7. ‘The Surprise’

H aving seen multiple signs for an amusement park called Duckvilla, Water Adventure Park and Convention Center, each one leading the suspiciously hyper bat to bounce more in his seat, Turney was unsurprised when the vampire yelled, “This exit! This exit!” on nearing the one that would take them to it.

Octavius’s head came very close to hitting the top of the van, as he continued to bounce and point.

Snorting, he took the exit for Sudsberry, Maine, his suspicions growing as the number of signs increased…and the apparent theme of the park became even clearer. Then again…the name had made it pretty clear already—ducks. Either the theme of the park was ducks, or they just really liked them… But the theme being ducks…when paired with his knowledge of the vampire’s most recent obsession, was making him very…suspicious.

And as he turned right, and found himself in a line of traffic, right in front of a large sign, he stared at it. In big curving bubbly letters, it read, Welcome to Duckvilla . Below, there was a yellow duck wearing a top hat, surrounded by bubbles. Turney slowly looked over to Octavius, with a brow raised.

Octavius simply smiled and pointed. “Oh, look, there’s the sign for the hotel! We just need to get out of this line and go that way.”

Shaking his head, he pulled out of the long line, which probably led to either the water or the amusement park, and entered the much faster traffic flow that led off towards the hotel.

The drive took longer than one would assume, which may have spoken of the sheer size of the place. Turney found himself slightly amazed as the hotel came into view.

It looked to be carved of blue stone. A curved rectangular shape, the hotel had at least twenty floors, with blue stone giant bubbles, suds, and rubber duckies curving around, and in various corners, near windows, and on the railings of balconies. In front, there was a drive-thru archway, the sides formed by bubbles, before becoming smooth and rounding up to form the arch. A duck was peaking over the center of the awning. Following the line of traffic put them right under the archway.

It was cute…very cute… Not so cute was his suspicions being confirmed when he pulled under that covered luggage drop off point in front of the hotel.

Parking, Turney got out and just stared at the cute, intricately carved, automatic, double wooden doors, covered with rubber ducks, bubbles, and more… But what really caught his eye, was the large sign only a few feet to the left of it. Turney started at the sign while the others jumped out and started to unload the van.

The sign displayed, in large curly letters, the themed convention currently happening this week— Mallard Mysteries, it read, in the font of the show’s title. Beneath, it said, Grab an event brochure to find all of the fun Ducktective activities that will be happening throughout the week in the park and convention center !

Turney slowly looked to his right, at Octavius, who was staring at him with wide, innocent eyes—way too innocent.

“A surprise, huh?” he asked pointedly.

“Surprise!” the vampire said, doing jazz hands.

“Octavius, did we just drive over five hours so we could get away and forget? Or did we come here so you could go to a Mallard Mysteries convention, and satisfy your new obsession?”

“BOTH!” Octavius giggled, before smiling smugly. “Nothing wrong with having another hobby! Also, it’s a duck themed hotel! What’s not fun about that?!”

Scarlett started to laugh, and the zombie was still laughing as she walked past them, heading inside.

Turney sighed—the brat. At a tap on his shoulder, he glanced over at a smiling Theo. The man was standing there, holding the fancy cat car seat with Sprinkle in it.

“Scarlett just went inside to get a cart for our luggage. Why don’t you and Octavius get us checked in, while we finish unloading and move the van?”

His brow rose at that. It was a bit noisy, with a lot of people running to and from the hotel. While the overwhelming majority were humans, there were a few scents that were ‘other’. Some sort of paranormals that he couldn’t quite place, a few vampires, witches, and so on.

Regardless of what, or rather who, it was busy. Add in it being a completely new place, and he had a hard time imagining Theo unpacking the van comfortably. “Are you planning to help them?”

“My plan is to stay out of the way and…” Theo smirked. “Supervise.”

“Have fun,” he snorted.

After handing the van keys to the silent but very amused Min-ji, Turney ushered the smug vampire inside.

The lobby was vast, with more stone-carved walls, and bronze metal duck-themed floors, alongside a scattering of couches and chairs, with dark-blue rugs underneath them.

