Chapter 15: The Funfair
Shortly after the movie had ended, Dracula slowly stirred from his peaceful nap and found Mavis lightly snoozing on his shoulder. He gently shook her away and she looked up at him with a smile.
"Thanks for saving me from the chandelier, Dad," she said with sincerity.
"Of course, Mavis, you're welcome. I promised to always keep you safe," he said tenderly. "And I'll keep trying to do that and treat you more like a grown up, because I love you."
"I love you too, Dad," she replied, a tearful smile on her face and they hugged one last time.
Everyone left for bed to get some well deserved rest.
The next night, everyone awoke fairly rested. Mavis awoke early for some more bonding time with her future in-laws. She went into Johnny's room and Mavis smiled when she saw him still sleeping wide mouthed and drooling as he snored moderately. She noticed his smartphone on the side table and turned it one to look at the time, and was a bit surprised to find a picture of her and her dad cuddling on the couch from last night, making her smile at such a sweet scene. Mavis gave Johnny's cheek a light kiss, and then his nose, making him stir and gradually awaken as he smacked his lips and grinned with half opened eyes.
"Morning," he moaned.
"Good morning," Mavis greeted, and gave him a long passionate kiss.
"Awesome." Johnny groaned happily. He began to make out with Mavis and embraced her, which lasted for ten seconds when he pulled apart. "If your dad walked in on us, he'd get the wrong idea and suck my blood."
"You're right." Mavis sighed, wishing this moment could've lasted forever. "Although, I haven't heard my parents disrupt our sleep with their screams of orgasm. I wonder what they're doing."
In their private chambers, Dracula was the first to stir awake with Ericka in his embrace. They had another glorious night exploring oral sex and love making, and he had to admit it was growing on him, though he wondered why she was backing away from the more traditional way.
Dracula began giving a sleeping Ericka some light kisses, to which she giggled and opened her eyes to smile lovingly at him. "Good morning, Honey."
"Good morning, Beloved," he greeted with a wide grin. "How about a nice wake up quickie?"
Ericka smiled teasingly at him. "Maybe another time, sweetheart. I'm pretty hungry from last night."
"Aw, c'mon," Dracula whined, as he turned into a bat and pouted at her.
"Drac, no, don't!" Ericka groaned. "Don't give me the pouty bat face." Dracula changed back to normal, still pouting, but Ericka wanted to make her point clear. "I'd love to, but uh, we really shouldn't with company in the castle, our future in-laws even, and seeing how we're pretty loud. Not to mention, we need to cut back on the sex."
"Ehh!" Dracula groaned, watching her get out of bed.
"C'mon, some breakfast should cheer you up," Ericka said as she walked into the closet to get dressed.
By now, everyone had awoken from their slumber. The Loughrans were shown by one of the guards to the private dinner area where they were to join Johnny, Mavis, Ericka , and Dracula for some first time breakfast as a future family.
As everyone took their seats, Erik, the famed Phantom of the Opera, played an old pipe organ and sang over dramatically for everyone.
"Two families, tonight try to be as one, but Drac does not find it fun. All is just too strange, as you see the coming change. True feelings go unsaid, keep silent."
Everyone shot Erik either confused or annoyed looks as he finished his over dramatic singing.
"Erik, take it down a notch," ordered Dracula. "And try to play something happier, more upbeat."
If Erik had listened to him, he didn't show he listened.
"Welcome, welcome," Dracula said to everyone, then took his place at the head of the table with Ericka to his right, and Johnny and Mavis to his left.
The zombie and gargoyle waiters brought an assortment of both usual monster foods and human foods for breakfast; moose nose omelets, worm pancakes, lucky maggots cereal, scream cheese bagels, mouse jelly, regular eggs mixed with vegetable product or ham or cheese, slices of toast smeared with either butter or jam, tea, fruit juices, yogurt, sausage, waffles and regular pancakes.
Kent browsed on his phone for an App to tell him of things to do in the nearby village, or anywhere else for that matter, just to do something outside of the hotel, even though how freakishly cool it was. Somehow, it didn't seem all that cool without seeing more monsters Johnny had talked about.
Finally, something came up and he smiled excitedly, "Hey everybody, look what I just found. It looks like there's a fair in town this week. What do you say we all go?"
Most of the humans shouted cheers and their affirmatives, even Mavis got excited and curious about a fair, but Dracula grew confused and concerned about more unfamiliar humany stuff.
"That's sounds like so much fun!" Mavis exclaimed. "Can we go, Dad, please?"
But Dracula gave her a look of uncertainty. "I don't know, Mavis, surely we can still find plenty of fun things to do here at home, wouldn't we, Pumpkin?"
"Aww, c'mon, Dad," she whined and turned into a bat to give him a familiar cute pout.
"Oh, no, no, no, Mavis!" Dracula groaned. "C'mon, not again, not the pouty bat face! You know, I can't resist the pouty bat face!"
Seeing Mavis give her classic 'pouty bat face' to her father, Linda and Melissa went 'aww' while the men chuckled amusingly at how cute it looked, and just knew Mavis had to be 'Daddy's Little Girl.'
Mavis changed back to normal with a big smile of amusement and hopeful eagerness when her stepmother intervened.
"C'mon, Darling, it'll be fun," said Ericka. "It's just like the amusement park we went to on our honeymoon, only the town's fair happens once a year instead of being year round like Terra Park is. What do you say?"
Dracula still seemed unsure, but said he'd think about it.
Shortly afterword, Dracula's family and their future in-laws had breakfast together. Johnny told their friends, the Drac Pack and Mavis's friends, about the funfair and thought they would be excited for it too. Although they were interested and did find the idea of going interesting, like Dracula, they were also unsure about it.
"I remember hearing about such things back when Mavis was still a kid," Wayne said. "Right before Wanda had our first littler, I just watched it from the shadows like under the buildings or behind the walls. And with so many humans there doing a lot of strange things, I was sure getting closer was a bad idea."
