Midnight

"No way!"Bonnie cried, setting up a clamoring echo from below. "There is no way I’m going across that!"

That was a chasm with a very thin bridge spanning it.

The chasm was frosty white on either side at the top, but when Elena gripped the bridge’s ice-cold metal poles and leaned a little forward she could see glacial blues and greens at the very bottom. A chil wind hit her face.

The gap between this bit of the world and the next bit directly in front of them was about a hundred yards long.

Elena looked from the shadowy depths to the slender bridge, which was made of wooden slats and just wide enough for one person to walk on. It was supported here and there by ropes which ran to the sides of the chasm and were sunk with metal posts into barren, icy rock.

It also swooped magnificently down and then back up again.

Even looking at it gave the eye a sort of mini-thril ride. The only problem was that it didn’t include a safety belt, a seat, two handrails, and a uniformed guide saying, "Hands and feet must be kept inside the attraction at alltimes!"It did have a single, thin, creeper-woven rope to hold on to on the left.

"Look,"Stefan was saying, as quietly and intently as Elena had ever heard him speak, "we can hold onto each other. We can go go one by one, very slowly – "

"NOOO!" Bonnie put into that one word a psychic shriek that almost defeaned Elena. "No, no, no, no, NO! You don’t understand! I can’t DO IT!" She flung her backpack down.

Then she began laughing and crying at the same time in a ful -blown attack of hysterics. Elena had an impulse to dash water in her face. She had a stronger impulse to throw herself down beside Bonnie and shriek, "And neither can I!

It’s insane!"But what good would that do?

A few minutes later Damon was talking quietly to Bonnie, unaffected by the outburst. Stefan was pacing in circles.

Elena was trying to think of Plan A, while a little voice chanted inside her head, You can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t do it, either.

This was al just a phobia. They could probably train Bonnie out of it – if, say, they had a year or two.

Stefan, on one of his circular trips near her, said, "And how are you about heights, love?"

Elena decided to put a brave face on it. "I don’t know. I think I can do it."

Stefan looked pleased. "To save your hometown."

"Yes…but it’s too bad nothing works here. I could try to use my Wings for flying, but I can’t control them – "

And that kind of magic is simply not available here, Stefan’s voice said in her mind.

But telepathy is. You can hear me, too, can’t you?

They thought of the answer simultaneously, and Elena saw the light of the idea breaking on Stefan’s face even as she began to speak.

"Influence Bonnie! Make her think she’s a tightrope walker –

a performer since she was a toddler. But don’t make her too playful so she doesn’t bounce the rest of us off!"

With that light in his face, Stefan looked…too good. He seized both Elena’s hands, whirled her around once as if she weighed nothing, picked her up, and kissed her.

And kissed her.

And kissed her until Elena felt her soul dripping off her fingertips.

They shouldn’t have done it in front of Damon. But Elena’s euphoria was clouding her judgment, and she couldn’t control herself.

Neither of them had been trying for a deep mind probe. But telepathy was al they had left, and it was warm and wonderful and it left them for an instant in the circle of each other’s arms, laughing, panting – with electricity flashing between them. Elena’s whole body felt as if she’d just gotten a sizable jolt.

Then she pul ed herself out of his arms, but it was too late.

Their shared gaze had gone on much too long, and Elena felt her heart pounding in fear. She could feel Damon’s eyes on her. She barely managed to whisper, "Wil you tel them?"

"Yes,"Stefan said softly. "I’l tel them."But he didn’t move until she actual y turned her back on Bonnie and Damon.

After that she peeked over her shoulder and listened.

Stefan sat down by the sobbing girl and said, "Bonnie, can you look at me? That’s al I want. I promise you, you don’t have to go across that bridge if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to stop crying, but try to look me in the eye. Can you do that? Good. Now…"His voice and even his face changed subtly, becoming more forceful – mesmerizing.

"You’re not afraid of heights at all, are you? You’re an acrobat who could walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon and never turn a hair. You’re the very best of al your family, the flying McCul oughs, and they’re the best in the world. And right now, you’re going to choose whether to cross over that wooden bridge. If so, you’l lead us. You’l be our leader."

Slowly, while listening to Stefan, Bonnie’s face had changed.

With swol en eyes fixed on Stefan’s, she seemed to be listening intently to something in her own head. And final y, as Stefan said the last sentence, she jumped up and looked at the bridge.

"Okay, let’s go!"she cried, picking up her backpack, while Elena sat staring after her.

"Can you make it?"Stefan asked, looking at Elena. "We’l let her go first – there’s real y no way she can fal off. I’l go after her. Elena can come after me and hold on to my belt, and I’m counting on you, Damon, to hold on to her. Especial y if she starts to faint."

"I’l hold her,"Damon said quietly. Elena wanted to ask Stefan to Influence her, too, but everything was happening so fast.

Bonnie was already on the bridge, only pausing when cal ed back by Stefan. Stefan was looking behind him at Elena, saying, "Can you get a good grip?"Damon was behind Elena, putting a strong hand on her shoulder, and saying,