The Struggle Read Online Free PDF

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 Mattcouldn’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 grippedthe edge of the dark hole, and Matt reached forward to grab him under the shoulders.
    Then Elena was holding him, her arms locked around his chest. She could tell just how wrong things were by his unnatural stillness, by the limpness of his body. He’d used the last of his strength helping to pull himself out; his hands were cut and bloody. But what worried Elena most was the fact that those hands did not return her desperate embrace.
    When she released him enough to look at him, she saw that his skin was waxen, and there were black shadows under his eyes. His skin was so cold that it frightened her.
    She looked up at the others anxiously.
    Matt’s brow was furrowed with concern. “We’d better get him to the clinic fast. He needs a doctor.”
    “No!” The voice was weak and hoarse, and it came from the limp figure Elena cradled. She felt Stefan gather himself, felt him slowly raise his head. His green eyes fixed on hers, and she saw the urgency in them.
    “No … doctors.” Those eyes burned into hers. “Promise … Elena.”
    Elena’s own eyes stung and her vision blurred. ‘I promise,’ she whispered. Then she felt whatever had been holding him up, the current of sheer willpower and determination, collapse. He slumped in her arms, unconscious.

4
    “But he’s got to have a