"I remember Drac showing slides about these 'fun' fairs, certain it was plans to entrap monsters and destroy us, like scooping our brains out," Pedro added. "I didn't want anyone scooping my brains out, man."
"Should I worry about my head being used to hold candy or put on a shelf so water is squirted into my mouth?" Hank, Alex asked nervously.
Johnny, Ericka , and the Loughrans couldn't help but laugh at all this nonsense, which seemed to offend the monsters.
"Guys, you have nothing to worry about, you know the townspeople love you out there and will be thrilled you'd all attend the fair," assured Ericka . "It's all harmless games and lots of rides, and I remember going before my mom died and infrequently when my dad was away. We'll show you all the best things to do, so let's go."
There was no changing Ericka's or Johnny's mind, and along with Mavis, they had to push everyone, including Dracula, out of the hotel to go to the town's funfair. They all got into two hearses to take them into town, Mavis rode with Johnny and his family, while Ericka drove the hearse with Dracula and the Drac Pack.
The two hearses arrived in the village, but drove through the narrow main road to the outskirts just a ways past the Bats in the Belfry Inn, and what the monsters saw made them once again go googly eyed with amazement at what the humans had done in the last century. In a wide open field, various colorful rides and open stands for games and food could be seen, and the rides lit up in the night as they flashed and danced in strange patterns.
The ticket booth operator gawked at the new arrivals in awe when they came up to get admission into the fun, though the operator was all too pleased to let them in for free, though the Loughrans and Ericka insisted they pay their way in.
Everyone made their way into the park and all the monsters were completely mesmerized by everything they saw and even the unfamiliar yet enticing smells of fair foods, and even Dracula had to admit it was very much like Terra Park from his and Ericka's honeymoon, if larger and closer to home.
Some of the rides included a swinging pendulum in the shape of a dragon headed boat, a familiar tiltawhirl, a drop tower, and many other rides such as the Ferris wheel, the tunnel of love, a merry-go-round, a roller coaster, a giant slide, bumper cars, the tea cup ride, and different kinds of activities for the whole family.
Everyone decided to split into two groups and meet up again for a late lunch; Mavis left with Johnny and her friends to the Loughrans for some more bonding, and Ericka joined up with Dracula and his friends, though unsurprisingly Dracula wanted to spend time with his Mavy-Wavy.
The Drac Pack began with riding the roller coaster, getting excited about it after hearing from Ericka and Dracula about how fast and fun the one at Terra Park was on their honeymoon. Through the dizzying rapid turns and stomach churning rises and falls on the roller coaster, the entire Drac Pack screamed like little girls. Dracula, not so much, as he gave a 'wheee' like a little boy and Ericka laughed hysterically through her own occasional screams.
While the Drac Pack went on their first roller coaster, Johnny and Mavis her friends went on the dragon headed swinging boat ride. Mavis giggled like an excitable little girl as she put her hands in the air like everyone else did, feeling like she was on her old swing back in her secret garden at home. A few minutes later, they all went on the tiltawhirl ride, and while Johnny's brothers looked like they might puke from how dizzy they felt and would stumble about a bit, Johnny shook it off and laughed with Mavis like little kids having the time of their lives.
Shortly afterward, the Drac Pack were lead by Ericka to the bumper cars, which unsurprisingly confused the monsters until they witnessed how they worked. It took most of the Drac Pack a few tries to get the hang of the bumper cars; Frank tightly squeezed into his own car, but they couldn't help laughing at the fun they were having, except for Dracula, who was less than thrilled at being constantly rammed into by his wife, friends, or other humans and he returned it with a glare. Although at one time Dracula purposely bumped hard into Ericka and gave her a raspberry, but she returned it with her own harder bump and bigger raspberry, making their friends groan or laugh at their childish antics.
Johnny and Mavis had some fun going down some large slides, just like Dracula and Ericka did on their honeymoon, while they and the rest of the Drac Pack went on the tea cups, Frank spun his a little too hard to make his head fly off and land on a couple of startled older humans and all he could do was smile awkwardly until his body came for his head and reattached it.
The Loughran siblings rode the drop tower. Mavis laughed while Johnny screamed louder then a little girl, which his brothers teased him about for a while until Mavis told them, nicely but firmly, to stop it. In the meantime, the Drac Pack rode a Ferris wheel-like ride called an Enterprise, which confused the monsters why it was called that, and Ericka tried to explain about something called Star Trek, but that only confused them further, yet they all had fun on the ride anyway, Dracula had fun the most because of Ericka sitting on his lap while he held her and he smiled the whole time.
As it got a bit later in the night, everyone was feeling very peckish and met up at the picnic area of the funfair as agreed earlier, though the Drac Pack and Mavis's friends felt like they were having the best times of their immortal lives and this was the best time they'd had in a very long time. Everyone got something to eat from different concession stands; Wayne had a jumbo hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut. Kent, Brett, Murray and Pedro had pizza. Blobby and Wendy had deep fried Twinkies and milkshakes. Griffin had cheese fries. Hank, Alex and Frank had three large double cheeseburgers. Mike, Linda and Melissa had sub sandwiches. They all sat down at tables close to each other to enjoy their late dinner, except for Dracula and Ericka because she ordered their meal and they had to wait, but then Dracula noticed something that made his heart drop to his stomach.
"Wait a minute, where are Mavis and Johnny?" he asked, a slight gasp escaped his lips.
"Oh, the lovebirds decided to go through the Tunnel of Love before joining us, they probably want to make out in private," Linda replied naively.
But Dracula grew more concerned by the name of this 'Tunnel of Love.' He had a dark expression on his face as his fatherly overprotectiveness developed and he squeezed his blood substitute flavored cherry punch cup so hard he destroyed it and punch splattered everywhere, earning him grumbles from his future in-laws and friends. "Not before they're married," he growled, and turned into a bat and flew off to find them.
