Chapter 16: Homecoming & Family Dinner
Outside it was a somber and grim rainy day at the hotel. Mavis packed up her possessions from hers and Johnny's bedroom and their living room. She opened a drawer and found an old portrait of her as a little girl, riding her old hobby zombie horse and a wearing a white cowgirl hat, she and her dad were happily playing together. She smiled at the old photo and decided to pack it away in a box. She tried to tape it closed with duct tape but it had run out. Going to find more, Mavis could hear Dennis and Martha talking from his bedroom. She opened the door to find him standing on top of a stack of boxes filled with his belongings.
"We can do. We can do it." Dennis and Martha had their eyes shut tight and their arms spread out like they were trying to fly. "We're bats . We're bats , We're bats, We're bats !"
"Dennis, Martha ," Mavis called as she came into his room. "What're you doing, sweeties ?"
"Uh, nothing," Dennis and Martha replied hesitantly.
"Careful. Let me help you down." Mavis picked them off the top box and set them down on the floor. "Are you too getting excited for your big party?"
"We guess so," Dennis and Martha shrugged. To tell the truth, he wasn't excited about the party because afterwards, they would be moving away.
"You know who's coming? Daddy's whole family; Grandpa Mike, and Grandma Linda, and all your uncles and aunts and cousins who love you so much." Mavis swung Dennis and Martha around in a fun circle as they giggled about seeing Daddy's side of the family. She set him down gently while she said added, "And then, they're going to be with us when we move to California."
But Dennis and Martha frowned sadly at that thought. "Mommy, are we going away cebause We're not a monster?"
"What? No. Of course not," Mavis denied, trying to force a chuckle. "It-it's just... grown up stuff."
"Okay," Dennis and Martha said. "But what about Papa Drac? He's gonna be here all alone."
"Papa Drac has to stay here to run the hotel," Mavis told him reassuringly. "And he won't be alone, he'll have Nana Ericka and Aunt Luna to keep him company."
"But I heard Grampa Andrei wants to take them away to Paris."
"Oh... well..." Mavis hesitated, not expecting to hear about her stepmother and stepsister's departure. "He'll visit them in Paris. And he'll visit us, and we'll visit him."
"Can we call him every night?" Dennis and Martha asked, hopefully.
"Sure." Mavis playfully bopped his nose and affectionately ruffled his hair.
There was a knock at the door. Mavis looked up and saw a knight carrying a tray with a bowl.
"Excuse me, Ma'am," the guard said. "Your father said you haven't eaten all day, so before he left with Mr. Frank, he asked me to give you a bowl of monster soup." He gently set down the tray, picked up the bowl of monster ball soup, and placed the bowl in Mavis's awaiting hands.
Mavis teared up, but she tried not to show it. "Thank you."
Downstairs in the lobby, a miserable Johnny had spotted Dracula and Frank returning from an errand he was told. He was just about to confront his father-in-law over his actions, until Eunice entered the scene.
Eunice had been impatiently waiting for her husband to return. She took hold of Frank by the ear and scolded him furiously, "Where have you been? You and I are going to have a long talk, Mister, about all the money you and Drac are going to pay for destroying Camp Winnepacaca!"
"Ow, ow, ow!" Frank groaned while Eunice pulled him away from Dracula, who rolled his eyes.
"As for you..." Eunice scowled at the vampire. "Thanks to your little stunt of almost killing those poor kids, every human in this hotel has checked out. This guy,James, has been showing off the video to everyone, convincing humans that we can't be trusted!"
"But, I..." Dracula wanted to object, but the golems already left.
Johnny approached the Count, asking, "Drac, where have you been all day?"
"I'll tell you later, Johnny," Dracula replied, not yet ready to talk about it.
"What're we gonna do? I don't want to leave, but Mavis's mind is made up, and she is more stubborn than Helsing !" Johnny was close to panicking.
"Calm down, Johnny," Dracula tried to reassure him. "I have found the answer, even if I don't like it. But stop freaking out, man, I need to think for a moment."
"YOU STOP!" Johnny hollered, catching the vampire off-guard. "Before we saw the video, Mavis was having second thoughts about moving! And every human has already left because of you! Are you trying to, how you say it, set monsters back again?!"
Dracula froze, having never seen Johnny blow up at him like this. He looked away while apologizing, "I'm sorry. Mavis is my last link to Martha, and now I could lose Ericka and my little Luna."
"I understand," Johnny placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "But whatever plan you've come up with, I hope it will fix this."
"Where's Ericka ?" Dracula asked. "I really need to talk to her."
