Sora and Elissabat

"You want me to what?" Elissabat stares at her manager in disbelief. The chair across the desk from where she's sitting turns to reveal a large potbelly gargoyle.

"You need to break up with that normie."

"Why? Sora's a great guy," the Vampire takes out slip and fondly looks at it. "He's also one of the few people that sees me as me and not a boovie star nor a queen."

The manager raises a brow. "Do you really buy that?"

"I do," the vampire smiles as she recalls her encounter with Sora after the incident with her uncle and former Prime Monister, Lord Stoker.

.oOo.

Flashback to When it all started.

Elissabat had just escaped from the paparazzi.

As Veronica Von Vamp, she was already a big deal, but now being Queen of the Vampires, the parasites with cameras seem to have gotten worse.

The vampire was so conscious as to whether or not the paparazzi were behind her, she forgot to look where she was going as she rounds the corner and finds herself on the ground. "Ow!"

"Oof!" a spikey haired normie pushes himself up and looks over at the ghoul in front of her. "Hey! are you alright?" he reaches out a hand to her.

Elissabat rubs her head. "I'm fine," she then accepts the offered help. The Queen vaguely remembers this boy being among Draculaura's friends.

The normie squints his eyes at her once he lets go of the ghoul's hand, making Elissabat uncomfortable. "Do I know you?"

The ghoul sighs, knowing that this was coming. It always happens when she meets people as soon as they remember her movies.

"Oh, yeah!" he snaps. "You're Draculaura's friend, right?"

Elissabat stares for a moment. "Yes. You don't remember me from anywhere else?"

The boy scratches his head. "I don't think so."

"Have you ever seen Vampire's Majesty?"

"Those romance movies, I mean boovies? Still getting used to monster lingo," he flashes her this goofy smile. "I prefer adventure films myself," he then holds up his hand once again. "I'm Sora by the way."

The ghoul once again stares in disbelief before smiling. "I'm Elissabat," and accepts the offered hand. It has been so long since she had made a genuine friend and recalls that it felt something like this.

The two's attention then gets caught by shrieking. They turn to see a wolf ghoul pointing at them. "It's Veronica Von Vamp!" other monsters start gathering around with camera's and iCoffins.

"Oh, no!" Elissabat, still having a hold of Sora's hand, takes off down the street. They turn down an alley. The paparazzi followed suit. Only to come to a dead end with nothing but some trash cans and a dumpster.

"Where'd she go?" one of them ask. It was not long before the camera parasites leave the empty alley.

The dumpster is opened slightly, and blue eyes peek out. "The coast is clear," Sora announces as he hops out of the hiding spot.

"Thank, Ghoul!" Elissabat reveals herself. At first, she struggled to get out, then the normie assists her.

"I thought you said you were Elissabat?"

"I am," she looks the boy over. "You don't know, do you?"

Sora tilts his head. "There's a lot I don't know. But I've never let that stop me," he smiles.

The ghoul could not help smiling back. This boy's positivity is contagious. "Veronica Von Vamp is an alias I took while I was in hiding from my uncle. I had been using it for hundreds of years."

"You went that long without using your real name? Must have been rough," the boy asks as they make their way out of the alley.

"You're really easy going, to have realized that you've met a boovie star. Not to mention the Queen of Vampires."

"You're a queen? That's neat!"

"We must have just missed them!" a voice shouts. "Let's go back. Maybe we'll catch up to them!"

Sora pushes Elissabat into an unoccupied souvenir stand. Once the paparazzi pass by, the two peeked out to see that their gone and stepped out.

The two are now wearing t-shirts, hats, and sunglasses of various movies, shows, and famous actors of Hauntlywood.

"I told you I am a queen and all you have to say is neat?"

The normie shrugs as he takes out his wallet. "I've met plenty of royalty. Kings, queens, princesses, and princes. And plenty of heroes as well," Sora sets some cash next to the register. "I guess it stops being exciting after your fifth one." When he turns around, he is met with a flash from an iCoffin.

Elissabat is snickering at him. "Sorry. You just look so much like a tourist," she shows him her phone to reveal the picture she'd just taken.

Sora laughs. "That's because I am a tourist. What's your excuse?" the boy gestures to her.

The ghoul looks herself up and down and notices the similarities of clothing between them and joins in.

"Out of all my roles, I have never been a tourist," the ghoul looks around her. "I've only ever seen this place through the eye of a star."

"Well then," Sora grabs her hand. "Let this tourist show you how it's done," and starts dragging her with him.

The normie took her to many of the well-known sights of Hauntlywood. Elissabat has seen many of them before in passing but has never enjoyed them herself. Not even the Hauntlywood sign where she took a picture of Sora goofing around the H.

The two managed to talk their way onto a tour bus. At first, ghoul was nervous being surrounded by so many monsters. Especially since she recognizes some of them as the camera parasites. Soon, the star realizes that none of them knew who she was and found herself enjoying the info dump the guide has been giving them. She stiffens once Veronica Von Vamp was brought up. But a hand grabbed hers and gave it a slight squeeze. Turning, Elissabat finds Sora giving her a comforting smile.

After the tour, Elissabat felt daring and wondering how far they could take this ruse of theirs.

The two were then thrown out of gates to the studio by a guard troll. "I better not see the two of ya around here again," he grunts before closing the gates.

