and at...Mrs. Flowers? It had to be, she was wearing that gardening hat with the artificial flowers on it, as well as what looked like about seven or eight woolly sweaters.
"Mrs. Flowers?" he said, his mouth finally catching up with his brain. "But - where's Elena?"
There was a sudden droop in the three people watching him, as if they had been on tiptoes for news, and now they had slumped in disappointment.
"We haven't seen her," Meredith said quietly. "Youwere with her."
"Iwas with her, yeah. But then Damon came.He hurt her , Meredith" - Matt felt Bonnie's arms clench on him. "He had her rolling on the ground having seizures. I think he's going to kill her. And - he hurt me. I guess I blacked out. When I woke up she was gone."
"He took her away?" Bonnie asked fiercely.
"Yeah, but...I don't understand what happened next." Painfully, he explained about Elena seemingly jumping out of the car and the tracks that led nowhere.
Bonnie shivered in his arms.
"And then some other weird stuff happened," Matt said. Slowly, faltering sometimes, he did his best to explain about Kristin, and the similarities to Tami.
"That is...just plain weird," Bonnie said. "I thought I had an answer, but if Kristin hasn't had any contact with any of the other girls..."
"You were probably thinking something about the Salem witches, dear," said Mrs. Flowers. Matt still couldn't get used to Mrs. Flowerstalking to them. She went on, "But you don't really know with whom Kristin has been in the last few days. Or with whom Jim has been, for that matter. Children have quite a lot of freedom in this day and age, and he might be - what do they call it? - acarrier ."
"Besides, even if this is possession, it may be an entirely different kind of possession," Meredith said. "Kristin lives out in the Old Wood. The Old Wood is full of these insects - these malach. Who knows whether it happened when she simply stepped outside her door? Who knows what was waiting for her?"
Now Bonnie was shaking in Matt's arms. They'd turned out all the flashlights but one, to conserve energy, but it sure made for spooky surroundings.
"But what about the telepathy?" Matt said to Mrs. Flowers. "I mean, I don't believe for a minute thatreal witches were attacking those Salem girls. I think they were repressed girls who had mass hysteria when they all got together, and somehow everything got out of hand. But how could Kristin know to call me - to call me - the same name that Tamra did?"
"Maybe we've all got it all wrong," Bonnie said, her voice buried somewhere in Matt's solar plexus. "Maybe it's not like Salem at all, where the - the hysteria spread out horizontally, if you see what I mean. Maybe there's somebody on top here, who's spreading it wherever they want to."
There was a brief silence, and then Mrs. Flowers murmured, "¡®Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings...'"
"You mean you think that's right? But then who is it that's on top? Who's doing all of this?" Meredith demanded. "It can't be Damon because Damon saved Bonnie twice - and me once." Before anyone could muster words to ask aboutthat , she was going on. "Elena was pretty sure that something was possessingDamon . So who else is it?"
"Somebody we haven't met yet," Bonnie muttered ominously. "Somebody we aren't going to like."
With perfect timing there was the crackle of a branch behind them. As one person, as one body, they turned to look.
"What I really want," Damon said to Elena, "is to get you warm. And that either means cooking you something hot so you'll warm up from the inside or putting you in the tub so you'll warm up from the outside. And considering what happened last time - "
"I...don't feel I can eat anything...."
"Come on, it's an American tradition. Apple soup? Mom's homemade chicken pie?"
She chuckled in spite of herself, then winced. "It's apple pie and Mom's homemade chicken soup. But you didn't do badly, for a start."
"Well? I promise not to mix the apples and the chicken together."
"I could try some soup," Elena said slowly. "And, oh, Damon I'm so thirsty just for plain water. Please."
"I know, but you'll drink too much, get pains. I'll make soup."
"It comes in little cans with red paper on them. You pull the tab on top to make it come off...." Elena stopped as he turned to the door.
Damon knew she had serious