Vampire Lodge (15 page)

He quickly rummaged around through the
kitchen, found no flashlight. Then he went to the utility room, and
there, hanging right in the wall was a big, foot-long
flashlight.

Perfect!
he thought.

And there was no chance of getting
caught.

Bill and Wally are
outside, looking for The Count’s coffin
.

So at least he was safe for the time
being.

Kevin flicked the flashlight on, to
make sure it worked. It offered a big, bright beam of light, and
that’s just what he needed. Then—

Is this really a good
idea?
he asked himself in a last moment of
reluctance.

Then, with his heart suddenly
increasing its beat, he stepped into the back hallway behind the
kitchen, and approached the panel that led to the secret
room…

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

It seemed colder this time,
and darker even with the bright flashlight. He clicked open the
wall panel on which hung the painting entitled
The Count Comes Ashore.
The panel
creaked as it swung open, showing him the jet-black corridor. He
didn’t waste time. Armed now with a bright flashlight instead of a
feeble candle, he boldly strode to the door, pulled it open, and
entered the secret room.

The first thing he noticed didn’t
surprise him. The bloody rag he’d seen last night under the wooden
table—

It’s not here now,
he saw.

But of course it wasn’t. Less than an
hour ago, he’d seen Bill Bitner out in the woods, using the rag to
wipe off his hands after he painted the bloody cross on that forked
tree.

But the rest of the room looked
unchanged. Kevin swung the wide, bright flashlight beam over every
corner. The room was the same as it had been last night. The box of
wooden stakes was still here, and so were the two hammers, and
there were a few other boxes full of cleaning supplies. But there
was one thing he remembered:

The desk.

The desk was still here too, sitting
against the back wall. It was a big antique rolltop desk, and the
top was closed. This would definitely be worth checking
out.

The desk’s top clattered as he rolled
it open. Then he shined his flashlight down and saw—

A… book?

He leaned forward, tilting
the flashlight.
Yeah, it’s a book,
he noticed, squinting down. The book lay open on
the table. And it looked very old.

Kevin reached out and touched it. The
pages felt thick but very brittle; he thought that if he picked the
book up, it might actually crumble in his hands, and the cover,
too, looked old and crumbly, like leather that was made a years and
years ago. He knew he had to be careful with it, but he had no
choice. He had to close the book so he could see its title on the
cover.

Careful, careful,
he instructed himself, slowly raising one edge of
the book’s cover. The spine made a faint crackling noise, but after
several long moments he was able to get the book partly closed,
keeping his finger inside so he wouldn’t lose the page it was
opened to. If he lost the page, he knew, Bill Bitner would know
that Kevin had been in here.

Kevin squinted. The letters
on the book’s covered appeared just slightly darker than the cover
itself.
Come on,
 Kevin thought.
What does it
say?

The first thing he recognized, right
at the top of the book, was the date:

1899

So this book really was
old.
Over a hundred years,
he thought. But below the date were letters, and
these, he knew, must spell out the title.

Eventually, as Kevin focused his eyes
more precisely, he was able to read the dark letters on the book
cover—

—
and when he did so, he
sucked in a long, loud breath of astonishment.

My… gosh,
he thought. He squinted harder, to make sure his
eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
I
don’t believe it…

First there was a symbol, a fancy
circle with the letter V in the middle. And Kevin remembered at
once that this was the same symbol he’d seen imprinted on the
collar button of The Count’s cape, on the painting he’d seen in his
aunt’s room last night.

Then his eyes flicked lower, to the
book’s title.

The title read:

The Diary of Count
Volkov

Kevin’s skin prickled at the
discovery, and then he realized what must’ve happened. Aunt Carolyn
said that Count Volkov had kept a diary, but he’d hidden it
somewhere, and he never told the townspeople where it was before
they chained him up in his coffin and buried it. But—

Somehow, Aunt Carolyn
found it,
Kevin concluded.
That’s probably why she bought the lodge in the
first place, because she already knew about the legend, and she
already knew that the diary was hidden somewhere around here. And
she also knew that the location of The Count’s treasure was written
down in the diary too.

Kevin’s hands trembled as he carefully
reopened the book to the page it had been opened at. He held the
flashlight close and made out the lines of tight, cursive
handwriting.

Count Volkov’s
handwriting,
he thought in a grim and very
creepy reminder.

But even with the flashlight, the
letters were hard to read. The paper had yellowed over the last
hundred years, and the ink itself had faded and turned brown. Kevin
squinted so hard his eyes began to hurt, but after a short time he
was able to read the last few lines in the diary:

And the curs’d townsfolk,
I fear, are beginning to suspect what I truly am, just as my
rebellious underlings did when I was forced to leave my homeland.
My servants here are weak and so few in number. An uprising of the
townsfolk would easily overpower them, and if such an uprising
occurred during the hours of sunlight, when I must lay dead in my
coffin till dusk, I would be at their mercy. They could destroy me
with their crosses and wooden stakes, or worse, bury deep in the
ground, where I would be powerless to escape…

Kevin’s eyes went
wide.
And that’s exactly what they did,
Count,
he thought.
They chained your coffin shut and buried you, and you’re down
there in the ground somewhere, right now… still alive…

Kevin let a chill pass, then read the
last line:

Indeed, I feel in my evil
heart that time is growing oh so short. I may be dead on the
morrow, or buried alive. But at least these curs’d townsfolk will
not be able to profit from my end, for my treasure of gold is
safely hidden at the forked tree, and to insure that it will never
be found I must hide this diary too, and hide it well.

