Cursed

Chapter 8

"Hey Lou! Where are you?" Stephanie's loud calls resolved the soft whispers and freed Louis from the captivating spell of those mysterious whispers. Those whispers were so soft she was convinced of them being a game of her tired mind. She perhaps needed to rest.

"Hey, don't look so puzzled. Isn't Lou better than calling you Ms Adams every time ?" Stephanie said wondering why Louis was looking so pale as if she'd heard a ghost. Well, she just might've.

"What? Yes, it's fine." Louis coughed to conspire her puzzled state of mind. It must be a trick of the wind, she convinced herself. But deep down she knew wind couldn't be so artistic or polyglottic to advise her to leave in such a soft foreign voice.

Stephanie gently pushed her forward. Louis looked at her; her eyes still filled with surprise.

"What? You want to get soaked up?" She said and that's when Louis realised it was raining; just a drizzle.

Louis shook her head and both of them scurried towards the motel.

By the time they were back on the stairs,  Louis had managed to grab a hold of herself. However, now, the fresh memory of the murder resurfaced in her mind as soon as she saw the outline near her door. A good thing was that she was also glad she hadn't had to see that dratted portrait previously placed in the hallway of the first floor near the stairs. Perhaps it was moved to the evidence depository. Considering it's importance to the Walters who owned this motel, it wouldn't be a surprise if the portrait was requested back in the motel, once all this was over. Louis made a mental note, she'd finish Amanda's case before that'd happen and hurry from this place. She wanted no more dead people piling in her doorway.

"Ms Adams, could you please move to room 12. The cops have requested to empty the room. If you need any help, don't hesitate to call me." Manager Paul smiled.

"Ok, I understand." Louis said.

"Lou, I guess I'll be sleeping now. So, if you need anything, call me. Though I'm technically a tourist, my annual visits have made me kind of a nomadic citizen." She laughed patting her shoulders. She walked to a room just next to Louis' and smiling, she closed the door shut.

Okay, calm down. You can handle all this.

Louis said to herself in response to her mind's slideshow of the day's events. She wondered how all this could have happened in one single day.

Ignoring the outline and the newly put up crime zone signs, Louis hurried towards her room.

"Miss, where were you? I checked everywhere!" Arthur said worriedly. He was sitting on her bed, reading Amanda's dairy.

"Behind the motel." She said.

"So, any calls from Dan?" Louis asked while grabbing the diary out of Arthur's hands and shoving it into a drawer inside her closet. She made sure she heard the click of the lock when she shut the closet doors. This time, Louis would know if the book had magical powers or yesterday's event was completely natural, maybe because of the wind.

"No. A few messages though. I ignored them as you ordered. But there was a call from Jason."
Louis raised her eye.

"What did he say?" She asked curiously.

"I didn't pick up the call." He said. Louis nodded.

Arthur smiled.

"It's funny." He said.

"What?" Louis asked. She'd been removing a stack of clothes from another closet.

"Well, I was reading that diary and I don't know how but it managed to captivate my attention for quite a while, entirely. I couldn't notice anything else. I mean, Jason's call, then some cop showed up telling us to..."