Stellina

Flecks of Gold

"Wach auf, Lina," he whispered, leaning against the wall. Lina noticed his hand trembling as he peeled away the curtain, glancing outside. Vibrant homes of various colors seemed to shimmer in the sunlight as if coated with flecks of gold, terribly bright on Lina's eyes. She blinked rapidly, attempting to rid herself of the sleepiness that coated them. She'd been awake for at least an hour, yet the daze from earlier still haunted her.

"What did you say?" She snuck up behind him and placed the note on the window sill, causing Luka to leap back from the window. "Gosh, I've never met someone so jumpy."

Luka smiled half-heartedly. "Ah, sorry, Lina. I was just distracted, that's all," he murmured. "And I said 'wake up'."

Lina smoothed her untamed, auburn hair, thankful there was no mirror in sight. The previous day's occurrences seemed to linger in the air like a pesky fog. What does my mother have to do with Stella? she wondered, ignoring Luka's anxious pacing. She pictured the locket, pure and innocent gold, the answer to finding Stella.

For the first time, a real lead that would take them exactly where Lina needed to go.

"Sorry, German is just such an odd language to understand," Lina wrote. Luka chuckled under his breath before she continued. She pressed the pen to her lip, hesitating. "Luka, you wouldn't happen to know anything about where I could find a locket, would you? It's just... Victor wanted me to find one for him. It's very valuable to his family."

Luka sucked his breath in, once again leaning against the window. The pale sunlight highlighted his face. The discoloration of his cheeks, the scars across his face. The shimmer in his chocolate eyes, starkly different than the gleeful sparkle of Italian architecture. "My mother used to have one," he started. "I've been looking everywhere for it, even stealing from people's houses, yet it's seemingly nowhere. I'm afraid I'm not the right person to ask."

"I recall. The one you refused to tell me about. Thievery does not look good on you, Luka Fuhrmann." Lina swallowed, a hard lump in her throat suddenly forming. He, too, was looking for a locket.

"Ja, well, I did what I had to do."

"You've still never told me why that necklace mattered so much to you."

Luka hesitated. "It was important to my mother. It's as simple as that," he started. "My mother, well, she was the most carefree and beautiful person you could ever meet. She was one of those people you would always see dressed in a classy blue dress, giggling as she held a bouquet of daisies to her nose or as she explored the streets of a quaint Alp village. Always eccentric, her head always in the clouds." At this, he chuckled, his eyes sparkling. "Oh, the laughs and judgement she got when people found out she would be a mother. No one thought she could keep a son alive long enough. But she was the most gentle, understanding mother anyone could ask for. I loved her more than anything. So when she cared about something that much, I care about it too."

As Lina's eyes met his, she felt her heart and her cheeks gradually warming, as if she were sitting by a fireplace after a day spent in snow and ice. The way his eyes sparkled with fondness and gentleness warmed her entire being, wrapping her in a cozy blanket. She knew exactly what he meant. Moritz wasn't exactly carefree, but he cared deeply and passionately about his family.

And because of that, so should Lina.

"I wish I could've met her," Lina wrote, pressing the tip of the pen to her lip. "But how come she cared so much about a locket? If she was so carefree and unmaterialistic, why did she care about one little possession?"

Luka sighed, glancing at the dusty floor. "It wasn't just the necklace. It was what it contained, what it meant. It was the key to everything, to finding what she most desired."