The Inn 🛣

Chapter: 4 When Someone Visits The Lake

Stiles curiously waited for the morning to arrive. He spent the last four hours trying to convince himself that it was nothing more than his tired mind messing with him. If two days ago anyone would have attempted to explain Stiles why he should not go to Greywald, he would've dismissed it. Stiles had a long history of getting his emotions in the way of his work, but this what not the case here.

Two years ago, Stiles was working on a case of a serial killer. Back then Stiles was obsessed with finding patterns and establishing a commonness within the victims. The case till date remained unsolved. Stiles couldn't get the fragment of failure out of his subconscious. For Stiles, this was his second chance to get closure.

Stiles walked back and forth in his room. He checked the time after every fifteen minutes. He made sure his phone had a network so that he wouldn't miss any urgent text or emails from Oliver.

Stiles craved for a cup of coffee. Changing into the clothes he found at the top of his bag, he took his car keys and headed out of the inn. Stiles saw Billy cleaning an old truck. Billy had his headphones on. He was tapping his feet and humming a line of a song, Stiles heard before.

'Hey, Billy?' Stiles called.

Billy dipped the cloth in the pail of water.

'Billy, can you hear me?' he called once more. 'I don't suppose so.'

Stiles went ahead and took out the earphones from Billy's ears.

Billy threw the cloth back into the bucket and turned towards Stiles. 'Dude, I told you if you need anything do not annoy me.'

'I want to ask you a couple of questions.' Stiles said.

'Questions? As in more than one? This ain't no high school.' Billy asked.

Stiles was about to snap back, but then a thought came to him. He pulled a fifty-dollar bill from his pocket and waved it in front of Billy. 'I hope now you won't feel burdened answering more than one question.'

'You know what,' Billy took the note from Stiles and smiled exposing his teeth. 'I love high school. What do you want to know?'

Stiles took a step closer to Billy and whispered. 'Anything and everything you know about the missing people.'

Stiles sensed a sudden change in Billy. His smile was gone, too. Kicking the mud off his shoes, Billy looked away. 'Meet me tomorrow at 12 by the lakeside. Don't tell anyone.

'I don't know anybody here,' Stiles explained.

'You know there are few people around here who love to keep an eye on everything.' Billy almost whispered.

Stiles find it difficult to digest. 'Should I be alert?'

'You should be scared. I know I would be if I were in your place.' Billy lifted the pail off his handle and went inside the inn.

Bribing a teenager to get some information seemed awfully desperate. Getting people to talk is what Stiles was good at. Here he felt like he was on some other planet. His instincts were constantly telling him to trust Billy.

'I have to wait,' he thought.

After crossing off roaming around the town from his list, Stiles planned to go to the lakeside. He ate a bagel on his way to Berry's. The lake where Billy called Stiles to meet up was just behind the eatery.

Stiles pictured the lake to be either dry or engulfed in dry leaves combined with an unbearable smell of algae. Stiles' mouth was left half-opened when he saw the lake for the first time. A reddish bridge leading to the lake was surrounded by bushes. A white silk cloth was hanging in the shape of an arch, supported by two five-inch light poles. A sky blue criss-cross bench lay on the other side of the lake.