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Ericka stood cross-legged, resting her arms on the guardrail, staring at the sparkling water below. She sighed as the wind swept through her hair, she loved the pristine calmness of nature.
Meanwhile, Dracula was doing his rounds around the hotel, to make sure everything was in working order. He was passing by one of the lobby windows, whence he spotted Ericka on the bridge, peacefully looking out over the mountains. He leaned against the window sill, gazing at her with adoring eyes. She looked so…angelic in the pale moonlight. He continued to gawk at her, while she stared off, oblivious.
She was ready to head back inside, so she uncrossed her legs and turned her head. She took a step forward when she saw something sparkle on the ground next to her. It caught her attention, and curiosity got the best of her. She walked over to the sparking object and saw it was like an amulet, with three beautiful gems. One red, one blue, and one yellow. She bent down and picked it up. She ran her fingers over the engravings. It was beautiful. She decided to touch the scarlet red gem, but as soon as she touched it, she was teleported. Drac, who was still watching from the window, was dumbfounded when she vanished. He rushed outside and saw no trace of her anywhere. The only thing left was the amulet.
Ericka was dropped in the middle of a freezing dark forest, with thick clouds overhead, limiting the moonlight. She felt her body temperature drastically dropping as she started to shiver. She didn’t know where she was, or what she was going to do. But she knew it happened all because of that amulet. She huddled up against a tree, hoping someone would find her before it would be too late.
Drac picked up the same amulet she did, and studied it. Nothing looked super out of the ordinary about it. The red gem seemed duller after Ericka touched it. He touched the blue one, causing him to roughly teleport away, dropping the amulet in the process. He was also dropped in the same forest of darkness. He brushed himself off and looked around, “Ericka?” He called, his voice echoing in the seemingly infinite hell. The forest was eerily quiet, no birds, no cicadas, not even crickets. It was completely silent. He wandered around, listening to any signs of Ericka, or life in general. Eventually he heard someone nearby take a chattering breath. He swiftly ran in that direction, eventually running into Ericka.
“Are you hurt?” He asked, kneeling next to her, trying to hold her close in an attempt to warm her up. She shook her head and chattered,
“C-C-Cold…“ her body continued to shake uncontrollably as she descended into hypothermia.
“I-I don’t have any body heat…” Drac murmured, still trying to cuddle her in an attempt to conserve what heat she had left.
After what seemed like an eternity, voices shattered the silence.
“Are you sure we’re getting close? We’ve been walking all night!”
“Calm down Peach! I’m positive this is the right way!”
Three hikers passed nearby on some sort of hiking trail. Two adult males, and a young girl.
But they looked…weird. Like, way different. Drac knew they were humans, but they looked like their details had enhanced. They looked hyper realistic. He didn’t know if he should go up to them for help or to stay hidden, as he didn’t know if they were friendly or hostile. While he was peeking around the tree at the strange-looking humans, Ericka had worked her way into Drac’s shirt in an attempt to keep warm. She nuzzled into his chest, and let out a quivering sigh.
But the little girl heard her sigh and glanced back at the noise. She spotted Drac staring back at her, terrified. She instantly recognized him.
“Leah!! Why are you lagging behind?” One of the men yelled to Leah. She glanced back at Drac, then quickly bent down to scribble something in the dirt before running off to catch up with the two men.
Once their voices faded into the distance, Drac scooted over to the words in the dirt, holding Ericka with his arms. He craned his neck to read the words.
Stay Put, I’ll Come Back To help
His anxiety slightly decreased and he scooted back over to hide behind the tree. Ericka’s breath was becoming shallower, as time was running out to save her.
About five minutes later the voices came back as they started to walk back the way they came.
“I TOLD you this was the wrong way!”
“I’M SORRY GOOGLE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT IT WAS DOING!!”
They continued to walk away, Drac didn’t move to watch them walk away, but he heard another set of footsteps lagging behind the other two. And the sound of a dog sniffing something.
“Come on Fluffy! We should get home!” Leah exclaimed, making the dog run ahead as she chased after.
Not longer later, he heard someone running back in his direction. Leah peeked around the tree and saw Drac looking up at her, not making a sound.
“Are you lost?” She asked softly, a spark of wonder glistening in her eyes. Drac nodded and clutched Ericka closer.
“…she’s freezing to death…” Drac choked out quietly, hoping Leah would hear. Luckily she did.
“…who?” Leah asked, since Ericka’s face and most of her upper body was hidden in Drac’s shirt. He gently pulled Ericka out of his shirt to show Leah. Her face seemed to instantly fill with panic.
“Oh-hypothermia. She needs to warm up immediately.” Leah stated, getting an idea, “and I know a place. I can take you there.”
Without a choice, Drac agreed. He picked Ericka up and Leah led him down the same trail that she went down just minutes ago. After a few minutes of walking, they came to Leah’s treehouse. She went up the stairs and Drac followed. The inside was surprisingly extremely spacious. Leah ran over to the heater and cranked it up to max. It didn’t take long for the place to heat up.
Leah was organizing some pencils on her desk, when she looked back at Drac who was still just standing in the doorway, not really sure what to do, still holding Ericka close.
“You can sit down, you know.” Leah told him, looking over to a pair of black and white bean bags. He hesitantly walked over to the bean bags, putting Ericka in one and stiffly sitting in the other. “…Can you talk?” Leah asked, turning around and sitting on top of her desk, “it’s been pretty awkward so far.”
“O-oh…sorry…” Drac stuttered out, not making eye contact and shifting his eye sight around nervously.
