The Struggle

by L. J. Smith

  “We can check the other side of the bridge,” said Meredith, and Elena nodded mechanically. But she didn’t need to see Bonnie’s expression to know what they’d find. This was the wrong place.

  “Let’s just get out of here,” she said, climbing through vegetation toward the wedge of light beyond the bridge. Just as she reached it, Elena froze.

  Bonnie gasped. “Oh, God—”

  “Get back,” hissed Meredith. “Up against the bank.”

  Clearly silhouetted against the car headlights above was a black figure. Elena, staring with a wildly beating heart, could tell nothing about it except that it was male. The face was in darkness, but she had a terrible feeling.

  It was moving toward them.

  Ducking out of sight, Elena cowered back against the muddy riverbank under the bridge, pressing herself as flat as possible. She could feel Bonnie shaking behind her, and Meredith’s fingers sank into her arm.

  They could see nothing from here, but suddenly there was a heavy footfall on the bridge. Scarcely daring to breathe, they clung to one another, faces turned up. The heavy footsteps rang across the wooden planks, moving away from them.

  Please let him keep going, thought Elena. Oh, please …

  She sank her teeth into her lip, and then Bonnie whimpered softly, her icy hand clutching Elena’s. The footsteps were coming back.

  I should go out there, Elena thought. It’s me he wants, not them. He said as much. I should go out there and face him, and maybe he’ll let Bonnie and Meredith leave. But the fiery rage that had sustained her that morning was in ashes now. With all her strength of will, she could not make her hand let go of Bonnie’s, could not tear herself away.

  The footsteps sounded right above them. Then there was silence, followed by a slithering sound on the bank.

  No, thought Elena, her body charged with fear. He was coming down. Bonnie moaned and buried her head against Elena’s shoulder, and Elena felt every muscle tense as she saw movement—feet, legs—appear out of the darkness. No…

  “What are you doing down there?”

  Elena’s mind refused to process this information at first. It was still panicking, and she almost screamed as Matt took another step down the bank, peering under the bridge.

  “Elena? What are you doing?” he said again.

  Bonnie’s head flew up. Meredith’s breath exploded in relief. Elena herself felt as if her knees might give way.

  “Matt,” she said. It was all she could manage.

  Bonnie was more vocal. “What do you think you’re doing?” she said in rising tones. “Trying to give us a heart attack? What are you out here for at this time of night?”

  Matt thrust a hand into his pocket, rattling change. As they emerged from under the bridge, he stared out over the river. “I followed you.”

  “You what?” said Elena.

  Reluctantly, he swung to face her. “I followed you,” he repeated, shoulders tense. “I figured you’d find a way to get around your aunt and go out again. So I sat in my car across the street and watched your house. Sure enough, you three came climbing out the window. So I followed you here.”

  Elena didn’t know what to say. She was angry, and of course, he had probably done it only to keep his promise to Stefan. But the thought of Matt sitting out there in his battered old Ford, probably freezing to death and without any supper … it gave her a strange pang she didn’t want to dwell on.

  He was looking out at the river again. She stepped closer to him and spoke quietly.

  “I’m sorry, Matt,” she said. “About the way I acted back at the house, and—and about—” She fumbled for a minute and then gave up. About everything, she thought hopelessly.

  “Well, I’m sorry for scaring you just now.” He turned back briskly to face her, as if that settled the matter. “Now could you please tell me what you think you’re doing?”

  “Bonnie thought Stefan might be here.”

  “Bonnie did not,” said Bonnie. “Bonnie said right away that it was the wrong place. We’re looking for somewhere quiet, no noises, and closed in. I felt … surrounded,” she explained to Matt.

  Matt looked back at her warily, as if she might bite. “Sure you did,” he said.

  “There were rocks around me, but not like these river rocks.”

  “Uh, no, of course they weren’t.” He looked sideways at Meredith, who took pity on him.

  “Bonnie had a vision,” she said.

  Matt backed up a little, and Elena could see his profile in the headlights. From his expression, she could tell he didn’t know whether to walk away or to round them all up and cart them to the nearest insane asylum.

