Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

Elena, sleeping serenely with one hand locked onto Stefan’s, knew she was having an extraordinary dream. No, not a dream — an out-of-body experience. But it wasn’t like her previous out-of-body visits to Stefan in his cell. She was skimming through the air so quickly that she couldn’t really make out what was below her.

She looked around and suddenly, to her astonishment, another figure appeared beside her.

“Bonnie!” she said — or rather tried to say. But of course there was no sound.

Bonnie looked like a transparent edition of herself. As if someone had created her out of blown glass, and then put in just the faintest tint of color in her hair and eyes.

Elena tried telepathy. Bonnie?

Elena! Oh, I miss you and Meredith so much! I’m stuck here in a holeA hole? Elena could hear the panic in her own telepathy. It made Bonnie wince.

Not a real hole. A dive. An inn, I guess, but I’m locked in and they only feed me twice a day and take me to the toilet onceMy God! How did you get there?

Well… Bonnie hesitated. I guess it was my own fault.

It doesn’t matter! How long have you been there, exactly?

Um, this is my second day. I think.

There was a pause. Then Elena said, Well, a couple of days in a bad place can seem like forever.

Bonnie tried to make her case clearer. It’s just that I’m so bored and lonely. I miss you and Meredith so much! she repeated.

I was thinking of you and Meredith, too, Elena said.

But Meredith’s there with you, isn’t she? Oh my God, she didn’t fall, too?

Bonnie blurted.

No, no! She didn’t fall. Elena couldn’t decide whether to tell Bonnie about Meredith or not. Maybe not just yet, she thought.

She couldn’t see what she was rushing toward, although she could feel that they were slowing down. Can you see anything?

Hey, yeah, below us! There’s a car! Should we go down?

Of course. Can we hold hands?

They found that they couldn’t, but that just trying to kept them closer together. In another moment they were sinking through the roof of a small car.

Hey! It’s Alaric! Bonnie said.

Alaric Saltzman was Meredith’s engaged-to-be-engaged boyfriend. He was about twenty-three now, and his sandy-blond hair and hazel eyes hadn’t changed since Elena had seen him almost ten months ago. He was a parapsychologist at Duke, going for his doctorate.

We’ve been trying to get hold of him for ages, Bonnie said.

I know. Maybe this is the way we’re supposed to contact him.

Where is he supposed to be again?

Some weird place in Japan. I forget what it’s called, but look at the map on the passenger seat.

She and Bonnie intermingled as they did, their ghostly forms passing right through each other.

Unmei no Shima: The Island of Doom, was written at the top of an outline of an island. The map beside him had a large red X on it with the caption: The Field of Punished Virgins.

The what? Bonnie asked indignantly. What’s that mean?

I don’t know. But look, this fog is real fog. And it’s raining. And this road is terrible.

Bonnie dove outside. Ooh, so weird. The rain’s going right through me. And I don’t think this is a road.

Elena said, Come back in and look at this. There aren’t any other cities on the island, just a name. Dr. Celia Connor, forensic pathologist.

What’s a forensic pathologist?

I think, Elena said, that they investigate murders and things. And they dig up dead people to find out why they died.

Bonnie shuddered. I don’t think I like this very much.

Neither do I. But look outside. This was a village once, I think.

There was almost nothing left of the village. Just a few ruins of wooden buildings that were obviously rotting, and some tumbledown, blackened stone structures.

There was one large building with an enormous bright yellow tarp over it.

When the car reached this building, Alaric skidded to a stop, grabbed the map and a small suitcase, and dashed through the rain and mud to get under cover.

Elena and Bonnie followed.

He was met near the entrance by a very young black woman, whose hair was cut short and sleek around her elfin face. She was small, not even Elena’s height. She had eyes dancing with excitement and white, even teeth that made for a Hollywood smile.

“Dr. Connor?” Alaric said, looking awed.

Meredith isn’t going to like this, Bonnie said.

“Just Celia, please,” the woman said, taking his hand. “Alaric Saltzman, I presume.”

“Just Alaric, please — Celia.”

Meredith really isn’t going to like this, Elena said.

“So you’re the spook investigator,” Celia was saying below them. “Well, we need you. This place has spooks — or did once. I don’t know if they’re still here or not.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“More like sad and morbid. Sad and weird and morbid. I’ve excavated all sorts of ruins, especially those where there’s a chance of genocide. And I’ll tell you: This island is unlike any place I have ever seen,” Celia said.

Alaric was already pulling things from his case, a thick stack of papers, a small camcorder, a notebook. He turned on the camcorder, and looked through the viewfinder, then propped it up with some of the papers. When he apparently had Celia in focus, he grabbed the notebook too.

Celia looked amused. “How many ways do you need to take down information?”

Alaric tapped the side of his head and shook it sadly. “As many as possible.

Neurons are beginning to go.” He looked around. “You’re not the only one here, are you?”

“Except for the janitor and the guy who ferries me back to Hokkaido, yes. It started out as a normal expedition — there were fourteen of us. But one by one, the others have died or left. I can’t even re-bury the specimens — the girls — we’ve excavated.”

“And the people who left or died from your expedition—”

“Well, at first people died. Then that and the other spooky stuff made the rest leave. They were frightened for their lives.”

Alaric frowned. “Who died first?”

“Out of our expedition? Ronald Argyll. Pottery specialist. He was examining two jars that were found — well, I’ll skip that story until later. He fell off a ladder and broke his neck.”

Alaric’s eyebrows went up. “That was spooky?”

“From a guy like him, who’s been in the business for almost twenty years — yes.”

“Twenty years? Maybe a heart attack? And then off the ladder — boom.” Alaric made a downward gesture.

“Maybe that’s the way it was. You may be able to explain all our little mysteries for us.” The chic woman with the short hair dimpled like a tomboy. She was dressed like one too, Elena realized: Levi’s and a blue and white shirt with the sleeves rolled up over a white camisole.

Alaric gave a little start, as if he’d realized he was guilty of staring. Bonnie and Elena looked at each other over his head.

“But what happened to all the people who lived on the island in the first place?

The ones who built the houses?”

“Well, there never were that many of them in the first place. I’m guessing the place may even have been named the Island of Doom before this disaster my team was investigating. But as far as I could find out it was a sort of war — a civil war.

Between the children and the adults.”

This time when Bonnie and Elena looked at each other, their eyes were both wide. Just like home — Bonnie began, but Elena said, Sh. Listen.

“A civil war between kids and their parents?” Alaric repeated slowly. “Now that is spooky.”

“Well, it’s a process of elimination. You see, I like graves, constructed or just holes in the ground. And here, the inhabitants don’t appear to have been invaded.