Chapter 20: Return of Pumpkin Guts p2
Back at the hotel, Dracula and Ericka lay in bed together, naked and exhausted after their long hour of love making. The vampire had his arm draped around her figure while she lay her head on his chest. Then a recovering Ericka decided to break the silence.
"Wow!" Ericka panted. "That was amazing."
"Isn't it always, my Blood Rose," Dracula responded, happy from her compliment and planted a kiss in her white hair.
"True this isn't how I thought I'd spend most of my Halloween, but I'm glad we resolved things," Ericka sighed blissfully.
"Me too, darling, me too." Dracula agreed.
He leaned over to continue cuddling and kissing his wife, gradually snaking his arms around her back. She gasped sharply as he slowly dipped in. Clutching to his back for dear life, all Ericka could do was cry out in pain and pleasure. Dracula kept pushing, going faster and deeper, thrusting in and out of her like a wild animal. As soon Dracula reached the climax, their tender moment was cut short when one of the knights suddenly burst through the door.
"Sir, sir! There's is an emergency!" The knight shouted.
When Dracula saw him, he quickly pulled the covers over him and Ericka to save both of their dignity. "Don't you guys knock anymore!" Dracula outrageously yelled at the knight, not happy at the sudden intrusion. "And what is the emergency?"
"It's the crystal ball, sir! The alarm's been going off like crazy!" The knight told him.
This got Dracula concerned, so he pulled out of his wife, rapidly changed back into their clothes though he assisted Ericka in changing, and rushed out of the bedroom toward Dracula's office to see what was going on. Upon reaching his office, Ericka realized it was a crystal ball with tiny green and orange dots, and the sound of an alarm going off.
"Sir, alerts like this have been going off like never before, well at least not since four years ago!" The knight told him.
Dracula studied the green Jack-O-Lanterns and the orange Jack-O-Lanterns dots on the crystal ball, which indicated the disobedience of monsters breaking the rule. "This could only mean one thing, that monster kids are trick-or-treating tonight!" he cried in fear.
This piece of news shocked Ericka . "But what monster kid would want to be out trick-or-treating?" she questioned.
Thinking it over, Dracula only knew one other monster kid that would dare break the rules on this night and fear spread across his face. "Oh no."
To see if this was true he quickly grabbed Ericka by the wrist and they both flew through the halls until they made it to Mavis's bedroom. Breaking the door down with his superhuman strength, Dracula burst in with Ericka behind him and searched Mavis's room. But neither Mavis, Johnny, nor the rest of the monster kids were in her room. Quickly searching the bedrooms of Mavis's friends including Johnny's room, Dracula felt his heart racing upon discovering their rooms empty.
"No, it can't be! Not again!" Dracula shouted, seeing that his worst fear has come true. Once again, Mavis had snuck out with her friends and her uncle Frank , especially Johnny, to celebrate Halloween and participate in the human ritual of trick-or-treating!
"But how were they able to get out? I mean, you locked down the entire hotel!" Ericka said, puzzled at how all the kids managed to seek out, but she grew deeply concerned over the kids' disappearance.
"That doesn't matter!" Dracula barked furiously. "What matters now is that we need to get them back, and we're gonna need help!" He left to get his friends with Ericka following behind him.
Meanwhile with the Drac Pack. They were all hanging out in the bar lounge trying to have a good time even though it was Halloween and everyone was on lockdown. Until they saw Dracula swoop in, right in front of them with Ericka right beside him, clinging to his arm and looking quite tired of being dragged from one place to another by the vampire's superspeed.
"Whoa, Drac! What's wrong?" Wayne asked his friend.
"Ohh, I'll tell you what's wrong. Mavy-Wavy, Johnny and your kids and Frank is with them, and they all have snuck out to go trick-or-treating!" Dracula explained snippily to his friends.
"WHAAAAAT?!" the grownups shouted, panicking and worrying about their children and Eunice worried about her husband and kids.
"Everyone calm down." Ericka told them. "Drac has a plan to find them and get them back before Pumpkin Guts comes back."
"And what would that be?" Murray asked.
"You guys come with us to the village and search for them. We'll cover more ground with you guys helping out." Dracula announced his plan.