“It’s alright, I’m nervous when I meet new people too,” Leah comforted. Drac wanted to protest that he wasn’t nervous, but she kept talking, “my name is Leah.”
“Oh…n-nice to meet you…” he replied, “my name is-“
“Dracula.”
“…What?”
“Your name is Dracula.” Leah stated, then looking over at Ericka, “and her name is Ericka.”
“H-How do you know our names?!”
Leah’s face fell, “…you don’t know…do you?”
Drac became confused, “don’t know what?” Leah hopped off of the desk and went over to a small metal cabinet with a glass door. With hundreds of movies in it. She opened it and pulled out three movies from the top shelf. She closed the cabinet and walked back over to him.
“…You’re cartoon characters.”
She showed him the disks. They were the Hotel Transylvania movies. He took the disk cases and looked at them. He didn’t know what to feel. Anger? Sadness? Guilt? Now knowing that he wasn’t even real made him feel as if there was a hole in his soul.
“I’m…fake?”
“Well not exactly.” Leah explained, “you just come from a universe different from mine. Once you were created a new universe was born. Different from any other universe in the galaxy. You aren’t fake, you’re just different.”
Drac didn’t know how to feel about her little speech, but didn’t have time to think about it as Ericka woke up beside him. She quickly sat up,
“WHERE AM I?!” She yelled, frantically glancing around, but calming down once she saw Drac next to her.
“Woah woah woah, calm down! It’s ok! You’re safe.” He grabs her arms so he could look her in the eyes. She quickly hugged him. They broke apart, and Ericka made eye contact with Leah, who looked ecstatic.
“Nice to meet you Ericka!” Leah said joyfully.
“How do you know my name?!” Ericka asked, surprised. Leah glanced at Drac. He sighed and handed her the Hotel Transylvania movies. She reluctantly grabbed them and looked at them. It didn’t really help her understand anything.
“Why did you give me these movies? And why are you on the covers?”
“…we’re cartoon characters, Ericka! We’re in the wrong universe! That amulet thing must have transported us here! WE’RE IN THE MULTIVERSE!” Drac said to her.
“We’re Marvel?” Ericka asked, knowing what the MCM was.
“What?! No! What I’m saying is that we don’t belong here! Our universe is out there, and we aren’t. We’re right here, in the wrong universe!”
“Ooohh…” Ericka nodded, still not understanding.
Leah was sitting off to the side, grabbing her phone and starting to record, “Hey viewers!” She exclaimed, scooting over to sit next to Drac and Ericka. “Meet real life cartoon characters! This is Dracula and Ericka! The stars of the Hotel Transylvania movies!”
They both give little waves, and Drac notices that his fingertips were starting to become transparent. He grabs Ericka’s hand and sees that her fingertips are fading as well. “What’s going on with our fingers?!” Drac yelped. Leah propped her phone up on something and went over to look.
“I…I guess they’re disappearing because you're in the wrong universe. If you stay here for too long you’ll disappear…completely. Kinda like the movie Coco by Disney.”
“So we have to find a way out of here, and soon.” Ericka said softly, looking at her fingers again.
“It’s too late to do anything right now, maybe tomorrow we can figure something out…so…” Leah snuggled up to Ericka, making her slightly uncomfortable, “how’d you do the thing with the Kraken?” Ericka was surprised by the question, but started to happily answer.
“Oh! Well…it wasn’t really anything special…to be honest-“ She suddenly stopped talking and rested a hand on her side.
“What’s wrong?” Leah asked.
“I-it’s nothing…I’ve just been having some minor side pain the last couple of days, it’s nothing major.” Ericka said back.
Leah was skeptical, “just side pain? Any other symptoms? Nausea?”
“…no. But I have had some minor blood pressure changes the past couple of months.” Ericka replied. Leah looked thoughtful.
“Alright…good to know.” Leah stood up and went to grab her phone. She stopped the recording and started to write stuff down.
“You guys can sleep in the pile of pillows for the rest of tonight and the day, I’ll come back tomorrow night , what do you guys want to eat?” When they didn’t respond she looked back at them and saw that they had disappeared from the bean bags and were huddling in the pillow pile. “…do you guys want something to eat?”
“I dunno…tomatoes?” Drac mumbled inside the pillow pile, not knowing that Leah could hear him. She took a note, turned the heater down a little, and left the treehouse.
The following night she came back to the treehouse and walked inside with a small grocery bag. She put it down on the desk and went over to the pillow pile. She peeked in and saw Drac and Ericka cuddling together. It warmed her heart for some reason.
“~Guys…Wake up!” She said gently, making them twitch and groan.
“Five more minutess…” Drac grumbled, flipping onto his other side.
“But we have to get you home, remember?”
They both slowly woke up and they rolled out of the pillow pile. Leah dumped her grocery bag on her desk. A bunch of tomatoes rolled out.
“…Tomatoes?” Drac said.
“AW I LOVE TOMATOES!” Ericka yelled, running up and grabbing a tomato before taking a bite out of it.
Drac shivered, “you eat those things?”
“Yeah! Why? You don’t like them?”
“I’m not the biggest fan…” Drac mumbled. She grabbed another tomato and handed it to him.
“You need to eat something, you need to keep your strength up.” She kissed him on the cheek before heading back over to the tomato pile. Leah looked like she was silently fangirling, trying not to have a happy outburst. Ericka didn’t notice and went for another tomato, suddenly noticing a small box in the bag among the tomatoes. As she picked it up, Drac stuck his fangs into the tomato and started to drain it of its juice, not enjoying it one bit. He sucked the last bit of juice from it, some of it dripping down his chin. He spat out the dried up tomato and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Ericka picked up the box and read the label. It was a pregnancy test.
