CHAPTER 19
DIRECTOR’S CUT
Draculaura, Clawdeen, Robecca, and Cleo continued to roam the lot in search of the sound stage where Veronica von Vamp was filming. A crew of skeletons passed them on the street, all carrying palm trees.
Robecca stopped and touched her heart. “We’re close, ghouls. I can feel it. This way.”
She led them toward a studio where gargoyles were pushing in huge set pieces—rocks, boulders, trees. Draculaura had been right! Emerging behind them was Veronica von Vamp.
She was talking to her director, Mr. Scare-antino. The ghouls couldn’t hear what she was saying, but Veronica von Vamp smiled at him and sailed off toward her trailer, a gigantic Airstream guarded by two gargoyle guards.
“We have to get into that trailer!” said Clawdeen.
Cleo laughed. “That’ll be easy, except for those two huge bodyguards.”
“Looks like you could use a hand.…” It was Viperine!
“You work on this boo-vie?” asked Clawdeen.
Viperine giggled. “Thanks to you, I didn’t get fired!”
“Can you help us meet Veronica?” Draculaura wanted to know.
“Leave it to me!” Viperine led the way to the trailer. The guards tried to block their way, but Viperine told them that this was her new makeup crew.
“How come so many of you?” asked the guard, suspicious.
The snakes in Viperine’s hair hissed. “We have to make Miss von Vamp very very very very pretty for her next scene.”
She marched into the trailer with the ghouls following her. It was luxurious, with an elaborate makeup chair and a mirror framed by lights. Glossy photos of Veronica covered the walls.
“She’s not here,” noted Viperine.
Cleo headed over to a table covered in delicious-looking refreshments. “Then I guess we’ll wait. A trailer this classy shouldn’t be wasted.”
“No!” exclaimed Draculaura. “I can’t rest until we find her!”
The makeup chair spun around and sitting in it was… Veronica von Vamp. She raised an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”
The ghouls froze. Were they in trouble?
That’s when Clawdeen saw it. “The Vampire’s Heart!” She pointed at the makeup table.
“It’s here!” Cleo was ecstatic.
Veronica von Vamp laughed. “Sorry, you’re looking at a fake. This is Hauntlywood. It’s only a prop.”
Draculaura was disappointed—but not surprised. “We’re very sorry for intruding like this, but—”
“I can always sign an autograph for a fan,” Veronica von Vamp interrupted.
“Sorry,” said Draculaura. “Not… umm… actually a fan. In fact, I think your stereotypical portrayal—”
Clawdeen began coughing. “Not the time!”
Viperine started doing Veronica’s makeup, her snakes putting on her blush.
“Why are you looking for it?” asked Veronica, curious. She was studying Draculaura. The fact that she wasn’t a fan intrigued her.
“The heart will lead us to Elissabat,” explained Draculaura. “The rightful queen of the vampires.”
Veronica caught her breath. “Wow, I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”
Everything rushed out of Draculaura. “The vampires need a queen. Quickly. And Lord Stoker chose me, but then I found out that his Vampire’s Heart was a fake, so I decided to find the real one so it could lead to the real queen, who is, in reality, Elissabat!” She stopped to take a breath. “I need help.”
Veronica von Vamp swiveled around in her makeup chair. “What if she doesn’t want to be the queen?”
“Everything we stand for will be undone if Stoker rules. The vampires need her,” Draculaura said passionately. “All monsters need her.”
Veronica von Vamp gazed into Draculaura’s eyes. “If Elissabat were here, she would probably say that she’s just one ghoul, nothing special, and maybe she doesn’t think she has what’s needed to be queen.”
“I get that,” Draculaura said solemnly. “It takes courage. Heart. And I know she has it. Listen, not all of us were meant to do great things. She should be proud that she was born to do something so amazing.”
Veronica seemed flustered. “Look, I want to help, really I do. But I promised Elissabat I would keep her secret.”
“Then you can tell her, from Draculaura—and this is big—that she ran away once, but I will find her, and that… that… I will never give up.”
Draculaura’s eyes filled with tears. “This is how I can help. How I can do something big. Something important. And when she’s queen, she can help everybloody. This is a turning point in vampire history, and her duty calls to help monsters everywhere!” Draculaura’s words gave her ghoulfriends chills. This meant so much to Draculaura.
A goblin opened the door of the trailer. “Ready on the set, Miss von Vamp.”
“I must go,” Veronica von Vamp said softly.
“Please, Miss von Vamp,” Draculaura begged. “If you know where Elissabat is, you have to tell her.…” Her voice trailed off into a sob.
“Elissabat disappeared a long time ago. I want to help… but…” Veronica left without finishing her sentence.
Clawdeen was frustrated. “Furrific. The Heart’s a fake, and Veronica’s not gonna help us. What are we gonna do now?”
“I’m sorry; it seemed like you were so close,” said Viperine.
“Yes,” said Robecca, distracted by something. “Elissabat is close. I can sense it.”
“Then we keep looking,” said Draculaura, determined. “Come on!”
They weren’t sure where to go next, but as they made their way out of the studio, they passed through Veronica von Vamp’s boo-vie set. Dry ice filled the air with fog. Out of the mist emerged Lord Stoker and Ygor!
