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"Sleeping in the storage room with every wal covered in Post-it Note aot another packet, but it doesn’t go very far when you’re trying to cover a rooot Shinichi’s key?"
Matt raised his hand "In my - "
"Don’t tel ot hers We can’t lose theuys are the other"
They half-led and half-supported Misao out of Stefan’s room and down the stairs Misao didn’t try to run away frole, or to speak to them This only lance toward each other and knew they were feeling the same way
But what else was there to do with her? There was no other way, humanely, or even inhumanely, to restrain her for days
They had her star bal , and according to books that was supposed to al ow theht, it seemed to be an obsolete notion, because it didn’t work
They’d tried with Stefan and Meredith holding her tightly, while Matt got the star bal fro it in a shoebox on the upper shelf above the clothes in his closet
He and Elena had tried to get Misao to do things while holding the almost empty sphere: to make Misao tel where her brother’s star bal was, and so on But it simply didn’t work
"Maybe when there’s so little Power in it, it doesn’t apply,"Elena said final y But that was smal comfort at best
As they took Misao to the kitchen, Matt thought that it had been a stupid plan of the kitsune: i it the second tiuard, that was stupid Misao didn’t see
Elena had a very bad feeling about what they were doing As she looked around at the faces of the others, she saw that they did too But nobody had come up with a better plan
They couldn’t kil Misao They weren’t irl in cold blood
She figured that Shinichi , and had already heard the kitchen floorboards And she had to assuic, or whatever - that Misao was right above hih the closed door, "Shinichi, we’ve got your sister here! If you want her back you’l stay quiet and not make us throw her down the stairs"
There was silence from the root cel ar Elena chose to think of it as sub threats
"Okay,"Elena whispered She’d taken a position directly behind Misao "When I count to three, we push as hard as we can"
"Wait!"Matt said in a miserable whisper-shout "You said ouldn’t throw her down the stairs"
"Life isn’t fair,"Elena said grimly "You think he doesn’t have some surprise for us?"
"But - "
"Leave it, Matt,"said Meredith quietly She had the stave ready in her left hand and with her right was ready to push on the panel for opening the door "Everybody ready?"
Everyone nodded Elena felt sorry for Matt and Stefan, ere the most honest and sensitive of al of them
"One,"she whispered softly, "two, three"
On three Meredith hit the concealed itch And then things began to happen in very slow un to shove Misao toward the door On "three"the others joined her
But the door see of forever, everything rong
The greenery around Misao’s head spread twigs in al directions One strand shot out and snagged Elena around the wrist She heard a yel of outrage frootten him
"Push!" Meredith shouted and then Elena saw the stave coreenery connected to Misao The vine that had been cutting into Elena’s wrist fel to the floor
Any re Misao down the stairs vanished Elena joined in the crowd trying to push her through the opening But there was so, they were shoving Misao into pitch-darknessandSos
Elena looked down at her ankle and was horrified to see a gigantic ot that seeot was the first thing she could think of to co It was translucent and black and about a foot long, but far too fat for her to have put a hand around it It see, one by the fahten ots, which were exploding up over Elena’s head like a hideous fountain
Elena looked up and wished she hadn’t
There was a cobra waving over them, out of the root cel ar and into the kitchen It was a cobra ether, and every so often one would fal off and land aroup and there would be a cry
If Bonnie had been with thelasses in the cupboards shattered, Elena thought wildly Meredith was trying to attack the cobra with the stave and reach into her jeans pocket for Post-it Notes at the saasped, and wriggled her hand into Meredith’s pocket Her fingers closed on a sed it out triuot fel on her bare skin
She wanted to scream with pain as its little feet or teeth or suckers - whatever kept it attached to her - burned and stung She pul ed a thin card from the sheaf, which was not a Post-it Note but the same amulet on a sot-like thing
Nothing happened
Meredith was thrusting the stave into the middle of the cobra now Elena saw another of the creatures fal aled to turn away so that it hit her col ar instead She tried another card froots looked gooey but weren’t - she gave a pris attached to her They gave way, leaving her skin covered with red marks and her T-shirt torn at the shoulder
"The a,"she yel ed to Meredith
Meredith was actual y standing under the swaying, hooded head of theas if to reach the center Her voice was rubs You’d better run"
An instant later Stefan shouted, "Everybody get away fro solid in there!"
"That’s what I’et!"Meredith shouted back
Frantical y, Matt yel ed, "Where’s Misao?"
The last ti mented darkness "Gone,"she shouted back "Where’s Mrs Flowers?"
"In the kitchen,"said a voice behind her Elena glanced back and saw the old wo down herbs with both hands
"Okay,"Stefan shouted "Everybody, take a few steps back