Elizabeth was cold. Her car, a seven year old Mustang, had been sitting outside the bar for hours, and now it might as well have been made out of ice. The wind was howling, and the short walk to her car was enough to chill her to the bone. It had been a long time since she had closed down a bar with one of her girlfriends, and she could feel a serious buzz from the martinis. It was a thirty minute drive home, and she was not looking forward to it.

The bar, Tim's Tavern, was buried in the woods outside of Lancaster, PA. It was a relatively quiet place, full of the sort of people that lived beyond the suburbs. They mostly kept to themselves, which is why her friend Sarah had suggested it. She wanted to catch up, not get picked up by guys. Last call had been at midnight, and by the time they finally walked out it was just past one.

It had been a rough year for Elizabeth and she was glad to have a night out to decompress. Sarah had been a friend since college, but it had been a year since they'd last seen each other. Elizabeth's father had passed away from cancer the week after their last meet up, at some forgettable pizza place in the city, and she hadn't been able to really talk about it to anyone since. Her father had been her best friend, Sarah being a close second.

Elizabeth was happy to have had the chance to talk about her father, about the crushing feeling of loss, about the memories that brought fresh tears. It had broken her heart to sell his '65 Mustang. Bright red and all original, the car had been his pride and joy. All those rides she had taken as a kid had come flooding back, and the poor guy she sold it to got to watch her break down and sob uncontrollably as he took the keys. She still missed her father so much.

As she put the frigid shifter into drive and pulled out of the parking lot, Elizabeth couldn't help but notice the roads were empty, the street lights few and far between. She hoped skipping that last oil change didn't come back to haunt her tonight. There was no cell reception out in the boonies.

Elizabeth could feel the wind as she drove; it was causing her to swerve ever so slightly every time a gap in the trees gave her a gust. Her eyes kept darting to the speedometer, as she couldn't afford to get pulled over after the drinks. She found herself getting sleepy and cracked a window, the cold air helping her stay awake.

She was about halfway to civilization when she saw the headlights in her rearview mirror. The car was moving quickly, and the headlights grew larger and larger as it approached. She guessed the guy was doing well over 80, and the speed limit was 45. The road was full of curves and had no passing lane or shoulder, so the guy was just going to have to wait to get past her. With her window cracked she could hear the engine howling as the car came up behind her, tailgating so closely that she was afraid there would be a collision.

Snow was starting to fall, and between that and the pitch black road it was hard to make out the car or the driver behind her. The driver started blaring his horn, and now Elizabeth was scared. She didn't want to pull over, for all she knew the guy could have followed her as she left the bar. She kept her eyes on the road ahead. The hills were beginning to level out, and she knew the bridge that spanned the Susquehanna river was close.

In her rearview mirror, Elizabeth watched as the car behind slowed briefly, then surged forward and rammed her. Her Mustang shuddered and swerved, but she kept it under control and she pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The car might have been old, but it was still fast enough and she started to pull ahead. She watched the speedometer climb to 60, then 80, as the road grew straighter and straighter.

Finally she could see the bridge ahead. On the other side was the highway, cell phone reception, and safety. She risked a look in the mirror just in time to see the car rushing up again and tapping her bumper, softer this time, but still enough to throw the car off balance. Elizabeth kept the pedal to the floor. Soon she was doing 110, her eyes focused on the bridge as it neared. Something seemed off. The bridge was half dark, with only the left side illuminated. No traffic was coming the other direction, or she might have blocked the road and tried to flag someone down. Instead she continued, the bridge soon beneath the car's tires.

The car behind her surged forward one final time, but Elizabeth kept accelerating and it couldn't quite keep up. When she hit the bridge her speedometer read 135. The snow had stopped, and she could finally get a look at the car chasing her. The car was an older Mustang, first generation.

Elizabeth's car shuddered, but the car behind her was several yards back. She tried to make sense of it, and wondered if she had broken something pushing her own car too hard. The wind up on the bridge had her swerving all over the road, but she kept the car accelerating anyway, trying to put as much distance between herself and her pursuer as possible. She felt another shudder, this one much deeper. She realized then that the bridge was shuddering, not her car. Behind her she could see the older Mustang was starting to slow, and she saw a section of the road she had just come across disappear into a black void. The bridge was beginning to collapse.

Her car's engine was screaming as Elizabeth crossed the end of the bridge. She was going so fast she dared not glance at the speedometer. In her rearview mirror she could see the bridge slowly swallowed by darkness as sections fell into the raging river below. She pulled her car over onto the shoulder and glanced in her mirror. The car chasing her was nowhere to be seen. It had either vanished or gone down with the bridge. Elizabeth got out of the car on shaky legs and watched as steel and concrete collapsed into the icy water.

The police arrived about twenty minutes later, along with fire trucks and an ambulance. Elizabeth had called 911 immediately and reported the bridge collapse, and the police were already busy blocking off the road and calling for more support. Elizabeth didn't tell them about the car that had been chasing her, the car that in the end had saved her life. She didn't tell them because just before that car disappeared, it had passed under the street lights, and she had been able to catch the color. It was bright red.