Vampire Lodge, page 1
Vampire Lodge
by Edward Lee
Smashwords Edition
Little Devil Books
A Division of Necro Publications
2011
This book is for readers ages 8-12.
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VAMPIRE LODGE
VAMPIRE LODGE © 2011 by Edward Lee
Cover art © 2011 by Travis Anthony Soumis
This digital edition January 2011 © Little Devil Books
ISBN: 978-1-4524-0434-9
Cover, Book Design & Typesetting:
David G. Barnett
Fat Cat Graphic Design
www.fatcatgraphicdesign.com
a Necro Publication
5139 Maxon Terrace • Sanford, FL 32771
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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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CHAPTER ONE
The hammer rose and fell—
—clink-clink-clink!—
—until the old, rusted lock broke in half, and its pieces clattered loudly to the stone floor.
The heavy, wooden vault door creaked open…
Dim firelight flickered inside, from torches attached to the walls by crusty iron brackets. A long stone hallway led deep into darkness…
The torches crackled. The men followed the flickering yellow light as the damp hallway twisted and turned. From up ahead, a squeaking noise seemed to flutter, and then they could see the massive stone archway standing before them.
The men paused a moment. Fear glittered in their eyes.
Then they stepped into the vault.
Large stone blocks formed the vault’s four walls. More torches sputtered and crackled. The squeaking sound grew louder now, and faster, and set high in the walls were tiny holes for windows.
The dark ceiling seemed to move, and then the men understood why, and they knew now what that awful squeaking sound was. Hanging on the ceiling were hundreds of bats…
Then the men noticed something else—
In the high, tiny windows, the sun was going down…
“Hurry!” one of them said as the others opened dusty leather bags. From the bags they quickly withdrew hammers and wooden stakes. But—
“Heaven help us,” one of the men gasped.
Sitting in the middle of the vault was an old wood-plank coffin.
And as the men stood trembling with fear, the coffin’s lid began to creak open…
“We’re too late!” the first man exclaimed.
And then, from the coffin, the vampire began to rise.
Its eyes were black as chunks of coal, but its face was deathly white. His head was completely bald, and he had fingernails an inch long at least. The pale lips pulled back into a twisted snarl, showing two long white fangs.
“Yes,” the vampire croaked. “You’re all too late…”
The television clicked off. Their father’s shadow loomed. “Okay, kids, that’s it. Time for bed.”
“Aw, come on, Dad,” Kevin griped. “It was just getting good. The vampire was just getting out of his coffin.”
“The vampire, huh?” Mr. Bennell smirked. “Well, it’s late, and you kids shouldn’t be watching junk like that anyway.”
“But, Dad, can’t we just watch a few more minutes?” Kevin asked from the floor of the family room. “It’s a pretty cool movie.”
“No it’s not, Dad,” Becky, Kevin’s fifteen-year-old sister, butted in. “It’s stupid. Some creepy bald guy with fangs gets out of a coffin, and Kevin thinks it’s cool.”
She never fails, Kevin thought. My good old turncoat sister does it again. “It’s not just some creepy bald guy with fangs, Becky,” he corrected her. “It’s Count Dracula, the Prince of the Undead, the King of the Vampires.”
“Yeah, then how come he wasn’t bald in the stupid vampire movie you watched last night? He didn’t even have the same kind of coffin,” Becky told him.
“Well, so what?” Kevin objected. “They get different actors to play the vampires.”
“To play the stupid vampires, you mean.”
“Vampires aren’t stupid!” Kevin objected.
“All right, that’s enough,” their father cut in, still frowning. “You two get to bed. I would’ve thought that you’d both be sleepy already after that huge Thanksgiving meal we just had. And, anyway, we’ve got a big day tomorrow, and we’ve got to get an early start. And Kevin? I don’t want to hear anymore of this foolishness about vampires. If you watch enough of that junk on TV, it’ll turn your brain to muck.”
“Kevin’s brain already is muck,” Becky laughed.
“Hey, what did I just say? It’s bed time.”
Kevin and Becky went off to their rooms, Kevin grumbling under his breath. It figures, he thought. Becky always gets the last word because she’s older. Of course, Kevin knew that vampires didn’t really exist, but that didn’t mean they weren’t cool to watch on television.
“Lock your door, Kevvie,” Becky chided. “Don’t let the vampires get you.”
Kevin ignored her. That’s what older sisters are for, he decided. They’re for ignoring. And, boy, do I hate it when she calls me Kevvie…
He closed his bedroom door behind him, got ready for bed, and turned off the light. Darkness seemed to leap into the room; for a second, Kevin felt a little uneasy. The images of the vampire movie returned to his mind: the dark vault, the torch-lit hallway, the coffin…
Vampire, Kevin thought, wide-eyed beneath the bed covers. He could still see the long white face, the bald head and black cape, and—
The fangs, he thought.
