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I'll swear." Closing her eyes, she said, "I swear to keep this a secret and to do anything Elena asks
about Stefan."
Meredith repeated the oath. And Elena, staring at the pale shadows of their thumbs joined together
in the gathering dusk, took a long breath and said softly, "And I swear not to rest until he belongs to
me."
A gust of cold wind blew through the cemetery, fanning the girls' hair out and sending dry leaves
fluttering on the ground. Bonnie gasped and pulled back, and they all looked around, then giggled
nervously.
"It's dark," said Elena, surprised.
"We'd better get started home," Meredith said, refastening her pin as she stood up. Bonnie stood,
too, putting the tip of her thumb into her mouth.
"Good-bye," said Elena softly, facing the headstone. The purple blossom was a blur on the ground.
She picked up the apricot ribbon that lay next to it, turned, and nodded to Bonnie and Meredith. "Let's
go."
Silently, they headed up the hill toward the ruined church. The oath sworn in blood had given them
all a solemn feeling, and as they passed the ruined church Bonnie shivered. With the sun down, the
temperature had dropped abruptly, and the wind was rising. Each gust sent whispers through the grass
and made the ancient oak trees rattle their dangling leaves.
"I'm freezing," Elena said, pausing for a moment by the black hole that had once been the church
door and looking down at the landscape below.
The moon had not yet risen, and she could just make out the old graveyard and Wickery Bridge
beyond it. The old graveyard dated from Civil War days, and many of the headstones bore the names
of soldiers. It had a wild look to it; brambles and tall weeds grew on the graves, and ivy vines
swarmed over crumbling granite. Elena had never liked it.
"It looks different, doesn't it? In the dark, I mean," she said unsteadily. She didn't know how to say
what she really meant, that it was not a place for the living.
"We could go the long way," said Meredith. "But that would mean another twenty minutes of
walking."
"I don't mind going this way," said Bonnie, swallowing hard. "I always said I wanted to be buried
down there in the old one."
"Will you stop talking about being buried!" Elena snapped, and she started down the hill. But the
farther down the narrow path she got, the more uncomfortable she felt. She slowed until Bonnie and
Meredith caught up with her. As they neared the first headstone, her heart began beating fast. She tried
to ignore it, but her whole skin was tingling with awareness and the fine hairs on her arms were
standing up. Between the gusts of wind, every sound seemed horribly magnified; the crunching of their
feet on the leaf-strewn path was deafening.
The ruined church was a black silhouette behind them now. The narrow path led between the
lichen-encrusted headstones, many of which stood taller than Meredith. Big enough for something to
hide behind, thought Elena uneasily. Some of the tombstones themselves were unnerving, like the one
with the cherub that looked like a real baby, except that its head had fallen off and had been carefully
placed by its body. The wide granite eyes of the head were blank. Elena couldn't look away from it,
and her heart began to pound.
"Why are we stopping?" said Meredith.
"I just… I'm sorry," Elena murmured, but when she forced herself to turn she immediately stiffened.