A little info before hand, for those that don't know what Skeleton Creek is. It's a mystery book series that spreads over four books, for now. And it's creepy to a point at the same time, at least this is how I describe it.

Also to make this easy on you guys I'll put this here so you know what's what.

Bold = Ryan's thoughts/Him writing in his journal.

Bold and Italic = Sarah's thoughts.

Italic = Anyone else's thoughts.

Chapter One

After coming back to Skeleton Creek many times to visit Ryan and others, Sarah being the way she is, and eighteen now, decided she'd move back to Skeleton Creek. Giving people reasons like, "Oh, I'm just too connected with this place to stay away for long." or some other obvious lie, when she herself even knew the exact reason she moved back, Ryan. Sarah sat at her computer going through old footage of her and Ryan during the dredge phase, the road trip, all of it, mostly playing the ones he's in over and over. She looked over at her clock, Only 12:30 am? I can go over and get away with it. She got up, grabbed her jacket and headed over to Ryan's house. She didn't even bother to look, she just walked straight across the street, It's Skeleton Creek, no one is even around to run me over at this hour. She walked up onto the front porch and knocked on the front door, Ryan's mom answered the door, "Hey, Mrs. McCray, is Ryan awake?" Mrs. McCray shook her head and looked at Sarah with a tear in her eye, "He's um.. Missing..", "He's wha...a.." Sarah reached for something to grab onto, missing as she stumbled backwards on the porch, next thing she knew she felt like she was falling backwards, last thing she remembered was someone shouting "Catch her!"

12:47 AM, lost in the woods, should've been home hours ago. No clue where I am, scared, worried, tired. He shut his journal and put it back into his backpack, he stood up, looked around and picked a direction he thought was right and started walking. 1:47 AM, still lost, I feel like I'll never fine my way back at this point. He was sitting on a rock near the river, drinking from his freshly filled bottle, when he got the feeling he was watched. He randomly had the urge to turn around and look around him, and when he did he regretted it. Slowly the figure came closer and closer, almost ghost like in its movement.

Ryan's mom paced around frantically, while his dad was upstairs tending to the passed out Sarah, who he thought was surprisingly easy to carry up the stairs and into Ryan's room. When he finally came back downstairs fifteen minutes later he sat right back down on the couch and went back to his book, "You seemed pretty concerned for Sarah, considering all the things she's been involved in for Ryan in the past." he just shrugged and looked back down at his book. Just as he flipped pages he heard his name yelled from the porch, he looked up from his book to see an exhausted Ryan get helped into the house then into the living room, Ryan slumped into the armchair and sighed, "Ryan... You said you'd be home by 7:00 at the latest.." Ryan, yawning for the fifth time since he got into the house, took a minute to reply. "Sorry, fishing was good with Fitz, and by the time I decided to call it and start for home it had gotten dark enough that I ended up lost." , "Son, you REALLY need to get a sense of direction." That time it was his dad who spoke, Ouch, that one hurt. Ryan just gave a nod a groggily headed off towards the stairs, by the time he was halfway up the stairs he heard his dad yell something to him, but all he understood was his name, so he yelled uh-huh and kept walking. He got to his bedroom door and paused, Didn't I leave it open...? Huh.. he turned the knob and slowly pushed open the door. There on the door he saw a figure in the shadows sitting on his bed, he let out a scream and stumbled backwards, landing on his back at the top of the stairs. His parents came running as soon as he screamed, "What could it possibly be now?!" his dad said clearly annoyed.

