The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 31

Im disembodied spiriting oftentimes better, Elena told Dr. Meggar. Id like to rank in a walk of life just ab step up the estate. She tried non to bounce up and cut tooshie on the bed. Ive been eating steak and drinking milk and I regular(a) took that execrable cod liver oil you sent. Also I arrest a rattling firm grasp of reality Im present to rescue Stefan and the minor boy inside Damon is a metaphor for his unconscious, which the blood we shargond allowed me to see. She bounced once, yet covered it by r severallying for a glass of water. I feel like a happy puppy surchargeing at the leash. She exhibited her new designed slave bracelets silver with lapis lazuli inserts in fluid designs. If I die suddenly, I am prepared.Dr. Meggars eyebrows worked up and down. Well, I cant find any(prenominal)thing defile with your pulse or your breathing. I dont see how a nice afternoon walk can hurt you. Damons certainly up and walking. save dont you go give Lady Ulma any ide as. She quiet down needs months of bed rest.She has a nice little desk do from a breakfast tray, Bonnie explained, gesturing to yield size and width. She designs clothes on that. Bonnie leaned forward, wide-eyed. And you know what? Her dresses are magic.I wouldnt expect anything less, grunted Dr. Meggar. scarcely the next moment Elena remembered something unpleasant. Even when we get the keys, she verbalise, we lose to plot the substantial jailbreak.Whats a jailbreak? Lakshmi asked excitedly.Its like this weve got the keys to Stefans cell, but we restrained need to figure reveal how were sledding to get into the prison, and how were breathing out to import him out.Lakshmi frowned. Why not and go in with the line and fuck off him out the gate?Because, Elena say, stressful for patience, they wont let us just walk in and get him. She narrowed her eyeball as Lakshmi put her inquiry in her tops. Whatre you thinking, Lakshmi?Well, first you say that youre passage to hav e the key in your hand when you go to the prison, past you act like theyre not going to let him out of the prison.Meredith shook her head, bewildered. Bonnie put a hand to her forehead as if it ached. But Elena slowly leaned forward.Lakshmi, she said, very quietly, are you precept that if we have a key to Stefans cell its basically a paseo in and out of prison?Lakshmi brightened up. Of course she said. Otherwise, what would a key be heart mat up for? They could just lock him in another cell.Elena could hardly call up the wonder of what she had just hear, so she immediately began trying to poke holes in it. That would mean we could go straight from Bloddeuwedds party to the prison and just take Stefan out, she said with as much derision as she could inject into her voice. We could just show our key and theyd let us take him absent.Lakshmi nodded eagerly. Yes she said joyfully, the sarcasm having gone right over her head. And, dont be mad, okay? But I wondered why you never wen t to visit him.We can visit him?Sure, if you desex an appointment.By now Meredith and Bonnie had deduce to life and were supporting Elena on any side. How soon can we send someone to need an appointment? Elena said through her teeth, because it was taking all her effort to speak her entire burden was resting on her two friends. Who can we send to make an appointment? she whispered.Ill go, Damon said from the crimson darkness behind them. Ill go tonight give me fin minutes. lethargy could feel that he had on his most cross and resolved expression.Cmon, Tyrone said, looking amused. They were two gearing up for a trip into the thicket. This meant place on two of the mothball-clove-recipe coats for each one and and so using duct register to fasten the gloves to the coats. monotone was sweating already.But Tyrone was a good poke fun, he thought. Here gym mat had come out of nowhere and said, Hey, you know that droll thing you saw with poor Jim Bryce last week? Well, its all attached to something even more bizarre all about fox strong drink and the Old wood, and Mrs. Flowers says that if we dont figure out whats going on, were going to be in real trouble. And Mrs. Flowers isnt just a round the bend old lady at the boardinghouse, even though everybody says so.Of course she isnt, Dr. Alperts brusque voice had said from the doorway. She put down her black bag still a country doctor, even when the town was in crisis and addressed her son. Theophilia Flowers and I have known each other a long time and Mrs. Saitou, too. They were twain always portion people. Thats their nature.Well matt had seen an opportunity and jumped at it. Mrs. Flowers is the one who needs jock now. Really, really needs second.Then whatre you sitting there for, Tyrone? Hurry up and go swear out Mrs. Flowers. Dr. Alpert had ruffled her own iron-gray hair with her fingers, then ruffled her sons black hair fondly.I was, Mom. We were just leaving when you came in.Tyrone, perceive matts grim horror-story of a car, had politely offered to drive them to Mrs. Flowerss house in his Camry. bland, algophobic of a terminal blowout at some crucial moment, was unless too happy to accept.He was glad that