  “It’s no joke,” she said. “Bonnie’s psychic, Matt. I know I’ve always said I didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but I’ve been wrong. You don’t know how wrong. Tonight, she—she tuned in to Stefan somehow and got a glimpse of where he is.”

  Matt drew a long breath. “I see. Okay …”

  “Don’t patronize me! I’m not stupid, Matt, and I’m telling you this is for real. She was there, with Stefan; she knew things only he would know. And she saw the place he’s trapped in.”

  “Trapped,” said Bonnie. “That’s it. It was definitely nothing open like a river. But there was water, water up to my neck. His neck. And rock walls around, covered with thick moss. The water was ice cold and still, and it smelled bad.”

  “But what did you see?” Elena said.

  “Nothing. It was like being blind. Somehow I knew that if there was even the faintest ray of light I would be able to see, but I couldn’t. It was black as a tomb.”

  “As a tomb …” Thin chills went through Elena. She thought about the ruined church on the hill above the graveyard. There was a tomb there, a tomb she thought had opened once.

  “But a tomb wouldn’t be that wet,” Meredith was saying.

  “No … but I don’t get any sense of where it could be then,” Bonnie said. “Stefan wasn’t really in his right mind; he was so weak and hurt. And so thirsty—”

  Elena opened her mouth to stop Bonnie from going on, but just then Matt broke in.

  “I’ll tell you what it sounds like to me,” he said.

  The three girls looked at him, standing slightly apart from their group like an eavesdropper. They had almost forgotten about him.

  “Well?” said Elena.

  “Exactly,” he said. “I mean, it sounds like a well.”

  Elena blinked, excitement stirring in her. “Bonnie?”

  “It could be,” said Bonnie slowly. “The size and the walls and everything would be right. But a well is open; I should have been able to see the stars.”

  “Not if it were covered,” said Matt. “A lot of the old farmhouses around here have wells that are no longer in use, and some farmers cover them to make sure little kids don’t fall in. My grandparents do.”

  Elena couldn’t contain her excitement any longer. “That could be it. That must be it. Bonnie, remember, you said it was always dark there.”

  “Yes, and it did have a sort of underground feeling.” Bonnie was excited, too, but Meredith interrupted with a dry question.

  “How many wells do you think there are in Fell’s Church, Matt?”

  “Dozens, probably,” he said. “But covered? Not as many. And if you’re suggesting somebody dumped Stefan in this one, then it can’t be any place where people would see it. Probably somewhere abandoned …”

  “And his car was found on this road,” said Elena.

  “The old Francher place,” said Matt.

  They all looked at one another. The Francher farmhouse had been ruined and deserted for as long as anybody could remember. It stood in the middle of the woods, and the woods had taken it over nearly a century ago.

  “Let’s go,” added Matt simply.

  Elena put a hand on his arm. “You believe—?”

  He looked away a moment. “I don’t know what to believe,” he said at last. “But I’m coming.”

 
They split up and took both cars, Matt with Bonnie in the lead, and Meredith following with Elena. Matt took a disused little cart track into the woods until it petered out.

  “From here we walk,” he said.

  Elena was glad she’d thought of bringing rope; they’d need it if Stefan were really in the Francher well. And if he wasn’t …

  She wouldn’t let herself think about that.

  It was hard going through the woods, especially in the dark. The underbrush was thick, and dead branches reached out to snatch at them. Moths fluttered around them, brushing Elena’s cheek with unseen wings.

  Eventually they came to a clearing. The foundations of the old house could be seen, building stones tied to the ground now by weeds and brambles. For the most part, the chimney was still intact, with hollow places where concrete had once held it together, like a crumbling monument.

  “The well would be somewhere out back,” Matt said.

  It was Meredith who found it and called the others. They gathered around and looked at the flat, square block of stone almost level with the ground.

  Matt stooped and examined the dirt and weeds around it. “It’s been moved recently,” he said.

