Chapter 9: Monsters In Training p1
The Air Transylvania plane landed safely on a runway in Santa Cruz, California. Mavis and Johnny had rented a car that would take them to Johnny's hometown. The car drove past a beach where a spectacular sunset remained hidden behind the mountains. While she stayed in the shadow of her car seat, Mavis marveled at the scenery in awe.
"Wow! This is gonna be so amazing," she awed.
"Oh, yeah. You're gonna be so happy, but not too happy." Johnny was thinking about the plan he made with Dracula.
"Huh?" Mavis looked at her human, still smiling but didn't understand what he meant.
"What?" Johnny pretended he thought he heard his vampire wife say something.
"I wanna see everything you did growing up!"
"As long as you're distracted, capiche?"
Mavis didn't know what he was talking about again.
"We can hit a few spots on the way to my parents."
"Let me just quickly call home." Mavis pulled out her phone and started to dial the number.
Johnny knew he had to slow her down. "Ah! Don't do that." Mavis was confused. "It's only one a.m. there. Dennis and Martha aren't even up yet." He was familiar with her overcontrolling sleep schedule and used that as an excuse to keep her off the phone.
"Right." Mavis put away her phone, her face fell in concerned gloom. "I'm just not used to being away from them."
Johnny placed an assuring hand on his wife's shoulder. "Everything's gonna be cool. Your dad was so all over it."
Mavis smiled, feeling a lot better and placed her hand on her husband's shoulder. "I know. He's the best."
The hearse sped crazily through the dark haunted forest as though it was in a major hurry. Dracula smiled excitedly throughout the ride while his friends remained calm, and the sleeping children's' heads bobbled up and down. The green blob monster was getting hit by tree branches, and after several hits, he put on a red helmet and several more tree branches hit him.
"Right turn, here," Dracula yelled, and Griffin turned rapidly on a dime. "Denisovich, Martha rise and shine," he playfully whispered to his grandkids and did the same to his daughter, "Luna, wakey-wakey, my little ghoul." Both kids snored softly as Dracula turned back to his friends to announce proudly "Boys and girl ,this bringing back any memories? We used to prowl around here when we were in our 100s, the Dark Forest of... Slobozia!"
They had arrived at what looked like a nice recreational and well-manicured park deep in the dark forest where humans were relaxing while sitting on benches and chatting, jogging, or walking their dogs such as one that marked its territory on a large gargoyle statue and another with a Great Dane walked by a sign that said 'Dark Forest Municipal Park and Bike Trail.' This was clearly not what Dracula was expecting to find here.
"Nice how they built it up." Frank was quite impressed by how the forest changed over the past centuries.
"Oh yes,they are allowing doggies there too".said Eunice agreed with her husband.
"Okay, out of the car," Dracula ordered everyone.
He then had the children dress up in vampire costumes; an outfit and cape similar to his own nobleman's tux and cape for Dennis and, and black dresses with long angel like sleeves with black capes for Luna and Martha.
"Denisovich... Martha…Luna..." he said as he licked his hand to straighten and flatten out Dennis's curly hair, making him look more like a little Bozo. "You're going to see every monster do his specialty, first..." He placed them down on the ground from the front of the hearse. "Frank and Eunice are going to show us how they scares people."
"Yay! They're gonna say 'Boo!'" Dennis and Martha said playfully, trying to look scary.
"Cool! We're gonna scare the pants off people! Boo!" Luna imitated him, giggling.
Dracula leaned down to their level. "Yeah, I don't think 'boos' ever work, but that's why we're here, to learn from the masters."
The vampire patted Frank on the shoulder as the golem leaned casually on the hood of the car, causing it to slump from his weight. He then saw Dracula smiling at him, expecting him to do something right now.
"Okay, We'll give it a shot," Frank stammered.
The golems snuck around the bushes, heard a twig snap and hid quickly, his tush visible in the air. He then snuck against more colorful and perfectly-trimmed bushes, and peaked around one to see two jogging young women coming up the trail. Frank and Eunice grunted and growled, trying to get into the zone as the former scary monster he used to be. Their friends all hid and watched the joggers go up the trail, Frank and Eunice suddenly stomped menacingly in front of them, startling them and started to growl at them.
