THE INN

Chapter: 7 When Someone Hears A Story

Stiles left the coffee shop after saying goodbye to Skye. She insisted on seeing a doctor, but Stiles refused. She wanted to make sure Stiles was fine. Skye was worried that Stiles might be concussed. What Stiles needed was to see Billy. He needed to know more than what he knew. Not a cooked up story. People were willing to say anything for a chance to come on television.

Nine months ago when Stiles was working on a story, one of the witnesses Raymond Paul stated that he saw a man with two heads who roams around searching for a third head. Mr. Harrison was willing to air the interview along with a spooky music in the background, titled, 'Life beyond head.' Stiles didn't want to give another chance to his boss to damage the reputation of their channel.

He wondered how the people he knew would respond if he'd told them the true statement. He could bet they would look at him the same way, he looked at the people he questioned when they told him all those stupid, and irrational stories the story about ghosts.

Billy asked Stiles to meet by the lakeside and he was already half an hour late. He couldn't risk losing the only source since he arrived here. The sky was a mixture of orange and blue. Stiles pulled the zip of her sweatshirt a little lower to allow some air to touch his bare skin.

He checked the time twice on seeing the arch by the lake. There was no sign of Billy. For a moment, Stiles froze on his spot. He wanted to make sure the place was empty. Some other surprise from Don or the girl he found out in the coffee shop would simply lead to an addition in the list of Stiles' troubles. He felt better under the shade of trees. Stiles sat on the bench for more than an hour, waiting for Billy.

'Damn.' He bumped his fist against the colder surface of the bench. 'I never should've trusted him.'

'Guess who?' a voice came followed by two hands covering Stiles' eyes.

Stiles jumped on his spot and turned around. 'What the hell!'

'Dude, it's just me.' Billy removed his cap and tossed it on the bench. 'You look funny when you're scared.'

He kept his face covered by his hood of his mustard coloured jacket.

'I guess I could say the same for you when I snap your little neck with my bare hands.'

Billy's face turned red. 'Whoa! Dude, calm down. Is this you trying to be funny? Cause if you're I'm not at all amused.'

'Don't ever do that to me, again. Ever.' Stiles removed his sweatshirt. He was sweating through his armpits. His mind was relaxed, but his body was still shaken up. 'You gonna start talking now?'

Billy peeked on his left, then right and then he turned his head, eyeing the way to the lake. 'No matter what happens you cannot take my name. Morgan is going to freak out if he finds out that we are having this secret meeting here.'

'You are really afraid of him, aren't you?' Stiles asked.

'Nah,' Billy buried his hands inside his pockets. 'He is an old friend of my dad's. He set me up with the part time job at the inn. He takes care of my meals and he makes sure that I don't skip my classes.'

'I have to say I didn't expect Morgan to be so thoughtful. He is a nice guy. I'll make sure that you won't end up in the middle of all this. Don't worry, okay? You have my word.' Stiles reassured him.

Billy took a dramatic pause. 'A family lived in a house right behind the inn seventeen years ago.'

'Behind the inn? But there is nothing there.'

Billy bit his lower lip. 'It's all burned up now. There is nothing there anymore besides ashes and some furniture that you can't even sell. Believe me I have tried.'

Billy anticipated a sarcastic reply from Stiles.

'You have more, right?'

'Yeah, yeah. I was hoping for...you know.' Billy giggled and pointed towards Stiles with his forefingers.

'No, I don't. You know what I don't have time for this.' Stiles raised his voice.

'Okay, okay. Calm down. I'm telling you,' Billy raised his hands in air. 'Here it is. The woman who lived in that house, her name was Amanda. She was sort of crazy.'

'What do you mean, 'crazy'?' Stiles asked.

'Dude. How did you become a reporter?'

'Wait! How do you know I'm a reporter?'

'Why else would a tourist bother asking so many questions and staying awake late at night. I figured you must have a personal agenda of roaming inside the inn at 5 am in the morning. You are not the first reporter who came here looking for answers and following police officers. No one would have cared about the inn if it weren't for the missing case of those two geologists. Am I right?'

Stiles stood there listening carefully to every single word that came out of Billy's mouth. 'It's partially true. You are smarter than I thought, Billy. In fact you are smarter than most of the kids your age.'

'You think so? There is one more thing about me that you don't know.' Suddenly the smile disappeared from Billy's face.