  That was when Elena’s heart began pounding in earnest. She could feel it reverberating in her throat and her fingertips. “Let’s get it off,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

  The stone slab was so heavy that Matt couldn’t even shift it. Finally all four of them pushed, bracing themselves against the ground behind it, until, with a groan, the block moved a fraction of an inch. Once there was a tiny gap between stone and well, Matt used a dead branch to lever the opening wider. Then they all pushed again.

  When there was an aperture large enough for her head and shoulders, Elena bent down, looking in. She was almost afraid to hope.

  “Stefan?”

  The seconds afterward, hovering over that black opening, looking down into darkness, hearing only the echoes of pebbles disturbed by her movement, were agonizing. Then, incredibly, there was another sound.

  “Who—? Elena?”

  “Oh, Stefan!” Relief made her wild. “Yes! I’m here, we’re here, and we’re going to get you out. Are you all right? Are you hurt?” The only thing that stopped her from tumbling in herself was Matt grabbing her from behind. “Stefan, hang on, we’ve got a rope. Tell me you’re all right.”

  There was a faint, almost unrecognizable sound, but Elena knew what it was. A laugh. Stefan’s voice was thready but intelligible. “I’ve—been better,” he said. “But I’m—alive. Who’s with you?”

  “It’s me. Matt,” said Matt, releasing Elena. He bent over the hole himself. Elena, nearly delirious with elation, noted that he wore a slightly dazed look. “And Meredith and Bonnie, who’s going to bend some spoons for us next. I’m going to throw you down a rope … that is, unless Bonnie can levitate you out.” Still on his knees, he turned to look at Bonnie.

  She slapped the top of his head. “Don’t joke about it! Get him up!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Matt, a little giddily. “Here, Stefan. You’re going to have to tie this around you.”

  “Yes,” said Stefan. He didn’t argue about fingers numb with cold or whether or not they could haul his weight up. There was no other way.

  The next fifteen minutes were awful for Elena. It took all four of them to pull Stefan out, although Bonnie’s main contribution was saying, “come on, come on,” whenever they paused for breath. But at last Stefan’s hands gripped the edge of the dark hole, and Matt reached forward to grab him under the shoulders.

  Then Elena was holding him, her arms locked around his chest. She could tell just how wrong things were by his unnatural stillness, by the limpness of his body. He’d used the last of his strength helping to pull himself out; his hands were cut and bloody. But what worried Elena most was the fact that those hands did not return her desperate embrace.

  When she released him enough to look at him, she saw that his skin was waxen, and there were black shadows under his eyes. His skin was so cold that it frightened her.

  She looked up at the others anxiously.

  Matt’s brow was furrowed with concern. “We’d better get him to the clinic fast. He needs a doctor.”

  “No!” The voice was weak and hoarse, and it came from the limp figure Elena cradled. She felt Stefan gather himself, felt him slowly raise his head. His green eyes fixed on hers, and she saw the urgency in them.

  “No … doctors.” Those eyes burned into hers. “Promise … Elena.”

  Elena’s own eyes stung and her vision blurred. ‘I promise,’ she whispered. Then she felt whatever had been holding him up, the current of sheer willpower and determination, collapse. He slumped in her arms, unconscious.

  4

  “But he’s got to have a doctor. He looks like he’s dying!” said Bonnie.

  “He can’t. I can’t explain right now. Let’s just get him home, all right? He’s wet and freezing out here. Then we can discuss it.”

  The job of getting Stefan through the woods was enough to occupy everyone’s mind for a while. He remained unconscious, and when they finally laid him out in the backseat of Matt’s car they were all bruised and exhausted, in addition to being wet from the contact with his soaking clothes. Elena held his head in her lap as they drove to the boarding house. Meredith and Bonnie followed.

  “I see lights on,” Matt said, pulling in front of the large rust-red building. “She must be awake. But the door’s probably locked.”

  Elena gently eased Stefan’s head down and slipped out of the car, and saw one of the windows in the house brighten as a curtain was pushed aside. Then she saw a head and shoulders appear at the window, looking down.

