between. And besides, if Damon wants to talk to you, all you need to do is to walk — not into the forest, but near it — and call to him yourself. He knows everything that’s going on. He’ll know you’re there.”
“Then I should go with Elena,” Matt reasoned. “Since that sheriff is my problem. I’d like to go by the place where I saw the tree—” At once there was a protest from all three girls.
“I said I’d like to,” Matt said. “Not that we should plan for it. That’s one spot we know is too dangerous.”
“All right,” Elena said. “So Bonnie and Meredith will visit Caroline, and you and I will go Damon hunting, all right? I’d rather go Stefan hunting, but we just don’t have enough information yet.”
“Right, but before you go, maybe stop by Jim Bryce’s house. Matt has an excuse to stop by anytime — he knows Jim. And you can check on Tami’s progress as well,” Meredith suggested.
“Sounds like plans A, B, and C,” Elena said, and then, spontaneously, they all laughed.
It was a clear day, with a hot sun shining overhead.
In the sunlight, despite the minor annoyance of Sheriff Mossberg’s call, they all felt strong and capable.
None of them had any idea that they were about to walk into the worst nightmare of their lives.
Bonnie stood back as Meredith knocked at the front door of the Forbes home.
After a while of no answer and silence inside, Meredith knocked again.
This time Bonnie could hear whisperings and Mrs. Forbes hissing something, and Caroline’s distant laughter.
Finally, just as Meredith was about to ring the bell — the height of discourtesy between neighbor and neighbor in Fell’s Church — the door opened. Bonnie neatly slipped a foot in, keeping it from being shut again.
“Hi, Mrs. Forbes. We just…” Meredith faltered. “We just wanted to see if Caroline was any better,” she finished in a tinny-sounding voice. Mrs. Forbes looked as if she’d seen a ghost — and she’d spent all night running from it.
“No, she’s not. Not better. She’s still — sick.” The woman’s voice was hollow and distant and her eyes scanned the ground just over Bonnie’s right shoulder. Bonnie felt fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand up.
“Okay, Mrs. Forbes.” Even Meredith sounded false and hollow.
Then someone said suddenly, “Are you all right?” and Bonnie realized it was her own voice.
“Caroline…isn’t well. She’s…not seeing anyone,” whispered the woman.
An iceberg seemed to glide down Bonnie’s spine. She wanted to turn and run from this house and its aura of malevolence. But at that moment Mrs. Forbes suddenly slumped. Meredith was barely able to break her fall.
“She’s fainted,” Meredith said tersely.
Bonnie wanted to say,Well, put her on the rug inside and run! But they could hardly do that.
“We’ve got to take her inside,” Meredith said flatly. “Bonnie, are you okay to go?”
“No,” Bonnie said just as flatly, “but what choice do we have?”
Mrs. Forbes, small as she was, was heavy. Bonnie held her feet and followed Meredith, step by reluctant step, into the house.
“We’ll just put her on her bed,” Meredith said. Her voice was shaky. There was something about the house that was terribly unsettling — as if waves of pressure kept bearing down on them.
And then Bonnie saw it. Just a glimpse as they stepped into the living room. It was down the hallway, and it could have been the play of light and shadow there, but it looked for all the world like a person. A person scuttling like a lizard — but not on the floor. On the ceiling.
Matt was knocking at the Bryces’ door, with Elena at his side. Elena had disguised herself by stuffing all her hair into a Virginia Cavaliers baseball cap and wearing wraparound sunglasses from one of Stefan’s drawers. She was also wearing an over-large maroon and navy Pendleton shirt donated by Matt, and a pair of Meredith’s outgrown jeans. She felt sure that no one who had known the old Elena Gilbert would ever recognize her, dressed like this.
The door opened very slowly to reveal not Mr. or Mrs. Bryce, nor Jim, but Tamra. She was wearing — well, close to nothing. She had on a thong bikini bottom, but it looked handmade, as if she’d cut a regular bikini bottom with scissors — and it was beginning to come apart. On top she had two round decorations made of cardboard with sequins pasted on and a few strands of colored tinsel. On her head she wore a paper crown, which was clearly where she’d gotten the tinsel. She’d made an attempt to glue strands onto the bikini bottoms as well. The result looked like what it was: a child’s attempt to make an outfit for a Las Vegas showgirl or stripper.
Matt immediately turned around and stood facing away, but Tami threw herself at him and plastered herself to his back.
“Matt Honey-butt,” she cooed. “You came back. I knew you would. But why’d you bring this ugly old whore with you? How can we—” Elena stepped forward, then, because Matt had whirled with his hand up. She was sure that Matt had never struck a female in his life, especially a child, but he was also over-sensitive about one or two subjects. Like her.
Elena managed to get between Matt and the surprisingly strong Tamra. She had to hide a smile when contemplating Tami’s costume. After all, only a few days ago, she hadn’t understood the human nakedness taboo at all. Now she got it, but it didn’t seem nearly as important as it once had. People were born with their own perfectly good skins on. There was no real reason, in her mind, to wear false skins over those, unless it was cold or somehow uncomfortable without them. But society said that to be naked was to be wicked. Tami was trying to be wicked, in her own childish way.
“Get your hands off me, you old whore,” Tamra snarled as Elena held her away from Matt, and then she added several rather lengthy expletives.
“Tami, where are your parents? Where’s your brother?” Elena said. She ignored the obscene words — they were just sounds — but saw that Matt had gone white around the lips.
“You apologize to Elena right now! Apologize for talking that way!” he demanded.
“Elena’s a stinking corpse with worms in her eye sockets,” Tamra sang glibly. “But my friend says she was a whore when she was alive. A real”—a string of four-letter words that made Matt gasp—“cheap whore.You know. Nothing’s cheaper than something that comes free.”
“Matt, just don’t pay any attention,” Elena said under her breath, and she repeated, “Where are your parents and Jim?”
The answer was littered with more expletives, but it amounted to the story — truthful or not — that Mr. and Mrs. Bryce had gone away on vacation for a few days, and that Jim was with his girlfriend, Isobel.
“Okay, then, I guess I’ll just have to help you get into some more decent clothes,” Elena said. “First, I think you need a shower to get these Christmas doodads off—”
“Just try-hy-hy! Just try-hy-hy!” The answer was somewhere between the whinny of a horse and human speech. “I glued them on with Perma Stick!” Tami added and then began giggling on a high and hysterical note.
“Oh, my God — Tamra, do you realize that if there isn’t some solvent for this, you may need surgery?”
Tami’s answer was foul. There was also a sudden foul smell. No, not a smell, Elena thought: a choking, gut curdling stench.
“Oops!” Tami gave that high, glassy giggle again. “Pardonmoi. At least it’s natural gas.”
Matt cleared his throat. “Elena — I don’t think we should be here. With her folks gone and all…”
“They’re afraid of me,” Tamra giggled. “Aren’t you?”—very suddenly in a voice that had dropped several octaves.
Elena looked Tamra in the eye. “No, I’m not. I just feel sorry for a little girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Matt’s right, I guess. We have to go.”
Tami’s whole manner seemed to change. “I’m so sorry…. I didn’t realize I had guests of that caliber. Don’t go, please, Matt.” Then she added in a confidential whisper to Elena, “Is he any good?”
“What?”
Tami nodded at Matt, who immediately turned his back to her. He looked as if he felt a terrible, repulsive fascination for Tami’s ridiculous appearance.
