The Return: Nightfall Chapter 32

Who is it? a voice was saying from the forest darkness. Whos go forth there? bonnie had seldom been as grateful to any star as she was to Matt for holding on to her. She needed people contact. If she could nonwithstanding bury herself deep enough in new(prenominal) people, she would be safe roughhow. She righteous b arly managed not to scream as the dimming flashlight swung onto a surrealistic scene.IsobelYes, it re solelyy was Isobel, not at the Ridgemont hospital at every(prenominal), notwithstanding here in the Old woods. She was standing at bay, almost naked except for demarcation and mud. Right here, against this cover songground, she looked kindred both prey and a sort of forest goddess, a goddess of vengeance, and of hunted things, and of penalty for any being who stood in her way. She was winded, breathing hard, with bubbles of saliva coming taboo of her mouth, only if she wasnt broken. You exclusively had to inspect her eyes, shining red, to see that.Behind h er, stepping on branches and letting loose the occasional grunt or curse, were cardinal other figures, one tall and thin and bulbous on top out, and one shorter and stouter. They looked like gnomes toilsome to follow a wood nymph.Dr. AlpertMeredith expected just barely able to sound like her ordinary controlled self.At the same time, average saw that Isobels piercings were much worse. Shed at sea most of her studs and hoops and needles, merely there was birth and, already, pus, coming out of the holes where they had been.Dont scare her, Jims voice whispered out of the shadows. Weve been tracking her since we had to stop. Bonnie could feel Matt, who had haggard in air to shout, suddenly choke it off. She could also see why Jim looked so top-heavy. He was carrying Obaasan, Japanese-style, on his back, with her arms around his neck. Like a backpack, Bonnie cerebration.What happened to you? Meredith whispered. We thought youd gone to the hospital.Somehow, a tree poisonous a cross the road while we were letting you off, and we couldnt get around it to get to the hospital, or anywhere else. not only that, except it was a tree with a hornets nest or something inside it. Isobel woke up likethat the medico snapped her fingers and when she turn aroundd the hornets she scrambled out and ran from them. We ran after her. I dont mind saying I would confine provoke the same if Id been alone.Did anybody see these hornets? Matt asked, after a moment.No, it had just false dark. But we heard them all right. Weirdest thing I ever heard. Sounded like hornet a foot long, Jim said.Meredith was now squeezing Bonnies arm from the other side. Whether to keep her silent or to encourage her to chatter, Bonnie had no idea. And what could she say? Fallen trees here only stay fallen until the policemake the decision to look for them? Oh, and watch out for the hellish streams of bugs as long as your arm? And by the way, theres probably one inside Isobel right now?That would really freak Jim out.If I knew the way back to the boarding hearth, I would drop these three off there, Mrs. Flowers was saying. Theyre not part of this.To Bonnies surprise, Dr. Alpert did not view as exception to the statement that she herself was not part of it. Nor did she ask what Mrs. Flowers was doing with the two teenagers out in the Old Wood at this hour. What she said was even more astonishing We saw the lights as you started shouting. Its right back there.Bonnie felt Matts muscles tighten up against her. Thank God, he said. And then, slowly, But thats not possible. I left the Dunstans round(predicate) ten minutes before we met, and thats right on the other side of the Old Wood from the boardinghouse. It would appropriate at least forty-five minutes to walk it.Well, possible or not, we saw the boardinghouse, Theophilia. All the lights were on, from top to bottom. It was impossible to mistake. Are you sure youre not underestimating time? she added, to Matt.Mrs. F lowers name is Theophilia, Bonnie thought, and had to curb an urge not to giggle. The tension was getting to her.But just as she was thinking it, Meredith gave her another nudge.Some quantify she thought that she, and Elena, and Meredith had a sort of telepathy with separately other. Maybe it wasnt true telepathy, but sometimes just a look, just a glance, could say more than pages and pages of argument. And sometimes not always, but sometimes Matt or Stefan would seem to be part of it. Not that it was like real telepathy, with voices as clear in your calculate as they would be in your ears, but sometimes the boys seemed to beon the girls channel.Because Bonnie knew exactly what that nudge meant. It meant that Meredith had turned the lamp off in Stefans room on the top of the house, and that Mrs. Flowers had turned the downstairs lights off as they left. So while Bonnie had a very vivid image of the boardinghouse with lights blazing, that image couldnt be reality, not now.Someone is trying to mess with uswas what Merediths nudge meant. And Matt was on the same wavelength, even if it was for a antithetical reason. He leaned very slightly back at Meredith, with Bonnie in between.But maybe we should head back toward the Dunstans, Bonnie said in her most babyish, heartrending voice. Theyre just normal people. They could protect us.The boardinghouse is just over that rise, Dr. Alpert said firmly. And I really would appreciate your advice on how to slow down Isobels infections, she added to Mrs. Flowers.Mrs. Flowers fluttered. thither was no other word for it. Oh, goodness, what a compliment. One thing would be to wash the dirt out of the wounds immediately.This was so obvious and so unlike Mrs. Flowers that Matt squeezed Bonnie hard just as Meredith leaned in on her.Yeehaw Bonnie thought. Do we have this telepathy thing going or not So its Dr. Alpert whos the dangerous one, the liar.Thats it, then. We head for the boardinghouse, Meredith said calmly. And Bonnie , dont worry. Well take care of you.We sure forget, Matt said, giving her one ending hard squeeze. It meantI get it. I know whos not on our side. Aloud, he added, in a phony stern voice, Its no good going to the Dunstans anyway. I already told Mrs. Flowers and the girls about this, but theyve got a fille whos like Isobel.Piercing herself? Dr. Alpert said, sounding startled and horrified at the thought.No. Shes just acting bonny strangely. But its not a good place. Squeeze.I got it a long time ago, Bonnie thought in annoyance. Im supposed to shut up now. Lead the way, please, murmured Mrs. Flowers, seeming more fluttery than ever. Back to the boardinghouse.And they let the gear up and Jim lead the way. Bonnie kept up a mumbling complaint in case anyone was listening. And she, and Matt, and