"Drac, wait, it's not what you think," Ericka called, starting to chase after him, but he wasn't listening and he searched the park with his clairvoyance powers and spotted them going into this 'Tunnel of Making Love' in a giant swan shaped gondola.
The vampire landed at the gate to the ride and changed back to his normal form with a dark scowl on his face, just as the young couple disappeared into the black tunnel, and he barely noticed a panting Ericka join him.
"Drac, it's just an innocent ride, nothing's going to happen," she tried to reassure him between pants.
"It's a 'tunnel of love,'" he said with a clear disapproving growl. "Johnny's a good kid, but I won't let him dishonor Mavis before their wedding, otherwise it's feeding time, baby."
Ericka rolled her eyes, groaning, "I thought we'd been through this already, but if you're that eager to 'keep an eye' on them, let's go."
At first, Dracula wanted to go into the dark ride alone, but the ride attendant told him it was strictly for couples only. While Dracula took a firm stance and acted intimidating and scary, the attendant wouldn't make an exception for the rule. Besides, there was a part of Dracula was actually glad Ericka was there with him to keep an eye on his innocent baby girl.
Believing they were at last alone in the black tunnel, with nothing but cheesy if sweet romantic scene and romantic scenes from famous movies to see as they drifted by them, Johnny looked over at his beautiful vampire sweetheart, asking, "Are you having fun, Mavis?"
Mavis smiled very romantically to him, replying, "Oh yes, Johnny, I've been having such a blast here at the funfair, it's so amazing. I think I'm starting to get why it's called a funfair, but why is this ride called the Tunnel of Love?"
"Well, uh..." Johnny said, unsure of how to explain. "I guess back then, when it was very inappropriate for couples to show affection in public, a ride like this gave them a chance to get close. It could be romantic, like this one, sometimes scary, so the couple can hold each other close and start making out, without having sex. But these days it's still nice to just be alone with the one you love, and to get close, be alone in the dark."
His tone got a little seductive as he spoke and coyly, as though to demonstrate what he meant for Mavis, placed an arm around her slender shoulders and brought her closer and stared into her eyes in the faint lighting of the dark ride. She got the message loud and clear and snuggled close to him as they smiled to each other. Their faces slowly got closer as their eyes closed, and they shared a loving and deeply intimate kiss, to which Mavis deepened further as she slipped her tongue into Johnny's mouth and he nearly swallowed it as he did the same with his own tongue, and gently wrapped his other arm around her slender waist to bring Mavis closer to his body.
Their fierce making out may have lasted a few long but gloriously intense moments, when Johnny felt himself getting very hot under the collar when a boner pressed against the inside of his pants, while Mavis felt herself feeling a hunger for more as her underwear became wet and damp, feeling the urge to gyrate her hips into his own. They began panting heavily through their noses. Mavis's hand suddenly made its way under Johnny's shirt and began to pull it up, but Johnny suddenly broke from their intense kiss with a gasp and flustered red shade in his face, and a trail of saliva connecting to their lips, while Mavis looked disappointed and confused.
Not far behind in the next gondola with his enhanced vampire vision, Dracula saw what had almost happened, and it boiled his blood to a high degree as his protective instincts rose up and he aimed a dangerous scowl at the young couple.
Johnny gently told his vampire girlfriend, "As awesomely great a kisser you are, Babe, something tells me we should slow down a notch."
"Okay," Mavis moaned, and snuggled close to him to enjoy the ride.
"Besides," Johnny continued in a quiet seductive and romantic tone. "Imagine how much more special it will be after we're married."
"Oh, Johnny, you're such a romantic," Mavis giggled, and she began kissing him again as he resumed making out with her.
However, what Johnny didn't mention to her was he got this nervous feeling Dracula would kill him, figuratively and literally, and suck out all of his blood if they got too intimate before they were properly married, considering how old fashion and traditional Dracula could be, as well as how overprotective of Mavis he was. Even if Dracula did see them do something like this, Johnny knew somehow Dracula would know, whether or not Dracula read his mind or hypnotized him into telling the truth, as long as he wore his contact lenses he was fine.
Right behind them in the next gondola, Dracula glowered furiously as he focused his senses on Mavis and Johnny, ready to jump in between them if they went too far. Right next to him, Ericka tried to keep him calm as she tried to explain what the dark Tunnel of Love ride really was, but he hardly listened to her.
As they passed by a scene of a couple walking hand in hand in a pastel colored park background that glowed with otherworldly colors, Ericka snuggled closer to him as she finished saying, "...so you have nothing to worry about, they were just getting romantic, like we are now."
But Dracula continued to narrow his eyes at the scenes that passed by as their swan shaped gondola sailed by them. "I don't know, Ericka , all this humany lovey-dovey stuff looks too weird to me. And I heard them talking, they wanted to get kinky before they're even married, and I can't allow that."
"Did they?" Ericka asked, getting worried her husband was going to get bat crazy and overprotective of Mavis again, but at the same time shocked that Mavis and Johnny almost crossed the line.
Dracula froze and lost some of his tenseness from his shoulders. "Well, Johnny stopped and said he just wants to snuggle." Some of the tenseness returned as he continued, "But I know he still has it on his mind, a boy that age always do."
Ericka used all her strength to force Dracula to sit down and to face her as she reasoned with him, "But he would never force himself on Mavis that way, nor intentionally hurt you that way, you know that. They're just going to enjoy the ride, like we should."
She snuggled closer to his chest as she could still feel the tenseness and need to jump to the next boat and get between the younger couple. But to try and relax him, Ericka began gently massaging at his muscular chest in wide circles as she also began kissing and licking at Dracula's long neck with some teasing nips.
"Ericka ..." Dracula groaned, either annoyance or ardor, he didn't know which. "Not now-ohhh. Ohh, that's nice."
