drac, what are you doing?" Ericka questioned worriedly as Dracula put them on and suddenly transformed into a bat, this time with smaller versions of the hat and sunglasses which looked cute on him.
"Hold on, Ericka !" he instructed to his wife.
She had to grab all their luggage immediately, which she managed to tie the heavier bags to her luggage with a few small keychains she bought on her trip. Then Dracula caught hold of her by the collar of her light jacket, and quick as a wink he took to the sky. Souring higher and higher than ever, dozens of people watched them lift off in amazement and cheered for the them, or took pictures of what was happening with their digital camera and cell phones.
Having already gotten over her fear of heights, Ericka actually found herself enjoying this strange flight back home. "I guess the only way to fly is by Vampire Airlines! Whoo-hoo!"
"Trying to concentrate here!" Dracula scolded her in annoyance as they glided towards the clouds.
She didn't know how long they were in the sky, but Ericka wanted to be in the moment to keep herself amused by gazing down at the breathtaking view of the landscape far below her, trusting her husband would never let her fall while he continued to fly rapidly. She passed the time by snapping several pictures of the landscape beneath her and emailing them to her friends, but not before she texted them that they were on their way home. A few kilometers out in the open, Ericka caught sight of a hot air balloon and its perplexed passengers staring at them. She waved at them when Dracula flew passed them. One of the passengers filmed them flying by on his tablet, and the other passenger waved an awkward hello.
The couple disappeared inside a cloud for a moment, until they emerged from the other side. Ericka felt the light water vapor and fluffy particles cling to her hair. "What do you know? Clouds are made of water. Hey, I got some cloud in my hair! Gotta do a selfie!"
"Not now, Ericka !" Dracula nagged at her irately, as she heard the rapid flapping of his bat wings.
"Party pooper," grumbled Ericka , while she snapped a quick photo and put her phone away.
It had been a few hours during their long flight back to Transylvania. Ericka had drifted off to sleep but Dracula continued to fly with harsh determination, not even bothered by the heavy weight he was carrying. Soon, he was in sight of a familiar vast forest and isolated mountain rage with an enclosed lake. Dracula used his clairvoyance powers and spotted his precious hotel in the distance. It looked alright on the outside, but he was suspicions about the inside.
Dracula flew within the shadows that weren't yet shortened by the sunlight as he landed on the stone driveway. He carefully held Ericka in his arms as his feet made contact with the ground. Kissing her cheek, he woke her up and gestured to Ericka that they made it back home. But then his dark expression returned while Dracula practically stormed up the staircase and burst through the revolving door in a rage. Ericka struggled to carry the luggage while she kept up with him and dropped the suitcases to the floor the second she passed through the revolving door.
But the next thing the couple knew, there came the excited chorus of, "SURPRISE!" or "WELCOME HOME!"
Rainbow colored confetti rained down upon Ericka and Dracula as all their friends and family shouted and cheered, and rushed over to embrace their loved ones. Dracula's expression remained stunned in confusion, not understanding what recently happened.
Ericka gave Cleopatra, Sam , Hank, Alex, Arianna, Faye,Billy,Cindy, Pedro, Wendy, Eunice, Wanda and Winnie lots of big bear hugs. "Oh, you guys, this is wonderful!" she squealed.
Dracula got a friendly pat on the back by Murray, and Frank almost smothered him in his painful head lock, saying, "Welcome back, buddy!"
But the vampire still remained confused, although a smile steadily grew on his long handsome face. "What is all this? What's going on?"
"It's a welcome back party for you and Ericka ," Wayne explained. "Sorry about the call earlier. This is what I was trying to hide from you, it was supposed to be a surprise."
"It's a little something we wanted to throw for you," Frank added. "And as you can see the hotel is still one piece, A-Okay, just like we promised."
"Well I appreciate what you all did in my absence, thank you," Dracula said, nodding at them in gratitude.
"Frank and I were putting up the banner," Murray said, pointing to the 'WELCOME HOME' banner above, "and that's what we were getting ready when little Winnie started playing around with Sam's phone."
Dracula and Ericka placed their arms around each other and smiled at their friends and family, but then Helena's and Sam's parents had to ruin the moment, feeling the pleasantries were over and needed to get strict with the newlyweds.
"As much as we want to hear how the honeymoon was..." Nick began calmly, before his tone changed to a strict one, "why didn't you tell us sooner that you were almost raped? Twice, this week?!"
Ericka was shocked, wondering how did her they know about the rape incident. Dracula was also surprised but he aimed a cold glare at the middle aged man, but Ericka groaned in defeat, "We were going to tell you later. But how did you know?"
