Chapter 18: Party Possession
"Kids!" Johnny announced the second he made it up on the stage. "Everyone have a seat. Dennis, Martha and Luna have a big surprise for you."Luna's cousins and Dennis and Martha'cousins frowned suspiciously at the three surprised birthday kids. "The one and only, Kakie the Cake Monster!" Johnny back off the stage in an over-the-top introduction gesture as the red curtains parted opened and revealed Kakie in all his childish fun and glory.
"Hey, kids! It's me, Kakie!" he greeted joyously in an annoyingly sweet voice. "What a wonderful Kakie day it is! Now I have a question." Kakie held up an obvious cardboard birthday cake prop. "Who here loves cake? Heh, heh, heh."
While Dennis and Martha's cousins and Luna's cousins glared at them expecting some other performer, Dennis and Martha looked embarrassment but Luna shot them an angry face, warning them to back off or she'll give it to them. The only other monsters to be happily enjoying the show were Blobby and Wendy.
Hidden in the shadows at the side of the stage, Vlad focused a disgusted glare at this cute syrupy monster. It was worse than little Dracula's baby raccoon Lulu. Grinning malevolently, he raised his hand to cast his spell. "Rise!" he commanded.
Kakie started levitating off the stage floor. The background music took on an ominous tone like something wicked was about to happen. Outside, Bela flew towards one of the windows and peered through the glass watching all that was going on.
"Why am I floating?" Brandon asked, confused from inside the possessed costume. "Can I have the stage manager, please? This isn't working for me," he pleaded.
Vlad pointed his finger downwards and did a circling motion, causing the Kakie head to spin rapidly, just as he once did the same thing on Lulu. Brandon was freaking out from the inside.
Dennis and Martha's cousins and Luna's cousins were suddenly pleased that this annoying monster was doing some real entertainment, watched in amazement, "Wow!" But Dennis, Martha and Luna were becoming worried for Kakie.
"Scary, huh, kids?" Dracula asked them eagerly, suddenly by their side. "You feeling anything? Any change?"
"Is Kakie okay?" Dennis and Martha asked concerned.
"Daddy, is Kakie supposed to do that?" Luna asked, her voice trembling.
Vlad raised an eyebrow, casting another spell. Kakie began to speak in a deeper and meaner voice. "Rahh! I want all the cake! Sharing is for cowards!"
The cousins laughed in amusement. They were really enjoying the performance. But Blobby and Wendy weren't enjoying the show anymore. They shrank down in terror.
"I don't remember any of this from the TV show," Mavis said, looking worried.
"Uh, I think I saw it on a Blu-ray disc," Johnny nervously tried to make an excuse and did a thumbs-up as he finished. "Bonus stuff."
Mavis then noticed her grandfather hiding backstage. "Wait! Why is Grandpa Vlad up there?"
Vlad chuckled wickedly as he waved his hand, causing Kakie to start hacking up real birthday cakes that shot from his mouth like cannonballs. The cakes splattered in the faces of monster or human party goers as everyone became pelted and covered in icing and cake crumbs. Even Luna's cousins and Dennis and Martha's cousins groaned in pain when they got hit by flying cakes, which probably served them right. Another flying cake flew over Dracula and the kids' heads. Martha and Dennis suddenly embraced Dracula's chest in sheer terror.
"We're scared, Papa! What's happening to Kakie?" Dennis and Martha asked frightened.
"I don't like him anymore, Daddy! Make him go away!" Luna pleaded tearfully.
Dracula looked unsure of what to do as he hesitated to even hug the children; he gave a conflicted look to Ericka , who was appalled by this awful performance and she looked back at him with the same pleading look in her eyes to stop this.
The Count and the trio watched the possession of the Kakie the Cake Monster turn worse. He transformed into Kakie the Cake Demon as he bulked sinewy muscles, his eyes glowing demonic green and the cake prop on his head had become real fire. He threatened in an evil demonic voice to the birthday kids, "You don't eat cake! CAKE EAT YOU!"
"NO!" yelled Dennis, Martha and Luna , both clinging to Dracula's shirt.
As Dracula held them, he momentarily shut his eyes. He couldn't bare to see these precious children, his wonderful little girl and his kind grandkids, suffer through this emotionally scarring experience any longer. Even if it meant he would never see them again if they moved out of the hotel, he had to do the right thing.
"STOP IT!" bellowed Dracula.