Sora and Elissabat stared dumbfounded at the gates before looking back at one another. Then, they burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you got kicked out of your own studio," Sora comments as they turn to leave.

"I cannot believe not even Scareantino recognized me," Elissabat adds. "You'd think a director so obsessed on filming the perfect shot would have remembered a face he sees on an almost daily basis."

"I guess that just speaks of your talent. I almost believed we were dating." the normie then stops as he notices that Elissabat was no longer following him. Turning, he sees that the ghoul has stopped in front of a photobooth and walks back to her.

"It has a filter," Elissabat tells him. "For Vampires. I've always wanted to use one of these."

"Okay then," Sora puts some cash in and drags the vampire in with him. He removes his hat and glasses as does Elissabat.

With the first flash, the two of them just smiled plainly. The second flash, Sora convinced Elissabat to give the camera her goofiest smile. The ghoul cannot remember the last time she just felt silly. And not in the embarrassing way that she was sometimes forced to do for a boovie. This was her just having fun. The final flash, Elissabat had no idea what came over her and kisses the boy on the cheek.

Seeing Sora's stunned look made it click in the vampire's mind what she had done. "Oh! I am so sorry about that," she leaves the booth with the boy following suit.

"That's alright, Elissabat," he smiles at her. The pictures printed out and Sora picks them up. "I had a lot of fun today," he holds the set out to her.

The actress stares at the photos before hesitantly taking them. "Do you not want them? They will prove that you spent a whole day with a boovie star."

Sora shrugs. "I don't need to prove anything. Given how the paparazzi were following you, I didn't think you would want me to show it around too much. Besides, I have plenty of pictures of myself. By the way you eyed the booth, it doesn't seem like you have many of yourself."

"A-are you sure?"

"The picture is not what's important to me," the boy places a hand over his chest. "It's the memories they carry. I'll always have that."

Elissabat smiles at him. "We, we should do this again sometime."

"I'd love that," he gives her his signature goofy smile. "If you ever find yourself in New Salem, look me up. And if happen to come back to Hauntlywood, I'm sure at least one of the tours would lead me to you."

At that, the vampire could not help but giggle.

.oOo.

Back to the Present.

Elissabat is still staring at the photos. She only looked away when her manager starts speaking.

"And that's when you started making unscheduled trips to that little town," the gargoyle huffs. "It also explains why you tend to disappear from the set on days that kid shows up out of nowhere."

The actress fixes a loose strand of hair. "Only after we finished filming for the day."

"But you have other duties to perform besides just being in front of the camera!" the manager snaps. "Autograph signings, magazine interviews, talk show appearances. You've missed those appointments all because some boy comes to town."

"Sora is not some boy!" the vampire snaps back before looking back down at the pictures. "He's more than that. During the premier of my next film, I'm going to make our relationship public."

This news causes the gargoyle to glare at the star. "Was this the normie's idea."

Elissabat shakes her head. "I have yet to tell Sora of this plan."

"Then I suggest you keep quiet on this matter."

That catches the ghoul's attention. "Why? I truly care about Sora, and I would love to share that with everyone else."

The gargoyle leans back. "Simple. You're an icon. All the mansters want to be with a pretty ghoul such as yourself and because of that, all the ghouls loved to be you. As long as you're single, you'll bring in a lot more money. Of course, there are exceptions. Such as a co-star that's as much as a teen sensation as you are. People love it when their favorite characters start dating in real life."

At that, Elissabat lets out an exasperated sigh. "You are not bringing up Shia LaBoo again, are you? Look, he is cute. I can give you credit on that. But he is also rude, condescending, and a slob when the camera is not on him. I like Sora. I might even say love and you have no say on who I can and cannot love."

Her manager laughs at that. "You think so?" he reaches into his desk to pull out some papers and sets them in front of the ghoul.

"What is this?" she picks it up and starts skimming through it. "My contract."

"A copy of it, anyway," the gargoyle shrugs. "If you read the fine print, it clearly states that your roles, whether or not that you play them, I have the final say. If you go public that you're dating that boy, I can guarantee that you will never so much appear in an ad for a blemish cream."

Elissabat rises from her seat and shouts. "You cannot do this to me!"

"I can," the manager smiles as he leans back in his chair. "And I will. Veronica, sweetheart. The revenue your movies bring in will last me a very long time. Longer than your contract. Which will only expire after another three hundred years. Take that with you," he gestures to the piece of paper in the ghoul's hands. "and think things over. I'm certain you'll make the right choice."

With that said, Elissabat clutches the contract in her hands and walks out of the office. As soon as the door closes behind her, the vampire takes out her iCoffin and calls the first name on her contacts.

"Elissabat?" Sora's cheerful voice answers from the other side.

"Sora," the actress finds herself choking on a sob. "I-I need to see you."

End

NOTE: What's this? A cliffhanger?

Here's the thing originally, this One-Shot was going to be much longer. As I was in the middle of writing it, I noticed the length and I wasn't that close to finishing it. So, I decided to split it up and publish the other half as a separate chapter at a later date. I never planned any of these One-Shots getting a sequel chapter and I'm not sure how often it would happen. Perhaps if I get an idea that fits a ghoul that I've already paired Sora with, I'll do another.