The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 23

The next morning, Elena felt lilting and joyful, as if she was hugging an enormous, wonderful obscure to herself. Damon was stil alive. He had been in her room fail wickedness. Right?Shed been fini leave verboten so much, she could scantily trust it. She climbed go forth of bed, noting that the clouds revealside were stil tapdance and gold from the sunrise, so it must be very early. She detailed y travel toward the window. She wasnt confident(predicate) what she was run intoing at for, near now she went tear waste on her hands and knees and scanned the floor autoeful y. on that point. A tiny piece of low-down on the squeaky board, fal en from slightly angiotensin converting enzymes shoe. And at that place, on the windowsil , the long scratches of a birds claws. That was proof teeming for Elena.She s besidesd up and gave a funny detailed hop of joy, clapping her hands unneurotic sharply once, an unstoppable grin dispersal across her looking at. Damon was ali veThen she took a deep breath and stood stil , wil ing her face into blankness. If she was unbowed y sack to keep this abstr single-valued function and she supposed she would take a counselling to shed promised, aft(prenominal) al she was discharge to gravel to act worry nothing had changed. And real y, things were pretty baneful stil , she told herself. If she ruling close the facts, she shouldnt be celebrating safe yet.Damons return hadnt altered the fact that mostthing unconsolable was after Elena and her friends, or that Stefan was acting erroneous y and violently. Her heart sank a minute as she mentation of Stefan, further stil a bubble of happiness went with her. Damon was aliveAnd, what was more, he had an humor of what might be going on. It was exactly uniform Damon at his most infuriating to play this idea close to his chest and not permit her write out what he was returning, that stil , his incandescence was more hope than some(prenominal)one else had been able to introduce yet. Perhaps on that point was light at the end of the tunnel after al .A pebble pinged against Elenas window.When she looked out, she pr overb Stefan, shoulders hunched, hands in his pockets, watching her from the lawn. Elena waved to him to stay where he was, threw on jeans, a lacy snowy armored combat vehicle top, and shoes, and went downstairs to meet him. There was dew on the grass, and Elenas steps left-hand(a)(p) footprints. The cool of get hold of was al call fory being replaced by fulgurous hot sunshine It was going to be an opposite(prenominal) sticky Virginia summer day.As she approached Stefan, Elena slowed down. She didnt quite know what to say to him. Since ultimately night, every time she had pattern of Stefan, she had involuntarily motion pictured Calebs body flying through the air, the hurlening crunch as he hit the marble monument. And she couldnt stop seeing Stefans savage anger as he had attacked him, although Damon had been sure there must take hold been a reason. Damon. How would she ever keep Stefan from speculation the truth about his brother?From the price look on Stefans face, it was clear he sensed her apprehension. He held out his hand. I know you dont fancy wherefore I did what I did yesterday, he verbalize, save theres something you have to see.Elena stopped, but she didnt take his outstretched hand. His face fel a elfin further. Tel me where were going, she state.I engage to show you something that I found, Stefan said patiently. Youl understand when we get there. Please, Elena. I would never hurt you.Elena stargond at him. She k in the altogether without a doubt that it was true that Stefan would never hurt her.Okay, she said, making up her mind. Wait here for a minute. Il be right wing prickle.She left Stefan on the lawn in the early morning sunshine as she retreated into the quiet faintheartedness of the theatre of operations. Everyone else was stil drowsing(prenomina l) A quick glance at the clock in the kitchen told her it was barely six-spot oclock. She scribbled a note to aunty Judith, formula she was going to grab breakfast with Stefan and would be bear later. Reaching for her purse, she paused and made sure that a dried sprig of verbena was stil tucked inside it. Not that she mentation Stefan would ever do anything to her but it never hurt to be prepared.When she came out of the household, Stefan ushered her into his car parked at the curb, opening the passenger-side introductionstep for her and hovering over her as she fastened her rear end belt.How far away is it? Elena asked.Not far, Stefan said simply. Watching him drive, Elena observe the worry lines at the corners of his eyes, the unhappy droop of his mouth, the tension in his shoulders, and wished she could put her arms nearly him and bobbles dummy him, raise her hand and wipe those lines by his eyes away. however her memories of the rage on his face the day before held her back. She right couldnt make herself reach out to him.They hadnt control for long when Stefan off-key onto a culde-sac of big-ticket(prenominal) houses. Elena leaned forward. They were pul ing up to a large white house fronted by a unspecific pil ared porch. She knew that porch. After junior prom, she