Black Raven Inn: A Paranormal Mystery (Taryn's Camera Book 6) (21 page)

“Well, they can suck mine too. And my kneecap and heel,” Matt threw in for good measure.

Taryn offered a watery smile over the line but she was reeling from the offensive review. What the hell was
wrong
with people anyway?

The
woman
with the peroxide blonde hair leaned back beside him, her black silk panties and bra shiny in the soft glow of the lamplight. Her hair was mussed, her lipstick smudged, and she puffed heartily at a cigarette.

The man beside her was stretched out on the bed, the lower half of his body covered by the sheets. He had his hands crossed under his head as he appeared to stare at the ceiling fan above.

The look on her face was a smug one, full of pride at what she’d just done. The look on his face was of contempt, as though slightly ashamed of the act.

A mini skirt was draped over the arm of the chair. Red high heels had been kicked off by the door. A shirt was hanging from the doorknob leading into the bathroom. Whatever had occurred there in the room, And Taryn didn’t have to read too much into it to know the answer, had happened quickly. There had been a lot of passion in the act, but now that it was over with there didn’t seem to be much love.

Taryn couldn’t tear her eyes away from the picture on her LCD screen, even though she was clearly peeking in on an intimate act.

“Did you really have to share this one with me, Miss Dixie?”

The LCD screen went black and then abruptly turned back on again, as though Miss Dixie was giving her a slight wink.

“Very funny,” she said drily.

The picture was of Parker, of course, but she didn’t know who the woman was. She’d never seen her before.

Taryn looked back up and studied the room in front of her again. It was odd to think that she was standing in the very place where the woman’s high heels had been kicked off, that her own shoes now took that spot.

“Oh Parker,” she whispered to the room. “What did you do to Ruby? Why did you have to break her heart?”

The silent room lit up like a Christmas tree, both lamps and the overhead light going on at full blast. Taryn suddenly found herself in a spotlight, on display. The ceiling fan began spinning around and around in circles, so fast that the arms were a black blur against the white ceiling. The bathroom door slammed to with a bang; the chair next to her fell over with a crash.

“Parker!” Taryn cried over the din, covering her ears with her hands. “Stop it, Parker! Stop it!”

The room was quiet again, silenced as though someone had pulled the plug on the noise.

The last of the lights faded and went off, leaving Taryn standing there in the dark, alone.

T
he heat was getting to Taryn again
. Her tummy gurgled, a sound that threatened to bring up the meager contents she’d ingested for breakfast. She rubbed at it with her free hand, subconsciously attempting to soothe it through touch.

The walls in the room appeared to ripple through the waves of heat, making her feel like she was on a ship being tossed on the waves in a squall, as she suddenly struggled to stand. She collapsed back in the chair behind her as the objects in the room began to swim in her unfocused gaze, making her dizzy.

The only artwork in the motel room that didn’t have anything to do with Parker Brown was a print of a horse grazing in the middle of a field. The field, with its iridescent green grass enclosed by a stone fence, reminded her of something she’d seen in Central Kentucky. The horse was saddled and ready for a ride. It looked straight at Taryn with its mouth full, its soulful eyes penetrating through her layers of clothing until she felt it could see right down to her skin.

Taryn could’ve sworn that only the day before that horse had been emerging from the barn, undressed, and with a foal at its side.

She shook her head and closed her eyes.

Had that painting even been there on her first day? She could no longer remember.

A row of water bottles lined the floor at her feet. She was no longer stopping for lunch breaks; she’d enter the motel room early in the morning, sometimes as early as 7:00 am, and wouldn’t leave until it got dark–not emerging until her hands were cramped and the sun was setting.

Aker was looking concerned but hadn’t said anything to her. She figured that as long as he saw that she was alive he was content that he could continue collecting his paycheck.

The guitar music that sometimes played started up now, a folksy melody that reminded her of some of the Rolling Stones’ acoustic work. Like always, it came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The music no longer frightened Taryn. She was even starting to enjoy it.

When the room stopped swimming, Taryn opened the fourth water bottle and consumed the contents in less than a minute. She’d been cooking the meals Matt emailed her but couldn’t eat more than a few bites at a time. Still, they were providing the nutrients she needed to stay alive.

Her small frame was growing smaller by the day, however. Her stomach was now not just flat but concave; her legs were starting to look like sticks.

Worst of all, she was losing her butt. She’d always been kind of proud of her behind. It was pert and plump and stuck out at a pleasing angle.

Now it was getting as flat as a pancake.

The bed looked cleaner today. In fact, the whole room appeared cleaner. Gone was the animal excrement, stale scent of garbage and decay, and even the buildup of dust and dirt. She wasn’t sure when that had happened.