Her nipping on his neck continued as her teasing kisses and licking went to his chin and cheeks, and he began to wrap his arms around her to embrace her, yet he tried to resist while he groaned through his lust, "Ericka , I have to... ohh, I like that... I mean, I have to... not let Mavis and Johnny... mmm, ohh that's nice... again..."
Ericka knew what he wanted to do as an overprotective father, but she also knew what he liked and how to distract him as her own lust overtook her. She strattled herself in his lap as she unzipped his pants, his manhood shot upward, and he lifted her skirt to remove her underwear and expose her womanhood, covering each other in wet kisses.
Dracula gave in to his wanting lust, his eyes began to glow laser red, and he grabbed hold of Ericka's waist as she positioned herself in his lap and their bodies connected when his long and hardened dick entered into her pussy.
They released blissful loud moaning as Ericka began pumping her hips up and down over his prick. Moving onto the floor of the gondola so to make sure she was on top, Dracula began to thrust up into his wife. Johnny and Mavis briefly glimpsed behind their gondola to the one behind them, wondering who it was because it sounded so familiar, but they couldn't see because it was dark so they shrugged it off and resumed their kissing.
Dracula and Ericka quickly got lost in the own world again, the flames of desire and ecstasy completely dominated them to their very core, their rhythm so strong they rocked the boat so hard it nearly turned over. It went on for the rest of the ride as they lost track of everything, until they finally cried out in their glorious peak. Ericka collapsed onto his chest and Dracula caught hold of her.
They stared into each other's eyes while they steadily caught their breath, but just as they leaned in for another kiss, they froze when there came a loud cry of, "Holy Rabies!"
"Oh my God! Not again!" Johnny gasped as he tried to cover his eyes.
Mavis, Johnny, and the ride attendant at the end of the Tunnel of Love ride could only stare on at the lovers with awkward shocked looks, while Dracula and Ericka tried to separate, pull up their pants and skirt to cover their dignity, and straighten out their clothes embarrassed.
"Oh, Dad, even here?" Mavis groaned.
The ride attendant gave her an amused and knowing smile as he asked, "You know these love making folks, Miss?"
But Mavis shot an embarrassed angry look as she exclaimed loudly, "I've never seen either of them before in my life!"
"Mavis..." Dracula gasped with some hurt as he straightened out his tie and cape while Ericka blushed.
A lot of people in line for the Tunnel of Love ride, mostly couples of various ages, all stared on in a mix of amusement and awkwardness, and for some older couples disgusted and outraged, and yet so many of them couldn't help but laugh about what they saw and take pictures of the scene with their digital phone cameras to preserve the memory. Fair security had been called, and after they told the uptight and stone faced humans what had happened, not without a lot of blushing and nervous laughter, they were let off with a warning, mostly with Dracula being a celebrity.
Soon all four of them made their way back to the picnic tables, with Mavis in a foul mood of annoyance, embarrassment, and anger towards her still overprotective father. Johnny had a feeling of equal embarrassment for Ericka , and for once didn't want to speak with her about what she and Dracula had done, which worried the usually well-meaning and independent Ericka since Johnny gave her the silent treatment instead of being a chatterbox.
After a moment of silence, Mavis fumed out at her father, "How could you, Dad! What the hell were you thinking back there! Were you spying on us? Why did you even follow us, don't you trust me?!"
Dracula scowled at Mavis as he shouted heatedly back at her, "Me? Don't accuse me, young lady, you and your hormone crazed 'fiancé' are the ones who wanted to get kinky crazy in that lovey-dovey tunnel ride! I saw what you two almost did in there!"
Mavis yelled back at her father, "US?! We didn't do anything! You're delusional, Dad, and worst, you don't trust me and Johnny to be alone! Besides, we're not the ones who came out of the Tunnel of Love having sex in front of dozens of people! They took pictures of you two, and will probably post them online to show off to the world how I have kinky parents who have sex in public!"
Johnny felt his spine tingle that his worst fear in the Tunnel of Love nearly coming true and was certain Dracula would lash out at him now and drink his blood dry, but to his relief Dracula and Ericka blushed in embarrassment instead.
Finally, Ericka gathered her senses, snapping defensively, "I'm sorry, Mavis, I know we went too far back there, but your dad got the wrong idea about what kind of ride the Tunnel of Love is, and I was just trying to distract him so he wouldn't ruin your time with Johnny. But, you two can't cross the line of wanting sex yet, you almost done it."
"Huh?!" Dracula gasped, utterly speechless by what Ericka just said, unsure of what to say or how to feel as he became so bewildered with shock.
Looking smug, Mavis retorted in a teasing tone, "That isn't what a Tunnel of Love is for, Dad, it's just for snuggling and harmless making out, not for 'making love.' Johnny told me that, but you had to find out the embarrassing way, and turned it into a 'Tunnel of Making Love,' huh? You did exactly what you feared Johnny and I were going to do."
"Enough! Let's never speak of this again!" Dracula hollered, face turning red and cutting her off.
They two couples arrived back at the picnic tables again, with a thick silence between them.
"There you all are," Linda spoke up upon seeing them. "Where have you all been?"
But all four of them were too embarrassed or too cross to say anything, yet an observant Griffin seemed to quickly catch on, saying wily, "I'm guessing Drac almost ruined Mavis's time with Johnny again in that Tunnel of Love, and it really was a Tunnel of Looove for Drac and Ericka . Are you two trying to set a personal record or something?"
Everyone's eyes widened at what Griffin said, not sure what to think but catching on to what might have happened while Ericka and Dracula blushed. Ericka blushed a brighter pink, and Dracula's deepened to a near fuchsia as bright as the coverings on his queen sized bed at the hotel.
A long awkward silence followed.
Again, Ericka gathered her wits and wanted to try and deflate and lighten the tension in the air, so thick she was certain it could be cut with a knife, she suggested, "Why don't we all have that nice late lunch we're meant to have earlier, okay?"
