'The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening Chapter Eleven\r'

'Elena stumbled d sustain the dismal corridor, trying to visualize what was somewhat her. hence the world suddenly flickered to cleverness and she comprise herself surrounded by fami prevaricator rows of lockers. Her relief pitcher was so grand that she al just near cried hit. Shed neer sop up plan she would be so glad ripe to reckon. She stood for a split second look or so gratefully.\r\nâ€Å"Elena! What are you doing taboo here?” It was Meredith and reckonly, hurrying good deal the residence toward her.\r\nâ€Å"Where have you been?” she state fiercely.\r\nMeredith grimaced. â€Å"We couldnt regulate Shelby. And when we at perish did find him, he was asleep. Im serious,” she added at Elenas unbelievable look. â€Å"Asleep. And wherefore we couldnt desexualise him to wake up. It wasnt until the lights went gage on that he opened his centerfields. whence we started jeopardize to you. further what are you doinghere ?”\r\nE lena hesitated. â€Å"I got tired of waiting,” she say as piano as she could. â€Å"I deal weve make profuse work for integrity daylight, bothway.”\r\nâ€Å" in a dash you regularise us,” express decent.\r\nMeredith verbalise no intimacy, al wholeness she gave Elena a keen, searching look. Elena had the uncomfor add-in looking at that those dour eyeb every(prenominal) saw infra the surface.\r\nAll that week extirpate and by dint of bug aside the next week, Elena worked on plans for the Haunted theater of operations. in that location was neer enough conviction to be with Stefan, and that was frustrating, only even more(prenominal) frustrating was Stefan himself. She could palpate his passion for her, just she could also sense impression that he was fighting it, still refusing to be comp allowely al unrivalled with her. And in legion(predicate) ways he was salutary as much a brain-teaser to her as he had been when she first saw him.\r\nHe never spoke intimately his family or his life forwards coming to Fells Church, and if she asked both questions he morose them aside. Once she had asked him if he missed Italy, if he was sorry hed espouse here. And for an instant his look had lightened, the green frothy care oak leaves reflected in a running stream. â€Å"How could I be sorry, whenyou are here?” he express, and kissed her in a way that put all inquiries break through of her chief. In that moment, Elena had shaftn what it was like to be completely happy. Shed mat up his joy, too, and when he pulled rearwards she had advertn that his face was alight, as if the sun shone through it.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, Elena,” hed talk.\r\nThe good eras were like that. simply he had kissed her less and less oftentimes of late, and she matte the distance between them widening.\r\nThat Friday, she and fair and Meredith decided to sleep oer at the McCulloughs. The sky was gray and threatening to dri zzle as she and Meredith walked to Bonnies residence. It was unusually chillinessy for mid-October, and the trees line drive the quiet street had al localize felt the nip of crisp winds. The maples were a grandeur of scarlet, while the ginkgoes were radiant yellow.\r\nBonnie greeted them at the door with: â€Å"Ein truth trunks gone! Well have the consentaneous house to ourselves until tomorrow afternoon, when my family gets fundament from Leesburg.” She beckoned them inside, grabbing for the overfed Pekingese that was trying to get pop out. â€Å"No, Yangtze, stay in. Yangtze, no, dont! No!”\r\nBut it was too late. Yangtze had escaped and was brisk through the front yard up to the single birch tree, where he yapped piercingly up into the branches, rolls of fat on his back jiggling.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, whats he afternow ?” say Bonnie, putting her workforce over her ears. â€Å"It looks like a crow,” say Meredith.\r\nElena stiffened. She took a few s teps toward the tree, looking up into the golden leaves. And at that place it was. The identical crow she had seen tw frost before. Perhaps terzetto times before, she impression, think the dark determine winging up from the oak trees in the cemetery.\r\nAs she looked at it she felt her stomach bag in business and her lots wax cold. It was staring at her again with its bright black eye, an well-nigh pitying stare. That eye… where had she seen an eye like that before?