THE INN

Chapter:8 When Someone Knocks (Part 1)

'Knock, knock.' Stiles murmured on his way to the lake.

It's been two days since Billy told Stiles about the woman Amanda, who was allegedly haunting the people of Greywald town. Stiles made a report skipping all the necessary, 'Ghost' details and emailed it to Oliver and a transcript to Mr Harrison. Oliver insisted that Stiles must contact Riley to eliminate all the possibilities of a surprise visit by her or his mother.

Stiles spent most of the time alone, thinking, wondering, and forming on various hypotheses that might help him defeat the impression of weakness. No matter how hard he attempted to give a pause to all the thoughts, he couldn't keep his mind at peace. Stiles wanted to go back to the lake and look for the locket he saw in the video. After what went on last night, he was certain of one thing, there was something or someone messing with him in the night.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't pay any attention to where he was standing. A crackling noise came, Stiles looked down to check where it came from. He saw a piece of crushed plastic bottle below his left shoe. Stiles lifted his feet to remove the piece, it was glued to the sole. Stiles jumped on his right feet to keep himself from falling down. To prevent himself from stumbling, Stiles rested against the tree trunk.

'I can't even get this off of my feet,' he sighed.

Stiles turned his head sideways to protect himself from the gush of warm air coming straight at his face. He saw a girl sitting on the bench with her back facing him. The girl tucked her hair behind her ear when Stiles' saw her hands. There was something oddly familiar about her. Hiding behind the tree, Stiles glanced at the girl. In the beginning, the girl attempted to prevent her hair from taking flight in the wind by holding her hands along her hair, then she simply gave up.

'I need to talk to this girl.' he thought.

Stiles made up his mind to finally approach the girl. He took small steps towards the bench and stepped on the pile of dry leaves.

'I hope you're not stalking me here,' the girl turned.

Stiles looked at the girl. It was Skye who spotted him. There was a brief moment of silence. Knowing that the girl was none other than Skye took Stiles by surprise.

'No, I'm not stalking you or following you. What can I say, it's a small town.'

Moving towards her left, Skye dragged her bag along with her. 'You can sit here if you'd like. I don't bite, and I don't hide in bathrooms to scare people away.'

Stiles stood at the edge of the bench, frowning and confused.

'I'm just kidding, okay? We can sit here in silence, we do not need to have a conversation.'

Without giving it a lot of thought, Stiles made himself comfortable. Stiles glanced at Skye every now and then. She was busy showing off her photography skills. She opened her bag and took out a small off-white cloth to clean the camera lens.

The warm, harsh wind continued to blow making the leaves rustle. Stiles was never a fan of summers. He disliked even the idea of getting tan, and sweating throughout the day. He enjoyed the winters. For Stiles, the perfect idea of spending the winters was to tuck himself inside the fluffy blankets and having a cup of hot coffee. Stiles could recall the time when he used to visit home for the weekends. His mother, Bonnie used to make him hot chocolate. He used to feel like a kid and forget all his concerns and problems for a few hours. Thinking about the old days, Stiles completely forgot the fact that he was a thousand miles away from his family.

He tried to think of a way to start a conversation with Skye.

'I'm not awkward around girls, am I? I have a girlfriend.' He forgot to whisper.

'Based on the very little chit chat that we did earlier and not to forget the twenty minutes that we just spent today, sitting here in silence, I can say that you are awkward around girls,' Skye took a moment to reconsider her statement. 'And pretty much all the people. Don't worry, I can teach you how to socialize. It's not very difficult, and then you can initiate any conversation without waiting for the right time.'

'You saw me looking at you, didn't you?'

'I didn't say that. What I am saying is, if you could just talk to people around you rather than talking to yourself then it would be lovely.' Skye said holding her camera. 'And congratulations on having a girlfriend.'

'Yeah, well, we broke up six months ago.'

'Sorry, I hope this has nothing to do with you being all quiet and secretive.'

'Hey, I can be a quiet person, but I don't think I'm secretive.'

You have to accept that possibility. You know when I look at you, I just get this sort of feeling.'

'What sort of feeling are we talking about here?' Stiles couldn't hide the curiosity in his voice.

'You know that you- you are constantly thinking something. I don't know what do you think about, but you are always thinking about something. Something that you can't tell anybody or you don't feel comfortable sharing. As an advice from a person who has barely known you for over twenty minutes, you should learn to make your emotions invisible.'

Stiles asked, brightening. 'Making my emotions invisible? What does that even means? Is that a real thing or are you just making things up?

'Technically, it's not really a real thing. It's something I invented many years ago. I learned that people don't really appreciate when you go to them with your problems unless you are a psychiatrist who charges a thousand dollars an hour to hear you whine. So, what you need to do is not to let your emotions appear in your daily behaviour. If you learn not to give so much importance to your silly problems they just go away. Life is literally too short to not be happy, trust me.'

'You know what, now that I hear it, it's not that crazy as it sounded earlier. It kind of make sense.'

Skye raised her brow. 'Really? You really think so?'

'Yeah. I must say it's not that comfortable. I can always give it a shot, however.'

'You are less stubborn than you look, Stiles.'

'You are here on a vacation, too?' Stiles asked as Skye rotated the camera lens clockwise.

'You have good deduction skills. I think it's going to take you longer to learn my, 'Make your emotions invisible' art.'