Vampire Lodge (14 page)

“
What luck!” he exclaimed
aloud to himself.

There was his black bat
kite, lying right there in the middle of the road. When he picked
it up, he noticed that the wooden crossbar was broken, but that was
no big deal.
I can fix that easy,
he thought. And the rest of the kite looked in
good shape, no tears or rips in the wings, no places where the
material had detached.
Great,
he thought.

Then he looked up, noticed something…
strange.

Right next to him was a
tall forked tree, a tree with two trunks sprouting from one
root.
The same kind of tree we saw Wally
digging near yesterday,
he remembered. He
also noticed that the dirt right in front of the tree was churned
up, as though someone had dug a hole there and then covered it up.
And he noticed something else:

Kevin dropped his kite as he stared in
frightened amazement.

On one of the tree’s forked
trunks, there was a sloppy red symbol. At once Kevin
realized,
Someone painted that symbol on
the tree. But… what is it?

Then it dawned on him, and a shudder
coursed up his spine.

It’s a cross,
he thought.
A cross
painted… in blood!

Kevin slowly backed away from the
forked tree, his hands shaking. What had Aunt Carolyn said last
night during her story? That villagers in olden times had painted
crosses on their doors, in blood—

To keep vampires
away!
he thought in alarm.

This was too much. He turned, leaving
his kite on the dirt road, and ran. He wasn’t even sure where he
was running to, as the rain pelted the forest and the lightning
cracked. It was fear more than anything else that urged him to run,
to get away, anywhere…

Then he slowed down,
noticing a sound over the rain. He stopped, peering through the
trees. Just around the corner he noticed an old faded blue
car.
Wally’s car,
Kevin realized. He’d seen it yesterday. And sure enough, here
was Wally again, digging a hole in the ground with a big shovel,
the rain beating down on his shoulders, and—

Another forked
tree!
Kevin saw.

Yes, Wally was digging a hole in front
of yet another forked tree, just like he’d been doing yesterday,
and just like the tree Kevin had seen a minute ago, with the cross
painted on it in blood. Kevin stepped away as quietly as he could;
he didn’t want Wally to see him. So he squeezed through some more
trees and only moments later—

What
is
this!

—
found himself standing in
the middle of still another dirt road.

And that’s when he saw the truck. An
old, dented pickup truck. And—

Bill Bitner standing next to it,
holding a shovel!

Kevin stepped behind a fat
oak tree, so Bill wouldn’t see him. Bowed down in the rain then,
Bill—
clang!
—tossed
the shovel into the back of his pickup truck and then seemed to be
approaching a specific tree, while carrying a bucket. Kevin
immediately noticed that the dirt at the foot of the tree was all
churned up, too—

As though someone had dug a hole there
and then filled it right back up. And when Kevin peered more
closely, he noticed something else.

Another forked
tree…

And, next—

Bill Bitner, frowning as always, set
the bucket down, and when he did so, Kevin could easily make out
its scarlet contents:

Blood,
he saw.
A bucket full of…
blood!

It came as no surprise when Bill
Bitner next withdrew an old paint brush, dipped it in the bucket,
and painted a big bloody cross on one of the forked tree’s
trunks…

Then he put the bucket back in the
truck and wiped his red hands off on a rag, which Kevin realized
was probably the same bloody rag he’d seen in the secret room last
night.

Kevin trembled, not from
the cold and the rain, but from total fear. He didn’t know what to
do! If he ran, Bill would see him.
Back
out slowly, quietly,
Kevin logically
thought.
Then get away from this
place.

But when he proceeded to do so, taking
his first step backward—

snap!

—
his heel came down on a
branch, and the branch snapped very loudly.

Kevin froze.

Bill Bitner looked up at the sudden
sound, then he looked straight at Kevin, and then—

Oh, nooooo,
Kevin thought.

—
Bill Bitner marched
straight for the tree Kevin was standing behind…

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

I’m caught now!
Kevin thought.
I’m dead
meat!

He did the only thing he could think
to do: he ducked down very quickly, hunkered over to one side
behind the tree, and kept his fingers crossed. Bill Bitner’s
crunching footsteps soundly wetly over the leaves in the road.
Kevin didn’t dare look up; all he could do was remain squatted down
as much as possible. A second later, Bill’s vague shadow fell
across the area just to Kevin’s left. The shadow stood still. Then
Bill said, “Daggit. I could’ve sworn I heard something back
here.”

A few seconds ticked by but they
seemed like minutes. Kevin was so scared, he feared his teeth might
start chattering, and his heart felt like it might burst right then
and there.

But then, to his relief, Bill walked
back to his truck, got in it, and drove away.

Holy smokes, am I
lucky!
Kevin thought, releasing.
He didn’t see me after all!

He waited a good five
minutes before he dared leave; he wanted to make sure that Bill was
far away. The lightning was still flashing, and the rain was still
coming down, but not quite as hard as before.
The first thing I have to do,
he told
himself,
is go back to the bluffs and find
Jimmy.

He trotted back down the path, and in
only a few minutes, he was back at the bluffs. He gazed out, his
eyes roving back and forth across the long grassy field before the
safety fence. But—

No Jimmy! There was no sign of him
anywhere!

Where could he have
gone?