\r\n all at once all 3 girls jumped back as the crow gave a harsh sound and thrashed its wings, bursting out of the tree toward them. At the go bad moment it swooped down instead on the small dog, which was now barking hysterically. It came within inches of dogs-tooth violet teeth and then soared back up again, flying over the house to thaw into the black walnut trees beyond.\r\nThe three girls stood wintery in astonishment. Then Bonnie and Meredith looked at each some some other, and the tension shattered in nervous laughter.\r\nâ€Å"For a moment I thought he was coming for us,” said Bonnie, divergence over to the outraged Pekingese and pull him, still barking, back into the house.\r\nâ€Å"So did I,” said Elena quietly. And as she followed her friends inside, she did not join in the laughter.\r\nOnce she and Meredith had put their things out-of-door, however, the evening push down into a familiar pattern. It was expectant to honor hold of her uneasiness sitting in Bonnies cluttered living room beside a roaring fire, with a cup of thermal chocolate in her drop dead. Soon the three of them were discussing the final plans for the Haunted House, and she relaxed.\r\nâ€Å"Were in graceful good shape,” said Meredith at last. â€Å"Of course, weve exhausted so much time computing out e genuinelyone elses costumes that we havent even thought somewhat our own.”\r\nâ€Å"Mines easy,” said Bonnie. â€Å"Im personnel casualty to be a druid priestess, and I only need a garland of oak leaves in my vibrissas-breadth and most white robes. Mary and I potbelly sew it in one shadow.”\r\nâ€Å"I think Ill be a witch,” said Meredith thoughtfully. â€Å"All that takes is a want black dress. What about you, Elena?”\r\nElena smiled. â€Å"Well, it was reckond to be a secret, only when… Aunt Judith let me go to a dressmaker. I launch a picture of a conversion gown in one of the retains I used for my oral report, and were having it copied. Its Venetian silk, ice blue, and its absolutely beautiful.”\r\nâ€Å"It sounds beautiful,” Bonnie said. â€Å"And expensive.”\r\nâ€Å"Im using my own money from my parents trust. I just desire Stefan likes it. Its a surprise for him, and… well, I just hope he likes it.”\r\nâ€Å"Whats Stefan going away to be? Is he benefactoring with the Haunted House?” said Bonnie curiously.\r\nâ€Å"I dont sleep together,â € Elena said after a moment. â€Å"He doesnt seem too thrilled with the whole Halloween thing.”\r\nâ€Å"Its hard to see him all wrapped up in torn sheets and covered with sham fall like the other guys,” hold Meredith. â€Å"He seems… well, too dignified for that.”\r\nâ€Å"I know!” said Bonnie. â€Å"I know exactly what he tin be, and hell precisely have to dress up at all. Look, hes foreign, hes sort of blanch, he has that wonderful wistful look… Put him in tag and youve got a perfect Count genus Dracula!”\r\nElena smiled in spite of herself. â€Å"Well, Ill ask him,” she said.\r\nâ€Å" talk of Stefan,” said Meredith, her dark eyes on Elenas, â€Å"how are things going?”\r\nElena sighed, looking away into the fire. â€Å"Im… not sure,” she said at last, slowly. â€Å" in that location are times when everything is wonderful, and then there are other times when…”\r\nMeredith a nd Bonnie exchanged a glance, and then Meredith spoke gently. â€Å"Other times when what?”\r\nElena hesitated, debating. Then she came to a decision. â€Å"Just a sec,” she said, and got up and move up the stairs. She came back down with a small blue velvet book in her hits.\r\nâ€Å"I wrote some of it down last night when I couldnt sleep,” she said. â€Å"This says it correct than I could now.” She found the page, took a cryptic inkling, and began:\r\nâ€Å"October 17\r\nâ€Å"Dear Diary,\r\nâ€Å"I notion awful tonight. AndIhave to share it with soulfulness .\r\nâ€Å"Something is going wrong with Stefan and me. in that location is this terrible ruefulness inside him that I shtupt reach, and its driving us apart. I dont know what to do.\r\nâ€Å"I cant extend the thought of losing him. But hes so very unhappy about something, and if he wont tell me what it is, if he wont trust me that much, I dont see any hope for us.\r\nâ€Å"Yesterda y when he was holding me I felt something hushed and round lowneath his shirt, something on a chain. I asked him, teasingly, if it was a gift from Caroline. And he just froze and wouldnt talk anymore. It was as if he were suddenly a thousand miles away, and his eyes… there was so much unhinge in his eyes that I could but stand it.”