Chapter Text
Preface
“Promise me. When you get the chance, run.”
Jenna took her niece’s frantic, whispered words to heart.
She ran.
First chance she got after making sure Elena was safe with Stefan.
Long hair whipping madly in the breeze, the wind buffeted her along. Her feet seemed to have wings, barely touching the earth.
Fear pistoned through her body, pushing her deeper into the warm, starless night. She leapt over rocks and fallen tree branches. Her eyes burned, her lashes were singed with ash. She was afraid to look back and find Klaus dogging her steps, horrible pointy teeth bared.
The thought of that monster made her want to dry heave, but she kept going, trying to outrun that awful helpless feeling. Less than an hour ago, she and Elena were separated by twin rings of fire, Jenna knowing Klaus was going to gleefully kill them both, but unable to figure out how to stop it. She wondered if she was going to die like that woman Jules did, heart ripped violently from her chest, or if the evil man had something even more sinister in store.
She wouldn’t be alive if it wasn't for Bonnie Bennett, none of them would be. Bonnie came in with the storm (literally) and broke up the sadistic little party in the making, chanting words in Latin and stoking the flames until a wild firestorm blazed. Bonnie used her powers, some kind of witchy powers, Jenna figured, to free Jenna and Elena. By unspoken agreement, aunt and niece fled in opposite directions to confuse Klaus and hopefully avoid recapture.
The night was alive. Jenna could hear an owl hooting far in the distance, and the scampering feet of tiny woodland creatures. She was very hungry, although she couldn’t imagine why she would be entertaining thoughts of eating when she was still crashing headlong through the forest.
She reached two diverging paths. There was a metaphor in there somewhere, but she couldn’t think of it now. Should she go right? Or left? She might have known which one to take if she’d spent more time in this area growing up, but her parents always told her the woods were too dangerous, and animal attacks were frequent. Now it made a sick kind of sense. They’d probably been trying to protect her from Klaus, or others like him.
Jenna heard a scratching sound behind her. Footsteps? Were those footsteps? She had to make a choice now!
She made a split section decision and chose the left path. It went a little way up an incline and then back down. She heard the babbling of a brook and she ran towards it, sinking ankle deep into the cold, brackish water. Peebles shifted under her feet as she splashed through to the other side.
Back on dry land, she spotted a light through the trees. The moon? The moon! Keep going!
There had to be a road somewhere. Maybe she could flag someone down to help her.
She heard the strange scratching noise again. She looked back and thought she saw a dark figure moving through the trees. A scream tore at her throat and she went crashing forward, head still turned halfway over her shoulder, eyes riveted on the shifting shadows.
Her feet hit solid ground. There was a sudden flash of bright lights, a piercing honk, and then impact! A large vehicle barreled into her like a freight train. Bones cracked and her teeth rattled. She only managed a weak yelp in protest before she went sailing forward.
She hit the hard ground with a sickening splat!