The Undead Chronicles (completed)

Chapter 2

She finally reached Red Banks at almost midnight. She checked the address of the inn she was booked in and found it pretty easily.  

The town was old fashioned, with Victorian style houses and a hue gothic style church looming in the distance. The inn was a small, homely looking building, with pink trimmings and a small garden outside. She paid the cab driver and made her way inside. A bell rang as she opened the door and the man sitting behind the reception desk woke up, startled. 

'Hi, I have a reservation here under the name Raven McCoy.' She said reaching the desk. The man behind the desk was very old and frail, and slowly turned the pages of the register and after a long process of putting on his glasses and searching through names, found hers. He gave her the register to sign and turned back to get the keys. 

Raven looked around the reception, it was a small but cozy room with a fire blazing in the fireplace and the wallpaper had a floral pattern. There were a few rocking chairs and a couch. 'Here are your keys, the room is upstairs, room no 2B, second door to the left', the old man announced handing her the keys. 

'Thank you', she said and started taking her luggage, 'you can leave it here, I'll have someone send it up', she thanked him again and went up. 

Her room was small but cozy, it was sparsely furnished, and the furniture consisted of a bed a desk and a chair. 

There was a knock on the door; she opened the door to find a tall, skinny teenager with her luggage. 

She moved aside to let him in. ÔHi, I am Noah, my grandparents run this inn.' He placed the luggage in the room ad turned towards her 'I am Raven, Raven McCoy.' He grinned, 'Oh, so you're the journalist who was coming to report the Wilson incident?', 'Yeah, how did you know?' She asked, puzzled. 'This is a small town, news travel fast, anyways, you must be tired, and I should go now, good night!' He started going out of the room, 'Wait!, Can you tell me something about that incident?'. She had no background information on the incident and cursed herself for not researching more; She sat on the edge of the bed and indicated him to take the chair. 

'Well two days back, Jeremy Wilson was out playing in his backyard, his parents were out and the babysitter was talking on the phone with somebody. When Sheryl, the babysitter, came out, looking for him, she found Jeremy screaming bloody murder as a man in tattered clothing was, and IÕm quoting Sheryl, was eating JeremyÕs hand!, Sheryl screamed and the man looked at her, and got up and started coming towards her, Jeremy had fainted and Sheryl was rooted on the spot, in shock. She said the man's face was rotting and bits of flesh were falling from it. He couldn't walk properly and staggered towards her, a vacant expression in his eyes. Suddenly she came out of her shock and started running towards the Police Station, which was just 2 blocks away. Officer Lucas, who was on duty that day, kept shooting at the man, but he wouldn't stop, it was when he shot at his head, did he dropped dead.' He finished, his voice barely a whisper. 

Raven realized that she was clutching the sheets; she let them go,'What happened to the kid?' She asked. 'Jeremy is in some sort of coma, he hasn't woken up ever since' Raven could sense that he was hiding something, after a few seconds he blurted out, 'I know this might appear kind of stupid, but Sheryl swears that the man who was eating Jeremy's hand was Dave Cooper'. 'Who is Dave Cooper?' Raven asked, perplexed.  

'Dave Cooper was the owner of the Cooper Diner, but he had died last week', Noah finished, his face a little pale and his eyes wide. 

'Died?, what do you mean?' Raven asked, incredulously. 

'Died, as in he died last week, grandpa made me attend the funeral too.'

Raven felt a chill run up her spine. This couldn't be true. Rationale kicked in and she shook her head, the girl was in shock, she could have said anything. 

'I'd better go, and yeah my grandma told me to tell you that breakfast would be served at 8, the dining hall is just next to the reception, good night' Noah said hurriedly and left. 

Raven fell back on her bed and almost immediately fell into sleep.