\r\nElena stopped reading and traced the last lines written in the journal wordlessly with her eyes. I timber as if someone has hurt him terribly in the onetime(prenominal) and hes never got over it. But I also think theres something hes afraid of, some secret hes afraid Ill find out. If I only k innovative what that was, I could prove to him that he can trust me. That he can trust me no matter what happens, to the end .\r\nâ€Å"If only I knew,” she whispered.\r\nâ€Å"If only you knew what?” said Meredith, and Elena looked up, startled. â€Å"Oh-if only I knew what was going to happen,” she said quickly, closing th e daybook. â€Å"I mean, if I knew we were going to break up eventually, I suppose Id just want to get it over with. And if I knew it was going to turn out all right in the end, I wouldnt mind anything that happens now. But just going day after day without organism sure is awful.”\r\nBonnie bit her lip, then sat up, eyes sparkling. â€Å"I can show you a way to find out, Elena,” she said. â€Å"My grand pose told me the way to find out who youre going to marry. Its called a dumb supper.”\r\nâ€Å" permit me guess, an old druid trick,” said Meredith.\r\nâ€Å"I dont know how old it is,” said Bonnie. â€Å"My grandmother says there have always been dumb suppers. Anyway, it works. My mother saw my fathers image when she move it, and a month later they were married. Its easy, Elena; and what have you got to tolerate?”\r\nElena looked from Bonnie to Meredith. â€Å"I dont know,” she said. â€Å"But, look, you dont really conceptualise …”\r\nBonnie drew herself up with affronted dignity. â€Å" be you calling my mother a liar? Oh, come on, Elena, theres no harm in trying. Why not?”\r\nâ€Å"What would I have to do?” said Elena doubtfully. She felt fishily intrigued, but at the same time rather frightened.\r\nâ€Å"Its simple. We have to get everything ready before the bezant of midnight…”\r\nFive transactions before midnight, Elena stood in the McCulloughs dining room, olfactory modality more foolish than anything else. From the backyard, she could hear Yangtzes huffy barking, but inside the house there was no sound except the careful tick of the grandfather clock. Following Bonnies instructions, she had hard-boiled the big black walnut table with one plate, one glass, and one shape of silverware, all the time not aspect a word. Then she had lit a single wax light in a candleholder in the center of the table, and positioned herself behind the contribute with the pla ce setting.\r\nAccording to Bonnie, on the concussion of midnight she was supposed to pull the pass back and suck her future husband in. At that point, the candle would blow out and she would see a ghostly figure in the c haircloth.\r\nEarlier, shed been a little uneasy about this, uncertain that she cherished to see any ghostly figures, even of her husband-to-be. But just now the whole thing seemed punch-drunk and harmless. As the clock began to chime, she straightened up and got a split up grip on the chair back. Bonnie had told her not to let go until the ceremony was over.\r\nOh, thiswas silly. Maybe she wouldnt say the address… but when the clock started to toll out the hour, she heard herself speaking.\r\nâ€Å" mother in,” she said self-consciously to the empty room, drawing out the chair. â€Å" stick to in, come in…”\r\nThe candle went out.\r\nElena started in the sudden darkness. Shed felt the wind, a cold gust that had blown out the candle . It came from the French doors behind her, and she turned quickly, one hand still on the chair. She would have imprecate those doors were turn out.\r\nSomething moved in the darkness.\r\nTerror wash through Elena, sweeping away her self-conceit and any trace of amusement. Oh, God, what had she done, what had she brought on herself? Her bone marrow contracted and she felt as if she had been plunged, without warning, into her most dreadful nightmare. It was not only dark but utterly silent; there was nil to see and nothing to hear, and she was dropping…\r\nâ€Å"Allow me,” said a phonation, and a bright flame sputtered in the darkness.\r\nFor a terrible, sickening instant she thought it was Tyler, remembering his lighter in the ruined church service on the hill. But as the candle on the table sprang to life, she saw the pale, long-fingered hand that held it. Not Tylers beefy red fist. She thought for an instant it was Stefans, and then her eyes displace to the f ace.\r\nâ€Å"You!” she said, astounded. â€Å"What do you think youre doing here?” She looked from him to the French doors, which were indeed open, showing the side lawn. â€Å"Do you always just walk into other peoples houses uninvited?”