"Bringing back any memories, Drac?"

Dracula groaned at Murray, who had asked the question. "I'd rather not remember," he said, sliding the hood over his head more.

Drac, Murray, Wayne, Griffin, and Frank had all boarded the train and were disguised with flower-patterned shawls to try and pass as elderly ladies. It was a trick they had pulled almost a century ago whenever they needed to ride the train across Transylvania inconspicuously. No one else was on board thankfully - well, no one else beside the excitable redhead who was seated a few benches away in the train car. He held up a strange rectangular object up to his face and spoke into it.

"Video Journal, Day 10. I'm on my way to the airport to meet up with some of my family from Cali…"

Drac watched him for a minute, and then turned to the others. "Who is he talking to?"

Murray shrugged. "Maybe there's a trapped spirit in there!"

Griffin groaned. "Yeah, leave it to the humans to find some way to imprison our kind," he said with a roll of his eyes.

Drac shrugged it off and sat back, trying to calm himself. He had barely had a chance to gather his thoughts when the redhead's voice suddenly rang out right next to his ear.

"Hey, guys! Where are you all headed?"

Drac yelped and recoiled, backing up next to Frank who was also startled. The redhead noticed and raised his hands up.

"Oops, my bad, I didn't mean to scare you," he quickly apologized.

"Yes, yes, it's all right, just don't do that again," Drac responded, making his voice sound higher pitched like a woman's.

The redhead let out a little laugh. "Hey, look," he began to say. "I dig the shawls on you all, but you don't have to hide your totally awesome costumes! I mean, the events don't start until tomorrow, but I admire the fact that you guys wanted to get a head start!"

"Uh, 'events'?" Murray asked. "What are you talking about?"

The redhead turned his attention to the mummy. "Well, I'm guessing you all are here for the Monster Festival that's happening tomorrow, am I right?"

"Monster Festival?" Frank echoed with interest. "What's that?"

"Only the coolest set of events ever!" the redhead responded enthusiastically. "Every year here in Transylvania. That's why I'm heading off to the airport, gonna pick up some of my family that's there so we can all attend together."

Wayne's eyes lit up. "Did you say you were heading to the airport?"

The redhead nodded. "Sure did! You guys heading there too? I could help you get there."

The monsters began to nod in agreement, but Dracula quickly cut in before more could be said.

"Oh, no, no, no that's okay," he said, rising up from the seat and guiding the redhead away. "We can get there ourselves, thank you." As soon as he returned the redhead to his seat, he saw that the train had pulled into the station and the doors opened for them to depart. Drac climbed off, hastily tugging his friends along and keeping to the shadows.

"Guys, what the heck were you thinking?" he scolded, flailing his arms in exasperation. "We don't ask help from the humans!"

"He actually seemed kind of nice!" Griffin argued. "For once, no pitchforks."

"Or torches," Wayne added.

"Or fire," Frank put in.

"Who cares!" Drac yelled. "Human equals BAD. And my poor Mavy has been traveling around with them crawling all over the place!" He ran his hands through his hair in great concern and began to pace around as he thought of all the horrible things that he could do to her. "They could strangle her… or stake her… or cut open her head and put candy in it! Or - "

"Okay, Drac, chill!" Frank snapped him out of his worrisome rant and grabbed the vampire by the shoulders. "You wanna save her, we gotta get to the airport NOW."

Dracula nodded. "Yes, we do." He looked around at the train station, seeing a row of rentable scooters lining one end. He used his magic to undo one of the scooters and climbed on. "Come on guys!" he called. Murray, Griffin, Wayne, and Frank all piled in behind him, a little cramped but too focused on the mission to care. Dracula started up the Rascal and began to drive it.

"Let's go save my baby!"

Meanwhile, not too far away, Mavis stood within the airport's building, marveling at the beautiful blue-domed ceiling through which she could see the night sky and its stars. The space itself was huge, with humans strolling about everywhere toting along luggage and other carry-ons. She greeted as many as she could and approached the wall that had the information board. She groaned in disappointment.

"Aw, man. I missed the midnight flight. I guess I'll just have to take - "

"I got her! I got her!"

Dracula practically slammed into Mavis when he found her, sending them both tumbling on the sleek marble ground.

"He's got her! He's got her!" Frank cheered, coming up behind them with Wayne, Griffin, and Murray in tow. The monsters slipped and slid across the floor, not used to the smooth surface when compared to the stone or carpet that Hotel Transylvania had, and their protective shawls flew off in the process.

"Dad!" Mavis exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Did you change your mind?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here, my little Voodoo doll?!" Drac asked, pressing her against his chest in a tight hug. "I was worried sick!"

"You don't have to be, Dad," Mavis assured, helping him to stand along with her. "I'm fine."

