บท 11: Chapter 11 The casino and other interesting things
You have to forgive my not being able to convey accurately everything that happened in this instance. But I learned what I am about to tell you only after having read the minds of the characters that took part in these events after they crossed my threshold for the second time.
By that I mean of course the two stupid mobsters, Bruto and his fat friend Grasso. After the scare I had given those two, another even worse awaited them when, to their great misfortune, they discovered that Don Pedriliano, the most ruthless head mobster around, had found out all about the stealing of his money.
Fabrizio, another member of the “Family”, had taken upon himself to find out how much they had stolen and where exactly they had hidden it. But, what was most important, to gently “persuade” them to give back all the money till the last dime.
‘Relax, Fabrizio!’ said Bruto trembling ‘We grew up together. Remember our mothers used to wash their clothes together in the same washtub?’
’You should have given it a little more thought, Bruto! You know well enough what happens to those who betray the Family. Now speak! Tell me where you’ve stashed the dough, unless youandGrassowantto share Bobo’s fate. I’m sure you remember what happened to him.’
‘No!’ cried Grasso. ‘Anything but this! Bruto, what will become of us?’
‘It’s all a lie I tell you,’ said the ugly one. ‘Why don’t you believe me?’
‘I’ve got it,’ said Fabrizio cool as a cucumber, ‘you won’t listen to reason. Biazzo, bring the pliers! We are starting the special treatment.’
‘Fabrizio, wait!’ said another mobster. ‘It may not be necessary. I have something that might prove much more effective.’
‘Really? And what is that?’ asked the man.
‘Pizza with plenty of pepperoni,’ replied the other. ‘In Grasso’s case it’s a worst torture than the pliers.’
‘No,’ wept the fat man, ‘you can’t be that inhumane. And I’m so hungry!’
Indeed a horrible torture! The mobsters laughed and, without further ado, brought a whole pizza with the box and, after they had put a piece under his nose so that he could smell it, they sat at the table and started eating, while he was watching with his saliva running on his chin.
‘Enough,’ he yelled ‘enough! Make it stop! Make the hunger stop! It’s true, we are two deadbeats, two thieving rats. We’ve hidden it in the haunted house. I will tell you everything.’
‘I’ll strangle him,’ growled Bruto. ‘The savings of a lifetime lost and why? Because I’ve chosen to collaborate with that imbecile.’
‘Now, we seem to be getting somewhere,’ laughed Fabrizio. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. One of these days we’ll go to this hounted house and retrieve the money that you’ve pinched. We’ll return here, we will count it, and if it’s there till the last penny, you may stay in one piece, otherwise I wouldn’t want to be you.’
‘Please no!’ cried Grasso. ‘Please, Fabrizio, don’t make me go back to that place! That house is evil. Horrible creatures live in it, I saw them.’
‘Now it’s too late for your whining, you should have kept your mouth shut,’ said Bruto.
‘What are you two mumbling over there?’ barked Fabrizio annoyed.
‘Nothing that may interest you,’ said Bruto hostilely. ‘The money will be there, unless the monsters went out on a spending spree.’
‘Monsters you said,’ laughed the tough mobster. ‘Ha ha ha! You have quite an imagination. A regular genius!’
‘You may be right,’ said Bruto maliciously. ‘We’ll see what you’ll think, after you’ve been inside this devil’s hole.’
Fabrizio said nothing, but the convincing way in which the ugly one said those words worried him quite a bit.
‘Biazzo, you are coming with me,’ he said, ’those two may beidiots, but except for an intelligent thought they are capable for just about anything. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were up to something.’
‘Whatever you say, Fabrizio,’ said the other.
At the sound of that, Bruto muttered something. As for Grasso cold sweat exuded from his every pore at the idea that he had to return to me.
But now let’s leave the two mobsters to their troubles to see what my four monsters were up to, since, no matter how unlikely it sounds, they had finally reached the Monte Carlo Casino.