It was agreed by her three companions that food would be nice, along with an unspoken agreement between everyone to never mention this incident again in the near future. Mavis sat with the Loughrans again, signaling that she wanted to be far from her father as possible, which seemed to hurt Dracula's feelings but he also wanted her to understand she wasn't ready for intimacy with Johnny.
But Ericka tried to cheer him up as she brought them the readied chicken tenders to share. Dracula was wary of eating more strange human foods, but Ericka graciously added his blood substitute for him to make him feel comfortable.
Johnny got him and Mavis a classic pizza to eat. Since Mavis was intrigued and curious to what it was, Johnny told her, "It's pizza, Mavis, one of the most awesome foods in the world. It's Italian in origin, but there's really all kinds of different pizza."
"There's more that one kind?" Mavis gasped in her ever sense of wonder. "And this one looks wonderful to eat."
"Go ahead, try it, Mavis," Johnny encouraged with a smile.
Mavis took a piece of still hot sizzling pizza, but Dracula became concerned and suddenly stopped her with a held up hand.
"Wait, Mavy, Italian?" He gave Johnny a momentary glare as he said warily, "You haven't forgotten about our allergy, have you, Jonathan? I'm still not sure about all your weird human foods."
But Johnny calmly reassured him, "Relax, I asked the vendor to triple check and I can tell you with 100% confidence there's absolutely no garlic on this pizza."
Ericka gave him a reassuring smile as well, while Mavis shot her dad a hard frown to trust her and to lighten up. She took her first bite of pizza, with Dracula watching as he chewed his lower lip nervously, but looked on in awe when he saw Mavis's eyes light up at how the pizza tasted, and his heart calmly ceased the rapid beatings to resume its normal beatings.
Mavis had fallen in love with pizza, and voiced her eagerness to try different kinds Johnny mentioned in the future. Dracula became curious about the pizza and he was given a slice, and indeed he too liked it a lot. More pizza was brought for the young couple, and they shared it with the Loughrans and the monsters since they never tried pizza before, except Murray and Pedro already tried it, and everyone enjoyed themselves as the pizza was shared. For a short while, everyone chatted or talked about little and trivial things and shared some laughs during their lunch. Finally, after everyone felt rested and full, the extended family resumed back to trying out the rides.
Then, Dracula tried to invite Mavis to go on a ride with him as a way to make up for his behavior earlier, but she was still very peeved with him and refused, especially since he seemed to invite her to go on a bus ride for little kids, which to her meant her dad still saw her and treated her like a little girl again, no matter how old she got.
"Aw, c'mon, Mavis, just one ride," he pleaded to her as he took her hand and practically dragged her to the kiddie ride while she groaned to voice her chagrin.
Dracula smiled like a kid himself as they waited in line, while Mavis crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at her father as her thoughts fumed in her mind. She then heard cries from another different nearby attraction and she noticed other humans, kids and adult alike, going into a very colorful and zany looking funhouse. She glimpsed at her father for a moment, seeing he was too occupied waiting in line, so she smiled sneakily and quickly made her way to the funhouse which recently caught her eye.
The next moment, Dracula turned to ask Mavis something but realized she was gone. "Mavis? Mavis!" he gasped worriedly when he saw that she was gone. Without using his clairvoyance ability, he spotted her entering a strange and frightful looking human buildings from which he heard cries and screams of terror from within.
"Mavis!" Dracula cried in horror and fear as he swiftly raced over to the funhouse to 'rescue' his only daughter, from a possibly dangerous fate. "Mavis!" he cried out as he entered a whole other world that was far too strange and surreal to him as he looked around, eyes widened and gawked in uncertain shock.
All around him were distorted and crooked mirrors and only a few normal and smooth looking ones, human children and some adults looked into them and laughed or gawked with amused awe at how ridiculous and oddly wavy and bendy they looked, though due to being a vampire, Dracula had no reflection in any of them.
"Mavis!" Dracula called out, not seeing her anywhere, making his worry and concern rise further.
Then he heard her innocent musical laughter when he saw her following some human kids as they all gazed at their reflections, making them look like their heads had gotten bigger and bulbous like hot air balloons. He smiled in relief and he made his way to them as they all walked away and deeper into the fun house.
"Mavy!" he called out as he tried to keep an eye on the children and Mavis, but he unexpectedly bumped into a clear window, his face looking squished.
Dracula pulled himself away from the window with a squelching sound and shook it off as he rubbed his head, and left behind a big smear shaped like his squished face. He scowled as he felt his way between the windows in the Hall of Mirrors and when he felt nothing but air he made his way through again trying to keep an eye on his wayward daughter and the kids she giggled with, but he bumped into another badly smeared window. Dracula did this a couple more times when he saw humans walking through and trying to make their way through the weird mirror maze and laughed, whether at him or at their distorted and weird wavy reflections he didn't care.
"Mavis, come back!" he called out again as he finally found what he thought was the way out of the Hall of Mirrors, but instead of going back outside he saw more of the surreal and weird world before him while more humans laughed and made their way through the seemingly endless maze of weird whimsy.
It was a world with only a weird bridge that went down and zigzagged across to the far end of the fun house, and in several places it looked wrong. Mavis wasn't too far away when he saw her walking over the bridge that shifting back and forth like it was about to break. He got so worried and became certain she was going to get hurt, he began to go after her again.
"Mavy..." he began to call out again, but suddenly a strong gust of wind blew up from somewhere below when he stepped onto a big vent and blew his long elegant cape straight up in the air, and it was gone as sudden as it appeared and dropped over his head.
Some human children behind his laughed loudly as another said with fun sarcasm, "No capes." Imitating Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
Dracula flowed his cape off and back behind him with some blue mist and aimed the giggling kids an annoyed glare, grumbling, "Ha, ha, real funny." He made a graceful jump over the big air vent, and made his way down the zigzagging bridge, while the kids behind him laughed as they jumped up and down on the air vent to make the compressed air blow, while Dracula watched his daughter laughing as Mavis stumbled on the rocking and shifting bridge. She was off that part of the maze while Dracula came to the floor that was shaking and vibrating, making him loose his footing as he tried to cross it, causing him to shake up and down as his teeth made an "Eyii-eyiii-eyiii" sound.