"Fine? Oh, okay. You're fine. Did you guys hear that?" He asked, turning to his friends. "She's fine. That's good. Because I was actually wondering…." He suddenly gripped her shoulders, his face contorting in a wickedly red expression. "How could you DO this to me MAVY?!"

Mavis tried her best to placate her father. "Dad, it's no big deal! I was just going to head out for a few days at most and then come back!"

But Dracula wasn't listening. He shook her shoulders even harder so that her teeth rattled. "Please Mavy, promise me, promise me you'll NEVER do this again! Promise me!"

As the commotion escalated, people around began to gather around, gaping at the monsters, their jaws slack and their eyes wide. Murray noticed and began to get uncomfortable. "Uh, Drac, we'd better get going!"

The vampire hardly heard his friend as he was still begging Mavis for an answer.

"No, Dad! How can I make a promise like that? That's crazy!"

"But Mavy - "

"Dad!" Mavis gasped, but it wasn't for the sake of continuing the argument. She had looked behind him, seeing all the eyes on them. The Count noticed her tense up. Slowly, he turned and felt himself go tense as well. The bustling airport, filled with the murmurs of conversation was now as silent as a graveyard, staring at the bunch of them as though they were something out of a horror movie... which he supposed they kind of were.

"So many humans…" Mavis whispered. Then she turned to them and gave her best smile.

"Hi everyone! My name is Mavis Dracula and - "

"Shhhh!" Drac hissed, clamping a hand over her mouth to shush her. "I'll handle this, Mouse. Don't say anything!"

With that the Count straightened himself up and addressed the speechless crowd.

"Eh heh heh," he laughed nervously. "Well hello, everyone! How are we today?" he began, trying to lighten the mood. "Some show today, huh? Well, I can assure you that there's nothing to see here. It's just my daughter… she's young, curious…. Got a little too excited about seeing the world. I suppose it must happen to everybody, you know…"

Mavis crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, listening to her father continue to ramble.

"But now we're all good! There's no need to bring out the stakes or pitchforks, yeah?"

"Don't be silly, of course not!" a lone voice spoke up from the crowd. Dracula whipped around to where the source of the sound was coming from and saw a head poke out of the sea of people.

A redhead.

The same person from the train was now weaving his way through the crowd and toward them with a broad grin on his face. "Hey guys! Remember me? Told ya I'd be at the airport, too." He gestured out to their outfits. "I mean, it's not like anyone is going to attack you all - you're just in monster costumes after all. Totally awesome monster costumes! I mean, just take a look at the realistic stitching on this Frankenhomie!" He took Frank's arm and raised it above his head for everyone to see the blue stitching on it. Then he released it, and leaned against his huge frame with a lazy arm, continuing to talk. "Yeah, and even if for some super cool reason you were monsters, we would totally - "

But the redhead cut his speech short as he tumbled down, the leaning against Frank causing the Stein to fall apart at the seams and scatter his body parts all over the floor. A collective gasp sounded amongst everyone, including the redhead. Drac gave the Stein a stern look as he smiled sheepishly.

"It happens when I'm nervous!" Frank explained.

"Ahhhh!" a couple of young women screamed and pointed. "It's the real Frankenstein!"

"Oh no," Drac mumbled. He grabbed Mavis and hauled her behind him. "Mavis, stay behind me!" He ordered, extending his claws and beginning to curl his lip in a snarl. The vampire was completely caught off guard when the women instead ran up to his friend, picked up his head, and gushed.

"Wow, Frankenstein! We're, like, you're biggest fans!" one of them squealed.

"Can we get a picture, can we?" the other asked with anticipation.

The Stein furrowed his brow in confusion at first, but then he eased into the attention with a smile. "Uh, sure!" The girls thanked him and lifted up their own pair of rectangular objects for a couple of selfies.

"Frank!" Drac exclaimed. "What are you doing? They're going to trap your soul in that!"

"Relax, Drac, it's not a soul-trapper!" Frank called out in reassurance. The redhead's eyes beamed as he turned to look at the Count.

"'Drac'?" he repeated. "You mean like, the real Count Dracula, like 'I am Dracula, bleh-bleh-bleh!'?"

The Count gave the excited redhead an unimpressed look. "I have never said that in my life!"

"So, wait, wait, wait," the redhead said, waving both hands around and trying to make sense of everything. "If he's the real Frankenstein" - he pointed at Frank's head who was now being held by another selfie-ing couple - "and you're the real Count Dracula" - he pointed at Drac - "then... that must mean that you're a real mummy!" He pointed at Murray. "And you're a real werewolf!" He pointed at Wayne. "And you... you must be the Invisible Man!" He pointed at the pair of bobbing glasses in the air.

Murmurs of agreement began to escalate around in the crowd.

"Ohhh…" Murray moaned. "He's figured us out!"

