Creative Writing1. Who: Stefan (a husband searching for his wife)2. Where: A picturesque town (modern times)3. What do they want: To find Stefan’s missing wife4. What do they fear: Of losing Stefan’s wife

It was a bright, sunny and hot day, which was a perfect temperature and non too hot but warm. I hope this weather would be the same tomorrow which was the 1st of March, 2008. That is Elena and my fifth wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow. Elena and I always spend our anniversaries together and haven’t been apart from each other for any of them. I have already got Elena’s present and we do a cute and romantic treasure hunt every year. Last year I sent her all over town just to find me at the top of a tall building looking over this beautiful town we moved to straight after we got married.

*1st of March, 2004 - Elena Lockwood’s Diary*It was our first anniversary and I had no clue or expectations about what today was going to be like. I heard the ominous creaking of the floorboards as I slowly opened my eyes from my very deep sleep. I could hear sizzling

and was eager to find out what it was. I quickly got out of bed, walked to the kitchen and lent against the wall for around two minutes, watching my husband, flipping an omelette he made for me onto a plate. He then put a two

small leaves of parsley on it and turned around to the excitement of seeing me. Stefan came over to me, squeezed me tight and whispered in my ear “Happy Anniversary my beautiful” before kissing my face ten times before

getting to my lips. He then murmured, “I have a big surprise for you today.”

We both ate and then he took me to the middle of the park in town. Stefan said “I love you honey, but I have to leave you here. I will tell you where the first clue is and then you have to find your way from there. The clue is on the back of your jacket. Goodbye Honey.” I raced all over town for the whole day finding little cheesey coloured sticky notes around town. I came to the back of a building that had an open door and a sticky note with an arrow pointing up. I walked inside and saw rose petals spread across the five flights of stairs I had to walk up. I reached the top and the door opened for me and Stefan was there smiling at me and four men with violins started to play “I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston” which was our wedding song. I then walked over to him and he

kissed me. The view was over the whole town and we could see the lit up houses and streets. Stefan walked me to a romantic table he set up with candles and roses and we both started to get watery eyes. He promised me at that

moment that he will always love me no matter what, and no matter who tried to stop us. You are my one my only. You are my always and forever. I love you

****

Elena works teaching primary school kids everyday and she loves her class. She can’t stop raving about how cute they are. I on the other hand used to work for my father at our family run restaurant, but it hasn’t been the same with the death of my father and my mother shortly after him. My brother and sister both left this town because it just brought sadness into their lives which left me to run the restaurant myself and I don’t know how but i’m coping with both of those problems.Elena and I were walking through the park when we saw a storm in the distance come to ruin this perfect day. I left Elena to go out to an early dinner with her friends and as she turned around and left, I couldn’t stop myself from staring at my wife wearing this beautiful yellow dress my mother gave her

before she died. I went to the location of where my final piece of my treasure hunt was going to be but realised it would get rained on so I just used sticky tape and arrows and this will lead her to an undercroft where I will be waiting for her. I now had this whole hunt planned out in my head.

I pulled up to our street and saw a black cat sitting on a fence staring into the depths of my eyes. A car stopped behind and I turned my head to look at them. He stuck his finger at me and bitterly screamed “Hurry up you stupid idiot.” I turned back to the cat as I slowly moved forward and realised it had disappeared. I gained speed as I drove down to the last house on street which sat there isolated and lonely. I was happy about that because it was ours and we got the most privacy compared to our neighbours that are four hundred metres down the road, not that we every talk or associate ourselves with them.

I hopped out of my car and saw Elena’s friend’s husband, Tom sitting on our porch. He yelled to me at my car “Hey man, how are you? Do you know where my wife is, we were fighting this morning again and she didn’t tell me where or what she was doing today. I’m scared. Do you know where she is?” I replied, “Yeh, she was at a dinner with my Elena. She should be home soon because Elena told me it was only short little catch up with a few of her girlfriends and she would be home by 7:30 pm and it’s 7:26 pm now.”“Oh, ok thank you so much, where is the closest bus stop from here.” He replied.I told him it was at the end of our street which was about two kilometres and I insisted to drive him but he refused and started walking.I went inside and went straight to raid the pantry. I saw that right next to my chocolate stash there was a pink posted note. It said, “I can’t wait for tomorrow. Nothing can ruin it or us for that matter. You are my forever and always. Love your wife of four years and 364 days!” I went to the lounge and started watching How I Met Your Mother, which was one of our favorite shows and we always watched it together at night before bed.