Johnny looked unsure about that question. "I don't know. I haven't seen her since your fight. But I think she doesn't want to talk to anybody right now."
Dracula immediately set off to search for his wife, but the longer he searched for her, the more worried he became. He feared something might've happened to her. He searched the pool area, the library, the auditorium, the ballroom, the vampire searched through possibly every inch of his hotel, even in guest rooms much to the guests' chagrin, calling her name and panic gripped at his chest.
"ERICKA, WHERE ARE YOU?!" a distraught Dracula bellowed as he flew or teleported throughout the hotel. He even tried at one point to call her on his phone, but he found her phone had been left behind in their chambers. This made him completely devastated.
Finally in his defeated depression, a saddened Dracula leaned against the wall of the elevator before heading to the lobby, giving up his search for his wife, accepting she had really left him. She was gone, his hurtful words had driven her away. He may have lost her forever.
"What have I done? This is all my fault," Dracula sobbed.
The Count moped as he leaned his head in his hands and held his head, deeply ashamed. He tried to hold back tears as thoughts flowed through his mind about how this was all his fault. But in his resentful anger, he blamed her parents and her ex-suitor for driving Ericka away and trying to break up this family. Why did they do it? What gave them the right to decided where she and Melantha should live? Did they learn nothing from how Ericka married him? Obviously Corbin had been a worse influence than he thought.
What he didn't know was that Ericka is alone crying at the poolside after her fight with Drac. Then James noticed her, believing she's vulnerable enough to win her over.
"Ericka , are you okay?" He asks her in a false worried tone.
"Nooo…" she sobbed, "me and Drac had a huge fight and... I'm afraid I might lose him over this." She said and continued to cry in her hands.
"Well if you ask me I think you should ditch that no good vampire," Ericka said sternly.
Ericka looked up at him wondering what he meant.
"I mean he lied to you, threw your kid off a tower to make her fly, and overall he did things for his own selfish reasons!" James slyly put his arm around her.
What he said started to make Ericka think about her situation.
Meanwhile, Dracula exited the elevator having given up his search for Ericka to apologize to her, he was about to give up thinking she left, when he heard her voice and went through the back entry way to the pool and he saw her. He was about to run up to her ready to say sorry, until he saw James. He kept himself hidden to see what they were talking about.
"Well, I do agree with you on that James, what he did was selfish," Ericka replied sadly.
"You know if I was with you I would never make you feel this way." James said as he pick up her face to face his own. Then the next thing you know, he forced a kiss on her catching her off-guard, this got Dracula's blood running cold. He was furious ready to pounce then he stopped and thought he really did loser. But to his relief, Ericka forcibly shoved James away, smacked him across the face, and wiped her mouth from the unwanted kiss.
"James, seriously I can't believe you!" she snarled furiously. "I'm sorry, but even if Drac and I are having problems, I would never leave him, even for you. Cause I know what kind of man you are."
This infuriated James hat she still wants to be with him after every that happened. "Really Ericka, you'd rather be with a blood-sucking maniac than be with me!" He said angrily out of his mind. "I thought my plan with the phone would work to get you to see your mistake." He realized too late what he let slip out.
"What plan?" Ericka questioned, wondering what he meant. Then she understood what he did. "You knew I was on that call with Drac! You tried to sabotage our relationship! It's just like the time you used your father to sabotage my dad's business, hoping you could force him to push me into marrying you!"
"So what if I did. You can't see how perfect we are for each other," snapped James . "I don't see why, of all people or creatures, you would want to be with a monster!"
"He's not the monster,James, you are!" Ericka glowered, pointing out for who he really was. "I don't care if Drac was a wolfman or even a blob, I would always choose him over you."
James was stunned at what she said. Dracula overheard her and was deeply touched at what his love said.
"Now, I want you out of my hotel." Ericka began to walk away to find her husband, but was stopped by James who grabbed her arm.
"Your not going anywhere!" James said in a menacing tone.
Ericka was trying to get out of his grasp, but he was too strong. She was scared over what he was about to do so she called out for her husband hoping he would hear her. "DRACULA!" she screamed.
Dracula saw what was happening and sprang into action to save her. As quick as he was, he punched James right in the face, sending him into the pool and rushed to his wife's aid. "No one touches my wife!" he yelled. When Dracula thought James was down for the count, he faced Ericka ready to apologize. "Ericka , my blood rose, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean anything I said so I hope you can forgive this foolish..." Before Dracula could finish, Ericka immediately kissed him and he gave into the kiss.
