The Vampire Diaries: The Fury Chapter Four

Something yanked Elena surface of the tree and, yowling a protest, she fell and landed on her feet analogous a cat. Her knees get ahead the ground a second later and got bruised.She reared back, fingers hooklike into claws to attack who eer had d unity it. Damon slapped her hand a musical mode.Why did you catch up with me? she demanded.Why didnt you stay where I put you? he snapped.They glared at each other, equ altogethery furious. Then Elena was distr scraped. The sh protrude was lull br coursehing step up on up steps, aug manpowerted promptly by rattling and banging at the window. Damon nudged her against the suffer, where they couldnt be holdn from above.Lets get away from this noise, he said fastidiously, expression for up. Without waiting for a response, he caught her arm. Elena resisted.I energize to go in on that pointYou cant. He gave her a wolfish smile. I mean that liter wholey. You cant go in that house. You pitchnt been invited.Momentarily nonplussed, E lena let him tow her a few steps. Then she dug her heels in again. fair(a) now I need my journalWhat?Its in the closet, under the floorboards. And I need it. I cant go to sleep without my diary. Elena didnt go wherefore she was making such a fuss, surplusly it imposemed important.Damon aired exasperated hence, his face cleared. Here, he said relievely, eyeball glinting. He withdrew roughlything from his jacket. Take it.Elena eyed his offering doubtfully.Its your diary, isnt it?Yes, al matchless its my old iodin. I want my new one.This one will have to do, because this one is all youre getting. rise on before they wake up the hale neighborhood. His vocalise had turned cold and commanding again.Elena con cheekred the disc he held. It was small, with a blue velvet cloak and a brass lock. Not the newest edition perhaps, simply it was familiar to her. She decided it was accep confuse.She let Damon lead her out into the iniquity.She didnt take where they were going. S he didnt untold care. however she recognized the house on Magnolia Avenue it was where Alaric Saltzman was staying.Elena licked her lips.No, Damon said shortly. This ones not for biting. on that points something fishy roughly him, simply you should be rubber eraser rich in the house. Ive slept here before. Up here. He led her up a flight of stairs to an attic with one small window. It was crowded with stored objects sleds, skis, a hammock. At the far end, an old mattress lay on the floor.He wont even so k straightway youre here in the morning. Lie dispirited. Elena obeyed, assuming a position that seemed internal to her. She lay on her back, hands folded all over the diary that she held to her breast.Damon dropped a piece of oilcloth over her, covering her bare feet.Go to sleep, Elena, he said.He bent over her, and for a moment she thought he was going to do something.Her thoughts were as well muddled. hardly his night moody eye filled her vision. Then he pulled back, and she could evanesce again. The gloom of the attic settled in on her. Her eyes drifted come together and she slept.She woke late, assembling information rough where she was, piece by piece. Somebodys attic from the looks of it. What was she doing here?Rats or mice were scuffling somewhere among the piles of oilcloth-draped objects, yet the effective didnt retire her. The faintest trace of pale light showed around the edges of the shutter window. Elena pushed her makeshift blanket off and got up to investigate.It was emphatically someones attic, and not that of any(prenominal)one she knew. She entangle up as if she had been sick for a long cartridge holder and had meet woken up from her illness. What day is it? she wondered.She could name voices below her. Downstairs. Something told her to be careful and quiet. She mat afraid of making any kind of disturbance. She alleviated the attic door open without a laborious and cautiously descended to the landing. Looking do wn, she could see a existent room. She recognized it shed sit down on that ottoman when Alaric Saltzman had wedded a party. She was in the Ramsey house.And Alaric Saltzman was down on that point she could see the top of his sandy head. His voice puzzled her. after(prenominal) a moment she realize it was because he didnt sound fatuous or inane or any of the ways Alaric usually sounded in class. He wasnt spout psycho-babble, either. He was speaking coolly and decisively to ii other men.She big businessman be anywhere, even mightily under our noses. More likely outside township, though. possibly in the woods. mean, the archetypical two victims were found bordering the woods, said the other man. Is that Dr. Feinberg? Elena thought. Whats he doing here? What am I doing here?No, its more than that, Alaric was saying. The other men were listening to him with respect, even with deference. The woods are laced up in this. They may have a hiding place out there, a hideaway whe re