Phantom Page 0,86

the white of her cheeks. She pressed shaking hands to her mouth, staring at Elena with huge dark eyes.

"Listen, Bonnie," Elena said fiercely. "Nobody else knows this yet. Nobody but you and me, Bonnie. Damon wanted to keep it a secret until he could figure out the right way to come back. So we need to keep quiet about it."

Bonnie nodded, stil gaping. The color was rushing back into her cheeks, and she looked like she was caught between joy and total confusion.

Glancing over her shoulder, Elena noticed that there was something in the grass at the foot of a rosebush beyond Bonnie, something motionless and white. A chil went through her as she was reminded of Caleb's body at the foot of the monument in the graveyard.

"What's that?" she asked sharply. Bonnie's expression tipped over into confusion. Elena brushed past her and walked toward it, squinting in the sunlight. When she got close enough, Elena saw with amazement that it was Matt, lying stil and silent beneath the rosebush. A sprinkle of black petals was scattered across his chest. As she came close to him, Matt's eyes twitched - she could see them moving rapidly back and forth under the lids, as if he was having an intense dream - and then flew open as he took in a long, rattling gulp of air. His pale blue eyes met hers.

"Elena!" He gasped. He hitched himself up onto his elbows and looked past her. "Bonnie! Thank God! Are you okay? Where are we?"

"The phantom caught us, brought us to the Nether World, and is using us to make itself more powerful," Elena said succinctly. "How do you feel?"

"A little startled," Matt joked in a weak voice. He looked around, then licked his lips nervously. "Huh, so this is the Nether World? It's nicer than I'd pictured from your descriptions. Shouldn't the sky be red? And where are al the vampires and demons?" He looked at Elena and Bonnie sternly. "Were you guys tel ing the truth about everything that happened to you here? Because this place seems pretty nice for a Hel dimension, what with al the roses and everything."

Elena stared at him. It's possible too many weird things have happened to us.

Then she noticed the hint of panic on Matt's face. He wasn't unnatural y blase about what was going on; he was just being brave, whistling to keep up their spirits in this newest danger.

"Wel , we wanted to impress you," she joked back with a tremulous smile, then quickly got down to business. "What was going on when you were back home?" she asked him.

"Um," Matt said, "Stefan and Meredith were questioning Caleb about how he summoned the phantom."

"Caleb's not responsible for the phantom," Elena said firmly. "It fol owed us home when we were here before. We have to get home right away so we can tel them they're dealing with one of the Original ones. It'l be much more difficult for us to get rid of than an ordinary one."

Matt looked at Bonnie questioningly. "How does she know this?"

"Wel ," Bonnie said, with a hint of the glee she always got from gossip, "apparently Damon told her. He's alive and she saw him!"

So much for keeping Damon's secret, Bonnie, Elena thought, rol ing her eyes. Stil , it didn't real y matter if Matt knew. He wasn't the one Damon was keeping the secret from, and he wasn't likely to be able to tel Stefan anytime soon.

Elena tuned out Matt's exclamations of wonder and Bonnie's explanations as she scanned the area around them. Sunshine. Rosebushes. Rosebushes. Sunshine. Grass. Clear blue sky. Al the same, in every direction. Wherever she looked, velvety black perfect blooms nodded serenely in a clear midday sun. The bushes were al the same, down to the number and positions of the roses on each one and the distances between them. Even the stems of grass were uniform - al stopping at the same height. The sun hadn't moved since she'd arrived.

It al seemed like it should be lovely and relaxing, but after a few minutes the sameness became unnerving.

"There was a gate," she told Bonnie and Matt. "When we were looking into this field from the Gatehouse of the Seven Treasures. There was a way in from there, so there must be a way to get out to there. We just have to find it."

They had begun to clamber to their feet when, without warning, the sharp tugging pain struck again.