The Drac Pack exchanged nervous expressions, but they all agreed that something must be done before its too late. One by one, they all rushed into two hearses. The first hearse, driven by Dracula with his passengers, Wayne, Murray, Griffin and Blobby. The second hearse was driven by Ericka with her passengers Eunice and Wanda.
The two hearses raced out of the castle driveway, sped down the bridge, entered and exited the darkened tunnel, and they were out of the hotel and passed through the forest in a flash.
Dracula flew like a literal bat out of the hotel , overprotectively concerned for his little girl. "Hang on, Mavy! Daddy's coming!"
Unaware of their presence causing jack-o-lanterns to come to life, the kids wandered around the festival to check out more games; such as Pedro and Wendy tossing rings onto tall paper-made witches' hats, or Hank, Alex, Frank and the werewolf girls throwing darts to pop colorful balloons. Most of the balloons Sophie,Alex didn't hit because they had poor aim which made them frown in disappointment, but Hank did it easily and won two teddy bears dressed like a vampires. He gave them to Sophie,Alex to cheer them up, and the grateful she-wolf kissed him on the cheek and Alex hug her twin brother , making the flustered Hank blush. Johnny beat Mavis's score and won a stuffed white tiger. He gave it to Mavis as a gift and she kissed him on the cheek to say thank you.
Later, Mavis spotted Charlotte and Winnie standing over a large cauldron with steamy bubbling green water as Winnie reached her hand into the black cauldron. Gasping sharply, Mavis ran over to pull her out, certain she was going to be boiled. "Winnie! No!" she yelled as she pulled the little werewolf girl up by her shoulders and turned her around to hold her, but instead she became confused when she noticed Winnie holding a large Hershey bar in her hand. "Winnie, don't you know how hot a cauldron is when you touch it?! Do you want to get burned?!" she questioned.
"Will you quit overreacting! I'm fine!" Winnie snapped, irritated at the embarrassment of Mavis supposedly saving her from getting boiled by a phony cauldron. "It's called What's in the Cauldron! Johnny says it's a traditional Halloween game!" The little wolf pup growled before she calmed down. "I wasn't in danger if that's what you were thinking, besides I'm aware of how dangerously hot cauldrons are when they're being used for cooking."
All Mavis could do was stare at her perplexed while she studied this game; a giant cauldron filled with delicious goodies inside plus the green glow was only a light illuminating from beneath and the smoke was only an illusion the cauldron was smoking, surrounded by costumed human kids and adults, some of them giggling at their predicament.
"Babe, it's nothing to worry about. Your boyfriend did tell us it was a game." Charlotte casually licked a rainbow colored lollipop she received from the cauldron game. "You're starting to sound like your dad whenever he overacts."
Mavis felt her ivory cheeks turned a shade of pink. She should've known better that it was just a game. "Uhh… sorry about that, Winnie."
"Why don't you give it a try and see what you get?" Charlotte suggested.
Sophie stuck her paw in without even looking inside, which was the real event of the game. When she withdrew her paw from the cauldron, Sophie was surprised to see a Reese's peanut butter chocolate bar. Now it was Mavis's turn as he reached his long arm into the cauldron. Even though she was forbidden to cheat with her powers, Mavis couldn't help it so she used her x-ray vision to see what kind of candy she would like. She picked out a tasty king-sized rice crispy bar and cheered at her little victory. "Boom! Draca-laca!" But she pretended to ignore the looks on her friends' faces which told her they figured out she cheated.
The next activity they did, the gang went for a ride on the monster roller coaster. Although everyone screamed their heads off when the roller coaster turned and winded its way up or upside down or spiraled down the track, Mavis was having a great time while Johnny screamed like a little girl. Wendy did more of a 'wheee!' But Sophie squeezed her eyes shut as various creepy monsters inside the darkened tunnel frightened her due to her half-human nature, so Hank, Alex , Frank held her paw for support and she felt at ease feeling his hand squeeze her own.
Afterward, Johnny lead Mavis and her friends,uncle to the fair's Haunted House.
"What a lovely house!" Mavis was excited to check it out, based on her vampire standards that haunted houses are like living quarters for other monsters.
"It's a walkthrough for people to experience a playful scare," Johnny explained. "I had the chance to go through an old fashioned Halloween haunted house since kindergarten, but it give me nightmares back then." He coyly caressed her back with his finger tip. "Now that I'm older, I'm sure it won't be that scary now that I'm an adult. Besides, if it is too scary, I'll have my beautiful and brave vampire fiancée to protect me."
