House of the Vampire

...

She felt the recycled chill of the air conditioning upon small arms. What contrast to the heavy heat just beyond those doors! She imagined the sound of his sneakers padding along soft carpet, down unlit corridors, his fingers tracing black-painted moldings, dust and cobwebs framing the exhibits. His eyes, completely focused to the darkness, spotting creatures and secret passageways in every shadow . . .


Then she realized she’d glimpsed an intimate part of his world, a part shared with no one ever before. Had he known she would, bringing her here? She thought so, perhaps. She watched his profile as he strained to see past the bars, poor eyesight hindering his search for his imagination, and realized that the final exhibit was The Time Machine: two little boys, trapped in a fantasy world more than three decades lost, fading with the tiptoe of time.