and Matt had sit down on its steps and watched the sun rise, stil wearying their clothes from the dance. She had kicked off her satin sandals and laid her judgement against Matts tuxedoed shoulder, listening dreamily to the symphony and personas coming from the afterprom party in the house behind them. It had been a good night from a different lifetime.She stared at Stefan accusingly. This was Tyler Smal woods house, Stefan. I dont know what youre planning, but Calebs not here. Hes in the hospital.Stefan sighed. I know hes not here, Elena. His auntie and uncle havent been here either, not for several days, at least.Theyre out of town, Elena said automatical y. Aunt Jud ith talked to them yesterday.Thats good, Stefan said grimly. Then theyre safe. He arrange a worried glance up and down the street. Youre sure Caleb wont be out of the hospital today?Yes, said Elena acidly. He was too injured. Theyre keeping him for observation.Elena got out of the car, slammed the door, and marched toward the Smal woods house, not looking back to see whether Stefan was fol owing.He caught up to her instantly. She cursed his vampiric speed in her gaffer and walked faster. Elena, he said, circling in front of her and forcing her to a stop. Are you groundless that I deprivation to keep you safe?No, she said scathingly. Im angry that you almost kil ed Caleb Smal wood.Stefans face sagged with debilitation and sorrow, and Elena instantly felt guilty. Whatever was going on with Stefan, he stil needed her. exclusively she didnt know how to deal with his violence. Shed fal en in love with Stefan for his poetic soul, for his gentleness. Damon was the dangerous one. tre acherous looks much correct on Damon than it does on Stefan, a dry observing voice at the back of her mind said, and Elena couldnt cut through the truth of it.Just show me what you motivationed me to see, she final y said.Stefan sighed, past sullen and led her up the drive of the Smal woods house. She had expect him to go to the Smal woods front door, but he cut almost the side of the house and toward a smal shed in the backyard.The toolshed? asked Elena pestering y. Do we have a lawn mowing emergency brake we need to address before breakfast?Stefan ignored her joke and went to the shed door. Elena noticed that a padlock that had held the double door shut had been wrenched apart, pul ed to pieces. A half(a) loop of metal hung uselessly from the shackle. Stefan had distinctly broken in earlier.Elena fol owed him in. At archety chum up, after the dew-bright morning outside, she couldnt see anything in the dimness of the shed. Gradual y, she realized that the wal s of the s hed were lined with loose text file. Stefan reached out and shoved the doors wider, permit the sunshine stream into the space.Elena peered at the covers on the wal s and then stepped back with a sharp gasp The first thing she had been able to make out was a picture of her own face. She yanked the paper off the wal and looked at it more closely. It was a trimness from the local paper, showing her appareled in a silver gown, bound in Stefans arms. The caption under the picture read Robert E. Lee High take aim prom queen Elena Gilbert and prom king Stefan Salvatore.Prom queen? contempt the seriousness of the situation, her lips curled up in a smile. She real y had complete high initiate in a blaze of glory, hadnt she?She pul ed another clipping from the wal and her face fel . This one showed a lay carried through the rain by pal bearers, grim-faced mourners standing by. In the crowd, Elena recognized Aunt Judith, Robert, Margaret, Meredith, and Bonnie, lips set, cheeks strea ked with tears. The caption here read Town mourns local high school student Elena Gilbert.Elenas hitchhikes tightened unconsciously, crumpling the clipping. She turned to look at Stefan. This shouldnt be here, she said, a note of rage creeping into her voice.The Guardians changed the past. There shouldnt be any newspaper articles or anything left.Stefan stared back at her. I know, he said. Ive been thinking, and the best forecast I can make is that perhaps the Guardians just changed bulks minds. They wouldnt see any curtilage of what we asked the Guardians to erase. Theyd just see what supported their new memories, the memories of a normal smal town and of a circumstances of ordinary teenagers. Just another school year.Elena brandished the paper. But then why is this here?Stefan dropped his voice. Maybe it doesnt work on everybody. Calebs got some notes scribbled in a notebook computer I found, and it seems from them as though hes memory two different sets of howeverts. Lis ten to this.Stefan scrabbled through the papers littering the floor and pul ed out a notebook. He writes There are girls in town now that I know were dead. There were monsters here. The town was destroyed, and we left before they could get us too. But now Im back and we never left, even though no one but me remembers. Everythings normal no monsters, no death.Hmm. Elena took the notebook from him and scanned through the pages. Caleb had lists there. Vickie Bennett, Caroline, her. Al of them. Everyone who was different in this world than in the other one. There were notes about how he remembered them how he thought Elena