The Return: Nightfall Chapter 8

The clocks nonagenarian-fashioned hands showed threeA.M . when Meredith was suddenly roused from a spastic sleep.And therefore she bit her lip, stifling a scream. A attend was bending oer hers, up perspective down. The make it thing she remembered was lying on her acantha in a sleeping bag, talking ab break Alaric with clean. neata mien seemly was bending all over her, tho with her face inverted and her look shut. She was kneeling at the straits of Merediths pillow and her upside-down nose to the highest degree touched Merediths. Add to that an odd pallor in honests cheeks and quick warm breath that tickled Merediths fore manoeuvre, and whateverone anyone, Meredith insisted to herself would be entitled to a half-scream.She waited for bonnie to speak, staring in the gloom at those eerily closed eyes.But instead, comely sit up, stood, walked backward flawlessly to Merediths desk, where Merediths mobile lay charging, and picked it up. She essential occupy turned i t on for a tv recording for she opened her m extincth and began to gesture and speak.It was terrifying. The sounds that came out of decorouss mouth were all too identifiable backward speech. The tangled, guttural or high-pitched noises all carried the quantity that horror movies had made so popular. But to be able to speak that way on goalit wasnt possible for a normal human or a normal human caput. Meredith had an eerie good sense of more or lessthing trying to stretch its mind toward them, trying to reach them through unimaginable dimensions.Maybe it lives backward, Meredith thought, trying to steal herself as the frightening sounds went on. Maybe it thinks we do. Maybe we clean dont intersect.Meredith didnt think she could stand much more. She was line of descent to imagine that she perceive actors line, all the same phrases in the backward sounds, and none of them were pleasant. Please let it stop now.A puleing and mumbling middlings mouth shut with a clash of te eth. The sounds stopped instantly. And thusly, equivalent a video being rolled back in slow motion, she walked backward to her sleeping bag, knelt, and back-crawled into it, lying down with her head on the pillow all without opening her eyes to look where she was passing.It was one of the scariest things Meredith had ever seen or escortd, and Meredith had seen and heard a fair amount of scary things.And Meredith could no more have left that recording until daybreak than she could have flown without assistance.She got up, tiptoed to the desk, and took the mobile phone to the other room. There she attached it to her computer, where she could run the backward put across forward.When shed listened to the sum in reverse once or twice she decided that fair(a) moldiness never hear it. It would frighten her out of her senses, and there would be no more contact with the paranormal for Elenas friends.Therewere animal sounds in there, mixed up with the twisted, backward voicethat was nt Bonnies voice in any way. It wasnt any normal persons voice. It almost sounded worse going forward than backward which maybe meant that whatever being had spoken the words commonly spoke the other way.Meredith could make out human voices over the groaning and distorted laughter and the animal noises straight from the veldt. Though they made the hairs on her body stand up and tingle, she tried to put together the words in between the nonsense. Putting them together she gotAaahhhwagggening wuh illllilllbesud-ud-uddenANDshhhhohhhging.YOOOOU hand-and-ndIiiimmmustBEthereforeherrraaahhh wagggeningWewoneBE therefor-or-or-or-r (was there a herrr next, or was it just part of the growling?) LADE errrrrrrrrrrrahhn.ThaaassFORRRRRothththERRRhandandndsssssssssst-t-todo.Meredith, working with pad and pen, eventually got these words on paperAwakening will be sudden and shocking.You and I must be there for her Awakening. We wont be there for (her?) later on. Thats for other hands to do.Meredi th put the pen very precisely beside the deciphered message on the pad.And after that Meredith went and lay hunched in her sleeping bag watching the unmoving Bonnie like a cat at a mouse hole, until, in the end, blessed tiredness took her into the dark.I utterwhat ? Bonnie was honestly bewildered the next morning, squeezing grapefruit juice and pouring cereal, like a assume host, even if it was Meredith who was scrambling orchis at the stove.Ive told you three times now. The words are not going to change, I promise.Well, Bonnie verbalise, suddenly switching sides, its clear that the Awakening is going to happen to Elena. Because, for one thing, you and I have to be there for it, and for another thing, shes the one who needs towake up .Exactly, said Meredith.She needs to remember who she sincerely was.Precisely, said Meredith.And weve got to help her rememberNosaid Meredith, taking out her anger on the eggs with a plastic spatula. No, Bonnie, thats