Vampire Lodge by Edward Lee

reminded
himself.
    Nervously, he proceeded deeper into
the hallway, taking slow, quiet steps. When he got toward the end,
he stopped, scanning the dark walls with his eyes. Another strange
painting hung right before him, at the same place he and Jimmy
thought they’d seen Bill Bitner come out of the wall.
    Kevin stared at the
painting…
    Things just keep getting
weirder and weirder, he told
himself.
    The painting showed a band
of blank-faced men carrying two large boxes across a beach. Behind
the men, just at the shoreline, was a rowboat— The same rowboat in the foyer painting? he wondered—and beyond that, the same large sailing ship, The
Scrimm, could be seen burning in the distance. That was weird
enough, but the weirdest part was what the blank-faced men were
carrying. Two boxes. One box was the same large wooden crate full
of gold bricks, and the other box was—
    The coffin, Kevin instantly recognized.
    Then Kevin’s eyes flicked down to the
bottom of the painting, to see if this one had a title too. Sure
enough, there it was, in the same tiny painted letters.
    The Count Comes
Ashore.
    So now he’d discovered a third
painting that referred to The Count, and Kevin knew it had to be a
vampire because there was a coffin in this picture too.
    What is going on
here? he thought.
    This was all just too bizarre. Kevin
leaned against the wall, to think, but in the same moment that he
did so, he heard a tiny but very sharp sound:
    click
    And he thought for sure that he’d felt
the wall behind him
    … move.
    Wh—what?
    He turned around immediately, looked
hard at the wall he’d just been leaning against. The painting
stared back at him. Then, very slowly, Kevin reached forward with
his hand, pressed his fingers gently against the paneled
wall—
    The wall moved.
    Or, rather, a section of the wall
moved, and when Kevin pushed on it a second time, he realized
exactly what it was he had discovered.
    A secret
passageway…
    Just like in the old vampire movies. A
secret passageway right here in the lodge! Kevin pushed it open and
noticed several tiny roller-mounts along the edge, like the kind
that keep the doors on kitchen cabinets in place. That’s what had
caused the clicking sound.
    This explains it, he realized. Bill Bitner
came out of this same passageway this morning, and that’s why it
looked like he’d walked out of the wall.
    Next, Kevin pressed his palm against
the hidden door’s dark-wood panel, then he pushed the door open all
the way—-
    creeeeeak
    Total darkness faced him; he had no
way of telling how deep the passageway went, not without a
flashlight or something he could see by.
    Where does it lead
to? he couldn’t help but wonder. How far back does it go? And what was Bill Bitner
doing back here this morning when we saw him with the
shovel?
    All of a sudden, there were so many
questions spinning around in Kevin’s mind—he couldn’t keep them
sorted out.
    He pulled the door to, heard it click
shut.
    I’ve got to find out
what’s back there, he thought.
    And he knew there was only one way to
do that.
    I’ll have to get a
flashlight, he realized, and come back here.
    Tonight…
     

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
     
    Kevin decided not to tell Jimmy about
the secret door and passageway—Jimmy sometimes had a big mouth, and
Kevin thought it best to keep things to himself, at least until he
could find out more about what was going on. So instead he came
right back to the kitchen and helped Jimmy put away the rest of the
dishes.
    “ Did you find anything back
in that hallway?” Jimmy asked him, hanging up the dish
towel.
    “ A couple more weird
paintings,” Kevin said, and that was where he would leave it for
now. “It sounds like the rain has finally stopped. Let’s go walk
around outside.”
    “ Okay,” Jimmy agreed. “Not
much else to do right now.”
    They pulled on their coats and headed
for the front door, but as they passed the big hearth room and the
crackling fireplace, they noticed Becky sitting