"Frankenstein and Eunice Stein," the brown haired jogger gasped starstruck, as she and her friend started giggling like fan girls.
"Oh, hey, how you doing,hello?" Frank, Eunice greeted them in a friendly mood, as his friends looked on in surprise.
"You too are awesome," the blonde haired jogger said and took out a cell phone. "Can we take a picture with you too? Is that okay?"
"Sure, okay, yes please " Frank, Eunice agreed happily and took off their heads. "A little selfie action."
Their did thumps up while his other hand held his loose head and his other hand around his wife, and the two fan girls made duck faces while one of them did a victory sign.
"For real," Dracula grunted.
"Awesome, thank you so much," the joggers thanked him.
"Hey, have a great day," Frank, Eunice waved to them.
The two joggers started to walk away when the three children jumped out from the bushes, both shouting, "Boo!"
"Aww," the two women gushed at the children. "They're adorable." They laughed about the children's playfulness and jogged away.
"Adorable, yes," Dracula grumbled with a weird smile. "Not scary, but 'boo' is a start."
Dennis's hair suddenly popped up and Murray screeched from being startled. Dracula gave the Mummy a hard look and Murray chuckled nervously.
Back at the hotel, Ericka was busy managing the hotel since Dracula took the kids to the park. As she finished handing a human couple their room key saying "Here is your key, and have a good time," and checking the computer for any more guest reservations, she heard familiar a voice in the distance.
"WHERE IS SHE!?" a male voice boom throughout the lobby, startling everyone, but especially Ericka when she recognized that voice all too well, though she thought she would never hear it again.
But several more voices had joined in, those she knew as well.
"Will you stop shouting, Andrei? We're in a public place!" A woman's voice calmed him down.
"So, this is the place that Nick told us about where Ericka works with that husband of her's." came the booming man's voice, and by the word husband it sounded cold.
"Wow, he wasn't kidding when he said it was a monster hotel!" A young male's voice grew excited at the thought of being here.
Through the revolving door she saw a lot of familiar faces. To her surprised dismay, it was her estranged family and friends. It became a mixture bag of emotions as she was surprised, outraged and guilty upon seeing her family, but somehow still happy to see her old friend Molly Mia and her husband Charles Hale. She never changed with that famous perky excited grin and those curly blonde locks.
Ericka's brother, Andrei Van Helsing who's voice boomed), was tall well-built middle-aged man. He was normal skin colored, his stern eyes were green, and his hair short with a flip at his neck once chocolate brown replaced to a gray locks with a white streak and a small gray beard around his mouth. He wore a white shirt underneath a dull dark gray jacket with a dull gray tie and dull blue trousers, indicating he was a man of business.
Monica Van Helsing who's voice tried to calm Andrei down), a middle-aged fair skinned woman with teal eyes and long reddish orange locks tied in an elegant bun having changed to gray hair over the years. She was once Ericka's school teacher from her hometown, known as Miss Florence. She was a pretty as a flower in bloom as her maiden name said. Monica fell in love with Andrei and married him, much to Ericka's chagrin because they had a rocky relationship, even though Monica was nice to her and wanted to make amends, she still had quite an estranged relationship with her after all these years.
The siblings, Rose and Mathias, stood close to their parents. Rosalie, usually called Rose for short, is Ericka's younger sister from their brother's first marriage, slightly had her mother's features and skin color, her eyes were brown like her mother, light brown hair that flowed past her shoulders while wearing a headband. Judging by her name, Rose was named in honor of Andrei's first wife and Ericka's biological sister after her death. The younger half-brother Mathias, nicknamed Mattie for short, was the youngest child, had the slight facial features of his father, his eyes were teal like his mother, his skin colored like his dad, and short reddish orange hair like his mother. Three kids were accompanying them, slightly resembling Rose and Mathias. Ericka guessed the little kids standing close to her siblings must be their children.
"Ohhh no, why are they here?" Ericka trembled. Then she remembered Dracula told her that Nick was going to call them here to convince her to return home with them. "I can't deal with them right now, I got to hide." The Countess quickly hid behind a group of passing monsters and moved behind a luggage carrier. All was going well when she was almost out of the lobby, until one of the zombie bellhops moved the luggage carrier leaving her exposed in the open area.
"ERICKA !" Andrei harshly called out to his sister .