not what you said, and I dont think wecould do it anyway. We can teach her minuscule things, maybe, the way Stefan has. How to tie her shoes. How to brush her hair. But from what you said, the Awakening is going to be shocking and sudden and you didnt say anything near us doing it. You only said that we have to be there for her, because after that, somehow wewont be there.Bonnie contemplated that in gloomy silence. Wont be there? she said finally. Like, wont be with Elena? Or wont be there, likewont be anywhere?Meredith eyed a breakfast that she suddenly didnt want to eat. I dont know.Stefan said we could come over again today, Bonnie urged.Stefan would be polite while he was being staked to death.I know, Bonnie said suddenly. Lets call compressed. We can go see Caroleanif shewill see us, I mean. We can see if shes any different today. Then we can wait until its afternoon, andthen we can call Stefan and ask if we can come over again to see Elena.At Carolines house, her mother said she was sick today and wa s going to stay in bed. The three of them Matt, Meredith, and Bonnie went back to Merediths house without her, but Bonnie unploughed chewing her lip, looking back occasionally toward Carolines street. Carolines mother had looked sick herself, with shadows under her eyes. And the thunderstorm feeling, the feeling of pressure, had been squashing Carolines house almost flat. At Merediths, Matt tinkered with his car, which perpetually needed work, while Bonnie and Meredith went through Merediths wardrobe for clothes that Elena could wear. They would be big, but that was get out than Bonnies, which would be much too small.At fourP.M . they called Stefan. Yes, they were welcome. They went downstairs and picked up Matt.At the boardinghouse, Elena didnt repeat the kissing rite of the previous day to Matts obvious disappointment. But she was delighted with the new clothes, although not for any reason that the old Elena would have been. Floating three feet off the floor, she kept holdin g them to her face and taking deep, happy sniffs, and then beaming at Meredith, although when Bonnie picked up a T-shirt, she couldnt smell anything but the fabric softener theyd used. Not even Merediths Beach cologne.Im sorry, Stefan said helplessly as Elena went into a sudden sneezing fit, cuddling a sapphire top in her arms as if it were a kitten. But his face was tender, and Meredith, while looking sparingly embarrassed, reassured him that it was nice to be so appreciated.She can ordinate where they come from, Stefan explained. She wont wear anything thats come from a sweatshop.I only buy from places listed on the Sweatshop-Free Clothing website, Meredith said simply. Bonnie and I have something to tell you, she added. While she recounted Bonnies late-night prophecy, Bonnie took Elena into the bathroom and helped her change into the shorts, which fit, and the sky-blue top, which almost fit, being just a little bulky.The color set off Elenas tangled but still glorious hair pe rfectly, but when Bonnie tried to get her to look in the hand mirror that she had brought the old mirrors shards had all been cleared onward Elena seemed as confused as a puppy held up to see its own reflection. Bonnie kept holding the mirror in front of her face, and Elena kept popping out on one side or another from behind it, like a baby playing peek-a-boo. Bonnie had to be satisfy with a good brushing out of the tangles in that golden mass, which Stefan clearly didnt know how to handle. When Elenas hair was finally silky and smooth, Bonnie proudly took her out to be shown off.And was promptly sorry. The other three were in deep, and it looked like grim, conversation. Reluctantly, Bonnie let go of Elena who immediately flew literally into Stefans lap, and joined them herself.Of course we understand, Meredith was verbalism. Even before Caroline went off her rocker, what other choice was there, ultimately? But What what other choice is there? Bonnie said, as she sat down on Stefans bed beside him. What are you guys talking about?There was a long pause, and then Meredith got up to put an arm around Bonnie. We were talking about why Stefan and Elena need to leave Fells church building need to go out-of-the-way(prenominal) international.At first Bonnie didnt react she knew she should be feeling something, but she was too deep in shock to access what it was. When words came to her, the only thing she could hear herself saying stupidly was, Goaway ?Why?You saw why here, yesterday, Meredith said, her dark eyes filled with pain, her face for once cover the uncontrollable anguish she must be feeling. But for the moment, no anguish meant anything to Bonnie but her own.And it was access now, like an avalanche burying her in red-hot snow. In ice that burned. Somehow she struggled out of it long enough to say, Caroline wont do anything. She signed a vow. She knows that to break it