The vibrating finally ceased to an end, his eyes rolling in circles from dizziness, but he quickly shook it away and resumed his chase. The vampire almost lost his footing when he stepped onto a net and yelped as he stumbled back and forth. He struggled to get to the other side as he tried to stand up, but had to struggle to climb half the time and finally made it to the other side of the net.
Dracula didn't notice Mavis had just made it across a coral reef of some kind and went to a large spinning Barrel of Fun, and he ran back and forth and further down the bridge and stopped short of the coral reef, curtain Mavis must have fallen and sunk in. "Mavis!" he cried out as he steeled himself to dive into the reef, but he struck his head on a solid transparent plastic surface and he cried, "OW!" And this made the kids and some adults laugh at him. He rubbed his sore head, grumbling, "Stupid human tricks." He got up and saw her, to his relief, on the other side of a big spinning hollow wheel, a Barrel of Fun.
"Mavis, my sweet fang, wait! Come back!" he cried out again, but she either ignored him or didn't hear him.
Dracula stepped into the spinning Barrel of Fun, but he lost his footing and stumbled inside, just as some other humans inside it were, but they seemed to learn to get keep it and made their way out of the giant wheel, while Dracula seemed like he was tumbling around for a minute like he was in a clothes dryer. He tumbled out, his eyes rolled about in a dizzying way as he moaned faintly, and he shook it off when he noticed Mavis slide down a big red tunnel, similar to ones he saw at the water park with Ericka on their honeymoon.
"Mavis, no!" he shouted, reaching out to her, but she disappeared down the tunnel laughing with glee.
Dracula ran toward the tunnel and cut in front of some protesting children, but ignored them as he flew down the tunnel as a bat, much like he did at the water park, calling Mavis's name, and moments before emerging from the exit down below, he resumed his true form and slid for a few seconds and flopped onto an inflated mattress, where Mavis was just climbing off and walking to an awaiting Ericka . When mother and daughter noticed Dracula crawl his way to them, everyone around them started laughing, but Mavis groaned and rolled her eyes as she slapped her palm to her face.
"Mavis, why'd you run off from me like that?" he scolded her like a child. "Don't ever do that again! Do you know what I went through in that topsy-turvy, wacky, deadly, humany, trick-filled death trap?"
"You're the one who followed me, Dad," Mavis snapped. "You weren't listening that I didn't want to go on that kiddie ride you took me to, which was clearly for five year olds, and I'm not a five year old anymore! I haven't been five for the last 113 years!"
Dracula got off the inflatable mattress that cushioned his and other humans' fall from the tunnel slide, but not without plopping onto the hard ground before he swiftly got up and tried to regain some dignity as he straightened out his clothes.
He was about to argue back with Mavis again, but Ericka intervened, "That's enough, you two! Now let's calm down and sort this out, we don't need to ruin any more of our fun time together."
"Fun?" Dracula repeated, nearly aghast. "You call that place, that house of terror, fun?"
Ericka rolled her eyes as she tried to reason with her vampire husband, "Drac, that 'House of Terror' is a fun house, an attraction filled with gags and interactive stuff. I think you could've gotten through it easily as a bat, but you didn't, you must've had some fun in there, or you would've if you weren't being all worried and protective of Mavis again."
Dracula was about to argue back, but remained silent as he thought about what Ericka told him. Yes he was okay, and so was Mavis. But still, she shouldn't have wandered off like that from him, as he just wanted to go on a ride or two with her.
"And further more," Ericka continued with some disappointment in her voice, "if you keep letting this kind of behavior of Mavis control you and you keep meddling in her life even with the simplest things, you might as well leave the fair now, and we'll meet you back at the hotel later."
Dracula's face dropped, as did his heart at Ericka's harsh and cold words as his wife and daughter started to walk away, he pleaded, "But Ericka , Ericka -Wricka, I was just..."
All of a sudden, they heard screaming not too far off. Their heads turned in the direction of the fun fair's giant Ferris Wheel. They raced to the Ferris Wheel where the screaming was coming from, where a crowd was gathering and looked up high to a jaw dropping and frightful sight.
A child, a little boy about five years old was hanging precariously outside one of the rotating seats of the ride, and a woman who had to be his mother was screaming in fear. Dracula and his extended family and friends watched, struck with concern and fear for the little boy's recklessness and the woman screaming for her son to come back.
Something then rose inside of Mavis, the need to rescue him, as she bravely announced to everyone, "I'm going to help them! I got this!" She turned into a little black bat and flew up to the stranded Ferris Wheel, and Dracula was about to fly after her as his fear of Mavis rose strongly for her safety as well.
But Frank and Ericka noticed this and knew what he was thinking, and they held him back by the shoulders.
"Wait, security should handle this," said Ericka . "Trust her, and let's see what she does."
Dracula was unsure of this, but he watched his daughter go into action, though ever fiber of his being shouted at him to go after her.
Mavis flew up to the hanging boy and his screaming mother, a strange instinct within her as she flew closer and saw the boy actually trying to climb down the Ferris Wheel like he was on the monkey bars at a playground. His mother was yelling and screaming hysterically and babbling unintelligibly about something, though Mavis heard her shout something like 'get back here' or 'watch out' or 'where did that thing come from' and that was it.
"Hang on,, Ma'am, I'm here to help!" Mavis tried to reassure her, but the mother continued to scream and shout like her very life was in danger, so Mavis was unsure of the woman even heard her.
"Help my mommy!" the little boy shouted. "I'm trying to get help for my mommy, Miss Bat!"
Mavis was confused at the little boy, so she got closer look at the passenger chair the mother still sat in and her eyes widened; a not so very big snake was in the chair with the woman. It was a Long-nose Adder, and while it's venom wasn't very strong like that of a spitting cobra or the Australian Fierce Snake, it was still dangerous.
