Hotel Transylvania - Demon's Heart 2 - Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23 - Just some tear

"Dad! The dragoons ran away out of the sudden, what happened in here?" Mavis asked, alarmed.

"Nothing, nothing at all... Let's just say that Hal faked his death to distract the dragoons, who will now be pleased to conclude their manhunt." Dracula replied without going into excessive detail.

"Looks like he's risking a lot to help us," She continued, "He seems like a good man, but you described him as a person whom you can't trust. Maybe you were wrong?"

The old vampire's eyes widened, "No, I'm not wrong. He doesn't do anything unless he can get something in return. He's greedier than a leprechaun, and I would not be surprised to see him working for the lamias." He growled angrily, like every time he spoke about that man.

"Okay, okay..." His daughter said, rolling her eyes and raising her hands, annoyed, "You don't like him, but I would at least thank him in person." Then she narrowed her eyes and looked away, seemingly confused with something else, "What?" She exclaimed, then she chuckled and finally brought her glance back to her father, "He says you're just jealous."

"Me, jealous?!" He shouted, but then calmed down immediately, "Never mind, I have no time to lose with someone like him. I have to go for a drink." And with that, he went back inside the castle.

Meanwhile, Jonathan and Mavis weren't left alone for long. In fact, they were joined immediately by Griffin, Murray and Waine, who greeted them warmly.

"Hey guys, how's the buffet?" Mavis asked, the three monsters making big smiles, "Never eaten so well since the banquets of Ramses II!" Murray exclaimed, satisfied.

"Is it me or someone else is missing?" Jonathan said, looking around.

"Yes, Wanda and Eunice had to keep an eye on the puppies. We narrowly escaped a disaster of epic dimensions ... fortunately Wanda sniffed the smell of coffee cupcakes, they would become even more hyperactive. I don't know if the castle would remain standing after such a calamity." The wolf man explained.

Johnny and Mavis looked at him with a worried half smile. Dracula had too many problems already, and a herd of (even more) wild wolf cubs would not only demolish the hotel but also the mental sanity of the old vampire.

"And Uncle Frank?" Mavis continued.

The three monsters looked around for him, only to realize he was no longer with them, "He freaked out when we went to get the steak. They were cooking it on the grill and when they rekindled the fire to do other coals he got scared. He ran away and we haven't seen him again." Murray told.

"If you are still looking for him, he's there." Griffin exclaimed, but no one could understand where the invisible man was pointing. "I said there, are you blind?" He insisted, and everyone turned towards the floating glasses, looking angrily at him. Griffin sighed sadly, "Desserts table, he's gorging more than a gremlins army."

Everyone turned towards the dessert table. It was being assaulted by a giant blue ball with big black shoes and a tight white shirt that barely covered a quarter of that big odd ball.

"I-it's not him, right?" Mavis said, worried.

"Frank!?" Jonathan tried to call him out aloud.

The strange giant ball turned awkwardly. It was Frank indeed, he had eaten so much that his stomach had swollen to the point of covering his legs, leaving only the shoes in sight. In his hand was a large cake, which he put in his mouth, spitting only the silver tray.

"Hey, guys, have you tried some dessert yet? They are all delicious! Much better than Quasimodo's jellyfish jello dessert." Frank said, happy to see his friends, then he turned to get something for them, but then noticed that the table had been completely looted. "Err... do you want something salty?" He continued embarrassed of his uncontrollable hunger.

"If you eat too much, you'll get a stomach ache." Mavis scolded him.

"It takes more than that to make me feel bad." He said, but his attention was soon attracted by a strange sound.

It was like the noise of an iron wire that is broken.

Frank looked down, the stitches were tensing, far too much, and one by one they started breaking, "Oh, oh..." He said and instantly he flew away, leaving his legs on the ground, zigzagging in the air like a deflating balloon, but instead of blowing air, he threw away foods of all kinds, still perfectly intact because, in the rush to eat, he had not chewed anything.

