Vampire Lodge
your lover boy Wally were digging for broken
water pipes last night, too. At three a.m.! But Kevin didn’t voice this thought, and he remained convinced
that not telling anyone about the things he’d discovered so far was
the best idea. But before he and Jimmy left, he stopped and said,
“Hey, Becky?”
    “ Hay is for horses!” Becky
complained back.
    “ Which is what you look
like,” Kevin couldn’t resist, and groaned. But then he asked his
sister the question he was sure he already knew the answer to.
“Where’s Aunt Carolyn?”
    “ How would I know?” Becky
griped. “I’m not her keeper.”
    “ Well, have you seen her at
all this morning?”
    “ No. I haven’t seen her
anywhere. Oysterbrains!”
    “ Neither have I,” Jimmy
volunteered. “But who cares? Let’s get going.”
    Kevin followed Jimmy out
the front door, but before he could close it behind him, Becky
harassed him a final time from the breakfast table. “Oh, and have
fun flying your stupid kite… Kevvie. ”
    Kevin groaned to himself,
then closed the front door. Sisters sure
are a pain, he thought. I should’ve dumped that bowl of cereal right on her smart
head.
    Outside, they immediately
buttoned up their jackets. The air was brisk—they could see their
breath condense in front of their faces—and there was a steady
wind, ideal for kite flying. Fallen autumn leaves blew around their
feet as they headed for the path that would lead them to the
bluffs. Jimmy looked worriedly up at the sky. “Yeah, it looks like
it might start raining again. We may never get a chance to fly these
kites.”
    Kevin, trudging along, nodded
noncommittally. Right now, kite flying was the furthest thing from
his mind. All he could think about instead was The Count, the lodge
and all the weird business he’d uncovered, and, of course, Aunt
Carolyn.
    “ Don’t you think that’s
kind of odd?” Jimmy asked.
    “ What?”
    “ Well, you know. Your Aunt
Carolyn. Your sister said she hadn’t seen her all morning, and we
didn’t see much of her yesterday either, except after it got
dark.”
    “ 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,

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