A New Zing

The Long Way Out

The long corridors were endless and Arwen wondered how many monsters had been trapped under here. Then she realized this place might have been an escape route in case of emergencies.

"Where are we going?" Johnny asked as he and Arwen followed the grumpy vampire down the stairwell "I hope this is not some kind of underground dungeon and you're going to trap us here forever" Arwen answered and Dracula merely gave her a sideways glance before shaking his head.

Dracula rolled his eyes, sounding annoyed. "Just getting rid of you through a secret tunnel so she does not see us." And by 'she' he meant Mavis.

"So, can I ask you a question?" Johnny asked when he caught up with them. "Is that real, about the garlic thing?"

"Yes, I cannot have it," Dracula replied as he touched his neck. "My throat swells." Arwen nodded "So it doesn't kill you at all?" Dracula rolled his eyes at her concept.

The trio came to a labyrinth; a maze filled with multiple tunnels all leading to different routes.

"Huh. Wooden steak to the heart?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, well, who wouldn't that kill?" Dracula bluntly replied, as he led them down a side tunnel. Arwen pondered before snapping her fingers.

"What about sunlight? Do you turn to dust when exposed to sunlight? My brother didn't turn to dust when he goes out under the sun. Maybe it's his witch blood but I don't know..."

Dracula uncomfortably didn't know why these two humans were asking him these questions confirming his weaknesses, believing they'll use them against him. But he decided to answer the human girl's question. "No, but it does burn...gradually." Arwen nodded.

So its almost like a sunburn. Typical human side effect under the sun.

"My brother is 789 years old. How old exactly are you?"

"Dude, your brother must be old enough to be his grandpa!"

Johnny butted in and Arwen couldn't help but giggle at his thought. Her questioned distracted Dracual so he suddenly walked into a wall, cheek first. A dead end in the tunnel. Dracula grunted in frustration at having led them down the wrong corridor and turning around. "I'm 532," he answered, not entirely sure why he had to.

Johnny gave her a smug grin and Arwen rolled her eyes "Still, my brother looked like in his age of twenties. You look more of a guy in his thirties" Dracula didn't know why but that question made him suddenly self conscious about his age.

The trio walked through a second corridor. Dracula found what he was looking for: a torch holder embedded in the wall. "Ah, here we go," he said, and pulled the torch holder down, since these torch holders were activated to open secret passages.

It revealed a room with a large bed with bright magenta coverings and had a romantic intimate feel to it. Two tiny dots, fleas in fact, chittered loudly at them in outrage. Johnny looked at them with interest.

Arwen blushed once she realized what they have stumbled unto and quickly looked away in respect of their privacy.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm a little lost," Dracula quickly apologized for barging in on the tiny couple. "Yes, I know it's your honeymoon. I apologize. Go back to doing what you're doing."

The trio stepped out of the room, and the door closed in front of them. The two fleas kissed to resume their moment of passion.

"I can't believe you made a secret passageway in a honeymoon suite. That's invasion of privacy!"

"Well when there are emergencies like a human invasion"

"So we're, like, the first humans here, huh?" Johnny said aloud in amazement. "That's really cool."

As they walked down a fourth tunnel, the trio came up to another torch holder.

"Oh, boy," Dracula looked at it unsure. "I think this is it."

He pulled the torch holder down, only to have the wall reveal the same female skeleton Johnny had met earlier taking a shower. She shrieked when she realized this invasion of her privacy and tried to cover herself with the wash sponge.

"AHHH! What's happening?" she cried, fearfully. Arwen instinctively covered a laughing Johnny's eyes to spare the skeleton woman some dignity. She quickly kicked Dracula for him to look away as well but the vampire was still frozen in shock.

Pulling back the shower curtain, the skeleton woman's skeleton husband was outraged at these peeping toms. "What is wrong with you people?!"

Then he threw the wash sponge into Dracula's face as the walls closed again before the situation got any worse.

Arwen pulled it out of his face

A little later, they all walked down another tunnel which made them crouch down uncomfortably as they walked closely together.

"Oh man, this place is amazing!" Arwen had to smile at Johnny's optimistic side "As long as we don't walk in on people doing something that was doing something for privacy"

Arwen stated, referring to their recent encounters. Dracula felt himself slouch all the more at their talking "I could really use some silence right now" Arwen shrugged her shoulders.

"Alright mister grumpy pants"

The tunnel ended and the space widened to allow all three of them to stand straight again. They made their way down a long staircase which seemed to go on forever into the darkness.

Dracula stopped short of the end of the stairs when they ended at a dark bottomless abyss, but Johnny didn't really notice as he kept walking and nearly stepped off of the edge of the last step, yet Dracula grabbed the scruff of Johnny's jacket, causing the younger man to yelp as he was pulled back.

Arwen suddenly blinked in surprise when she was suddenly walking on nothing but air.

Letting out a sharp gasp, Arwen felt herself tip bit a blue mist stopped her from falling and she ended up having Dracula wrap an arm around her waist and she was holding onto his shoulders.

Blue met silver grey and suddenly, they were in a world of their own.

Suddenly remembering Johnny was in their presence and he had been watching with great interest, they awkwardly let go of each other and Dracula started leading them back up the stairs, his awkward smile resumed back to his usual frown.

"You know guys when your caught in the moment. Both of you look like Romeo and Juliet"

Arwen lightly jabbed him in the stomach with a slight flush on her face.

Once again the trio walked down another tunnel. But at last they came to another torch holder and Dracula pulled it down as he said, "Alright, third time's the..."

The wall opened to reveal a room that looked like a lounge or a bar of some kind with strange science equipment from a clichéd mad science lab, and in the room was a chaotic battle between Frank, Wayne, Murray, and a bunch of werewolf pups all beating up three zombies. Murray was currently sitting on one zombie, Wayne gnawed on the second zombie, and Frank was smashing the third zombie on the bar. These three zombies were revealed to be great composers in history; Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven.

Among them was a yelling Thomas, saying for them to cut it out.

"Not exactly catching the meaning of third time's the charm"

Arwen commented as she and Johnny gawked at the scene. Dracula panicked and tried to close the walls by yanking the lever down but Frank had already noticed his vampire friend and called out excitedly "Drac!" Dracula quickly pushed Johnny in but Arwen was already heading towards them with a wide smile on her face.

"Hi Brother!"

"Brother?!" The pack stopped their banter and looked at Thomas, who shrugged his shoulders "Guys, this is my sister, Arwen and before you could even guess that she is human. She is actually a mage" Arwen decided to use a little magic trick she had learned from her brother and the group smiled in awe.

"Arwen, meet my friends"

Thomas said as he gestured to the group of monsters with a wide smile.