they can go to earth if theyre discovered. If there is one, Ill shape it.Are you sure? said Dr. Feinberg.Im sure, Alaric said briefly.And thats where you weigh Elena is, said the principal. But will she stay there? Or will she come back into town?I dont survive. Alaric paced a few steps and picked up a book from the coffee table, running his thumbs over it absently. One way to find out is to checker her friends. reasonable McCullough and that dark-haired girl, Meredith. Chances are theyll be the first ones to see her. Thats how it usually happens.And once we do principal her down? Dr. Feinberg asked.Leave that to me, Alaric said quietly and grimly. He shut the book and dropped it on the coffee table with a disturbingly conclusive sound.The principal glanced at his watch. Id better get moving the service starts at ten oclock. I presume youll both be there? He paused on his way to the door and looked back, his manner irresolute. Alaric, I hope you can resume care of this. Wh en I called you in, things hadnt gone this far. Now Im etymon to wonder-I can take care of it, Brian. I told you leave it to me. Would you rather have Robert E. leeward in all the papers, not just as the stroke of a tragedy but also as The Haunted High School of Boone County? A multitude place for ghouls? The school where the undead walk? Is that the kind of publicity you want?Mr. Newcastle hesitated, chewing his lip, then nodded, still looking unhappy. All right, Alaric. But make it quick and clean. Ill see you at the church. He left and Dr. Fein-berg followed him.Alaric stood there for some time, apparently stark(a) into space. At last he nodded once and went out the front door himself.Elena slowly trailed back up the stairs.Now what had all that been closely? She felt confused, as if she were floating loose in time and space. She needed to know what day it was, why she was here, and why she felt so frightened. Why she felt so intensely that no one must(prenominal) see her or hear her or light upon her at all. Looking around the attic, she dictum zip fastener that would give her any military service. Where she had been lying there were yet the mattress and the oilcloth-and a little blue book.When she finished, she was weak with precaution and horror. Bright spots danced and shimmered before her eyes. at that place was so much pain in these pages. So legion(predicate) schemes, so many secrets, so much need. It was the spirit level of a girl whod felt scattered in her own hometown, in her own family. Whod been looking for something, something she could never quite reach. But that wasnt what caused this throbbing panic in her chest that drained all the energy from her body. That wasnt why she felt as if she were falling even when she sat as still as she could get. What caused the panic was that she remembered.She remembered allthing now.The bridge, the rush water. The terror as the air left her lungs and there was nothing but liquid to breat he. The way it had hurt. And the last instant when it had stopped hurting, when all(prenominal)thing had stopped. When everything stopped.Oh, Stefan, I was so frightened, she thought. And the said(prenominal) fear was inside her now. In the woods, how could she have behaved like that to Stefan? How could she have forgotten him, everything he meant to her? What had made her act that way?But she knew. At the center of her consciousness, she knew. nought got up and walked away from a drowning like that. nought got up and walked away alive.Slowly, she rose and went to look at the shuttered window. The darkened pane of glass acted as a mirror, throwing her reflection back at her.It was not the reflection shed seen in her dream, where she had run down a hall of mirrors that seemed to have a life of their own. on that point was nothing sly or cruel virtually this face. Just the equivalent, it was subtly different from what she was used to seeing. There was a pale glow to her skin and a telling hollowness more or less the eyes. Elena touched fingertips to her neck, on either side. This was where Stefan and Damon had each taken her blood. Had it really been enough times, and had she really taken enough of theirs in hap?It must have been. And now, for the rest of her life, for the rest of her existence, she would have to feed as Stefan did. She would have toShe sank to her knees, pressing her os frontale against the bare wood of a fence in. I cant, she thought. Oh, please, I cant I cant.She had never been very religious. But from that profound place inside, her terror was welling up, and every particle of her organism joined in the cry for aid. Oh, please, she thought. Oh, please, please, help me. She didnt ask for anything specific she couldnt gather her thoughts that far. Only Oh, please help me, oh please, please.Her face was still pale but eerily beautiful, like fine porcelain lit from within. Her eyes were still smudged with shadows. But there was a reso lve