Chapter 2

A Wish Granted

Bonnie's POV

Elena had known that as soon as Stefan realized she was gone, he would know that something was wrong. Elena wasn't ready to talk to him, so Bonnie had made her get in the car and took her to her grandmother's house. Grams had sent Elena up to her guestroom to rest while Bonnie told her what had happened.

"Is there anything I can do to help her?" Bonnie had asked her Grams as soon as Elena was out of earshot. "What if I did some kind of truth spell? You know, to make Stefan tell us what the deal is with this whole Katherine thing?"

"No magic, Bonnie!" Grams stated with a stern look. "These are normal teenage problems; you can't use your magic whenever you feel like it. It's too powerful to use it so trivially. Besides, a truth spell would be too powerful for you. You would not be able to control it. Let Elena work out her own mess. She decided to get mixed up with vampires, and I won't have you getting pulled into it."

"That's awful, Grams! Elena couldn't help who she fell in love with. I don't know if I like the whole vampire part of this, but she did fall for him before she knew anything about that. I can't just turn my back on my best friend. She didn't turn her back on me when she found out that I was a witch."

Grams' face softened as she touched Bonnie's cheek. "Fine, do what you can to help her figure this out. But, NO magic! I'm sure you can find a way without bringing any more supernatural forces into it. I am tired, goodnight."

"Goodnight Grams." Bonnie went upstairs to the guestroom after calling her father to tell him she would be staying the night at Grams' house. Elena was not sleeping too soundly. She was tossing, turning, and mumbling as if she was fighting it out with Stefan in her dreams. Bonnie watched Elena for a minute and decided that Grams was wrong. Why did she have all this magic if she couldn't use it to help her friend? From what she had known of Grams' history, she had not had anyone to trust enough that she could tell her secret to. If she had, Bonnie knew that her grandmother would do the same thing she had decided to do now.

Slowly and quietly, Bonnie crept into her grandmother's library and took the grimoire out of the special place it was kept inside a cabinet in one of the bookcases. The grimoire was a book of spells that had been passed down to every witch in the Bennett family for generations. Grams had let her look at this book several times in the last few weeks. She wanted Bonnie to strengthen her power, and that meant studying massive amounts of incantations and ingredients for spells. She had learned quite a bit, but only about one-fifths of the book.

Bonnie sat behind her grandmother's small writing desk and began flipping through the pages, looking for anything that would work in this situation. She quickly flipped to the back of the book where she knew the more difficult spells were located. After about seven pages, she found a spell that might work. From what Bonnie could decipher, the spell was meant to answer the object's most desired wish. Bonnie knew that Elena's wish was to know how Stefan felt about her, so she immediately scanned down to find out what she would need to perform the spell. The spell spoke of carving the object's name into the side of a large white candle while chanting some words written at the bottom of the page. Bonnie was then supposed to light the candle and stare into the flame while repeating the spell one more time.

Bonnie could not interpret the language that the spell was written in, but something in her gut was telling her that she had found the right spell. She began searching the drawers in the desk, looking for the things she would need. After a few minutes, Bonnie found a candle that would do, and a small pen-knife to carve Elena's name in the side. She carefully studied the words in the grimoire to make sure she memorized them.

Bonnie would have to work quickly. Under the same roof, Bonnie had no way of knowing if Grams would sense the energy that would come from the powerful spell. Bonnie took a deep breath and carefully, but quickly, began chanting and carving Elena's name into the candle. This would work, it had to! A few moments later, but what seemed like hours, Bonnie finished the A at the end of Elena's name. She set the candle in front of the open spellbook and stared at the wick to make a flame appear. It had been the first thing she had learned as a witch, so it did not take long for the flame to spring up. Bonnie began to feel the magic build up around her in waves, building and building until she felt like it might crush her. She fought to maintain her concentration as she stared into the flame and began to recite the incantation for the last time.

She could hear footsteps running toward the library as she chanted, but had to put them into the back of her mind as the pressure around her increased tenfold. She could have sworn that her ears popped as she finished the spell. She continued to stare into the flame until it seemed like she was being sucked into a dark tunnel with only a dim glow to light her path. She faintly heard her grandmother's voice scream her name as everything went black.

