Renovations: A Hotel T AU Collection

Chapter 1 - Good Enough

Could the girl EVER stop talking?

Martha sighed, sadly beginning to realize that the answer just might be no. Horrid experiences usually left one too shell-shocked for words. But, this was not the case for Jenny Loughran. What bothered her even more was that the girl didn't even seem shaken in the slightest. Rather than incoherent babbling from utter surprise, she spoke animatedly, her arms waving around grandly and her wild red hair bouncing off her shoulders with each light step she took.

"Oh wow, thanks for saving me back there. That lady's crazy! Trying to eat me and all. That literally only happened to me one other time before, this weird chick at a Slipknot concert..."

Martha rolled her eyes. Not much ever got her upset, but having her hands full with this pesky human was really starting to get under her skin. Why in the world she wanted to stay was beyond her understanding. Weren't all humans afraid of monsters? As terrible as it was, she was hoping that at least her experience with the crazed hotel chef Esmeralda and her hunchbacked rat Quasimodo would quickly change the girl's mind about continuing to remain there. But of course, she still didn't seem to get the message. Anything else Martha had already tried to get rid of her was not working. And, if that wasn't bad enough, the girl was starting to get very acquainted with her son... something she strongly disliked. Martha had done a well enough job of hiding Jenny's identity from everyone thus far, disguising her as a Frankengirl, but she knew that it wouldn't be long before the truth came out in some way. And when it did, Davis would be crushed.

And so, drowning out the excitable gibberish flowing out of the girl's mouth, she led her along, fixed on following through with the one thing, her last resort, to get through to her for good.

"There's something I need to show you..." She murmured, almost inaudibly.

Jenny finally quit her yammering, quirking an eyebrow with interest as she followed the vampiress down a darker hallway, the room they entered even more foreboding than anything else she'd seen thus far at the hotel. She coughed a little as dust tickled her nose, her eyes adjusting to the dim-lit surroundings. There wasn't much to see in the chambers, save for some curtains at the window, a lone desk, and a coffin. Jenny's eyes lit up when she saw it. "Oh... your bed!" she concluded, approaching it and running her hands over the sleek black surface. "So creepy and cool..." Her gaze drifted from the coffin upward, eyes widening once again when she saw the large portrait at the other side of the room that Martha stood before.

"Whoa! I know him!" she said, walking up to Martha's side and peering up at the man in the painting. A vampire as well, his clothing was dark and his skin a ghostly pale. Black hair was sleeked back into place on his head and piercing blue eyes remained frozen in time. Jenny grinned. "That's Count Dracula!" she proclaimed, pointing up at him.

Martha felt herself flinch at hearing the name. She hadn't heard it said out loud in a long time, her friends knowing the pain it caused her. "Y-you... you know him?" she asked.

Jenny nodded. "Yeah! I've read Bram Stoker's book from cover to cover lots of times. He's got the coolest story!"

Martha listened, stunned, as Jenny began to tell a tale of the infamous, dark, and mysterious vampire that the humans knew as Count Dracula. Dracula who, apparently, lived in a Transylvanian castle with three brides, turned multiple innocent people into vampires, and was successfully staked and beheaded through the leadership of monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing. The more she listened to Jenny weave the tale, the more disgusted Martha got, although she did not let it show. She pursed her black lips into a thin line and set her jaw, averting the girl's gaze entirely should some unwarranted anger make itself known, and let Jenny finish.