Hearing her full name called, she felt like the whole world was coming to an end when she heard her father. "Lord, give me strength." Ericka whispering to herself, preparing for the worst. "Brother... and everybody else, hi! How are you?" Her smile was awkward as she welcomed them.
Rose approached her first, looking completely cross. At first, Ericka felt her sister was either going to slap her or spit in her eye for not contacting over the years, but she wasn't expecting Rose to give her a warm embrace.
"I am still mad at you," Rose reminded her, while frowning she still hugged her. "But there is a little part of me that did miss you."
"It's good to see you again, Rosie." Ericka replied, fondly hugging her sister back and calling her by her nickname.
As for Mathias, he cast her a cold expression that immediately said he wasn't happy to see her. Though remaining polite, Ericka smiled and waved awkwardly at her brother. "Hi, Mattie," she greeted, calling him by his nickname.
An ear-piercing squeal interrupted their moment when a flash of gold curls swept in-between them. Molly flung herself at Ericka like she was a long lost friend. "There's my BFF!" she cried.
"Urgh! Hello, Molly!" choked Ericka , not liking the idea of having her old friend suffocating her like a snake on a meal. "You can let go now."
Releasing her hold on Ericka , Molly placed a loving arm around her husband. "And of course you already remember my husband, James, but everybody calls him Jimmy!" As she spoke, James waved politely to her. "Oh, you've got to meet our kids!" She introduced her children one at a time. "My son, William, and my daughter, Paulina."
"They are not the only ones who tied the knot," Rose interrupted, gesturing toward the three kids standing behind her and Mathias. "These are my daughters, Ava and Lilah..." Ava had medium length brown hair with two bird hairclips tucked in both sides of her hair, and Lilah wore a cute flower pattern dress with two small brown bun ponytails for a hairstyle, "and this is Jacob, Mathias' son," the little boy, who wore round glasses and reddish brown hair, waved timidly at his long lost aunt.
"Whoa! I had no idea!" Ericka gasped. "Are they my nieces? They've gotten so big since..."
"Since when?" Andrei rudely cut her off. "You could've seen them more if you stayed with us!"
Despite briefly hurt by her brother's comment, Ericka faced her brother square in the eye. "You know exactly why I didn't stay! You tried to send me away to the mad house because I can talk to ghosts! I still can't forgive you for what you did!" Her words reacted coldly to her brother .
"How many times have I told you, ghosts aren't real!" Andrei scoffed.
Someone cleared his throat as Ericka glanced over to see a ghost couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lowenthal, along with their pet ghost cat Mr. Pickles, waiting impatiently to be checked in. The entire Belmont family gasped sharply, unable to believe what they're seeing. Three ghosts hovering at the front desk, all scowling in their direction.
"What makes you think we're not real?" Mrs. Lowenthal grunted in offense, waving a fist at Andrei, who could only gawk at a real ghost in his presence.
Ericka instantly got the couple checked in and handed them their room key. "Enjoy your stay at the hotel!"
And as soon as the ghosts left, Andrei cleared his throat in utter embarrassment while his face turned a shade of red. "I suppose I owe you an apology about the ghost thing."
"Never mind that. We're just so happy to see you again," Monica cut in, trying to change the subject and wanted to embrace her stepdaughter, only for the embrace to be rejected. "So, this is the hotel you help run. It's really nice. Kind of like going back in time to explore an old medieval castle," she politely complimented.
"If you ask me, it seems a bit too grim," added Mathias, not caring about the place and having spoken at last.
"Thanks, it's hard work but it's worth it with my husband by my side," Ericka announced pridefully, while ignoring her stepbrother.
"Speaking of your husband, who is the lucky vampire that snagged my BFF?" Molly asked, wanting to know who her friend's husband was.
"Well..." Ericka hesitated. "He's um... Dracula!" She pointed to a huge painted portrait of Ericka and Dracula in their wedding garb, grinning from ear-to-ear while holding hands.
Everyone was shocked at hearing who her vampire husband actually was. None of the spoke a word. They were completely speechless. Except Molly , she was the only one excited about it.
To break the awkward silence, Ericka picked up one of their luggage. "How about I get you and everyone else rooms to stay for the night? And then we can talk over supper."
Not surprisingly, everyone agreed to her plan.