The Fury

A doorbell rang downstairs. Elena heard it, but she could tell Meredith didn't. 'Who's coming?' she said. 'There's someone at the door.'

'I asked Bonnie to come over at seven o'clock, if her mother would let her. It's probably her. I'll go see.' Meredith seemed almost indecently eager to get away.

'Wait. Does she know?'

'No… Oh, you mean I should break it to her gently.' Meredith looked around the room again uncertainly, and Elena snapped on the little reading light by the bed.

'Turn the room light off. It hurts my eyes anyway,' she said quietly. When Meredith did, the bedroom was dim enough that she could conceal herself in the shadows.

Waiting for Meredith to return with Bonnie, she stood in a corner, hugging her elbows with her hands. Maybe it was a bad idea trying to get Meredith and Bonnie involved. If imperturbable Meredith couldn't handle the situation, what would Bonnie do?

Meredith heralded their arrival by muttering over and over, 'Don't scream now; don't scream,' as she bundled Bonnie across the threshold.

'What's wrong with you? What are you doing?' Bonnie was gasping in return. 'Let go of me. Do you know what I had to do to get my mother to let me out of the house tonight? She wants to take me to the hospital at Roanoke.'

Meredith kicked the door shut. 'Okay,' she said to Bonnie. 'Now, you're going to see something that will… well, it's going to be a shock. But you can't scream, do you understand me? I'll let go of you if you promise.'

'It's too dark to see anything, and you're scaring me. What's wrong with you, Meredith? Oh, all right, I promise, but what are you talking—'

'Elena,' said Meredith. Elena took it as an invitation and stepped forward.

Bonnie's reaction wasn't what she expected. She frowned and leaned forward, peering in the dim light. When she saw Elena's form, she gasped. But then, as she stared at Elena's face, she clapped her hands together with a shriek of joy.

'I knew it! I knew they were wrong! So there, Meredith—and you and Stefan thought you knew so much about drowning and all that. But I knew you were wrong! Oh, Elena, I missed you! Everyone's going to be so —'

'Be quiet, Bonnie! Be quiet!' Meredith said urgently. 'I told you not to scream. Listen, you idiot, do you think if Elena were really all right she'd be here in the middle of the night without anybody knowing about it?'

'But she is all right; look at her. She's standing there. It is you, isn't it, Elena?' Bonnie started toward her, but Meredith grabbed her again.

'Yes, it's me.' Elena had the strange feeling she'd wandered into a surreal comedy, maybe one written by Kafka, only she didn't know her lines. She didn't know what to say to Bonnie, who was looking rapturous.

'It's me, but… I'm not exactly all right,' she said awkwardly, sitting down again. Meredith nudged Bonnie to sit down on the bed.

'What are you two being so mysterious for? She's here, but she's not all right. What's that supposed to mean?'

Elena didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 'Look, Bonnie… oh, I don't know how to say this. Bonnie, did your psychic grandmother ever talk to you about vampires?'

Silence fell, heavy as an ax. The minutes ticked by. Impossibly, Bonnie's eyes widened still further; then, they slid toward Meredith. There were several more minutes of silence, and then Bonnie shifted her weight toward the door. 'Uh, look, you guys,' she said softly, 'this is getting really weird. I mean, really, really, really…'

Elena cast about in her mind. 'You can look at my teeth,' she said. She pulled her upper lip back, poking at a canine with her finger. She felt the reflexive lengthening and sharpening, like a cat's claw lazily extending.

Meredith came forward and looked and then looked away quickly. 'I get the point,' she said, but in her voice there was none of the old wry pleasure in her own wit. 'Bonnie, look,' she said.

All the elation, all the excitement had drained out of Bonnie. She looked as if she were going to be sick. 'No. I don't want to.'

'You have to. You have to believe it, or we'll never get anywhere.' Meredith grappled a stiff and resisting Bonnie forward. 'Open your eyes, you little twit. You're the one who loves all this supernatural stuff.'

'I've changed my mind,' Bonnie said, almost sobbing. There was genuine hysteria in her tone. 'Leave me alone, Meredith; I don't want to look.' She wrenched herself away.

'You don't have to,' Elena whispered, stunned. Dismay pooled inside her, and tears flooded her eyes. 'This was a bad idea, Meredith. I'll go away.'

'No. Oh, don't.' Bonnie turned back as quickly as she'd whirled away and precipitated herself into Elena's arms. 'I'm sorry, Elena; I'm sorry. I don't care what you are; I'm just glad you're back. It's been terrible without you.' She was sobbing now in earnest.

The tears that wouldn't come when Elena had been with Stefan came now. She cried, holding on to Bonnie, feeling Meredith's arms go around both of them. They were all crying—Meredith silently, Bonnie noisily, and Elena herself with passionate intensity. She felt as if she were crying for everything that had happened to her, for everything she had lost, for all the loneliness and the fear and the pain.

Eventually, they all ended up sitting on the floor, knee to knee, the way they had when they were kids at a sleepover making secret plans.

'You're so brave,' Bonnie said to Elena, sniffling. 'I don't see how you can be so brave about it.'

'You don't know how I'm feeling inside. I'm not brave at all. But I've got to deal with it somehow, because I don't know what else to do.'

'Your hands aren't cold.' Meredith squeezed Elena's fingers. 'Just sort of cool. I thought they'd be colder.'

'Stefan's hands aren't cold either,' Elena said, and she was about to go on, but Bonnie squeaked: 'Stefan?'

Meredith and Elena looked at her.

'Be sensible, Bonnie. You don't get to be a vampire by yourself. Somebody has to make you one.'

'But you mean Stefan . . . ? You mean he's a… ?' Bonnie's voice choked off.

'I think,' said Meredith, 'that maybe this is the time to tell us the whole story, Elena. Like all those minor details you left out the last time we asked you for the whole story.'

Elena nodded. 'You're right. It's hard to explain, but I'll try.' She took a deep breath. 'Bonnie, do you remember the first day of school? It was the first time I ever heard you make a prophecy. You looked into my palm and said I'd meet a boy, a dark boy, a stranger. And that he wasn't tall but that he had been once. Well'—she looked at Bonnie and then at Meredith—'Stefan's not really tall now. But he was once… compared to other people in the fifteenth century.'

Meredith nodded, but Bonnie made a faint sound and swayed backward, looking shell-shocked. 'You mean —'

'I mean he lived in Renaissance Italy, and the average person was shorter then. So Stefan looked taller by comparison. And, wait, before you pass out, here's something else you should know. Damon's his brother.'

Meredith nodded again. 'I figured something like that. But then why has Damon been saying he's a college student?'

'They don't get along very well. For a long time, Stefan didn't even know Damon was in Fell's Church.' Elena faltered. She was verging on Stefan's private history, which she'd always felt was his secret to tell. But Meredith had been right; it was time to come out with the whole story. 'Listen, it was like this,' she said. 'Stefan and Damon were both in love with the same girl back in Renaissance Italy. She was from Germany, and her name was Katherine. The reason Stefan was avoiding me at the beginning of school was that I reminded him of her; she had blond hair and blue eyes, too. Oh, and this was her ring.' Elena let go of Meredith's hand and showed them the intricately carved golden circlet set with a single stone of lapis lazuli.

'And the thing was that Katherine was a vampire. A guy named Klaus had made her one back in her village in Germany to save her from dying of her last illness. Stefan and Damon both knew this, but they didn't care. They asked her to choose between them the one she wanted to marry.' Elena stopped and gave a lopsided smile,