  “Mrs. Flowers!” she called, waving. “It’s Elena Gilbert, Mrs. Flowers. We’ve found Stefan, and we need to get in!”

  The figure at the window did not move or otherwise acknowledge her words. Yet from its posture, Elena could tell it was still looking down on them.

  “Mrs. Flowers, we have Stefan,” she called again, gesturing to the lighted interior of the car. “Please!”

  “Elena! It’s unlocked already!” Bonnie’s voice floated to her from the front porch, distracting Elena from the figure at the window. When she looked back up, she saw the curtains falling into place, and then the light in that upstairs room snapped off.

  It was strange, but she had no time to puzzle over it. She and Meredith helped Matt lift Stefan and carry him up the front steps.

  Inside, the house was dark and still. Elena directed the others up the staircase that stood opposite the door, and onto the second-floor landing. From there they went into a bedroom, and Elena had Bonnie open the door of what looked like a closet. It revealed another stairway, very dim and narrow.

  “Who would leave their—front door unlocked—after all that’s happened recently?” Matt grunted as they hauled their lifeless burden. “She must be crazy.”

  “She is crazy,” Bonnie said from above, pushing the door at the top of the staircase open. “Last time we were here she talked about the weirdest—” Her voice broke off in a gasp.

  “What is it?” said Elena. But as they reached the threshold of Stefan’s room, she saw for herself.

  She’d forgotten the condition the room had been in the last time she’d seen it. Trunks filled with clothing were upended or lying on their sides, as if they’d been thrown by some giant hand from wall to wall. Their contents were strewn about the floor, along with articles from the dresser and tables. Furniture was overturned, and a window was broken, allowing a cold wind to blow in. There was only one lamp on, in a corner, and grotesque shadows loomed against the ceiling.

  “What happened?” said Matt.

  Elena didn’t answer until they had stretched Stefan out on the bed. “I don’t know for certain,” she said, and this was true, if just barely. “But it was already this way last night. Matt, will you help me? He needs to get dry.”

  “I’ll find another
lamp,” said Meredith, but Elena spoke quickly.

  “No, we can see all right. Why don’t you try to get a fire going?”

  Spilling from one of the gaping trunks was a terry cloth robe of some dark color. Elena took it, and she and Matt began to strip off Stefan’s wet and clinging clothes. She worked on getting his sweater off, but one glimpse of his neck was enough to freeze her in place.

  “Matt, could you—could you hand me that towel?”

  As soon as he turned, she tugged the sweater over Stefan’s head and quickly wrapped the robe around him. When Matt turned back and handed her the towel, she wound it around Stefan’s throat like a scarf. Her pulse was racing, her mind working furiously.

  No wonder he was so weak, so lifeless. Oh, God. She had to examine him, to see how bad it was. But how could she, with Matt and the others here?

  “I’m going to get a doctor,” Matt said in a tight voice, his eyes on Stefan’s face. “He needs help, Elena.”

  Elena panicked. “Matt, no … please. He—he’s afraid of doctors. I don’t know what would happen if you brought one here.” Again, it was the truth, if not the whole truth. She had an idea of what might help Stefan, but she couldn’t do it with the others there. She bent over Stefan, rubbing his hands between her own, trying to think.

  What could she do? Protect Stefan’s secret at the cost of his life? Or betray him in order to save him? Would it save him to tell Matt and Bonnie and Meredith? She looked at her friends, trying to picture their response if they were to learn the truth about Stefan Salvatore.

  It was no good. She couldn’t risk it. The shock and horror of the discovery had nearly sent Elena herself reeling into madness. If she, who loved Stefan, had been ready to run from him screaming, what would these three do? And then there was Mr. Tanner’s murder. If they knew what Stefan was, would they ever be able to believe him innocent? Or, in their heart of hearts, would they always suspect him?

  Elena shut her eyes. It was just too dangerous. Meredith and Bonnie and Matt were her friends, but this was one thing she couldn’t share with them. In all the world, there was no one she could trust with this secret. She would have to keep it alone.