New Zing

Chapter 31

Johnny stands on the stage as the music begins to play behind him. I raise a brow. He jumps off and starts to skates around singing "just the three of us" as grabs Dracula and Mavis by the shoulders. I giggle softly and rub the back of Dracula's hand. Dracula tenses uncomfortably as Johnny continues along with his entertainment. Shortly he releases the two and rejoins the stage doing tricks as he goes along. The song slowly dies.

"Here to hotel Transylvania!" Johnny announces. "Celebrating 125 years!"

Everyone cheers as Johnny throws his hands in the air. Dracula still remains tensed and squeezes my hand for reassurance. I return the gentle squeeze.

"Breath," I whispered, under my breath.

Dracula nods. He takes a deep breath and relaxes a little but remains on guard.

"Thank you, Johnny," Dracula says, forcing a smile. "What a wonderful surprise that was... Why don't we start the actual planned part of the celebration?"

Johnny hopped off the stage and roller skates around the table again. He leans close to Dracula. I watch him closely and wearily.

"That was just the beginning Drac. You just sit back and enjoy the anniversary party," Johnny replied, grinning.

My stomach twists into knots as the bad feelings from earlier came back with full force.

"Johnny," I hissed, softly.

Johnny ignores me as he skates back to the stage. Mavis leans forward and shoots her dad a reassuring smile.

"Relax dad. Johnny has worked really hard to make this extra special," Mavis explained, gesturing around us. "He has everything under control..."

She leans back in her seat and watches her husband on the stage.

"I hope..." She muttered under her breath as she flashed her husband a smile.

"It's Johnny takeover celebration! Hit it!" Johnny declared.

A band pops up from under the stage and starts to play. The music changed. The lights changed. The whole mood changed drastically. There was a fire ring and animals jumping through it. Frank joined the stage juggling and riding the unicycle. My jaw drops at the sight. Dracula tightens his grip on my hand and I rub my thumb over the back of his hand. Trying to keep us both from freaking out.

"Isn't this great?! Johnny taught me!" Frank says, happily.

Eunice leans over from a near by table.

"And we only had to replace his hands twice during rehearsal," Eunice whispered.

She straightens her posture and watches the rest of the entertainment happily.

"Ice sculpture! Go!" Johnny calls.

Zombies wheel in an ice sculpture that was suppose to look like Dracula but the facial features were deadly wrong. I gasp at the sight of it. Then there was zombies spinning fire on chains. My heart begins to pound. My body tensed more at the sight.

"Oh no," both Dracula and I mutter.

We both share a look. The werewolf children come on stage carrying cards with large letters on them to spell 'happy anniversary' until they all tripped. I gasped as they jump to their feet and miss spell 'happy anniversary.' A zombie catches on fire shortly after and sends panic through Frank as he sees it. Chainsaws fly into the air. Dracula also jumps to his feet as the chainsaws hit three different spots. A hanging candler, Blobby and the ice sculpture.

"Okay, that's enough!" Dracula announces.

He flies into the air and freezes time. I release the air I've been holding.