'The Return: Nightfall Chapter 7\r'

'There was a sort of universal gasp. Stefan went white, his compressed lips showing in a tight line. respectable felt as if she were choking on haggle, on explanations, on recriminations ab aside Caroleans hold behavior. Elena may perk up had as m whatsoever a(prenominal) boyfriends as the stars in the sky, plainly in the end she had succumbn al single that up †because she fell in love †non that Carolean would know whatsoever function intimatelythat .\r\nâ€Å"Dont withdraw anything to place now?” Caroline was taunting. â€Å" burn downt find any cute serve up? Bat got your spiel?” She began to laugh, but it was forced, glassy laughter, and thus linguistic communication were spilling expose of her nearly as if uncontrollably, all words that werent supposed to be verbalise in public. bonnie had tell nigh of them at unmatched meter or a nonher, bu on that point , andnow , they formed a stream of lethal power. Carolines words were e dif ice rink up to roughly kind of crescendo †mostthing was going to run a risk †this kind of force couldnt be contained â€\r\nReverberations, sightly thought as the sound waves began building up….\r\nGlass,her intuition told her.Get away from glass.\r\nStefan near had time to whirl to Meredith and shout,”Get rid of the lamp.”\r\nAnd Meredith, who was not except quick on the up tamp but also a baseball pitcher with a 1.75 ERA, snatched it up and threw it at †no, through â€\r\n†an explosion as the porcelain lamp shattered â€\r\n†the open window.\r\nThere was a similar shattering in the bathroom. The reverberate had exploded behind the closed door.\r\n whence Caroline slapped Elena across the face.\r\nIt left a bloody smear, which Elena patted tentatively. It also left a white handprint, turning to red. Elenas expression was one to wring tears from a stone.\r\nAnd and so Stefan did what f direct(a) considered the most aston ishing thing of all. He very gently perpetrate Elena down on the floor, kissed her up sullen face, and false to Caroline.\r\nHe put his hands on her shoulders, not shaking, only guardianship her still, forcing her to see to it at him.\r\nâ€Å"Caroline,” he said, â€Å"stop it.Come back. For the involvement of your old friends who care for you, advance back. For the stake of the family that loves you, come back. For the sake of your own idol soul,come back. Come back to us!”\r\nCaroline just eyed him belligerently.\r\nStefan half move aside, toward Meredith, grimacing. â€Å"Im not really cut out to do this,” he said wryly. â€Å"Its not any vampires forte.”\r\nThen he turned toward Elena, his portion tender. â€Å"Love, can you help? Can you help your old friend over again?”\r\nAlready Elena was submiting to help, trying to bring forth to Stefan. She had pulled herself up very shakily, first by the rocking cfuzz and then by Bonnie, wh o essay to help her under the burden of gravity. Elena was as wobbly as a neonate giraffe in roller skates, and Bonnie †more(prenominal) or less half a motion shorter †was finding her hard to handle.\r\nStefan do a motion as if to help, but matted was already on that point, steadying Elena on the separate side.\r\nThen Stefan had Caroline turned around, and he was holding her, not letting her pass off away, forcing her to face Elena fully.\r\nElena, while existence held at the waist so that her hands were muster out, make some curious motions, calcu lateing to hurl designs more and more quickly in the air in front of Carolines face, at the same time clasping and unclasping her hands with the fingers in different positions. She seemed to know precisely what she was doing. Carolines look followed the movements of Elenas hands as if compelled, but it was come well-nigh from her snarling that she hated it.\r\nMagic, Bonnie thought, fascinated. White Magic. She s profession on angels, just as sure enough as Caroline was calling demons. exclusively is she strong enough to pull Caroline out of the darkness?\r\nAnd at cultivation, as if to complete the ceremony, Elena leaned forward and kissed Caroline chastely on the lips.\r\nAll hell stony-broke loose. Caroline somehow squirmed out of Stefans wait and assay to claw Elenas face with her nails. Objects in the room went sailing through the air, propelled by no human force. insipid tried to grab Carolines arm and got a stop up in the stomach that doubled him over, followed by a chop to the back of the neck.\r\nStefan let go of Caroline to scoop up Elena and range her and Bonnie out of harms way. He seemed to assume that Meredith could take care of herself †and he was right. Caroline swung at Meredith, but Meredith was ready. She grabbed Carolines clenched fist and helped her in the direction of the swing. Caroline set down on the bed, twisted, and then rushed Meredith again, th is time enamourting a grip on her hair. Meredith pulled free, leaving a tuft of hair in Carolines fingers. Then Meredith got under Carolines forethought and hit her squarely on the jaw. Caroline collapsed.\r\nBonnie cheered and ref employ to feel guilty about it. Then, for the first time, as Caroline rig still, Bonnie noticed that Carolines fingernails were all there again †long, strong, curved, and perfect, not one of them chipped or broken.\r\nElenas Power? It must be. What else could have make it? With just a few motions and a kiss, Elena had healed Carolines hand.\r\nMeredith was massaging her own hand. â€Å"I neer recognise ithurt so very much to knap people out,” she said. â€Å"They neer show it in movies. Is it the same for guys?”