In the center of the lobby was a giant bronze fountain, with bubbles and rubber ducks spitting water. A small pond, that had a bubbled blue stone bridge over it, was towards the far-right corner, and appeared to lead off to elevators, based on the signs. Between them and the check-in desk, to the right of the door, was a huge crowd.

“Oh, look at that!” Octavius squealed.

Turney looped his arm around the vampire’s waist, as he tried to take off towards the admittedly adorable ducky fountain.

“Later, you hyperactive bat that…” He sniffed, and caught the powdery, sickly-sweet smell of… “Pixie sticks! You had pixie sticks, you little sneak!”

The vampire stiffened in his hold, no longer pulling. “No…I did not have that…”

“I can smell them on you!” he growled.

“No, no, dear Turney.” Octavius turned in his hold and patted his chest.

He glared.

The vampire just smiled and pressed on with his bullshit. “You are imagining things.” The man smoothed his hands over Turney’s chest. “Now…why…uhh…don’t we…uhh…check in! Yes, let’s check in!”

Octavius spun out of his hold and fled, like the little candy drinking fiend that he was. The brat…

Sighing, he followed. Having to squeeze through the sizable crowd in the lobby, by the time he made it to the check-in desk, Octavius was already talking to someone there, so he just slid up behind him without a word.

The check-in and information desk was curved and bronze, with relief sculptures of rubber ducks on the side. The hotel workers were dressed in old fashioned bellhop type outfits, but instead of red, black, and gold, they were baby blue, white, and bronze. The buttons were small bronze rubber ducks. Even their hats had embroidered bronze ducks on the band.

It was cute…very cute, which just described all that he’d seen of the hotel so far. It made him smile, to be honest, and he wanted to go ‘aww’ every few seconds, whenever he saw some new detail. But he wasn’t going to do that…as he was in public… Control yourself, Turney. Control , he thought with a wince.

Turney glanced to the right as someone started yelling.

“How do THREE executive suite room reservations just DISAPPEAR?!” a red-faced man, he believed to be human, bellowed.

His brow rose at that, and being nosy, Turney kept on listening.

“I am sorry, sir,” the woman he was speaking to stressed. “But they are nowhere in our system.”

“MY confirmation is right HERE!” The man shook some papers at her.

“Jarold, calm down,” the woman next to him whisper-yelled, eyeing him, and everyone else, furtively with a wince.

“I AM CALM!” Jarold bellowed, before taking a deep breath. “Fine…you don’t have our original rooms, then get us three different ones.”

The worker’s pinched expression told Turney that the human was not going to like what she had to say. “Unfortunately…there are no other rooms… We are…fully booked.”

Turney’s brow rose at that. No rooms? Had they just been lucky then? Or had they sold out recently? His gaze flicked to the hotel lobby. It was busy, busy. Odd, since they managed to get three rooms so easily at the last minute.

“WHAT?!” the man roared. The hotel worker cringed back.

He grimaced, thinking it was time for him to step in when Octavius suddenly looked over, and sharply hissed, “Would you shut up!? How is a person supposed to answer questions with you bellowing like an ignorant child?! Also, the audacity to speak to someone that way! Do you know her?!”

The man, seemingly startled by the confrontation, looked over and sputtered, “Kn-know her?”

Octavius waved at the poor woman he’d been yelling at. “The hotel worker, do you know her?!”

The human hurriedly shook his head.

“Has she personally wronged you?”

Jarold shook his head again.

“So, not only do you not know her, but she hasn’t wronged you in any way, and is, in fact, trying to help. What in the world made you think it was acceptable to speak to her in such a manner?” Octavius snapped, before adding, “Not that knowing her would, in any way, make it okay for you to talk to her in that way.”

The human sputtered for a few moments, before looking around, seeming to finally be embarrassed enough to grab the hand of the woman who was with him and rush away.

Turney smiled and, wrapping his arms around Octavius, he kissed his cheek. “Love you.”