in them.She had to find Stefan. If there was any help for her, he would know of it. And if there wasnt well, she needed him all the more. There was nowhere else she wanted to be except with him.She shut the door of the attic carefully derriere her as she went out. Alaric Saltzman mustnt discover her hiding place. On the wall, she truism a calendar with the days up to December 4 crossed off. Four days since last Saturday night. Shed slept for four-spot days.When she reached the front door, she cringed from the daylight outside. It hurt. Even though the fling was so overcast that rain or pull the wool over someones eyes looked imminent, it hurt her eyes. She had to force herself to leave the safety of the house, and then she felt a gnawing paranoia intimately being out in the open. She slunk along beside fences, staying close to trees, ready to incline into the shadows. She felt like a shadow herself -or a ghost, in Honoria Fells long white gown. She would frighten the wits out of anyone who saw her.But all her attention seemed to be wasted. There was no one on the streets to see her the town might have been abandoned. She went by seemingly deserted houses, forsaken yards, closed stores. Presently she saw parked cars lining the street, but they were empty, too.And then she saw a shape against the sky that stopped her in her tracks. A steeple, white against the thick dark clouds. Elenas legs trembled as she made herself creep closer to the building. Shed known this church all her life shed seen the cross inscribed on that wall a thousand times. But now she edged toward it as if it were a caged animal that might break loose and bite her. She pressed one hand to the stone wall and slid it closer and nearer to the carved symbol.When her outspread fingers touched the arm of the cross, her eyes filled and her throat ached. She let her hand sailing along it until it gently covered the engraving. Then she leaned against the wall and let the tears come.Im no t evil, she thought. I did things I shouldnt have. I thought about myself too much I never thanked Matt and just and Meredith for all they did for me. I should have played more with Margaret and been primr to aunty Judith. But Im not evil. Im not damned.When she could see again, she looked up at the building. Mr. Newcastle had said something about the church. Was it this one he meant?She avoided the front of the church and the main doorway. There was a side door that led to the choir loft, and she slipped up the stairs noiselessly and looked down from the gallery.She saw at once why the streets had been so empty. It seemed as if everyone in Fells Church was here, every seat in every pew filled, and the back of the church packed consentient with slew standing. Staring at the front rows, Elena realize that she recognized every face they were members of the senior class, and neighbors, and friends of aunt Judith. auntie Judith was there, too, wearing the black dress shed purpos eless to Elenas parents funeral.Fells Church was here, every seat in every pew filled, and the back of the church packed solid state with people standing. Staring at the front rows, Elena realized that she recognized every face they were members of the senior class, and neighbors, and friends of Aunt Judith. Aunt Judith was there, too, wearing the black dress shed wasted to Elenas parents funeral. character our remembrances of this very special girl, he said, and he moved aside.Elena watched what happened after with the unearthly feeling that she had a loge seat at a play. She was not at all involved in the events down there on stage she was only a spectator, but it was her life she was wat raiseg.Mr. Carson, challenge Carsons father, came up and intercourseed about her. The Carsons had known her since she was born, and he talked about the days she and pull in on had played in their front yard in the summer. He talked about the beautiful and accomplished childly lady she had become. He got a frog in his throat and had to stop and take off his glasses. march Carson went up. She and Elena hadnt been close friends since elementary school, but theyd remained on replete(p) terms. Sue had been one of the few girls whod stayed on Elenas side after Stefan had come under suspicion for Mr. Tanners murder. But now Sue was glaring as if shed lost a sister.A lot of people werent nice to Elena after Halloween, she said, wiping her eyes and going on. And I know that hurt her. But Elena was strong. She never changed just to aline to what other people thought she should be. And I see her for that, so much Sues voice wobbled. When I was up for Homecoming Queen, I wanted to be chosen, but I knew I wouldnt be and that was all right. Because if Robert E. Lee ever had a queen, it was Elena. And I think she continuously will be now, because thats how well all remember her. And I think that for years to come the girls who will go to our school might remember her and think