Page 15 (1/2)
"Elena, you’re being rude!" Aunt Judith seldory now "You’re too old for this kind of behavior"
"It’s not rudeness! You don’t understand - " "I understand perfectly You’re acting just the way you did when Dauest deserves a little more consideration?"
Frustration flooded over Elena "You don’t even knohat you’re talking about," she said This was toofrom Aunt Judith’s lips it was unbearable "Elena!" Aup Aunt Judith’s cheeks "I’mshocked at you! And Ihave to say
that this childish behavior only started since you’ve been going out with that boy" "Oh, ’that boy’" Elena glared at Damon
"Oh, really?" Elena felt as if she were talking to Damon and Aunt Judith at once, and she looked back and forth between the two of the for the last days - for the last weeks, for theforward It was like a great tidal wave inside her, over which she had no control
She realized she was shaking "Well, that’s too bad because you’re going to have to tolerate it I aive Stefan up, not for anyone Certainly not foryou!" This last was asped
"That’s enough!" Robert snapped He’d appeared with Margaret, and his face was dark "Young lady, if this is how that boy encourages you to speak to your aunt - "
"He’s not ’that boy’!" Elena took another step back, so she could face all of the a spectacle of herself, everyone in the courtyard was looking But she didn’t care She had been keeping a lid on her feelings for so long, shoving down all the anxiety and the fear and the anger where it wouldn’t be seen All the worry about Stefan, all the terror over Damon, all the shame and humiliation she’d suffered at school, she’d buried it deep But noas co back All of it, all at once, in acrazily; her ears rang She felt that nothing mattered except to hurt the people who stood in front of her, to show them all
"He’s not ’that boy’," she said again, her voice deadly cold "He’s Stefan and he’s all I care about And I happen to be engaged to him"
"Oh, don’t be ridiculous!" Robert thundered It was the last straw
"Is this ridiculous?" She held up her hand, the ring toward theet et rabbed her hand and stared at the ring, then turned abruptly and strode away, every step full of barely leashed savagery Robert was spluttering on in exasperation Aunt Judith was fu
"Elena, I absolutely forbid you - "
"You’renotto force theet away, to be alone, to be with someone who loved her "If Stefan asks, tell hi house!" she added, and broke away through the crowd
She half expected Bonnie or Meredith to follow her, but she was glad they didn’t The parking lot was full of cars but al for the afternoon activities But a battered Ford sedan was parked nearby, and a fa the door
"Matt! Are you leaving?" She made her decision instantly It was too cold to walk all the way to the boarding house
"Huh? No, I’ve got to help Coach Ly this away" He tossed the Outstanding Athlete placard into the front seat "Hey, are you okay?" His eyes widened at the sight of
"Yes - no I will be if I can get out of here Look, can I take your car? Just for a little while?"
"Well sure, but I knohy don’t you let o tell Coach Lyman"
"No! I just want to be alone Oh, please don’t ask any questions" She al it back soon, I promise Or Stefan will If you see Stefan, tell hi house And thanks" She sla out with a clash of gears because she wasn’t used to a stick shift She left hi after her
She drove without really seeing or hearing anything outside, crying, locked in her own spinning tornado of emotions She and Stefan would run away They would elope They would show everyone She would never set foot in Fell’s Church again
And then Aunt Judith would be sorry Then Robert would see horong he’d been But Elena would never forgive them Never
As for Elena herself, she didn’t need anybody She certainly didn’t need stupid old Robert E Lee, where you could go fro a social pariah in one day just for loving the wrong person She didn’t need any fa down to cruise up the winding driveway of the boarding house, Elena felt her thoughts slon, too
Well she wasn’t mad at all her friends Bonnie and Meredith hadn’t done anything Or Matt Matt was all right In fact, she ht not need him but his car had come in pretty handy
In spite of herself Elena felt a strangled giggle well up in her throat Poor Matt People always borrowing his clunking dinosaur of a car He le let loose a fewher head Oh, God, how did things turn out this way? What a day She should be having a victory celebration because they’d beaten Caroline, and instead she was crying alone in Matt’s car
Carolinehad looked pretty dahtly hysterical chuckles Oh, the look on her face Somebody better have a video of that
At last the sobs and giggles both abated and Elena felt a wash of tiredness She leaned against the steering wheel trying not to think of anything for a while, and then she got out of the car
She’d go and wait for Stefan, and then they’d both go back and deal with theup, she thought wearily Poor Aunt Judith Elena had yelled at her in front of half the town
Why had she let herself get so upset? But her emotions were still close to the surface, as she found when the boarding house door was locked and no one answered the bell
Oh, wonderful she thought, her eyes stinging again Mrs Flowers had gone off to the Founders’ Day celebration, too And now Elena had the choice of sitting in the car or standing out here in this windstorh the branches of the oak trees, tearing off the re the steadily now, not just aelse So that came not just from the wind, but fro of pressure, ofpower, drawing nearer, closing in
Elena spun to face the oak trees
There was a stand of the into the forest And beyond that were the river and the graveyard
So very bad
"No," whispered Elena She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it, like so out the sky Shefelt the evil, the hatred, the animal fury
Bloodlust Stefan had used the word, but she hadn’t understood it Now she felt this bloodlust focused on her
"No!"
Higher and higher, it was towering over her She could still see nothing, but it was as if great wings unfolded, stretching to touch the horizon on either side So with a Power beyond comprehension and it wanted tokill
"No!" She ran for the car just as it stooped and dived for her Her hands scrabbled at the door handle, and she fu, shrieking, tearing at her hair Gritty ice sprayed into her eyes, blinding her, but then the key turned and she jerked the door open
Safe! She slaht her fist down on the lock Then she flung herself across the seat to check the locks on the other side
The wind roared with a thousand voices outside The car began rocking
"Stop it! Damon, stop it!" Her thin cry was lost in the cacophony She put her hands out on the dashboard as if to balance the car and it rocked harder, ice pelting against it
Then she saw so up, but she could discern the shape through it It looked like soreat bird made of mist or snow, but the outlines were hazy All she was sure of was that it had huge sweeping wings and that it was conition Get it in! Now go! Herorders at her The ancient Ford wheezed and the tires screamed louder than the wind as she took off And the shape behind her followed, getting larger and larger in the rearviewand braking already, the tree would have crashed down on her As it was, the violent iht fender by inches The tree was athe way back to town completely
She was trapped Her only route home cut off She was alone, there was no escape from this terrible Power
Power That was it; that was the key "The stronger your Powers are, thewater!
Throwing the car into reverse, she brought it around and then sla her as narrowly as the tree had, and then she was speeding down Old Creek Road into the worst of the storht pounded in Elena’s brain now She had to cross running water, to leave this thing behind
There were , but she swerved around them It couldn’t be far now She could see the river flickering past on her left side through the driving ice store
It was there; she’d ust threw sleet across the windshield, but with the wipers’ next stroke she saw it fleetingly again This was it, the turn should be abouthere
The car lurched and skidded onto the wooden structure Elena felt the wheels grip at slick planks and then felt them lock Desperately, she tried to turn with the skid, but she couldn’t see and there was no roouardrail, the rotted wood of the footbridge giving way under weight it could no longer support There was a sickening feeling of spinning, dropping, and the car hit the water