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"What?" said Elena dully

"Well, the way she ended up, in her slip She looked just like she did e found her on the road, only then she was all scratched up, too"

"Cat scratches, we thought," said Meredith, finishing the last bite of her cake She seeht now she atching Elena closely "But that doesn’t seeht back at her "Maybe she fell in so, do you want to see that first note?"

They left their dishes in the sink and climbed the stairs to Elena’s rooirls read the note Bonnie and Meredith were her best friends, es from her diary before But this was different It was theshe’d ever had "Well?" she said to Meredith

"The person rote this is five feet eleven inches tall, walks with a slight limp, and wears a falseElena’s face "Not funny Actually, there’s not uy’s, but the paper looks fe has sort of a fehtly on Elena’s bed "Well, it does," she said defensively "Quoting bits of your diary back at you is the kind of thing a woman would think of Men don’t care about diaries"

"You just don’t want it to be Damon," said Meredith "I would think you’d bea psycho killer than a diary thief"

"I don’t know; killers are sort of ro with his hands around your throat He’d strangle the life out of you, and the last thing you’d see would be his face" Putting her own hands to her throat, Bonnie gasped and expired tragically, ending up draped across the bed "He can have me anytime," she said, eyes still closed

It was on Elena’s lips to say, "Don’t you understand, this isserious ," but instead she hissed in a breath "Oh,God ," she said, and ran to theThe day was hu, and thehad been opened Outside on the skeletal branches of the quince tree was a crow

Elena threw the sash down so hard that the glass rattled and tinkled The crow gazed at her through the trelie

"Why did yousay that?" she said, turning to Bonnie

"Hey, there’s nobody out there," said Meredith gently "Unless you count the birds"

Elena turned away from them The tree was empty now

"I’m sorry," said Bonnie in a small voice, after a moment "It’s just that it all doesn’t see dead doesn’t seeerous I

"And besides, he wouldn’t squeeze your throat; he’d cut it," Meredith said "Or at least that hat he did to Tanner But the old e had his throat ripped open, as if some animal had done it" Meredith looked to Elena for clarification "Damon doesn’t have an animal, does he?"

"No I don’t know" Suddenly, Elena felt very tired She orried about Bonnie, about the consequences of those foolish words

"I can do anything to you, to you and the ones you love," she reht Damon do now? She didn’t understand hiy at her But the next ti poetry to her, trying to get her to coraveyard wind lashing around hi words last night, she’d felt the same menace She couldn’t predict what he’d do next

But, whatever happened, she had to protect Bonnie and Meredith from him Especially since she couldn’t warn theht now,Wherewas he?

It started that ht," Matt said, leaning against the scarred body of his ancient Ford sedan when

Stefan approached him before school "You want to borrow my car"

"Yes," Stefan said

"And the reason you want to borrow it is flowers You want to get some flowers for Elena"

"Yes"

"And these particular flowers, these flowers you’ve just got to get, don’t grow around here"

"Theyseason is over this far north And the frost would have finished theo down south - how far south you don’t know - to find soive to Elena"

"Or at least some of the plants," Stefan said "I’d rather have the actual flowers though"

"And since the police still have your car, you want to borrow o down south and find these flowers that you’ve just got to give to Elena"

"I figure driving is the least conspicuous way to leave town," Stefan explained "I don’t want the police to follow me"

"Uh huh And that’s why you want uy who stole et her soot to have? Are you crazy?" Matt, who had been staring out over the roofs of the frame houses across the street, turned at last to look at Stefan His blue eyes, usually cheerful and straightforward, were full of utter disbelief, and surmounted by twisted, puckered brows

Stefan looked away He should have known better After everything Matt had already done for him, to expect more was ridiculous Especially these days, when people flinched from the sound of his step and avoided his eyes when he came near To expect Matt, who had the best of reasons to resent him, to do him such a favor with no explanation, on the basis of faith alone, reallywas insane

"No, I’o

"Neither am I," Matt had said "And I’d have to be crazy to turnwith you"

By the ti at the car instead of him, lower lip thrust forward in a wary, judicious pout

"After all," he’d said, rubbing at the flaking vinyl of the roof, "you "

Elena put the phone back on the hookSo house, because so, but after that there was only silence and then the click of disconnection She suspected it was Mrs Flowers, but that didn’t tell her anything about where Stefan was Instinctively, she wanted to go to him But it was dark outside, and Stefan had warned her specifically not to go out in the dark, especially not anywhere near the ce house was near both

"No answer?" said Meredith as Elena caing up onunder her breath

"Did you say she was a witch?"

"No, but it rhymes with that," said Elena

"Look," said Bonnie, sitting up "If Stefan’s going to call, he’ll call here There’s no reason for you to coht with h Elena couldn’t quite explain it even to herself After all, Damon had kissed Bonnie at Alaric Saltzman’s party It was Elena’s fault that Bonnie was in danger in the first place Soht be able to protect Bonnie