That was achieved mainly due to Redpaw’s special ability who, after having jumped into that young man quite easily, did exactly the same to the driver of a private jet hired by a rich shareholder of a multinational company. Τhis way our friends managed to fly comfortably to Monte Carlo. Now nothing prevented them from reaching without any trouble the casino that resembled a castle ablaze with bright lights.
Outside that impressive building a water fountain was ejecting jets of water creating a beautiful almost spectacular optical result.
Slimetooth well supplied with a sufficient quantity of sunblock and a pair of sunglasses, Draculeta with her funny appearance, Redpaw having borrowed the body of a well-dressed gambler a few moments before getting inside the casino and Bony in his long coat and trilby hiding his skeletal skull made their grand entrance in the temple of luck for some people and of bad luck for most.
The security guard didn’t try to stop them from getting in, because the man Redpaw had possessed was well known to him. That gambler had lost a fortune on the roulette table and the rest of the games and was always welcome there with all his friends.
No one seemed to be especially curious about the strange appearance of these new arrivals and, even if some of those who worked there were, they didn’t show it. Even more so, when they saw those eccentric fellows changing a lot of money for chips. Who could suspect that four of the highest ranked monsters of a haunted house would come to the casino to spend a vast amount of money, simply because they had no idea what else they could do with it.
Doing exactly what they had planned Draculeta went off to play at the slot machines. Slimetooth thought he’d spend all his money on the roulette table and Bony decided to bet everything he had on the black jack hoping of course to be left with nothing. As for Redpaw he offered to go with him to advise him how to lose his money as quickly and easily as possible.
‘Don’t you worry!’ said the little devil with confidence. ‘With me on your side you’ll be penniless in no time.’
‘Excellent!’ said the skeleton happy as a clam.
Thus my monsters went each his own way.
At this point I will describe the events like Draculeta experienced them, since she was the one who afterwards told me the story. But what happened to the other monsters and how finally the company of our strange friends managed to get rid of the suitcase’s money? That is something we will find out later.
Not long after my well mannered vampire sat at the slot machine and lost the first few coins, a nosy woman sat by her and started talking. She was elegantly dressed and had a crooked nose resembling remarkably a parrot’s beak. She was wearing a lot of makeup and she seemed to observe with interest the people playing around her. Soon it became obvious that she was the type that wanted to know everything about those playing in the casino and the pale, eccentric Draculeta was for her an interesting riddle demanding solution.
Among her other vices she was also a bit of a chatterbox and so it wasn’t long before she started an informal silly interrogation in a very friendly manner.
‘Is this your first time in Monte Carlo?’
‘Yes it is,’ replied the vampire indifferently.
‘And may I ask where you are from?’
Draculeta would very much like to tell her she might not, but she was too polite for that.
‘I come from a village south of Rome,’ she replied.
‘A village! How rustic! And how did you travel here?’ she kept on interrogating Draculeta.
‘By a private jet,’ she replied.
‘Private,’ repeated full of admiration the silly woman. ‘You must be very rich.’
‘Yes, but hopefully not for long,’ said Draculeta with a sigh.
‘I beg your pardon?’ asked the nosy woman clearly confused.
But since my vampire didn’t show any intention of explaining it to her, she quickly changed the subject.
’Oh please forgive me! Where have my manners gone? I forgot to introduce myself. I’m called Valentine de Pierrot. I’m of French origin you see.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said my vampire not very sincerely, ‘I am Draculeta.’
‘Just Draculeta. How charming! You must be an artist.’
‘I mean Draculeta della Casa.’ said my monster in a bad mood.
The truth was that the nosy woman with all her intrusive questions was starting to get on her nerves.
‘Would you like me to get you something from the bar?’ asked Valentine very obligingly ‘You know, tonight the drinks are free. It’s not much, if one thinks how much is being spent in such places, but, while at it, why not have a little fun? What do you think?’
‘Thank you,’ said Draculeta with a mysterious smile ‘but I doubt that what I drink might be found in the casino’s bar.’
