Meredith, who had been examining the star ball with a strange expression, now tossed the revolver to Damon and tried with her free hand to tear away the grass that had twined around her feet and up her ankles already. But even as she did so, the grass seemed to leap upward and grab her hand, binding it to her feet. And now it was sprouting, growing, racing up her body toward the ball which she held high in the air.
At the same time, it was tightening around her chest, forcing air out of her lungs.
It all happened so fast that it was only when she gasped, "Somebody take th' ball," that the others leaped to her aid. Bonnie was the first to get there, tearing with her fingernails at the greenery that was squeezing Meredith's chest. But each blade was like steel, and she couldn't rip away even one of them. Neither could Matt or Elena. Meanwhile, Sage was trying to lift Meredith bodily - to pluck her from the earth - and having no more success than the rest.
Meredith's face, clearly visible in the light still shining from the hole, was going white.
Damon snatched the star ball from her fingers just before the tangled greenery running up her arm could reach it. He then began moving literally faster than the human eye could track, never stopping in any one place long enough for any plant to grasp him.
But still, the grass around Meredith was tightening. Now her face was turning blue. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open for a breath that would not come.
"Stop it!" Elena screamed at Shinichi. "We'll give you the star ball! Just let go of her!"
"LET GO OF HER?" Shinichi bellowed laughter. "MAYBE YOU'D BETTER LOOK TO YOUR OWN INTERESTS FIRST BEFORE ASKING ME A FAVOR."
Wildly, Elena looked around - and saw that grass had almost completely enveloped a kneeling Stefan, who had been too weak to move as quickly as the others had.
And he had never made a sound to call attention to himself.
"No!" Elena's desperate scream almost drowned out Shinichi's laughter. "Stefan! No!" Even knowing it was futile, she threw herself at him and tried to rip the grass away from his thin chest.
Stefan simply gave her the faintest of smiles and shook his head sadly.
That was when Damon came to a stop. He held the star ball up toward Shinichi's lowering visage. "Take it!" he shouted. "Take the ball, damn you, but let the two of them go!"
This time the gale of Shinichi's laughter went on and on. A spiral of grass grew from a point beside Damon and an instant later had formed a hideous, shaggy green fist, which almost reached the star ball.
But -
"Not yet, my dears," gasped Mrs. Flowers. She and Matt had come breathlessly from the boardinghouse storage room - Matt limping badly - and they both held what looked like Post-it notes in their hands.
The next thing Elena knew, Damon was moving at ferocious speed again, away from the fist, and Matt was slapping a bit of paper on the grass covering Stefan, while Mrs. Flowers did the same to the greenery on Meredith.
As Elena watched in disbelief, the grass seemed to melt, dying away into hay-colored blades that fell to the ground.
The next moment she was holding Stefan.
"Let's get inside, my dears," Mrs. Flowers said. "It's safe in the storage room - the able help the wounded, of course."
Meredith and Stefan were taking great gasping breaths.
But Shinichi had the last word.
"Don't you worry," he said, strangely calm as if he realized he'd lost - for now. "I'll get that sphere back soon enough. You don't know how to use that kind of Power anyway! And besides all that, I'm going to tell you what you've been hiding from your so-called friends. Just a few secrets, yes?"
"The hell with your secrets," shouted Bonnie.
"Language, language! How about this: One of you has kept a secret all their life, and is doing so even now. One of you is a murderer - and I am not speaking of a vampire, or a mercy killing, or anything like that. And then there is the question of the true identity of Sage - good luck on your research there! One of you has already had their memory erased - and I don't mean Damon or Stefan. And what about the secret, stolen kiss? And then there is the question of what happened the night of the motel, that it seems that nobody but Elena can recall. You might ask her sometime about her theories about Camelot. And then - "
That was when the sound as loud as Shinichi's giant-sized gales of laughter interrupted him. It tore through the face in the sky, leaving it drooping ridiculously. Then the face disappeared.
"What was that - "
"Who has the gun - ?"
"What kind of gun could do that to him?"
"One with blessed bullets," Damon said coolly, showing them the revolver, pointed down.
"You mean you did that?"
"Good for Damon!"
"Forget Shinichi!"
"He is a liar when it suits him, that I can tell you."
"I think," Mrs. Flowers said, "that we can retire to the boardinghouse now."
"Yeah, and let's go get our baths."
"Just one last thing." Shinichi's voice, giant-sized seemed to come from everywhere around them; from the sky, from the earth.
"You're really going to love what I have in mind next for you. If I were you, I'd start negotiating for that star ball right NOW." But his laughter was off and the muffled feminine sound behind him was almost like crying, as if Misao couldn't help herself.
"YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE IT!" Shinichi insisted in a roar.
Chapter 43
Elena had a feeling she couldn't quite describe. It wasn't letdown. It was...let up. For what seemed like most of her life she had been searching for Stefan.
But now she had him back again, quite safe and clean (he'd had a long bath while she insisted on scrubbing him gently with all sorts of brushes and pumice stones, and then a shower, and then a rather cramped shower with her). His hair was drying into the silky soft dark shock - a little longer than he usually kept it - that she knew. He hadn't had energy for frivolities like keeping his hair short and clean before. Elena understood that.