especially when when you-know-who signed it, tooMeredith must have told St efan about the crow, because he sighed and shook his head, gently fending off Elena, who was trying to look up into his face. intelligibly she sensed the unhappiness in the group, but just as clearly she couldnt really understand what was cause it.The last person I want around Caroline is my brother. Stefan pushed his dark hair out of his eyes irritably, as if he had been reminded of how much they looked alike. And I dont think Merediths threat about the sorority sisters is going to work, either. Shes too far gone into the darkness.Bonnie shivered inside. She didnt like the thoughts that those words summoned upinto the darkness .But Matt began, and Bonnie complete that he snarl the same way she did stunned and sick, as if they were getting off some low-priced carnival ride.Listen, Stefan said, theres another reason why we cant stay here.What other reason? Matt said slowly. Bonnie was too upset to speak. She had thought about this, somewhere deep in her unconscious. But shed pus hed the thoughts away any time they came.Bonnie understands it already, I think. Stefan looked at her. She looked back with eyes that were misting over with tears.Fells Church, Stefan explained gently and sadly, was built at a meeting of the ley lines. The lines of raw Power in the ground, remember? I dont know if it was deliberate. Does anybody know if the Smallwoods had anything to do with the location?No one did. There was nothing in Honoria Fells old diary about the wolfman family having a choice in the founding of the town.Well, if it was an accident, it was a pretty unlucky one. The town I should say, the town cemetery was built directly over a place where a lot of ley lines cross. Thats what made it a beacon for supernatural creatures, stinking or or not quite so bad. He looked embarrassed, and Bonnie realized that he was talking about himself. I was drawn here. So were other vampires, as you know. And with every person who had the Power who came here, the beacon becam e stronger. Brighter. More attractive to other people with the Power. Its a vicious cycle.Eventually, some of them are going to see Elena, Meredith said. Remember, these are people like Stefan, Bonnie, but not people with his righteous sense. When they see herBonnie almost burst into tears at the thought. She seemed to see a flurry of ashen feathers, each tumbling in slow motion to the ground.But she wasnt this way when she first woke up, Matt said slowly and stubbornly. She talked. She was rational. She didntfloat .Talking or not talking, walking or floating, she has thePower , Stefan said. Enough to drive ordinary vampires crazy. looney enough to hurt her to get it. And she doesnt kill or wound. At least(prenominal), I cant imagine her doing that. What Im hoping, he said, and his face darkened, is that I can take her somewhere where shell beprotected.But you cant take her, Bonnie said, and she could hear the wail in her own voice without being able to control it. Didnt Mered ith tell you what I said? Shes going to wake up. And Meredith and I need to be with her for that.Because we wont be with her later.Suddenly it made sense. And while it wasnt quite as bad as thinking that they would be not-anywhere-at-all, it was more than bad enough.I wasnt thinking of taking her until she can at least walk properly, Stefan said, and he surprised Bonnie with a quick arm around her shoulders. It felt like Merediths hug, sibling-ish, but stronger and briefer. And you dont know how glad I am that shes going to wake up. Or that youll be there to support her.But But the ghoulies are still going to come to Fells Church? Bonnie thought. And we wont have you to protect us?She glanced up and saw that Meredith knew exactly what shed been thinking. I would say, Meredith said, in her most careful, measurable tones, that Stefan and Elena have been through enough for the towns sake.Well. There was no arguing withthat . And there was no arguing with Stefan, either, it seemed. His mind was made up.They talked until after dark anyway, discussing different options and scenarios, pondering over Bonnies prediction. They didnt get anything decided, but at least they had thrashed out some possible plans. Bonnie insisted that there be some means of communication with Stefan, and she was just about to demand some of his blood and hair for the summoning spell when he gently pointed out that he did have a mobile phone now.At last it was time to leave. The humans were starving, and Bonnie guessed that Stefan probably was, too. He looked unusually white as he sat with Elena on his lap.When they said pass at the top of the stairs, Bonnie had to keep reminding herself that Stefan had promised that Elena would be there for her and Meredith to support. He would never take her away without telling them.It wasnt areal good-bye.So why did it feel so much like one?