The Silent Visitor

Chapter 2 (The Secret)

Nicolas followed her lead and grabbed the girl's other hand, guiding her closer to Lyn's porch. Nicolas waited and peered up at Lyn as she climbed the stairs to the front door, with Clarita trailing behind. He expected her to let him in as well. Hesitation is evident on her face, she turned the doorknob, letting the cold October winds into the comfort of her home.

"You can come in." Lyn watched as Nicolas took a slow step into her home, scanning all that he could within the few seconds he was in.

Lyn led Clarita to the lower level bathroom so she could clean up the girl's wounds. Every scenario crossed her mind on how this little girl could have possibly escaped from an unknown killer that never left its victims alive to testify to its crimes. All she could come up with was that Clarita was a brave little girl who happened to be lucky enough to make it out.

While cleaning the wounds Lyn tried her best to get answers from the girl who had yet to say a word. "How did you escape?" Lyn waited her whole life to get answers, answers to whatever was happening to her. The dreams she'd been having started about three years ago, when she first moved to Minnesota. She thought nothing of it until she started seeing a pattern that she couldn't ignore. It all started with the first person that went missing, a twenty-three-year-old man named James Carter. He was the first of them all. The most brutal. They found his body laying in Lake Harriet, his story made it to the breaking news headlines. At first, it was just something about gangs or some rivalry. Later on when one body turned into two, then five, the city became restless. It was then labeled as an unknown serial killer, the silent visitor.

No one knew who it was, but they knew not to trust anyone, which made it hard for her to trust or talk to anyone in the neighborhood.

Clarita hesitated before even saying a word. Her throat was dry from the lack of fluids. She wondered if she could trust the brown-eyed woman in front of her. But she remembered what the man said to her, the man that saved her life. "Trust your gut, you'll know when you find her." His voice and words played in her head.

"Can I trust you?" Lyn's once blank face softened to the girl's words. She knew she could be trusted, but she understood why that question needed to be asked. "Yes, you can. I promise anything you say in here stays between us." The brown-eyed woman knew all too well not to run her mouth to the next person. Lyn glanced over her shoulder to see where she left Nicolas. She had noticed how quiet he had become, since they entered the bathroom.

Nicolas walked around her living room, admiring the few pictures that sat around his neighbor's home. He took note of the lack of pictures of her family. Just pictures of her over the years. Maybe she had a falling out with her family?

After a minute or so, he heard Lyn's soft voice. He knew that child looked traumatized from what she had been through and doubted Clarita would answer her question. Yet he stayed silent outside the bathroom door and just listened.

To his surprise, he heard the girl's broken voice. He knew there was something about his neighbor that made him interested in her. He made it his mission to get to know her, even a simple hi from her made him feel accomplished. And he knew Clarita felt the same energy that radiated off of Lyn. An energy that she can be trusted. And yet again Clarita's voice filled the room.

"A man saved me. He dropped me off down the street and told me to look for someone I can trust." Nicolas quietly watched the girl slowly lean closer to Lyn's ear as she whispered something to her. He tried his best to try and listen in.

A look of shock settled on Lyn's face from the words that left Clarita's mouth. And she knew it should never be repeated, for her sake, Clarita's, and the unknown man she spoke of.

Nicolas felt left out. As he couldn't hear the words that Clarita had just whispered to Lyn. Yet he kept his mouth shut, knowing he would ask her about it later.

"Would you like something to eat?" Lyn knew from the looks of the girl that she probably didn't have a meal in a while. "Sure, what do you have?"

Lyn pondered for a second and she remembered she hadn't gone shopping at all this week. "Peanut butter and jelly?" Lyn looked over to the girl once again waiting for her response. She didn't want to be the reason the girl in front of her died if she so happened to be allergic to peanuts.

Clarita let a faint smile grace her face as she thought about peanut butter and honey being her favorite, "Do you have honey?" Lyn noticed the evident smile, that if you didn't look closely you could have missed it. "Yes. Yes, I do."