"Mommy's really afraid of snakes, she hates 'em, but I think they're cool! But mommy says its poisonous!" the boy said happily and then fearfully, and made Mavis give a smile.
"Me, too. And they taste good," she said, making the little boy smile though he didn't understand what she meant. "But let's get you down first, I don't think your mommy wants you to get hurt."
She took the boy by the scruff of his shirt and steadily but swiftly flew the little boy down to the ground and only then did the screaming woman notice a bat flying with her little son did she for a moment become silent, not knowing what to think, but she resumed screaming upon remembering the snake.
The gathered crowd of humans cheered as Mavis set the little boy safely on the ground, her loved ones, even her father as he smiled for her and his heart rose with pride, cheered along, but Mavis didn't stay long to revel in the praise as she flew back up to help the woman while security arrived.
"Get her down!" one of the security officers ordered the ride operator, having stopped the ride earlier for fear of the little boy dropping and getting hurt, or worse.
As the woman continued to scream, she leaned back precariously in the seat, while her uninvited guest hissed in intimidation and dangerously curled into an 'S' position to strike. Once or twice it came closer to striking the woman, causing her to scream and sob hysterically.
Just as the snake prepared for another, and this time possible fatal strike, a young female voice interrupted, "Hey, scaly, leave her alone!"
The snake looked at a talking black bat with blue eyes and hissed at her in response, and was set to strike the bat this time, but Mavis was faster and she sank her fangs into the snake's neck.
The next thing the woman knew, a young girl with short black hair, pale skin, blue eyes, and in a black dress appeared next to her in a puff of blue mist and there came a faint sucking sound. The snake seemed to struggle for a few moments, until it went limp. Mavis sucked up the snake's body and tail like she would do to spaghetti noodles and gulped it down softly while the woman gawked at her like she had three heads. Despite the snake's venom, vampires are immune to venom.
The ride began to rotate while Mavis grinned, "Mmm, I forgot how much I like these." She glanced at the woman and gave her the best polite and friendly smile to show she wasn't some kind of stranger, "Hello, my name's Mavis Dracula, what's yours?"
The woman didn't move but stared at Mavis for a moment, until she remembered how to speak, "Uhhh… Judith."
Johnny had shown Mavis a way humans greeted each other on their travels to Hawaii, and it still intrigued her how such a simple thing worked.
"My baby..."
"He's okay, he's on the ground. How are you feeling, Judith?"
"I-I... think so. I don't know how that snake got in here," she panted, close to hyperventilation. "Those things scare me."
"Well, you're okay now," Mavis reassured Judith as she smiled and gently patted her on the shoulder.
Their seat arrived back in front of the ramp and Mavis helped Judith out with help from the security guards while the crowd continued to cheer for her heroics.
After telling security what had happened and Judith was reunited with her young son, a lot of people from the crowd wanted Mavis's autograph or a picture with her, and both teens and children became eager for a picture when she told them her name since everyone knew of Dracula not just from town, but from the TV news a short while ago about how he caught a serial rapist.
"That was so awesome, Mavis!" Johnny cheered for her as he embraced her and gave her a quick but passionate kiss.
"You're a hero!" cheered Wendy.
"I was so worried about that little, boy," said Linda. "But it's such a relief you were there, Mavis."
"Yes, it was," Mike said in his usual happy monotone voice, smiling proudly at his future daughter-in-law.
As everyone else gave their cheers for her, the woman and the little boy came up to them before joining with the security guards to be looked over, the little boy squeezed her in a hug, "Thanks for saving my mommy from the snake. It's too bad you had to eat it, but that was cool too."
"Aww, thank you," Mavis gushed with a warmed heart.
"Thank you for saving me," Judith said, having lost her weirdness over her eating the snake. "It's going to take a little while for this to sink in, especially when it's the daughter of Count Dracula who saved me."
"Can we take a picture?" the little boy asked. "Please?"
Mavis couldn't say no and took a picture with the mother and her child, and the little boy even wanted a picture with Dracula and Mavis together.
Then, Ericka hugged Mavis while saying, "I'm so proud of you, honey."
Dracula even said he couldn't have been more proud, and he promised to try and back off to let Mavis live her life and he trusted her, but Mavis only raised an uncertain eyebrow at him.
As they all began to walk together, Ericka felt her iPhone vibrate and checked it. It was a text from Wanda with good news that she was pregnant.
"Wanda's pregnant, too?" Ericka was baffled by this unexpected news. "But how?"
Ericka texted her friend back, saying that was great news and asking about how could it happen when the test said negative. Wanda texted back she had been showing all the signs after returning to her home in the cave before she took a second pregnancy test. Ericka raised an eyebrow at this since both she and Wanda took separate pregnancy tests a few weeks ago, and Wanda's had come up negative.
So Ericka texted back to Wanda about her earlier visit to the hotel, how she and the female werewolf took pregnancy tests, and about how she might be pregnant while Wanda's came up negative. But Wanda texted her back there might have been a mistake or a mix up with the pregnancy tests earlier. Wanda had taken another pregnancy test since she told her husband to tell him how she had been throwing up a lot and experiencing mood swings.
It was there that Ericka remembered the mess in the bathroom that day, and it hit her like a bolt of lightning. Both hers and Wanda's urine samples had gotten mixed up, and it was really Wanda who has been pregnant this whole time, which meant Ericka was never pregnant at all. Saddened and disappointed, Ericka tried to come to terms with what she recently learned, but texted Wanda one last time to tell her congratulations.
It was then where Dracula had noticed Ericka had stopped walking with them and came to her asking eagerly to go on a ride, "Ericka , why are you standing there? Who were you typing to on your phone box? Aren't you coming on a ride with us?"
Ericka glanced up at Dracula when a small tear she didn't notice fell from her eye, but Dracula saw it and grew worried. "Oh, uh, Drac," she gasped with a broken voice, "Wanda texted me with good news, she's pregnant."