“Why’d you buy this?” Ericka asked.
“You’re going to take it.” Leah said flatly, causing Ericka’s eyes to widen.
“What?! No! N-No! I’m not taking that!” She dropped it and backed away, petrified. “A-And even if I was, I'd never admit it!!” She sits down and huddles in a corner, covering her eyes with her arms, possibly crying. Leah and Drac sat in front of her, trying to comfort her.
“…Why are you scared? D-…do you not want a child?”
Ericka sniffled, “I-it’s just that so many things could go wrong…and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. It’s like you’re gambling with someone’s life…and the odds are always against you.”
“But there’s always that chance of having a beautiful healthy baby, your parents had you, and my parents had me. It’s not impossible. Hundreds of children are born healthy every day, and it’s bound to happen to you too.” Leah comforted her.
Ericka sniffled again, “…I….Guess….” Then she mumbled even quieter, “…I’ll take the test….”
Leah smiled and went to get the box. She grabbed it and walked back over to them. She handed it to Ericka, “I don’t suppose you have a bathroom in the treehouse…?”
“Sadly no, but you can use the one in my house. My parents are at the doctors so you’re safe to come inside. You can meet my dog too!”
“Lovely.” Ericka replied, Drac helping her stand up.
They headed into Leah’s house through the back patio door. They got to meet Leah’s dog, and his name was Fluffy. He was a Husky mixed with Pomeranian. Ericka headed upstairs to use the bathroom, which didn’t take very long. But then Leah’s parents arrived back home as soon as she finished.
“It’s my parents! Run back to the treehouse! Before they see you!”
“Ericka! We need to go!!” Drac yelled up the stairs.
“I’m coming!!” Ericka yelled back, starting to run down the stairs. Then another pain hit her side, stronger than the ones before. Her muscles were contracting tightly on eachother, like a snake slowly constricting its prey tighter and tighter. She pressed a hand into her side, trying to stop the pain. But then she lost her footing on the stairs and tumbled down the rest. She curled into a ball to protect her stomach from harm, despite not knowing if anything was actually inside or not.
She landed at the bottom and Drac immediately picked her up bridal style and ran out the back door. He hopped the backyard fence and ran into the treehouse, he put her down in the pillows, but she wouldn’t let go of his neck. He decided to lay down next to her and cuddle with her, hoping to make her feel better after the close encounter. They heard Leah from the backyard.
“Oh! I think I accidentally left the patio door open…sorry.”
One of her parents replied, “it’s alright Leah…just go to bed.”
But, she decided to go back to the treehouse instead, saying she wanted to sleep there for the night. Her parents reluctantly agreed and she planned to head back to them after brushing her teeth.
“Do you have the test?” Drac whispered quietly in Ericka’s ear, causing her to nod and grab it out of her pocket.
“It’s still blank-no wait there’s a word now.” She noticed, reading the one word. At first she didn’t move, her eyes fixed on the word.
“What does it say?” Drac asked, sitting up. She suddenly flung the test across the tree house and went to huddle behind the pillow pile, repeatedly screaming,
“NO! I-IT’S LYING! IT’S FAKE!!”
Drac stood up and went over to the test to pick it up. She had cracked the screen a little, but he could still clearly read the word ‘Pregnant’ on it in bold letters. “Honey this is great news!” He said cheerfully, turning back around to see her peeking out from behind the pile with tears streaming down her face.
“Did you happen to f-forget that WE’RE DISAPPEARING?!” She screamed, showing him that her fingertips were gone, and were almost completely past her first joint. She started to bawl once more, facing the wall. “…N-Now our baby has no chance at survival…” She started to punch and drag her fists down the wall, “How could I have been so STUPID?! THIS IS ALL MY F-FAULT!!” Eventually she put a crack in the wall, but she stopped banging on it. Drac walked over and rubbed her back, not sure how to make her feel better, while not trying to anger her. She turned around and pressed her face to his chest while tightly wrapping her arms around his waist. Still sobbing.
Leah then walked in. She gave a confused look at Drac and he held out the test for her to look at it. Leah took it and saw that it was positive. “Woah! Congratula-“ Leah started to congratulate them, but Ericka started to cry louder.
“I’M A TERRIBLE PERSON!!” She hugged Drac even tighter as if he was a stuffed animal, “A-AND A T-TERRIBLE M-MOTHER!!”
Leah sat down next to them, and within a few minutes, Ericka’s crying subsided. She sat up and wiped her tears, trying to suppress her emotions. Another pain cramped her side, causing her to wince and rub her torso.
“Was that a kick?” Leah asked, energy still flowing through her voice. Ericka shook her head, and looked to be in immense pain, but she didn’t make a noise. Leah’s eyes shifted down to Ericka’s hands. “…you’re hands…” she mumbled softly, causing them to look at Ericka’s hands as well. Her fingers had become completely transparent, only her palm remained. “We really need to find you guys a way home,” Leah said worriedly, getting up and grabbing something out of one of her desk drawers. There were two white gloves, “but for now you can wear these.” Ericka put on the gloves and you couldn’t even tell that her fingers were transparent.
They started to brainstorm, but nothing came to their minds. Leah started to scroll through her phone, lost in thought when she saw the news app had a notification. She couldn’t delete the app for some reason. She thought it might have been important, so she clicked on the notification and read the most recent article, only released about an hour prior. Her eyes lit up. “Hey, earlier you said that you were brought here by an amulet, Right?”