A blue light shot out of his hand as he cast his own spell toward the demon Kakie. The possession of Kakie was lifted, returning the monster costume back to normal, except he still floated on stage.
Vlad gasped in surprise at this sudden interruption from his own son.
"What just happened, man?" Brandon asked annoyed. "I'm out of here." He started 'swimming' off of the stage, complaining, "None of these parents better review this on Yelp."
"Hey, what did you just do?!" reprimanded Vlad, as he stepped out from behind the curtains, angry at his son for ruining the possession. "A few more seconds, and the kids' fangs would've popped right out!"
Dracula held the children very protectively in his arms, scowling up at his father. "I don't care! It's... it's not worth it!" he retorted, standing up and stomped his foot angrily.
"What's not worth it?" asked Mavis, witnessing the two older vampires arguing and approached her father.
Dracula gently took Mavis's hands, confessing, "It was my last attempt to make the children vampires so you and Ericka would stay."
Mavis furiously rejected her father's clasp away, shouting angrily, "By ruining their favorite thing? How could you do that?!"
"It was the only way," Lydia stated arrogantly.
"You stay out this!" shouted Dracula.
"Are you out of your mind?!" Ericka smacked Dracula by the arm, scowling. "Don't you realize you could've scared them for life!"
"We were desperate," Johnny confessed.
"You were in on this?!" Mavis turned to Johnny in disbelief, furious her own husband was involved.
"Dennis and Martha won't be happy in my town," Johnny replied defensively, kneeling and held his kids shoulders.
"Dennis and Martha hasn't been there!" Mavis replied.
"I thought you said you never communicated with your father anymore," Ericka exclaimed, raising voice at her husband. "Asking your own father to terrorize the kids like this! Don't you remember how it affected you?"
"I had no other choice!" Dracula retorted.
Solemn organ music began to play again in the room, just as Erik sang dramatically again, "Now husbands and wives, feel the strain and the strives…"
But no one was really in the mood for the Phantom's melodramatics. Dracula, Ericka , Mavis, and Johnny made that clear by shouting irately, "SHUT UP!"
"Thank you!" Andrei said loudly, really having had enough of the Phantom's melodramatics and pleased somebody finally told him to shut up.
"Johnny! Dennis, Martha and Luna are not monsters," Mavis stated, causing Vlad to raise a confused eyebrow. "They like avocados," she tried to reason with her human husband.
"Cause you don't let them eat anything fun," Johnny fired back at his vampire wife.
"Mavis!" Ericka interjected. "They're safe here as much as they're safe anywhere else."
As the grownups continued to argue, Dennis and Martha lowered their heads in shame while Luna poked them gently in the arm. She gave them a look that said 'let's get out of here.' So the three children quietly slipped away when neither of the adults nor the crowd members were paying attention to them.
"Do you call throwing three kids off an unstable tower safe?!" Andrei rudely interrupted. "You need to think about what's best for them, Ericka !"
"No one asked you,Brother!" Ericka didn't even look at her brother .
"Ericka , he's only asking you to set an example," Monica added, trying to be calm about the whole situation.
"Oh, she really made a good example of being so naively trusting to a vampire," Andrei scoffed bitterly.
"We set an example for those kids all the time!" Johnny shouted, clenching his fists.
"Johnny, I think Dennis, Martha and Luna just want to be normal," Linda cut in, trying to be reasonably.
"Don't say that, Linda," Mike added, his voice seemingly hard. "They are normal." This earned him and his wife a brief frown by Dracula.
"Can we stop using the word 'normal?'" Mavis asked, frustrated over that one word her mother-in-law used a lot.
Emerging from the gawking crowd, a saddened Dennis and Martha and a heartbroken Luna walked further on to the exit as their mixed families continued to allow their fight to get worse.
"Where we live now, they're normal!" Dracula yelled pleadingly to Mavis.
"They are who they are!" Mavis shouted back to him. "And you can't change them, Dad!"
"But I don't want to lose them..." he pleaded sadly, longingly glancing at his wife and daughter, "...or either of you."
"This is not about you, Drac!" snapped Ericka . "It's never about you!"
Only three other kids noticed Luna and Dennis and Martha secretly leaving; Winnie, Willie and Evan. Both watched their friends in concern and decided to go after them. The kids made their run for it, away from the crowd and out of the great hall. The large group of monsters or small group of humans never noticing their disappearance, except for the malevolent Bela.
