Vampire Lodge

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