Lord Stoker cackled. “I’ve got you, Your Highness.”
Ygor laughed too, only he wasn’t as frightening.
“No!” announced Draculaura.
As the smoke evaporated, Scare-antino the director found himself staring at two vampires he didn’t realize were in his boo-vie. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Is this in the script?”
A tiny gargoyle started flipping through a script in his hand and shook his head.
Lord Stoker loomed over Draculaura. “Now this is how it will be. You will return to Transylvania. You will take your place at the court. And you will obey me.”
“No!” said Draculaura again. “I am so close to finding Elissabat!”
Scare-antino was filming the whole scene. “I love the gritty realism! Keep rolling!”
“Ha!” said Lord Stoker. “She is gone, and you will be queen whether you want to or—”
“I think not!” Veronica von Vamp, wearing her long gown and crown for the movie, had made her entrance. She was fangulous!
But Lord Stoker was unmoved. “I insist.”
“And what gives you the authority?” asked Veronica von Vamp. She was wearing high heels that made her almost as tall as Lord Stoker.
“I am the prime monister of all the vampires!” said Lord Stoker.
Veronica von Vamp was unimpressed. “And I am Veronica von Vamp, boo-vie star. And you are in my studio.”
Two gargoyle bodyguards stepped toward Lord Stoker.
“I protest,” he said. “I have never been treated like this.”
Veronica von Vamp smiled. “Well then, it is long overdue.”
Lord Stoker changed tactics. “Your people need you,” he whispered to Draculaura.
“No!” said Draculaura, a new kind of power in her voice. “They need the true queen. Monsters everywhere are counting on her. I am counting on her. You won’t be able to boss her around. No way!”
“Hard to say.” Lord Stoker snickered. “She’s not here.”
“You will not use that tone on my set,” Veronica von Vamp commanded.
Draculaura pleaded with Veronica. “If you know where Elissabat is, please, please help.”
Lord Stoker narrowed his eyes. “You know where—”
Veronica silenced him. “Draculaura is right. It is time. The vampires need their real queen—Elissabat.”
A door to the sound stage burst open. It was Operetta and Ghoulia. Ghoulia started trying to explain what she had found out.
“Yeah!” said Clawdeen, listening to her. “Veronica is talking about Elissabat.”
Ghoulia shook her head furiously. She tried again. She pulled her laptop out of her backpack to show everyone what she had discovered.
Clawdeen came over to look. “Veronica is… what? Say again?”
Scare-antino was filming everything. Everything! This was going to be the greatest vampire boo-vie ever!
Veronica held up her hands for quiet. “I remember Elissabat,” she began dramatically. “More than anything, she wanted to act. Only onstage and in her imagination did she have the strength to lead. But my friend Draculaura has reminded me that you need to have courage to face your fear, to overcome it, to help others.”
Draculaura was stunned. “I did?”
“Yes,” said Veronica von Vamp. “This is a turning point in monster history. It is time to raise the curtain on a new act. Veronica von Vamp is, and always was…”
Scare-antino couldn’t even breathe—well, he couldn’t if he actually could breathe. This was so wonderful. It was Veronica’s most powerful performance ever!
“That’s right,” said Veronica von Vamp. “I am…”
Draculaura inhaled sharply. She saw it at last. She knew who the vampire queen really was!
Veronica von Vamp pulled at her hair, which was really a wig, took out a pair of glasses from her pocket, and transformed into—Elissabat.
“What?” Lord Stoker gave a high-pitched shriek like a bat in trouble.
Ghoulia held up her laptop, revealing that Elissabat and Veronica von Vamp were the same person.
“The queen of the vampires!” Draculaura bowed her head respectfully.
“I knew she was close!” said Robecca.
“Yup,” agreed Operetta. “She fooled us. Just goes to show—”
“You can’t judge a bat by its wings,” completed Honey Swamp.
“That’s right!” Operetta smiled.
Veronica von Vamp approached Robecca. She took her hand. The moment Robecca touched the boo-vie star, her entire body began to glow. Robecca gasped. She fumbled with a service panel at her side and opened it up to reveal, hidden within the mechanism of her body, the Vampire’s Heart. It pulsed softly and glowed.
“Whoa!” The ghouls were stunned.
“Augh!” Lord Stoker shriveled in defeat.
“I gave the Vampire’s Heart to your father, Robecca. I wanted Hexiciah Steam to keep it safe. So he put it in the safest place of all. You. It led you ghouls to me.” Gently, Veronica removed her hand and Robecca’s glow faded.
Robecca could still feel the glow inside her—the glow that had been strengthening the closer they had come to Elissabat.
“Lord Stoker,” said Veronica von Vamp, becoming very stern. “For your crimes against the vampire crown, you are banished from ever holding official office.”
The gargoyles tightened their grip on Lord Stoker and he whimpered. Veronica instructed them to remove him.
“But I’m the boss of everything!” he cried. “Ygor!”
Ygor shuffled after his master, who was hauled out of the studio like a limp rag doll.
“Tonight is my new boo-vie premiere,” Veronica said to the ghouls. “It will also be my coronation. And you are all invited.”
The ghouls cheered!
Scare-antino swung onto the set from a crane, where he had been filming everything. “And… cut! That’s a wrap. Off to the edit bay.”