Meredith all kept an eye on the doctor and Jim.Okay, Elena said to Damon, Im dolled up like somebody on the shock of an ocean liner, Im keyed up like an overstrung guitar, and Im fed up with all this delay. Soooowhat is the truth and the in all truth and nothing but the truth? She shook her head. Time had skipped and stretched for her.Damon said, In a way, were in a tiny snow globe I made for myself. It just means they wont see or hear us for a few minutes. Now is the time to get the real talking do.So wed let on talk fast. She smiled at him, encouragingly.She was trying to help him. She knew he needed help. He wanted to tell her the truth, but it was so far against his nature that it was like asking onehell of a wild horse to let you fluff it, master it.There are more problems, Damon got out huskily, and she knew hed read her thoughts. They they tried to make it impossible for me to speak to you about this. They did it in grand old fairy tale style by making up lots of conditions. I couldnt tell you inside a house, nor could I tell you outside. Well, a widows walk isnt inside, but you cant say its outside, either. I couldnt tell you by sunlight or by moonlight. W ell, the suns gone down, and its another thirty minutes before the moon rises, and I say that that condition is met. And I couldnt tell you while you were disguised or naked. Elena automatically glanced down at herself in alarm, but nothing had changed as far as she could tell.And I figure that that condition is met, too, because even though he swore to me he was letting me out of one of his little snow globes, he didnt do it. Were in a house thats not a house its a thought in somebodys mind. Youre wearing clothes that arent real clothes theyre figments of imagination.Elena opened her mouth again, but he put two fingers to her lips and said, Wait. Just let me go on while I dormant can. I seriously thought that he might never stop with the conditions, which he had picked up out of fairy tale literature. Hes obsessed with that, and with old English poetry. I dont know why, because hes from the other side of the world, from Japan. Thats who Shinichi is. And he has a twin sisterMisa o.Damon stopped breathing hard after that, and Elena figured that there mustiness have been some internal conditions against him telling her.He likes it if you translate his name as closing-first , ornumber one in the matters of death . Theyre both like teenagers, really, with their codes and their games, and yet theyre thousands of years old.Thousands? Elena prodded gently as Damon coasted to a stop, looking exhausted but determined.I hate to think of howmany thousands of years the two of them have been doing mischief. Misaos the one whos been doing all the things to the girls in town. She possesses them with her malach and then she makes the malach make them do things. You remember your American history? The Salem witches? That was Misao, or soul like her. And its happened hundreds of times before that. You might look up the Ursuline nuns when youre out of this. They were a quiet convent who became exhibitionists and worse some went mad, and some who tried to help them became p ossessed.Exhibitionists? Like Tamra? But shes only a child Misaos only a child, in her head.And where does Caroline come in?In any case like this, theres got to be an instigator someone whos willing to bargain with the devil or a demon, really for their own ends. Thats where Caroline comes in. But for an undefiled town, they must be giving her something really big.An entire town? Theyre going to take over Fells church service?Damon looked away. The truth was that they were going to destroy Fells Church, but there was no point in saying that. His hands were loosely fastened around his knees as he sat on a rickety old wooden chair on the widows walk.Before we can do anything to help anyone, we have to get out of here. out(p) of Shinichis world. This is important. I can block him for short periods of time from watching us but then I get tired and need blood. I need more than you can regenerate, Elena. He looked up at her. Hes put Beauty in with the Beast here and hell leave u s to see which one will triumph.If you mean kill the other, hes in for a long wait on my end.Thats what you think now. But this is a specially made trap. Theresnothing in here except the Old Wood as it was when we started driving around it. Its also minus any other human habitations. Theonly house is this house, the only real living creatures are the two of us. Youll want me dead soon enough.Damon, I dont understand. What do theywant here? Even with what Stefan said about all the ley lines crossing under Fells Church and making a beaconIt wasyour beacon that drew them, Elena. Theyre curious, like kids, and I have a feeling that they may already have been in trouble wheresoever it is they really live. Its possible they were here watching the end of the battle, watching you be reborn.And so they wantto destroy us? To have fun? To take over the town and make us puppets?All three, for a while. They could be having fun while someone else pleads their case in a high court in another dimen sion. And yes, fun, to them, means taking apart a town. Although I believe that Shinichi means to go back on his bargain with me for something he wants more than the town, so they may end up fighting each other.What bargain withyou , Damon?For you. Stefan had you. I wanted you. He wants you.Despite herself, Elena felt cold pooling in her midriff, felt the contradictory shaking that began there and worked its way outward. And the original bargain was?He looked away from her. This is the bad part.Damon, what have you done?she cried, almost screaming it.What was the bargain? Her whole body was shaking.I made a bargain with a demon and, yes, I knew what he was when I did it. It was the night after your friends were attacked by the trees after Stefan banished me from his room. That and well, I was angry, but he took my anger and boosted it. He was using me, controlling me I see that now. Thats when he started with the deals and conditions.Damon Elena began shakily, but he went on, s peaking rapidly as if he had to get through this, to see it to its conclusion, before he lost his nerve. The final deal was that he would help me get Stefan out of the way so I could have you, while he got Caroline and the rest of the town to share with his sister. Thus trumping Carolines bargain for whatever she was getting from Misao.Elena slapped him. She wasnt sure how she managed, wrapped up as she was, to get a hand free and to make the lightning-fast movement, but she did. And then she waited, watching a bead of blood hanging on his lip, for him to retaliate or for the strength to try to kill him.