The three birthday children ran out the hotel, out of the front gate, ran across the bridge, and into the haunted forest, followed only by Winnie, Willie and Evan.
"Dennis! Martha! Luna! Where are you three going?" shouted Winnie and Willie , concerned.
"Away!" Dennis and Martha replied sadly.
Out in the darkened forest, the children raced through the forest, not caring where they would go or where they would end up. All they wanted was to get away from the chaos at the hotel. Tears swelled up in both of their eyes.
"But where will you go?" Evan asked, trying to keep up with them.
"I don't care! I don't want to be there!" cried Luna.
"But it's not safe out here by ourselves. I know a place where we can hide." Winnie, Willie declared. "Follow me!"
Running on all fours, the little werewolf girl and boy lead their friends to their clubhouse not too deep in the woods; the same clubhouse she had shown to Dennis and the others during their six brothers' birthday party. The other five kids followed Winnie close behind to reach the treehouse.
As the huge fight continued to worsen, it was Molly who was finally fed up with all of this nonsense over the children's needs and she couldn't take it anymore.
"SHUT IT!" bellowed Molly, drawing attention from everyone in the room. "All I can say is..." She eyed everyone firmly, knowing what to say. "You're all being selfish!" Her words froze anyone who dared to speak against her. "You all wanted what you think is best for those kids. But this was never about either of you... this is about family... what you all pushed away... you all behaved like a bunch of arrogant, selfish jerks! Have either of you bothered to ask those poor kids what they want instead of forcing it on them?"
Hearing those words from his wife's best friend, Dracula's face lit up in realization and understanding. Polly was right; he had been selfish, all because of his fear of losing his family, what was really important here. Mavis and Ericka exchanged unsure faces.
"Hmph! You don't what you're talking about, woman!" Lydia scoffed insultingly to Polly. "My brother is trying to continue a proud bloodline and a tradition, and you're trying to be an embarrassment to it."
"Don't you dare talk to her that way!" Dracula snapped at his older sister, and whirled around to confront Vlad.
"What about the shame those children bring to you?" questioned Vlad.
"There is no shame!" Dracula replied defensively. "I love them no matter what, and they love me." He turned away from his father. "And I'm not going to mess that up." He seemed to be looking back towards Mavis and Ericka . Both of them looked away as though ashamed of themselves, knowing Dracula was right.
"Love?" Vlad scoffed as if this was a joke. "This is not about love. It's about tradition."
"No, that's where you're wrong!" Dracula retorted, suddenly feeling empowered. "It's about family. The one thing you drove away." He looked back at everyone; all his family and his friends, monsters and humans alike. They returned the emotions, waiting to see what he had to say, especially Ericka and Mavis, as a single look of so many years and memories past between them, both realizing that they too pushed away their loved ones. Grace smiled proudly at the vampire taking her advice to heart. "The reason why you never got to know your granddaughters and great-grandkids."
"You call this a family?" Vlad questioned in disbelief. "It's a bunch of rejects."
"They're MY rejects!" Dracula yelled. "When the world rejected monsters, I protected them here..." he placed a hand to his chest, and then pointed accusingly back at his father, "...while you hide in your cave like a coward!"
Vlad was shocked; his son's words struck something inside the elder vampire. But he pushed that thought aside, far too set in his ways. He and Lydia believed Dracula was insulting their family and their tradition.
"They are all my family now!" announced Dracula. "Especially those kids, whether or not they will get their fangs."
Vlad glared at his son while he replied coldly, "If you didn't stop me, my youngest granddaughter and great-grandkids wouldn't have to be whimps their whole lives." He gestured to Johnny. "Like Shrumpy over here."
"A whimp?!" Johnny yelled, feeling insulted. He had just about enough of the elder vampire's arrogance.
"Johnny, be cool," Dracula tried to calm his enraged son-in-law, but Johnny didn't listen as he climbed right up onto the stage right in front of Vlad.
"You wanna throw down, Old Man?!" Johnny challenged, making multiple karate moves. "Certified yellow belt since 1997." He suddenly threw off his ridiculous powdered wig, revealing his shaggy red hair, and held up his hands in a fight position.
"No!" Dracula yelled, worriedly.
"What's this now?" Vlad gaped in surprise and shock. "You're not a vampire?"
"Uh... bleh?" Johnny moaned while shrugging, immediately losing his courage.
