Bound To You

Chapter one: Unninvited Guest 

The wind howled through the trees in the Colorado Mountains as rain pelted the windshield of a Suburban. The two lane road was wet and slick from rain, the driver tightly gripped the steering wheel trying to drive as cautiously as he could through the terrible weather.

"I told you we should have left your mother's house earlier" The drivers wife chided half-heartedly.

"Mina," The driver said sighing, having told his wife his explanation many times before, "You know she wanted to see Tara one last time before she moves to Denver."

"John, you're act like she's going out-of-state, Breckenridge is only an hour from Denver,"

"I can't explain her methods, she just enjoys spending time with her granddaughter,"

Said granddaughter was sitting in the backseat staring out of the window, watching the rain. Her headphones were in her ears, blissfully ignorant of the world around her.

While her mother was right they could have left earlier, but Tara just didn't want to leave. It was Thanksgiving break at her high school, which left her at home alone with nothing to do. It didn't help that their ranch was almost five miles near the closest town.

They had been on the road for half an hour, halfway home. The storm hadn't started until they hit the road, and it just seemed to get worse and worse.

Lightening struck across the darkened sky, startling the passengers in the car. Tara took her head phones out.

"Are we almost home yet," she asked with a shaky voice, leaning between her parents.

Her mother smiled lightly and ruffled her hair.

"Almost sweetie," she said, "And put your seatbelt back on."

Tara complied and sat back in her seat, biting her nails nervously.

The next strike seemed much closer than the last, it lit up the night sky. Tara flinched violently covering her ears.

The wind started howling again, shaking the trees in its wake. Tara looked up at the sky and stared. The clouds seemed to swirl together in a tight circular motion above their car, lightning striking within it. A vortex opened within the cloud, almost forming a cyclone.

"Mom," She said as the clouds started turning black, taking an even more threatening appearance.

"What is-"

Her mother was cut off as a bolt of lightning struck the asphalt directly in front of the Suburban. Her father roughly swerved the car narrowly avoiding the lightning, the breaks violently shrieked as the Suburban spun out of control. They slammed into the guard rail, the window on Tara's door shattered from the force.

"Is everyone alright?" Her father asked sounding a bit shaken up.

"Yea," Her mother said "Tara baby are you okay?"

"Yea I'm alright, I think I cut myself on the glass though."

The rain outside slowed immensely, and the moon came out from behind the clouds illuminating the night. Her father went outside to assess the damage while her mother called Triple A. Tara decided to go outside with her father to see if there was anything that she could do to help.

"I've got it under control sweet heart," he said. "Put something on that cut"

He pointed to her hand which was dripping blood, she hissed now registering the pain. Her father resumed his examination of the truck. She turned to go back into the car to get something to wrap her hand in when something on the road caught her eye.