"Dad, what's going on?" A fly-child asked.

The fly man raised his head and was hit in forehead by a meatball. The monster spit on his hands and wiped his head with quick movements typical of the flies, "It's raining meatballs..."

Meanwhile, many other foods were rushing to the ground, and the monsters who ate remained motionless for a moment in surprise, but then they began to run here and there to try and take the food that fell with their dishes, or directly with their mouth.

Even Murray and Wayne could not resist and rushed into the crowd, Griffin instead stayed with Mavis and Jonathan.

"What noisy children..." The invisible man said with a sigh, "Better stay away, some people don't watch where they put their fe-" But Griffin was interrupted by a group of running monsters who overwhelmed him, knocking the glasses that Mavis promptly picked up.

"Griffin?!" The girl shouted, looking around in the hope to finding him.

"I'm down here!" The invisible man answered from who knows where, "Aaargh!" He screamed in pain, they were probably trampling him, but the clouds created by the witches that obscured the sun began to thin out and the vampiress was forced to return in the castle, yet, she remained under the arch of the door to enjoy the hilarious scenes.

That turmoil of monsters who ran looking at the sky did not last long without incident, and indeed there were many clashes, but without serious damage, except a big minotaur who tripped and fell on the elderly gremlin just at the moment when she opened her big mouth and he fell in; realizing what happened the tiny old lady turned and exclaimed, "I didn't do that."

Meanwhile, Blobby slips quickly on the lawn to collect the food on which he passed over, and when he picked up enough he stopped to digest by bubbling all that he had engulfed and dissolving it in seconds, including the grass beneath him, leaving a hole on the lawn. The blob went again at full speed, but soon it crashed into a pink blob. The two blobs, merged in a single mass, pulled themselves back until breaking away, suddenly two pieces of green and one of pink jelly flew out of that, and, after landing. opened their eyes and ran to their parents.

"Please," Murray said, "Not in front of everyone!"

"Oh, but how the little blobs are cute." The mummy said, lowering to caress one of those little jellies, but, as soon as he touched the pink one, she clung to his hand and then expanded to cover him completely, "Hey look at me, I'm a blob-man!" He said enthusiastically, then his body began to fizz, "Aaargh!" The mummy cried in pain, "Get her off me!"

So Blobbette stepped in front of Murray and starts talking by gurgling, moving a finger by rebuke, and the little pink blob slipped away from the mummy, looking repented.

"Murray, how are you?" Wayne asked, cautiously.

The mummy tore his bands, blackened by corrosion, from his arms. They crumbled in his hand, "I'm fine, don't worry." He replied to reassure his friend, but the wolf man continued to stare at him stunned, "What's wrong, Wayne? You have a face!"

"Have you seen yourself?" The werewolf said.

The mummy looked down, then he covers his body with his hands, embarrassed, "Don't look at me, I feel naked!"

In truth Murray was still covered in bandages, but there was a big difference. Now, he was thin.

The appearance of the mummy was completely changed, he was very thin and wiry, like a stick guy, but finally his little feet and hands were proportionate to his real body. The only thing unchanged was his head with big green and bright eyes, but at least now he had a neck and a chin.

"I thought you were fat, not overloaded with bandages! Maybe now you will attract more girls." Wayne observed.

"How can a mummy be fat, when dried and left in the desert for over three thousand years? Anyway I'd love to attract a mummy-girl..."

Not far from them, Mavis smiled, that moment of general folly brought her away from the problems which hung over her and over the people she loved, then she turned to the human to share her joy with him, but he was vanished, leaving her a little bitter, "J-Johnny?" He just said, looking around without seeing him.

…

Meanwhile Dracula had taken refuge in the castle, even though at the thought of meeting Shin Ryu again he would have preferred the rain of food with garlic which was happening in the garden. He took the elevator to the higher floors; he needed some time alone, in preparation for the true challenge of the day, the Extraordinary Council of the Order of the Dragon, where not only the future of him and of hotel Transylvania would be decided, but also about Mavis and Jonathan, and there was only one thing that could give him enough strength, the memory of his wife. The same memory that for more than a century had caused in him a vise of pain, but after meeting Martha's ghost in their old castle he had been able to change. After all, the years spent with the woman of his life were the most beautiful of his existence, and he could not remember them all when choked by sadness and longing of a single tragic event.