‘Surely you prefer cocktails,’ said Valentine. ‘If you tell me how it’s called, I m sure they’ll have no trouble making it for you.’
‘Rat’s blood,’ replied my vampire clearly having a lot of fun teasing her. ‘I suspect though that they won’t know how to make it. It’s something people drink in Transylvania, the place I come from. Some prefer other variants of the same drink, but its main component is always the same.’
It was obvious that my vampiress was saying those things to scare the annoying woman off, but that just didn’t seem to work. The persistent woman went to the bar determined to return as quickly as possible to continue chattering away.
‘Finally some peace and quiet,’ sighed Draculeta. ‘What a tiresome woman! Can’t a vampiress be left in peace to lose her money?’
In the meantime the night at the casino didn’t seem to pass as my monsters had planned. Earth shattering events had been taking place in another part of the casino. So, when Valentine came back holding the two drinks, she had some interesting news to share with Draculeta.
‘I’m very sorry,’ she said hastily ‘they didn’t have the drink that you asked for, so I’ve brought a bloody Mary instead. I hope you don’t mind. While I was waiting for the drinks, I heard something amazing. Three mysterious men are winning mythical amounts of money in the blackjack and the roulette. It is said that, if they keep playing like that, they are bound to break the bank. The casino’s manager is really starting to get worried.’
‘Really?’ said Draculeta with interest. ‘And how do those three look like?’
‘What can I tell you? I haven’t seen them myself. But from what I hear it’s a bony man with a trilby, another with a long coat and black glasses and Signor Alfieri, a regular here.’
‘Oh no! It’s Redpaw!’ said Draculeta in horror. ‘You must excuse me, Signora de Pierrot, I have to go check on some friends. Have fun at the slot machines!’
‘Slot machines,’ said the woman terribly excited, ‘you have to be joking. Who has time for that? I want to see the three that raided the casino’s coffers.’
‘Fine,’ said Draculeta ‘let’s go together! That’s where I’m going too. I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect those three are my friends.’
‘Marvelous!’ said Signora de Pierrot applauding with enthusiasm. ‘That kind of thing is the reason I come to the casino in the first place. It’s terribly exciting.’
Very upset Draculeta went off to meat Bony and the others looking around anxiously all the time and hoping she was wrong. But all the signs led to the conclusion that her fears were justified.
Two of the casino’s regulars were standing a few feet away from the roulette table having a conversation about the events. They were almost whispering, but Draculeta’s exceptional vampire sense of hearing caught every word.
‘Can you imagine winning such amounts of money? Those three became filthy rich overnight.’
‘Yes, the lucky devils!’ agreed the other,
‘Luck you say? Don’t bet on it!’ said the other. ‘I smell something fishy, some kind of scam.’
‘It may be so, but how do you suppose they did it? It’s not easy to cheat the casino.’
‘Lucky devils?!’ repeated Draculeta. ‘Redpaw! It’s all his fault! He is bringing luck to the others. We didn’t think of that. I have to stop them before it’s too late.’
Draculeta was ready for anything but what she saw was worse than her most pessimistic predictions. Her three friends looked like gamblers who had lost everything. They were sweating and betting huge amounts of money hoping to lose, but it was all in vain.
The casino had given them a huge sack to put their chips, since the mobsters’ suitcase was completely full. My poor monsters were in a real mess. In one night they had won not one but three vast fortunes.
‘On the thirteen,’ screamed Bony ‘let’s bet everything on the thirteen! It’s unlucky, it has to work. We can’t go home with all that money. Even Rot will laugh at us.’
‘Yes, on the thirteen!’ cried Slimetooth.
‘Stop playing immediately!’ yelled Draculeta ‘You won’t lose a penny as long as Redpaw is with you. Haven’t you heard the expression devil’s luck? That’s why you’re winning.’