“Yeah, why?” Ericka responded, her consciousness drifting back into the present.
“Did it happen to look like this?” Leah asked, handing Ericka her phone. Ericka looked at the picture and was taken aback. The image was of what looked like to be the exact same amulet that brought them to the strange universe. Drac walked over and looked at the image as well. They looked at eachother, then at Leah.
“Where was it found?” Ericka asked, handing the phone back to Leah.
“In the forest, about a two and a half hour walk from here.” Leah responded, closing the app and seeing Drac headed for the door, holding Ericka’s hand and practically dragging her along with him.
“We’re leaving.” He said flatly as he started to walk out the door.
“Wait! Let me go with you!” Leah begged, hopping up and running over to them, “I know the area better than you do! You’ll need my help if you don’t want to get lost.”
“She has a point.” Ericka commented, making Drac release a small annoyed sigh.
“Ugh…alright.” He grumbled, making Leah hop with joy.
She grabbed her backpack, gently put some of the tomatoes inside, grabbed her phone, and ran back to the door. They headed out not long after, ready to return home.
———————-
The night was not as frigid as the night before, but was still cold enough to make you shiver. It was quite calm and peaceful for fifteen minutes, until the wind started to pick up. At first it was a gentle breeze, but it turned into bigger and bigger gusts, eventually turning into a windstorm. With gusts up to 40 miles per hour.
“I DIDN’T CHECK THE WEATHER BEFORE WE LEFT!” Leah yelled over the raging winds, “I WASN’T EXPECTING A WINDSTORM THOUGH!”
“I DON’T THINK ANY OF US WERE!” Drac yelled back, his hands on Ericka’s hips to help her walk through the storm. She was hugging herself tightly in hopes to keep warm. She seemed to be mumbling, but her words couldn’t be heard.
They continued to walk, not letting the wind get in the way of their destination when Ericka let out a surprisingly audible groan, the pain in her side returning once again. She gripped herself, desperate to make it stop. She dug her nails into her skin, subduing the pain, clenching her teeth to keep from making noises that she’d never heard herself make before. Noises of pain, and vulnerability. She didn’t want to seem weak, like she couldn’t take a few hits, but the feeling just made her want to give up, collapse on the ground and cry.
“…Are you sure you’re ok? It seems to be happening more and more-“ Leah asked, starting to become more concerned.
“I’m fine .” Ericka spat out, trying to hide her fear.
“You’re sure you're like, not in labor or anything?” Leah asked back.
“I literally just found out I was pregnant and you think I’m in labor, unbelievable.” Ericka snapped back.
“What- I was just asking!”
They walked in silence, the wind’s howling filling their ears. When Ericka suddenly stopped again, and grasped her side once again. She hopelessly tried to stay silent, but a sharp cry of pain escaped her mouth. She quickly snapped her mouth shut, a few tears managed to slither out of her eyes.
“Alright, we need to get you to a hospital. Now.” Leah finally made up her mind, turning around.
“N-no, it’s fine!” Ericka pleaded, “we don’t need to-“ she was cut off as Drac picked her up and started to follow Leah the way they had come. “HEY! WHAT GIVES!?”
“I would rather let myself fade away before seeing you suffer any longer, you need medical attention, even though you’re denying it.” Drac said to her, a strange look in his eyes.
They ran past Leah’s treehouse and into the town. The neighborhood was nice and quaint, and nicely quiet since almost everyone had gone to bed. Only noise was the sound of a random dog barking. “Do you know how to drive?” Leah asked, running up into her driveway, picking up some car keys from underneath a flower pot.
“Wha-WE ARE NOT STEALING YOUR PARENTS CAR!!” Drac whispered harshly.
“We’re not stealing it, basically just borrowing it!” Leah replied, unlocking the BMW in the driveway, “besides, we have another car in the garage. Never used it before.”
She handed the car keys to Drac and led Ericka to the backseat. Drac hopped in the driver’s seat, but he didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
“A-are you sure about this? This is a really nice car-“ Leah cut Drac off,
“It’s fine, my parents won’t care…they don’t really pay attention to me half the time anyway.”
Drac nodded a little and turned the car on, “where are we going?”
“The hospital on Terry Street. It’s only 10 minutes northeast. You’ll know the road when you see it.”
He pulled out of the driveway and followed the one way road all the way to the hospital.
Ericka had a few more pains on the way there, Leah grabbed her free hand and gave her a reassuring look, which made Ericka feel a little bit better. Drac looked into the rear view mirror and saw Ericka lying in Leah’s lap, looking more relaxed and less in excruciating pain. A little smile played on his lips as the hospital came into sight. He pulled into the parking lot, parked the car and got out, opening the back door for them. Leah got out and then Ericka hopped out behind her.
They walked in and scheduled an appointment with one of the oldest doctors, Dr. Sweetwater. They sat down in the waiting room, which was pretty full, but not jammed packed. “Dr. Sweetwater is the nicest doctor on the force, he’s the one who helped my mom have me!” Leah said, trying to lighten the mood, “and he’s currently helping my mom now with my future younger sibling.”
“That’s…nice…” Ericka slowly responded.
————————
“Ericka?”
A gentle, deep voice called her name from the other side of the waiting room. A man with a slightly plump body shape, greying hair, and brown eyes waited for them. They quickly got up and went over to him, on their way over Drac saw a box of sterile blue gloves. He slyly grabbed two and put them on to conceal his hands, which were now completely invisible.
