Because I am in love with you:

Chapter 1: Warned

(Plz read and review. I hope you like this one. I love writing TyHil!)

The town was a small one, and very old. It made her think twice that she was not in the right place. But it was the right place.

It was a lovely summer's evening. Hilary had just stepped in an old coffee shop out of frustration and exhaustion.

She took a table, settled down her bag and the camera around her neck on the table, ordered a cup of cold coffee and sighed.

The coffee shop was occupied by only a few people. A bunch of men were in farther corner, a middle-aged blonde and bulky woman was cleaning empty tables, and a waiter was now serving her coffee.

The owner of the shop looked oddly at her for a moment and then came towards her. "Good evening young lady! Never seen you before," he said, trying to sound cheerful.

"Yeah, I'm new here. I am here for an assignment, actually." Hilary replied, taking a sip of the coffee.

"Welcome, then! Think we can help you in anyway?" he asked again.

"Not really. I don't think you could tell me anything good enough about the Granger Mansion."

One of the men in the corner choked on his drink, the middle-aged woman gasped loudly and the owner looked wide-eyed at her.

"Oh my dear! You're not… you're not thinking of having a look at that old place….!" The blonde woman asked in a trembling voice.

"No," Hilary said, a bit amusingly. "I am thinking of staying there for a few days." The reaction was even worse than the earlier one.

There was a moment's silence in which Hilary looked at the owner, trying to read his expressions.

"Get back to your work, David!" the owner said to the skinny waiter who turned around. "You too, Linda." He murmured to the woman.

"Now listen here, young lady… that place is not safe! Not safe at all!" He whispered hastily to Hilary who looked up in surprise.

The men in the corner were watching with interest. "You better not go near that place." He rushed on.

"But why?" Hilary was now getting heated up. "Don't ask too many questions. If anyone else in town knew about this…." He paused.

"The mansion's been empty for over years." He was now speaking in a very low and trembling voice. Hilary leaned a bit closer to hear him clearly.

"Something really terrible happened about ten years ago… it wiped out the whole family… two dozen people… dead, the same night! Terrible place, that mansion is! Nobody ever got near that place! They say it's still haunted… the spirits of the people who lived there… we still hear voices…"

He was speaking in a spooky way, like someone telling a scary story. "I suggest you quit your little trip and go on back where you came from right now."

"This is… this is nonsense!" Hilary said a bit quietly when the owner signaled her to keep it down.

"You believe in this stupid rumor and now you want to turn me away! I am telling you, I won't go away just because of a stupid bedtime story. If I don't get that assignment done"

"Don't care about any assignments, girl! You don't know what's out there, in that ghostly mansion! Who knows what could happen!"

"I can't just leave without anything! I need to complete my work!"

"Well all right then,"

The owner must have thought it was worthless to argue with her. "You can go on and get yourself killed for all we care!"

He glared at the men in the corner and turned around. "But remember, you have been warned." He said his last words and disappeared through the backdoor in the room.

The blonde woman named Linda was looking at her pitifully. Hilary frowned and picked up her stuff.

This wasn't the first time she had been told things like that since she entered the town.

Eyes followed her as she left the coffee shop, leaving some money on the table she had been sitting on.

She had never believed in ghosts and haunted houses. It was all real in movies and books, but not in real life.

"Only people without brains would believe things like that!" she said out loud to relieve her anger.

She was now walking down the road, passing by many old shops and houses.

Some of the passer-bys still looked at her curiously as she set foot on the way to a house that could be seen from far away.

The Granger Mansion was built a bit away from the town. As Hilary came closer, the mansion came in view.

It was huge, and grand-looking. Seemed as if it had been built decades ago. Hilary hesitated. The place did after all, look like a haunted house.

"No," she shook the thought out of her mind and kept up her pace. The front gate was slowly creaking with the wind, it was old and painted black. The walls were covered with vines and weird-looking plants.

The windows on the second floor were open and torn curtains flew eerily. Leafless trees with twisted hanging branches surrounded the place.

Hilary opened the gate with a light push. It screeched loudly, making Hilary shudder. It was a good thing that the mansion was away from the town, or the town people would have heard the noise and thought of it as another ghost.

Dry leaves crunched under her feet as she headed for the door. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the doorknob. It was covered with dust.

It twisted and opened. The door was making less noise then the gate had. She stepped in.

The words of the owner echoed in her brain. "Oh for heaven's sake!" she cried as a spider wriggled out of her way.

The floorboards were covered with clouds of dust. The living room was decorated with sofas which had white sheets on them.

Table lamps were crooked and broken. Wallpaper peeled off and made the house even uglier.

The paintings on the walls were faded and nearly falling off the walls. A grandfather clock stood silently in a corner, it worked perfectly well.

Hilary took a sigh and threw her bag on one of the sofas. She laid her camera on the table, sat on the sofa for a while to catch her breath.

"How am I gonna stay in here?" she asked herself. "I better complete my work in a day or two." She concluded and got up quickly.

"There must be a library somewhere in this place," she said to herself and decided to go upstairs.

The creaking of the stairs didn't bother her this time. She went up and looked at the empty corridor.

She went up to a door and opened it quietly. It was a lovely master bedroom. A warm but slightly filthy bed fashioned in the middle of the room. The window of the room was broken.

"Well it's better than the living room!" Hilary smiled.

"Huh?" said a voice, that sounded like that of a little girl.

Hilary stopped dead in her tracks. Was there someone in the house? Her sharp eyes looked around, hoping to find the source of that voice.

(Well, I'll be updating soon. Till then you can review and let me know what you think about this.)