[This story is partially inspired by the fanfic "Honey, We Can Run Forever, If Forever's What's in Store" by Kitsune511.]
After a full day of grey clouds, snowflakes finally began to fall from the sky.
"It's beautiful," Lorraine commented as Ed turned on the wipers.
"It is," her husband agreed, "Though not nearly as fun to drive in,"
If this is hitting Monroe, I'm sure Judy has already asked Mary Ellen if she can go outside and catch snowflakes on her tongue,"
Ed smiled at the thought. "We're lucky Mary Ellen lives so close and was able to come over on such short notice,"
"We are," Lorraine said, turning to look at the framed painting of a pond in a forest placed on the backseat. The item looked harmless enough, but they had reason to believe there was evil attached to it, hence why they'd driven about an hour to retrieve the item and bring it to their artifact room.
Checking her watch, Lorraine suggested "Maybe we should invite Mary Ellen to stay for dinner. With weather like this I think grilled cheese and warm tomato bisque is in order,"
"Mmm," Ed replied, "That sounds absolutely perfect,"
The car made a sudden groan, then began to speed up. "What the…" Ed looked at the pedals on the floor, a look of confusion on his face.
"Ed?" Lorraine asked, a bit nervous at the sudden increase in speed, "What's going on?"
"The gas pedal…the brakes…they're not working," Lorraine watched in horror as her husband pressed his foot harder on the brake, but to no avail. Then, without warning, the steering wheel began to move on its own, shifting the entire car to the right. Ed struggled to turn the wheel to the left, but it wouldn't budge.
"The painting," Lorraine said. "Whatever has hold of the painting, it's doing this to the car," In a preemptive attempt to stop whatever was happening, Lorraine unlocked the car doors, but as soon as she did the wheel pulled sharply to the right, driving them off the road and plunging the car into a lake.