"Drac, now what?" Wayne asked. "We'll never get back to the hotel with all these folks in the way!"

"Hotel?!" The redhead beamed. "You mean there's a whole hotel full of you guys? I wanna come!"

"Me too!" a little girl in the crowd raised her hand. "I like dogs!"

Wayne rolled his eyes. "I am not a dog." But as soon as the girl approached him and began to rub behind his pointed ears, the werewolf's tongue lolled out and he panted happily.

"I want to come too!" a family piped up. A boy and his sister came up to Griffin. "Can you make us invisible so we don't have to go to school?"

Griffin didn't know what to say. "Err…."

"Forget invisibility," a group of girls said. "We wanna learn some Egyptian spells!" They came up to Murray, giggling with eagerness.

Dracula was left speechless as he started to see more and more humans approach them. The only way he'd ever pictured humans surrounding them was if they were a mob trying to take them down. Never did he imagine them instead being so… open.

Frank laughed out, continuing the selfie-spree. "Drac, isn't this great? The humans love us!"

"Yeah!" Wayne barked out, now splayed on his back as a couple of kids rubbed his belly next.

"B-but…" Dracula sputtered. "But how can this be?!"

"I'll tell you how that can be," a friendly voice answered. The crowd parted with delightful gasps when they saw who strolled through them toward Dracula. Drac had no idea who the nerdy-looking man with the glasses was, but he could tell that he held some importance. "Good evening Mr. Count Dracula sir. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Carter Quinston. Heir of the world-famous Quinston hotels, you may have heard of?"

The vampire shrugged, his friends doing the same. The man's expression fell a little, but he continued nonetheless. "Well, I don't blame you for not knowing. I'm sure it's been a while since you all have actually been out in the world, has it?"

He paused a moment, waiting for an answer, but when getting none, he continued.

"Ahh, well. The truth of the matter is, in the century or more that you've been out of the limelight, humans have grown to love monsters! Am I right, monster-enthusiasts?"

The gathered group cheered in agreement and clapped. Drac was still confused. "But why?"

"Why not?" Quinston asked. "You all are amazing! In fact, we were going to host the week-long celebration for the annual Monster Festival at one of the Quinston hotels here in Romania… buuuut…" He eyed Drac with a grin. "Perhaps we could come to an agreement and host the event at your hotel?"

Dracula's eyes widened. HIs mind was setting off an endless chorus of NOs, but his friends but his friends relayed the complete opposite.

"Oh, please, Drac? Can we?" Frank begged. "They'll be fun!"

"Fun? Have you forgotten that our hotel strictly prohibits humans?!" Dracula asked, appalled.

"But Dad," Mavis, who had been quiet, piped up behind him. "That was when we thought humans were going to kill us."

"She brings up a good point!" the redhead said, flashing Mavis a smile and thumbs up which she returned. Then, their smiles dropped. A strange new feeling overtook them both as they locked eyes, a gleaming purple sparkle glossing over them in a magical sort of way. Mavis's heart fluttered. The redhead's chest swelled. If Drac had been paying any closer attention, he would have immediately been able to recognize what had just happened. But instead, he was trying to sort out his conflicted thoughts.

"I don't know… this is all happening so fast!" Drac complained.

"Oh, Dad, pleeease?" Mavis pleaded. "If you won't let me go out into the world, at least let them come to us!"

"So they can destroy the hotel and massacre all of our friends?" he half-yelled.

Quinston and a few others began to chuckle. "Mr. Count Dracula sir, I can assure you none of us are interested in that. If anything, we would simply like to get to know you folks better. And for you to get to know all of us a little better now, too. We certainly aren't the same way we were back in the 20th century… and all the centuries before then for that matter."

Drac opened his mouth to try and contradict, but his friends beat him to it - contradicting him.

"Come on, Drac, don't be a party pooper!" Murray cried.

"They really do seem different!" Griffin agreed.

"Everyone else will like them, too!" Frank insisted.

Wayne only gave out a happy bark as someone began to rub a particularly good spot just behind his left ear.

Dracula felt like he couldn't think straight with everyone pressing him on. Mavis was the one who finally made up his mind. She shapeshifted into a bat, getting in front of her dad and putting on her best sad face. Drac gaped at her. It was the infamous pouty bat face, the one that was able to get her just what she wanted if she was serious enough about something. And he couldn't help but give into it this time as well.

"Please, Dad?"

Dracula sighed. "Alright. But only for you, my little blood orange."

"Yay! Thanks, Dad!" Mavis cried out, turning back into her humanoid form and hugging her father tightly around the waist.

"Alright, yeah!" Drac's friends, Quinston, and the other humans at the airport cheered. Dracula had almost forgotten about their presence, and he groaned.

What had he just gotten himself into?