I was progressively getting more worried by the second because it was 9:30 pm and Elena still wasn’t home. I tried calling Elena about ten times and she still wasn’t home. I then got a text from Tom. Seeing that on my phone reassured me. I was thinking, great Elena is safe and is just at Tom’s house. I grabbed my keys and started walking through the house while reading the text from Tom. I came to a sudden stop when the text opened. “No need to be rude and lie to me. I’m guessing my wife told you not to talk to me and instead of not talking to me, you lied to me.” I replied to him as quickly as I could. “Mate, I didn’t lie to you because my wife went out to dinner with your and Elena isn’t home yet and I don’t know where they are. I have called Elena ten times and she hasn’t answered once. You probably won’t see this because you would have blocked or deleted my contact from your phone already but if you have, please respond ASAP. I think something's wrong.”I rang Elena’s phone once again and it dialled four times before I heard a cry on the other side. It was very hard to hear but all I could hear was “Stefan, we need help. Someone has us and I don’t know where we are. We are underground and I could hear water drops. These people have us and Beep... Beep... Beep...” The phone cut off. I was panicking. I didn’t know what to do. I ran to the car and broke down into tears on the way to picking up Tom. I quickly explained the misunderstanding and he got in the car. We raced to the water pipes just outside of town which is the only underground place I know in

this town because I used to play there as a teenager. We got there and it was pouring down. We were both saturated by the time we got to the entry of the pipes. We walked and were being as quiet as possible because we didn’t want to scare the men and have them kill our wives. I couldn’t see much because I was using the torch on my phone which didn’t stretch to the widths of the pipe. We crept to where light filled the pipes and saw that the pipes split off into two. We could hear screaming so we split up and once one of us found something, we had to text the other. Luckily Tom added me back as a contact on his phone and apologised to me on the way here. I walked and walked until I found a letter on the ground, with my name on it. I shoved it into my pocket and my conscience kicked in forcing to run and scream Elena. “ELENA, I’M HERE. DON’T WORRY I’M COMING. PLEASE TAKE ME INSTEAD OF HER. I DON’T WANT HER TO DIE.”

I reached the end of the pipe and was puzzled as to what to do next so I ran back to the fork and went on the other side of it. I saw three men coming my way. I quickly hid in the crevice of where the concrete split in the wall. The three of them walked past me and I raced to them after they were a fair way away. I ran and ran. I desperately yelled “ELEN, PLEASE RESPOND. ELENA I’M COMING. ELENA RESPOND.” I tripped over the one foot deep water and saw four bodies lying there with blood covering them. I yelled at Tom “Get up off the ground, the men are gone.” but there was no response. I caught a glimpse of yellow and raced to her. I checked Elena’s pulse over and over and there was nothing. Nothing, a very good word to describe exactly what I was feeling. I felt like I had just died. “WAKE UP. WAKE UP YOU STUPID THING. PLEASE JUST WAKE UP DON’T LEAVE ME.” Despair filled my lungs causing me to fall short of breathing. I laid there on top of my wife, waiting for her to miraculously come back to life like they all did in the movies. I waited for five minutes and lost all hope and got off of her and bursted out with tears as I got up and looked at her body lying there so innocent but lifeless. I sat on the side of the pipe and pulled out the letter. I opened it up and saw it was from her. I knew it was because of her distinctive, unique and particular style of handwriting. I read it aloud to myself.

Dear Stefan,

Today marks the fifth year of our marriage together…a years that have been filled with such wonderful memories. I have never felt more complete, more secure and more loved than I have over these past five years. You, my love, make me happier than I ever thought possible.

Together we have shared laughter and tears. And through it all, you have remained my true love, my best friend and my soul mate. I struggle to find the words to express how much I love you and how much you really mean to me. You have given my life true meaning.

I love the way you brighten a room when you enter it…oh how that makes me smile. I love the way you touch me and kiss me with such tenderness. And when you look deep into my eyes, I love the warmth of that glow that fills me. I love how you make me feel when you hold me close in your arms and how you comfort me and whisper, “I love you,” whenever I most need it. I love the way I feel our world is perfect just because we are together.

You are the most beautiful man I’ve ever known and I cherish you more than life itself. The whisper of your name is always on my lips and is written in my heart forever. Happy Anniversary my dearest Stefan. I love you and look forward to sharing all of our tomorrows together.

Yours always and forever,Elena Lockwood

I couldn’t bear the aching pain that just formed through my whole body. We planned for such an amazing anniversary day, but now there won’t be one. Five years of love and in one second of seeing my wife lay there lifeless has left me feeling heartless. I spotted the knife which was the obvious murder weapon as it had blood smeared all over it. I turned the love letter from my wife over and wrote what happened. Described the three men I saw and then reached for the knife. I wrote sorry to my siblings and family and said it was too hard for me to bear. “Too much sadness already filled my life and now this would break me and I would be a living burden upon all those I came into communication with. I am sorry it has to end this way but I want you to know I loved you, my loving brother and sister. Please don’t mourn over me and just get on with your lives. I love you and always will. I will watch out for you guys up there.” I kissed Elena’s lips and let the tears roll down from my face onto the bloody water I was standing in. I laid next to my wife half submerged into the water and let the knife drop with my hand into the centre of my throbbing heart. I felt the unbearable discomfort and agony coming from my chest and my eyes started to shut gently and slowly while struggling for my last breaths.

By Joshua Bonello,10ENG8 - Ms. Timmins