The old vampire reached his room and with a snap of the fingers lit the many torches on the walls. That attic had never been so bright and it was not the only change, his coffin-bed had been moved under the large portrait of him and his wife, which was no longer covered; the ceiling had been painted red and golden. Exposed beams and the stone walls were adorned with other pictures of his daughter Mavis' childhood. That which was once a dark attic, like a mausoleum, is now a bright room, except for the coffin, which is still grim as before, but Drac like it so...

"Martha..." The Count sighed approaching the painting, "How can I face this challenge knowing what I'm going against?" The vampire put his hand to the wall, closed his eyes and lowered his head, but immediately after he opened his eyes as if something had caught his attention. He looked around trying to hear better, it was not a hallucination, he could hear a faint cry. It was an almost imperceptible and far sobbing, too much to understand where was it coming or if it was really just his imagination.

"M-Martha?" The vampire said, then shook his head, "No, what I'm saying? It can't be her..." Then he shifted his gaze to the ceiling.

So he raised his feet off the ground fluttering upward slowly, turned upside down and landed on the ceiling, then he walked until he stopped and knelt leaning his ear to the ceiling, those tears came exactly on the other side.

The count began to worry, "Mavy?" He muttered to himself not to be heard, he did not want her to flee because it was broad daylight, and if she was out of the shadows she would hurt herself.

Dracula let himself drop, landing on the floor and looked around for a window, but there were none in his room, "Now I understand why Mavis wanted a room with window although I said that it was dangerous..." Then he stopped set his eyes on the burning fireplace, "If I have to burn by Sun ..." And without a second thought he turned into a bat and flew through the flames in the chimney until he came out covered with ash.

The sun starts to burn him more than the fire that he had just gone through, but he did not care. He turned human and, protecting himself with the cloak he reached the origin of those sobs.

"J-Johnny?! What are you doing here!" The count said, finding the boy sitting on the roof.

Jonathan jumped in fright and slipped on the tiles, blocking his run on the gutter one step away from the cliff, then he turned to Drac, scared and angry, "What are you doing out here during the day?!"

The two looked down and remained quiet, crossed by a wave of sadness that calmed them in an instant.

"I heard crying, it was you?" The vampire said, slowly raising his eyes to the boy.

The human sighed, "No, you're wrong. No one was crying in here." He said darkly without looking away from the landscape around the castle. Although it was day the haunted forest was still dark and scary, and Johnathan felt the same way, he could show himself as a cheerful and sunny boy, but inside him his troubles were crushing him.

"Mavis knows you're here?" The count asked.

"Why do you keep asking questions if you already know the answer?"

"If she is not with you it's because she doesn't know where you are. You don't think she's looking for you?"

"I know and you know it too, but I don't want her to see me in this condition."

"You're right..." The vampire said, sitting down beside to the boy, "Mavy must remain calm at the moment, the situation is delicate and we can't make mistakes. You were right to take it out where no one sees you. I'll tell to Mavis that I've called you."

"Drac..." The human sighed, turning to the vampire.

"Tell me."

"The stench of burnt chicken starts to bother me; can you go into the shade?" Johnny said with a slight smile.

The count realized only at that moment that he was burning a bit too much, he was so thoughtful that he did not even notice the pain, so he jumped away to take shelter in the shadow of a chimney.

"You must be strong Johnny, not only for yourself, but also for me and my daughter. We all rely on your moral support, if you can't smile, who will? What do you always say? Just fall with it."

"Just roll with it." The human corrected him, smiling. He was visibly better, then got up, "There's someone waiting for me."

The old vampire smiled back and transformed into a bat flew into the chimney.