Mavis felt her insides turn to goo at Johnny's seductive grin.
Pedro was stuffing his face with his leftover candy and enjoying himself, until he saw a familiar figure in the distance. "Hey, doesn't that chick in the vampire costume look like Aunt Ericka ." Pedro pointed her out to everyone.
Mavis and everyone else glanced over to see the woman Pedro was talking about to see if it was true.
"Huh, you're right, Pedro. That woman does look an awful like Aunt Ericka ." Hank agreed.
But as Johnny studied closely at the woman's irritated features, his face paled when he realized who she was. "Oh no! Guys, I think that is Ericka !" he exclaimed.
Everyone was shocked at what he said. Winnie almost dropped her bag of candy upon learning of her foster aunt's arrival.
"Oh no." Mavis feared. "Then that means..." No sooner than she mentioned it everyone had noticed a furious Dracula and the rest of the Drac Pack following closely beside Ericka as they continued to search for the kids.
"It's our families!" Wendy shouted, and shivered upon noticing their dark concerned expressions. "And I don't think they look too happy to be here."
"Frank where are you,Hank, Alex where are you "?said Eunice
"Oh'on I think that is mom,dad looking for us".said Hank, Alex
" I think you're right kids, that is mother" said Frank
" But dad, I think she's looking for you too" said Hank
"Why would she be looking for me"? said Frank
"Oh, I see what you mean kids, I'm in trouble with your mother".said Frank
"Yeap" said Hank, Alex
"Aww, man!" Sophie groaned. "I don't want to go back home, we were already starting to have fun."
"What do we do?" Charlotte questioned worriedly. "If they catch us, we'll be totally busted!"
"We got to hide!" Mavis determined.
"But where?" asked Pedro.
Mavis was thinking of a good place for all of them to hide in until she remembered the Haunted House before them. "We hide in there!" she pointed at the Haunted House they had planned to visit.
Gesturing the gang forward, Mavis quickly pushed Johnny and her friends inside the entrance of the Haunted House before their families noticed them. The young vampire peeked out through a crack in the door, watching as her parents and the grownups passed the Haunted House not even bothered to check it out.
"Whew! That was close," Mavis sighed in relief. "They didn't see us." Her eyes were then focused on the interior of the Haunted House before her.
What the kids saw didn't seem so bad, just some fake spider webs lightly fluttering in a soft breeze from a fan, and they heard the recording of faint moans and creepy cackles.
"I guess we'll have to go through the Haunted House if we don't want to get caught by our mother ," suggested Hank, Alex, not even bothered by the creepy designs of the Haunted House.
As the group made their way deeper into the haunted house, they noticed set-ups of skeletons, zombies, ghosts, ghouls, spiders, bats, and other things that could be conceived for Halloween. Everything glowed in a magical otherworldly if sickly green color with some reds, dark blues and violets scattered everywhere, while lights would flash hypnotically in some scenes enough to disorient the viewer while there came recorded screams in the background. Every now and then something popped up to make Johnny or Hank scream like little girls, or Mavis and the werewolf twins let out a slight shriek when something like a plastic monster bat flew over them, or a costumed performer came out and shrieked at them, or a giant clawed hand came out of nowhere and tried to mock grab them.
Soon they all came to a 'Tunnel of Terror' which was a giant spinning tube with flashing lights and glowing images of cackling demon faces, and for some reason this really scared Mavis.
As everyone made their way though, Mavis got so dizzy she spoke in a fearful voice, "I'm never going into a haunted house again."
"Me too," Wendy groaned as she tried to hold off some of the dizziness.
Sensing his chance, Hank pushed everybody forward a bit harder than necessary using his strength through the spinning and cackling tunnel, saying, "Let's go, it's too dangerous in here."
Upon seeing the glimpse of light from the exit, Mavis used her vampiric strength to hold everyone back. "Wait! Our parents might still be outside." Using her clairvoyance ability, Mavis didn't see their folks outside, but the costume contest wasn't far off which seemed lucky for them.
Believing they finally lost traces of their parents, Mavis, Johnny, and the rest of the gang returned to the town square where they were just in time for the costume contest announcements.