It was hard to not love a man who would stick up for strangers. Or…more likely, his boyfriend had just…gotten annoyed by the man yelling, and had found it too difficult to concentrate… Oh well, he loved him either way…

Octavius kissed him back, rubbing his nose against his before chuckling. “Love you too. Now…” The vampire turned back to the desk with a smile. “Where were we?”

“Duck, duck, duck, duck!!!” Octavius squealed happily as he skipped through the room. “It’s so cool, and on THEME!”

The floors were covered with a plush mid-blue tone carpet, and the walls were a shiny bronze color that looked like metal. As you came into the room, there was a small kitchenette, along with a rounded, bronze, rectangular dining table, and four plush, light-blue circular chairs with armrests. All the cooking electronics in the kitchenette were bronze, while the upper and lower cabinets, along with the hood over the stove, seemed to be made up of piles of bubbles.

“Hehe,” he giggled, as he pulled on one of the small, bronze rubber duck handles and peaked inside. Finding nothing, he skipped forward into the living room.

There was even more bubble-themed stuff in there. A carved bubble TV stand with drawers, a large light-blue plushy L-shaped bubble sectional, and there was even a small, perfectly round end table behind it. On the end table sat an adorable, rubber duck shaped, bronze lamp with a white lampshade.

Continuing the adorableness of it all, the coffee table’s base was made up of multiple bronze ducks. Underneath the area was a rectangular black rug, with a bronze rubber duck pattern on it.

Running his hand over the coffee table, he skipped on. Heading past the door to the right of the kitchen, he found the bedroom. Inside, he found another black rug, a TV, a bubble desk, a blue chair, and a duck lamp against the wall, to the left of the door.

Octavius launched himself at the large four-poster king-sized bed that was across from the TV, giggling as he landed onto the fluffy baby-blue comforter, and into the pile of small blue and bronze pillows.

He looked up and stared at the curved bronze headboard, his eyes tracing the relief sculpture depicting bubbles, suds and ducks. His gaze flicked to the two bubble nightstands with duck lamps on either side, before moving over to the large bubble wardrobe against the wall.

Rolling onto his back, uncaring as pillows toppled off the bed, he let out a laugh of delight when he caught sight of the bronze rubber ducky chandelier hanging down from the black ceiling. It was so intricate, despite being made of many, many metal rubber ducks…intricate and fancy.

Hopping off the bed, he headed to the other door, to the right of the bed, nearest the wardrobe, and found the bathroom. Eyeing the bronze-colored tub-shower combo and bubble sinks, he quickly got bored. He did have to say, he enjoyed the fact that the faucets were all duck heads. Hell, he loved all he had seen so far, even if he’d never, ever put any of it in his house…or Scarlett’s…

Okay, he’d maybe put up the duck chandelier…and the cute, duck-related artwork on the wall. Well, they were duck-related, as in, they’d taken famous paintings and replaced the people with ducks.

Rushing past the bed, and a small table and chair near the balcony door, he slid it open and ran outside. Octavius let out an excited squeal when he spun and saw the hot tub.

Looking toward the door, when Turney walked into the bedroom with a few of their suitcases, he cried, “Turney! Come look at the hot tub! IT’S A DUCK WITH BUBBLES!”

Well, it looked like a duck was immersed in bubbles, with its bronze head looking back. Water had to come from its mouth, right?!

The zombie set the bags aside and came over, peaking out at the balcony. “It’s very cute,” Turney chuckled. “And just a bit odd.”

The man backed up, letting him come inside, and Octavius closed the door behind him.

“Ohh, I bet the rest of the park is just as cool! Let’s go! Let’s go!” He bounced where he stood, shaking the brochure he’d been given at the front desk in the zombie's face.

“Pixie sticks hitting hard, huh?” the zombie stated in a monotony voice.

He blinked and gave the man an innocent smile…before lying. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Mmhmm.” Crossing his arms, Turney said, “Let’s get everything into the room, and then we can decide what we are all going to do, before just running off.”

Octavius heaved out a sigh of discontent. “You and your planning.”

