The Drive.

Rain pattered on the wind shield of the car in an unrelenting torrent. The headlights fought to penetrate the wall of water falling from the sky and illuminate the darkness that lay ahead, but with little success. Leaning forward, body tensed the young driver struggled to remain alert and focus on the road ahead. Her evening had not gone at all as planned, and now, this? Her sister had had a seriously bad attitude which wasn’t helped by her boyfriend’s little sister’s incessant nagging, and on top of that her boyfriend himself had been more than extra aggravating. Plus her favorite TV show’s finale turned out to be way less exciting than she had anticipated, and now the whole show in itself was ruined for her. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to enjoy re-watching an episode of a show that once gave her so much joy. All these things had added up to put her in a foul disposition, and now she had to deal with this God forsaken rain. And had she mentioned she hated rain? Her sister, pouting in the passenger seat, was gazing out the window into the dark forest that lined the small road they were traveling on. It wasn’t too far from the freeway but her boyfriend’s house was still, from her perspective at least, in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by woods which held few houses beside his own, and it took a good ten to fifteen minutes to be able to see the next house from his.
“That looks really creepy,” Katie said as, still looking out the window, she gazed upon the forest. The trees were tall and wide, with little space between them, and the car’s brights cast an eerie light creating strange shadows around the tree’s trunks and on the brush on the forest floor. To the right of the road there was an upward slope, and to the left, a downward drop to the valley below. The road was very narrow, and the cliff on the left side steep enough to which point a smart driver would have slowed down considerably. Not only on account of the weather, but also the narrowness of the road, and the fact that the road curved quite a bit. But being in the foul mood she was, Marie -a usually very smart driver- was speeding a little over 10 miles above the speed limit. Marie was still contemplating the evenings mishaps angrily when her cell phone beeps and she knows it’s a text message from her boyfriend. Knowing that it’s probably some lame excuse of how sorry he is for tonight, she doesn’t want to look at it. But she takes a quick peek down anyway, and opens the message, to find it is just as she suspected: he told her of his undying love for her and that he hopes she’ll forgive him; for what exactly, he didn’t specify. That’s just like him! she thinks resentfully. Just say I love you and everything is better like magic. A small tear, partly from anger, but mostly from hurt, drips down her face. She wipes it away harshly, disgusted with herself for caring so much about a stupid boy. She is jerked away from her thoughts quickly when her sister yells her name.
“Marie! Look out!”
Marie looks to the road and sees, in the headlights, a large lump lying in the middle of her lane. Forgetting about the weather, she slams on her brakes and the car slides. Her sister starts screaming as the car hydroplanes and starts to spin. Remembering her driving classes Marie turns with the spin and is able to get the car under relative control. When she feels the tires touch on the road she taps the breaks quickly, being cautious so as to not go out of control again. The car screeches to a halt, the large lump in the road only a few feet ahead of them. So close in fact, that the hood of the car almost covers it up from their sight. Heart pumping and hands squeezed tight on the wheel, Marie breathes heavily and looks at her sister, who is in a similar state as she. But soon Katie is pushing herself up in her seat, craning to try and look out the window to get a better look at the thing in front of their car. Marie follows her gaze to look at it.
“What is it?” Marie asks tentatively. She squints to try and figure out what it is- Marie had left her glasses at home, so it was difficult for her to make out the details of the thing.
“I think...I think it’s a body.” Katie says slowly.
“That’s not funny Katie, now really, what is it?”
”I’m not kidding! Let’s go look.” To Marie’s horror, Katie started to unbuckle her seatbelt.
“There is no possible way on God's green earth I am letting you go out there Katie!” Marie could not believe her sister was even thinking about going out in the unrelenting rain, in the pitch dark, in the thick of the forest in the absolute middle of nowhere, to look at some unidentified object in the middle of the road.
“Well it’s too bad, ‘cause I’m going to look! Keep the car running.” And with that Katie pulled her hood over her head and jumped out into the pouring rain.
“Get back in the car right now Katie!” Marie yelled forcefully. She was utterly terrified. There were so many possible things that could go wrong. She fumbled around to grab her cell phone and was ready to call 911 at the slightest hint of danger but for some reason she froze as she watched her sister walk around the front of the car. The thing was only about a couple of feet in front of their car, so Marie had to lean way up and forward to see it on the ground, and even then the rain distorted her view of what was going on. She watched as Katie walked over and leaned down to inspect the thing. Apparently she had found a stick on the ground as she walked over because she used it to poke and prod the object. Seemingly satisfied she stood up and turned towards the car, with a look of extreme worry on her face. Marie started to roll down her window because Katie was talking but she couldn’t hear. She put a hand to her ear to show that she couldn’t hear her, and Katie understood. She started to walk back towards the car when suddenly Katie’s head jerked over to the right with a look on her face Marie would remember for the rest of her life. Katie let out a bloodcurdling scream so loud that Marie could hear it despite the torrential noise from the rain on the car. Confused and horrified, Marie had no time to react as she watched as a giant figure came bursting out from the forest faster than she had ever seen any living thing move. In split seconds, her sister was gone.

Marie yelled her sister’s name in shock. Forgetting her phone she practically ripped her seat belt off her and tumbled out into the pouring rain. It felt as if her heart was determined to pound a hole through and escape from her chest as the horror worked its way quickly through her veins. She ran around in confused circles, calling and calling her sisters name. Soon she could barely see as tears combined with the never ending rain poured down her face as she cried out her sister's name in near hysterics. Soaking wet, her body started to shiver violently. She was just about to make her way back to the car and call for help when realized that her sister wasn't the only thing that was missing. The body, too, had disappeared.