Part 5 (1/2)

Monday, June 8, 11:15 p.m.

Dear Diary, I don't seemtobe sleeping very well tonight, so I might as well write you. All day today I've been waiting for something to happen. You don't do a spell like that and have it work like that and then have nothing happen .

But nothing has. I stayed home from school because Mom thought I should. She was upset about Matt and Meredith staying so late Sunday night, and she said I needed to get some rest. But every time I lie down I see Sue's face.

Sue's dad did the eulogy at Elena's funeral. I wonder who's going to do it for Sue on Wednesday?

I've got to stop thinking about things like this.

Maybe I'll try to go to sleep again. Maybe if I lie down with my headphones on, I won't see Sue.

Bonnie put the diary back in her nightstand drawer and took out her Walkman. She flipped through the channels as she stared at the ceiling with heavy eyes. Through the crackle and sputter of static a D.J.'s voice sounded in her ear.

”And here's a golden oldie for all you fabulous fifties fans . 'Goodnight Sweetheart' on the Vee Jay label by The Spaniels...”

Bonnie drifted away on the music.

The ice cream soda was strawberry, Bonnie's favorite. The jukebox was playing 'Goodnight Sweetheart' and the counter was squeaky clean. But Elena, Bonnie decided, would never have really worn a poodle skirt.

”No poodles,” she said, gesturing at it. Elena looked up from her hot fudge sundae. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. ”Who thinks of these things anyway?” Bonnie asked.

”You do, silly. I'm only visiting.”

”Oh.” Bonnie took a pull at the soda. Dreams. There was a reason to be afraid of dreams, but she couldn't think of it just now.

”I can't stay long,” Elena said. ”I think he already knows I'm here. I just came to tell you...” She

frowned.

Bonnie looked at her sympathetically. ”Can't you remember either?” She drank more soda. It tasted odd.

”I died too young, Bonnie. There was so much I was supposed to do, to accomplish. And now I have to help you.”

”Thanks,” Bonnie said.

”This isn't easy, you know. I don't have that much power. It's hard getting through, and it's hard keeping everything together.”

” Gottakeep it together,” Bonnie agreed, nodding. She was feeling strangely lightheaded. What wasin this soda?

”I don't have much control, and things turn out strange somehow. He's doing it, I guess. He's always fighting me. He watches you. And every time we try to communicate, he comes.”

”Okay.” The room was floating.

”Bonnie, are you listening to me? He can use your fear against you. It's the way he gets in.”

”Okay...”

”Butdon't let him in . Tell everyone that. And tell Stefan...” Elena stopped and put a hand to her mouth. Something fell onto the hot fudge sundae.

It was a tooth.

”He's here.” Elena's voice was strange, indistinct. Bonnie stared at the tooth in mesmerized horror. It was lying in the middle of the whipped cream, among the slivered almonds. ”Bonnie, tell Stefan...”

Another tooth plunked down, and another. Elena sobbed, both her hands at her mouth now. Her eyes were terrified, helpless. ”Bonnie, don't go...”

But Bonnie was stumbling back. Everything was whirling around. The soda was bubbling out of the gla.s.s, but it wasn't soda; it was blood. Bright red and frothy, like something you coughed up when you died. Bonnie's stomach convulsed.

”Tell Stefan I love him!” It was the voice of a toothless old woman, and it ended in hysterical sobs. Bonnie was glad to fall into darkness and forget everything.

Bonnie nibbled at the end of her felt pen, her eyes on the clock, her mind on the calendar. Eight and a half more days of school to survive. And it looked as if every minute was going to be misery.

Some guy had said it outright, backing away from her on the stairs. ”No offense, but your friends keep turning up dead.” Bonnie had gone into the bathroom and cried.

But now all she wanted was to be out of school, away from the tragic faces and accusing eyes-or worse, thepitying eyes. The princ.i.p.al had given a speech over the P.A. about ”this new misfortune” and ”this terrible loss,” and Bonnie had felt the eyes on her back as if they were boring holes there.

When the bell rang, she was the first person out the door. But instead of going to her next cla.s.s she went to the bathroom again, where she waited for the next bell. Then, once the halls were empty, she hurried toward the foreign language wing. She pa.s.sed bulletins and banners for end-of-the-year events without glancing at them. What did SATs matter, what did graduation matter, what did anything matter anymore? They might all be dead by the end of the month.

She nearly ran into the person standing in the hall. Her gaze jerked up, off her own feet, to take in fas.h.i.+onably ratty deck shoes, some foreign kind. Above that were jeans, body hugging, old enough to look soft over hard muscles. Narrow hips. Nice chest. Face to drive a sculptor crazy: sensuous mouth, high cheekbones. Dark sungla.s.ses. Slightly tousled black hair. Bonnie stood gaping a moment.

Oh, my G.o.d, I forgot how gorgeous he is, she thought. Elena, forgive me; I'm going to grab him.

”Stefan!” she said.

Then her mind wrenched her back into reality again and she cast a hunted look around. No one was in eyeshot. She grabbed his arm.

”Are you crazy, showing up here? Are younuts?” ”I had to find you. I thought it was urgent.” ”It is, but-” He looked so incongruous, standing there in the high school hallway. So exotic. Like a zebra in a flock of sheep. She started pus.h.i.+ng him toward a broom closet.

He wasn't going. And he was stronger than she was. ”Bonnie, you said you'd talked to-”

”You have to hide! I'll go get Matt and Meredith and bring them back here and then we can talk. But if