Zing 2! : Family Problems

Chapter 2: Bedtime

It's dusk, thought Lis. The twins will be up soon. Dracula and Lis entered the bustling lobby. There's nearly as many humans as there is monsters now. "Well, Dracula, the lobby looks pretty much the same... except a little more hi-tech."

Dracula peeked into the dining area. "Elisabeth." Dracula grabbed her arm and pulled her into the dining room. They saw two grumpy aquatic looking monsters. "Mr. and Mrs. Gill! How you folks doing tonight?" Dracula acted as cherry as he could.

Mr. Gill spoke like he was angry. "Count Dracula! What's with this food? Cooked steak!? Who would do that to steak?"

Lis shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Gill, You must have gotten a human dish." She quickly grabbed Mr. Gill's dish and spotted a human couple struggling with a plate of food that was trying to bite them. There's the right people. "I believe this is yours, Mr. Perry. I'm so sorry."

Mr. Perry wasn't happy about the mix up in the least bit. "Yes, the steak. What's this food? It's biting us!"

Dracula took the plates of biting food from the human couple. "Yes, that's the tasting menu. Sorry." Dracula took the tasting menu dish and give it to the Gills.

Johnny approached Lis and Dracula. Johnny was smiling. "Drac, gotta say, humans are comin' and everybody's digging the new activities..." The three walked past a spider themed spinning class. "Check out the spinning class..."

Dracula, a little confused, responded, "If that's what people are into..."

Johnny leaded the bunch into the new TV room. Monsters and humans alike were watching a football game on one monitor. Johnny watched with pride as Dracula forced a smile. Johnny was excited. "And I told you they'd flip for the TV room!" On the other monitor, the Ghostbusters are fighting ghosts. The humans laugh, but the monsters scream in horror.

Dracula was mortified. "Oh, my! I hope there aren't any kids watching." Dracula slipped away.

"On it." Johnny ran off to fix it. Johnny tended to some scared young monsters and was berated by their mother.

Kids... oh no! It's 8 pm already! The twins are up!

The mother monster stopped Lis as she tried to get back out to get to her room. "What kind of a place shows that to children? Innocent ghosts being busted? You should be ashamed!"

Lis stopped. "I'm very sorry ma'am. The one who chose the movie is not very good at his job. I'll deal with this." Lis ran off. Just as she reached the hallway she saw Dracula sneak quietly into Martha's room. Their youngest daughter was to be sleeping sound but she knew Dracula didn't like that. She followed him silently and watched him and Martha through the cracked door.

Dracula watched sleeping four year-old Martha, a little tall for her age, still with solid white hair like her mother. Martha woke up.

He never listens to me.

Dracula smiled sweetly. "Rise and shine, my little honey bat," he cooed

Martha rubbed her eyes as she sat up. "Hi Daddy."

Dracula smiled widely at his little girl. "Hello, my little devil! Did you have sweet nightmares?

Martha nodded. "Uh huh... I dreamed that I saw... that I saw... I dreamed that I saw a hippogriff."

Dracula changed gears. "Oh, and were you drinking his blood?"

"No."

"Just throwing it out there."

As Martha continued Dracula peeked and poked around in her mouth, pulled out a fang ruler, measured, and marked progress in a small notebook.

"And he said that, he said that he had feathery wings bause he lived in a forest climates... and bause he lived in, in the medieval period."

Elisabeth entered the dark room. "Why did you wake her up?

"What do you mean? It's after 8!" Dracula wasn't very happy.

"I know, Honey, but don't you remember the new sleep schedule? She's going to human classes half the day." Never listens. She indicated the new sleep schedule on the wall. "If she could just sleep till 11 pm tonight it'd be so great for her."

"But Honeydeath, why not allow her to take classes with the wolf pups here at the hotel? They play fun games like musical chairs!"

"I love the wolf pups, but I just think Martha needs to be around kids a little more like her. Okay, Dracula?" Lis laid Martha back down and began to sing as she tucked her in. "Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are..."

A groggy Martha complained, "Mommy, I'm too old for lullaby..."

Dracula wasn't listening to her as he spoke. "What? That's not how that one goes."

"This is the way my mother sang it."

"What's wrong with," Dracula sang, "'Suffer, suffer, scream in pain, Blood is spilling from your brain'?"

"Honey..."

Dracula seemed disappointed. "Come on, you know how I sang it to the twins. "

Dracula and Lis sang together, harmonizing beautifully. "Zombies gnaw you like a plum, piercing cries, and you succumb."

Martha is asleep.

Dracula continued alone. "Suffer, suffer, scream in pain, you will never breathe again." He looked at Lis who was falling asleep on his shoulder. "Still works." he said.

With that Lis fell asleep.