‘What?’ screamed Bony turning angrily to the demon that lowered his head in shame.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I think I remember something about that in our book but I haven’t read it properly.’
‘Idiot!’ screamed Slimetooth. ‘Do you know what you’ve done?’
Poor Redpaw! Who would like to be in his place? Unintentionally he had brought extreme luck to his friends.
‘Traitor!’ shouted Slimetooth. ‘It’s all your fault! You’ve ruined us. What are we going to do with all this money?’
‘Signora della Casa,’ said the nosy Valentine, ‘no offence but I think your friends are a bit screwy. First time I see someone so upset about winning money.’
‘Oh shut up!’ said Draculeta annoyed. ‘Come, Redpaw!’ she said gently taking the devastated demon by the hand ‘We are taking a walk. As for you two, just bet everything on one number and you are guaranteed to lose everything. Let’s not despair! The night is still young.’
‘Yes,’ said Bony full of hope. ‘I’ll gamble and lose like normal people do. They all manage to lose entire fortunes in this place and so can I.’
But soon my monsters realized that it was impossible to execute their plan.
The croupier at the roulette announced that the casino having lost a substantial amount of money was going to close for that night. This was happening for the first time in many years.
My monsters didn’t know what to do. If they changed their chips for money, they would need at least a car to take it with them.
‘Sir, you are amazing,’ said a fanatical gambler approaching Bony, ‘please tell me: what is your secret?’
Instead of answering Bony lifted his hat a little bit revealing his scary skeletal skull but in a way that allowed only the annoying man to see it.
‘Aaaah, a skeleton!’ screamed the man and with those words he ran away.
‘This moron asks what my secret is,’ said poor Bony absolutely devastated.
‘Come friends, don’t despair!’ said Draculeta. ‘If we can’t do anything else with that money, at least we can rent a room in a hotel. Slimetooth and I will sleep in the closet. In the meantime Redpaw will think of something to do with all the money we are stuck with because of him.’
‘Enough of that!’ said the demon miffed. Just because I’m so little and so innocent, it doesn’t give you the right to pick on me.’
‘We’ll have a dreadful day,’ said Slimetooth, ‘I just know it’.
‘And what about me?’ asked Bony.
‘You, my dear, will rest, relax and, what’s most important, you’ll remember not to appear with your robe to the maid or to another hotel employee,’ said Draculeta. ‘Last thing we need is unwanted publicity.’
‘And in what hotel will we stay?’ asked Slimetooth.
‘Where else?’ giggled Draculeta overjoyed ‘In the famous “Hotel de Paris”. It’s the only appropriate accommodation for rich, idle monsters like us. And who knows? No matter what the house says, I might meet some celebrities. That would be great. I don’t know, boys, when I travel I feel that I escape from the dreary routine and boredom of everyday life. Let’s not lose our courage. I’m sure that, by the time we leave this place, we will have found a way to get rid of the annoying money and we will have had the time of our lives or rather of our deaths in some cases.’
Draculeta’s optimism soon spread in the whole company and the monsters started thinking that their position wasn’t all that bad. If you think about it, it’s not that terrible to have more money than you can spend in a lifetime and at the same time to be in Monte Carlo, the most kick up your heels and have fun area of Monaco.’
Half an hour later my monsters were making their grand entrance in the great and luxurious Hotel de Paris with the air of rich tourists. Redpaw, still inside the charming gambler, was walking in front of the others. Draculeta walked beside him, since naturally she looked more human than the other two.
‘We want two of your most luxurious suites,’ said Redpaw arrogantly.
‘Of course, Sir, and how would you like to settle the bill?’ asked a well dressed receptionist tall and thin like a stork.
‘Cash,’ replied with a cocky grin the little devil.
‘As you wish,’ said politely the receptionist, ‘may I see some form of identification?’
‘Hmmm,’ said Redpaw annoyed, ’identification. Ιs that absolutely necessary?’
‘I’m afraid so, Sir,’ said with a poised but adamant tone the receptionist.