Dr. Sweetwater greeted them with a warm smile as they passed by him. He let the doors swing closed behind them and he led them to the elevator. “So, how y’all doing tonight?” He asked, as the elevator arrived and they stepped in. He clicked the button for the second floor and the doors shut.
“Could be better…” Ericka mumbled, looking at the floor.
“I know a lot of people don’t like the hospital, but I try to make it more welcoming and comfortable.” He replied as the elevator dinged. They walked out into the hallway, and he led them to an examination room. He put his patient clipboard in the little holder outside of the door before walking in. Ericka got a glimpse of the document on the clipboard before walking in. She saw her name and some other information on the top. There wasn’t much, since they didn't know a lot about her. There was a section for ‘cause of visit’ and what was written was Feasible Labor . Which made her even more nervous. She broke out into a nervous sweat as she sat on the examination table. Leah and Drac sat in the chairs next to the table. Drac saw how nervous Ericka seemed, and rested a hand on her thigh, trying to make her more comfortable. She put a hand on top of his and gripped it tight.
Dr. Sweetwater was ready to begin the examination. “So, Ericka, was it?” He said, walking up to her, causing Drac to move his hand. Ericka nodded as Sweetwater approached her, a gentle look in his eyes. Before he could ask any other questions, he took notice of her beautiful skin. “May I just say, you have some of the most clear skin I’ve ever seen.” He complimented, making Ericka nervously smile,
“H-heh, t-thank you…” She thanked him back, as he turned back around to grab something, she leaned over to Drac and Leah, “he can’t see that I’m a cartoon, can he?”
“Apparently not, or else I think everyone would be freaking out by now.” Leah replied.
“But then how can you see that we’re cartoons?” Ericka asked. Leah shrugged as Sweetwater had turned back around with a few items in his hands.
“I’m just going to perform some simple examinations to make sure you’re healthy.” He told her, grabbing his stethoscope that was around his neck. She nodded as he started to conduct the tests. While he was examining her ears and eyes, another pain hit her side. She didn’t want to disrupt his tests, so she strained to be silent, despite the intense pain she was feeling. She discreetly lifted a hand and jabbed her nails into her side again, hoping it would dull the discomfort. He eventually concluded that she was in good condition and started to ask questions.
“I would ask if you’re sexually active or not, but it’s pretty obvious that you are or else you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
His remark caused Ericka and Drac to blush heavily, and made Leah snicker a little bit. Sweetwater finally noticed that Leah was sitting in the room with them. “Wait-Leah? Leah Boston?”
“That’s me!” Leah said proudly, swinging her legs.
“W-what are you doing with these strangers? Shouldn't you be at home?”
“They aren’t strangers, they’re my friends! And I brought them here because I knew they needed help.” Leah responded.
He didn’t want to question her anymore, as it didn’t seem she was in any sort of danger or distress. He turned back to Ericka, who was just sitting there quietly.
“Do you know how long you’ve been pregnant for?” He asked.
“I don’t know,” She replied, “I only found out earlier tonight.”
He seemed to take a mental note of her response and headed over to another chair in the corner of the room, “do you mind if I get a quick ultrasound?”
“Not at a-“ She started to say it was ok, but another pain swept in and cut her off abruptly, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut and grunt a little as she tried to contain herself from screaming.
“Are you alright?” He asked, looking in her direction.
“…I’m fine…” She grumbled, getting up and jerkily shuffling over to the ultrasound chair. Drac hopped up and wanted to pick her up so she wouldn’t have to walk, but she jerked herself out of his grip, not feeling like herself. He didn’t want to force any contact on her if she didn’t want it. So he just sat down in one of the chairs near her, twiddling his thumbs. Leah hopped up and moved chairs also, starting to feel like a third party.
Sweetwater got the special gel and asked Ericka to roll her shirt up. She did so. He smeared some of the gel on her stomach, making her wince because of how cold it was. He turned the screen on, grabbed the transducer and started the ultrasound. They all looked at the screen, wondering what they were going to see. Drac noticed Ericka shakily lifting her hand, not turning her head away from the monitor. Her hand reached for his, and he interlocked his fingers with hers.
Sweetwater seemed to be confused, as he didn’t see anything on the ultrasound.
“…Aren’t we supposed to be able to see the baby?” Ericka asked.
“Yeah, and I’m not sure why we can’t see them here…” He trailed off as he continued to look around, eventually catching the sight of something almost completely off screen. “I…Think I see something…” He did a small looped clip of the image and zoomed in on the very far left side. A moving white spot was slightly shifting, mostly cut off. “I think I found the head.”
“…That doesn’t look normal…” Ericka stated the obvious
“It’s definitely not, but it doesn’t seem your baby is in distress, so that’s a relief.”
He turned off the machine and printed out an image from the ultrasound. “I think we should get an X-ray in order to see what we’re dealing with, if that’s alright with you.” He handed her the image and a paper towel to wipe off the gel. She wiped it off while not looking away from the image as she did.
Drac put his head closer to hers to look at the photo too. He pointed at the white blob on the side. The image was grainy, but he thought he could see the top part of the baby’s nose. He looked at her and smiled, she sort of smiled back as he gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“Ooh! Lemme see!!” Leah exclaimed, hopping up on Drac’s lap to look at the image.
“Will you need a wheelchair?” Sweetwater asked Ericka, she shook her head as she got up and handed the image to Drac, Leah still fangirling over it.