As soon as they broke the kiss, Ericka began to speak. "It's okay, Drac." She was glad that her husband was here to save her.
"I'm sorry for what I did for Luna, I just thought if I could get her to find her inner vampire that you wouldn't leave me for your family," he continued.
"Drac, I would never leave you." Ericka reassured him. "You're my love, my zing, you're the one I want to be with. And even if Luna isn't a vampire, this is her home." She frowned sadly. "But I can't forgive you for going behind my back. You still hurt me from all the nasty things you said and done."
"What are you saying?" Dracula couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I know I said horrible things to you, but I really don't want you to go. Please, don't leave me ever again."
"I'm not saying I'm leaving," Ericka calmly told him. "I just don't want to be with you right now. I want some time alone with my child. Please, let me have time for myself."
Dracula sighed, feeling his actions had driven away his wife and the damage was done enough. But he knew she was right. After wrongly accusing her of abandoning him, she needed time with their daughter. Even though he didn't want to leave her alone, he decided to give her some space. "I understand."
Meanwhile James regain consciousness from the punch and saw Ericka and Dracula embracing, which got him out rage. Then he found a sharp piece of wood from the rubble of the chair he crashed into and picked it up and charged at Dracula. In the midst between their conversation, Ericka saw James heading right for them. She tried to warn Dracula about James , but Dracula quickly reacted and grabbed James by the throat.
"Get out of my hotel and never come near my wife or me again!" He then threw James in the pool hoping the message he got threw to him.
It was at this point when Andrei and Nick came out to see what was going on outside.
"What is going on out here?" Andrei demanded.
"I'll tell you what's going. That vampire attacked me when I tried to stop him from bothering Ericka !" James responded, pretending to be hurt when coming out of the pool.
"You beast!" Andrei glared angrily at the vampire, helping James but of the pool. "How dare you lay hands on this poor man!" He checked James over to make sure he was alright.
"But I wasn't-" Dracula tried to explain but failed.
"There are marks on his throat." Nick checked the man over and noticed red marks on James's throat, but he thought it the wrong way. "Did you try to bite him?" he accused the vampire.
"James is lying, he tried to attack me! Drac was trying to protect me, and he didn't bite anybody!" Ericka exclaimed, defending her husband.
"Nice try, like I would believe that James would do that to you. He loves you, Ericka . If you ask me, James must've been trying to stop him from attacking you!" Andrei accused, jabbing an accusing finger at the stunned vampire.
Dracula was furious at this man for not believing his own daughter, but her brother was no better. "If you refuse to listen and understand your own daughter, then I don't want you or your family in my hotel anymore! GET OUT!"
Huffing, James stormed out of the pool area and out of the hotel. "This isn't over!" he sneered, followed by Harper and Levon.
Andrei stared at his daughter seeing if she would say anything to object that but she didn't. "Ericka , you would choose this monster over your own family."
"We haven't been a family in years because you chose Corbin over your own daughter!" retorted Ericka . "And he's NOT a monster! Now, get out of my hotel!"
"Will you please listen to reason," Nick pleaded. "This is NOT your hotel, and he's NOT your husband!"
"Just pack your stuff and go away!" Dracula bellowed, furious that these people would treat his wife like this.
Shaking his head in disgust at her decision, Nick turned and left the pool, and the hotel.
But before the situation could get worse, Luna came out to see what was going on. "Mommy, Daddy, what's going on?" she asked her parents.
Andrei turned around and his eyes widened. He saw his granddaughter for the first time and his heartstrings were pulled. Luna looked exactly like her mother when she was that age, except for the longer hair and the blue eyes. The little girl's eyes met his, and for a moment, the two stared at one another.
"Nothing sweetheart, it's just grownups talking." Ericka said, picking up her daughter. "Now let's get you back in your room."
"Mommy, who is this man?" Luna asked, pointing at her grandfather.
"He's... he's nobody." Ericka replied in a cold tone which made her father's heart break.
Just before Ericka left, Andrei stopped her, pleading, "Ericka, please don't do this. Could you at least let us stay, so I can get to know my granddaughter."
Ericka kept her grasp on Luna so to take her to her room, still not trusting Dracula to take her. She ushered Dracula to leave, which he did. Once he left and were alone, Ericka had a strict talk with her father. "You can stay here for her party so at least she can know who you are. But after that, I don't want to see you ever again." And with that, she stormed back into the hotel.
"She's as stubborn as Rosette. You know I'm not giving up on my daughter," her father whispered, looking heartbroken but determined. "She will leave this place as soon as the party is over. I'll make sure of it!"