A guilty Sam held up his smartphone and it played a repeat of the news; an image of Dracula holding Jax the Rapist by the neck over a third story railing at the Bucharest Mall, and black bar covered Jaxon's nude bottom while a reporter's voice explained about what this amateur's video caught.
Dracula and Ericka smirked at the image, but remained awkwardly silent. The vampire raised an eyebrow while he still glared at the humans for ruining the welcome back party so soon. Everyone else in the room turned silent as they watched the video with expressions of appalled horror.
"Johnny called us that day to tell us what he knew happened," Marilyn explained strictly. "You and he were talking, he said you dropped your phone, Dracula picked it up and said he feared you was being chased by a serial rapist and murderer. We had to hear from a news report of Dracula giving a statement that this guy was the same rapist that tried to assault you before at an amusement park!"
"We're glad you're alright, Ericka , because Dracula was there to save you, but I don't know if I'd go this far to call him a hero as the public is," Nick continued. "What perturbs me the most is that you didn't call to let us know sooner. We care about you as if you were our own sister , Ericka , and you should tell us about these things. Or you could have come home sooner if you were in that kind of trouble."
Ericka frowned and rolled his eyes at her former-bosses' nagging rants of their concern, while Dracula was thinking about what they said. Hesitating, Ericka calmly explained to them, "Nick...Marilyn... I love you and I appreciate your concerns, but I'm a grown woman and I'm married now. This was our honeymoon, and we weren't going to let anything ruin it, no matter how bad it is. As you can see, I'm fine, because Drac was there for me when I needed him, and he's been overprotective of me enough. I don't want either of you to get this way over me too!"
"You and your friends are right on one thing, dear," Dracula announced, which took his wife by surprise. "We couldn't let one incident ruin our honeymoon, no matter how bad it is. But Nick is right, we should've called them about what happened or gone back home if the situation got more serious. I love you with all my heart, Ericka . I had to do everything I could to protect you. I would do anything to keep you safe, even protect you from those who would try to harm you." The vampire brought her closer to his embrace, his arm still wrapped around, and she smiled affectionately at him.
Sam and Helena exchanged looks of instant relief on their faces, while Nick and Marilyn continued to have stoic expressions on his faces, but their faces softened at Dracula's words in agreeing with them and they nodded in respect to the vampire.
Then Dracula looked around and realized there was someone else missing. "Where's my little Mavis?" he asked worriedly and added quickly for everyone's sake, "And Johnny?"
"They're still in Hawaii," replied Frank, and the vampire frowned sadly in disappointment.
Ericka gently wrapped her arm around his waist to reassure him. "It's okay, darling. I'm sure they're having a great time, just like we did. We'll see them again as soon as they return; for now, let's enjoy our welcome home party."
Dracula smiled at her words and did his best to enjoy the party and happy at being home from a fantastic honeymoon, though he began to miss his little girl so much, he was only halfheartedly involved in the party. Shortly after the welcome home party, Ericka got a text on her phone, and a surprised grin plastered on her face to see it was from Johnny. The photo displayed of him and Mavis still in Hawaii on one of the most famous beaches in the world, Waikiki. She displayed the photo to Dracula and he turned ecstatic to see her, though his grin faded the second he saw Mavis wearing a brand new two piece black and red-striped bikini similar to Ericka's . Johnny was looking a little too clingy to his Mavis, keeping a goofy smile that showed the younger man was getting too hot under the collar. Ericka covered her mouth and snickered. She glanced over at a scowling Dracula, knowing he thought she was showing off too much skin that would attract boys and irked at how Johnny was acting like she belonged to him. But he was still relieved to know his little girl is doing better and having a wonderful time in Hawaii, and he hoped to see her really soon.
But soon couldn't come enough for Dracula and the days passed, until one day Ericka caught her husband playing with dolls in Mavis's room talking about how a red-headed gorilla took his little princess away and he called the gorilla's companion a vixen. Insulted when she realized he was talking about her, Ericka snatched up one of the old dolls and started whacking or smacking him over the head with it, chewing him out over how dare he called Johnny a gorilla and called her a vixen, thinking he didn't truly love her. She sternly reminded him of his heartfelt speech to her and the boy and how he told Mavis 'to go make her own paradise' but she told him how they should have children of their own if the young couple ever got married and moved away, and probably right now since they had all that sex on their honeymoon, and then he would be the happiest vampire in the world.
His friends Frank and Wayne eventually came in shortly after as Ericka and Dracula started to make out. They tried to encourage the stubborn vampire to get out into the world again, even though she and Dracula had their honeymoon in Bucharest, and Ericka thought it was a great idea. But Dracula stubbornly refused, stating that his place was at the hotel waiting for Mavis to come home, which was until Frank revealed Mavis herself and Johnny to have returned from their trip at long last, much to the Count's thrill and utter joy.
