Chapter 6: Dennis & Martha & Luna
The bedroom of Luna Dracula is just off to the side of Dracula's and Ericka's private chambers, which they could enter through a passage in the wall. A huge room with a large dark purple rug on the floor where she played, a large window to one side that lead to a small balcony with dark blue curtains, and another wall had a wooden wardrobe containing various clothing. A big flat TV screen against a dark wall papered wall, and a large toy box against the lighter colored wall filled with plenty of toys from Mavis' childhood given to her sister. The stone walls were decorated with pastel pink, green, bright yellow and light blue wall paper with fluffy clouds, a smiling sun, a rainbow, and a flying unicorn on one side and darker blue, violets, dark green, magenta, and black with bats, cats, a smiling moon, and white stars on another. A decoration string of butterflies, stars, flowers, and fairies hung from the ceiling alongside another string of bats, skulls, ghosts, and spiders. Her four poster bed seemed to be coffin shaped in dark pink bed sheets with white images of bats wearing hair bows on them on the dark purple comforter, and the curtains a dark blue with spider web designs. Shelves held more small toys and children books for both humans and monsters, and even several DVDs and Blu-Rays with 'kid friendly' movies.
Dracula quietly glided into his little girl's bedroom, and glided up to Luna, who past him while riding her sister's old hobbyhorse. As he watched her laughing and bouncing around the entire room on her zombie hobbyhorse, Dracula felt his heartstrings tugged at how she reminded him of Mavis when she was a little girl. Little Luna herself wore a sleeveless pink nightdress with tiny ballerina shoes pattern all over her dress, and a fuchsia bow in her long bronze brown hair with widow's peak bangs just like her big sister.
"Giddy-yap, horsy! Yee-haw!" Luna laughed, then she saw her daddy and smiled. "Hi, Daddy, want to play cowboys with me?"
"Hello, my little princess," he greeted sweetly. "But how about we play a different game, okay?"
"Okay," she replied.
Dracula picked her up and whooshed her over to the bed, grinning hugely, "Daddy's going to teach you how to fly... like a bat. Does that sound like fun?"
"Yeah!" Luna giggled.
Dracula then transformed into a bat. "See? It's easy."
"That's neat, Daddy! I want to try." Luna leapt excitedly, before he changed back to his old self.
"Yes, it is, Babyclaws. Now you try, and I'll be right here to catch you if you fall," he told her reassuringly.
"I'm a bat!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down on her bed. "I'm a bat, I can fly! I can fly!"
But all she could do was jump up and down on the bed, repeating herself. Ericka came in to see what was going on. When Luna seemed to jump too high and headed for the other side of the bed from Dracula, certain she was about to fall, he gasped worriedly and was there in a flash, catching her in his long arms.
"Maybe I should have a helmet for you to wear, so you don't get hurt," he sighed in relief.
"Why would you do that, Darling?" Ericka asked, having witnessed what happened. "Kids jump on their beds all the time. Even if they fall off, they shake it off easily."
Dracula replied sternly to his wife, "It's how I taught Mavis, and teaching Luna will be no different."
"Aww, Daddy," Luna moaned. "I don't want to wear a helmet, it makes my head itchy."
"Until you learn to fly right, Baby Fang, no daughter of mine isn't going to wear a helmet," Dracula interrupted, his decision final yet at the same time overly affectionate.
Ericka looked at her husband with an arched brow and tried to reason with him, "I know safety is important but isn't that a little extreme, Honey?"
"No," the vampire grunted.
"I understand you want to protect her, but don't let it control you again. Besides, she deserves to be treated special sometimes." Grinning hugely, Ericka held up two chocolate chip cookies.
Upon seeing the cookies, Luna shouted excitedly, "Yay! Cookies! Thanks, Mommy!"
"The other cookie is for Dennis, sweetie," Ericka reminded her.
Luna started gobbling up her cookie while she saved the other one in her pocket, but Dracula looked less than thrilled at how his daughter, including his grandson, was being spoiled.
"Must you keep feeding her junk food?" he scolded his wife. "She's spoiled enough. Once her fangs come out, I'm going to start feeding her healthy blood substitutes, but they won't come in properly if you keep feeding her, especially Denisovich, Martha , humany junk food!"
"It's just a cookie," Ericka argued. "Kids that age love cookies, even me. Besides she ate all her dinner like a good girl and I promised her a treat if she finished. And Mavis only feeds Dennis, Martha avocadoes so I don't see any harm in giving my grandkids an special treat!"
Dracula frowned, and then he got an idea so he asked Luna sweetly, "You want to go play with Denisovich, wormbun? We'll go play with him and I'll teach you both how to turn into bats, does that sound like fun?"
"Okay, Daddy!" laughed excitedly.
The Count placed her on his shoulders and immediately flew out of the room to another part of the hotel where Johnny and Mavis had their own private rooms.
