Elf Of The Gaggle

"Elwyn?! Holy-"

"Guacamole."

"What?"

"What, what? No swearing okay?"

There stood Elwyn, my best friend. He was, is the wisest and weirdest person I had ever known. There was no problem he couldn't solve, except for 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, 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 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 and one foot tapping the rug on a slow beat, maintaining a calm composure.

"What is that hard for you to face? Your pain, or your pine?"

"I don't know."

"Your pain comes from your mind and your pine, from your heart. Blaine, you've been fighting this for 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."

"Who told you thi-"

"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."

"And you whine like a motherless child."

"You take that back!"

"After you, my friend."

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

"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. I was too busy with Octavia, too busy. You'd know if I lied anyway." I replied.

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

"Shoot."

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

"She stepped foot in town. Yes."

What is with these people? Why am I being continuously invited into a conversation that involves my most severe trauma?!

"I assume it's a sign."

"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."

"You will either shut up, or talk about something else."

His face was stone cold for two seconds and he pulled a robotic smile.

"Okay, Blaine." He replied.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" He sweetly asked.

"Hide your real expression. I'm not some random person you can do that to."

"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."

She 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 a pitying expression 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 ghosted us all and I couldn't reach you.“

I tried to remember if there was something I heard about his demise at that time.

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

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

And then it hit me.

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

I saw his pupils dilate when I said that.

"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," he raised his hands in surrender.

I continued to speak. "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. His other friends had it too. I thought she unintentionally used the Russian word for wolves."

"But I don't see why you would think she had a hand in this against Callan's death, 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! Loralie would tell us the truth though, boldly, fearlessly. 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 interrupted my train of thought.

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

"You are such 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 bestfriend right there.

"Do you have a death wish, Belcher?"

He only chuckled, that mad as a hatter Elwyn.

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

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

"Look at you, 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 that the Aita brothers moved out with their grandmother, Clarise. All of a sudden, 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 an enthusiastic spectator of all kinds 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.

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

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

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

This guy surely remembers every little detail I ever told him.

"That was different."

"Yeah yeah..."

"But why did the Aita brothers move out? Where did they go?"

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

I shrugged. "Okay."

"So, as I was taking a walk alongside the titan-like trees, 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."

"Them who?"

"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. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they vanished before I could 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, 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!"

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 had blood lust for him. At least not worth mentioning even if she did.

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

"That could be possible but I can't 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. The reason he stuck around longer with her was because she was the first girl who rejected his advances."

"Hmm."

He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. Like a scientist who discovered something unexpected, 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. 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 killer with the knife. Maybe it was his hair that Callan might have pulled while struggling in the process of fighting him?" Elwyn stated his possibilities, the kind of possibilities I did not want to give thought to.

I didn't think it's a he. It may be a she too, who knows.