"Whew! That was close." Hank, Alex relieved.
"And we made it back just in time to see who won the costume contest!" Mavis squealed cheerfully.
"Yeah, and you know it's gonna be me!" Pedro smirked, thinking he was going to win.
"Yeah, right." Sophie scoffed annoyingly at the mummy. "If anyone is going to win it's going to be us!" She referred to her and her twin sister.
"Hey guys, chill out." Johnny tried to calm down his friends. "Now, let's watch the costume announcements and then head back to the hotel before Drac finds us."
Everyone agreed, and pretty soon the guy came up to announce the winner.
"May I have your attention please?" The gathered crowd surrounding the stage grew silent. "Okay, the moment you've all been waiting for. To hear who won best costumes!"
The crowd held their breath, ready and excited to see who won.
Then the announcer got out the envelope and opened it. "And the winners are..." he then pulled out the card and read it. "The couple costume of Prince Charming and Cinderella !"
Then spotlight shone down on Johnny and Mavis showing that they were the winners. Both of them couldn't believe that they won, they were excited beyond belief.
"Holy rabies, Johnny we won!" Mavis leapt up excitedly.
"I know! That's so cool!" Johnny grew ecstatic as Mavis was.
Johnny and Mavis walked up the stage to accept their prize. The crowd cheered wildly for them, even their friends and her uncle were happy for them, except for Pedro, who was annoyed that he didn't win.
"Give it up for our winners, Mavis Dracula and Jonathan Loughran!" The man announced through the mike.
The crowd applauded ecstatically upon learning Mavis was the daughter of the world's infamous vampire. But what the young couple didn't know was that Dracula had heard their names in the distance and his eyes lit up, finding out where they were.
After the contest, a dance party was held in celebration of Mavis and Johnny winning the costume contest. The dance party was in the middle of town. Everyone was having a blast. They all danced to the Transylvania Twist; Hank,Frank bounced upon their heads while Sophie and Charlotte,Alex cheered for them , Pedro did the robot, Wendy only bounced her blob-like body around, and Winnie just stood where she was gently moving to the rhythm.
Mavis danced gracefully as she swayed side to side. Johnny did some wacky and silly moves by waving his arms and legs in the air. When they turned to each other, their eyes were locked on one another. Mavis gave him that same romantic loving smile she had on her 118th birthday. Johnny froze, caught off guard by her innocent blue eyes. They gazed into each other's eyes... steadily closing the gap between them... they were about to share a kiss... until Dracula emerged out from the shadows and forcibly pushed them apart.
"Mavis..." Dracula snarled angrily, clenching his shaking fists in a boiling rage.
"Dad!" Mavis gulped, shocked to see that her father had found them.
Johnny and the rest of the gang ceased dancing, shocked to see Dracula glowering at each of them.
Soon Ericka joined him, who didn't look quite happy with them as well, arms folded and a scowl on her pretty face.
"Yeah, uh, we're gonna go and do stuff that's not this!" Pedro tried to sneak away, along with the rest of the kids and with Uncle Frank.
However, all of their families had found them, thanks to Dracula alerting them, to confront them and prevented them from leaving. All of them very cross at their descendants, arms folded or on their hips with looks of disappointment.
"Heh, hey everybody," Wendy hesitantly greeted the adults. "Would you all believe that we sleepwalked into town and woke up in these costumes." She chuckled awkwardly, trying to make up an excuse hoping their families would buy it, but it didn't work.
"What were you thinking honey !" Eunice bellowed at her husband and her kids.
"What are you doing?!" Dracula bellowed, looking completely cross and making Mavis's hair fly back. "There is literally only one rule on Halloween! Do not go out! I can't believe you broke the rules! Don't you know how dangerous it is?!" He breathed heavily, still not happy with her.
"Drac, don't be mad at her... be mad at me..." Johnny fessed up. "I was the one who suggested the idea of leaving the hotel to celebrate Halloween."
"Are you kidding me, dude man?" Dracula yelled, making Johnny's hair fly back. "Why did you do this? Didn't I warn you about this with the story of Pumpkin Guts! Do you have any idea how worried sick you had us! We came here to save the disobedient trick-or-treating monsters, especially you, Jonathan!" He pointed an accusing finger at the young man.
