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Mavis stood in front of the door of the newest guest of Hotel Transylvania shifting from one foot to the other on the stone of the hallway. Should I go in? Would it be rude? Raising her fist to knock on the door, she lowered it almost immediately. Why am I so nervous? I’m just trying to be friendly.
“You gonna go in or just stand there with your mouth hangin’ open?” demanded the shrunken head.
Mavis jumped, knocking on the door before she could second guess herself. It’s fine, she told herself firmly.
“Hello?”
The door swung open and Mavis’ stomach flipped at the sight of the girl on the other side. She remembered the shock that had run through her the first time they had made eye contact. “Hi!” she said brightly. “I just wanted to check up on you, and, uh, make sure you were settling in.”
“Oh, thank you.” The other girl held out a hand. “I don’t think we were introduced – my name is Elsa.”
Elsa. The elegant name fit her perfectly. Mavis shook her hand, trying not to stare at her high cheekbones and the graceful swoop of her hair. “I’m Mavis Dracula.”
“Dracula?” Elsa asked.
“Yeah, my dad kind of owns this place.” Mavis gestured to the castle around them. “He built it, too.”
Elsa frowned. “Built it?”
Mavis shrugged. “It’s like a – a haven I guess you could call it. It keeps us monsters safe from the outside world.”
Elsa sucked in a breath. “Monsters?”
Before Mavis could say anything, she found herself staring at the hard wood of a closed door. She reached for the handle, seeing Elsa’s shadow stretching into the hall, but jerked her hand back almost as soon as she touched it. “Ow!” she complained. Thick frost was layered over the brass. “That’s cold!”
If the shrunken head had eyeballs, Mavis was sure she would have rolled them. “You can’t just go around saying things like that!” she scolded.
“I know, I know, this place should be a secret. But she’s already here, so what’s the problem?” Mavis huffed. She walked away down the corridor, wondering what she had done to offend Elsa and what she could do to make it up.
“I’m sorry I scared you off by telling you that this place was full of monsters. I just wanted to make conversation because you were really cute and – ugh, no, that won’t work,” Mavis scolded herself. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like all of us were going to eat you – “
“Honeybat?” her dad called through the door. “I can hear you muttering in there.”
Mavis stopped practicing her apology speech for the next time she saw Elsa and stood in place on the ceiling. “Come in, Dad,” she called.
Dracula came in, gliding up the wall until he was standing next to Mavis. “Is everything all right?” he asked. “You sound upset.”
Mavis sighed. “Yes, I mean, no. I mean, sort of?” She stared at her feet. “You remember that new girl who showed up yesterday?”
Dracula nodded. “The only person to show up uninvited at the hotel for several decades, yes,” he said, the dryness of his tone not quite masking his annoyance.
“Well, I know it sounds kind of silly, but, when I saw her for the first time,” Mavis twisted her hands together. Telling her dad this was so embarrassing, a small part of her mind complained. “I felt this – spark, y’know?”
“A zing?”
“Yeah, exactly!” Mavis grinned. Maybe he did understand after all! “That’s the perfect way to describe it!”
Dracula stared at his daughter. “You zinged with her?”
Mavis nodded happily. “I guess so!” She jumped down to the ground and started pacing. “Like, I feel this tug in my chest when I see her, and I want to be with her and make her happy and…” she trailed off, “kiss her,” she mumbled, hoping her dad wouldn’t hear it, but knowing by his sigh that he had.
“But you’re so young!” Dracula blurted. “You’re only a hundred and eighteen!”
Mavis crossed her arms, staring up at her dad. “And how old were you when you met Mom?” she challenged. She didn’t know how her parents had met but she knew from the few details she’d been able to get out of her aunts and uncles that they had to have loved each other a lot.
Dracula sighed, dropping to the floor. “If you zinged with her, I won’t get in your way,” he promised. “Just remember, I’ll always be here for you. Always.” He enfolded her in his arms. “It’s just hard watching you grow up,” he murmured.
“Thanks, Dad,” Mavis said into his chest.
Elsa lay on her bed, watching as frost patterns crept up the stone walls and onto the ceiling. She’d never expected to come across a building like this out in the middle of nowhere, but when she had, she’d figured it would have been the perfect place to reinvent herself. To stop being a witch, a sorcerer. A monster. Especially after she’d bumped into the dark-haired girl (Mavis, she knew now) and felt something like a spark in her chest.
“I’m sorry, Anna,” she muttered at the ceiling. She’d managed to avoid doing too much damage when she’d fled, but she was sure no one in Arendelle would welcome her back after what they’d heard from the Duke of Weselton and his cronies. She imagined the headlines that were already being written, the editorials soliloquizing about how this sort of unprecedented attack on an heir to the throne meant terror and destruction for the kingdom. They would probably already be calling for her head if she was to go back. Hopefully here, in this strange castle in the woods, she could forge a new life for herself, free from the guilt and shame of the past –
Quick footsteps interrupted her thoughts. Resonating down the hallway, they stopped at her door. “Elsa?” Mavis called. “I – I wanted to apologize.”
Apologize? Elsa sat up, her surprise stopping the ice from spreading. What could Mavis have to apologize for? She was the one who had been rude, had shut the door in the other girl’s face when all she was trying to do was make conversation. It wasn’t Mavis’ fault – she hadn’t known about the shadows that lurked in Elsa’s past.
“I understand if you don’t want to talk,” Mavis continued from the other side of the door.
