Safe! She slammed the door shut again and brought her fist down on the lock. Then she flung herself across the seat to check the locks on the other side.
The wind roared with a thousand voices outside. The car began rocking.
"Stop it! Damon, stop it!" Her thin cry was lost in the cacophony. She put her hands out on the dashboard as if to balance the car and it rocked harder, ice pelting against it.
Then she saw something. The rear window was clouding up, but she could discern the shape through it. It looked like some great bird made of mist or snow, but the outlines were hazy. All she was sure of was that it had huge sweeping wings... and that it was coming for her.
Get the key in the ignition. Get it in! Now go! Her mind was rapping orders at her. The ancient Ford wheezed and the tires screamed louder than the wind as she took off. And the shape behind her followed, getting larger and larger in the rearview mirror.
If she hadn't been skidding and braking already, the tree would have crashed down on her. As it was, the violent impact shook the car like an earthquake missing the front right fender by inches. The tree was a mass of heaving, pitching branches, its trunk blocking the way back to town completely.
She was trapped. Her only route home cut off. She was alone, there was no escape from this terrible Power...
Power. That was it; that was the key. "The stronger your Powers are, the more the rules of the dark bind you."
Running water!
Throwing the car into reverse, she brought it around and then slammed into forward. The white shape banked and swooped, missing her as narrowly as the tree had, and then she was speeding down Old Creek Road into the worst of the storm.
It was still after her. Only one thought pounded in Elena's brain now. She had to cross running water, to leave this thing behind.
There were more cracks of lightning, and she glimpsed other trees falling, but she swerved around them. It couldn't be far now. She could see the river flickering past on her left side through the driving ice storm. Then she saw the bridge.
It was there; she'd made it! A gust threw sleet across the windshield, but with the wipers' next stroke she saw it fleetingly again. This was it, the turn should be abouthere.
The car lurched and skidded onto the wooden structure. Elena felt the wheels grip at slick planks and then felt them lock. Desperately, she tried to turn with the skid, but she couldn't see and there was no room...
And then she was crashing through the guardrail, the rotted wood of the footbridge giving way under weight it could no longer support. There was a sickening feeling of spinning, dropping, and the car hit the water.
Elena heard screams, but they didn't seem to be connected with her. The river welled up around her and everything was noise and confusion and pain. A window shattered as it was struck by debris, and then another. Dark water gushed across her, along with glass like ice. She was engulfed. She couldn't see; she couldn't get out.
And she couldn't breathe. She was lost in this hellish tumult, and there was no air.She had to breathe. She had to get out of here...
"Stefan, help me!" she screamed.
But her scream made no sound. Instead, the icy water rushed into her lungs, invading her. She thrashed against it, but it was too strong for her. Her struggles became wilder, more uncoordinated, and then they stopped.
Bonnie and Meredith were hunting around the perimeter of the school impatiently. They'd seen Stefan go this way, more or less coerced by Tyler and his new friends. They'd started to follow him, but then that business with Elena had started. And then Matt had informed them that she'd taken off. So they'd set out after Stefan again, but nobody was out here. There weren't even any buildings except one lonely Quonset hut.
"And now there's a storm coming!" Meredith said. "Listen to that wind! I think it's going to rain."
"Or snow!" Bonnie shuddered. "Where did theygo?"
"I don't care; I just want to get under a roof. Here it comes!" Meredith gasped as the first sheet of icy rain hit her, and she and Bonnie ran for the nearest shelter - the Quonset hut.
And it was there that they found Stefan. The door was ajar, and when Bonnie looked in she recoiled.
"Tyler's goon squad!" she hissed. "Look out!"
Stefan had a semicircle of guys between him and the door. Caroline was in the corner.
"He must have it! He took it somehow; I know he did!" she was saying.
"Took what?" said Meredith, loudly. Everyone turned their way.
Caroline's face contorted as she saw them in the doorway and Tyler snarled. "Get out." he said. "You don't want to be involved in this."
Meredith ignored him. "Stefan, can I talk to you?"
"In a minute. Are you going to answer her question? Took what?" Stefan was concentrating on Tyler, totally focused.
"Sure, I'll answer her question. Right after I answer yours." Tyler's beefy hand thumped into his fist and he stepped forward. "You're going to be dog meat, Salvatore."
Several of the tough guys snickered.
Bonnie opened her mouth to say, "Let's getout of here." But what she actually said was, "The bridge."
It was weird enough to make everyone look at her.
"What?" said Stefan.
"The bridge," said Bonnie again, without meaning to say it. Her eyes bulged, alarmed. She could hear the voice coming from her throat, but she had no control over it. And then she felt her eyes go wider and her mouth drop open and she had her own voice back. "The bridge, oh, my God, the bridge! That's where Elena is! Stefan, we've got to save her... Oh, hurry!"
"Yes, oh, God... that's where she's gone. She's drowning!Hurry !" Waves of thick blackness broke over Bonnie. But she couldn't faint now; they had to get to Elena.