"But, Dad, we've been out all night, and Pumpkin Guts hasn't appearance anywhere!" Mavis explained, starting to get irritated. "And so far, we've had the best night of our lives without a pumpkin monster coming after us."
"I don't care!" Dracula retorted. "I'm not taking any chances, so you, Johnny,Frank and the rest of you kids are going back to the hotel and you all will not leave your rooms until tomorrow as punishment!"
And with that, Dracula then grabbed Mavis's arm and started hauling her into one of the hearses as did the other adults did with their kids, all of whom objected or complained.
Eunice took Alex,Hank and walked them the hearse, while pulling her husband by the ear.
"You are in big trouble,you three!" Eunice lectured at her family.
Blobby caught poor Wendy by the arm and hauled her back to the hearse, scolding her in blob language.
"But, Daddy...!" Wendy objected to no avail.
Murray shoved a whining Pedro to board inside the hearse.
"I was so looking forward to the party!" whined Pedro.
"There will be no parties for you after I tell your Aunty !" grunted Murray.
Wanda picked up Winnie, who began crying at having her fun ruined, and carried her away. "I think you're going to need a nap after this," she said.
Wayne yanked both Charlotte and Sophie by the arms, as if they were his disobedient dogs. "It's Uncle Wayne's dog house for you, girls!" he growled.
Johnny felt someone grab his ear, but when he looked up he saw floating glasses glowering at him. "Seriously, are you trying to endanger my kids?" Griffin scolded, pulling a complaining Johnny,Billy, Cindy back to the hearse.
Mavis tried to break free from her father's grasp and looked up to her mother to see if she would say anything, but she remained silent. "Mom!" she pleaded.
But Ericka just sighed, shaking her head. "Mavis... just listen to your father!"
Mavis was shocked to see that her mother was taking her father's side on this since she was so eager to celebrate Halloween earlier and furious at Dracula for destroying her decorations. "You're seriously taking his side, Mom!" Mavis objected angrily. "After what he's done to your decorations!"
"Look Mavis, your Dad seems to know more about Pumpkin Guts than anybody. I can't say that I'm not concerned as well about this," Ericka calmly told her stepdaughter.
"But Mom, Pumpkin Guts is gone! He's nowhere in sight!" Mavis tried to tell her mother.
All of a sudden, the ground began to rumble. The monsters froze in their tracks. They also saw multiple pumpkins roll across the streets of town and gradually building up into a beast. And what they saw before them, there stood the infamous Pumpkin Guts, fully restored to his ginormous pumpkin form. The traumatized monster frozen in absolute horror as the creature looked down on them and roared a horrendous roar that made the earth tremble and expose green flames from the inside of his mouth.
"That's Pumpkin Guts?!" Ericka shouted in fear, after seeing Pumpkin Guts for the first time in her life.
"H-He's a lot b-bigger than what I thought he'd be!" Johnny stuttered.
"He's alive! He truly is alive!" Mavis shouted in disbelief, shocked yet also baffled to see Pumpkin Guts' return.
"Everybody, get into the hearses!" Dracula ordered.
Everyone listened to him and they all quickly ran toward the vehicles. Pumpkin Guts noticed his monsters trying to escape, so he picked up a random car on the street and throws it right at the hearses, destroying them and causing them to explode in a fiery mushroom cloud.
The monsters began to panic, seeing their only way of escaping is gone, so they have no choice but to run as Dracula shouted, "RUN!"
Even the townspeople, who had all witnessed the transformation of the pumpkin monster, grew frightened and they begin to scatter in fear, screaming their heads off and racing for shelter in their homes or nearby shops and restaurants.
The Drac Pack, carrying their descendants in their arms, ran for their lives. The giant pumpkin monster trailed after them, one earth-shaking stomp after another. Soon the gang managed to shake Pumpkin Guts off their trail when Dracula decided to hide in a diner to catch their breath and think of a plan. They hid behind the counter or the chairs as they waited for the pumpkin monster to pass them by.
"Is everybody okay?" Dracula asked, looking around and making sure his friends were present and accounted for. As they gave him a nod, he turned to his wife and daughter. "Are you alright, my poison berries?"
"We're fine, darling." Ericka heaved a heavy breath.
"Same here." Mavis nodded.
