Meredith was still shaking her head. "If you can't look at that picture, you shouldn't hear about Caroline. We went to see her twice - "
"You went to see her twice," Bonnie interrupted. "The second time I fainted and you left me by the door."
"And I realized I could have lost you for good, and I've apologized - " Meredith broke off when Bonnie put a hand on her arm and gave her a little push.
"Anyway, it wasn't exactly a visit," Meredith said. "I went running into Caroline's room ahead of her mom and found her inside her nest - never mind what that is - eating something. When she saw me, she just giggled and went on eating."
"And?" Elena said, when the tension got to be too much for her. "What was it?"
"I think," Meredith said bleakly, "that it was worms and slugs. She would stretch them up and up and they'd squirm before she bit them. But that wasn't the worst. Look, you had to have been here to appreciate it, but she just smirked at me, and said in this thick voice, 'Have a bite?' and suddenly my mouth was filled with this wriggling mass - and it was going down my throat. So I was sick, right there on her carpet. Caroline just started laughing, and I ran down again and picked Bonnie up and ran out and we never went back. But...halfway down the path to the house, I realized Bonnie was suffocating. She had the - the worms and things - in her mouth and her nose. I know CPR; I managed to get most of them out before she woke up vomiting. But - "
"It was an experience I would really rather not have again." The very lack of expression in Bonnie's voice said more than any tone of horror could.
Meredith said, "I've heard that Caroline's parents have moved out of that house, and I can't say I blame them. Caroline's over eighteen. All I can add is that everybody's sort of praying that somehow the werewolf blood will win out in her, because that seems at least to be less horrible than the malach or the - the demonic. But if it doesn't win out..."
Elena rested her chin on her knees. "And Mrs. Flowers can deal with this?"
"Better than Bonnie can. Mrs. Flowers is glad to have Matt around; like I said, they're a solid team. And now that she has finally spoken to the human race of the twenty-first century, I think she likes it. And she's been practicing the craft constantly."
"The craft? Oh - "
"Yeah, that's what she calls witchcraft. I have no idea whether she's any good at it or not, because I don't have anything to compare her to - or with - "
"Her poultices work like magic!" Bonnie said firmly just as Elena said, "Her bath salts certainly work."
Meredith smiled faintly. "Too bad she isn't here instead of us."
Elena shook her head. Now that she had reconnected with Bonnie and Meredith she knew she could never go into the Darkness without them. They were more than her hands; they were so much more to her...and here they were, each prepared to risk their life for Stefan and for Fell's Church.
At that moment, the door to the room opened. Damon walked in, carrying a couple of brown paper bags in one hand.
"So everybody's said bye-bye nicely?" he asked. He seemed to have trouble looking at either of the two visitors, so he stared particularly hard at Elena.
"Well - not really. Not as such," Elena said. She wondered if Damon was capable of throwing Meredith out a fifth-story window. Best to break it easily to him, by degrees....
"Because we're going with you," Meredith said, and Bonnie said, "We forgot to pack, though."
Elena slid quickly so that she was between Damon and the others. But Damon just stared at the floor.
"It's a bad idea," he said very softly. "A very, very, very bad idea."
"Damon, don't Influence them! Please!" Elena waved both hands at him in a gesture of urgency, and Damon raised one of his hands in a gesture of negation - and somehow their hands brushed each other's - and tangled.
Electric shock. But a nice one, Elena thought - although she didn't really have time to think it. She and Damon were both trying desperately to get their hands back to themselves, but didn't seem to be able to. Little shockwaves were running from Elena's palm all through her body.
Finally, the disentanglement worked and then they both turned, in guilty unison, to look at Bonnie and Meredith, who were staring at them with enormous eyes. Suspicious eyes. Eyes that belonged in faces saying "Aha! What have we here?"
There was a long moment when no one moved or spoke.
Then Damon said seriously, "This isn't some kind of pleasure trip. We're going because there's no other choice."
"Not alone, you're not," Meredith said in a neutral tone. "If Elena goes, we all go."
"We know it's a bad place," Bonnie said, "but we are definitely going with you."
"Besides, we have our own agenda," Meredith added. "A way to cleanse Fell's Church of the harm Shinichi has done - and is still doing."
Damon shook his head. "You don't understand. You won't like it," he said tightly. He nodded at her mobile. "No electric power in there. Even owning one of those is a crime. And the punishment for just about any crime is torture and death." He took a step toward her.
Meredith refused to back away, her dark gaze fixed on his.
"Look, you don't even realize what you have to do just to get in," Damon said bleakly. "First, you need a vampire - and you're lucky to have one. Then you'll have to do all sorts of things you won't like - "
"If Elena can do it, we can do it," Meredith interrupted quietly.
"I don't want either of you to get hurt. I'm going in because it's for Stefan," Elena said hastily, speaking partly to her friends and partly to the innermost core of her being, which the shockwaves and pulses of electricity had reached at last. Such a strange, melting, throbbing sweetness for something that had started out as a shock. Such a fierce shock for simply touching another person's hand....