The Struggle Read Free

wouldn’t go to bed when Aunt Judith suggested she must be tired. Instead, once she had warmed up, she sat on the living room couch by the fireplace, with blankets heaped around her. The phone rang all afternoon, and she heard Aunt Judith talking to friends, neighbors, the school. She assured all of them that Elena was fine. The … the tragedy last night had unsettled her a bit, that was all, and she seemed a little feverish. But she’d be good as new after a rest.
    Meredith and Bonnie sat beside her. “Do you want to talk?” Meredith said in a low voice. Elena shook her head, staring into the fire. They were all against her. And Aunt Judith was wrong; she wasn’t fine. She wouldn’t be fine until Stefan was found.
    Matt stopped by, snow dusting his blond hair and his dark blue parka. As he enteredthe room, Elena looked up at him hopefully. Yesterday Matt had helped save Stefan, when the rest of the school had wanted to lynch him. But today he returned her hopeful look with one of sober regret, and the concern in his blue eyes was only for her.
    The disappointment was unbearable. “What are you doing here?” Elena demanded. “Keeping your promise to ‘take care of me’?”
    There was a flicker of hurt in his eyes. But Matt’s voice was level. “That’s part of it, maybe. But I’d try to take care of you anyway, no matter what I promised. I’ve been worried about you. Listen, Elena—”
    She was in no mood to listen to anyone. “Well, I’m just fine, thank you. Ask anybody here. So you can stop worrying. Besides, I don’t see why you should keep a promise to a
murderer.”
    Startled, Matt looked at Meredith and Bonnie. Then he shook his head helplessly. “You’re not being fair.”
    Elena was in no mood to be fair either. “I told you, you can stop worrying about me, and about my business. I’m fine, thanks.”
    The implication was obvious. Matt turnedto the door just as Aunt Judith appeared with sandwiches.
    “Sorry, I’ve got to go,” he muttered, hurrying to the door. He left without looking back.
    Meredith and Bonnie and Aunt Judith and Robert tried to make conversation while they ate an early supper by the fire. Elena couldn’t eat and wouldn’t talk. The only one who wasn’t miserable was Elena’s little sister, Margaret. With four-year-old optimism, she cuddled up to Elena and offered her some of her Halloween candy.
    Elena hugged her sister hard, her face pressed into Margaret’s white-blond hair for a moment. If Stefan could have called her or gotten a message to her, he would have done it by now. Nothing in the world would have stopped him, unless he were badly hurt, or trapped somewhere, or …
    She wouldn’t let herself think about that last “or.” Stefan was alive; he had to be alive. Damon was a liar.
    But Stefan was in trouble, and she had to find him somehow. She worried about it all through the evening, desperately trying to comeup with a plan. One thing was clear; she was on her own. She couldn’t trust anyone.
    It grew dark. Elena shifted on the couch and forced a yawn.
    “I’m tired,” she said quietly. “Maybe I am sick after all. I think I’ll go to bed.”
    Meredith was looking at her keenly. “I was just thinking, Miss Gilbert,” she said, turning to Aunt Judith, “that maybe Bonnie and I should stay the night. To keep Elena company.”
    “What a good idea,” said Aunt Judith, pleased. “As long as your parents don’t mind, I’d be glad to have you.”
    “It’s a long drive back to Herron. I think I’ll stay, too,” Robert said. “I can just stretch out on the couch here.” Aunt Judith protested that there were plenty of guest bedrooms upstairs, but Robert was adamant. The couch would do just fine for him, he said.
    After looking once from the couch to the hall where the front door stood plainly in view, Elena sat stonily. They’d planned this between them, or at least they were all in on it now. They were making sure she didn’t leave the