"Of course he's human," Mike confirmed, now in the fight as he embraced his wife. "He's our son. You think we're monsters?!"
And with that, Mike and Linda wiped off their makeup with their sleeves, revealing their true faces. This revelation appalled Vlad, Lydia, Gene and Klaus.
"YOU!" he yelled accusingly as he pointed a finger to his son. "You've ruined our bloodline! Thousands of years of down the trash, and worse you've let the humans, who torch us and hate us, into this place you claimed is sanctuary for monsters!"
Dracula had a frown on his face, realizing he knew this was coming and he should have fessed up to his father in the first place. "Not originally," he admitted calmly.
"You let my niece marry a human, you fool!" Lydia's face twisted in rage and she roared, just like how her brother always did. "They are our enemies!"
"No, not originally." A confident Ericka stepped up to Vlad and Lydia. "Because, it's not like that anymore. This hotel is a place to bring everyone together, monsters..." She removed her fangs, and began to wipe off her own make up. "...and humans."
"No, don't!" Dracula fearfully tried to stop her, but he was too late.
Vlad and the other vampires gasped, disgusted at Ericka's human identity. His blue wrinkled face twisted with anger as he pointed accusingly at Dracula, screaming, "YOU, TOO?! Haven't you forgotten what humans have done to Martha?! Or your own mother?!"
"No!" Dracula yelled, defending Ericka as he tried to reason with his father. "But it doesn't matter to me anymore, because I love her."
Vlad was so furious he unleashed the most frightening vampire roar anyone had ever heard. His eyes glowing a blood red color and his fangs seemed to get longer. He looked just like Dracula and Mavis when they did it, but Vlad nearly resembled a nightmarish demon.
Johnny squealed in terror and hide behind the stage curtain. Terrified, Ericka hid behind Dracula. Everyone backed away in terror. Brent leapt into Kent's arms like Scooby-Doo. The power of his roar made Dracula's cape fly and flutter behind him, but he didn't even flinch. He stood defiantly calm in front of his enraged father and looked at him straight in the eye.
Dracula found his courage and roared back at his father, looking just as equally frightening as Vlad was. The two vampires snarled in each other's faces. Father and son never left eye contact.
"This hotel must be extinguished!" Vlad bellowed, much to Dracula's shock.
"I agree!" Lydia said. "It's disgusting!"
"I'm with you," agreed Klaus, only wanting to get on their good side.
And for the first time in his undead life, Gene actually refused them, "Well, forget you! You will not speak to them this way!" Gene stood up to the vampire patriarch. "If humans were bad, why aren't they attacking us now?"
"I won't stand here and tolerate you fools insulting our bloodline!" Vlad snarled viciously at him.
"Dad, things are different in the 21st century!" Dracula shouted, suddenly feeling protective and defensive of his mixed family. "Humans aren't the same as they were back then. I've seen it."
"By allowing yourself and your daughter to marry humans?!" Vlad shouted. "And having human kids?" He gestured a stabbing motion to his chest, almost pathetically tearful, "Why don't you just put a stake through my heart?"
Dracula gestured to the human friends and in-laws as he tried to reason with his father, "We don't hate humans anymore, and they don't hate us."
To help Dracula stand up to his father, the rest of the humans; Ericka's family, Johnny's siblings, Dennis and Martha's cousins, Luna's cousins, Molly's family all removed their makeup or masks to reveal their true natures, further shocking the old vampire.
Out in the window, the only other monster to feel outraged by the truth was Bela. "HUMANS! RAAHH!" He left deep claw marks on the window.
"You're a fool!" Vlad berated at his only son.
But Dracula remained calm as the moonlight lit the great hall, as though to bring a glimmer of hope. He announced with heartfelt sincerity and love in his voice, "Your youngest granddaughter and great-grandkids are the sweetest, kindest, most special girl and twins I've ever met, and if you can't give them the love they deserve because they're half humans, then YOU'RE the fool."
Mavis was so moved by her father's defense of her son that she rushed up to him and embraced him, sobbing, "Oh, Daddy."
At first, Dracula was taken by surprise over Mavis' sudden embrace, but his heart melted and he returned it lovingly as he gave a deep sigh, and rested his head on hers.
"Dracula!" Ericka's voice croaked by tears, touched by her husband's defense of their child. Even surprisingly, he allowed himself to be embraced by her.
