Part Seventeen
Raven cut sharply to the right, jerking the wheel roughly to avoid the oncoming car. The car squealed it's protest as it whipped across the yellow line. Insider her car, Lita felt herself tossed to her right side like a rag doll. It didn't feel so good however, as her head and her right cheek hit the passenger side glass with a hard thump. She'd had her seat belt on thankfully. It kept her from hitting the side of her head even harder. Raven gripped the wheel as the car spun around 90 degrees, coming to a sudden stop in the middle of the road facing perpendicular to the way they had been traveling. For it's part, the oncoming car swerved to it's right, running off the road and into the gravels screeching to a halt.
Behind them, Jeff saw what was happening and slammed on his brakes. His car spun to a stop, fishtailing wildly behind them. Matt clung to the dashboard to keep from launching forward through it. Jeff skidded to a stop about fifty feet behind Lita and Raven. In a flash, both boys had their doors open and were jumping out of the their car, in a dead run for Lita's car. Raven got his wits back together, coming out of the haze he had been in since the near accident. Beside him, Lita was still dazed after having bounced her head off the glass. Just as she was coming back around, Raven threw the car in first gear and took off again. Jeff reached out wildly for the car, just touching the back bumper as it lurched out of his grasp. Spinning around, he ran back as hard as he could for Matt's car, noting his brother was two steps ahead of him.
"Damn!" shouted Matt. We were so close, so close Jeff!"
"I know man," Jeff panted trying to regain control of his breathing. "We'll stop him," he said, gearing the car up to fifth gear, hot on Raven's tail once more.
In Lita's car
"Owww," came a soft moan, as Lita rubbed her hand along her right cheek. "That's going to leave a mark," she said, turning to look at Raven.
"I see you survived," he said to her disdainfully.
"I wish you hadn't" she spit back at him. She maneuvered around in her seat to look behind her. Relief washed over her as she saw Matt and Jeff still following her. Both boys appeared to be intact and safe. Unfortunately, Raven had started traveling again at a higher rate of speed than she would have liked.
"Geez, Raven, slow down. You already almost killed us once." Lita said. She was getting a humongous headache, and with no wonder what with everything she was going through.
"Scare ya, huh?" was all he said to her, not taking his eyes off the road. It seemed maybe he was a little scared himself. Lita looked closer at him, was that sweat on his brow?
Raven started to say something else to Lita, when her car started making a little pinging sound. Nothing major, but a noise all the same.
"Hear that?" she said. "You broke my car. If I survive this, I'm going to make you pay for that. And if I don't survive this, you're going to pay my beneficiaries."
"O, but ye of little faith, they say." Raven started to talk in a poetic voice again, much like he used to do on tv. "But what about those who have too much faith, Lita dear?" he asked. Pointing into his rear view mirror at the Hardys still behind him. "What happens to those who are so faithful they stumble blindly? What will happen to your beloved friends back there? They're doing nothing for their well-being, or for yours."
"Stop it," Lita was getting creeped out, as Raven pushed the accelerator a little more with each sentence.
"As for me, I made a critical mistake. I had faith in other people, and they let me down," he continued. "So, if I don't survive this, it's not like anyone will really mind. You said so yourself, you wish I hadn't survived."
Now Lita was getting really worried, more scared than she had been yet. Up until this point, she had the underlying feeling that deep down, Raven was remorseful, weirdly compassionate even at times, and just very, very confused. But now he had seemed to give up all hope, spiraling him into even more of a depression. And that could be very bad for them both.
"Raven, please," she said, willing the tears back. "don't talk like that. You don't mean it."
"I am so confused Lita," he said, letting off the accelerator slightly. "I don't want to hurt you, not really."
"Then pull over right now." The car slowed down just a hair more. "We can talk about it. We don't have to let the boys in. Just you and I can talk." She reached out, placing her handcuffed hands on his leg for a moment. She then flit her eyes once more over to the speedometer, and watched it drop two more notches.
In the car behind them, Matt and Jeff both noticed the change in speed. "What's he doing?" Jeff asked.
"I don't know. But there's some smoke coming out from underneath the car. Maybe he busted something. Now's our chance. Catch him, Jeff!"
"Hold tight. I can get him this time." Jeff answered, gearing down while stomping his foot on the accelerator. He raced up beside Lita's car, neck and neck with the other two, but still at a dangerous rate of speed. The road was getting curvy again, so he had to back off in the curves when he couldn't see any potential oncoming traffic.
Matt pointed wildly at Raven to pull over. His window down, Matt hung out the side of the car, his black curls blowing in the breeze. "Pull over, Raven! It's over. You can't go much farther!"
Raven snapped his head around, a resurgence of anger filling him. Once again, he made a snap decision. Without thinking, he whipped his wheel sharply to the left, careering into Matt's car. The sudden move caught both the Hardys and Lita by surprise. Matt had been leaning out the window when Raven made his move. He barely made it back inside the car when it came crashing into him. Inside the car, Lita was screaming, slapping at Raven, crying for him to stop. She had had enough. The front fenders of both cars were smashed but not damaged enough to keep them from moving. Raven slammed his car into the side of Matt's car a second time, the force causing it to bounce off the road momentarily. This time, the damage to the vehicles was far greater. Regaining his composure, Jeff drifted back from Raven, who had taken off again at the faster speed.
"He's crazy! Absolutely crazy!" Matt screamed to his brother, setting back down in his seat. "Jeff, do you know where we are?"
"Oh, no. Yes, I do. Matt, at this speed, he'll never make the curve unless he slows down."
"Catch him again, Jeff. I'll try to warn him."
"He won't listen Matt. It'll just cause him to keep going faster."
"We can't let him hurt her! We've got to do something."
Jeff backed off more, putting more space between him and Raven, but not enough to allow him to get away. The fear in Matt's eyes grew as they neared the object of their dread. Up ahead, they flew past the ominous sign, "Danger Curve Ahead". Raven paid it no heed.
"Deadman's Curve. Please Lita, tell him about Deadman's Curve," Matt pleaded with her. Deadman's Curve was a steep curve in the road that led directly onto an overpass. The overpass was over the eastern end of Lake Louisienne.
In her car, Lita was still shaking because of what had just happened. Looking up, she saw the "Danger Curve Ahead" sign fly by. She knew where she was, and she knew they were going too fast.
"Raven!" she screamed. "We're going too fast! We won't make it…."
Raven went into Deadman's Curve too fast, sending the back end of the car to fly around, tires squealing and spinning three times before smacking head first into the concrete wall of the overpass. A sick scraping noise screamed as the crunched car bounced off the wall, the force sending it spinning the opposite direction, up onto the curb, hitting the opposite side of the concrete bridge wall hard. Finally, the car then came to an eerie rest, water spewing out of the radiator. Inside, there was no movement, no sound.