"I'm sorry, Drac! I'm so sorry!" Johnny apologized, panting at the same time and grasping the vampire's collar. "You were right about Pumpkin Guts. What was I thinking? I should have never suggested the idea of us sneaking out of the hotel to celebrate Halloween, or none of this would never have happened."
Normally Dracula would've been angry at him, but he sighed, thinking back on his childhood where he snuck out and his appearance brought Pumpkin Guts to lay waste on the monsters. "Ugh... I can't be entirely mad at you, Johnny. There is a detail of the story I left out; I was the kid who disobeyed the rules all those years ago," he confessed.
"What?" Johnny gawked in disbelief o find out the little monster boy from the story was Dracula all along.
"So I know what it's like to be curious and break the rules," Dracula continued sympathetically.
"But how is this possible?" Mavis wondered. "Dad, we saw Pumpkin Guts get carved to pieces by Mrs. Cartwright four years ago. How is he still alive?"
"I guess no matter how many times monsters have tried to destroy him, he will always return!" Dracula figured, his face scowling at the beast outside.
In the mist of their conversation Murray noticed that his son was missing. "Wait, has anyone seen Pedro?!" he shouted.
Everyone looked around or scanned the diner but he wasn't to be found. Then an idea of where Pedro might be came to Mavis's head. "He might still be outside!" she feared.
The monsters gasped, terrified of what could happened to Pedro.
"I'm going to go get him! Don't worry, Murray. I'll bring him back!" Ericka determined, heading out the door but she was stopped by her husband.
"No!" Dracula pleaded while grabbing his wife's hand, begging her not to go. "Ericka , don't do this. I don't want Pumpkin Guts to turn you into a Jack-O-Lantern!"
"And I don't want Pedro to be turned into one either." Ericka yanked he hand out of her husband's grasps and ran through the door, ignoring his cries.
As Ericka rushed out the door to search for Pedro, she found him in the distance slowly walking, dropping his candy, and collapsing. Ericka quickly ran over to him to see what was the matter with him.
"Pedro, what's wrong?" she asked.
"I-I don't... f-feel so good." Pedro weakly replied, looking like he was about ready to barf.
Ericka figured that he was sick from eating a lot of candy from trick-or-treating tonight. She then picked up Pedro by the arm and carried him back to the diner as quickly as she could. But she was stopped in her tracks by Pumpkin Guts, who tore off a pumpkin for his chest and threw it at her, the impact causing her to fall back on the ground and dropping Pedro.
"ERICKA !" Dracula screamed as he saw her get struck down by the pumpkin beast.
"MOM!" Mavis cried when she saw her mother got hit by a pumpkin.
The two vampires rushed out the door and were at her to check if she was okay.
"I knew it was too dangerous," sobbed Dracula, holding his wife's unconscious form gingerly in his arms.
In the midst of this, Mavis looked up in horror as Pumpkin Guts picked up Pedro and opened his huge jaws, and about to eat the mummy and turn him into a pumpkin.
"HEELLP!" screamed Pedro, dangling over the pumpkin monster's flaming mouth.
The young vampire desperately had to think of something to stop him. But then she found Pedro's bag of candy on the ground and remembered that Pumpkin Guts likes candy, having once thrown him a piece for him to eat and used it to lure him to Mrs. Cartwright's house where he could be destroyed. So she picked up the candy bag, changed into a bat, and carried it into the air while trying to get Pumpkin Guts' attention.
"Hey, you overgrown gourd!" Mavis yelled at Pumpkin Guts while waving the bag of candy in the air. "I got something better you can eat."
Pausing, Pumpkin Guts noticed a black blue-eyed vampire bat holding the bag of candy and he drops Pedro to get the candy. Mavis, who quickly maneuvered to catch Pedro in midair, throws the bag of candy to Pumpkin Guts and starts eating it, the sweetness overtook him and he began devouring the entire bag. While Pumpkin Guts was eating the candy, Mavis and Dracula carried both Ericka and Pedro to safety back at the diner.
Soon they re-entered the diner, where Murray hugged Pedro. "You alright, dad?" the mummy asked worriedly.
"I'm alright, Dad." Pedro assured him. "Thanks for the rescue, Mavis."
"Anytime." Mavis brushed it off like it was no big deal.