It was the night before Dennis and Martha's and Luna's birthday party. A hearse drove insanely up to the hotel entrance and pulled up to the stairs where Johnny, Mavis, Dennis, Ericka,and Luna greeted all of their arriving families; Mike, Linda, Johnny's siblings and three nephews; Troy, Parker and Conner, all older than Dennis and Martha . Even Andrei and Monica had come back, along with Ericka's siblings and their kids; Jake, Ava and Lily, all older than Luna .
The Loughran boys climbed out of the hearse excitedly, while the Van Helsing girls appeared less than thrilled to be here. Linda greeted in the background as she exited the hearse with her husband, "Hello, we're here!"
The entire extended family was shown to a large private dining area where everyone was seated at a long table. A lively fire blazed in a large ornately carved fireplace while the hotel musician, appropriately Erik the famed Phantom of the Opera, played music at an organ and sang in a melodramatic way.
"The night brings Johnny's and Ericka's families here, to take away all that Drac holds dear."
Connor mischievously checked out a gargoyle statue by the fireplace and poked it in the nose. The gargoyle statue came to life by sneezing loudly. Connor giggled amusingly.
As everyone was seated, Dracula glided into the dining hall with an awkward polite smile, greeting, "Welcome, welcome!" He gentlemanly pulled up a chair for Linda near the front head of the table, and she was flattered by her vampire-in-law's gentlemanly manners. Ericka and Dracula were the only ones standing by, so they can watch the family dine.
"Hide your feelings, keep them all inside." Erik finished the lyrics.
Everyone looked at him either confused or annoyed by his dramatic singing. Zombie waiters exited the kitchen, serving the guests popular monster food for their dinner, such as a frightful looking cooked piranha or a guest favorite, bubonic moose nose omelet.
"Dude, why do you wanna leave?" asked Troy, the eldest of Dennis and Martha's human cousins. "This place is outta control."
"I don't wanna leave," Dennis and Martha told him sadly.
"All these awesome freakazoids," said Parker, the middle child of the trio, awed by the monsters that lived in the hotel.
"So who's the coolest monster?" asked Conner, the youngest of the trio.
"Kakie!" Dennis and Martha replied happily.
But their cousins started laughing rudely at them .
"Kakie," Troy snickered mockingly. "What a wussbag!"
"Leave them alone!" Luna snapped, defending a saddened Dennis and Martha .
"Ignore them," Jake commented out loud, being the only boy who dislikes monsters. "They'll like anything creepy."
"I, for one, am glad you're leaving," Lily added." It'll be better than being around ugly monsters all the time."
"But I love it here!" Luna protested.
"Did you hear of the new fashion segment?" asked Ava. "You could use some new attire other that dark gothic look."
"Monsters are not ugly!" Luna retorted in defense of her monster family. "They're the nicest and kindest monsters in the world, just like Kakie and Daddy."
But her cousins began laughing cruelly at her. Luna scowled in silent response.
"Don't tell me you're a wussbag, too!" Jake sneered.
"No, wait. She must be Daddy's Little Girl!" jeered Ava.
Dennis, Martha and Luna only supported each other against their bullying cousins. They glanced at any of the grownups for more support, but they were all engaged in adult conversation.
"Isn't it nice to have the whole family together." Linda commented condescendingly, while everyone began placing food on their plates or drinking their beverages. "Mavis, do you have any cousins, or... thingies in your family?"
"No, it's just been me and Dad and my sisters , until he met my stepmom," Mavis replied, although denying existence of her other relatives was a myth.
"You know, I never did ask how you lost your mom." Linda sympathetically placed her hand on Mavis' hand.
"Oh, she was killed by angry humans," Mavis replied, a little too casually.
"Oh!" gasped a surprised Linda.
Everyone at the table went silent. Most of them looked sympathetic. Luna eyes widened at what they recently heard about how Martha died. Dennis was silent the most with a sullen expression of the details of his grandma's demise.
Erik annoyingly, if appropriately, sang dramatically, "Awkward!"
Dracula and Mavis both shot the musician hard expressions. Then Dracula set to pouring himself and Mavis, who resumed to chat with Linda, some Blood Beaters to drink and took a sip.
"But there is also my Grandpa Vlad," Mavis told her mother-in-law, and this answer wasn't a myth.
"Oh, you have a grandpa?"
"Yeah!"
"Hold on!" Andrei interrupted. "Is this Vlad from your father's side or your late mother's side?"