about how she stuck by what she thought was right This time Sue couldnt steady her voice and the reverend helped her back to her seat.The girls in the senior class, even the ones that had been nastiest and most spiteful, were crying and safekeeping hands. Girls Elena knew for a fact despised her were sniffling. Suddenly she was everybodys outmatch friend.There were boys crying, too. Shocked, Elena huddled closer to the railing. She couldnt stop watching, even though it was the most horrible thing she had ever seen.Frances Decatur got up, her plain face plainer than ever with grief. She went out of her way to be nice to me, she said huskily. She let me eat lunch with her. Rubbish, Elena thought. I only spoke to you in the first place because you were useful in purpose out information about Stefan. But it was the same with each person who went up to the pulpit no one could find enough words to cheering Elena.I always admired herOne of my favourite(a) studentsWhen Meredith rose, Elenas whole body stiffened. She didnt know if she could deal with this. But the dark-haired girl was one of the few people in the church whowasnt crying, although her face had a grave, no-account look that reminded Elena of Honoria Fell as she looked on her tomb.When I think about Elena, I think about the good times we had together, she said, speaking quietly and with her popular self-control. Elena always had ideas, and she could make the most boring work into fun. I never told her that, and now I propensity I had. I wish that I could talk to her one more time, just so she would know. And if Elena could hear me now-Meredith looked around the church and drew a long breath, apparently to calm herself-if she could hear me now, I would tell her how much those good times meant to me, and how much I wish that we could still have them. like the Thursday nights we used to sit together in her room, practicing for the reflect team. I wish we could do that just once more like we used t o. Meredith took some other long breath and shook her head. But I know we cant, and that hurts.What are you talking about? Elena thought, her affliction interrupted by bewilderment. We used to practice for the debate team on Wednesday nights, not Thursdays. And it wasnt in my sleeping room it was in yours. And it was no fun at all in fact, we ended up quitting because we both hated itSuddenly, watching Merediths carefully composed face, so calm on the outside to conceal the tension within, Elena felt her heart begin to pound.Meredith was sending a heart, a message only Elena could be evaluate to understand. Which meant that Meredith expected Elena to be able to hear it.Meredith knew.Had Stefan told her? Elena scanned the rows of mourners below, realizing for the first time that Stefan wasnt among them. Neither was Matt. No, it didnt seem likely that Stefan would have told Meredith, or that Meredith would choose this way of getting a message to her if he had. Then Elena remember ed the way Meredith had looked at her the night they had rescued Stefan from the well, when Elena had asked to be left alone with Stefan.She remembered those perspicacious dark eyes studying her face more than once in the last months, and the way Meredith had seemed to explicate quieter and more thoughtful each time Elena came up with some odd request.Meredith had guessed then. Elena wondered just how much of the fair play shed put together.Bonnie was coming up now, crying in earnest. That was surprising if Meredith knew, why hadnt she told Bonnie? But maybe Meredith had only a suspicion, something she didnt want to share with Bonnie in case it turned out to be a false hope.Thank you, Bonnie said, wiping her streaming eyes. She tilted her head back to look at the ceiling, either to regain her poise or to get inspiration. As she did, Elena saw something that no one else could see she saw Bonnies face drain of modify and of expression, not like somebody about to faint, but in a wa y that was all too familiar.A chill crawled up Elenas backbone. Not here. Oh, God, of all times and places, not here.But it was already happening. Bonnies chin had lowered she was looking at the congregation again. pretermit that this time she didnt seem to see them at all, and the voice that came from Bonnies throat was not Bonnies voice.No one is what they appear. Remember that. No one is what they appear. Then she just stood there, unmoving, staring straight ahead with blank eyes.People began to merge and look at one another. There was a murmur of worry.Remember that-remember-no one is what they seem Bonnie swayed suddenly, and Reverend Bethea ran to her while another man hastened up from the other side. The second man had a brazen head that was now shining with sweat-Mr. Newcastle, Elena realized. And there at the back of the church, striding up the nave, was Alaric Saltzman. He reached Bonnie just as she fainted, and Elena heard a step behind her on the stair.