‘By all the imps of hell, now what will we do?’ cried the demon.
‘You know,’ said Draculeta in her sweetest manner, ‘we seem to have misplaced our ID’s. There must be another way to take care of this problem.’
‘I’m afraid it’s impossible,’ said the receptionist, ‘it’s hotel policy.’
It seemed that my monsters had reached a dead end. Now how would they get out of that mess?
It was then that an unexpected intervention from an unknown ally changed once again the course of events in a very impressive way.
‘I’m under the impression that the lady and her friends did show you their identification cards. You must have forgotten it, Rodolfo,’ said a strange compelling voice and at the same time a mysterious gentleman with a goat beard made his appearance.
He was wearing a derby hat and a cape and was holding a cane with a golden handle. That man had a slightly satanic aura. Ηe was thin and all his clothes were pitch black.
‘But no,’ said the receptionist, ‘I’ m sure they didn’t show them to me.’
‘You may be right,’ said the strange man ‘but look into my eyes, deep into my eyes!’
The receptionist like an insect drawn to the light of a lamp tried to resist for a moment. That didn’t last but a few seconds. Then he felt being enveloped by the deep darkness of those mysterious eyes. That gaze was emitting an immense power so relaxing, so magical.
‘They’ve shown you their identification cards. Now you remember. Isn’t that so?’ said the man with the strange compelling voice.
‘Yes, yes I remember now,’ said the receptionist looking around with an empty gaze. ‘Here are your keys.’ And with those words he gave to the four monsters the keys for two luxurious suites.
‘Nice trick,’ observed Slimetooth obviously impressed.
‘Sir, we are forever in your debt,’ said Draculeta already enchanted by the strange man.
‘My lady, permit me to introduce myself. I am Morpheus, Morpheus di Miracolo, humble slave of your indescribable beauty.’
‘Morpheus di Miracolo,’ repeated Draculeta filled with admiration. ‘You mean you are the famous hypnotist? You are in all the papers!’
‘I may be a hypnotist, my lady, but in the presence of such beauty I feel simply hypnotized, hypnotized by your many graces!’
‘Hypnotized,’ said flirting shamelessly my vampires, ‘you are flattering me, Sir.’
‘Not at all, but listen to me prattling on, when you must be exhausted. You look like you’ve been up all night. Surely you’d like to rest. But I would be overjoyed if it were your wish as surely as it is mine to have a lengthier chat one of these days.’
And with that the mysterious man left as suddenly as he had appeared leaving Draculeta in a condition completely new to her.
‘What a charming man!’ said my vampiress enchanted. ’A real gentleman!’
‘Gentleman my bony buttock,’ said Bony with evident dislike for the man. ‘It’s your money he is after. I think he is ridiculous. What a load of crap: hypnotized by your many graces.’
‘You are a monster!’ screamed Draculeta and ran away crying.
‘Yeah,’ yelled Bony, ‘well I have news for you, sweetheart: so are you and that’s not about to change anytime soon.’
‘Come on, enough of that!’ said Slimetooth. ‘We have to make our sleeping arrangements.’
‘Draculeta will sleep in the closet of the first room,’ said Bony, ‘and I will stay outside to guard her in case someone has the bright idea to open the door during the daytime. You, Slimetooth, will stay in the closet of the other room and Redpaw will stay outside for the same reason.’
‘Nonsense,’ said the little devil. ‘When daylight comes, I’ll go out to find a way to get rid of all that money.’
‘And who will stay behind to guard Slimetooth?’ inquired Bony.
‘You are an idiot. We’ll simply call the reception and ask that no one gets in the second room to tidy up. That’s usual in hotels. Besides no one will get in the room, if they think someone’s inside. So you go to your rooms and I’ll leave. If you think that it will be easy to get rid of all that money, you have another thing coming. I have to think something truly satanic, so that the money is put to a genuinely evil use.’
Right after that the demon disappeared and the three monsters left to hide in the safety of their rooms.
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