“You know, don’t you?” Cole faltered. “About the midnights? The countdown?
Twelve days till the Last Midnight? Eleven days till the Last Midnight? And now… tonight is one day till the Last Midnight…” He began to sob again, even while cramming chocolate into his mouth. It was clear that he was starving.
“But what happens on the Last Midnight?” Meredith asked.
“You know, don’t you? That that’s the time when…you know.” Maddeningly Cole seemed to think they were testing him.
Matt put his hands on Cole’s shoulders, and to his horror felt bones under his fingers. The kid really was starving, he thought, forgiving him all the Hershey bars.
His eyes met Mrs. Flowers’s eyes and she immediately went to the kitchen.
But Cole wasn’t answering; he was mumbling incoherently. Matt forced himself to apply pressure to those bony shoulders.
“Cole, talk louder! What’s this Last Midnight about?”
“You know. That’s when…all the kids…you know, they wait up and at midnight… they get knives or guns. You know. And we go into our parents’ room while they’re asleep and…” Cole broke down again, but Matt noticed he had slipped into saying
“we” and “our” by the end.
Meredith spoke in her calm, steady voice. “The children are going to kill their parents, is that right?”
“He showed us where to slash or stab. Or if there’s a gun—” Matt had heard enough. “You can stay — in the basement,” he said. “And here are some amulets. Put them on you if you feel like you’re in danger.” He gave Cole a whole packet of Post-it Notes.
“Just don’t be afraid,” Meredith added, as Mrs. Flowers came in with a plate of sausages and fried potatoes for Cole. At any other time the smell would have made Matt hungry.
“It’s just like that island in Japan,” he said. “Shinichi and Misao made it happen there, and they’re going to do it again.”
“I say time’s running out. Actually it’s already the Last Midnight day — it’s nearly one thirty in the morning,” Meredith said. “We have less than twenty-four hours.
We should either get out of Fell’s Church or do something to arrange a confrontation.”
“A confrontation? Without Elena or Damon or Stefan?” Matt said. “We’ll be murdered. Don’t forget Sheriff Mossberg.”
“He didn’t have this.” Meredith tossed the fighting stave into the air, caught it neatly, and put it at her side.
Matt shook his head. “Shinichi will still kill you. Or some little kid will, with the semiautomatic from Daddy’s closet.”
“We have to do something.”
Matt thought. His head was pounding. Finally he said, head lowered, “When I got the herbs I got Misao’s star ball, too.”
“You’re kidding. Shinichi still didn’t find it?”
“No. And maybe we could do something with it.”
Matt looked at Meredith, who looked at Mrs. Flowers. Mrs. Flowers said, “What about pouring out the liquid in different places in Fell’s Church? Just a drop here and a drop there? We could ask the Power in it to protect the town. Maybe it would listen.”
Meredith said, “That was the exact reason we wanted to get Shinichi’s and Misao’s star balls in the first place. The star balls control their owners, according to legend.”
Matt said, “It may be old-ways thinking, but I agree.”
Meredith said, “Then let’s do it right now.”
While the other two waited, Matt got Misao’s star ball. It had a very, very little liquid on the bottom.
“After the Last Midnight she plans to fill it to the top with the energy of the new lives that get taken,” Meredith said.
“Well, she’s not going to get a chance to do that,” Matt said flatly. “When we’re done we’ll destroy the container.”
“But we probably should hurry,” Meredith added. “Let’s get some weapons together: something silver, something long and heavy, like a fire iron. Shinichi’s little zombies are not going to be happy — and who knows who’s on his side?”
Elena woke up feeling stiff and cramped. But that wasn’t surprising. Three other people seemed to be on top of her.
Elena? Can you hear me?
Stefan?
Yes! You’re awake?
I’m all cramped…and hot.
A different voice interrupted. Just give us a moment and you won’t be cramped anymore. Elena felt Damon move away. Bonnie rolled into his place.
But Stefan clung to her for a moment. Elena, I’m sorry. I never even realized what condition you were in. Thank God for Damon. Can you forgive me?
Despite the heat, Elena cuddled closer to him. If you can forgive me for putting the whole party in danger. I did that, didn’t I?
I don’t know. I don’t care. All I know is that I love you.
It was several minutes before Bonnie woke up. Then she said feebly, “Hey!
Whachoo doin’ in my bed?”
“Getting out of it,” Elena said, and tried to roll over and get up. The world was wobbly. She was wobbly — and bruised. But Stefan was never more than a few inches away, holding her, righting her when she started to fall. He helped her get dressed without making her feel like a baby. He examined her backpack, which fortunately hadn’t gone into the water, and then he took out anything heavy inside.
He put the heavy things in his own pack.
Elena felt much better after being given some food, and after seeing the thurgsboth of them — eating too; either stretching their great double trunks up to break off pieces of wood from the barren trees, or scooping away snow to find dry grass underneath. They clearly were not going to die after all.
Elena knew everyone was watching her to gauge whether or not she was up to any more that day. She hurried to finish drinking the tea heated over a dung fire, trying to conceal the fact that her hands shook. After forcing some jerky down, she said in her most cheerful voice, “So what next?”
How do you feel? Stefan asked her.
“Little sore, but I’ll be fine. I guess everyone expects me to have pneumonia, but I don’t even have any cough.”
Damon, after one heavy-lidded glance at Stefan, took both her hands and stared at her. She couldn’t — she didn’t dare — meet his eyes, so she focused on Stefan, who was looking at her comfortingly.