Edward Lee - Vampire Lodge

“Yeah,” Kevin replied, but that’s all he said. If he got to talking about it, he might wind up telling Jimmy everything, and he still didn’t think that would be too smart.

“Hey, look at this!” Jimmy exclaimed and rushed forward. Just off the path stood an old rickety wooden shed, with its front door hanging open. “I wonder what it is.”

“Just some old tool shed probably,” Kevin wearily guessed.

“Let’s go in.”

“Naw, we probably shouldn’t. That old thing looks like it’s going to fall down any second.”

Jimmy smirked. “What are you? Chicken all of a sudden? Let’s go inside, check it out.”

Before Kevin could object further, Jimmy was entering the shed, and Kevin, having no choice, followed him. The inside of the shed smelled musty, and it was very damp. “See?” Kevin said. “Big deal. It’s just some old shed.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Jimmy concurred. “But—”

“But what?”

Jimmy’s head tilted. “What’s that sound?”

“I don’t hear any—” But before Kevin could finish the sentence, he stopped, listened. And, yes, he did hear something. Something like a tiny squeaking sound?

“Sounds like baby birds chirping,” Jimmy observed. He looked up at the ceiling of the shed. “Bet there’s a bird nest up there somewhere.”

“Naw, there wouldn’t be a bird nest here, not this late in the season,” Kevin informed him. “It’s too cold, it’s almost winter. Birds don’t nest this time of year, they fly south.”

“Oh,” Jimmy said. He scratched his head. “Then what is it?” And, next, from his jacket pocket, he withdrew a small flashlight.

“Cool,” Kevin said. “Where’d you get that?”

“This flashlight? I don’t know. But I always carry it around in case I need a light.” And as the strange chirping sound persisted, he turned on the flashlight’s bright beam, aimed it up at the shed’s ceiling, and—

“Oh, man, gross!” Kevin exclaimed.

“Let’s get out of here!” Jimmy yelled, and with that, they both pounded out of the shed. Because what they’d seen up there on the old ceiling was at least a dozen bats, hanging upside-down by their feet. And in the brief flashlight beam, Kevin had been able to notice their faces looking down at them: tiny squashed, brown faces that twitched, their little mouths stretched open, showing rows of needle-sharp teeth.

“Wow,” Jimmy said, winded, once they got back outside. “Did you see all those bats?”

“Yeah,” Kevin said. “They sure are ugly.”

“You’re not kidding. But what were they doing there, all huddled together upside-down?”

“They were sleeping,” Kevin explained. “They sleep upside-down, in dark places, hanging by their feet.”

“They sleep in the morning?” Jimmy asked, astonished.

“Yeah, that’s what bats do. They’re nocturnal. That means they sleep during the day so they can be awake all night.”

“Wow,” Jimmy muttered again, the shock now worn off. “Just like vampires.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Yeah, Kevin thought, trudging on back down the path with Jimmy. Just like vampires .

And then came another thought:

Just like Count Volkov and… Aunt Carolyn…

The bats were just another reminder of all the weird things he’d found out, and this only reminded him of the dilemma he was in. If he told anybody, no one would probably believe him, and Aunt Carolyn, along with her servants Bill and Wally, would know he was onto them.

And who knew what would happen then?

What would they do? he wondered. What would Aunt Carolyn do if she knew I’d found out that she’s a vampire?

Maybe nothing. Or maybe—

Or maybe she’d turn me into a vampire too, he considered.

“Here we are,” Jimmy announced as the path finally opened up into the flat field overlooking the ocean. “The bluffs!”

“Yeah,” Kevin said without much enthusiasm.

“We beat the rain. With any luck we should be able to fly our kites for a while before it starts again.”

“Yeah,” Kevin said.

Jimmy set his box kite down, took out his spool of string, and connected it to the corner of his kite. Kevin feebly began to do the same.

“Hey, man?” Jimmy said, looking over. “What’s eating you?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve been acting weird all morning, and you’ve barely said a thing.”

“Oh, well, I’m just tired, that’s all,” Kevin made the excuse. That was about all he could think to say. He couldn’t very well tell Jimmy the rest, now could he?

“Well, I’m ready,” Jimmy said. “Here goes!” And then Jimmy, holding his spool tightly, took off running across the bluff. Instantly, his box kite launched off the ground and, seconds later, it was climbing high into the air. “Come on, slow-poke!” Jimmy called out. “Get yours up! This is great!”

Yeah, great, Kevin thought. My aunt’s a vampire, and here I am flying kites like I don’t have a worry in the world. He took off running himself then, and in a few seconds his kite, too, was airborne. The black plastic wings of his bat kite flapped violently, but once the wind took a solid hold, Kevin was able to stop, looking up at the cloudy sky. He slowly unreeled more string from his spool, and his kite climbed higher. To his left, the fence at the edge of the bluff stretched on, and he could hear the waves crashing against the rocks down below on the beach. Higher and higher, his kite sailed, its bat-shape looking down at him with its two evil red eyes and fanged mouth.

“This is great, isn’t it!” Jimmy’s kite had climbed twice as high as Kevin’s.

I guess I’m just not into it today, Kevin realized.

In the next moment, though, his string jerked suddenly in his hand, and a big gust of wind blew into him hard from behind. At once, both kites began churning violently back and forth in the air. And above them, they could see the sky turning dark as rain clouds quickly moved in.

“The storm’s coming back!” Jimmy yelled.

“We have to reel our kites in quick or we’ll lose them!” Kevin yelled back in reply, his hair suddenly blowing every which way in the fierce wind of the oncoming storm.

His wrists moved frantically as he reeled in his bat kite which was now pitching so wide to either side he thought it might actually crash into the ground. But Jimmy struggled worse; his box kite was spinning uncontrollably. But then—

snap!

Kevin’s line broke.

“Aw, drat!” he exclaimed.

And his kite took off on its own, soaring unevenly toward the forest where it eventually disappeared into the treetops.

“I’ve got to go try to get it!” he yelled to Jimmy over the wind, and then he took off running just as giant raindrops began to splatter on his face. Thunder rumbled overhead, and lightning began to crackle. Boy, are we morons, he thought, dashing into the path. I should’ve known this would happen. At that same instant, the sky broke open, pouring hard sheets of rain. Kevin had made it into the woods just in time. He trotted down the path, in the direction of where he guessed his kite had landed. With my luck, he thought, it’ll be hung up in the trees and I’ll never get it down. He trotted on, realizing that, this deep in the woods, he’d probably never find the kite, and even if he did, he’d never be able to reach it. But just then he noticed a road through the trees, more than likely the same road he and Jimmy had seen yesterday when they’d gotten lost. So he squeezed through the trees, stepped out onto the dirt road, and—

“What luck!” he exclaimed aloud to himself.