Springs. She was in the old graveyard; how could she not have realized that? Only these graves were fresh.
'Another mouse?' Elena said, and giggled obscenely.
Bonnie looked down at the half-eaten sandwich she was holding and screamed. Dangling from one end was a ropy brown tail. She threw it as hard as she could against a headstone, where it hit with a wet slap. Then she stood, stomach heaving, scrubbing her fingers frantically against her jeans.
'You can't leave yet. The company is just arriving.' Elena's face was changing; she had already lost her hair, and her skin was turning gray and leathery. Things were moving in the plate of sandwiches and the freshly dug pits. Bonnie didn't want to see any of them; she thought she would go mad if she did.
'You're not Elena!' she screamed, and ran.
The wind blew her hair into her eyes and she couldn't see. Her pursuer was behind her; she could feel it right behind her. Get to the bridge, she thought, and then she ran into something.
'I've been waiting for you,' said the thing in Elena's dress, the gray skeletal thing with long, twisted teeth. 'Listen to me, Bonnie.' It held her with terrible strength.
'You're not Elena! You're not Elena!'
'Listen to me, Bonnie!'
It was Elena's voice, Elena's real voice, not obscenely amused nor thick and ugly, but urgent. It came from somewhere behind Bonnie and it swept through the dream like a fresh, cold wind. 'Bonnie, listen quickly—'
Things were melting. The bony hands on Bonnie's arms, the crawling graveyard, the rancid hot air. For a moment Elena's voice was clear, but it was broken up like a bad long-dis-tance connection.
'… He's twisting things, changing them. I'm not as strong as he is…' Bonnie missed some words. '… but this is important. You have to find… right now.' Her voice was fading.
'Elena, I can't hear you! Elena!'
'… an easy spell, only two ingredients, the ones I told you already…'
'Elena!'
Bonnie was still shouting as she sat bolt upright in bed.
'And that's all I remember,' Bonnie concluded as she and Meredith walked down Sunflower Street between the rows of tall Victorian houses.
'But it was definitely Elena?'
'Yes, and she was trying to tell me something at the end. But that's the part that wasn't clear, except that it was important, terribly important. What do you think?'
'Mouse sandwiches and open graves?' Meredith arched an elegant eyebrow. 'I think you're getting Stephen King mixed up with Lewis Carroll.'
Bonnie thought she was probably right. But the dream still bothered her; it had bothered her all day, enough to put her earlier worries out of her mind. Now, as she and Meredith approached Caroline's house, the old worries returned with a vengeance.
She really should have told Meredith about this, she thought, casting an uneasy sideways glance at the taller girl. She shouldn't let Meredith just walk in there unprepared…
Meredith looked up at the lighted windows of the Queen Anne House with a sigh. 'Do you really
'Yes, I do; yes, absolutely.' Too late now. Might as well make the best of it. 'You'll love them when you see them,' she added, hearing the note of hopeful desperation in her own voice.
Meredith paused and her keen dark eyes searched Bonnie's face curiously. Then she knocked on the door. 'I just hope Caroline's not staying home tonight. We could end up stuck with her.'
'Caroline staying home on a Saturday night? Don't be ridiculous.' Bonnie had been holding her breath too long; she was starting to feel lightheaded. Her tinkling laughter came out brittle and false. 'What a concept,' she continued somewhat hysterically as Meredith said, 'I don't think
Hand on doorknob, Meredith stopped dead and turned to look at her.
'Bonnie,' she said quietly, 'have you gone completely through the ozone?'
'No.' Deflated, Bonnie grabbed Meredith's arm and sought her eyes urgently. The door was opening on its own. 'Oh, God, Meredith, please don't kill me…'
'Surprise!' shouted three voices.
'Smile,' Bonnie hissed, shoving the suddenly resistant body of her friend through the door and into the bright room full of noise and showers of foil confetti. She beamed wildly herself and spoke through clenched teeth. 'Kill me later—I deserve it—but for now just smile.'
There were balloons, the expensive Mylar kind, and a cluster of presents on the coffee table. There was even a flower arrangement, although Bonnie noticed the orchids in it matched Caroline's pale green scarf exactly. It was a Hermes silk with a design of vines and leaves. She'll end up wearing one of those orchids in her hair, I'll bet, Bonnie thought.
Sue Carson's blue eyes were a little anxious, her smile wavering. 'I hope you didn't have any big plans for tonight, Meredith,' she said.
'Nothing I can't break with an iron crowbar,' Meredith replied. But she smiled back with wry warmth and Bonnie relaxed. Sue had been a Homecoming Princess on Elena's court, along with Bonnie, Meredith, and Caroline. She was the only girl at school besides Bonnie and Meredith who'd stood by Elena when everyone else had turned against her. At Elena's funeral she'd said that Elena would always be the real queen of Robert E. Lee, and she'd given up her own nomination for Snow Queen in Elena's memory. Nobody could hate Sue. The worst was over now, Bonnie thought.
'I want to get a picture of us all on the couch,' Caroline said, positioning them behind the flower arrangement. 'Vickie, take it, will you?'
Vickie Bennett had been standing by quietly, unnoticed. Now she said, 'Oh, sure,' and nervously flicked long, light brown hair out of her eyes as she picked up the camera.
Just like she's some kind of servant, Bonnie thought, and then the flashbulb blinded her.
As the Polaroid developed and Sue and Caroline laughed and talked around Meredith's dry politeness, Bonnie noticed something else. It was a good picture; Caroline looked stunning as ever with her auburn hair gleaming and the pale green orchids in front of her. And there was Meredith, looking resigned and ironic and darkly beautiful without even trying, and there she was herself, a head shorter than the others, with her red curls tousled and a sheepish expression on her face. But the strange thing was the figure beside her on the couch. It was Sue, of course it was Sue, but for a moment the blond hair and blue eyes seemed to belong to someone else. Someone looking at her urgently, on the verge of saying something important. Bonnie frowned at the photo, blinking rapidly. The image swam in front of her, and a chilling uneasiness ran up her spine.
No, it was just Sue in the picture. She must've gone crazy for a minute, or else she was letting Caroline's desire for them 'all to be together again' affect her.
'I'll take the next one,' she said, springing up. 'Sit down, Vickie, and lean in. No, farther, farther—there!' All of Vickie's movements were quick and light and nervous. When the flashbulb went off, she started like a scared animal ready to bolt.
Caroline scarcely glanced at this picture, getting up and heading for the kitchen instead. 'Guess what we're having instead of cake?' she said. 'I'm making my own version of Death by Chocolate. Come on, you've got to help me melt the fudge.' Sue followed her, and after an uncertain pause, so did Vickie.
The last traces of Meredith's pleasant expression evaporated and she turned to Bonnie. 'You should have told me.'
'I know.' Bonnie lowered her head meekly a minute. Then she looked up and grinned. 'But then you wouldn't have come and we wouldn't be having Death by Chocolate.'
'And that makes it all worthwhile?'
'Well, it helps,' Bonnie said, with an air of being reasonable. 'And really, it probably won't be so bad. Caroline's actually trying to be nice, and it's good for Vickie to get out of the house for once…'
'It doesn't look like it's good for her,' Meredith said bluntly. 'It looks like she's going to have a heart