After the entire group left, Ericka, Eunice felt like they were about to faint and decided to go to the bathroom. But Wanda, who recently welcomed Mavis and Johnny home, was feeling as queasy as her friend. Ericka didn't mind the she-wolf coming in. To her surprise, Wanda had a pregnancy test she asked her husband to get on their way from the drug store to the hotel. Ericka, Eunice asked if they could take the test and Wanda agreed. Just then, one of the knights called for an emergency to the Countess, and Ericka, Eunice immediately left to speak with him about it, but their hands accidently brushed agaisnt the four urine-filled cups to the floor before either women could finish the tests . Wanda assured them that she will clean it up while dipping the two test sticks in each spilled urine and allowed Ericka, Eunice go check on the emergency. A little later when Ericka, Eunice returned, they found Wayne had been trying to comfort Wanda, who had a very saddened expression when he told Ericka,Eunice that Wanda's test sticks responded negative. Ericka, Eunice assured their friend that her chance will come again. Then Wayne gave Ericka, Eunice their test sticks and she saw it was a positive. The three of them remained speechless at this discovery, but suddenly felt euphoric of Ericka, Eunice being pregnant. Ericka, Eunice needed to tell her friends the good news, but for now she wanted to keep it a surprise and tell everyone at a special time, so they convinced the werewolves to keep it a secret.
A dinner party was held for Mavis and Johnny's homecoming with Dracula, Ericka , the Drac Pack, their wives and Mavis's friends in attendance, as well as their surprise engagement when Johnny had announced he and Mavis wanted to get married.
"Congratulations, Mavy-Wavy," Dracula announced as he held up a glass of bloody champagne in one arm, and Ericka in his other arm while everyone else held up their glasses in a toast of congratulations.
"Thanks, Dad," Mavis said tearfully, holding up her own glass and gave Johnny a quick peck on the lips.
Dracula tried to keep it under control when he saw that kiss, but he forced a genuine smile and said to Johnny, "Congratulations to you too, Johnny. I know you're going to make Mavis very happy." Then said, if mostly for a tease, mock-threatened him, "Because if you don't, I'll suck out all of your blood from your body until you look like a deflated whoopee cushion."
Johnny nervously laughed at such as thought and Mavis giggled at her father's supposed teasing, but Ericka frowned at him and lightly punched her husband in the arm. Johnny took a sip of his champagne and wanted to give his own congratulations to his future in-laws on their own past wedding and honeymoon, for it was Dracula's true first time out in the world. He took out his phone to show off his favorite picture of the selfies Ericka had sent to him during their honeymoon, but he was so tipsy that he misjudged the speed of his sliding pictures on his phone. He held up his phone to Dracula and Ericka , thinking it was of them at the beach, but the second he noticed the picture Dracula spat out his champagne like a geyser. The wolf pups immediately licked up the puddle from the floor.
"Where the world did you get that?! How did you get that picture?!" Dracula growled at Johnny, embarrassed and humiliated.
Ericka's mouth was left hanging open, and blushed with such embarrassment, along with everyone else at the party. Frank almost choked on his food when he caught a glimpse of the photo, and Murray had to unscrew his head off and pull out the fish tail the golem had been choking on. Blobby shielded Wendy's eyes to avoid staring at such a photo. Nick's eye twitched and he looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown and his strong grip smashed his champagne glass.
Johnny was confused on why everyone was reacting terribly to the picture, until he took a good look at his phone and realized that it was Dracula and Ericka doing the eagle position in their suite. "Oops!" Johnny gasped, chuckled nervously while Dracula's face was changing red with fury. "I really meant to delete that."
"Oh, jeez!" Mavis looked away from the photo, embarrassed to see her father and mother in a sexual position.
"Where did you get it?!" Dracula demanded as his eyes began to glow the infamous crimson red.
"DON'T LOOK KIDS" said Eunice shocked at what they saw.
"Uh, i-it was... e-mailed to me by Griffin... h-he said Frank took it... and thought it was funny... to send it to me," Johnny explained while trembling in fear.
Frank had his head screwed back on by the time Dracula turned his dangerous gaze upon the giant golem and invisible man.
"Completely by accident," Frank tried to explain to the vexed vampire as he held up his hands in surrender.
"C'mon, Drac, heh-heh," Griffin chuckled nervously. "It's just a joke. Oh, boy."
"Not funny!" Dracula seethed, and in a flash his two friends turned around to run as fast as they could down the hotel hallway. Frank kept on tripping over his massive feet and struggled to stay on his feet to keep running, while Dracula began pursuing them in a trail of blue mist, shouting in a rage, "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"
Everyone else at the dinner party started laughing at this scene before the vampire disappeared in his pursuit of his friends.