But there was no point in
standing here worrying about it.
He
probably went back to the lodge,
Kevin
deduced.
And that’s just what I’m going to
do.

He jogged back to the path, then
followed its way back through the woods. Thunder rumbled in the sky
as he made his way; by now, he was soaked, and his sneakers
squished with each step. But it didn’t take long before he was back
at the lodge.

He rushed through the big front door
into the foyer.

“
Jimmy?” he called out.
“Are you here?”

Kevin’s voice echoed back, but there
was no answer.

“
Becky?”

No reply.

“
Aunt Carolyn?” he called
out even more loudly.

But, again, no reply.

Where is
everybody?

He dashed up the stairs, quickly
checked his room, then Becky’s. Both were empty. Then he stormed
back downstairs and checked every room, the hearth room, the
kitchen, the dining room and the den.

No one’s here,
he realized with a strange, low feeling in his
gut.
The lodge is empty…

But of course Aunt Carolyn
wouldn’t be around.
She’s a
vampire,
he remembered.
She’s probably sleeping in her coffin somewhere.
But what of Jimmy and Becky? Where would they be,
especially on a day like today?
They can’t
be outside. In this storm? They’d be crazy! They could get struck
by lightning!

Kevin, having nothing else to do,
wandered around a little. Eventually he came back to the hearth
room and sat down on one of the couches. At least it was warm in
here. A big, crackling fire was burning in the fireplace. He tried
to collect his thoughts, and in a few minutes, his confusion began
to pass.

I’ve got to figure out
what’s going on around here,
he determined
himself.

Then, very simply, he thought the
single word:

Vampires.

In his mind, he made up a list of
everything he’d discovered. The paintings. The wooden stakes. The
bloody crosses. In one way or another, they all referred to one
thing.

Vampires,
he thought again.

Aunt Carolyn was a vampire;
he was sure of this now. Awake at night, never to be seen during
the day, never outside in the sun. There could be no other answer.
And vampires always had helpers or servants to do their work for
them.
Bill Bitner and Wally,
Kevin thought.
Digging in
the woods with shovels.

But what were they digging
for?

Becky had said something, hadn’t she?
This morning? She’d said that they were searching for a broken
underground water pipe. That was ridiculous! Water pipes would
never have been put out in the middle of the woods! And all at
once, Kevin finally realized what Bill and Wally must be digging
for…

They’re looking for Count
Volkov,
he thought.
They know he’s buried on the grounds somewhere.

But why? Why would they want to dig up
a vampire?

Because Aunt Carolyn
ordered them to,
he concluded.
Bill and Wally are her servants, and she must’ve
ordered them to try to find Count Volkov’s coffin.

But, again, why?

Kevin thought about this. Why would
Aunt Carolyn, a vampire, want to dig up Count Volkov, another
vampire?

Then the answer came to
him.

Because she wants The
Count’s treasure!

It made perfect sense! Aunt
Carolyn didn’t have enough money to keep the lodge open, so she
wanted to find Count Volkov’s treasure of gold bricks. But,
according to the legend, The Count wrote down the location of the
gold bricks in his diary but then he
hid
the diary and never told anyone
where it was. After that, the townspeople had chained up The
Count’s coffin one day and then buried it. With Count Volkov
still alive
inside—

So that’s why Aunt Carolyn
is having Bill and Wally dig holes all over the place, to find
Count Volkov’s coffin, and that’s why they’re digging only when
it’s raining, because vampires can’t cross running water—or rain!
And when they find The Count’s coffin, they’ll bring it back to the
lodge so Aunt Carolyn can open it and threaten to kill The Count
with a wooden stake if he doesn’t tell her where the gold is
buried! And after he does tell her, she’ll kill him anyway, to keep
all the gold for herself, and she’ll probably kill Bill and Wally
too, because vampires always eventually kill their servants, and
she might also kill—

Kevin gulped as his flurry of thoughts
stopped short.

She might also kill
us,
he thought in pure dread.
Or worse, she might turn us into vampires
too…

And with that terrifying idea came
another thought:

Jimmy and Becky. They’re
not here. So… where are they?

Now Kevin was so confused he couldn’t
think straight at all now. But if he was sure of anything, he was
sure of this:

We’re all in
danger…

Then:

Call the
police!

By now, there was no other
choice. But would the police believe him?
Are they going to believe a story like this from a kid my
age? That my aunt’s a vampire?

Probably not, but what other choice
did he have? Kevin got up then, went to the empty kitchen. His
father had always taught him that in emergencies all he had to do
was pick up the phone and dial 911. Then the police would
come.

And that’s what I have to
do now.

He picked up the phone, punched in
911, then put the phone to his ear… and winced.

Aw, no, I should’ve
known.

The phone was dead. Aunt Carolyn
must’ve anticipated this, and ordered Bill or Wally to cut the
phone lines. There was no way to contact anyone…

Kevin supposed he could leave, just
walk out of the lodge right now and keep on walking until a
motorist passed. But his parents had always taught him to never
take rides from strangers, and, besides, it would probably take him
hours to get to a main road on foot. So he guessed the only thing
he had left to do was continue with his investigation, get all the
proof he could, so that when his father came back, he’d believe
him.

The secret room,
he thought. He planned to return, with better
light.
That’s what I can do now, go back
there, check it out some more. There’s got to be more evidence back
there.