Nosferatu or Not
The park at night. A few runners brave the jogging paths. And here
and there small groups of kids are gathered around lamp posts. On the
whole, though, there's not much human activity. This is the animals'
time.
In this small bit of wilderness many creatures have reverted to
their wild ways. Others copy the ways of the human city surrounding
them. For an example of the latter one would have to look no further
than the largest oak tree in the park. A close examination would reveal a
small flickering light amongst the leaves. Look closer and it would be-
come a small window. Closer still and one would see two figures seated
in front of a large TV screen.
Dale was lounging comfortably in front of the tube. He was en-
gaged in his favorite activity (i.e. watching TV), surrounded by a goodly
supply of snacks, and even had an agreeable partner to watch with.
How could he not be comfortable? His viewing partner wasn't quite as
agreeable as he believed, though. Tonight's horror movie marathon con-
sisted of vampire flicks. Normally Foxglove would avoid such films on
principle, believing they cast bats in a bad light. However, for a chance
to spend time with Dale she was willing to swallow her pride. Dale, for
his part, was completely oblivious to her discomfort.
"So, are you two set for the night?", came a voice from the door
way.
They turned to see Gadget in her neck-to-floor night gown. She
had been up late in her workshop. Chip and Monterey had already
turned in for the night and Zipper was out visiting a friend, or so he
claimed. He always seemed to absent himself when Foxy was around.
Though he regarded her as a friend he couldn't help feeling about her
the same way Monty felt about cats.
"We're just fine," said Foxglove. "Right sweetie?"
"Hmmph mmf," Dale got out through a mouthful of food.
The bat draped a wing around him, possessively. He didn't even
notice. Usually he shrugged of Foxy's advances but, right now he was
blind to everything but the TV screen. They were playing all the Dracula
pictures tonight and nothing short of Frankenstein attacking the tree was
going to prize his attention away. Granted, Dale thought the series had
begun to run out of steam with Dracula's dog but, TV addict that he was
have watched if they showed Dracula's gerbil.
With a final wave Gadget retired.
It was around three AM that Dale started nodding. He stuffed a
handful of junk food in his mouth but a small, still alert section of his
brain realized it was no use. He had gone beyond the point where even
a sugar rush could revive him. It was time for the heavy artillery.
"Coffee," he mumbled, climbing over the couch. Gotta get coffee."
He stumbled into the kitchen. Their coffee maker, built by Gadget
of course, was a tangle of filters, plastic tubing, and copper coils. Also,
following the "faster is better" philosophy she usually applied to
her ve-
hicles, it could flash brew a pot of coffee in seconds. One cup was
enough to return Dale to the land of the living. He poured another and
was headed back to the couch when he almost collided with Foxglove.
"Oops! Excuse me. I was just getting a drink from the kitchen."
"But I was just in the kitchen. You weren't there."
"Well, I had to make a stop at the little girls room too."
She took Dale's arm and began to lead him back towards the
couch when a sharp clattering sounded through the tree.
"What was that?"
Foxglove's ears missed nothing and immediately swiveled towards
the source.
"Sounds like it came from Gadget's workshop," she said.
"But Gadget went to bed."
"Oh, she probably had an idea for an invention and got right to
work on it," Foxglove said, still trying to pull Dale back to the TV.
"I think I'd better check it out anyway," he said, disengaging him-
self from the bat and handing her his coffee. "Watch this for me, will
ya?"
He knew Foxy was probably right. Inspiration was as likely to hit
Gadget while she slept as when she was awake. It wasn't at all unusual
for the others to wake to the morning to find that she'd already been up
for hours.
As he approached the workshop door he could hear the sounds of
hammering clearly. He had just about convinced himself that it had to be
Gadget and so was quite surprised to open the door and find Chip and
Monterey Jack hard at work. In a far corner Gadget kept a pile of lum-
ber, mostly popsicle sticks and scraps of balsa wood. They had ham-
mered these together into two large rectangular boxes and were working
on a third.
"Chip, Monty, uh, what're you guys doing?"
The two stopped and turned to face him, staring blankly. After a
moment their eyes seemed to focus on him.
"Dale, mate, shouldn't you be with Foxglove?" asked Monterey.
"But, what's with the boxes?"
"Oh, you never can never tell when you'll need boxes," Chip said,
pushing Dale towards the door. "Now you get back to Foxglove. I'm sure
she misses you."
Dale tried to protest only to have the door slammed in his face.
Well fine, he thought, if they want to stay up all night building boxes
that's their business. Dale had already overstretched his attention span,
never long to begin with, and probably would have gone back to the TV
and forgotten all about it if it wasn't for the next incident.
He had just passed Gadget's room when he felt a chill wind blow-
ing on his back. He turned to find the door open and Gadget leaning
against the frame. But, Gadget as he had never seen her before. Gone
was the conservative floor length night gown. She now wore a flimsy,
translucent negligee. There must have been a window open in her room
and the resulting breeze caused the garment to flap and billow, offering
tantalizing hints of what lay beneath.