Sarah rolled around, slowly waking up. Where am I? Was that a dream? Is Ryan really missing? She blinked a couple times then looked around, Pitch, black. Weird.. I left my lights on... She sat up when she heard the sound of footsteps getting closer. She heard the knob get turned and watched as the door slowly swung open, there in the doorway stood, Ryan. Wait... What... Then Ryan let out a scream and stumbled backwards out of view, she got up and moved to the doorway, seeing that Ryan's parents were already there. "Ryan!" Ryan looked from his parents to the doorway, now occupied by Sarah, Oh.. Way to be a chicken shit Ryan, good one. He whacked himself over the head and rolled his eyes in self disgust, and continued to shrug off the questions from his parents, till finally they went back downstairs. "Hi Sarah... What are you doing here?", "I uh, came over to see you, but got told you were missing, or something.." 'Or something..' Yeah, lie Sarah, it'll really make you look better.. "Oh." Ryan scratched his head and stood up, "Doesn't explain why you're here, in my bedroom. Scaring the shit out of me." His...Bedroom? Huh.. She side stepped and let Ryan into the room, who reached over and flicked the light on, "I guess your dad brought me up here when I fainted, or something.." Stop the damn 'Or somethings' Sarah, not making yourself like a dork, serious talk time, I can do this... Maybe. Ryan sat down on his bed and watched as Sarah paced around the room, Oh no, she has something on her mind, wonder what this time. Serious talk time, Divert! Divert! "Ryan, there's something I want to talk to you about.." Too late, good one dingus. "Oh? What would that be?" He noticed that Sarah was hesitating, "Um, we've uh, been great friends a long time right?" Ryan nodded, "Promise this won't ruin our friendship if I say it?" Ryan rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Promise?" She had that look in her eye, the one that spoke to Ryan, telling him this was really important to her, "Yeah, of course." Sarah took a breath, almost relieved that she didn't have to worry about losing her friend, "Okay... um.. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.. And this whole 'Ryan is missing' thing made it completely clear to me.. That I um.." She paused, hesitating again, "Sarah! Just spill it!" She took a breath and looked away from him, As if that'll make it easier.. "Ryan.. I.. I love you." Ryan didn't laugh, or get mad, or even do anything, he just sat there, looking at her. Oh. My. God. FINALLY! Ryan just sat there, looking straight into Sarah's eyes, since she had sat down and turned back to Ryan. He's just staring at me... What the heck does it mean... She was about to say something else, but Ryan pulled her into a hug and she stopped herself, she signed at the comfort of the hug. Ryan shifted and whispered something in her ear.

Back downstairs Ryan's parents had everyone from the Sheriff's office call everyone off and take back the missing person waiver since Ryan was returned home, "Paul, have you ever noticed how they act around each other?" He looked back up from the book he had continued reading, "What are you talking about?", "Ryan and Sarah.", "Oh, well it's obvious they like each other." She rolled her eyes and headed off to bed. Stopping at Ryan's room on the way, she peeked into the room through the cracked door, they were asleep curled up together. He was right...

Ryan rolled around in the morning light, not remembering that he was basically on the edge of the bed, *Thud * "Ow" Sarah stirred at the sound of that, rolled over and popped her head over the end of the bed and started laughing. Ryan reached up and pulled Sarah down onto him, "Ow.. Not my brightest idea." that caused Sarah just laugh harder and louder, "Shit, Ryan, you trying to kill me?" it took Sarah a good twenty minutes to stop laughing, and by that time, she had already woken the whole house with her obnoxious laughter. Sarah felt bad when Ryan's parents finally appeared in the doorway of Ryan's room, "Sorry... He rolled off the bed... Then hurt himself more by pulling me down and me ending up slamming into him.." Ryan's dad rolled his eyes and walked away, but Ryan's mom smiled and shook her head, "Why don't you two go enjoy a nice breakfast at the diner? she looked at Ryan, realizing she planted an idea she turned and walked away.

After his mom walked out he himself almost burst out laughing, "Wanna do what she suggested?", "Definitely, let me just head over to my house and get dressed." Ryan nodded and walked over to his dresser to find a change of clothes for himself, Sarah got up and left. Ryan met Sarah out in on the sidewalk in front of his house, "We walking?", "Might as well." The breakfast was nothing special, Ryan paid more attention to all the guys that would stare at Sarah, and every time Sarah would ask if everything was okay Ryan would just say yeah and keep watching. Pigs... "You know Ryan, you don't have to give the death stare to every guy that even looks at me." He scoffed as the one dude walking by winked, at this point he was seriously pissed. But he took a moment to look over at Sarah, he understood why they were doing what they were, when he saw her, he didn't view her as just his best friend anymore, he saw her in a whole new way. Damn.. I get why. That put a smile on his face, Sarah noticed and instantly had to know, "What you smiling about?", "You.", "Why..me?", "Cause, you look amazing." Sarah was quick to turn away, realizing she walked right into that one.

They did as Ryan's mom had suggested, and didn't regret it at all, breakfast was quite satisfying for both of them. And the whole time sitting there eating, Ryan barely ever touched his journal, most the time he was paying attention to Sarah. Ryan paid and they headed out to go wander around town, "Enjoy breakfast Sarah?" ,, "Very much so, but I told you I'd pay for myself Ryan.." ,, "It's fine." Sarah was a bit ahead of Ryan, so she was crossing the street first, next thing she knew there was the sound of screeching tires and a honking horn. Ryan took off running towards Sarah to try and either warn her or push her out of the way, when he finally reached her it...

To

Be

Continued.

Yep, really just did that to you guys, I just had to. I only do it because I care, and because I want the suspense to build, something I suck at doing. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, it's not the longest ever but it'll have to do, right?