Elsa jumped to her feet. Through a door was the only way she’d talked to her sister for years, and she was utterly sick of it. “No, I do,” she said, pulling the door open.
Mavis stared at her, her blue eyes mirrors of Elsa’s own. “Sorry,” she said in a rush. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like we’re going to eat you or anything. It’s not dangerous here, I swear.”
Elsa laughed bitterly. “No, I’m the dangerous one,” she said.
“What?” Mavis blinked, taken aback. “But you’re – “
“A monster,” Elsa interrupted. “Yes.” She sucked in a breath, her instincts telling her to shut the door and keep Mavis away. She could feel emotion building inside her, ice creeping up the wood where her hand was resting.
Except, Mavis didn’t look upset or angry, just confused. “So am I,” she said.
Elsa blinked. “No, you’re – “ she started, before trailing off. How would she finish that sentence? Too pretty? Non-threatening? Comfortable to talk to, if I would let myself? “ – not,” she finished after an awkwardly long pause.
“Yes I am,” Mavis insisted, looking at Elsa strangely. “What else would I be?” She gestured to the building around them. “This is Hotel Transylvania.”
“So what you’re saying is,” Elsa mused, “I belong here.” The ice retreated from the doorframe and she felt a lightness in her chest. It didn’t entirely erase the ominous mutterings in her head, but it was a start.
In the hall, Mavis cocked her head. “Haven’t you heard of this place?” she asked. “We’re like, the only safe place for monsters in the entire world.”
The words felt like a cinder block of relief colliding with Elsa’s chest. She gaped at Mavis. “Safe?” she asked.
“Yup,” Mavis said with a nod. “From humans, y’know.”
The wave of relief stopped cresting for Elsa and she felt herself go cold. There was some kind of secret here – something Mavis wasn’t telling her. “But I’m human.”
This time, instead of Elsa slamming her door, the conversation ended with Mavis disappearing.
A human? I zinged with a human?! Mavis thought, flapping excitedly around the rafters. Wait ‘til everyone hears about this!
Glancing downwards, she noticed Elsa looking around in confusion. “Sorry!” she called, waving a wing. “I just got a little excited!”
The other girl didn’t seem to give any indication that she’d heard and Mavis sighed before landing in front of her and transforming back. “Sorry!” she said when Elsa let out an adorable squeak of surprise and almost toppled backwards. “Didn’t mean to scare you!”
“What are you?” Elsa asked.
Mavis waited for a second, but the question seemed to be genuine. “A vampire,” she said finally. “You said you were a monster.”
“It wasn’t literal,” Elsa replied after an equally long pause. “I mean, I have…strange abilities, but I’m human.” She blinked hard, staring at the ground. “I think.”
“Okay, but you aren’t, like, going to eat us or burn us with fire or anything, right?” Mavis asked, just to be sure. Dad could be a little paranoid but it never hurt to be on the safe side, like her uncles said.
“No!” Elsa looked horrified at the thought.
Mavis nodded. “Good, just checking.”
“Would – “ Elsa hesitated. “Would you?”
“Of course not! You’re my zing!”
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Your ‘zing’?”
Mavis nodded one more time. “Here, let’s go ask my dad. He can explain it better than I can.” She paused, considering. “Of course he might be busy party planning, but we can go check anyway.” She gestured down the hall for Elsa to follow her.
“Party planning,” Elsa repeated as she followed. There was a strange tone in her voice that Mavis couldn’t quite decipher. “Whose party?”
“Mine,” Mavis explained. “It’s my 118th and he’s making such a big deal about it. Just because I’ve never been out of the castle before –“
Elsa froze. Literally. Spikes of ice erupted from the floor and she turned to look at Mavis. “What do you mean, you’ve never left the castle?” She stared at Mavis, but it was like she wasn’t seeing her. “Is it because of you? Your powers? Because you might be a threat, you have to be locked up and you can’t leave, can’t interact with people no matter what you have to be safe but it’s not you it’s never you – “ Elsa kept talking, but the ice was getting thicker around her and Mavis had to step onto the wall to avoid being frozen to the floor.
“Hey,” she said. “Hey!” Elsa stopped talking for a second and Mavis jumped in. “I didn’t leave because I didn’t want to ‘till now. When I was a baby some humans – some really bad humans – killed my mom. So my dad built this place for us. It’s safe and we can leave any time we want to. Most of us just don’t want to.”
Elsa stared up at her with wide eyes clear as the lake outside the castle. “Really?” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Mavis said with a shrug. The ice stopped expanding and she took a step towards Elsa, balancing on one of the icicles. “Look, I don’t know what happened to you out there, but you can stay here as long as you like, and I’ll be with you.” She chuckled. “I do want to see the human world one day, but you’re my zing. I’ll wait for you.”
Elsa took a deep breath and looked up at her. “All right,” she said shakily. She took a few more breaths and then asked, “Doesn’t that bother you?”
“What?” Mavis asked. “The cold? I can’t feel it.”
Elsa collapsed into laughter and after a moment Mavis giggled alongside her.
One Year Later
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Mavis asked, standing on the windowsill. “It could be fun you know.”
Elsa leaned over and gave her a kiss, lips soft. “I know. One day,” she said, an unspoken promise in her words.
Mavis smiled. “I’ll still be here when you’re ready,” she whispered against her fiancée’s lips. Giving her one more kiss, she spread her cloak and flew off into the night to explore the world.