on purpose...it wasn't possible for a normal human or a normal human mind. Meredith had an eerie sense of something trying to stretch its mind toward them, trying to reach them through unimaginable dimensions.
Maybe it lives backward, Meredith thought, trying to distract herself as the frightening sounds went on. Maybe it thinks we do. Maybe we just don't - intersect....
Meredith didn't think she could stand much more. She was beginning to imagine that she heard words, even phrases in the backward sounds, and none of them were pleasant. Please let it stop - now.
A wailing and mumbling...
Bonnie's mouth shut with a clash of teeth. The sounds stopped instantly. And then, like a video being rolled back in slow motion, she walked backward to her sleeping bag, knelt, and back-crawled into it, lying down with her head on the pillow - all without opening her eyes to look where she was going.
It was one of the scariest things Meredith had ever seen or heard, and Meredith had seen and heard a fair amount of scary things.
And Meredith could no more have left that recording until morning than she could have flown - without assistance.
She got up, tiptoed to the desk, and took the mobile phone to the other room. There she attached it to her computer, where she could run the backward message forward.
When she'd listened to the message in reverse once or twice she decided that Bonnie must never hear it. It would frighten her out of her senses, and there would be no more contact with the paranormal for Elena's friends.
Therewere animal sounds in there, mixed up with the twisted, backward voice...that wasn't Bonnie's voice in any way. It wasn't any normal person's voice. It almost sounded worse going forward than backward - which maybe meant that whatever being had spoken the words normally spoke the other way.
Meredith could make out human voices over the groaning and distorted laughter and the animal noises straight from the veldt. Though they made the hairs on her body stand up and tingle, she tried to put together the words in between the nonsense. Putting them together she got:
"Aaahhh...waggge...n...ing wuh illllilll...be...sud-ud-ud...den...ANDshhhh...ohhh...ging.YOOOOU ...hand-and-nd...Iiii...mmmust...BEtherefore...herrr...aaahhh waggge...ning...Wewone...BE therefor-or-or-or-r" - (was there a "herrr" next, or was it just part of the growling?) - "LADE... errrrrrrrrrrr...ahhn.Thaaass...FORRRRR...oththth...ERRR...handandnd...ssssssssss...t-t-todo...."
Meredith, working with pad and pen, eventually got these words on paper:
Awakening will be sudden and shocking.
You and I must be there for her Awakening. We won't be there for (her?) later on. That's for other hands to do.
Meredith put the pen very precisely beside the deciphered message on the pad.
And after that Meredith went and lay hunched in her sleeping bag watching the unmoving Bonnie like a cat at a mouse hole, until, finally, blessed tiredness took her into the dark.
"I saidwhat ?" Bonnie was honestly bewildered the next morning, squeezing grapefruit juice and pouring cereal, like a model host, even if it was Meredith who was scrambling eggs at the stove.
"I've told you three times now. The words are not going to change, I promise."
"Well," Bonnie said, suddenly switching sides, "it's clear that the Awakening is going to happen to Elena. Because, for one thing, you and I have to be there for it, and for another thing, she's the one who needs towake up ."
"Exactly," said Meredith.
"She needs to remember who she really was."
"Precisely," said Meredith.
"And we've got to help her remember!"
"No!"said Meredith, taking out her anger on the eggs with a plastic spatula. "No, Bonnie, that's not what you said, and I don't think wecould do it anyway. We can teach her little things, maybe, the way Stefan has. How to tie her shoes. How to brush her hair. But from what you said, the Awakening is going to be shocking and sudden - and you didn't say anything about us doing it. You only said that we have to be there for her, because after that, somehow wewon't be there."
Bonnie contemplated that in gloomy silence. "Won't be there?" she said finally. "Like, won't be with Elena? Or won't be there, like...won't be anywhere?"
Meredith eyed a breakfast that she suddenly didn't want to eat. "I don't know."
"Stefan said we could come over again today," Bonnie urged.
"Stefan would be polite while he was being staked to death."
"I know," Bonnie said suddenly. "Let's call Matt. We can go see Caroline...if shewill see us, I mean. We can see if she's any different today. Then we can wait until it's afternoon, andthen we can call Stefan and ask if we can come