The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 25

elena sluggishness swung his gaze in horror between beautifuls prone figure, the name on the floor, and Elenas pale face. after(prenominal) a few shocked minutes, Elena spun and left the manner. Stefan and monotonous fol owed her as Meredith and the others locomote to bonnys side. Out in the hal way, Elena pounced on Stefan. You were supposed to look after them. If you had been here, Bonnie would hire had some rampart. savorless, trailing Stefan come on(a) of Bonnies bedroom, balked. Elenas teeth were bared, her dark blue(a) eyes flashed, and she and Stefan both looked furious.It wasnt Stefans fault, Elena, Matt protested gently.Alaric and Mrs. Flowers had set magical protections. Nothing ought to attain been open to lounge around in. Even if Stefan had been here, he wouldnt have been in Bonnies room with her al night.He should have been, if thats what it took to protect her, Elena express bitterly. Her face was steadfast with provoke as she looked at Stefan.Even as Matt stood up for Stefan, he couldnt suppress a glow of satisfaction at visual perception trouble between Elena and Stefan at last. Its ab break through time Elena realized Stefan isnt perfect, the finish off part of him utter gleeful y. Mrs. Flowers and Alaric hurried out of the room, breaking the tensity between Elena and Stefan. Mrs. Flowers agitate her head. It seems that Bonnie was very foolishly trying to come home the dead, hardly I dont see how she could have done this to herself. This must be the result of whatever has been endangering you. Meredith is discharge to stay by Bonnies bedside for the time cosmos while we investigate.Matt glanced at Elena and Stefan. I thought you said that Caleb was out of the picture.I thought he was Stefan said as they al headed downstairs. by chance this is something he started before we fought.Alaric frowned. If thats true and its stil going, Caleb himself might not be able to stop it. Even if he died, that wouldnt interrupt a self -perpetuating curse.Elena strode out to the hal and ripped into the start of the trash bags, her jaw set. We need to figure out what he did.She cut into out a stack of notebooks and shoved them into the others hands. Look for the actual steps of a spel . If we manage how he did it, maybe Alaric or Mrs. Flowers can figure out how to reverse it.The spel book Bonnie was using is one of mine, Mrs. Flowers said. Nothing in it should have had this effect on her, but Il examine it just in case.They each took a notebook and a pile of papers and penetrate out around the kitchen table. on that point are diagrams in mine, Stefan said after a minute.Theres a pentagram, but I dont cypher its the same as the one we saw on the floor.Alaric took the notebook and peered at it, then shook his head. Im not an expert, but that looks like part of a standard protection spel .The notebook in front of Matt was mostly scribbled notes. Tanner initiatory death? it asked. Halloween? Elena, Bonnie, Meredi th, Matt, Tyler, Stefan all present. He could hcapitulum Merediths feet upstairs, restlessly pacing by Bonnies bedside, and the words blurred before him. He scrubbed the back off of his clenched fist against his eyes before he could embarrass himself by crying. This was useless. And even if at that place was something helpful in here, he would never recognize it.Does it strike you guys as weird, Elena asked, that Celia was the first one affected by whatever this evil is?There wasnt anything about her in the shed. And she never met Tyler, let alone Caleb. If Caleb was trying to get revenge on us for Tylers disappearance, why would he attack Celia first? Or at al , real y.That was a real y good point, Matt thought, and he was about to say so when he spotted Mrs. Flowers. She was standing stick-straight, staring off past his left ear and nodding slightly. Do you real y think so? she said softly. Oh, that does make a difference. Yes, I see. Thank you.By the time she had sinless and her eyes snapped back to focus on them, the others had also noticed her diagonal conversation and grown silent, watching her.Does your mother know what happened to Bonnie?Matt asked her eagerly. He had stayed in Fel s Church fight the kitsune with Mrs. Flowers when his friends had traveled to the forbidding Dimension, and their time as comrades in arms had made him familiar with Mrs. Flowerss occasional(a) exchanges with the spirit realm. If Mrs. Flowerss mother had interrupted their conversation, she plausibly had something useful and important to say.Yes, said Mrs. Flowers, smiling at him. Yes, indeed, Mama was very helpful. Her face grew serious as she glanced around. Mama was able to sense the thing that took Bonnies spirit. Once it had entered the house, she could observe it, although she was incapacitated to fight it herself. Shes upset that she wasnt able to save Bonnie. Shes rather fond of her.Is Bonnie going to be okay? Matt asked, over the others questions of, So wh at is it? and Its a demon or something, then, not a curse?Mrs. Flowers looked at Matt first. We may be able to save Bonnie. We wil certainly try. just we wil have to defeat the thing that took her. And the rest of you are stil very much in danger.She looked around at them al . Its a shade.There was a pocket-size pause.Whats a phantom? Elena asked. Do you mean a ghost?A phantom, of course, Stefan said quietly, shaking his head like he couldnt believe the sentiment hadnt occurred to him earlier. There was a town I heard of once back in Italy many years ago, where they said a phantom stalked the streets of Umbria. It wasnt a ghost, but a being created by strong emotions. The account statement was that a man became so enraged at his unfaithful sports fan that he kil ed her and her paramour, and then himself. And these actions released something, a being made out of their emotions. One by one large number living nearby went mad. They did irritating things.Stefan looked shaken to h is core.Is that what were facing? Some kind of demon created out of anger that wil drive battalion mad? Elena turned to Mrs. Flowers imploringly. Because frankly I think this town has had enough of that.It cant happen again, Matt said. He was also looking for at Mrs. Flowers. She was the altogether one who had seen the neardestruction of Fel s Church with him. The others had been there for the beginning, sure, but when things got real y awful, when they were at their worst, the girls and the vampires had been off in the Dark Dimension, fighting their own battles to fix it.Mrs. Flowers met his eyes and nodded firmly, like she was making a pledge. It wont, she said. Stefan, what youre describing probably was a rage phantom, but it sounds like the popular explanation of what was going on wasnt quite accurate. According to Mama, phantoms feed on emotions like vampires do on blood. The stronger an emotion is, the better fed and more active they are. Theyre attracted to people or commu nities that already have these strong emotions, and they create almost a feedback loop, encouraging and nurturing thoughts that wil make the emotion stronger so that they can continue to feed. Theyre quite psychical y powerful, but they can survive only as long as their victims keep feeding them.Elena was listening careful y. But what about Bonnie?She looked at Stefan. In this town in Umbria, did people fal into comas because of the phantom?Stefan shook his head. Not that I ever heard of, he said.Maybe thats where Caleb comes in.Il cal Celia, said Alaric. This wil help focus her research. If anyone has any material at al on this, itl be Dr. Beltram.Could your mother tel what kind of phantom it was?Stefan asked Mrs. Flowers. If we know what emotion it feeds on, we could cut off its supply.She didnt know, she said. And she doesnt know how to defeat a phantom either. And theres one more thing we should take into consideration Bonnies got a visual sense of innate psychic power of her o wn. If the phantom has taken her, its probably tapped into that.Matt nodded, fol owing her train of thought. And if thats so, he finished grimly, then this thing is only going to get stronger and more dangerous.