Elena's POV

Elena woke up panting as if she had just run a marathon. It took a few moments to remember that she had gone to Bonnie's grandmother's house the night before. She had wanted a few hours to think after all that had happened over at Stefan's. Going to Grams' had seemed like the perfect opportunity for that when Bonnie had suggested it. It turned out that she had no time to think at all because Stefan had called her phone nonstop from the time she was in Bonnie's car. Elena had not had the nerve to answer the phone, but had listened to all his messages before finally turning her phone off and collapsing onto the bed from exhaustion. From his voicemails, Elena knew he had figured out what had made her run. The first message was from a confused Stefan, wondering why she had disappeared. After that, they had begun to grow more desperate. The last message was from a devastated Stefan, saying only "I can explain."

Elena had not told Bonnie everything about what had happened with Stefan the night before. She had not told Bonnie how she had given herself to Stefan just before she had found the picture of Katherine. Looking back now, it all seemed like a dream. Elena had proclaimed her love to him and he had not pushed her away. He had been loving and passionate, pouring all his emotions into the moment. She had thought at the time that she had died and gone to heaven. It was just her and Stefan in their own private world and it had been magic. Then all her dreams had come crashing down around her, turning their beautiful night together into something twisted and wrong. Had he been thinking of Katherine when he touched her so gently? Had all that passion been a product of his love for her, or his memories of the one that got away?

All these thoughts in Elena's head subsided as she opened her eyes to find she had somehow managed to find her way outside, deep in the woods. Had she began to sleepwalk? Wonderful! One more thing that she would have to worry about! She rolled her eyes at her recent bad luck. She sat up with a jolt and began to look around her. She was in a part of the woods that she did not recognize. It was very dense and heavy with trees. The ground was covered in rich green moss and the air smelled sweet from the sun. Elena smiled slightly as she looked up into the bright sunshine. It had begun to get colder during the past few days, and Elena was sure that the summer heat was on its way out. She was very happy that the universe had given her one more beautiful day; as if it knew that she was in need of it.

She glanced to her left and saw Bonnie sleeping next to her. This confused Elena. How had Bonnie come to be here? Had she followed Elena during her sleepwalking episode, but was afraid to wake her? They had read something in Health class about not waking a sleepwalker. Maybe that is what happened. Elena reached over and shook Bonnie's shoulder a little. Bonnie jerked awake and the words "Did it work?" came pouring out of her mouth. Elena had no idea what Bonnie was talking about, so she figured it must be a dream that Bonnie had been having.

"Get up, Bonnie. We should get back to your Grams' house before she gets worried. Do you have any idea where we are? Should I check the GPS on my phone to see how far away we are?" Elena pulled out her cell phone, but it would not turn on. She figured it was just a dead battery, and became a little nervous that they wouldn't be able to find their way out the woods. She stood and, after helping Bonnie to her feet, began walking in the direction she had hoped they had come from.

Elena looked over at Bonnie and saw that she was just as confused. A very deep crease had shown up between Bonnie's eyes as she looked down at her feet. Bonnie kept whispering to herself about something she thought would work, and wondering how she got from the library to the woods. Elena tried to choke down the small sense of fear of getting lost and walked back to Bonnie to reassure her that they would find their way out. As she approached, Bonnie looked up and asked, "How did we get out here?"

Elena stopped walking and her eyes got round in disbelief. "Didn't you follow me out here while I was sleepwalking?"

"No, the last thing I remember was sitting in Grams' library trying a new spell that I found. I thought it would work, but it must have been too powerful. I might have followed you, but was so exhausted that I don't remember it."

Elena became more nervous. If Bonnie couldn't remember how they got here, then how would they retrace their steps to get back to Grams' house? Elena took a deep breath, then grabbed Bonnie's arm gently and began guiding her through the woods. Hopefully, they had not gone far. They walked through the trees for a while and in the distance Elena could see rooftops. The relief that poured through Elena's body was so strong that it made her giggle. "Thank God! We can stop at one of those houses and ask where we are."

