Breaking Point

Chapter One: Night Drive

She stared ahead of her, her face blank.

Contrary to what was showing on the outside, anger surged through her veins, very nearly consuming her. Her fingernails bit into her palms as her fists clenched and air squeezed through her teeth in a low hiss, her face twisting into a sneer. Her eyes barely took in the storm approaching visible through the window as she sat on her bed, feet touching the ground, legs tensed as if ready to leap into action at any moment. A flash of lightening, an oddity seeing as how it was the middle of November, lit up her room and the tension in her body snapped.

That was it. She was done.

Springing into action, she ran to her closet and pulled out her school backpack and promptly emptied out all of her books, paper, and pens. Hurriedly, she stuffed random articles of clothing into it, as well as a few pairs of socks and underwear and one extra bra. Thinking quickly, she grabbed her wallet, passport, iPod, cell phone and charger, and flashlight off of her dresser, and then hastily put on her old, worn tennis shoes. She strode into her bathroom, freezing for a second to listen for any type of noise, and then placed her toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as her hairbrush, into her bag before kneeling down to the cabinets beneath the sink. She searched for the box of tampons in the way back that hid her money and stuffed all of her savings into the back pocket of her jeans. She paused for a minute, scanning her brain for any other necessities she may need. After deciding that she grabbed everything she would require for a few days, she rushed out of the bathroom.

The girl slowed when she passed her parents' bedroom, careful not to wake them. She quietly put one foot in front of the other, as if giving herself a few seconds to reconsider her decision to leave. But she pushed that thought out of her head and instead focused on successfully sneaking past her parents' bedroom.

After all, it was only one o'clock in the morning and she did not want to alert them to her activities. Though, she thought bitterly, they wouldn't be able to stop from leaving me if they tried. She paused for a second, however, muttered a quiet "fuck you," before continuing on her way downstairs. She walked into the kitchen, and making sure that no one was around to notice her actions, yanked her father's car keys off of the counter. Without looking back, she raced out of the front door, forgetting to shut the door quietly.

Once outside, she ran.

With a small feeling of satisfaction and spite, her feet sunk deeply into the lawn that, while currently dead because it was winter, her father always took such pride in, and had always forbidden her to walk across. To her, the lawn was a symbol of everything else her father had always put before her.

Unlocking her father's blue 1997 Toyota Camry, she shoved her backpack into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. She put the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. For a quick second, she panicked. She had momentarily had forgotten how loud the old beast's engine was, and if her slamming the front door shut hadn't woken her parents up, then the starting of the car certainly had.

Sure enough, as she raced out of the driveway, the image of her father's face, initially surprised but then red in anger, appeared in the window of her parent's bedroom. But it was too late. She was gone. They couldn't stop her now.

She, Caroline Adams, was finally free.

Thirty minutes later, she was speeding down the highway to the Denver International Airport, the anger still pulsing through her body, but accompanied with a sharp feeling of relief. This was it. She had finally left, finally gathered up the courage to do what she had been wanting to do for years. But most of all, she had finally taken her life into her own hands, and she was determined to see her decision through.

After all, she was certainly old enough to take care of herself. And all the reasons that had kept her with her parents for so long seemed to make little sense and quickly evaporated as she allowed herself a few minutes to bask in the glow of her new found independence.

Veering left, Caroline slowed down and took the road that led to parking for those who were dropping off departing passengers. The parking lot was an hourly parking lot that allowed a person to pay once they were leaving, depending on how long they had been there. However, she knew that once someone noticed the car had been there for too long, someone would report it to the police, alerting her father afterwards, and by then it would be too late.

Putting the car into park, she grabbed her backpack and walked towards the automatic doors leading into the airport. With a smirk, Caroline threw the car keys into the nearest trash can, knowing she'd never need them again.

Mustering up a healthy dose of confidence, she headed into the airport as if there was nothing strange about appearing there at half past one in the morning. She was not at all surprised to find that there were only about ten other people walking around, two of which were employees. Clearing her throat, Caroline approached a security officer and quietly asked where she could buy a plane ticket. The officer, a short, balding man with an awful mustache, raised his almost none-existent eyebrows at her before pointing her in the direction. Muttering a quiet "thank you," she went off in the direction he had pointed her in.

Sitting at the check-in counter sat an older woman, her eyes drooping slightly as she struggled to stay awake. The younger girl cleared her throat to alert the other woman of her presence, and the woman in question shot up, surprised clearly etched into the lines of her face.

"Is there something I can help you with, dear?" she asked and Caroline took note that the woman was clearly, strangely enough, excited to see her. She supposed that the woman didn't have to do much during the late night hours, and with no one to talk to, her main duty was probably attempting to not fall asleep.

"Um…yes. An officer over there said I could buy a plane ticket here. Is that correct?" the younger girl questioned, slightly unsure of herself. This was her first trip the airport by herself and she was not sure what to do. However, the woman behind the counter nodded quickly.

"Yes, most definitely. Where are you headed off to?"

