3 Elf Of The Gaggle

"Elwyn?! Holy-"

"Guacamole."

"What?"

"What, what? No swearing okay?"

There stood Elwyn, my best friend. He is the wisest but the most weirdest person I had ever known, well, apart from Loralie. There was no problem he couldn't solve, except for the idiocy of his occasionally dumb ideas. His physical features changed but the mischievous twinkle in his eyes was prominent as always. He looked a lot more graceful from his ballet classes, considering the way he moved.

"I come for you in the middle of this cold night and you don't even wish me a 'hello'?" He asked me with a smile but that tone, I knew too well.

"Elwyn, hey man. I'm sorry, I just-"

"No, it's fine. Don't apologize. You've never done anything without thinking about it and I get a gist of the reasons for your sudden absence."

"Thank you for that. But how did you know I was here?"

"Your mother called me so we could have a reunion, but I see you're going back to that little purgatory of your mind, aren't you?"

"She called you at a time like this? For a reunion?"

"Yes."

"Let me guess. She also asked you to bring her favorite ice cream sundae from your shop, didn't she?"

He sighed, "Yes. You want some?"

"Nah I'm good."

"Now, I need you to tell me about the nightmares and what exactly puts you in pain."

"My nightmares don't really change. It's the same one almost every time, the one where I drown and get sucked into dark waters. I can't bring myself to cope with it but I've been trying. I know it's really cowardly of me for not being able to deal with this-this torture. It's just so hard..."

He sat on the corner of the bed with his legs crossed, maintaining a calm composure.

"What is that hard to deal with? Your pain, or your pine?"

Now this was a question my previous therapists never asked. I wouldn't expect them to. They don't know me like Elwyn does.

"I don't know." I replied.

"Your pain comes from your mind and your pine, from your heart. Blaine, you've been fighting this all these years. I've seen it. Not all of it, but I've seen what I needed to see of you and I think you should stop taking those sleeping pills."

"How did you kn-"

"Have you forgotten? I see and hear all that I'm supposed to, Bennett." That made me pause as I understood what he said.

"Of course you do. I remember now."

He only looked at me, his smile unwavering.

"Now let's get back to the topic. Where were we? Oh yes, at the calamity of young love."

"You speak like an old man." I rolled my eyes.

"And you whine like a motherless child," He said without skipping a beat.

"You take that back!"

"After you, my friend."

I ran my hands through my hair, letting a groan of frustration.

"Jokes aside, I hope you've kept my secret for all this while, Blaine." His face turned grim for a moment.

"Trust me, the thought never crossed my mind all these years. I was too busy with Octavia, too busy to think of anything or anyone in Vanifernum. You'd know if I lied anyway."

He smirked smugly.

"True. So, I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"It's snowing tonight, just like it did six years ago. I have a feeling this is no mere coincidence. Wasn't this the time when-"

"She stepped foot in town. Yes."

"I think it's a sign."

This is not what I came to town for.

"Elwyn, this is stupid. I know what you're thinking and your speculation this time is wrong. There's no way, no."

"What you see is not what you think."

Agitation took over me as my whole body started to tremble.

"Elwyn, that's enough."

"It's just a gut feeling, Blaine. Stop trembling will you? Anger will get you nowhere."

"Can you just shut up now? Let's talk about something else."

His face was stone cold for two seconds and then he suddenly put up a smile.

"Okay, Blaine."

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" He sweetly asked.

"You're hiding your real expression. I'm not some random person you can do that to. I've met too many fake people these years I was gone. I don't want to deal with another such candidate."

His smile gently fell like a bird's feather from a nest.

"Alright. I just want you happy but you seem to be holding onto the past too much. You need to let it go, let it go !"

And then he started singing the Frozen song. God, this guy sings like a mule.

"I don't care, what they're going to say! Let the storm rage on, the cold nev-"

"Elwyn Belcher! Keep your voice down you worthless pigeon!" Mom's slipper flew right in his face, earning a yelp from him.

"Yes ma'am."

"Bullseye." I whispered.

"Shut up," He murmured.

Mom muttered something under her breath and shut the door.

"Wait, how did she get here so fast?" He asked, clearly puzzled.

"She must have been wandering around in the house, but that's not the point here."

"Right. Now there's something I wanted to tell you."

"Okay?"

"Callan Armstrong died." He said without blinking.

To say I was astonished, was an understatement.

"What...how?"

"Excuse me, but is that pity I see on your face? He was a bully! A bully, Blaine! You don't feel sympathy for the likes of him. He made your life hell for years!" He said with venom in his words.

"But he died."

I said it again for self confirmation, trying to process this information.

Elwyn only scoffed. "Pfft, good riddance. Anyway, that incident happened a few days before you left town and I couldn't reach you after that. At. All."

I tried to remember if there was something I heard about his demise at that time, but I cut off all sorts of communication from everyone I knew.

"What do you get from hunting those wolves? What would you even do with all that fur?" I asked her.

"The Volki have done worse, and I will only stop hunting till I gut the last one. Only then," She said.

And then it hit me.

"Oh my...Elwyn, I think Loralie had something to do with this."

He suddenly looked at me, bug-eyed.

"What do you mean?"

"Loralie had a very unusual hunting habit."

"There was nothing usual about Loralie in the first place. Very strange taste in girls you got there, bud."

"Watch your words, Elwyn." I said, glaring at him.

"Loralie was my friend too, and I wasn't disrespecting her if that's what you're thinking."

"She said Volki during of our conversations. Volki means wolves in Russian. And I remember Callan showing up with a new tattoo on his left bicep....Volki, a blue-inked wolf. His other friends had it too. I thought she unintentionally used the Russian word for wolves that day."

"But I don't see why you would think she had something to do with Callan unless..."