At some point that afternoon the electricity had decided to work as well. Both lamps in the motel’s room had flickered on, casting an eerie glow over the furniture and walls. The shadows danced before her now, growing tall on the walls and casting themselves across the ceiling before quickly shrinking and plummeting to the floor again.

With each movement, the shadows stretched just a little further across the ceiling, growing closer to closer to where she sat with her easel. Soon, they’d be above her. Taryn shrank from them, wary of their spindly hands that reached outward in every direction, seeking something they never seemed to find. They got worse when she paused in her painting.

A crash from the bathroom and the sound of running water has Taryn getting to her feet and following the noise. The shower curtain rod had fallen, leaving the mildewed fabric in a dirty heap on the floor. She hated that small, cramped room. There was barely enough space to breathe in there. When she had to go to the bathroom she took a break and told Aker, who kept an eye on things while she jumped in her car and made way for the coffee shop a few blocks over.

Aker apparently never had to pee. For some reason, this was not an issue for him.

When Taryn re-entered the bedroom, the first thing she noticed was that the painting of the horse was gone. In its place was a concert poster, advertising a show with Parker’s band opening for The Byrds. The lamps were out again, leaving the room darker but less menacing without the disturbing shadows. The mouse droppings and smell of urine had returned but the room was still blazing hot.

Miss Dixie looked at her from the nightstand. Taryn thought she might have winked.

“What have you done?” she asked her camera, shaking her head. “Was this you?”

When she picked her up, Taryn noticed right away that the camera was on. Her battery was nearly depleted. “Have you been on this whole time?”

Not only had she been on, but she’d taken pictures as well. There were at least half a dozen shots on the SD card that she hadn’t taken. Taryn stood in the middle of room, temporarily forgetting the blistering heat, and flicked through the images.

The room in the picture didn’t look that much different than what it had looked like just a few minutes before–the same mirror hung on the wall, the same generic equine painting was by the closet, the same nightstands with their lights on flanked the bed…

“What am I looking at, old girl,” Taryn said. “I’m having a hard time getting the picture here.”

Getting the picture…

It was then Taryn realized that for most of the afternoon, as Miss Dixie had been “on” and taking her random shots of the room, she’d turned on the past again. Only, this time, Taryn had been
in
her camera. The room had looked different then because she’d been in the frame.

Taryn had traveled back in time through her lens.

“Well. That’s different.”

It didn’t explain the walls, or the horse moving in the painting, or a number of other things that were threatening to drive Taryn insane.

“I’m going to have to start carrying a penny around with me I guess,” she said shakily. “Something to bring me back to the present.”

Taryn walked around the room, looking at the same things she’d been staring at for the past week.

She owed Parker nothing. She owed this motel nothing.

Her head was pounding, her stomach gurgled in hunger she couldn’t satisfy, her body was on fire, and the very thing that seemed to want her help was threatening to drive her insane.

And she couldn’t, for the life of her, walk away.

“
Really?
Fifty
-five
people? Are you sure that’s right?”

“Taryn, I swear to God I am not exaggerating,” David swore. “And that’s not even counting the ones who had heart attacks, strokes, stuff like that. These are just the murders, the overdoses, the random accidents…”

“So you’re telling me that over the past, I don’t know, seventy years the Black Raven Inn has had more than fifty deaths?”

“Yep.”

“Dang.”

Taryn half-heartedly pushed a buggy down the grocery store aisle, searching for food that would stretch her money the farthest. Pre-packaged food was not created for single people. How could she possibly eat a box of macaroni and cheese by herself when it was meant to feed four? Why were the only single versions of food frozen or microwavable?

“Now, they weren’t all in that same room,” David said.

Taryn stopped in front of a row of soup cans and studied them. She could remember back when chicken noodle and tomato were the main options. Now there was half an aisle dedicated to them. It was all overwhelming.

“Well, that’s something at least.”

She was surprised at how chilly the grocery store was, how cool it was outside. It had been a shock to her system to step outside the sweltering hotel room. She’d looked silly in her rolled-up tank top and flip flops, when Aker was wearing a down jacket and gloves. He’d looked at her strangely but hadn’t said anything.

“Anyway, I just wanted to let you know,” David said. “When I got back to Georgia I decided to do some research on it myself.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. Did you happen to find anything else out?”

“Just that lots of bad things seem to happen there. But I guess that’s not surprising considering the type of place it became, and the people it drew.”

“Anything about Parker?”

David signed. “Only that he was a talented musician who died before his time and suffered from a big drug problem. Same old story, unfortunately.”

“Yeah,” Taryn said sadly, “same old story.”