"G-Gadget," he finally managed to squeak.
"Hello Dale," she breathed.
"I'm, uh, sorry if I woke you up."
"Oh, I was already awake. You know, staying up late is kind of
nice. I think I'll be doing it a lot from now on."
Dale was familiar with the sensation of being lost in Gadget's eyes
but what he experienced now was of a completely different order of
magnitude. It was as if his mind was cleared of all thought. Gadget was
here and that was all that mattered. He found himself agreeing with ev-
erything she said, although later he couldn't remember exactly what they
were talking about.
By now she had backed him up against the wall. Her arms were
around his neck and she was murmuring about how he was about to
start a whole new life. Somewhere at the bottom of his mind Dale could
hear a voice screaming that some thing wasn't right. Oh, he'd dreamt
scenes like his often enough, he couldn't deny that, but something was
very wrong here. Gadget didn't act like this.
He tried to slip out of the embrace but her grip was like iron.
"What's wrong Dale?" she asked. "You like me, don't you?"
Dale found himself falling into her eyes again and all resistance left
him.
"I can fix it so we'll be together forever." Gadget said.
She reared back and Dale suddenly saw her with complete clarity.
Her eyes were glowing red. Her incisors had lengthened and now ended
in two sharp points. Dale had just enough time to let out a strangled
scream before she lunged for his throat. But the bite never came. A
red-brown blur came between them and Gadget was slammed against
the opposite wall.
"How dare you? He's mine!"
The command and authority in the voice was such that Gadget im-
mediately fell to her knees, her head bowed in submission.
"Yes, mistress."
Foxglove, for she indeed was his rescuer, turned to face Dale.
"Sorry, new born vampires can be voracious and sometimes they
forget their place." She addressed Gadget, "Go check on the others.
Their work must be finished before sunrise."
As she hurried off Dale's mind finally began putting the pieces to-
gether.
"Foxy! You're a-a-a vampire!"
"Guilty as charged," she said, her eyes glowing red for a moment.
"And Chip and Monty, they're building coffins!"
Certainly. We'll need some place to sleep during the day. Coffins
aren't mandatory, of course, we just need a safe and secure place. I
guess I'm just a traditionalist at heart."
"But you can't be a vampire. I've seen you out during the day and
sunlight turns vampires to dust."
Foxglove giggled. "Silly, that's just a myth. We're nocturnal but
sunlight isn't fatal to us."
The bat advanced on him. "I'm sorry it has to me this way, Dale,"
she said with genuine regret in her voice. "I wanted you to come to me
of your own free will. To be my equal, not just a servant like the others."
The red glow returned to her eyes. "But, one way or another you *will*
be mine."
Now she had him in a grip as unbreakable as Gadget's had been,
only this time he knew there would be no last minute rescue. He
screamed as her fangs sank into his neck and felt himself falling as if
from a great height. He landed with a thud and saw Foxglove standing
over him, her face a mask of concern.
"You OK Dale?"
"Get away fro me!" he yelled, scrambling back as far as he could.
This wasn't very far since the couch was in the way. He looked around
and saw that he was back in the TV pit.
"What's going on out here?" asked Gadget, walking in from the
hall. She was once more wearing her usual conservative nightgown.
"Are you two alright?"
Dale had woken up screaming from enough nightmares to know
what had happened.
"It was all a dream," he said, slumping to the floor with relief.
Gadget gave an exasperated sigh. "We keep telling him those
movies will give him nightmares," she told Foxglove. "Of course, he
never listens. And, of course, he always gets nightmares."
Soon enough Dale and Foxglove resumed teir places in front of
the TV. Gadget had returned to her room grumbling about chipmunks
who never learned.
"So, what was your dream about?" Foxy asked.
"Oh, just some monster chasing me," Dale said evasively. He
would have been far too embarrassed to tell her the truth. How could I
have thought such things about Foxglove, he wondered. Even if it was
only a dream. Foxy was such a sweet kid to. She was a lot like Gadget
in that reguard. Dale was familiar enough with emotions like embarrass-
ment and humiliation but the shame he was feeling now was an infre-
quent visitor.
He kept his feelings to himself but later on, when Foxglove
snuggled up to him during an especially frightening scene, he snuggled
back.
The End
Author's notes:
I'd just like to say that this story isn't based on or derived from
Glenn Byrnes' story "Wolfsbane". Quite a while back some one posted
a
bunch of suggestions for stories to the Disney afternoon news group .
One of them was Foxglove being turned into a vampire. I'm also sorry if
this story seems a bit rushed. I was trying to get it done in time for Hal-
loween. As always, all comments are welcome. Just bear in mind that I
know it's not such a great title but it was all I could come up with.
Disclaimer:
All characters are copyright Walt Disney and used without permis-
sion.