Dracula glided into Dennis, Martha's room in a quiet whisper with Melany on his shoulders and came up to the little boy's racecar bed and greeted in a low happy voice, "Rise and shine, my Denisovich, Martha."
Dennis, Martha opened their eyes slowly and spoke in a tired voice, "Hi, Papa."
"Hello, my little devils ," Dracula greeted, sweetly. "Did you have sweet nightmares you too?" He asked, while he placed Luna on the racecar bed.
"Uh-huh," Dennis, Martha replied excitedly. "I dreamed that I saw a stegosaurus, while his sister said I dreamed that I saw a butterfly ."
"Oh," Dracula smiled, possibly not knowing what kind of animals that was, "and were you to drinking their blood?"
"No," Dennis, Martha replied.
"Just throwing it out there," Dracula shrugged.
As Dennis, Martha began sharing their grandpa about their dreams , Dracula peeked into his mouth. He took out a fang ruler, measured the tooth growth, and then marked the progress in a notebook.
"And he said that he had... a spiked tail cebause... he lived in the tropical climates… and cebause he lived in the Jurassic period," Dennis, Martha mumbled with a mouthful of their grandpa's fingers.
Dracula continued to take measurements and write notes. "Uh-huh... You don't say… Long time ago… yes… What a great story."
Now it was Luna's turn for Dracula to peek into her mouth and measured the tooth growth with his fang ruler, and then took notes. As he did this, Luna reached into her dress pocket and took out the other large cookie which she handed over to Dennis, Martha .
"Yum! Thanks!" Dennis, Martha eagerly goggled up the cookie, much to Dracula's annoyance.
"Are you playing dentist, Daddy?" Luna mumbled with a mouthful of her daddy's long fingers as she watched her daddy's movements.
"Just checking for cavities in case those cookies give you a tooth ache," Dracula replied. He finished his notes and put the notebook in his vest pocket. Then he placed his elbows on the bed in front of Dennis, Martha , asking both of them, "Hey, do you want to do something cool?"
"Yeah!" Dennis, Martha and Luna perked up.
Dracula swiftly took them both to an open part of the bed room and placed them in the center of a rug near a working train set as he said, "I'm going to teach you kids how to turn into a bat, like me." He transformed into a bat. "See?"
"Cool," Dennis, Martha laughed in awe.
"Not if you have to wear a dumb helmet," Luna groaned.
Dracula quickly changed back to his original self and replied sweetly, "Yes, cool like I said. And for now you don't have to,Luna , but you will have to later. Now you try, kids."
He stood up straight while the kids got excited by this new game. Luna was feeling happy since her daddy had finally not allowed her to wear a helmet to learn how to fly.
"We're bats" Dennis, Martha laughed, Luna copied them as they repeated and flapped their arms like wings, "We're bats !,We're bats, We're bats, We're bats!"
"Look at me! I'm a bat! I'm bat!" Luna laughed as she followed Dennis, Martha around Dracula in circles and kept repeating what Dennis, Martha were saying.
Dracula frowned, since neither child even changed shape. "Uh... I mean, real bats," he said as he turned to follow their circling him.
"We're bats," Dennis, Martha said, and blew an wet raspberry.
Luna made fangs by sticking her teeth out over her lower lip, "Fneeee!"
"Luna. Denisovich, Martha ." Dracula sighed. "Take a breath; you really can turn into bats." He leaned down to the three confused young children. "Try. Feel the bat," he encouraged, as he did a gesture with his pale long hands.
Dennis, Martha and Melany did the chicken dance with their arms. Dracula arched an eyebrow at their movements.
"Not a chicken," Dracula chuckled.
Dennis, Martha then did wave motions with his arms and Luna started to do the same that became more like the Robot dance.
"What's that, the Electric Boogaloo?" Dracula asked playfully. "If I show you kids I can bust a move, will you try to fly then?"
"Uh-huh," Dennis, Martha and Luna agreed in union.
And then, Dracula started doing smooth brake dancing moves as the song 'Going Down for Real' played from thin air and dancing lights lit the room, both children tried to copy him. Dracula spun on the floor first on his head, then a finger, and his hand as he did a split in the air, all while his cape came alive and boogied. He then started doing a wave on the floor with both kids copying him, his cape back on him and just having so much fun with the kids.
"Dad? Why are you guys dancing?" asked Mavis, who suddenly appeared from the door. Ericka was at her side, giggling at their antics.
Dracula quickly got up and sheepishly made an excuse, "Uh, they were sleep dancing?"
Mavis picked up Dennis, Martha and took Luna by the hand as she said, "C'mon, sweetie, back to bed. You too,Luna."
"Aww, we were having fun," groaned Luna .
"Back to bed?" Dracula shrugged in confusion. "It's already after 8pm."
"Don't you remember the new sleep schedule?" Mavis gestured to a bill board on the wall with a bizarre schedule. "They're going to human classes half the day."