But he shrugged it off. He was being silly. It was just a movie, he reminded himself, and besides, he’d seen lots of vampire movies in the past. Only babies were afraid of things like vampires, and Kevin Bennell was no baby. He was thirteen years old now, a full-fledged teenager, and he was already well into his first year of junior high school. Teenagers aren’t afraid of things that don’t exist, he told himself, and that was one thing he was sure of: Vampires didn’t really exist.
He turned his mind to other things, like the trip tomorrow. To their Aunt Carolyn’s. It was a trip they made every year the weekend after Thanksgiving, and Kevin always looked forward to it. Aunt Carolyn owned a campsite and old fishing lodge up north on the coast. The lodge was a little run-down, but it was always great fun to go there; they’d go fishing, camping, kite flying near the bluff where they could hear the waves crash. Becky, naturally, didn’t like to go—she thought it was stupid. All she cares about these days are boys and nail polish, Kevin thought.
This year would be a little different. Kevin’s mother wasn’t going; she sold houses for a real estate company in town, so she had to go to Chicago for some kind of convention with her friend Mrs. Grimaldi, who also worked for the real estate company. But Mr. Grimaldi, and their son, Jimmy, would be going up to Aunt Carolyn’s with them, and that would be cool because Kevin and Jimmy were best friends, and they had four days in a row off from school because of Thanksgiving break. Last week, Kevin and Jimmy had bought their new kite kits to take up, and they couldn’t wait to assemble them and get them out onto the high, windy bluffs next to his aunt’s lodge.
So I better get some sleep, Kevin thought now, and he’d probably fall asleep easily because he was still stuffed from the Thanksgiving dinner they’d had a few hours ago. It was a pretty long drive up to Aunt Carolyn’s lodge, and they’d have to leave real early.
Yeah, get some sleep, he told himself…
But every time he closed his eyes, they’d snap right back open for some reason. On one of his shelves, his monster models all stood in a line: Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, Wolfman, and, of course, Dracula, the caped and sinister vampire…
Then Kevin found himself glancing uneasily at his bedroom window.
It was late now, and very dark outside.
And vampires only come out when it’s dark, he remembered just as he finally drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER TWO
“You guys got everything loaded up and ready?” Mr. Grimaldi asked.
“Yep,” Kevin said.
“Sure do,” Jimmy said. “Everything except our kites.”
Kevin’s father closed up the tailgate on the station wagon, then looked curiously at the two boys. “You guys aren’t taking your kites?”
“We’re taking them, Dad,” Kevin said, “but we’d rather carry the kits with us than put them in the back with all the other stuff. The wooden rods could break back there with the luggage.”
Kevin and Jimmy had bought the kite kits with their allowances last week, but they realized the smartest thing to do would be to wait till they got to the lodge before they put them together. The back of the station wagon was loaded up with their suitcases—Becky’s suitcases were round and pink! Girl Luggage, Kevin thought of it as—plus a lot of fishing rods and tackle boxes that Kevin’s father and Mr. Grimaldi would be using.
“What are you wearing a dress for?” Kevin asked of his sister when she came out of the house. “We’re going to a camping lodge, not the junior prom!”
Becky’s blonde hair shined in the
Boys, as in boys her own age. That’s all she ever thinks about these days are boys, Kevin thought. Kevin knew she couldn’t wait to get into high school and start dating. But he doubted that there would be any boys for her to meet up at Aunt Carolyn’s. The lodge and campsites were way out in the woods, and there wasn’t a town around for miles.
Both Kevin and Jimmy’s father were dressed in boots, jeans, khaki fishing vests, and these kind of dumb looking hats with fishing lures on them. Mr. Grimaldi glanced at his watch. “I guess we better get going. The sooner we get on the road, the sooner we’ll get there.”
“Everybody ready?” Kevin’s father asked.
The kids all agreed, then piled into the backseat of the station wagon, while the fathers got up in front. Both Kevin and Jimmy’s mothers had already left for their real estate convention in Chicago—their fathers had taken them to the airport earlier.
The car doors chunked closed, and Kevin’s father backed out of the driveway.
“Why don’t you put those stupid kite kits in the back,” Becky complained, frowning.
“Because they’ll get busted up from all your stupid junky pink Girl Luggage, that’s why,” Kevin contested. “Who on earth would want round suitcases?”
“Dad!” Becky whined. “Kevin’s making fun of my luggage again!”
“Oh, I am not!” Kevin said. “Jeeze!”
“Kevin, stop making fun of your sister’s luggage,” Kevin’s father ordered from behind the steering wheel. “We’re not even out of the driveway yet, and you two are already at it. At this rate we’ll all be having nervous breakdowns by the time we get to your Aunt Carolyn’s lodge.”
“I don’t even want to go,” Becky complained. “Aunt Carolyn’s weird.”
“She is not,” Kevin said.
“What’s weird about her?” Jimmy asked curiously.
Becky chuckled. “Well, for starters, she always wears these ridiculous spooky black dresses, and she has this real long black hair hanging down all the way to the middle of her back, and she’s real old.”
