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"Oh, God, no," Elena whispered. She went on whispering it, backing away, scarcely aware that she<br />
was doing either. Her mind simply could not cope with this horror; her thoughts were running wildly<br />
in panic, like mice trying to escape a cage. She wouldn't believe this, she wouldn't believe. Her body<br />
was filled with unbearable tension, her heart was bursting, her head reeling.<br />
"Oh, God, no – "<br />
"Elena!" More terrible than anything else was this, to see Stefan looking at her out of that animal<br />
face, to see the snarl changing into a look of shock and desperation. "Elena, please. Please, don't…"<br />
"Oh, God, no!" The screams were trying to rip their way out of her throat. She backed farther away,<br />
stumbling, as he took a step toward her. "No!"<br />
"Elena, please – be careful – " That terrible thing, the thing with Stefan's face, was coming after her,<br />
green eyes burning. She flung herself backward as he took another step, his hand outstretched. That<br />
long, slender-fingered hand that had stroked her hair so gently –<br />
"Don't touch me!" she cried. And then she did scream, as her motion brought her back against the<br />
iron railing of the widow's walk. It was iron that had been there for nearly a century and a half, and in<br />
places it was nearly rusted through. Elena's panicked weight against it was too much, and she felt it<br />
give way. She heard the tearing sound of overstressed metal and wood mingling with her own shriek.<br />
And then there was nothing behind her, nothing to grab on to, and she was falling.<br />
In that instant, she saw the seething purple clouds, the dark bulk of the house beside her. It seemed<br />
that she had enough time to see them clearly, and to feel an infinity of terror as she screamed and fell,<br />
and fell.<br />
But the terrible, shattering impact never came. Suddenly there were arms around her, supporting her<br />
in the void. There was a dull thud and the arms tightened, weight giving against her, absorbing the<br />
crash. Then all was still.<br />
She held herself motionless within the circle of those arms, trying to get her bearings. Trying to<br />
believe yet another unbelievable thing. She had fallen from a three-story roof, and yet she was alive.<br />
She was standing in the garden behind the boarding house, in the utter silence between claps of<br />
thunder, with fallen leaves on the ground where her broken body should be.<br />
Slowly, she brought her gaze upward to the face of the one who held her. Stefan.<br />
There had been too much fear, too many blows tonight. She could react no longer. She could only<br />
stare up at him with a kind of wonder.<br />
There was such sadness in his eyes. Those eyes that had burned like green ice were now dark and<br />
empty, hopeless. The same look that she'd seen that first night in his room, only now it was worse. For<br />
now there was self-hatred mixed with the sorrow, and bitter condemnation. She couldn't bear it.<br />
"Stefan," she whispered, feeling that sadness enter her own soul. She could still see the tinge of red<br />
on his lips, but now it awakened a thrill of pity along with the instinctive horror. To be so alone, so<br />
alien and so alone…<br />
"Oh, Stefan," she whispered.<br />
There was no answer in those bleak, lost eyes. "Come," he said quietly, and led her back toward the<br />
house.<br />
Stefan felt a rush of shame as they reached the third story and the destruction that was his room.<br />
That Elena, of all people, should see this was insupportable. But then, perhaps it was also fitting that