Giving Way to the Light

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve:

It took all of five seconds to convince Jack S. to help us.

"Anything for my friends!" He had insisted. The rest of the town was a little harder to convinced. The mayor was worried about the 187 days left till Halloween, to which Bunny argued that he only had 25 more days until Easter. This set off a chain reaction of nasty arguments between the mayor and Easter Bunny until North had to ask Bunny to wait outside and cool off.

After that, things still didn't improve. The debate had moved to the mayoral building and only the town council (consisting of Jack S., the Mayor, Dr. Finkelstein, Sally, Wolfman, Undersea Gal, and Hanging Tree) and the Guardians (minus Bunny) were allowed to partake in the discussion.

"This is a matter of the living," Mayor insisted. "The living are no concern to us unless it's Halloween night. I really don't see why you expect us to care about a matter such as this. People are brutally murdered every day."

I felt a prickle of irritation at the portly man's disinterest.

"I can think of several reasons," I growled, slowly growing out my fangs. "One being that you owe me for making this town. You owe me for creating Halloween. You owe me for giving your pointless afterlife purpose. The living are your concern because without mortals, there would be no Halloween. The living are your concern because you used to be mortal. You should help us because I have done several dozens of favors for you and this town. You should help us because it's the right thing to do!" I fixed him with a glare, daring him to deny any of what I had said. He didn't, only squirmed uncomfortably.

"True as all of that may be... I cannot simply put all of Halloween Town on hold to help you search for something that has not yet been identified." My glare hardened and he looked away. "I can however allow citizens to volunteer themselves if they would like." I growled and stood to jump across the conference table and slap (or scratch, or bite) some sense into him, but North held me back with a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"We will except your most gracious offer."

"I can't believe him!" I said for the hundredth time that night. After the disappointing council meet, we had retreated to Jack S.'s place to regroup and plan. "He is the Mayor of Halloween Town, not the king! He never, for a second considered the outcome of having a spirit like this on the loose. This isn't the Boogie Man we're dealing with, it's a serial murderer! What if he takes over Halloween? All of those kids out trick or treating would be playing right into his— its— hands."

"Right little prick in the foot," Bunny muttered, and Sandy nodded in agreement, blowing puffs of sand out of his ears like steam.

"Unfortunately, there's not anything else we can do," Jack S. sighed. "I think we can still get up a good number of volunteers, but..."

"Wait!" I said, a realization just then dawning on me, and spun on Jack S. "Why wasn't Vlad at the council meeting?"

"Vlad?" Jack S. asked. "He moved away a few centuries ago when he wanted nothing more to do with Halloween. Now he lives with his son and granddaughter at a Hotel in Transylvania."

"A Hotel?" Jack F. asked. "What sort of Hotel is that?"

"Apparently it's a Hotel for monsters," he said slowly. "Count Dracula built it to be a safe haven from humans centuries ago, but a few years ago, a few monsters revealed themselves to humans and his daughter married a mortal, so now it's a hotel where mortals and monsters can coexist peacefully. Not really the place I would visit, but I've heard it's nice."