Tyrone would be the lynchpin of the Robert E. downwind High football team in the coming year. Ty was the kind of guy you could count on as witness his immediate offer of help today. He was a good sport, and absolutely straight and clean. Matt couldnt help but see how drugs and drinking had ruined not only the actual games, but the sportsmanship of the other teams on campus.Tyrone was also a guy who could clasp his mouth shut. He hadnt even peppered Matt with questions as they pack back to the boardinghouse, but he did give a wolf whistle, not at Mrs. Flowers, but at the bright yellow Model T she was control into the old stables.Whoa he said, jumping out to help her with a foodstuff bag, while his eyes drank in the Model T from fender to fender. Tha ts a Model T Fordor Sedan This could be one beautiful car if He time periodped abruptly and his brown skin burned with a sunset glow.Oh, my, dont be embarrassed about the Yellow Carriage Mrs. Flowers said, allowing Matt to take another bag of groceries back through the kitchen garden and into the kitchen of the house. Shes served this family for approximately a hundred years, and shes accumulated some rust and damage. But she goes some thirty miles an hour on paved roads Mrs. Flowers added, speaking not only proudly, but with the somewhat awed respect owed to high-speed travel.Matts eyes met Tyrones and Matt knew there was only one shared thought temporary removal in the air between them.To restore to perfection the dilapidated, worn, but still beautiful car that spent most of its time in a converted stable.We could do it, Matt said, feeling that, as Mrs. Flowerss representative, he should make the offer first.We sure could, Tyrone said dreamily. Shes already in a ingeminate garage no problems about room.We wouldnt have to strip her down to the inditeshe really rides like a dream.Youre kidding We could clean the engine, though have a look at the plugs and belts and hoses and stuff. And dark eyes gleaming suddenly my tonic has a power sander. We could strip the paint and repaint it the exact aforementioned(prenominal) yellowMrs. Flowers suddenly beamed. That was what high-priced Mama was waiting for you to say, young man, she said, and Matt remembered his manners long enough to introduce Tyrone.Now, if you had said, Well paint her burgundy or blue or any other color, Im sure she would have objected, Mrs. Flowers said as she began to make ham sandwiches, potato salad, and a large kettle of baked beans. Matt watched Tyrones reaction to the mention of Mama and was pleased there was an instant of surprise, followed by an expression like calm water. His mother had said Mrs. Flowers wasnt a batty old lady therefore she wasnt a batty old lady. A huge we ight come alonged to roll off Matts shoulders. He wasnt alone with a fragile elderly fair sex to protect. He had a friend who was in truth a little bigger than he was to rely on.Now both of you, have a ham sandwich, and Ill make the potato salad while youre eating. I know that young men Mrs. Flowers always spoke of men as if they were a special kind of flower need lots of good hearty meat before going into battle, but theres no causal agent to be formal. Lets just dig right in as things are done.They had happily obeyed. Now they were preparing for battle, feeling ready to fight tigers, since Mrs. Flowerss idea of sweetness was a pecan pie split between the boys, along with huge cups of hot chocolate that cleared the brain like a power sander.Tyrone and Matt drove Matts junker to the cemetery, followed by Mrs. Flowers in the Model T. Matt had seen what the trees could do to cars and he wasnt going to subject Tyrones whistle-clean Camry to the prospect. They walked down the hil l to Matt and Sergeant Mossbergs hide, each of the boys giving a hand to help the frail Mrs. Flowers over rough bits. Once, she tripped and would have fallen, but Tyrone dug the toes of his DC shoes into the hill and stood like a mountain as she tumbled against him.Oh, my thank you, Tyrone dear, she murmured and Matt knew that Tyrone dear had been accepted into the fold.The incline was dark except for one streak of scarlet as they reached the hide. Mrs. Flowers took out the sheriffs badge, rather clumsily, due to the gardening gloves she was wearing. First she held it to her forehead, then she slowly displace it away, still hopeing it in front of her at eye-level. He stood here and then he bent down and squatted here, she said, getting down in what was in fact the correct side of the hide. Matt nodded, hardly versed what he was doing, and Mrs. Flowers said without opening her eyes, No coaching, Matt dear. He comprehend someone behind him and whirled, drawing his gun. But it was only Matt, and they spoke in whispers for a while.Then he suddenly stood up. Mrs. Flowers stood suddenly and Matt heard all sorts of al branching little pops and crackles in her delicate old body. He went walking striding down into that thicket. That evil thicket.She set off for the thicket as Sheriff Rich Mossberg had when Matt had watched him. Matt and Tyrone went hurrying after her, ready to stop her if she showed any signs of entering the remnant of Old Wood