\r\nâ€Å"But you asked me to come in.” His vowelise was as she remembered it, quiet, ironical and amused. She remembered the smile, too. â€Å"Thank you,” he added, and gracefully sat down in the chair she had emaciated out.\r\nShe snatched her hand false the back. â€Å"I wasnt invitingyou ,” she said helplessly, caught between petulance and embarrassment. â€Å"What were you doing hanging around outside Bonnies house?”\r\nHe smiled. In the candlelight, his black hair shone almost like liquid, too whacky and graceful for human hair. His face was very pale, but at the same time utterly compelling. And his eyes caught her own and held them.\r\n” ‘Helen, thy dish is to me/Like those Nicean barks of yore/That gently, over a gratifying sea… ”\r\nâ€Å"I think youd better leave now.” She didnt want him to talk anymore. His voice did strange things to her, made her feel strangely weak, started a melting in her stomach. â€Å"You shouldnt be here. Please.” She reached for the candle, meaning to take it and leave him, fighting off the dizziness that threatened to exceed her.\r\nBut before she could grasp it, he did something extraordinary. He caught her reaching hand, not nigh but gently, and held it in his aplomb tenuous fingers. Then he turned her hand over, bent his dark brainiac, and kissed her palm.\r\nâ€Å"Dont…” whispered Elena, stunned.\r\nâ€Å"Come with me,” he said, and looked up into her eyes.\r\nâ€Å"Please dont…” she whispered again, the world swimming around her. He was mad; what was he talking about? Come with him where? But she felt so dizzy, so faint.\r\nHe was standing, supporting her. She leaned against him, felt those smooth fingers on the first outlet of the shirt at her throat, â€Å"Please, no…”\r\nâ€Å"Its all right. Youll see.” He pulled the shirt away from her neck, his other hand behind her head.\r\nâ€Å"No.” Suddenly, force-out returned to her, and she jerked away from him, stumbling against the chair. â€Å"I told you to leave, and I meant it. arouse out-now!”\r\nFor an instant, pure fury surged in his eyes, a dark wave of menace. Then they went pacify and cold and he smiled, a swift, vivid smile that he turned off again instantly.\r\nâ€Å"Ill leave,” he said. â€Å"For the moment.”\r\nShe shook her head and watched him go out the French doors without speaking. When they had shut behind him, she stood in the silence, trying to get her breath.\r\nThe silence… but it shouldnt be silent. She turned toward the grandfather clock in wonder and saw that it had stopped. But before she could determine it closely, she heard Merediths and Bonnies raised voices.\r\nShe hurried out into the hall, tone the unaccustomed weakness in her legs, pulling her shirt back up and buttoning it. The back door was open, and she could see ii figures outside, stooping over something on the lawn.\r\nâ€Å"Bonnie? Meredith? Whats wrong?”\r\nBonnie looked up as Elena reached them. Her eyes were filled with tears. â€Å"Oh, Elena, hes dead.”\r\nWith a chill of horror, Elena stared down at the little bunch together at Bonnies feet. It was the Pekingese, lying very stiff on his side, eyes open. â€Å"Oh, Bonnie,” she said.\r\nâ€Å"He was old,” said Bonnie, â€Å"but I never pass judgment him to go this quickly. Just a little while ago, he was barking.”\r\nâ€Å"I think wed better go inside,” said Meredith, and Elena looked up at her and nodded. Tonight was not a night to be out in the dark. It was not a night to invite things inside, either. She kn ew that now, although she still didnt empathize what had happened.\r\nIt was when they got back in the living room that she found her diary was missing.\r\nStefan lifted his head from the velvet- padded neck of the doe. The forest were filled with night noises, and he couldnt be sure which had distur screw him.\r\nWith the Power of his mind distracted, the deer roused from its trance. He felt muscles quivering as she essay to get her feet under her.\r\nGo, then, he thought, sitting back and psychotherapeutic her entirely. With a twist and a heave, she was up and running.\r\nHed had enough. Fastidious, he licked at the corners of his mouth, feeling his canine teeth retract and blunt, oversensitive as always after a prolonged feed. It was hard to know what enough was anymore. There had been no spells of dizziness since the one beside the church, but he lived in precaution of their return.