As they approached the opening in the trees, Bonnie put her arm up to block Elena from continuing forward. "Wait!" Bonnie said in a hushed tone. Elena looked over at Bonnie and saw that her mouth had dropped open and her eyes were as big as saucers. She was about to ask Bonnie what was wrong when she looked out to see people walking down small dirt roads that weaved through the buildings. They were dressed like they had walked out of one of those romance novels that Elena's aunt kept on her nightstand. What in the hell was going on? Elena's mind began to spin as she tried to explain to herself how they had dropped into a Jane Austin inspired movie. Suddenly, Bonnie's words from before hit her like a ton of bricks. Bonnie had been trying to do a spell. What if something had gone wrong with Bonnie's magic? What if they were smack in the middle of her spell and didn't know it? Elena's could feel the blood rushing to her head as she pulled Bonnie back into the trees. "Bonnie, I need you to tell about that spell! What did you do?"

Bonnie had started to shake and became more and more panicked with every second. "I don't know, Elena, I swear!" I found a spell that would answer a person's most desired wish. I thought it would help you figure out how Stefan felt about you. I thought you would wake up and just know the truth. I never expected this!"

"The star… I wished on a star before you came to my house. I wished that I had met Stefan and Damon before they had known Katherine. I had convinced myself that it would have been the only thing that would have told me the truth. Bonnie, how could you be so stupid! Please tell me that we did not just get tossed into 1864!" The trees began to tilt and spin. Elena was sure that she was about to pass out, so she took a few breaths to steady herself.

Bonnie had begun sobbing uncontrollably. Elena could barely understand a word she was saying. "I'm so…" (sob) "sorry…" (sob) "Didn't know…" (sob) "it would…" (sob) "bring us here!"

Elena could tell Bonnie was about to break. She tried to calm down and hugged Bonnie as tightly as she could. "It will be okay. We WILL figure this out and get back home. But first, we need to find somewhere to hide. If anyone sees us, they will have too many questions. We will probably get burned at a stake or something."

Bonnie had recovered somewhat and nodded to Elena. They began walking just inside the cover of the trees to keep out of sight, until they saw what looked like an old, abandoned barn on the outskirts of a big mansion. "There!", Elena said, "If we're quiet, we can sneak into that barn and start thinking of how to get out of this mess." They crept as quickly as they could until they got into the barn. Bonnie looked around and guessed that the barn had not been used in long time.

"I know a protection spell. If I put up a barrier around the barn, no one will come upon us accidentally."

Elena was about to argue that it was a spell that put them here, but decided against it. What Bonnie needed more than anything right now was to feel useful. Elena watched as Bonnie began walking around the interior of the barn, chanting words that Elena couldn't make out. After a moment, Elena could see what looked like a shimmering wall go up around the entire structure of the building. She guessed by the small smile on Bonnie's face that the spell must have worked like it should. Well, at least one thing was working out for them today.

"Do you know a spell that will get us home?"

Bonnie's smile disappeared and a look of defeat took its place. "No…and I don't have the spellbook to look one up." Bonnie thought it out in her head for a moment and then looked up at Elena. "Maybe the spell will automatically reverse after you have found your answer? If you meet Stefan and he falls in love with you without Katherine in the picture, then maybe it will send us home."

"There are two major problems with that, Bonnie! If I go to Stefan and Damon now, what's to stop them from turning us over to the townspeople? We don't exactly fit in here. The second problem is, if he does fall for me while he is still human, he won't fall in love with Katherine."

"How is that a problem?"

"If he doesn't fall in love with Katherine, then she won't turn him into a vampire. And if he doesn't become a vampire, then I will be going back to another headstone in the cemetery. All of this will have been for nothing."

"Damn it! This is much more complicated than I thought."

Elena was beginning to get clausterphobic in the barn. "I need some air. I'm going for a walk." She could see Bonnie about to protest. "Don't worry; I'll stick to the woods where no one will see me. I just need to think some things through."

"Okay, but don't be gone long. We should stick together as much as possible so we don't get into trouble."

As Elena walked out of the barn, she realized that Bonnie was right about one thing. This was going to get really complicated.