They all walked to the X-Ray room, and Ericka got a quick full body X-Ray. They walked back to the room and waited for Sweetwater to come back with the images. Ericka was nervous tapping her foot, leaning against Drac, trying to stay calm. Leah was clicking around on her phone, not sure what to expect, but not wanting to seem clingy. Sweetwater returned to the room shortly, with two X-ray images in his hands.
“Ok so…uh…” He stuttered as he walked over to the light box and turned it on, “this might be a little hard to comprehend…” He put the images on the light box and you could see Ericka’s skeleton. And the baby’s one too. But the way it was positioned looked anything but normal.
She looked completely fine, while the baby decided to grow inward instead of outwards and up. Thus, why she didn’t have a bump, and why they couldn’t see it on the ultrasound, the baby was not in the stomach area, but closer to her spine, almost vertical.
“Apparently…you have an extremely rare disorder called Planatio Disorder….
and we don’t know what causes it.”
Ericka’s face fell as she heard the news, she instinctively reached for Drac’s hand, and he didn’t hesitate to hold it. “…can…can it kill the baby?” She asked fearfully, panic starting to close in on her.
“Unfortunately, yes. But, only if it’s not treated in time. You’re one of the lucky few. It seems your body knows that something is wrong and is trying to correct itself.” Sweetwater informed them.
“…How?” She asked, wanting to learn more.
“Your body is trying to expel the baby before they grow too large and crushes all of your organs and kills you.”
It only made Ericka’s mouth fall open more in surprise, “B-B-But the baby is premature…” She stammered, “but...but…”
Another pain decided to sweep in and make her sharply cry in pain.
“Oh, also those are contractions.” Sweetwater said, noting something on a sticky note.
“You think?!” She groaned.
“Also, another thing you should know, every time you get another contraction, the baby is getting rotated a little bit , and moved away from your spine and closer to it’s more normal position, so you may notice yourself growing larger.” He explained.
She looked down at her now tiny stomach, “oh.” Drac got a little closer to her and looked at her tiny stomach. He had the urge to touch it, but she suddenly screamed and clutched herself, crying.
“C-S-Section…P-Please…” She whimpered, feeling like she was internally dying.
“Yes, we can give you a C-Section. But.” He paused, making her look over at him.
“…But what?”
“We can give you a C-Section but, we have to wait for the baby to descend a little closer to your pelvis. Or else the procedure could be very risky, and possibly fatal. We wouldn’t want to risk severing any of your organs,” He explained to her, “but you shouldn’t have to wait long, your contractions are coming in at about five-ish minutes apart, at around two minutes we should be safe to go forth with the procedure.”
“…Ugh….Fine…” She grumbled in response, sitting up slowly, still clutching her side, “I feel so…top heavy…”
“The baby shifting from your center of mass to the outside will make you feel like that. I don’t want to seem cruel, but it’s only going to get worse.”
“Wow thanks, that made me feel so much better.” She sarcastically sighed, swinging her legs off of the examination table and gently touching the ground before hopping off completely.
“I have a room for you where you can wait, and for when you recover,” He grabbed what looked like a blank bracelet and wrote something on it before clipping it around her wrist, “I’ll take you guys there, it’s not far.”
He led them down the hallway, Drac staying close to Ericka’s side, while Leah trailed behind.
She felt so uncomfortable, like she didn’t belong there.
As they were almost to the room, Ericka got another contraction. It was so strong, she started to pass out on the spot. She started to fall sideways, her eyes rolling back in her head, but Drac had fast reflexes and caught her before she could hit the floor. Even Sweetwater seemed surprised.
“Honey?!” Drac cried, holding her in his arms, as she sat lifeless.
“Ericka…please…no…”
He felt that she still had a heart beat, and without another idea of how to wake her up, he leaned in for a kiss. It only took a few seconds for her to spring back to life. He pulled away and she took a big gasping breath, tears pouring into her eyes, as she started to cry about the pain,
“It hurts…Drac please…It hurts so much…please…” Her quiet pleading evolved into loud screaming as he got her back onto her feet. She clutched onto him and rubbed her face into his shoulder, still loudly sobbing.
Leah was still trying to comprehend what was going on, guilt swelling up inside of her. I…I can’t stand this anymore!!
“This is all my fault!!” Leah cried, running the opposite direction.
“LEAH WAIT!!” Ericka wailed, before another contraction overcame her, causing her to scream and quickly forget about Leah.
“Your contractions are two minutes apart! We should get to the OR, the surgeons are probably waiting for us.”
He grabbed a wheelchair and brought it over. Ericka didn’t want to use the wheelchair, but she was in too much pain to protest as Drac gently sat her down in the chair.
Sweetwater quickly led them to the OR, where a couple of doctors were waiting for them.
“Ah, you must be Ericka.” A short doctor said, looking up at another female doctor next to her, “so, when do we start, Dr. Grey?”
“Calm down, Dr. Bailey,” Grey said, putting on some sterile blue gloves with a snap, causing Ericka to gulp nervously. “I’ve wanted to deliver a Planatio baby for years.”
“Heh heh heh…” Ericka chuckled nervously, but her laughter was cut short, “oh...OH GOD!!” She said, gripping the handles to the wheelchair, “my...my...my water just broke.”
They all took notice of the growing puddle on the wheelchair and the floor. “ALRIGHT WE GOT A CODE TURQUOISE PEOPLE!!! MOVE!!”
Grey commanded as they started to roll her past the doors to the OR. Ericka realized that Drac was no longer pushing her and turned her head to see him being held back by two burly male doctors. “WAIT!!” She yelped, causing them to stop rolling her. She continued to look back at Drac, “let him come in too.”
