“Well, I’m sorry for scaring you just now.” He turned back briskly to face her, as if that settled the matter. “Now could you please tell me what you think you’re doing?”
“Bonnie thought Stefan might be here.”
“Bonnie did not,” said Bonnie. “Bonnie said right away that it was the wrong place. We’re looking for somewhere quiet, no noises, and closed in. I felt… surrounded,” she explained to Matt.
Matt looked back at her warily, as if she might bite. “Sure you did,” he said.
“There were rocks around me, but not like these river rocks.”
“Uh, no, of course they weren’t.” He looked sideways at Meredith, who took pity on him.
“Bonnie had a vision,” she said.
Matt backed up a little, and Elena could see his profile in the headlights. From his expression, she could tell he didn’t know whether to walk away or to round them all up and cart them to the nearest insane asylum.
“It’s no joke,” she said. “Bonnie’s psychic, Matt. I know I’ve always said I didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but I’ve been wrong. You don’t know how wrong. Tonight, she—she tuned in to Stefan somehow and got a glimpse of where he is.”
Matt drew a long breath. “I see. Okay…”
“Don’t patronize me! I’m not stupid, Matt, and I’m telling you this is for real. She was there, with Stefan; she knew things only he would know. And she saw the place he’s trapped in.”
“Trapped,” said Bonnie. “That’s it. It was definitely nothing open like a river. But there was water, water up to my neck. His neck. And rock walls around, covered with thick moss. The water was ice cold and still, and it smelled bad.”
“But what did you see?” Elena said.
“Nothing. It was like being blind. Somehow I knew that if there was even the faintest ray of light I would be able to see, but I couldn’t. It was black as a tomb.”
“As a tomb…” Thin chills went through Elena. She thought about the ruined church on the hill above the graveyard. There was a tomb there, a tomb she thought had opened once.
“But a tomb wouldn’t be that wet,” Meredith was saying.
“No… but I don’t get any sense of where it could be then,” Bonnie said. “Stefan wasn’t really in his right mind; he was so weak and hurt. And so thirsty—”
Elena opened her mouth to stop Bonnie from going on, but just then Matt broke in.
“I’ll tell you what it sounds like to me,” he said.
The three girls looked at him, standing slightly apart from their group like an eavesdropper. They had almost forgotten about him.
“Well?” said Elena.
“Exactly,” he said. “I mean, it sounds like a well.”
Elena blinked, excitement stirring in her. “Bonnie?”
“It could be,” said Bonnie slowly. “The size and the walls and everything would be right. But a well is open; I should have been able to see the stars.”
“Not if it were covered,” said Matt. “A lot of the old farmhouses around here have wells that are no longer in use, and some farmers cover them to make sure little kids don’t fall in. My grandparents do.”
Elena couldn’t contain her excitement any longer. “That could be it. That must be it. Bonnie, remember, you said it was always dark there.”
“Yes, and it did have a sort of underground feeling.” Bonnie was excited, too, but Meredith interrupted with a dry question.
“How many wells do you think there are in Fell’s Church, Matt?”
“Dozens, probably,” he said. “But covered? Not as many. And if you’re suggesting somebody dumped Stefan in this one, then it can’t be any place where people would see it. Probably somewhere abandoned…”
“And his car was found on this road,” said Elena.
“The old Francher place,” said Matt.
They all looked at one another. The Francher farmhouse had been ruined and deserted for as long as anybody could remember. It stood in the middle of the woods, and the woods had taken it over nearly a century ago.
“Let’s go,” added Matt simply.
Elena put a hand on his arm. “You believe—?”
He looked away a moment. “I don’t know what to believe,” he said at last. “But I’m coming.”
They split up and took both cars, Matt with Bonnie in the lead, and Meredith following with Elena. Matt took a disused little cart track into the woods until it petered out.
“From here we walk,” he said.
Elena was glad she’d thought of bringing rope; they’d need it if Stefan were really in the Francher well. And if he wasn’t…
She wouldn’t let herself think about that.
It was hard going through the woods, especially in the dark. The underbrush was thick, and dead branches reached out to snatch at them. Moths fluttered around them, brushing Elena’s cheek with unseen wings.
Eventually they came to a clearing. The foundations of the old house could be seen, building stones tied to the ground now by weeds and brambles. For the most part, the chimney was still intact, with, hollow places where concrete had once held it together, like a crumbling monument.
“The well would be somewhere out back,” Matt said.
It was Meredith who found it and called the others. They gathered around and looked at the flat, square block of stone almost level with the ground.
Matt stooped and examined the dirt and weeds around it. “It’s been moved recently,” he said.
That was when Elena’s heart began pounding in earnest. She could feel it reverberating in her throat and her fingertips. “Let’s get it off,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
The stone slab was so heavy that Matt couldn’t even shift it. Finally all four of them pushed, bracing themselves against the ground behind it, until, with a groan, the block moved a fraction of an inch. Once there was a tiny gap between stone and well, Matt used a dead branch to lever the opening wider. Then they all pushed again.
When there was an aperture large enough for her head and shoulders, Elena bent down, looking in. She was almost afraid to hope.
“Stefan?”
The seconds afterward, hovering over that black opening, looking down into darkness, hearing only the echoes of pebbles disturbed by her movement, were agonizing. Then, incredibly, there was another sound.
“Who—? Elena?”
“Oh, Stefan!” Relief made her wild. “Yes! I’m here, we’re here, and we’re going to get you out. Are you all right? Are you hurt?” The only thing that stopped her from tumbling in herself was Matt grabbing her from behind. “Stefan, hang on, we’ve got a rope. Tell me you’re all right.”
There was a faint, almost unrecognizable sound, but Elena knew what it was. A laugh. Stefan’s voice was thready but intelligible. “I’ve—been better,” he said. “But I’m—alive. Who’s with you?”
“It’s me. Matt,” said Matt, releasing Elena. He bent over the hole himself. Elena, nearly delirious with elation, noted that he wore a slightly dazed look. “And Meredith and Bonnie, who’s going to bend some spoons for us next. I’m going to throw you down a rope… that is, unless Bonnie can levitate you out.” Still on his knees, he turned to look at Bonnie.
She slapped the top of his head. “Don’t joke about it! Get him up!”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Matt, a little giddily. “Here, Stefan. You’re going to have to tie this around you.”
“Yes,” said Stefan. He didn’t argue about fingers numb with cold or whether or not they could haul his weight up. There was no other way.
The next fifteen minutes were awful for Elena. It took all four of them to pull Stefan out, although Bonnie’s main contribution was saying, “come on, come on,” whenever they paused for breath. But at last Stefan’s hands gripped the edge of the dark hole, and Matt reached forward to grab him under the shoulders.