The instant they did that, Matt knew he'd made a mistake.
"You're Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt?"
Matt had no choice but to nod.
"Say yes or no, please."
"Yes."Matt could see inside the white car now. It was a stealth police car, one of those with lights inside, al ready to be fixed outside if the officers wanted to let you in on the secret.
"Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt, you are under arrest for assault and battery upon Caroline Beula Forbes. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up this right, anything you say can and wil be used against you in a court of law - "
"Didn't you see those kids?"Matt was shouting. "You had to have seen one or two of them! Didn't that mean anything to you?"
"Lean over and put your hands on the front of the car."
"It's going to destroy the whole town! You're helping it!"
"Do you understand these rights - ?"
"Do you understand what is going on in Fel 's Church?"
There was a pause this time. And then, in perfectly even tones, one of the two said, "We're from Ridgemont."
Chapter 19
Bonnie decided, with seconds precious and seeming to stretch for hours, that what was going to happen was going to happen no matter what she did. And there was a matter of pride here. She knew that there were people who would laugh at that, but it was true. Despite Elena's new Powers, Bonnie was the one most used to confronting stark darkness. She was somehow alive after al that. And very soon she would not be. And the way she went was the only thing left up to her.
She heard a glissando of screams and then she heard them come to a halt. Well, that was al she could do for the moment. Stop screaming. The choice was made. Bonnie would go out, unbroken, defiant - and silent.
The moment she stopped shrieking Shinichi made a gesture and the ogre who had hold of her stopped carrying her to the window.
She'd known it. He was a bul y. Bul ies wanted to hear that things hurt or that people were miserable. The ogre lifted her so her face was level with Shinichi's. "Excited about your one-way trip?"
"Thril ed,"she said expressionlessly. Hey, she thought, I'm not so bad at this brave thing. But everything inside her was shaking at double time in order to make up for her stony face.
Shinichi opened the window. "Stillthril ed?"
Now that had done something, opening the window had. She was not going to be smashed against glass until she broke it with her face and went sailing through the jagged bits. There wasn't going to be pain until she hit the ground and nobody would know about that, not even her.
Just do it and get it over with, Bonnie thought. The warm breeze from the window told her that this - place - this slave-sel ing place - where customers were al owed to sift through the slaves until they found just the right one - was too highly air-conditioned.
I'l be warm, even if it's just for a second or so, she thought.
When a door near them banged, Bonnie nearly jumped out of the ogre's arms, and when the door to their own room banged open, she nearly jumped through her own skin.
You see? Something surged wildly through her. I'm saved! It only took a little of that brave stuff and now...
But it was Shinichi's sister, Misao. Misao, looking gravely il , her skin ashen, holding on to the door to hold herself up. The only thing about her that wasn't grayed-out was her bril iant black hair, tipped with scarlet at the ends, just like Shinichi's.
"Wait!"she said to Shinichi. "You never even asked about - "
"You think a little airhead like her would know? But have it your own way."Shinichi seated Misao on the couch, rubbing her shoulders comfortingly. "I'l ask."
So she was the one inside the two-way mirror room, Bonnie thought. She looks real y bad. Like dying bad.
"What happened to my sister's star bal ?"Shinichi demanded and then Bonnie saw how this thing formed a circle, with a beginning and an ending, and how, understanding this, she could die with true dignity.
"It was my fault,"she said, with a faint smile as she remembered. "Or half of it was. Sage opened it up the first time to open the Gate back on Earth. And then..."She told them the story, as if it were one she'd never heard before, putting an emphasis on how it was she who had given Damon the clues to find Misao's star bal , and it was Damon who then had used it to enter the top level of the Dark Dimensions.
"It's al a circle,"she explained. "What you do comes back to you."Then despite herself, she started to giggle.
In two strides, Shinichi was across the room and slapping her. She didn't know how many times he did it. The first was enough to make her gasp and stop her giggling. Afterward her cheeks felt as swol en as if she had a very painful case of the mumps, and her nose was bleeding.
She kept trying to wipe it on her shoulder, but it wouldn't stop.
At last Misao said, "Ugh. Unfasten her hands and give her a towel or something."
The ogres moved just as if Shinichi had given the order.
Shinichi himself was now sitting beside Misao, talking to her softly, as if he were speaking to a baby or a beloved pet. But Misao's eyes, with their tiny flicker of fire in them, were clear and adult as she looked at Bonnie.
"Where is my star bal now?"she asked with dreadful gray intensity.
Bonnie, who was wiping her nose, feeling the bliss of not being handcuffed behind her back, wondered why she wasn't even trying to think of a lie. Like, let me free and I'l lead you to it. Then she remembered Shinichi and his damn kitsune telepathy.
"How could I know?"she pointed out logical y. "I was just trying to pul Damon away from the Gate when we both fel in.