Dracula layed down Ericka on a table so she could recover. He tenderly stroked her cheek, silently blaming himself that he should've stopped her from doing something so reckless, even if she had good intentions to save Pedro. He prayed quietly for her to wake up.
"Uugghh..." Ericka groaned, her eyes fluttering open.
"Ericka , my darling, are you alright?" Dracula asked worryingly, clutching her figure in his chest.
"Drac... I hate pumpkins now..." Ericka moaned, while trying to wipe off the pumpkin goo on her.
It was then Dracula realized the pumpkin goo got on his shirt so, with a disgusted frown, wiped the goo off his shirt and proceeded to clean Ericka up with napkins.
Mavis peeked through the diner's glass window, watching Pumpkin Guts finishing up with the candy and turned his attention to the terrified runaway humans. "Oh no, Dad! Pumpkin Guts is done eating the candy, and he's going after the humans! We're running out of time! How are we going to defeat him?"
"I-I don't know." Dracula panicked, wiping Ericka's face with a napkin. "If last time didn't work, what will?"
Soon all of the Drac Pack members and their kids were freaking out, thinking they were all doomed to suffer by turning into pumpkins. But Murray noticed that his nephew wasn't looking right and wanted to know what was up with him.
"What's wrong with Pedro?" Murray asked, worrying about his son.
"He'll be fine, he just ate too much candy," Ericka confirmed.
"Ugh.. if we get back to the h-hotel... I'm putting on extra bandages, cause I feel like I'm gonna p-pop!" Pedro grunted in a sickly tone.
"You know you wouldn't feel this way if you didn't go overboard with the candy," Hank, Alex told him.
Then an idea struck Mavis's head on how they were going to defeat Pumpkin Guts. "Holy Rabies, that's it! I know how we can defeat him!" she shouted.
"What is it, Honey Bat? How can we defeat him?" Dracula asked her.
"By giving him what he wants - candy!"
Everyone looked at each other, confused by her plan. "
Uhh... and how will giving Pumpkin Guts candy defeat him?" asked Wendy.
Mavis then began to explain her plan. "Guys, think about it. When you eat to much candy you feel like you're about to pop right." Everyone nodded. "So... if we give Pumpkin Guts too much candy..."
"Then he'll pop!" Dracula gasped, his eyes lit up when realizing her plan. "Mavy-Wavy, you're a genius." He threw his arms around her and hugged his daughter proudly, pleased with her idea.
"But wait, how are we going to get all that candy to feed Pumpkin Guts?" Ericka asked. "From the looks of it we don't have enough." She pointed to the kids' candy bags.
Then Mavis thought of an idea. "Then we're gonna need lots of help, come on." She ran out the diner with everyone following her.
Mavis changed back into a bat, flew up high enough for the crowd to see, and got all of the panicking townspeople's attention. "Everybody, stop! Listen to me."
Then all of the citizens stopped panicking, looking up at her, and began listening to her. "My friends and I have a plan to get rid of the pumpkin beast, but we're going to need your help. You must throw all your candy at him so he can eat it! If he does, he will pop when he eats too much!" Mavis announced.
"But why are candy?" A random guy asked.
"Do you want to live or not?!" Mavis sassed back at the guy.
Working together, the citizens began to cooperate with her plan and began throwing all of their candy at the pumpkin monster. Pumpkin Guts saw the candy and started devouring all the delicious tasty sweets that was being thrown at him. He didn't know why they were doing this, but he didn't care and he just kept eating and eating. Everyone was throwing candy at his feet, even the shopkeepers of the candy stores sacrificed their candy to save the town. Sophie and Charlotte,Alex,Billy, Cindy used Wendy as a slingshot to launch the candy into the pumpkin beast's mouth. When Pedro tried to help, he was still sick so his throw was weak and he threw up in a nearby garbage can, much to his friends' disgust. Dracula or Mavis took turns carrying candy with their feet, in bat forms, and dropping it into Pumpkin Guts' mouth. Hank and Frank used their superior strength to throw chunks of candy toward his mouth.
The plan was working. By the minute of Pumpkin Guts eating all of their candy he was getting bigger, bigger, and bigger. At this point he look like he was about ready to blow up, but either he was too dumb or naïve to realize this while he continued eating the sweets.
