Chapter Three: Stefan
The next morning Stefan set out to speak with Mrs. Flowers. He gently knocked on the door to the study and entered a few seconds later after he heard a "come in".
Mrs. Flowers was sitting behind a great oak desk, surrounded in what looked like a mountain of paperwork. She looked up at him and a smile soon crept across her face. "Hello Stefan! How are you? Are you liking it here?" She asked as she put down the pen she had been writing with earlier.
"Yes, everything is very nice here. Thank you." Stefan sat down in one of the seats across from her. "I came to ask you a question about someone I met yesterday- a girl I met. I don't know her name. She didn't tell me. She didn't say anything actually." At this Mrs. Flowers began to smile. "Do you know who I'm describing?" he asked her puzzled.
"Yes, I do. Her name is Elena. She lives here as well."
"I don't quite know how to ask this but, is she shy? Or does she just now speak to anyone?"
At this, Mrs. Flower's smile faded. "Elena doesn't speak to anyone," she said, looking down at the paper in front of her. "Two year ago, there was… an incident. Something happened and her boyfriend died. No one quite knows how. The body was never found. Everyone knows Elena was out there in the woods with him that night. She won't speak about it though. It is too painful. I think it's too painful for her to speak at all, actually. You see, her and this boy, Matt, they were inseparable. You looked at them and you could see the love. That is why no one questioned her silence when he went missing. It is only through nods that they found out he died." Stefan's face was now somber. "It was all so tragic," She added.
"Is… is there anything I can do?" he asked, genuinely.
"I'm afraid not. Elena is only going to talk when she is ready. It could be weeks, it could be months, it could be years. But, if you want to do something, you can just talk to her. I can tell she likes the company."
Stefan looked up at her with a half-hearted smile, "Thank you" he said as he rose from his chair. He gave Mrs. Flowers one last nod and then left the room.
Stefan quietly closed the door behind him. There was something about this girl- Elena, that he found so… intriguing but familiar at the same time. I need to know her. But how? She doesn't speak. He would just have to find a way around that.
Or maybe, he was just the person she needed to finally speak again.
****
Stefan glanced around his bedroom. He had already completely unpacked his belongings, though he had only been at the boarding house a couple of days. He hadn't brought much with him. He liked to pack lightly so he could move quickly from place to place. This had come in handy when he was following… her.
He had tried so hard to stop her. Stop her from killing, killing them all. But he had been too late. He was always too late. Even three years later, he wasn't able to stop her, let alone find her.
That's what had brought him to the boarding house. Some unexplainable force had told him to come here. But it hadn't physically told him. It was more like he had been pushed in this direction.
After all this time, he just hoped that he could find her. That he could finally be able to stop her, even if that meant killing her.