No way. Nope. I'm not having anymore quest-for-the-hidden-message-episodes.

"No. Don't go there Elwyn. You're overthinking."

"I'm not! She would tell us the truth if she were here. If only she was..."

I took a deep breath before saying that painful word.

"Alive."

There are people who live as the protagonist no matter where they are, what they do. They become the beacon of hope especially for those who are in need of help, regardless of their actions and deeds. Loralie Hansel was one such person. She always had this perilous yet bewitching demeanor which simply pulled everyone in.

"There could be a possibility that she didn't die." Elwyn thought out loud.

"Elwyn, I saw it with my own eyes. The car blast, all that blood...her coffin. I saw it all, damnit!"

"Okay, you're an idiot, Blaine. How could you fall for that?"

An apoplectic rage was starting to stir in me and it took all my self-control to stop myself from murdering my best friend right there.

"Do you have a death wish, Belcher?"

That mad as a hatter Elwyn smiled at me as if he knew something I didn't...which is true.

"Who's gonna help you discover the clues you missed all these years if you kill me?"

"Don't beat around the bush and get to the point Elwyn! You're starting to get on my nerves."

He shook his head in disappointment.

"Look at you, all angry and impatient. The old Blaine was never like this. And he never gave death threats to others. I don't like what you've become."

"Well who do you think is the reason for my 'refashioning'?"

He knew the answer but stayed quiet for a few seconds before speaking up again.

"Things went haywire after you left town. Soon after you left, the Aita brothers moved out with their grandmother, Clarise. Suddenly it was as if none of them existed here. But what nobody knows is that I may or may not have been a witness of Callan's murder."

The last sentence had me wide awake like an owl. Elwyn was never the good Samaritan, but he by all means was an enthusiastic spectator of drama.

"So you're telling me you watched Callan getting killed?"

He took off his socks and sat on the bed Indian style.

"I wish I did, but that wasn't possible. A few minutes before that, there was an arson at a bar near my place and was it stuffy in the area, so I decided to take a slow and long walk near the woods till the smoke and fire cleared out."

"But it's the town's rule that intentionally wandering in and around the woods is prohibited. You were born and brought up here, how couldn't you know that?"

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"The reason why I chose to go there was because nobody goes near the woods. It's calm and serene."

"And spooky." I added, to which he only scoffed.

"Says the dude who spent his playtime in the woods when he was eight years old."

This guy remembers every little detail I ever told him. Impressive but annoying.

"That was different."

"Yeah yeah..." He waved his hand in front of my face as if brushing my comments off.

"But why did the Aita brothers move out? Where did they go?" I asked him.

"Patience, buddy. Listen to what I say without interrupting me, okay?"

I shrugged. "Okay."

"So, as I was taking a walk near the woods, I heard sounds. No, they were more like hurried whispers. Thinking it may be a group of junkies, I went further into the woods, trying to find the source of the sounds. And that's when I saw them."

" Why would you look for drug addicts in the woods? You don't even do drugs. Ugh, I should know better than questioning your actions. Never mind. So whom did you find?"

"Tzion and someone else whose face I couldn't see. They were both clad in huge coats with hoods and the other person seemed to be standing beside Callan's body. I was too late to see them in action, I guess but I saw a bloody knife in the other person's hand."

Maybe Elwyn was right. Maybe my absence really did lead me to my ignorance.

"Didn't you say they moved?"

"They did. I was surprised seeing him months after they left. Besides, like I said, what you see is not what you think. For god's sake, Blaine! Think hard and come to your senses! Do you know what he told the person holding the knife? Tzion said he wished he could have Callan's body gutted right there!"

I knew Tzion had issues of his own, but he was too mature for murder; especially one that involves revenge.

My brain was a tangled mess now. I face palmed looking at the time. 12:17 am. Merry Christmas To Me.

"I accidentally stepped on a twig, making a snapping sound, and they fled the scene upon hearing that. I wonder, why would Tzion be an accomplice for Callan's murder? Of course, nobody ever liked Callan but as far as we know, Tzion never had anything against him. You got any conjectures?"

I started thinking hard about this. The Aita brothers were formidable people but their records were clean. Never harmed anyone without reason. Loralie too, despised Callan but never really had bloodlust for him.

"What if Callan plotted something against them when we weren't around?"

"That could be possible but I can't really seem to think of anything. But wait, Callan too was head over heels for Loralie and they knew it. Maybe something related to that might have happened. Loralie was their beloved cousin, after all."

"Callan flirted with every girl in high school except for Delilah because she wanted to monopolize him. The reason he stuck around longer with Loralie was because she was the first girl who rejected his advances."

"Hmm."

He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. Then suddenly, his eyebrows rose as if he remembered something.

"I forgot to show you this. Here." He said, taking out a picture from his pocket and handing it to me. It was a hand covered in blood, with a bunch of hair. It gave me goosebumps as my face paled.

"Since I knew you were home, thought I might bring this to you. Dude, why is your face like that?"

"Whose hand is this?"

"Callan's, of course! I took the picture before the police got there and ran away. You do see what's weird in the picture, right?"

I feel my head is going to burst with all these incomplete pieces. But I knew whom that hair could belong to. But it couldn't be. It just couldn't.

"White hair....it's almost platinum white. It's too natural to be mistaken for dyed hair. What's that hair doing in Callan's hand?!" I yelled, my brain turning livid.

"The other person with the knife. Maybe it was his hair that Callan might have accidentally pulled in the process of fighting him?" Elwyn stated his possibilities, but I knew better.

I don't think it's a he. I think it maybe is a she.

AUTHOR'S NOTE :

DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER !!!

The actual story of the book does not start until a few chapters, but it's worth the wait. So readers, please bear with me and brace yourselves. Also, please comment and vote for the chapters. Thank you.