"Uhh…" Dracula stared up the schedule in confusion and disbelief.
Even Ericka thought it looked too weird, confusing and even a little overcontrolling while she stared at the schedule with a raised eyebrow. If only she never let Mavis convince her to do this for Luna.
"If he can sleep till 2am, it'll be so great for him," Mavis explained, while glancing down at her little sister as if about to reprimand her, "...and it'll be great for Luna too, if she goes to bed right now!" She finished her sentence frowning at her little sister.
"You're not the boss of me!" Luna pouted, arms folded.
"But, Honeydeath, six of Wayne's wolf pups are having a birthday party tonight, you wouldn't want them to miss that," Dracula said, while he lovingly touched both of their little chins.
"Really?" Ericka joked. "Because how can he tell which ones? He's got so many."
"Mom, Dad, I love the wolf pups, but they're a little too rough for Dennis, Martha and Luna ," Mavis shrugged.
"Too rough?" repeated Dracula, in disbelief.
"Haven't you noticed? Dennis, Martha and Luna are… different."
"What are you saying? Luna and Denisovich, Martha shouldn't be around monsters?"
"We love monsters!" Dennis, Martha overheard this and chimed in excitedly.
"I love monsters too!" Luna jumped up vigorously.
"Video, video!" both of them cheered in union.
"Hah! See that? They love monsters!" Dracula said loudly with a grin.
"Oh, you want to show Papa Drac your new monster video?" Mavis asked the kids.
"Yeah!" both kids squealed and jumped off the bed and into the front of the wide flat screen TV.
A children's program with a cut out style kitchen background appears and a male voice asked with cute overenthusiasm, "Who's the coolest monster?"
"Kakie!" Luna and Dennis, Martha shouted enthusiastically with the TV children audience.
A pinkish Muppet monster with a birthday cake on its head and holding a cake prop appeared, greeting the audience happily, "Whee, Kakie one happy monster!" Dracula watched in sudden wide eyes and open mouthed shock. "Kakie love cake! Ohh, tummy get a tummy ache!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dracula waved at the TV and asked Mavis and Ericka with disapproval, "How is THAT a monster!" Dracula looked back at the TV with an arch eyebrow.
"Have some cake, Wuzzlumpabum!" the pink Muppet offered his cake to a blue elephant-like Muppet that started gobbling up the cake hungrily. "Remember, kids, a real monster always shares!" Kakie told the TV children audience of their usual lesson.
"SHARES!" Dracula growled, his shoulders tense. "Yes! When I think monsters, I think shares!" He kneeled down beside the children, attempting to show them otherwise, "Now let me tell you what a REAL monster is, children…"
But Mavis kneeled down to interrupt him, "Dad, please, they're practically five already, don't force it." She then picked up her son and daughter and carried them back to their bedroom.
"You can't force them to like monsters that are too scary for kids their age." Ericka took Luna by the hand and carried her to the bedroom, with Dracula watching in sad disappointment.
"Slow down, Wuzzlumpabum!" Kakie said, and then let out the most annoying laugh Dracula had ever heard, showing this by glaring at the Muppet on the screen.
As Mavis placed Dennis, Martha back into bed, Melany asked, "Mommy, can I sleep here with Dennis and and Martha?"
"Sure, honey," Ericka agreed, as she placed her next to Dennis, Martha.
"I don't see why not," Mavis nodded, helping her mother to tuck them into bed. She started to sing a lullaby, "Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are."
"Mommy, We're too old for lullabies," Dennis, Martha complained.
In a sudden flash, Dracula was there at the bedside, looking puzzled. "What? That's not how that one goes."
"This is the way most people sing it," Mavis informed him.
"My sister used to sing it to me when I was a little girl," Ericka explained.
"Most people? Your sister ?" Dracula questioned. "What's wrong with…" and he began to sing, "Suffer, suffer scream in pain, blood is spilling from you brain."
"Daddy," Mavis groaned, smiling.
"C'mon, you know how I sang it to you," Dracula returned the smile.
"I think I know what's wrong 'suffer, suffer scream in pain,'" added Ericka , trying not to grin.
"C'mon, Ericka . Sing with me," Dracula beckoned her, almost sounding seductive.
Dracula then continued his singing of the lullaby, along with Mavis and Ericka harmonizing with him beautifully, "Zombies naw you like a plum, piecing cries and you succumb."
Both children yawned sleepily and began to nod off while Dracula finished quietly, "Suffer, suffer scream in pain, you will never breathe again."
He then looked over at his sleeping family. Dennis, Martha and Luna were sleeping like little fallen angels, snoring quietly. Mavis had her head on top of Dennis while he cuddled beside Luna . Ericka was leaning onto Mavis's body lovingly.
"Still works," Dracula whispered quietly with a loving smile, and gently leaned his head on top of Mavis as the top of his head touched Ericka's head affectionately.