“Hey, I’m up for it,” said Dick, and there was a chorus of approval.
“Me, too,” said Elena, clear and defiant. She smiled up at Tyler, and he practically swung her off her feet.
And then she and Tyler were leading a noisy, roughhousing group out into the parking lot, where they were all piling into cars. And then Tyler was putting the top of his convertible down and she was climbing in, with Dick and a girl named Vickie Bennett squashing into the back seat.
“Elena!” somebody shouted, far away, from the lighted doorway at the school.
“Drive,” she said to Tyler, taking off her tiara, and the engine growled to life. They burned rubber out of the parking lot, and the cool night wind blew into Elena’s face.
Chapter Seven
Bonnie was on the dance floor, eyes shut, letting the music flow through her. When she opened her eyes for an instant, Meredith was beckoning from the sidelines. Bonnie thrust her chin out mutinously, but as the gestures became more insistent she rolled her eyes up at Raymond and obeyed. Raymond followed.
Matt and Ed were behind Meredith. Matt was scowling. Ed was looking uncomfortable.
“Elena just left,” said Meredith.
“It’s a free country,” said Bonnie.
“She went with Tyler Smallwood,” said Meredith. “Matt, are you sure you didn’t hear where they were going?”
Matt shook his head. “I’d say she deserves whatever happens — but it’s my fault, too, in a way,” he said bleakly. “I guess we ought to go after her.”
“Leave the dance?” Bonnie said. She looked at Meredith, who mouthed the words you promised. “I don’t believe this,” she muttered savagely.
“I don’t know how we’ll find her,” said Meredith, “but we’ve got to try.” Then she added, in a strangely hesitant voice, “Bonnie, you don’t happen to know where she is, do you?”
“What? No, of course not; I’ve been dancing. You’ve heard of that, haven’t you: what you go to a dance for?”
“You and Ray stay here,” Matt said to Ed. “If she comes back, tell her we’re out looking.”
“And if we’re going, we’d better go now,” Bonnie put in ungraciously. She turned and promptly ran into a dark blazer.
“Well, excuse me,” she snapped, looking up and seeing Stefan Salvatore. He said nothing as she and Meredith and Matt headed for the door, leaving an unhappy-looking Raymond and Ed behind.
The stars were distant and ice-bright in the cloudless sky. Elena felt just like them. Part of her was laughing and shouting with Dick and Vickie and Tyler over the roar of the wind, but part of her was watching from far away.
Tyler parked halfway up the hill to the ruined church, leaving his headlights on as they all got out. Although there had been several cars behind them when they left the school, they appeared to be the only ones who’d made it all the way to the cemetery.
Tyler opened the trunk and pulled out a six-pack. “All the more for us.” He offered a beer to Elena, who shook her head, trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt all wrong being here — but there was no way she was going to admit that now.
They climbed the flagstone path, the girls staggering in their high heels and leaning on the boys. When they reached the top, Elena gasped and Vickie gave a little scream.
Something huge and red was hovering just above the horizon. It took Elena a moment to realize it was actually the moon. It was as large and unrealistic as a prop in a science-fiction movie, and its bloated mass glowed dully with an unwholesome light.
“Like a big rotten pumpkin,” said Tyler, and lobbed a stone at it. Elena made herself smile brilliantly up at him.
“Why don’t we go inside?” Vickie said, pointing a white hand at the empty hole of the church doorway.
Most of the roof had fallen in, although the belfry was still intact, a tower stretching up high above them. Three of the walls were standing; the fourth was only knee-high. There were piles of rubble everywhere.
A light flared by Elena’s cheek, and she turned, startled, to see Tyler holding a lighter. He grinned, showing strong white teeth, and said, “Want to flick my Bic?”
Elena’s laughter was the loudest, to cover her uneasiness. She took the lighter, using it to illuminate the tomb in the side of the church. It was like no other tomb in the cemetery, although her father said he’d seen similar things in England. It looked like a large stone box, big enough for two people, with two marble statues lying in repose on the lid.
“Thomas Keeping Fell and Honoria Fell,” said Tyler with a grand gesture, as if introducing them. “Old Thomas allegedly founded Fell’s Church. Although actually the Smallwoods were also there at the time. My great-grandfather’s great-great-grandfather lived in the valley by Drowning Creek—”
“—until he got eaten by wolves,” said Dick, and he threw back his head in a wolf imitation. Then he belched. Vickie giggled. Annoyance crossed Tyler’s handsome features, but he forced a smile.
“Thomas and Honoria are looking kind of pale,” said Vickie, still giggling. “I think what they need is a little color.” She produced a lipstick from her purse and began to coat the white marble mouth of the woman’s statue with waxy scarlet. Elena felt another sick twinge. As a child, she’d always been awed by the pale lady and the grave man who lay with their eyes closed, hands folded on their breasts. And, after her parents died, she’d thought of them as lying side by side like this down in the cemetery. But she held the lighter while the other girl put a lipstick mustache and clown’s nose on Thomas Fell.
Tyler was watching them. “Hey, they’re all dressed up with no place to go.” He put his hands on the edge of the stone lid and leaned on it, trying to shift it sideways. “What do you say, Dick — want to give them a night out on the town? Like maybe right in the center of town?”
No, thought Elena, appalled, as Dick guffawed and Vickie shrieked with laughter. But Dick was already beside Tyler, getting braced and ready, the heels of his hands on the stone lid.
“On three,” said Tyler, and counted, “One, two, three.”
Elena’s eyes were fixed on the horrible clown-like face of Thomas Fell as the boys strained forward and grunted, muscles bunching under cloth. They couldn’t budge the lid an inch.
“Damn thing must be attached somehow,” said Tyler angrily, turning away.
Elena felt weak with relief. Trying to seem casual, she leaned against the stone lid of the tomb for support — and that was when it happened.
She heard the grinding of stone and felt the lid shift under her left hand all at once. It was moving away from her, making her lose her balance. The lighter went flying, and she screamed and screamed again, trying to keep her feet. She was falling into the open tomb, and an icy wind roared all around her. Screams rang in her ears.
And then she was outside and the moonlight was bright enough that she could see the others. Tyler had hold of her. She stared around her wildly.
“Are you crazy? What happened?” Tyler was shaking her.
“It moved! The lid moved! It slid open and — I don’t know — I almost fell in. It was cold…”
The boys were laughing. “Poor baby’s got the jitters,” Tyler said. “C’mon, Dicky-boy, we’ll check it out.” ” Tyler, no—”
But they went inside anyway. Vickie hung in the doorway, watching, while Elena shivered. Presently, Tyler beckoned her from the door.
“Look,” he said when she reluctantly stepped back inside. He’d retrieved the lighter, and he held it above Thomas Fell’s marble chest. “It still fits, snug as a bug in a rug. See?”