And those were the last written words
of Count Volkov. No doubt he’d hidden the diary then, and shortly
afterwards, the townspeople had buried him in his coffin, during
the day when he was powerless to stop them. The Count had predicted
his own end. But—

‘—
for my treasure of gold
is safely hidden at the forked tree,’
Kevin
recited The Count’s words in his mind.

The forked
tree…

Now Kevin was really
confused.

He understood the part about the
forked trees; he’d seen Bill and Wally digging at several forked
trees just in the last day. But—

Now I get it,
he thought.

It wasn’t Count Volkov’s coffin that
Aunt Carolyn had ordered Bill and Wally to find, it was the gold
treasure itself!

But this realization, now,
left him confused.
If they’re not trying
to find The Count’s coffin, why the wooden stakes, and why the red
crosses in blood?

Confusion, it seemed, was
quickly becoming a part of Kevin’s life. And figuring out what was
really going on still didn’t solve any of his problems. He’d spent
enough time back here. There were still other things he needed to
do, like right now, and the first thing on the list was find Jimmy
and Becky. His worst fear was beginning to turn solid.
I’ll bet Aunt Carolyn ordered Bill and Wally to
abduct them, so she can turn them into vampires…

And she probably wants to
turn
me
into one
too!

He left the secret room, closed the
door behind him. When he made it back out to the hearth room,
before the crackling fire, he stopped and tried to figure out what
to do next. But at that same instant, he heard
something—

What was it?

A rumble of some kind, like
a—

Like a car engine!
he realized, and the sound was coming from out
front. He dashed to the window, peeked out, and saw—

No!
he thought in terror.

He’d been right, but he wished he
hadn’t.

A car was driving slowly
through the court in front of the lodge. An old car. An old
blue
car—

Wally’s car!
Kevin recognized.

Then it turned out and began to drive
away.

But when it had driven by, Kevin
noticed that not only was Wally in it, driving, but Becky and Jimmy
were in the car with him—

I was right! He’s
abducting them, taking them to Aunt Carolyn, to turn them into
vampires!

CHAPTER THIRTY

Kevin bravely dashed
outside. He knew the odds were against him, but he had to do
something. He couldn’t just stand back and let Wally take Jimmy and
his sister to Aunt Carolyn. He kept the flashlight with him; it was
long and made of metal, and he could use it as a weapon.
If I can make it to the car before they turn out
of the court, then maybe I can knock Wally out with the flashlight
and save Jimmy and Becky…

It was a longshot, but what else could
he do, with his father and Mr. Grimaldi gone, and the phone lines
dead?

It was chilly out, but the storm had
stopped. The clouds had moved off, and even the sun was shining
bright. Kevin dashed frantically across the court, shouting, “Hey,
hey! Wait!”

And then the car stopped.

In the back window, Kevin could see
Jimmy and Becky looking back. But the strange thing was, they
didn’t look scared at all, and they sure didn’t look like they were
being abducted.

Then the driver’s door opened… and
Wally got out.

Kevin held the flashlight
behind him.
Get ready,
he warned himself.
You’ll only get
one chance…

But Wally only frowned back, shielding
his eyes from the sudden bright sunlight. And he didn’t look
menacing at all. “Where have you been?” he asked.

Then Jimmy and Becky got out of the
car too.

“
You doughhead! We’ve been
looking all over for you!” Becky griped, her usual self.

“
Whuh—what?” Kevin replied
in confusion.

“
Yeah,” Jimmy said. “After
your kite blew away in the storm, I went looking for you but I
couldn’t find you. So I came back to the lodge and told your
aunt.”

“
Aunt Carolyn?” Kevin said.
“You mean she was here, at the lodge? During the day?”

“
Well of course she was,
you stupe,” Becky said with her arms crossed. “Where did you think
she’d be?”

“
I—” Kevin said.

“
We’ve been driving around
for over an hour, trying to find you,” Jimmy added.

Well, so much for Kevin’s
abduction plot. But still, there were plenty of things that weren’t
right around here.
Aunt Carolyn,
he thought just then.
She’s a vampire, and once I prove it to them then—

But before Kevin could even finish the
thought, the passenger door on Wally’s car thunked open.

Kevin looked up, completely
astonished.

It was Aunt Carolyn who’d gotten out
of the car. And here she stood now, right in front of
him.

“
Kevin!” she exclaimed.
“What on earth has gotten into you? We’ve been worried sick! We
thought you fell off the bluff!”

“
I—” Kevin said, but that
was about it. What could he say now? Aunt Carolyn was standing
right in front of him, right now, in broad daylight. Overhead, the
clouds parted even further, and the sunlight beamed right down into
her face, yet here she was, unaffected.
Vampires can’t be in sunlight,
Kevin
realized. Then he realized something else.

I was wrong. She’s
not
a vampire. She can’t
be…

“
I-I thought you were a
vampire,” he said next.

“
Kevin!” Aunt Carolyn
exclaimed.

“
What a nitwit!” Becky
laughed. “You’re like the Three Stooges all wrapped up in one! I
can’t wait to tell dad about this!”