CHAPTER 49

DARLENE

I rang the doorbell.

Funny how I was sure that Stella was aware that we were here all this while, and for some reason, Alexander and I had been standing here for the past fifteen minutes waiting for somebody to come and get the door for us.

I rang the doorbell a second time.

And waited.

Nobody.

Turning to Alexander, I saw a similar look of confusion on his face.

"Is everything okay?" He asked me, he sounded pretty concerned and I could see why that would have been so.

"Yeah," I said. I supposed. Stella was being the usual Stella when we saw her at the window, so everything should have been quite alright indeed. "Even though they don't usually take this much time to open up the door."

"Call?" He suggested. "Call them maybe?"

That was a brilliant idea and I felt dumb for not even thinking of it earlier.

"Oh, sure." I picked up my phone and the first person on my mind to dial was my mother.

But I was not quick enough.

A small rusty sounding shake of the door and I knew that someo