Andrei had such a look of guilt when his own daughter claimed he never loved anyone she cared about in the first place. Vlad's face fell into a frown as he really began to think about everything he was told off from. It made their hearts ache with sadness and regret.
But this heart touching moment came to an end when Johnny looked around and suddenly voiced his concern, "Hey, where are the kids? Dennis? Martha? Luna?"
Dracula, Mavis and Ericka broke apart from their embrace. Everyone looked around for the children.
"Luna?" Ericka called out her child's name.
"Dennis ,Martha ?" Mavis did the same, her face filled with worry.
Even Dracula and Vlad started looking around, starting to look concerned when they realized the kids were nowhere in sight.
Outside the window, Bela and his friends named Tim and Jim remembered witnessing the children run off and flew off to the haunted forest to track down those little insults to monsterkind and destroy them.
Meanwhile in the werewolf pups' little fort, Winnie, Willie happily brought Dennis, Martha and Luna , but mostly Dennis, something for their birthday meal.
"Happy Birthday, Dennis and Martha ," Winnie, Willie said happily as they placed a tea set in front of everyone. "I made you, Martha and Luna a treat."
"Dead pigeons ?" Dennis and Martha questioned, poking at the dead birds in front of them .
Evan pulled out a bag of chocolate chip cookies to dump them on the plate and a bottle of milk to put in the tea pot for everyone to go enjoy. "It certainly is quieter out here without all those people fighting," he commented.
"Enjoy, everybody," Winnie and Willie took the teapot to pour milk in everyone's cups and pretended to put some sugar into their own. "Cause when We graduate business school and start running a company, you're not gonna get home cooked meals like this anymore."
"But We have to move away,Winnie and Willie ," Dennis and Martha told their were pup friends sadly. "To California. Our mommy thinks We're not happy here cebause we don't have hair on my face like you."
"And my uncle wants me and my mommy to live in France with him," Luna added, almost looking like she regretted her plan. "But we are planning to go to Bucharest to show them we don't want to leave the hotel, and to get them all to stop fighting. But I do wish I had fangs like Daddy."
"We're sorry we're not monsters," Dennis and Martha apologized.
and Willie immediately pounced on Dennis and Martha . "No, you too perfect; you're the nicest boy and girl we know." She stood on his tummy. "And we have 300 brothers!"
That put a little spark in the little boy and girl's heart. "You're nice, too, Winnie, Willie " Dennis and Martha told them sincerely as their held their hands together shyly.
"She's right. I don't care if you're a human. I like you the way you are." Evan shyly looked away from Luna, trying not to let her see him blush.
This compliment warmed the little girl's heart. Luna blushed at him. "Thank you, Evan. Let's all go to Bucharest together."
It was agreed that they would all run away together to Bucharest, and never return until things cooled down. But before anything else happened, there came a loud thump from the clubhouse roof. The children gasped in fright.
It was Bela,Tim, and Jim who tore through the roof and landed menacingly in front of the screaming children, with his malevolent sarcasm, "Well, well, well! The little humans, and their little ragdoll, and their pets !" They had them backed up in a corner, entrapping them with his imposing size.
Back at the hotel, everyone in the ballroom was searching frantically for the missing children.
"Dennis! Martha! Luna !" Murray called, along with many other monsters and humans as they searched high and low.
"Luna ! Denisovich, Martha " Dracula called out in devastation.
"They're not in the room," Mavis told her father.
"They're not in their bedrooms." Ericka tried not to panic while Dracula clasped her hands to calm her.
"They're not by the pool," Wayne informed them.
"They're not in this pot of soup." Frank awkwardly set down the soup pot he had been drinking from.
"They're not in the dining area," Molly reported.
"They're not in sauna," Pedro explained, looking sweaty after having left the sauna.
"Where could they be?" Dracula was sick with worry, before Vlad walked up to him and Mavis.
"I don't know why I ever invited you!" Mavis shouted at her grandfather, regretting she ever invited him to the party. Her harsh words made Vlad frown even more guiltily.
Mavis and Dracula rushed out of the hotel, transforming into bats and took to the skies to search by better view. Everyone else followed them close behind; first came the monsters and then came the humans. Everyone kept hollering out the children's names with frantic worry.
Vlad followed close behind, but then stopped as though hesitant. He didn't know whether he should follow them or not. But his mind was made up. With a swish of his cape, he transformed into an old bat in a fog of a blackish red cloud mixture. He followed everyone at a slow pace, hoping to find the children before anything happened to them.