“Go, go.” Turney shooed him. “You’re the one who takes the longest, since you always insist on unpacking your bags.”

He pouted. “Fine!”

Setting the brochure down on the bed, he rushed through the room and out into the hall, and started helping everyone unload the luggage cart. The quicker they were unloaded, the sooner he could be on his fun, duck-filled vacation.

When, finally, all of the bags and suitcases were where they should be, and he’d hung up and unpacked all his clothing, to prevent the horrible thing called wrinkling, everyone gathered in Octavius and Turney’s room to discuss their plans.

Sitting behind the coffee table, facing the others, who were on the couch, Octavius cleared his throat, and spread out the brochure on the table. Flipping it to the map side, he pointed at each location as he mentioned it.

“So, there is the hotel, which is where we are now. Only a minute’s walk behind it is the convention center, where there are a whole bunch of panels, the Ducktective marketplace and more.

“The water park and adventure park, however, are not exactly in walking distance, which is fine, as they can be reached, either by us driving, or really, the better option, by taking the duck shuttle.

“To note, while the water park is duck themed, with a couple restaurants inside, and plenty of rides and watery fun, it is not Ducktective themed. Meanwhile the adventure park has been adjusted to fit the current convention going on this week, with many rides, restaurants, shops, and more.”

He flipped to the page of restaurants. “With it being just past noon, and lunch time, the obvious choice is that we eat. As it is our first official meal on vacation, well…again, the obvious choice is that we try to get a table at the…” He smiled brightly at the others, before dramatically announcing, “The Ducktastic Murder Mystery Dining Theatre Extravaganza, located in the adventure park!!”

A very elaborate name. A mouthful, but elaborate! Octavius appreciated the effort, and the grandness of the name.

As his gaze slipped from the blank expression on Scarlett’s face, to the grimace on Min-ji’s, and then to the hesitant smile on Theo’s, by the time he looked to Turney, who appeared to be genuinely smiling, his own grin remained in place due to perseverance alone.

“Don’t you think it’s the obvious choice?!” he pouted.

“For you,” Scarlett drawled traitorously. “We ate a few hours ago. I think I’d rather head to the water park.”

“Sounds good to me,” Min-ji, traitor number two, agreed.

Octavius huffed and let out a whine. “And you, Theo?”

Theo wrinkled his nose. “As…fun as that sounds, it also hints at most likely being loud and crowded…and requiring quite a bit of maneuvering around people on my part. I think, for today, I’d rather just relax and hang out by the hotel pool…”

He let out a louder whine. Turning to Turney, he popped his bottom lip out. “You’ll go with me, won’t you?! It’s a murder mystery…it will be funnn!”

Turney chuckled, his smile widening. “Yes, I’ll go with you.”

“YAY!” He glanced at the traitors, shooing them away. “You all may go.”

Scarlett snorted, but all three quickly left.

“Now! Let me reserve our table on the app, and then we can be off!” He pulled his phone out of his right trouser pocket, flipping his cute purple phone open.

“App… What app?” Turney asked with a raised brow.

Octavius blinked. “Oh, well, it's the app that the email had me download, of course!” The zombie’s face was oddly pinched. “Why…are you making that face?”

Turney sighed. “Nothing… Just do what you’re going to do.”

He tilted his head. “I…will? Oh, you should change!”

“Change?”

Octavius nodded. “So we match!”

He’d packed the man’s double-breasted, navy-brown checkered tweed plaid suit. Well, he’d packed the trousers, waistcoat, and off white, brown-striped dress shirt… Turney didn’t tend to wear the rest, so there would have been no point in bringing it. Either way, it would go perfectly with the brown tweed Octavius was wearing.

The zombie groaned. “I just knew all of those suits weren’t yours…”

He giggled. “Smart zombie bun bun! Change!”

Turney rolled his eyes. “Fine…but you should lose the jacket. Even if it is technically cold out, you’ll be way too overdressed.”

Octavius frowned and glanced down at his suit jacket… Adjusting his navy tie, he tsked. Turney…wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, he supposed…