Stiles tilted his head to his left. 'What is it?'

Slowly, Billy walked towards Stiles. Stiles could smell the strong odour of after shave lotion coming from Billy's Billy's clothes he was too young to use. Billy peeked behind from the corner of his eye like someone was there, looking at him, watching his every move. 'I can lie all the time without the fear of getting caught. I'm so damn good at it.'

'So, everything you just told me was a lie, too?'

'Oh, no. Not at all. It's true except for the fact that I figured out on my own that you are a reporter. The truth is I goggled you on the internet.' Billy had a proud look on his face.

Stiles had so much to say to get back at Billy. In the moment, he realized how much hard it was to not do anything about what just Billy did. He wasted Stiles' time and not to forget his money that he paid to Billy as a bribe.

Keeping his personal feelings aside, Stiles said. 'Enough about you. Now can you please go ahead and complete the story?'

Billy played with his cap. 'The woman I was talking about,'

'Amanda, right?'

'She was not normal. There was something wrong with her. Something extremely wrong.' Billy emphasised on the word, 'normal.'

Stiles sat with his back straight against the bench. He kept his face balanced on his right hand. 'I know that part. Tell me something people who watch news doesn't know.'

Billy sat on the edge of the bench. He wasn't playing with his cap anymore. 'She changed after the death of her first husband.'

Stiles stopped Billy in between. 'Wait! Do you mean she had two husbands? I didn't know that. You sure?'

Billy found a stick lying beside the bench. He picked it up and started drawing something on the ground. 'Yup, she did. I'm telling you, it's true. If you don't believe me, you can ask anyone in this town. They probably won't talk to you, but there is no harm in trying, right?'

'Then what happened?'

'Like I was saying, after her husband died, she completely flipped. She hated everyone and she used to be so-so angry all the time. Her own daughter became scared of her, even her second husband couldn't help her. He was a nice guy. But who can deal with a psycho?'

The blurred image of the serial killer flashed right in front of Stiles' eyes. Stiles' felt electricity running through his right arm as he tried to move it. 'That's what I wonder. What happened to the first one, again?

'As far as I can recall, he died in a car accident along with his friend. Poor fella. And, one day Amanda lost her temper and killed her second husband and daughter.'

'There was a fire in the house, right?' Stiles asked.

Billy sighed. 'You can say that. Everybody knows the truth, it was her. It was her who killed them. Her whole family died because of her. She burned the whole b****y house. Everybody inside was burned alive. Police couldn't find their bodies for days. All that was left were their ashes. I bet you know that.'

Stiles typed something on his phone and looked up. 'Billy, do you think Amanda is the one behind the disappearances of people?

Billy dropped the stick. 'What can I say? I have never seen her in my life. I only know her through the stories. Although, there are few people who claims that they have seen her. She wanders around her house, looking for her family at night.'

Stiles closed his eyes for a second. First, he didn't expect Billy to show up and now he was bombarded with so much information about the dead woman Amanda. It wasn't like he didn't already know who she was or what happened to her and her family, but he had no clue about Amanda's second marriage. He couldn't wrap his mind around that fact that the ghost of a woman had something to do with disappearances of people. Stiles never really expected about getting so deeply involved in a case like this. He volunteered for the story because he wanted to get away. Get way from all his problems and the people who made his life complicated.

'You can always go to the house,' Billy disrupted Stiles' trail of thoughts. 'No one goes in there, anymore, and you can check with the police.'

'Yeah, thanks for that, man.' Stiles saved a draft on his phone.

He noted down a couple of things that he thought were important. Stiles wanted to ask a couple more questions to Billy, but Billy's phone buzzed. Billy tried pulling his phone from his pocket and found it stuck. He pulled the phone it again. The phone slipped from his hands and fell on the ground.

Stiles bend down to get the phone. 'Here, I've got it.'

Stiles saw a picture of a girl on the contact icon. The girl looked the same age as Billy's.

'Even this i***t has a girlfriend.' Stiles thought.

Billy answered the call. 'Hey, man I need to go now. I'm going out with my friends.'

'Can I talk to you again? Whenever you are free?' Stiles hoped to get yes as an answer.

'I'll let you know.' Billy still talking on the phone, waved Stiles goodbye and left.

'That house. I need to visit that place soon.' Stiles muttered.