Drac looked at the male doctors who were holding him back, and he jerked his arms out of their grasps, before being ushered into the OR after Ericka, then forced to put on some sanitary clothes. He slipped on the layers and walked over to Ericka who was lying down on the operating table, petrified. She had on an oxygen mask and was given several rounds of numbing and pain killers, but she didn’t feel like it was working as her adrenaline was still rushing.
He knelt down next to her as she started to babble to him.
“I-I-I can’t do this!” Her voice was muffled through the mask.
“Yes you can,” He comforted softly, grabbing her hand which was hanging off the side of the table and kissing her cheek, “I know you can…these people are professionals and-“ He trailed off talking to her when he heard the surgeons chatting amongst each other.
“ Did you know that the Target down the street is going out of business and everything is free?”
“Ooh really? The Soup aisle in Walmart is 30% off all this week too!”
“Did you know my dog died last month?”
“Hey you guys know that Derek guy?”
All the surgeons swooned at the mention of him.
“Uh…AhHEM!” Drac loudly cleared his throat, making all of the surgeons look at him, “my wife needs surgery.”
“…That’s what we’re doing.” One doctor replied.
“Sir, if you interrupt again we’re going to have to escort you out.” Another doctor warned, causing Drac to scowl, but fall silent.
“Derek is SO hot,” One doctor giggled, “as hot as the sun!” The doctors all agreed.
“Alright,” Dr. Grey said, “hand me the scalpel.” A doctor handed her the knife as she was ready to begin the surgery. She made an incision on Ericka’s stomach, and the procedure began.
“…ugh…dammit…” Grey mumbled quietly, wiping her forehead with her sleeve before continuing to work.
The doctors continued to talk as they did the surgery,
“Did you know I used to be homeless and poor?” One doctor boasted.
“Ooooo really?” The other doctors gawked.
“OK THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!” Drac yelled, standing up.
“Alright! That’s it! you have to be escorted out.” Doctor Grey demanded. Two big male doctors stepped in and dragged him out.
“Wait!” Ericka yelped, watching him get dragged out, having the urge to jump up and follow him, but couldn’t move a muscle as everything felt numb and heavy.
The two male doctors had dragged him to the waiting room, and dropped him there. He wanted to retaliate, but with his powers being nullified, he knew he wouldn’t stand much of a chance.
He took off all of the extra sanitary clothes, and tossed them in the trash can, pulling down his sleeves and moping over to the waiting area. He then surprisingly caught sight of Leah sadly sitting in a chair, hunched over and staring at the ground.
He walked over to her and sat in a chair next to her.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, causing her to slightly jump at him suddenly appearing next to her.
“I…..I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!” She cried quietly, not making eye contact.
“I mean…It’s life, you can’t control it.”
“But… what if I had never bought that test or asked about her side pains?” Leah asked, burrowing her face into her palms, “Maybe this would have never happened.”
Drac rested a hand on her shoulder, “If you didn’t tell us she was pregnant, we would probably still be struggling out in the wind trying to figure out what’s wrong with her .” Drac said to her.
“But still...” Leah mumbled.
“You did the right thing,” Drac hugged Leah, “thank you.” She hugged him back and smiled a little.
After a few moments, Leah asked, “so…how’s the ‘extraction going’?”
They pulled apart.
“It seemed to be going alright, but the surgeons are extremely chatty…”
They both chuckled and the mood lightened. Leah noticed her parents walking into the waiting room. “My parents..?” She questioned, causing Drac to look in their direction.
“Leah?!” Her father yelled, “what are you doing with that stranger?!”
“He’s not a stranger! He’s my friend!!” Leah yelled back, “what are you guys doing at the hospital?”
“Your mother is going into labor!!” Leah’s father yelled.
“What?!” Leach exclaimed, glancing back at Drac then back at her parents, “I’m sorry I have to go-“ Leah apologized and hopped up, running over to her parents and following them into a hallway. Drac did a little wave to her before she went out of sight.
He was suddenly startled by a loud scream from a nearby room, not knowing that it wasn’t Ericka, and she was doing just fine. And she was even engaging in conversation with the surgeons.
“He seems so moody, why do you put up with him?”
“He’s actually not as bad as he seems,” Ericka admitted, “he may look and act grumpy, but he’s actually really sweet and has a nice heart.”
All the surgeons murmured responses.
“Alright we’re almost there, you might feel some pressure.”
They got to the final layer of cutting and delicately cut. Once they had a visual on the baby, they delicately started to maneuver it out.
“This might cause some discomfort…”
They got it loose and used two hands to gently lift it out.
Once it felt the cold air, it whimpered and started to bawl loudly.
Ericka heard the crying and instinctively tried to get a visual on her child but couldn't see it, as she could only barely lift her head, and she had to strain herself to do so.
“Congratulations! It’s a boy!”
They suddenly plopped him down onto her chest while trying to stop her bleeding. The umbilical cord was loosely wrapped around his neck, so she struggled to lift a hand to untangle him. She eventually grabbed it and got it off of his neck, before letting her arm fall limp again.
She didn’t get much time with him before they picked him up and started to clean him. They cut his umbilical cord and took him to another room so they could conduct a few little tests to make sure he was in healthy and in stable condition.
As they did that, Ericka got stitched up and had to wait for the numbing to wear off before she could go back to her room to rest. They took off her oxygen mask and gently put her into the wheelchair. She looked very drowsy as a doctor rolled her out to the waiting room to pick up Drac.