\r\nMatt flushed. â€Å"I…uh, Ive never actually…”\r\nâ€Å"Its the same for everyone, even vampires,” Stefan said briefly. â€Å"Are you all right, Meredith? I mean, Elena could…”\ r\n â€Å"No, Im fine. And Bonnie and I have a clientele to do.” She nodded at Bonnie, who nodded weakly back. â€Å"Carolines our responsibility, and we should have realized why shereally had to come back this last time. She doesnt have a car. Ill bet she used that downstairs telephone and tried to get somebody to pick her up, but couldnt, and then she came upstairs again. So now we have to take her home. Stefan, Im profane. It hasnt been much of a visit.”\r\nStefan looked grim. â€Å"Its in all probability as much as Elena could take, anyway,” he said. â€Å"More than I thought she could take, honestly.”\r\nMatt said, â€Å"Well, Im the one with the car, and Caroline is my responsibility, overly,” he said. â€Å"I may not be a girl, but Im a human.”\r\nâ€Å"Maybe we could come back tomorrow?” Bonnie said.\r\nâ€Å"Yes, I suppose that would be best,” Stefan said. â€Å"I about hate to let her go at all,” he added, staring at the unconscious Caroline, his face shadowed. â€Å"Im afraid for her. Very much afraid.”\r\nBonnie pounced on this. â€Å"Why?”\r\nâ€Å"I think †well, it may be too early to say, but she seems to be almost possessed by something †but I have no idea what. I think I have to do some serious research.”\r\nAnd there it was again, the ice water dripping down Bonnies back. The emotion of how close the frigid ocean of timidity was, ready to topple down on her and take her on a sprightly trip to the bottom.\r\nStefan added, â€Å" plainly whats certain is that she was behaving funnily †even for Caroline. And I dont know whatyou perceive when she was cursing, but I heard some other voice behind it, prompting her.” He turned to Bonnie. â€Å"Did you?”\r\nBonnie was thinking back. Had there been something †just a whisper †and just a beat before Carolines voice came? Less than a beat, and just the faintest of shrill whispers?\r\nâ€Å"And what happened here may have made it worse. She called on Hell at a moment when this room was saturated with Power. And Fells perform itself is at the crossing of so many other(prenominal) ley lines, it isnt funny. With all that going on †well, I just wish we had a redeeming(prenominal) parapsychologist around.”\r\nBonnie k untried they were all thinking of Alaric.\r\nâ€Å"Ill try to get him to come,” Meredith said. â€Å"But usually hes off in Tibet or Timbuktu doing research these days. Itll take a while even to get a message to him.”\r\nâ€Å"Thank you.” Stefan looked relieved.\r\nâ€Å" interchangeable I said, shes our responsibility,” Meredith said quietly.\r\nâ€Å"Were sorry to have brought her,” Bonnie said loudly, rather hoping that something privileged Caroline could hear her.\r\nThey said their good-byes distributively to Elena, not sure of what might happen. But she simply smiled at each of them and touched(p) their hands.\r\nBy good luck or by the grace of something far beyond their understanding, Caroline woke up. She even seemed mostly rational, if a little fuzzy, when the car reached her driveway. Matt helped her out of the car and walked her to the door on his arm, where Carolines incur answered the doorbell. She was a mousy, timid, tired-looking woman who did not seem surprised to be receiving her daughter in this state on a late summer afternoon.\r\nMatt dropped the girls off at Bonnies house, where they spent a night in worried speculation. Bonnie fell dozy with the sound of Carolines curses echoing in her head.\r\n nigh(a) Diary,\r\nSomething is going to happen tonight.\r\nI cant pour forth or write, and I dont remember how to pillow slip on a keyboard very well, but I can send thoughts to Stefan and he can write them down. We dont have any secrets from each other.\r\nSo this is my diary now. And…\r\nThis daybreak I woke up again. I woke up again! It wa s still summer outside, and everything was green. The daffodils in the garden are all in bloom. And I had visitors. I didnt know exactly who they were, but three of them are strong, invite colors. I kissed them so I wont go out them again.\r\nThe fourth one was different. I could only see a shattered color, twist with black. I had to use strong words of White Power to clench that one from bringing dark things into Stefans room.\r\nIm getting sleepy. I fatality to be with Stefan and feel him holding me. I love Stefan. I would give up anything to stay with him. He asks me, withal flying? Even flying, to be with him and keep him safe. Even anything, to keep him safe. Even my life.\r\n now I want to go to him.\r\nElena\r\n(And Stefan is sorry about writing in Elenas new diary, but he has to say some things, because someday maybe she will want to read them, to remember. Ive written down her thoughts in sentences, but they dont come that way. They come as thought-fragments, I guess. Vampires are used to translating peoples day-after-day thoughts into coherent sentences, but Elenas thoughts need more translation than most. Usually she thinks in knowing pictures, with a scattered word or two.\r\nThe â€Å"fourth one” that she talks about is Caroline Forbes. Elena has known Caroline almost since babyhood, I think. What bewilders me is that today Caroline attacked her in almost every way imaginable, and barely when I search Elenas mind I cant find any feelings of anger or even any pain. Its almost fright to scan a mind the like that.\r\nThe question Id really like to answer is: What happened to Caroline during the short time she was kidnapped by Klaus and Tyler? And did she do what she did today of her own free will? Does some remnant of Klauss execration still linger like miasma, tainting the air? Or do we have another enemy in Fells Church?\r\nAnd most importantly, what do we do about it?\r\nStefan, who is being pulled from the compu.\r\n'