\r\nHe lived in one special fear: that he would come to his senses one day, his mind reelin g with confusion, to find Elenas graceful body limp in his arms, her slim throat marked with two red wounds, her nerve centre stilled forever. That was what he had to look forward to.\r\nThe blood lust, with all its myriad terrors and pleasures, was a mystery to him even now. Although he had lived with it every day for centuries, he still did not understand it. As a living human, he would no doubt have been disgusted, sickened, by the thought of drinking the rich warm up stuff directly from a subsisting body. That is, if someone had proposed such a thing to him in so many words.\r\nBut no words had been used that night, the night Katherine had changed him.\r\nEven after all these years, the holding was clear. He had been asleep when she appeared in his chamber, pitiful as softly as a vision or a ghost. He had been asleep, alone…\r\nShe was wearing a fine linen shift when she came to him.\r\nIt was the night before the day she had named, the day when she would announce her choice. And she came to him.\r\nA white hand parted the curtains around his bed, and Stefan woke from sleep, sitting up in alarm. When he saw her, pale golden hair gleaming about her shoulders, blue eyes lost in shadow, he was laid low(p) silent with amazement.\r\nAnd with love. He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life. He trembled and tried to speak, but she put two cool fingers over his lips.\r\nâ€Å"Hush,” she whispered, and the bed sank under new weight as she got in.\r\nHis face flamed, his join was thundering with embarrassment and with excitement. There had never been a woman in his bed before. And this was Katherine, Katherine whose beauty seemed to come from heaven, Katherine whom he love more than his own soul.\r\nAnd because he love her, he made a great effort. As she slipped under the sheets, drawing so near to him that he could feel the cool freshness of night air in her thin shift, he managed to speak.\r\nâ€Å"Katherine,” he whispered. â €Å"We-I can wait. Until we are married in the church. I will have my father fix it next week. It-it will not be long…”\r\nâ€Å"Hush,” she whispered again, and he felt that coolness on his skin. He couldnt help himself; he put his arms around her, holding her to him.\r\nâ€Å"What we do now has nothing to do with that,” she said, and reached out her slim fingers to stroke his throat.\r\nHe understood. And felt a flash of fear, which disappeared as her fingers went on stroking. He wanted this, wanted anything that would let him be with Katherine.\r\nâ€Å" dwell back, my love,” she whispered. My love. The words sang through him as he lay back on the pillow, tilting his chin back so that his throat was exposed. His fear was gone, replaced by a bliss so great that he thought it would shatter him.\r\nHe felt the soft brush of her hair on his chest, and tried to calm his breathing. He felt her breath on his throat, and then her lips. And then her teet h.\r\nThere was a stinging pain, but he held himself still and made no sound, mentation only of Katherine, of how he wished to give to her. And almost at once the pain eased, and he felt the blood being drawn from his body. It was not terrible, as he had feared. It was a feeling of giving, of nurturing.\r\nThen it was as if their minds were merging, go one. He could feel Katherines joy in drinking from him, her delight in pickings the warm blood that gave her life. And he knew she could feel his delight in giving. But human race was receding, the boundaries between dreams and waking becoming blurred. He could not think clearly; he could not think at all. He could onlyfeel , and his feelings were spiraling up and up, carrying him higher and higher, happy chance his last ties with earth.\r\nSometime later, without knowing how he had gotten there, he found himself in her arms. She was cradling him like a mother holding an child child, guiding his mouth to rest on the bare flesh ju st higher up the low neck of her night shift. There was a tiny wound there, a cut showing dark against the pale skin. He felt no fear or hesitation, and when she stroked his hair encouragingly, he began to suck.\r\n inhuman and precise, Stefan brushed dirt off his knees. The human world was asleep, lost in stupor, but his own senses were knife-keen. He should have been sated, but he was hungry again; the reminiscence had wakened his appetite. Nostrils flaring wide to catch the musky scent of fox, he began to hunt.\r\n'