He looked very on edge and nervous, until he saw Ericka being rolled over to him. He sprung up and wanted to hug her tightly, but couldn’t. He knelt down and kissed her nose, “I told you that you could do it.” He smiled, making her weakly smile back.
“H…He’s getting checked out right now, we should be able to see him later…” She yawned.
“…’He’?” Drac echoed, making Ericka nod in response. He did a little happy dance and she chuckled a little.
The doctor took them to their room, and after getting Ericka into bed they said that Dr. Sweetwater would be with them shortly before walking away.
Ericka seemed to immediately go to sleep once she got into bed, and Drac didn’t know what to do. He just sat down in one of the chairs next to the bed and waited.
It didn’t take long for Sweetwater to come to the room, holding their child. He saw that Drac noticed him and quietly walked in.
“I didn’t think she’d fall asleep so fast,” Sweetwater whispered, “…do you want to…?”
Drac nodded and took the little bundle from Sweetwater’s arms.
Sweetwater quietly headed for the door, and before closing it he whispered loudly, “buzz me if you need anything!”
Drac looked down at his son, who was surprisingly sleeping quietly. My son…I never thought I’d ever say those words… He thought to himself, still processing everything. Nothing will ever harm you as long as I’m here to protect you…I promise …
He heard Ericka shift a little, and looked over at her. She had slightly opened her eyes and was blankly looking at the wall. She suddenly took notice of Drac sitting next to her and turned her head to see him holding their child. Her eyes widened and he got up. He gently handed her the baby, and she shakily held him. Drac sat on the bed next to her and put his head next to hers.
At first she didn’t say anything, still stunned at everything happening so fast.
“I…I made this…” She said randomly, then looking at Drac, “we made this.”
He chuckled softly, looking back at her, “we did.” They looked back at their little boy when they heard him start to wake up. He slightly opened his eyes and saw his parents for the first time.
They started to softly talk to him, when they heard someone creak open the door. It was Leah. She noticed Ericka holding a little bundle and broke into a big grin. She walked over, and seemed to inaudibly ask Ericka for permission. Ericka nodded and Leah climbed up onto the bed and looked at the little boy. She looked like she wanted to say so many things, but couldn’t muster out a single word.
She managed to ask a question, “what are you going to name him?”
Drac and Ericka froze. “Um….uhh….we don’t know, actually…” Ericka stuttered.
“Oh…maybe I can come back later and we can brainstorm some names!”
“Why can’t you stay now?” Drac asked.
“I told my parents I was going to the bathroom, so I have to head back…and I’m a big sister now so…I have to be a good role model, you know?” Leach explained, backing up towards the door. She reached for the handle and slipped outside, “be back in a little bit!” And she shut the door behind herself.
A few days later, they didn’t have any luck with names, but they were permitted to leave the hospital whenever they were ready.
Leah had to head back to her house with the rest of her family, so she told them to meet her back in the treehouse so they could get to the dig site. So they got into the BMW and drove back to her house, Drac rehid the keys underneath the flowerpot and they snuck around the backyard and they got over the fence. They walked up the stairs to the treehouse and when they entered they saw Leah sitting on the beanbag waiting for them. “Oh! There you guys are! Took you long enough!”
“Hah! You’re one to talk!” Drac playfully responded as Leah grabbed her backpack and headed over to them, smiling.
“Oh…ha ha very funny-“
They headed out on the same trail they did a few days ago, except this time there was no windstorm. It was much calmer, and there were very few thin clouds drifting in the sky, allowing them to see all the stars. After a long bit of quiet walking, they came to the dig site. Since it was night time, there was nobody there. They headed down into the ditch that the people had dug. They looked around for a moment until Ericka saw something. She found something gold lodged in the wall. Drac started to dig it out, and it eventually fell to the ground. It looked exactly like the amulet that had brought them to this universe. Leah reached down to pick it up when they heard Drac scream.
“AAAAA!”
“WHAT?!”
He showed them that his hand had completely vanished and that his entire forearm was gone underneath his sleeve. Ericka wanted to see how much she had disappeared, so she handed the baby to Drac who didn’t really know how to hold him since he couldn’t see his hands or his arms. Ericka took off her gloves and rolled up her sleeve, seeing she had disappeared all the way to a little bit past her elbow.
“It’s not safe for you guys anymore, you need to go,” Leah picked the amulet off the ground and held it carefully, “but before you leave, promise me one thing?”
“What is it?” Ericka asked, kneeling down to be at the same height as Leah.
“…Promise you’ll keep in touch?”
Ericka smiled a little and held the amulet with her, “keep this, and I promise I will.”
Leah seemed to be tearing up and nodded, Ericka put her gloves on, realizing that they were Leah’s gloves. Leah saw her looking at the gloves. “…It’s alright, you can have them…” Leah said, holding the amulet out for them to touch the gems.
Ericka put the gloves on again and took the little boy back so Drac could put his gloves on again too. She looked at the red gem and was about to touch it when she looked at Leah for the last time, then teleported away. Drac quickly did the same thing, leaving Leah alone in the ditch.
They opened their eyes and found themselves on the bridge once again. Drac quickly checked his arms and saw they had come back completely, “HA HA!! YES!!” He exclaimed, showing his hands to Ericka. She smiled and wanted to check her hands, but couldn’t really because she didn’t want to risk dropping her child.
“I bet the others are going to freak.”
“Well then why don’t we find out?” He wrapped his arm around her and they glanced at each other before heading for the entrance.
“What’s his name?”
“Pardon?”
“His name, you have to name him something.”
“Oh! right!”
“His name is Quin…
Quin Dracula.”