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still felt a thrill of excitement just saying his name. Every night this week he'd come to her house,<br />
appearing at the door around sunset, hands in pockets, wearing his jacket with the collar turned up.<br />
They usually took a walk in the dusk, or sat on the porch, talking. Although nothing was said about it,<br />
Elena knew it was Stefan's way of making sure they weren't alone together in private. Since the night<br />
of the dance, he'd made sure of that. Protecting her honor, Elena thought wryly, and with a pang,<br />
because she knew in her heart that there was more to it than that.<br />
"He can live without you for one evening," said Bonnie callously. "If you get talking to him you'll<br />
never get away, and I'd liketo get home in time for some kind of dinner."<br />
"Hello, Mr. Shelby," said Elena to the janitor, who was still patiently waiting. To her surprise, he<br />
closed one eye in a solemn wink at her. "Where's Meredith?" she added.<br />
"Here," said a voice behind her, and Meredith appeared with a cardboard box of file folders and<br />
note pads in her arms. "I've got the stuff from your locker."<br />
"Is that all of you?" said Mr. Shelby. "All right, now, you gals leave the door shut and locked, you<br />
hear? That way nobody can get in."<br />
Bonnie, about to enter, pulled up short.<br />
"You're sure there's nobody already in?" she said warily.<br />
Elena gave her a push between the shoulder blades. "Hurry up," she mimicked unkindly. "I want to<br />
get home in time for dinner."<br />
"There's nobody inside," said Mr. Shelby, mouth twitching under his mustache. "But you gals yell if<br />
you want anything. I'll be around."<br />
The door slammed shut behind them with a curiously final sound.<br />
"Work," said Meredith resignedly, and put the box on the floor.<br />
Elena nodded, looking up and down the big empty room. Every year the Student Council held a<br />
Haunted House as a fund-raiser. Elena had been on the decorating committee for the last two years,<br />
along with Bonnie and Meredith, but it was different being chairman. She had to make decisions that<br />
would affect everyone, and she couldn't even rely on what had been done in years past.<br />
The Haunted House was usually set up in a lumberyard warehouse, but with the growing uneasiness<br />
about town it had been decided that the school gym was safer. For Elena, it meant rethinking the<br />
whole interior design, and with less than three weeks now until Halloween.<br />
"It's actually pretty spooky here," said Meredith quietly. And there was something disturbing about<br />
being in the big closed room, Elena thought. She found herself lowering her voice.<br />
"Let's measure it first," she said. They moved down the room, their footsteps echoing hollowly.<br />
"All right," said Elena when they had finished. "Let's get to work." She tried to shake off her feeling<br />
of uneasiness, telling herself that it was ridiculous to feel unsettled in the school gym, with Bonnie<br />
and Meredith beside her and an entire football team practicing not two hundred yards away.<br />
The three of them sat on the bleachers with pens and notebooks in hand. Elena and Meredith<br />
consulted the design sketches for previous years while Bonnie bit her pen and gazed around<br />
thoughtfully.<br />
"Well, here's the gym," said Meredith, making a quick sketch in her notebook. "And here's where the<br />
people are going to have to come in. Now we could have the Bloody Corpse at the very end… By the<br />
way, who's going to be the Bloody Corpse this year?"<br />
"Coach Lyman, I think. He did a good job last year, and he helps keep the football guys in line."<br />
Elena pointed to their sketch. "Okay, we'll partition this off and make it the Medieval Torture