Freaky Friday (but on a Tuesday)

Chapter 3 - Assistance from an Elder

Ericka and Van Helsing landed on a mattress at the bottom with a loud THUMP. She coughed as dust cleared out and the dark view of the basement came into view.

"Since when has there been a trapdoor in the ballroom?" Ericka asked.

Her great-grandfather turned himself upright and wheeled off the mattress. "I don't know how much that vampire has shown you, but in the time that I've been here I've mostly been exploring around this whole castle. And boy, is there a lot of little nooks and crannies! Of course, when I'm not out snooping around, I'm in here!"

He approached the wall and switched on the lights with a lever. With everything illuminated, Ericka could see a vast space cluttered with seemingly endless boxes and bins scattered all over the floor and haphazardly stacked atop one another. She looked at him questioningly. "Great-grandfather?"

"Don't worry," he assured her. "I know where to find it. Just follow me."

He made his way through the giant maze of assorted junk, turning and stopping every so often to inspect something before moving onward at a faster pace each time. Ericka kept up at first, but soon began to struggle getting through the more narrow passages of the lab. Then, she lost sight of Van Helsing completely.

"Uh, great-grandfather? Where are you? Where did you go?" she called out.

"AHA! I found it!" Van Helsing suddenly shouted out. His arms popped out from the boxes a few yards away. In them was what looked to be like a giant ray blaster of some kind with a large glowing crystal right above the barrel. He wheeled his way over to Ericka and eagerly showed her.

"Behold - it's the Monsterfication Ray!" he announced. "It has the capability of turning any human into a monster, and vice-versa!"

Ericka stared at the contraption, wide-eyed. "Woah... I had no idea you had this."

Van Helsing nodded. "A monster-hunter is always prepared with whatever tools he or she can find."

Ericka ran her fingers over the staff. "Yeah, I guess... but is it safe?"

"Huh... great question. I haven't actually had a chance to try it out on anything before," Van Helsing replied with a shrug of his bony shoulders. "What we need is a guinea pig." He removed a cloth covering from a nearby table, and underneath revealed a cage that held a small guinea pig inside.

Ericka's eyes lit in recognition at the animal. "Hey, is that Gigi? I thought you said that one of the wolf pups ate her!"

Van Helsing smiled sheepishly. "Eh heh heh... that may have been exaggerated."

Ericka groaned, and distracted herself by squeezing two fingers within the cage bars and stroking the little rodent. "Well, at least she's still as cute as I remember."

"Not for long!" Van Helsing replied. He lifted the ray and, switching it from 'human' to 'monster,' fired a bright red beam at the little guinea pig. The ray blasted Gigi, transforming her right before their eyes into a larger guinea pig about the size of a small dog. Her purple fur was disheveled and her teeth protruded outward like great fangs.

"Oh my!" Ericka exclaimed, taking a step back from the cage. Aside from her obvious changes, Gigi didn't seem to behave any differently from a normal guinea pig. She still nibbled at her feed and scurried around her cage - as best she could with her larger body - like she always had. This was a good sign.

"Wow, it really did work! It'd be so great to become a vampire just like Drac and Mavis."

"Well, it doesn't quite work that way," Van Helsing began to explain to her. "It's not refined to be so exact right now, and doing so could take as long as years. You can become any beast with this ray. It's just a matter of seeing what." He lifted the ray up with a raised eyebrow. "So... would you like to find out?"

Okay, Ericka had to admit to herself that the unstable ray was a bit of a risk, and the fact that she may not even end up a vampire worried her. But, there was no time to waste on the matter. After all, the law as Mavis explained it wasn't specific to vampires - it only said that a monster needed to come into ownership of a monster property. All in all, the ray was bound to do its job on her. So this was it. This was the one thing that was going to fix everything... and change it for her, too. But if it meant being able to stay with her one true love - her zing Dracula - and keep him safe, then she was willing to go for it.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath, "Do it."

Van Helsing grinned a maniacal grin that made Ericka a little uneasy before her great-grandfather turned the ray in her direction and blasted its red beam out. Its energy swept over her like an electrifying wave, coursing through her system with shocking force that made her body shiver all over. And just like that, it was over, and her senses were back to normal. She looked down at herself, but realized that nothing had happened. She was still just a regular human in her wedding outfit. Huh? She decided to wait for a few moments more, but still nothing was happening.

Then all of a sudden, Ericka's body began to contort. She clutched at her stomach and nearly fell to her knees. "Ughhh... " she moaned. "I don't feel so good..."

Just then, a long scaly tail burst out from behind her and horns came out from atop her head. Her nails lengthened so that they appeared more like claws instead, sharp and pointed. Her canine teeth then elongated so that they turned into fangs, long and vampiric. Despite her modifications, she still looked a bit like herself.

Van Helsing looked at his great-granddaughter's new look with wide eyes. "Ooh!" he said, quite impressed. It wasn't exactly a vampire, but the monstrous creation still looked great.

Ericka continued changing, growing slightly bigger, and accidentally smacking into her great-grandfather. The elder went flying across to another side of the room, screaming, as Ericka arose and let out a ferocious snarl.