Free Vampire Lodge by Edward Lee

treasure. There were
lots of stories about buried treasure. What bothered him, however,
was not the part about the buried gold bricks…
    The Count’s coffin is
buried somewhere around here too… with him still in it!
    And since vampires were immortal, that
could only mean one thing:
    Count Volkov is still
alive…
    Kevin felt captivated. What a great,
scary story! It was the best vampire story he’d ever heard, and
much better than the movies he’d seen so many times on tv. And he
wanted to know more about The Count, he wanted to hear more of the
story, but—
    “ Well, kids,” Aunt Carolyn
said, and stood up from her armchair. “That’s the local vampire
legend. And I’m afraid it’s time for you all to get to bed. It’s
past eleven now.”
    “ That was a great story,”
Jimmy said. “And thanks for the popcorn.”
    “ You’re quite welcome,
Jimmy,” Aunt Carolyn replied.
    “ I thought it was silly,”
Becky complained and smirked. “You don’t really believe in
vampires, do you?”
    Aunt Carolyn chuckled. “Of course not.
The story of Count Volkov is just old local folklore, just a
legend.” She rubbed her hands together. “Okay, off to bed now, all
of you. It’s late and you must be very tired.”
    Kevin got up from the couch. He felt
strange, but he didn’t feel tired. He guessed it was just the
creepy story about The Count, but there was no real reason for him
to be bothered about that because, just as Aunt Carolyn had said,
the story was just folklore, a legend. And vampires weren’t
real…
    “ Goodnight, kids,” Aunt
Carolyn said. “See you all in the morning.”
    The rest of them said goodnight and
headed up the wide, carpeted stairs. But Kevin was last in line,
and before he could even make it to the first step, Aunt Carolyn
stopped him and said, “Oh, and Kevin?”
    Kevin turned at the bottom of the
steps. “Yes?”
    “ It’s true, the story about
Count Volkov is only a legend, but there’s one thing you should
think about.”
    “ What’s that, Aunt
Carolyn?” Kevin asked.
    Aunt Carolyn’s long black dress made
her look like a shadow in the foyer. Her white face seemed to grin
at him in the dark, and then she said:
    “ All legends, in some way,
are based on truth.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN
     
    More thunder faintly shook
the house as Kevin walked up the staircase, his hand sliding along
the polished wood banister. The narrow window at the end of the
second-floor hallway filled with brief wires of bright-white light
each time the lightning cracked outside. Jimmy was already asleep
by the time Kevin himself got into bed. It was a high bed with
pointed oak posters. More lightning filled the curtain gap over the
French doors, momentarily lighting up the room like quick
flashbulbs on a camera, and sheets of rain could be heard blowing
against the glass. Each time the lightning flashed again, Kevin
could see the two paintings on the bedroom walls. But he’d already
looked at these paintings this morning; they were just paintings of
a forest, one winter scene and one fall scene—nothing like the
strange and eerie paintings he’d seen downstairs of Count Volkov’s
arrival to America. He made a mental note to himself, to look all
around the lodge tomorrow and check all the other paintings. Find out how many more paintings were done by
Count Volkov himself, he thought. Of
course, he understood that Count Volkov wasn’t really a
vampire—that was just a legend—but who was he really?
    Probably just some rich
guy who came to America in the late 1800’s, he deduced. He probably just looked
weird, so people started the legend about him being a
vampire.
    More lightning cracked. Kevin
flinched.
    No, The Count wasn’t
really a vampire, he told himself
again. Vampires don’t exist. They’re just
part of a legend. Aunt Carolyn said so…
    Still one more louder bolt of
lightning cracked outside.
    But Aunt Carolyn had something else
too, hadn’t she?
    All legends, in some way,
are based on