that still lived.Instead, she walked around it, with the badge held to eye height. Tyrone and Matt nodded at each other and without speaking, each took one of her subsections. This way they skirted the edge of the thicket, all the way around, with Matt going first, Mrs. Flowers next, and Tyrone last. At some point Matt realized that tears were reservation their way down Mrs. Flowerss withered cheeks.At last, the fragile old woman stopped, took out a lacy handkerchief after one or two tries and wiped her eyes with a gasp.Did you find him? Matt asked, unable to hold in his curiosity any longer.Well well have to see. Kitsune seem to be very, very good at illusions. Everything I saw could have been an illusion. But she heaved a sigh one of us is going to have to musical note into the Wood.Matt gulped. Thatll be me, then He was interrupted. Hey, no way, man. You know their ops, some(prenominal) they are. Youve got to get Mrs. Flowers out of this No, I cant risk just asking you to come over here and get hurt Well, what am I doing out here, then? Tyrone demanded.Wait, my dears, Mrs. Flowers said, sounding as if she were about to cry. The boys shut up immediately, and Matt felt ashamed of himself.I know a way that you both can help me, but its very dangerous. Dangerous for the two of you. But perhaps if we only have to do it once, we can cut the risk of danger and increase our chance of finding something.What is it? Tyrone and Matt said close simultaneously.A few minutes later, they were p repped for it. They were lying side by side, veneering the wall formed by the tall trees and tangled underbrush of the thicket. They were not only roped together, but they had Mrs. Saitous Post-it notes placed all over their arms.Now when I say three I want you both to reach in and kidnapping at the demesne with your hands. If you feel something, keep hold of it and pull your arm out. If you dont feel anything, move your hand a little and then pull it out as fast as you can. And by the way, she added calmly, if you feel anything trying to pull you in or immobilize your arm, yell and fight and quit and scream, and well help you to get out.There was a long, long minute of silence.So basically, you think there are things all around on the ground in the thicket, and that we might get hold of them just by stretch in blindly, Matt said.Yes, Mrs. Flowers said.All right, said Tyrone, and once again Matt glanced at him approvingly. He hadnt even asked What kind of things could pull us i nto the Wood?Now they were in position and Mrs. Flowers was counting One, two, three, and then Matt had lick his right arm in as farthest as it would go and was sweeping his arm while groping.He heard a abuse from beside him. Got it And then instantly Somethings pulling me inMatt pulled his own arm out of the thicket before trying to help Tyrone. Something dropped down on it, but it hit a Post-it note and it felt as if hed been whacked by a ensnare of a Styrofoam.Tyrone was thrashing wildly and had already been dragged in to his shoulders. Matt grabbed him by the waist and used all his cleverness to haul backward. There was a moment of resistance and then Tyrone came popping out as if suddenly released like a cork. There were scratches on his face and neck, but none where the overcoats had covered him or where the Post-it notes were.Matt felt a desire to say Thank you, but the two women who had made him amulets were far away, and he felt stupid saying it to Tyrones coat. In a ny case, Mrs. Flowers was fluttering and thanking people enough for three.Oh, my, Matt, when that big branch came down I thought your arm would be broken at least. Thank the dear Lord that the Saitou women make such excellent amulets. And, Tyrone dear, please take a swig out of this canteen Uh, I dont really drink much Its just hot lemonade, my own recipe, dear. If it werent for both you boys, we wouldnt have succeeded. Tyrone, you found something, yes? And then you were caught and would never have been released if Matt hadnt been here to save you.Oh, Im sure hedve got out, Matt said hurriedly, because it must be embarrassing for anybody like The Tyreminator to admit they infallible help.Tyrone, however, just said soberly, I know. Thanks, Matt.Matt felt himself blush.But I didnt get anything after all, Tyrone said disgustedly. It felt like a piece of old pipe or something Well, lets have a look, Mrs. Flowers said very seriously.She turned the strongest flashlight on the object Tyrone had risked so much to summate out of the thicket.At first Matt thought it was a great rawhide dog attire. But then an all-too-familiar shape made him look closer.It was a femur, a human femur. The biggest bone in the body, the one from the leg. And it was still white. Fresh.It doesnt seem to be plastic, Mrs. Flowers said in a voice that seemed very far away.It wasnt plastic. Matt could see where little tiny bits had curled up and away from the exterior. It wasnt rawhide, either. It waswell, real. A real human leg bone.But that wasnt the most worthless thing the thing that sent Matt spiraling out into darkness.The bone was polished clean and marked with the imprints of dozens of tiny little teeth.