Hey. Okay so this is a modern TVD version of Beauty and the Beast with quite a lot of deviation... Hope you like it :) This is a kinda slow chapter to get us started but it will pick up after, if people want me to continue this.
Disclaimer: The clue is in the 'dis'
The sun beat down through the windshield as Elena Gilbert drummed her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel of her cherry-red mini. It was the first day of summer break and she was driving to the summer lodge where she was supposed to meet her brother and best friend. Well, that was if you could call coming to a stand-still in a traffic queue 'driving'. At the moment all she could see for miles in front of her was cars, the metal shining painfully in the sunlight. If this kept up she wouldn't make it there tonight. Groaning she slumped down in her chair before quickly firing off a text to Jeremy asking him not to drive Bonnie crazy.
Hours later and the queue had barely moved more than a couple of hundred metres. It would literally be faster walking. Elena toyed with the idea in her head. Just ditch the car and walk all the way. It would be like something out of the terminator. She had the shades and damn, if she couldn't do a mean Arnie impression. She almost caught herself mouthing 'I'll be back' to her rear-view mirror. Nah that was a stupid idea.
The cars inched forward as the sun climbed higher. It almost seemed to be racing across the sky, mocking the amount of time it was taking to move so much as a foot.
Finally Elena had had enough. Spotting a turn-off to her right, she edged through the traffic down the blissfully empty road that stretched out invitingly in front of her. It almost didn't matter where the hell it was taking her, just so long as she was moving. Fields rolled out like patchwork on either side of the road that seemed to wind on forever. Sooner or later she was going to have to look out directions and perhaps hunt down a hopefully friendly local.
As it so happened there were very few locals around and the only side roads Elena could see lead to old abandoned-looking barns. Panic was beginning to flutter its wings in her stomach. Not a single car had passed in the opposite direction, but maybe there was a diversion to avoid the traffic? Yes. Yes, that must be it.
Another hour of driving along the road yielded no results. If anything the road seemed to getting rougher. The neater farmed fields from the start had given way to overgrown grasslands. She could have kicked herself for not turning back sooner. Really Elena, how long does it take to twig you shouldn't have taken a shortcut? She slapped a hand against her forehead, the smack resounding in the small confines of her car.
Finally pulling over to take a moment to gather her surroundings, she took a deep breath before unbuckling her seatbelt and stepping outside onto the dusty track. Nope. Not even the slightest bit familiar. If this were a Western there would be tumbleweed blowing across the road and a creaky gate swinging in the breeze whilst vultures circled overhead. "Eurgh!" She tugged her hands through her long straight brown hair in frustration.
There was nothing else for it. She was going to have to phone her younger brother and attempt to tolerate his smugness at her failure to follow a simple task. A glance at the clock on the dashboard told her she should have been at the lakehouse hours ago. It seemed strange that no-one had tried to contact her though. Elena whipped her phone out of her pocket. No signal. Of course.
She whirled around and kicked the front tyre, screaming out in pent up rage. What was the point in modern technology if it was so damn fallible? Here she was, stuck in the middle of God knows where, with less than a quarter tank of fuel left and a next-to-fully charged phone that was rendered useless due to the lack of service.
As far as Elena could tell, her options were pretty limited.
She could wander around on foot, hoping to get a signal, in hope that her brother would be able to look up a map and tell her how to return to civilisation.
She could drive back the way she came, despite the lack of ample fuel and hope this was far enough to bring her back within a signal to phone for help.
Or she could keep on driving and hope to hit a town or service station soon. God knows one was overdue.
There was a lot of hope involved in all of the options.
And as much as Elena would like nothing more than to throw a temper tantrum she realised that that would achieve nothing. Maybe she would have done that a year ago, before she had to grow up and fast when her parents died. Now she was a smart, intelligent, independent young woman.
One stuck in the middle of nowhere.
The middle of nowhere that was going to become pitch black in a couple of hours.
Maybe that tantrum was in the cards yet...
Elena let out a deep breath that send strands of fine hair flying as she clambered back into her car and revved the engine. A moment of indecision was followed by the continuation of her journey forward. For better or for worse.
Darkness fell even sooner than she expected; the clumsy oaf. The headlamps of the car cut through the darkness casting eerie shadows of the gnarled trees that seemed to be creeping up on all sides, sparse and lifeless with no leaves, despite the time of year. They almost looked like fingers, bent and ready to snatch at lost visitors.
It was with great relief that Elena finally spotted an actual house, one with lights on, perched at the side of the road, almost hidden by the looming trees. Quickly, she climbed out of the car, tucking her phone back into her pocket. She might be desperate for human contact but she wasn't stupid. These people (or person) lived in the middle of nowhere. Here there would be no-one to hear her screams. But she wasn't going to be screaming, she told herself. These were going to be nice, friendly, helpful people.
Although with the way her luck was going today they were more likely to be cannibals waiting for their next meal to come knocking on their door.
Rolling her eyes at her own morbidity, Elena crunched her way up the gravel path to ring the doorbell. It wasn't long before the door opened a crack, just wide enough for Elena to make out a small girl's face peering out suspiciously, before the door was slammed shut again.
"DAD! THERE'S A WOMAN AT THE DOOR!" Elena had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as the girl's voice reached her through the door.
This time when the door opened, it opened fully to reveal a man in a shirt with rolled up sleeves and dark jeans. "Hi there, sorry about that, Emily's wary of strangers. We don't usually get visitors out here. Can I help you?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"I hope so. I'm more than a little bit lost; could you please tell me how to get to the nearest highway?" Elena asked apologetically.
The man shook his head, a wry grin on his face. "They closed this road off; they're starting to build one that cuts straight through from city to city. The diversion will take at least a day's drive."
Elena flinched at the bad news but thanked the man for his help, and gratefully accepted his offer of a map.
"I would offer you to stay the night, but my wife's pregnant and I doubt she'll take kindly to me offering our couch out to a stranger," he explained. "But if you're looking for a place to stay there's the old boarding house, about half an hour's drive following the road, then twenty minutes down a narrow path. It's been abandoned for years, I don't know what state it's in, but there's been deliveries going down there, so someone must be opening it up again."
At this point Elena would settle for lay-by just to sleep in her car, so to hear that there might be proper accommodation was music to her ears. "That's great, thanks a lot. Sorry again for disturbing you."
"No problem, take care. And watch out for the turning on the left, it's easy to miss," was the man's parting shot as the door closed.
Feeling slightly more at ease Elena returned to her car, hoping her journey would soon be over, at least for tonight.
See where this is going? Please review whether or not you do :P