"Yes! One more piece of candy should do it." Dracula grew excited at the thought of winning the battle, looking for more candy in the bag. But it was empty. He went to see if Mavis, Ericka , Johnny, or any of his friends still had some candy leftover. But to his disappointment, they told him that they were all out. Then Drac went to the townspeople to see if they had any candy left, but the humans said they had run out of candy too.
This got worried everyone, especially Dracula. Pumpkin Guts was about ready to attack, but Dracula and Mavis decided to distract him to buy their friends some time to find candy, all the while voiding getting burned when he blew fire out at them like a dragon or getting hit by chunks of pumpkins he would throw out at them. Everyone searched and searched, but they couldn't find anymore candy. Just when all hope was lost, Winnie walked up to Johnny and took something out of her mouth. To Johnny's surprise, it wasn't her binky - but a Ring-pop she was sucking on.
"Will this work Johnny?" Winnie asked hopefully.
"I think , yes!" Johnny quickly grabbed the Ring-pop from her, saying, "I hope this works."
Rushing forward, he threw the ring-pop at the right chance when Pumpkin Guts cornered an exhausted Mavis and Dracula, leaning over and opened his jaws wide enough to expose his flaming mouth. He chucked it right inside Pumpkin Guts' mouth, who ate it.
And that piece of candy alone was enough to cause Pumpkin Guts to blow up into a green flame-y gooey mushroom cloud. Bits and chunks of pumpkin goo and skin spread across the town and covered everyone entirely. But nobody was bothered by the mess. Everyone cheered, for they had finally beaten the dreaded beast.
"We did it!" Johnny cheered.
"Yeah!" Mavis threw her arms around Johnny. "Good throw, Johnny!"
"There isn't anything that could go wrong now!" Johnny said, thinking that their troubles were over.
30 minuets later...
Everyone had returned back at the hotel, where Mavis, Johnny, Hank, Alex, Frank , Pedro, Wendy,Billy, Cindy , Charlotte, Sophie and Winnie were in the hotel's hospital. They were all lying in separate beds recovering because they started getting sick from all that candy they had eaten. Each of them were whining or groaning in pain.
Soon all of the adults entered the room to check on the kids. Ericka , Eunice and Wanda brought in water or soup for them to drink and eat to help with their recovery. Sometimes the women had to pinch their noses to help the kids swallow.
"So, how are you kids holding up?" Griffin asked concerned.
"Ugh... We feel terrible." Hank, Alex, Frank whined.
"Ugh... I don't think I'll ever eat another piece of candy as long as I live," Pedro stated.
"Well this is what you guys get from eating too much sweets." Eunice told them, shaking her finger.
"You guys are lucky, we talked to the mayor of the village and lied to him how you weren't involved with the Pumpkin Guts attack, and neither were us." Ericka said in a disappointing tone. "We don't want to set monsters back again if they knew any monsters' presence on Halloween would cause Pumpkin Guts to rise again."
"Which reminds me," Dracula began to speak in a strict tone. "As for your punishment, you're all grounded for a week, even after you all recover."
"WHAAAT?!" The kids and Frank shouted in disbelief.
"That is totally unfair!" Pedro whined before he threw up in a bucket which everyone thought was gross.
"That's what all of your parents and I have decided, so end of discussion!" Dracula stated, leaving the room with the rest of the adults whom judging by their strict frowns that they agreed with the vampire all except Frank .
Still in bed, Johnny leaned over to the side so he could talk to Mavis and her friends and Frank and apologize to them. "I'm sorry guys, if I didn't suggest the idea to sneak out in the first place, we wouldn't be in trouble right now."
"It's okay, Johnny, we had a blast!" Hank, Alex, Frank assured him, giving him some thumbs-up.
"Yeah, despite the whole Pumpkin Guts attack, it was off the chain, dude." Pedro grinned.
"I do hope we get to do this again, without getting caught, and be prepared if Pumpkin Guts ever comes back," said Sophie.
"I agree, that this was the best Halloween ever in my entire werewolf life!" Charlotte squealed.
"We love it"said Billy and Cindy
"See Johnny, even though we got in trouble and caused Pumpkin Guts to reappear, everyone had a great time." Mavis assured, easing her boyfriend's guilt and putting a glimmer of hope in Johnny's heart, to which he gradually smiled.