07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

Matt put his hands on Cole’s shoulders, and to his horror felt bones under his fingers.
The kid really was starving, he thought, forgiving him all the Hershey bars. His eyes met Mrs.
Flowers’s eyes and she immediately went to the kitchen.
But Cole wasn’t answering; he was mumbling incoherently. Matt forced himself to apply
pressure to those bony shoulders.
“Cole, talk louder! What’s this Last Midnight about?”
“You know. That’s when…all the kids…you know, they wait up and at midnight…they
get knives or guns. You know. And we go into our parents’ room while they’re asleep and…” Cole
broke down again, but Matt noticed he had slipped into saying “we” and “our” by the end.
Meredith spoke in her calm, steady voice. “The children are going to kill their parents, is
that right?”
“He showed us where to slash or stab. Or if there’s a gun—”
Matt had heard enough. “You can stay—in the basement,” he said. “And here are some
amulets. Put them on you if you feel like you’re in danger.” He gave Cole a whole packet of Post-it
Notes.
“Just don’t be afraid,” Meredith added, as Mrs. Flowers came in with a plate of
sausages and fried potatoes for Cole. At any other time the smell would have made Matt hungry.
“It’s just like that island in Japan,” he said. “Shinichi and Misao made it happen there,
and they’re going to do it again.”
“I say time’s running out. Actually it’s already the Last Midnight day—it’s nearly one
thirty in the morning,” Meredith said. “We have less than twenty-four hours. We should either get out
of Fell’s Church or do something to arrange a confrontation.”
“A confrontation? Without Elena or Damon or Stefan?” Matt said. “We’ll be murdered.
Don’t forget Sheriff Mossberg.”
“He didn’t have this.” Meredith tossed the fighting stave into the air, caught it neatly, and
put it at her side.
Matt shook his head. “Shinichi will still kill you. Or some little kid will, with the semiautomatic
from Daddy’s closet.”
“We have to do something.”
Matt thought. His head was pounding. Finally he said, head lowered, “When I got the
herbs I got Misao’s star ball, too.”
“You’re kidding. Shinichi still didn’t find it?”
“No. And maybe we could do something with it.”
Matt looked at Meredith, who looked at Mrs. Flowers. Mrs. Flowers said, “What about
pouring out the liquid in different places in Fell’s Church? Just a drop here and a drop there? We
could ask the Power in it to protect the town. Maybe it would listen.”
Meredith said, “That was the exact reason we wanted to get Shinichi’s and Misao’s star
balls in the first place. The star balls control their owners, according to legend.”
Matt said, “It may be old-ways thinking, but I agree.”
Meredith said, “Then let’s do it right now.”
While the other two waited, Matt got Misao’s star ball. It had a very, very little liquid on
the bottom.
“After the Last Midnight she plans to fill it to the top with the energy of the new lives that
get taken,” Meredith said.
“Well, she’s not going to get a chance to do that,” Matt said flatly. “When we’re done