"He's the father of my dad," explained Mavis. "He'll be at the party. I invited him."
Hearing this shocked Dracula so much that he spit his blood beverage on poor Linda, causing her to freeze in surprise. "You INVITED him?!" he exclaimed in disbelief.
"Dad, he's never seen Mom or the kids. I wanted them to meet once before we go," Mavis explained.
"Sure... great... peachy..." Dracula said awkwardly as he waved a finger. "Good old Vlad."
"Anybody have a wet wipe?" asked Linda, her sleeve stained by the blood substitute drink, as Dracula and Mavis looked at her.
"I do." Monica kindly handed one to Linda.
After having heard about her father's first wife and being teased by their cousins, Luna snuck out with only Dennis and Martha noticing her (no one seemingly the wiser). They lingered in the hallway and Melany gazed longingly out the window. She gazed out at the gloomy dark-gray sky and full moon, but heard a footstep behind and turned around to find Dennis and Martha with a sullen expression.
"Mommy wants us to go to California cebause I'm not a not a monster," Dennis and Martha told her. "And it's so far away I'll never see Papa Drac or you again. I don't want to leave."
"I don't want to leave, either," Luna agreed. "My Grandpa wants to take me and Mommy away to Paris because he doesn't like Daddy."
"What're we going to do? Why are they fighting each other? I thought everybody loved each other," Dennis and Martha questioned in confusion.
"They're fighting because of us," Luna replied, having figured it out. And then she got an idea, looking determined. "If they're fighting because of us, maybe we should run away and then they'll stop fighting."
"Run away?!" Dennis and Martha questioned in shock.
"We'll stay together, Dennis and Martha . We can bring Winnie, Willie and Evan with us too. We can all go to Bucharest. Then everybody will see we don't wanna leave the hotel, and then everybody with stop fighting each other, because they're fighting about us. If we're not around, they won't fight anymore."
Dennis and Martha gave the idea some thought that maybe their very young aunt was right. They thought about it long and hard while they made their way back to the dining room to finish dinner, where another plan was being made in the meantime.
"Yes, Grampa Vlad will be so happy..." Dracula had a nervous grin while he grabbed Johnny by the shoulders. "...when he sees the big masquerade Johnny and I have planned."
"Whaaat?!"Johnny looked confused.
And with a wave of his hand, Dracula immobilized everyone frozen in awkward positions at the table, so he could tell Johnny in a quiet husky voice, "Play along, it's my dad."
"You have a dad?" Johnny grinned as he played with a small axe used as a knife. "That's funny."
Dracula leaned in closer to Johnny's face intimidatingly. "Listen to me, my dad can't know you and Ericka are humans, or any of your families."
"What?" Johnny protested. "But, Drac, I'm proud that we're..."
"Or he'll suck my wife's blood, and steal all your families' souls, and eat your backpack!" Dracula yelled warningly.
Johnny gasped, looking fearfully concerned at his beloved backpack, between him at the head of the table and a chair. Dracula unfroze everyone so Johnny can make the announcement. One of Johnny's brothers fell off his seat, scared of the spider on his plate. Mavis was the only one who looked back at him before she turned her head when she heard the surprise announcement.
"That's right, gang," he announced in a forced smile. "We're gonna make the party a monster masquerade party." Dracula nodded his head proudly.
"Really?" Mavis questioned, unsure.
"Oh, that's lovely," Linda concurred ignorantly. "Sort of like a last hurrah, before Dennis, Martha and Luna get to be with normal people."
"I... couldn't have said it better," Dracula added, grinning and limped in his posture.
Once again, Erik began to sing dramatically, "Smile through the pain, your wife and daughter feel the same, but neither will dare to say it!"
By now, Andrei had grown increasingly annoyed with the masked phantom's singing. "Will somebody please make him stop?!"
From behind the door, Dennis, Martha and Luna had overheard the plan for their birthday party tomorrow night.
"A monster costume party? Cool!" Dennis, Martha cheered.
"Super cool," Luna agreed, but immediately got serious as she added, "But if it doesn't show them we don't wanna move away, we're still gonna run away."
"Okay," Dennis, Martha sighed in defeat.
"Ooh. What are you kids up to?" asked the Shrunken Head at the door knob.
"We're doing what we have to do," Luna retorted.
"Mm-hm," hummed the Shrunken Head, and then said sarcastically, "You sound just like your father."
Luna took one of her socks and stuck it into the Shrunken Head's mouth, through which she muffled objections. The three children returned to the dining room, both acting like nothing happened.