37586328538562

thing."
"It's hard to see him all wrapped up in torn sheets and covered with fake blood like the other guys,"
agreed Meredith. "He seems… well, too dignified for that."
"I know!" said Bonnie. "I know exactly what he can be, and he'll hardly have to dress up at all.
Look, he's foreign, he's sort of pale, he has that wonderful brooding look… Put him in tails and you've
got a perfect Count Dracula!"
Elena smiled in spite of herself. "Well, I'll ask him," she said.
"Speaking of Stefan," said Meredith, her dark eyes on Elena's, "how are things going?"
Elena sighed, looking away into the fire. "I'm… not sure," she said at last, slowly. "There are times
when everything is wonderful, and then there are other times when…"
Meredith and Bonnie exchanged a glance, and then Meredith spoke gently. "Other times when
what?"
Elena hesitated, debating. Then she came to a decision. "Just a sec," she said, and got up and
hurried up the stairs. She came back down with a small blue velvet book in her hands.
"I wrote some of it down last night when I couldn't sleep," she said. "This says it better than I could
now." She found the page, took a deep breath, and began:
"October 17
"Dear Diary,
"I feel awful tonight. And I have to share it with someone.
"Something is going wrong with Stefan and me. There is this terrible sadness inside him that I
can't reach, and it's driving us apart. I don't know what to do.
"I can't bear the thought of losing him. But he's so very unhappy about something, and if he
won't tell me what it is, if he won't trust me that much, I don't see any hope for us.
"Yesterday when he was holding me I felt something smooth and round underneath his shirt,
something on a chain. I asked him, teasingly, if it was a gift from Caroline. And he just froze and
wouldn't talk anymore. It was as if he were suddenly a thousand miles away, and his eyes… there
was so much pain in his eyes that I could hardly stand it."
Elena stopped reading and traced the last lines written in the journal silently with her eyes. I feel as
if someone has hurt him terribly in the past and he's never got over it. But I also think there's
something he's afraid of, some secret he's afraid I'll find out. If I only knew what that was, I could
prove to him that he can trust me. That he can trust me no matter what happens, to the end.
"If only I knew," she whispered.
"If only you knew what?" said Meredith, and Elena looked up, startled.
"Oh – if only I knew what was going to happen," she said quickly, closing the diary. "I mean, if I
knew we were going to break up eventually, I suppose I'd just want to get it over with. And if I knew
it was going to turn out all right in the end, I wouldn't mind anything that happens now. But just going
day after day without being sure is awful."
Bonnie bit her lip, then sat up, eyes sparkling. "I can show you a way to find out, Elena," she said.
"My grandmother told me the way to find out who you're going to marry. It's called a dumb supper."
"Let me guess, an old druid trick," said Meredith.
"I don't know how old it is," said Bonnie. "My grandmother says there have always been dumb
suppers. Anyway, it works. My mother saw my father's image when she tried it, and a month later they