“Becky,” Mr. Bennell said, “your Aunt Carolyn is not old. She’s only in her forties.”
“Wow, that’s pretty old,” Jimmy whispered aside to Kevin.
“I know,” Kevin replied. “But don’t listen to any of that junk my sister’s saying. Becky never has anything good to say about anyone. Aunt Carolyn’s really cool.”
“You just think she’s cool,” Becky added, “because she wears all those creepy black clothes all the time, like the people in your stupid vampires movies.”
“What’s a vampire?” Jimmy asked.
“You don’t know what a vampire is?” Kevin asked. He was astonished. “Like Dracula and Vampirella?”
“Nope,” Jimmy said.
“Vampires are the living dead,” Kevin answered with enthusiasm. “They come out at night from their coffins and drink people’s blood so that they can live forever. And they can change into bats.”
“Wow!” Jimmy said.
“And they’re—”
“They’re stupid, is what they are,” Becky rudely interrupted Kevin’s explanation. “Some silly old bald guy with fangs climbing out of a coffin. I’ve never seen anything so stupid in my life.”
“Oh, yeah? Well if it was so stupid, how come you were watching it?”
“Because you hogged the remote control, that’s why,” Becky replied. “I had no choice. You think I wanted to watch that dumb junk. Vampire movies are stupid, and only stupid kids watch them.”
“Becky, stop calling your brother stupid,” Mr. Bennell said from the front seat.
“But, Dad, Kevin won’t shut up about vampires,” she said back. “Vampires, vampires, vampires. I’m so sick of hearing about vampires.”
“Kevin, stop talking about vampires,” Mr. Bennell said.
“Okay, Dad,” Kevin replied, but then he thought, Boy, is this going to be a long ride.
CHAPTER THREE
But actually, as it turned out, the drive wasn’t that bad. Once they got off the interstate, heading up toward the country, it seemed like they were entering another world. The long, wide stretches of car-crowded highway soon changed to narrow, twisted roads which ran through heavy woodlands and past huge, open fields of cut cornstalks and still more fields of waving, shimmering grass. They even passed a lake and several swamps. Kevin loved getting out of town and up into the country like this, especially when it was the middle of autumn. The air was clean and fresh and cool, and the sun seemed to make everything brighter.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my whole life,” Jimmy said, gazing out the window in complete astonishment. “This is great.”
“Yeah, I know,” Kevin agreed. “I love coming up here.”
“What’s the big deal?” Becky objected. “Just a bunch of chopped-down cornfields and ugly swamps, and a lot of trees with hardly any leaves left on them. So what.” Then she went back to reading one of her dumb romance novels.
“We’re almost there, kids,” Mr. Bennell announced.
“So you say there’s some good fishing up this way?” Mr. Grimaldi asked.
“Not good fishing, great fishing,” Kevin’s father answered his friend. “Striped bass, lake trout, and perch like you wouldn’t believe.”
“How long has your sister owned the place?”
“Oh, years and years. She’s always loved it up here. And it’s a shame too.”
“What do you mean?” Mr. Grimaldi asked.
“Well, business has dropped over the years,” Kevin’s father said. “Things are getting pretty run down, Carolyn can’t afford to have the property properly maintained anymore. Each year, somehow, she manages to hang on, but it looks like she’ll probably go bust soon.”
Kevin’s ears perked up. He wasn’t quite sure what they were talking about, but it didn’t sound good. “Hey, Dad, what’s that mean?” he asked. “Going bust?”
Mr. Bennell seemed to duck the question. “Never you mind about that, Kevin,” he said. “We’ll talk about it later when I’ve got more time.”
Figures, Kevin thought. That’s what adults said whenever they didn’t want to talk about something.
“It means she’s going broke,” Becky said. “It means she doesn’t have enough money to run the lodge anymore, and she’ll have to close it down, stupid.”
“Becky, stop calling you brother stupid,” Mr. Bennell ordered.
Kevin discreetly stuck his tongue out at his sister. Then he turned to Jimmy. “And just wait till you see the bluffs.”
“Bluffs? What’s that?” Jimmy asked.
“They’re like cliffs. At the end of my aunt’s land, they’re these great bluffs overlooking the ocean. You can see the waves and everything. And the bluffs catch all the great wind, so we’ll have some really super kite flying.”
“Yeah,” Becky cut in, grimacing, “and while you guys are flying kites, all I get to do is sit around the lodge with weird old Aunt Carolyn.”
Before Kevin could comment, though, his father said, “Hey, kids. We’re here.”
“All right!” Kevin exclaimed.
They pulled into the entrance of the lodge, which was at the end of a long, gravel road that cut through the woods.
“This is something!” Jimmy remarked, staring through the side window. “What a place!”
“I told you it was cool,” Kevin said.
The lodge was a great, three-story, cedar-shingled building with a high, peaked roof. Sheets of sprawling, green ivy could be seen crawling up the sides of several old, brick chimneys and fallen leaves of every color lay all around the lot. The building itself sat back in a small dell, surrounded by the dense forest.