Dracula politely smiled for Wayne's wife, but he was still concerned, "That's nice to hear, is it why you're crying?"
Ericka quickly wiped the tear from her cheek, fibbing, "Uh, yeah, happy tears. I didn't notice I was crying."
But Dracula wasn't buying it as he gave her a serious look. "Wormbun, I've seen happy tears and those aren't happy tears. Talk to me, I'm your husband, we shouldn't have secrets. What's wrong?"
Ericka gave a shaky sigh as her face dropped, knowing there was no point in keeping it secret any more, seeing how there was no secret to keep.
"Well, you remember the time when Johnny and Mavis came home from Hawaii? Wanda and I had been feeling under the weather lately, and she brought pregnancy tests with her for both of us and, well, I thought I was pregnant and wanted to surprise everyone at a special time, which is also why I've been trying to cut down on our sex life lately." She saw Dracula's face light up with joy and she couldn't bear to think about what she had to tell him next, but she knew she had little choice and had to tell him the truth. "But there was an accident in the bathroom and we must've lost track of which pregnancy test belonged to whom. One of them was negative and we thought that one was Wanda's, but it must've been mine." She released a dismal sigh, confessing, "I'm not pregnant, but Wanda is."
Ericka saw Dracula's face fall in disappointment while another tear shed from her eye.
"So, no little vampire?" he asked with a stunned tone, and Ericka nodded as she tried to hold back more tears.
Dracula gently embraced her, seeing her own sadness had began to effect him.
Ericka sniffled and tried to wipe her tears away. "Maybe it just wasn't meant to be right now. But I'm sure our time will come." She smiled with what she hoped was a heartfelt smile. "Let's not let this ruin our fun and enjoy ourselves for the rest of the night, Honey."
Dracula smiled as her as he nodded, though he very much doubted his wife meant what she said wholeheartedly.
For the rest of the night, everyone resumed to enjoy the all night funfair and went on a few more rides or played a few games and won a few prizes, neither Ericka or Dracula even mentioned her earlier texts from Wanda because Dracula tried not to worry about how his wife was coping right now, while Ericka did everything she could to take her mind off of it and not even think about it.
As the late night neared its end, everyone went on the merry-go-round one last time, and Dracula asked Mavis to go on the Ferris Wheel with him for one last ride together as father and daughter before they all drove back to the hotel.
Mavis, having lost her anger with her father after his chasing after her through the fun house earlier, silently decided that was a good idea, but then teased him, "Really, you want to go with me, Dad? I thought you and Mom wanted to go for some alone time and more making out, or looove making."
Dracula gave her a dirty look while trying not to blush. Overhearing this, everyone chuckled and he shook his head.
Father and daughter rode the Ferris Wheel for a few rotations, and while Mavis knew they could see such heights from flying as bats or as themselves, just sitting and relaxing to look at the view somehow seemed more enjoyable while she admired the beauty all around her.
"Thanks for this, Dad," Mavis said, giving him a hug. "I think we needed this."
"Me too, little Mouse," he replied, hugging her back. "And I'm truly sorry for how I acted earlier through the fun house. It's just you'll always be my little girl to me, and you're all I have left of Martha, even if she's still in my heart." He patted at his chest where his heart beats. "And I had hoped Ericka and I might have a baby."
Mavis gave him a concerned expression when she saw the saddened frown on his face. "What do you mean, Dad?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
Dracula decided to tell his daughter what Ericka had told him earlier, about the mixed up pregnancy tests and how Ericka thought she was pregnant and wanted to surprise everybody, but it turned out Wanda was really the one who is pregnant again.
Mavis gave a sad but sympathetic smile and hugged her father again, speaking gently, "It's okay, Dad, and I know you only do it because you love me. And I wouldn't mind having a baby brother or sister, it might be fun, so maybe you and mom will still be able to have a baby someday if not now."
He returned the hug with equal affection as he took her reassurance to heart. "Thank you, Mavy. I hope so, too."
She pulled back, saying, "I'm glad we came here, Dad, I had great time."
"Me, too."
Shortly before dawn, everyone agreed it was time to return to the hotel for a good day's sleep, the Loughrans in particular had become very exhausted from staying awake all night, but still had a great time at the town's funfair.
After taking a shower together, Ericka and Dracula got ready for bed, though Elisa seemed to be very distant from him at the moment.
Hoping to lighten the mood and cheer her up, Dracula told her happily, "I had a great time at the funfair, Love Droppings, the Tunnel of Love has to be my favorite part."
Ericka smiled halfheartedly, chuckling, "Mine too, along with seeing you and Mavis come out of the fun house, and then watching her save that poor boy and his frightened mother from that snake on the Ferris Wheel."
"Yes, it was," Dracula agreed, and started to feel a little frisky as he got into bed. "So, Ericka , Darling, what do you say we..."
"Oh, look at that," Ericka interrupted, glancing at a flip calendar on her night stand. "It's your birthday in a couple of days. October 21, just ten days before Halloween." She laughed awkwardly.
Dracula arched an eyebrow, but smiled amusingly. "Yes, my sweet blood orange, and you know what I'd like for my birthday? Maybe I could have a little bit of sexy-wexy right now?"
Ericka stared at him, hesitated until she answered, "No, I'm sorry, Honey. I'm too exhausted from the fair right now. So maybe tomorrow night."
Dracula gave her a look of surprised disappointment while she got into bed with her back to him. For a moment, Ericka laid awake in silence as she tried to push away any sense of emotion. But it overtook her since she could not longer hold in her sadness and disappointment at bay as she quietly began to sob into her pillow.
Sensing her distress, Dracula could only watch her with his own sadness and empathy for his wife. He gave her a gently kiss as he stroked her soft brown hair, and embraced her as she cried herself to sleep. His own thoughts began to wander with private fantasies as he longed to make love to her and take away her pain again.