“Dickhead was here for one week and stayed in the Kingsmill room. Angela said he was polite and didn’t cause much trouble. A couple of staff had mentioned seeing him roaming around, and one thought she’d seen him leaving an empty room,” Reaver said.
“Fuck!” I cursed. We had answers. But the main one, what had that fool riled up, remained unanswered for now.
“We need to hit the books. This is someone who’s been forgotten and no doubt Chauncey riled it up like an idiot,” Lich replied.
“It gets worse,” Reaver added, and I groaned.
“What?”
“Chauncey had someone with him who stayed in Mrs Betts’ room. Gloria,” Reaver stated coldly.
My head dropped as I audibly ground my teeth.
“Wanna elaborate?” Sunny asked.
Shaking my head, I stood and left.
Reaver
Sunny, Callie, Michelle, and Jack looked confused. “What just happened?” Sunny asked.
“Like Chauncey, Gloria grew up with us. But she had a major crush on Haunt. When we began investigating, we learned she had clairvoyant powers. She was stronger in retrocognition,” I explained.
Sunny frowned.
“The ability to see past events,” Callie explained.
“Okay,” Sunny murmured.
“Gloria became obsessed with Haunt. None of us noticed it because we were children. But when we hit our early twenties, it got disturbing. Gloria began talking about events that would happen if we didn’t do this or ignored that,” I said.
“Let me guess, much of it revolved around her being with Haunt?” Jack guessed.
I nodded grimly. “Yeah. Slowly, we began to realise what she was up to, especially when several women Haunt dated just dropped him. It blew up about seven years ago. Haunt bumped into a woman he’d really liked but had ghosted him. Even before he had the chance to speak, she blasted him in public for being a cheat and a rat bastard. Haunt demanded to know what she was on about, and she told him Gloria had cornered her.”
“It got bad fast. Haunt was furious and told her he’d never been with Gloria, and she said that wasn’t what Gloria hadsaid. We put two and two together, contacted several other exes, and they all had the same story. Gloria had chased them away. It explained so much. Haunt confronted her, and she claimed they were lying, but we knew differently. It later emerged that Chauncey had fuelled this obsession.
“Between the two of them, they’d cooked up a scheme to keep Haunt busy with Gloria while Chauncey sought fame and fortune. Us exposing them wasn’t expected, and Haunt didn’t hold back. He filmed the confrontation and then released it. Any hopes Chauncey had of being taken as genuine were washed away, and Gloria became known as the stalker-bitch-from-hell,” Lich said.
“Damn, gotta have sympathy for the guy,” Jack said.
“No one mentioned being on TV, it hadn’t been in our line of sight. But when our first episode aired, Chauncey came back around saying we needed him. He claimed none of us is natural presenters, and he’s right. We’re not interested in that; we want to investigate,” I said. “But despite how uncomfortable we are, having him back and making everything a massive drama, wasn’t worth it. Plus, Gloria would come sneaking back around.”
“You think they’ve done something here?” Callie asked.
“No. I know they have. No doubt whatsoever,” I replied.
“We just gotta find out what. Maybe we should start by searching their rooms,” Ghoul suggested.
“Would we find anything?” Callie asked.
“Doubtful, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find a pentagram or something under the bed,” Trunk said. He was wearing a matching scowl to mine.
“Split into two teams. We’ll look for anything obvious. I will locate Haunt. Chauncey and Gloria are determined to destroy the good we’ve been receiving,” I said and left to find my Prez. He’d be kicking himself right now.
Haunt was outside, head tilted back, staring at the stars. His hands rested on his hips, unclenching and clenching, and I surmised he desired a cigarette.
“Okay?”
