37586328538562

" 'Yes,' she replied. She looked at both Damon and me without liking. 'My mistress was very
unhappy last night,' she said meaningfully. 'All night long, she wept.'
"When she said that, a strange feeling came over me. It wasn't just shame and grief that Katherine
should be so unhappy. It was fear. I forgot my hunger and weakness. I even forgot my enmity for
Damon. I was filled with haste and a great driving urgency. I turned to Damon and told him that we
had to find Katherine, and to my surprise he just nodded.
"We began to search the gardens, calling Katherine's name. I remember just what everything looked
like that day. The sun was shining on the high cypress trees and the pines in the garden. Damon and I
hurried between them, moving more and more quickly, and calling. We kept calling her…"
Elena could feel the tremors in Stefan's body, communicated to her through his tightly gripping
fingers. He was breathing rapidly but shallowly.
"We had almost reached the end of the gardens when I remembered a place that Katherine had
loved. It was a little way out onto the grounds, a low wall beside a lemon tree. I started there,
shouting for her. But as I got closer, I stopped shouting. I felt… a fear – a terrible premonition. And I
knew I mustn't – mustn't go – "
"Stefan!" said Elena. He was hurting her, his fingers biting into her own, crushing them. The tremors
racing through his body were growing, becoming shudders. "Stefan, please!"
But he gave no sign that he heard her. "It was like – a nightmare – everything happening so slowly. I
couldn't move – and yet I had to. I had to keep walking. With each step, the fear grew stronger. I could
smell it. A smell like burned fat. I mustn't go there – I don't want to see it – "
His voice had become high and urgent, his breath coming in gasps. His eyes were wide and dilated,
like a terrified child's. Elena gripped his viselike fingers with her other hand, enfolding them
completely. "Stefan, it's all right. You're not there. You're here with me."
"I don't want to see it – but I can't help it. There's something white. Something white under the tree.
Don't make me look at it!"
"Stefan, Stefan, look at me!"
He was beyond hearing. His words came in heaving spasms, as if he could not control them, could
not get them out fast enough. "I can't go any closer – but I do. I see the tree, the wall. And that white.
Behind the tree. White with gold underneath. And then I know, I know, and I'm moving toward it
because it's her dress. Katherine's white dress. And I get around the tree and I see it on the ground and
it's true. It's Katherine's dress," – his voice rose and broke in unimaginable horror – "but Katherine
isn't in it."
Elena felt a chill, as if her body had been plunged into ice water. Her skin rose in gooseflesh, and
she tried to speak to him but couldn't. He was rattling on as if he could keep the terror away if he kept
on talking.
"Katherine isn't there, so maybe it's all a joke, but her dress is on the ground and it's full of ashes.
Like the ashes in the hearth, just like that, only these smell of burned flesh. They stink. The smell is
making me sick and faint. Beside the sleeve of the dress is a piece of parchment. And on a rock, on a
rock a little way away is a ring. A ring with a blue stone, Katherine's ring. Katherine's ring…"
Suddenly, he called out in a terrible voice, "Katherine, what have you done?" Then he fell to his
knees, releasing Elena's fingers at last, to bury his face in his hands.
Elena held him as he was gripped by wracking sobs. She held his shoulders, pulling him to her lap.
"Katherine took the ring off," she whispered. It was not a question. "She exposed herself to the sun."