The Struggle Read Free Page A

house.
    When she emerged from the bathroom a littlewhile later, wrapped in her red silk kimono, she found Meredith and Bonnie sitting on her bed.
    “Well, hello, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” she said bitterly.
    Bonnie, who had been looking depressed, now looked alarmed. She glanced at Meredith doubtfully.
    “She knows who we are. She means she thinks we’re spies for her aunt,” Meredith interpreted. “Elena, you should realize that isn’t so. Can’t you trust us at all?”
    “I don’t know. Can I?”
    “Yes, because we’re your
friends.”
Before Elena could move, Meredith jumped off the bed and shut the door. Then she turned to face Elena. “Now, for once in your life, listen to me, you little idiot. It’s true we don’t know what to think about Stefan. But, don’t you see, that’s your own fault. Ever since you and he got together, you’ve been shutting us out. Things have been happening that you haven’t told us about. At least you haven’t told us the whole story. But in spite of that, in spite of everything, we still trust you. We still care about you. We’re still behind you, Elena, and we want to help. And if you can’t seethat, then you
are
an idiot.”
    Slowly, Elena looked from Meredith’s dark, intense face to Bonnie’s pale one. Bonnie nodded.
    “It’s true,” she said, blinking hard as if to keep back tears. “Even if you don’t like us, we still like
you.”
    Elena felt her own eyes fill and her stern expression crumple. Then Bonnie was off the bed, and they were all hugging, and Elena found she couldn’t help the tears that slid down her face.
    “I’m sorry if I haven’t been talking to you,” she said. “I know you don’t understand, and I can’t even explain why I can’t tell you everything. I just
can’t.
But there’s one thing I can tell you.” She stepped back, wiping her cheeks, and looked at them earnestly. “No matter how bad the evidence against Stefan looks,
he didn’t kill Mr. Tanner.
I know he didn’t, because I know who did. And it’s the same person who attacked Vickie, and the old man under the bridge. And”— she stopped and thought a moment—“and, oh, Bonnie, I think he killed Yangtze, too.”
    “Yangtze?”
Bonnie’s eyes widened. “But whywould he want to kill a dog?”
    “I don’t know, but he was there that night, in your house. And he was … angry. I’m sorry, Bonnie.”
    Bonnie shook her head dazedly. Meredith said, “Why don’t you tell the police?”
    Elena’s laugh was slightly hysterical. “I can’t. It’s not something they can deal with. And that’s another thing I can’t explain. You said you still trusted me; well, you’ll just have to trust me about that.”
    Bonnie and Meredith looked at each other, then at the bedspread, where Elena’s nervous fingers were picking a thread out of the embroidery. Finally Meredith said, “All right. What can we do to help?”
    “I don’t know. Nothing, unless …” Elena stopped and looked at Bonnie. “Unless,” she said, in a changed voice, “you can help me find Stefan.”
    Bonnie’s brown eyes were genuinely bewildered. “Me? But what can I do?” Then, at Meredith’s indrawn breath, she said, “Oh.
Oh.
”
    “You knew where I was that day I went to the cemetery,” said Elena. “And you even predictedStefan’s coming to school.”
    “I thought you didn’t believe in all that psychic stuff,” said Bonnie weakly.
    “I’ve learned a thing or two since then. Anyway, I’m willing to believe
anything
if it’ll help find Stefan. If there’s any chance at all it will help.”
    Bonnie was hunching up, as if trying to make her already tiny form as small as possible. “Elena, you don’t understand,” she said wretchedly. “I’m not trained; it’s not something I can control. And—and it’s not a game, not anymore. The more you use those powers, the more they use
you.
Eventually they can end up using you all the time, whether you want it or not.