was dead and what was going on now. She turned a a few(prenominal) pages, and her eyes widened. Stefan, listen. Tyler told him about us Tyler was afraid of Stefan Salvatore. He thought he kil ed Mr. Tanner and that there was something else strange about him, something unnatural. And he thought Elena Gilbert and her friends were tangled up in whatever was going on. A nd theres an asterisk referring back to Mr. Tanner being dead in one set of memories and alive in the other. Elena quickly scanned a few pages. It looks worry he focused in on us as the cause of the changes. He figured out we were at the centerfield of everything. Because were the people the most changed other than the lamia and kitsune victims and because he knew Tyler was suspicious of us, hes blaming us for Tylers disappearance. twain sets of memories, Stefan repeated, frowning.What if Calebs not the however one retention both realities? What if supernatural beings, or people aware of the supernatural, werent affected by the spel ?Elena froze. Margaret I wondered if she remembered something. She seemed so upset when she first saw me. Remember how she was afraid I was going to go away again? Do you think shes remembering me dying along with the memories the Guardians gave her?Stefan shook his head. I dont know, Elena. Do you have any reason to think Margaret is anything ot her than a perfectly normal small(a) girl? Little kids can be very dramatic without needing a reason. Margarets got a lot of imagination.I dont know, Elena said in frustration. But if the Guardians just covered over the old memories with new ones, that would explain why my old journal was stil hidden in my bedroom just where I left it, and everything that had happened up until I left infrastructure written in it. So you think that Caleb suspects something is going on because he is a werewolf after al ?Look, Stefan said, gesturing around the shed. For the first time, Elena took in the whole movie and its implications. Pictures of her. Pictures of Bonnie and Meredith. Even pictures of poor Caroline, ranging from the jubilant green-eyed debutante to a wild half monster, heavily pregnant with Tylers child? Pup? Elena realized with a cushion that she hadnt thought of Caroline in days. Was Caroline stil pregnant? Was she stil transforming into a werewolf because she was carrying Tyl ers baby? There were, Elena remembered, an awful lot of werewolves in Fel s Church. Powerful, important werewolves, and if that hadnt changed, and if the pack remembered everything, or enough of everything, then they were probably just biding their time.There were not only clippings but original photographs around the room. She saw a picture taken through the boardinghouse window of herself leaning forward excitedly to talk to Meredith, who was caressing her deadly hunt down stave. Based on her outfit, it had been taken right after they picked up Alaric and Celia. Caleb had been not only researching the two sets of memories over the last few months but also spying on Elena and her friends. Then she noticed something else. In the far corner on the floor was a huge bunch of roses. What ? Elena said, reaching for them. And then she saw. A pentagram was drawn around the roses. And encircling the pentagram was a bunch of photographs herself, Bonnie, Meredith, Matt, Stefan, Damon.Those are the same kindlys of roses as the one Caleb gave you, arent they? Stefan asked softly. Elena nodded. They were perfect, delicate blooms in a darkling luscious red that made her want to touch them.The rose that started it al , she whispered. It pricked Bonnies finger, and her channel spel ed Celias name. It must have bang from here.Caleb isnt just a werewolf, Stefan said. I dont know exactly what he did here, but it looks like pretty dark magic to me. He looked at her pleadingly. I discovered it al yesterday, he continued. I had to fight him, Elena. I know I scared you, but I had to protect you and everyone else from him.Elena nodded, too astounded to speak. Now she understood why Stefan had acted the way he had. He thought she was in danger. But stil she couldnt help feeling sick when she remembered the arc of Calebs body as he was thrown. Caleb might have attacked them with dangerous magic, but his notes sounded confused and frightened. Elena and her friends had changed hi s world, and now he couldnt tel what was reality.Wed better pack up al of this and shoot it back to the boardinghouse, she said briskly. Are there more notebooks? Stefan nodded. Then wed better look through them careful y. If he cast a spel on us some kind of curse it could stil be active, even though hes confined to the hospital for now. The spel he used might be in one of the notebooks, or at least we might find some kind of clue as to what it is and exactly what its doing. And, wannabe y, how to reverse it.Stefan was looking a little lost, his green eyes questioning. His arms were held out very slightly, as if he had been expecting her to kiss him and hadnt remembered to put them down when she hadnt. But for some reason she couldnt quite put her finger on, Elena couldnt bring herself to hug him. Instead, she looked away and said, Do you have any plastic bags or anything in the car we can use to move it al ?