"London."

"Oh, well that certainly is quite the distance," The woman stated before frowning. Bethany, as her name tag declared her, took in the girl's appearance and her frown immediately deepened, clearly assessing her. Caroline sighed, for she knew her appearance left a lot to be desired at the moment. She was aware that her mascara was severely smeared from the tears she had shed earlier, and she knew that her hair resembled a bird's nest and that her clothes could have used an iron to soothe the wrinkles. She naturally assumed that the woman was passing judgment on her. Instead, she was surprised to find the hesitant but warm smile that the woman offered her. "Are you sure that's where you want to go?"

"Yes…um, my aunt called me and told me that my uncle had a…a…heart attack," Caroline lied quickly, noticing the woman's raised eyebrows, possibly at the fact that she hadn't said anything about her parents. However, as polite as Caroline was acting, she honestly did not give a shit. It was none of the of lady's business where she was going, or why, so she quickly snapped, "Look, I'm kinda in a hurry, so can you help me or not?"

"Yes, give me just one moment. Hmm…it seems you're in luck. We have a red eye flight departing for London in about an hour and a half."

"Great, I'll take a one-way ticket, please." Bethany nodded and quickly asked for her passport. The girl handed it over, for once grateful that her parents had dragged her to Canada a few months ago for her grandfather's funeral, a man she had never met once in her life. It had been one of the most boring experiences in her life, and not to mention she had missed several days of school just before her finals. Snapping out of it, Caroline glanced back at the lady behind the counter. Bethany, noticing the girl's far-off look, assessed her again, and the glanced back down at the passport, confirming that it was indeed her, before rapidly typing some stuff into the computer.

"Okay, Caroline, your totally comes to 906 dollars and 68 cents. Is your backpack the only piece of luggage you have?" the woman questioned, turning her head back to the girl just in time to see her jaw drop in dismay. Nodding, the girl handed over the money, all cash, wincing as she did so. That had been way over what she thought it would be, but she still had a good five hundred left. Oh well, Caroline sighed mentally, it'll be worth it. "Your flight leaves at 3:07 a.m. from terminal EM. You'll make one stop in Detroit around 7:45 later this morning, and then continue on to London, arriving around one o'clock PM in the afternoon, our time, eight o'clock PM London time. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, thank you. I think I've got it covered."

"Well, have a safe flight. I do hope that your uncle is alright." The woman gave her a wink, alerting Caroline to the fact that the woman did, indeed, know that she had been lying. The younger girl grinned warily back at her before she continued on her way.

After going through all sorts of security required for general flights, and then those required for flights going out of the country that nearly took an hour, despite it now being two o'clock in the morning, she arrived at the right gate. She made a quick stop in the restroom and attempted to make herself more presentable. She washed the mascara stains off of her face, glad that her fair, clear skin required no sort of foundation or concealor that would need to be fixed as well, seeing as how she had brought none with her. Though, now that she thought about it, it would have been nice to get rid of the circles beneath her eyes. She then pulled her brush out of her backpack and proceeded to brush out all of the tangles in her hair before securing it in a ponytail with the extra hair tie she always carried on her wrist. Sighing, Caroline knew that there was nothing she could do to fix her clothes so she left it at that.

Wandering around for a few minutes, Caroline finally found the collection of chairs waiting right by the gate where her plane would pull up to. She pulled out the water bottle she had bought just a few minutes ago and put her headphones in her ears. She tried, but failed, to calm down as she told herself that she pretty much in the clear. She had gotten away from her parents and had paid for her ticket with cash, making sure that no one would be able to trace where she had flown off to, even when they found her dad's car. However, despite this, years of habit had her glancing over her shoulder every two minutes to make sure that no one was sneaking up on her.

Caroline waited another ten minutes before her flight was called. Picking up her backpack, she walked over to the terminal, handed the man her ticket, and walked on to the plane, her heart pounding in nervousness and anticipation. It took another twenty minutes for the plane to actually leave, but she ignored the flight attendants as they explained all the emergency procedures, instead, focusing ahead of her.

On the chair in front of her, a movie she wasn't very well acquainted with, but had heard of, played, drawing her attention from the flight attendant how moved quickly down the aisle to take her seat as the plane took off. She turned her iPod off and stuffed her headphones into the jack that connected her to the movie, and was instantly downright amused. Who knew that an angst filled romance between a teenage girl and a vampire could ever draw attention away from all that had transpired that night?

After all, today, yesterday, she quickly corrected herself, had been one of the worst days of her life. It had been the breaking point.

And sadly, it had also been her twentieth birthday.

/N This IS a Scabior/OC fanfic with a twist, though I promise it will be interesting. Please review with any questions or constructive criticisms. While I do live in Denver, I have never been to the airport at one o'clock in the morning, and I have never been out of country, so I really do not know how my imagination of what it would be like comes close to how it actually is. I apologize if I'm a little (or a lot) off. But thank you for reading anyways!

The title is the song "Night Drive" by the All-American Rejects.