Something terrible might happen, Elena thought, suddenly cold with panic. What if Bonnie tripped over the dog’s small, round body on the stairs and fell, cracked her spine, and wound up in a wheelchair? What if the dog finally managed to push its way out, ran into the road, and caused a fatal car accident? Anything could happen. At the realization, all the breath went out of Elena’s body in a sudden gasp, and she clapped her hand over her mouth.
“What is it?” Meredith asked warily, but Elena just shook her head, her mind spinning. Anything could happen. The Guardian had told her that, but she hadn’t really thought about it. Elena was changing everyone’s lives, and what if she accidentally changed them for the worse? At least in Elena’s own reality, Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt were more or less safe.
Not Stefan, though. Stefan had died.
Not Elena, who was dying.
And not Damon. She was the last one he had left. For a long time, Stefan had been the only person in the world Damon gave a damn about. And then Elena had come, and their bond had tethered Damon to her, to humanity. And now, in her reality, Elena was dying and Damon was losing the last bit of that humanity he had left.
In the McCullough’s living room, Bonnie’s sister Mary was unpinning a nurse’s cap from her wavy red hair. “Hey girls,” she said, dropping her cap on the table. She looked exhausted, dark circles under her eyes.
“Long shift?” Bonnie asked. Mary worked at the Fell’s Church clinic, which was always busy.
Mary sighed and closed her eyes for a second. “We got a pretty bad case in today,” she said. “You girls go down to the cemetery sometimes, don’t you? Down by the Wickery Bridge?”
“Well, sure,” Bonnie said slowly. This wasn’t something they talked about. “Elena’s parents …”
“That’s what I thought.” Mary took a deep breath. “Listen to me, Bonnie. Don’t ever, ever go out there again. Especially not alone or at night.”
“Why?” Bonnie asked, bewildered.
Elena’s stomach clenched. It shouldn’t have happened. Things had been different this time, down near Wickery Bridge.
“Last night somebody was attacked out there,” Mary said. “They found him right under Wickery Bridge.”
Meredith and Bonnie stared at her in disbelief, and Elena with a dull, wondering dread. Bonnie clutched Elena’s arm, her fingers pinching painfully tight. “Somebody was attacked under the bridge? Who? What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Mary said, shaking her head. “This morning one of the cemetery workers spotted him lying there. He was some homeless person, I guess. He was probably sleeping under the bridge when he was attacked. But he was half-dead when they found him, and he’s still unconscious. He might die.”
Stefan. Elena felt weighed down by guilt. She had thought things had changed. Was Stefan following Elena in this reality, too? Had he been overcome with the need for blood and attacked the homeless man anyway?
Or was it Damon who had attacked the man under the bridge? Damon had been at the cemetery.
Maybe fate wasn’t changeable after all, Elena thought, chilled. Maybe the man had been destined to be terribly hurt that night at the bridge, no matter what.
If so, perhaps her mission was doomed to failure. Maybe she and Stefan and Damon would continue on the same path, no matter how she tried to alter things. It was possible, wasn’t it, that all roads would end with Stefan falling, a false friend’s stave in his heart, with Elena drifting to death in her big white bed? With Damon’s heart breaking, all his steps toward redemption lost?
“His throat was nearly ripped out,” Mary said grimly. “He lost an incredible amount of blood. They thought it might have been an animal at first, but now Dr. Lowen says it was a person. And the police think whoever did it may be hiding in the cemetery.” She looked at each of them, her mouth tight.
“You don’t have to scare us,” Bonnie said, her voice strained. “We get the point, Mary.”
“All right. Good.” Mary rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. “I’ve got to lie down for a while. I didn’t mean to be crabby.” She left the living room, heading for the stairs.
“It could have been one of us.” Meredith said. She bit her lip. “Especially you, Elena. You went there alone.”
“No,” Elena said absently. “It would never have been one of us.” She barely noticed the way the other girls stared at her, shocked by the certainty in her voice.
Elena clenched her fists, her nails biting into the palms of her hands. It couldn’t all be inevitable. There was a way to save Mr. Tanner, a way to keep the town safe from all the havoc Katherine, Damon, and Stefan had, in their own separate ways, brought down upon it.
She had to find Damon, and soon. Halloween was coming fast, and she would need time with him if he was going to fall in love with her, if she was going to show him there were things more pleasurable than destruction.
Elena needed a plan.
9
A chilly breeze swept through Elena’s hair, and she wrapped her arms around herself for warmth. The sun hadn’t set yet, but there was already a pale moon high in the sky, and dark shadows were spreading under the trees.
She’d really thought Damon would have come to her by now. Elena had made excuses to dodge Bonnie and Meredith after school, and headed out to the woods. She had to draw Damon to her again, needed to start building a connection between them. And here, isolated beneath the ancient oak trees, was just where he was likely to appear.