Disclaimer- I do not own anything about one tree hill and the songs I use, whether it may be used in the chapter, or chapter titles.
Chapter 1
City of Devils
The only light visible is from the crack at the bottom of the door in front of him. He begins to hear foot steps coming from the outside of the door. As they become louder and closer he tries to stand up, but his hands are tied to the back of the chair. Two shadows slowly make their way to the door.
The door is pushed open, and the man known as "Bear" enters. He turns on the light, and one solemn light bulb lights as much of the room as it can. Daunte walks into the room next with determination in his eyes. He stares at Lucas than nods his head at Bear. Almost immediately, Bear turns towered Lucas and begins punching him repeatedly.
"That's enough." Bear immediately stops and steps back. Lucas had blood oozing from his head. The scrapes and scratches caused by Bear are not visible due to the huge quantity of blood.
Lucas can't move his head but whispers, "What do you want from me?"
"Well, you see, I have been having a problem getting money out of my clients, and now I need the money back I loaned you."
"What are you talking about? You GAVE the money to me. You….you said no string attached." Lucas was trying to catch his breath.
"I did, but I was wrong. I need the money and I want it now."
"I don't have to give anything to you. You, you tie me up to a chair and beat me senseless, and… now you just expect me to give you the 10,000 back? I don't HAVE to do anything."
"That's where your wrong Mr. Scott, you will pay back every cent I lent you." He took a brief pause to walk over to Lucas and pull his head up so he would look at him. " It would be an awful shame if the ground next to your uncle Keith got a little crowded, don't you think?"
"You wouldn't." Lucas dared. Starring directly into his eyes.
"I don't know. You tell me. So many people to choose from, your best friend Haley, who if I understand right is currently pregnant; your brother; your mom who is also pregnant; or hell, even your best friend who by the way, your in love with." Daunte chuckled and turned away from Lucas. "I've killed men before, a few more won't ruin my reputation."
Lucas slowly lifted his head back up and looked towards Daunte. "What do I have to do?"
Daunte let out a loud laugh and looked back at him. "Glad we are on the same page now Mr. Scott. You know, your a lot weaker than your father. Smarter, but weaker." He begins to pace around the room, trying to think of a way to break him, to make him really suffer. "You see Scott that's your problem, you try to save everyone else. Even if they don't love you, you put everyone else in front of you. That Scott is your weakness." And then it clicked. "You'll start your first job tomorrow. You will meet me in the ally between the record store and abandoned apartment complex at 10 PM." He stopped pacing and set himself directly in front of Lucas starring into his eyes. "You will not tell anyone about our little discussion, you got that? Otherwise I will make your family suffer. You got that boy?"
Lucas just nodded his head in shame.
Daunte gets up and smiles. "Good." He turns and walks to the door. "Glad we had this conversation." Just before he walks out the door, he nods his head at Bear. Bear nods back and marches toward Lucas, raises his fist and then all Lucas sees is black….
Lucas awakes with a start. His eyes snap open and he sits straight up, panting and sweating. He rubs his eyes and goes to sit at the end of the cot. The nightmares seem to be getting worse since he found out he was getting out on parole. Even though you couldn't really call them nightmares because it really happened to him, but the past sure does haunt him like nightmares do. He gets up and looks past the bars that are on his window. This would be the last day he would spend in this hell hole.
Man once sang to me
Look at you saving the world on your own
And I wonder how things gonna be
As the time here it passes so slow
The sun was just rising over the Texas horizon. He sighed and went over to the mirror. You could say that he wasn't really excited to get out. He had nowhere to go back to. The truth is, he didn't want to leave. Looking at his reflection and seeing how short his hair was, and the scruff he had grown since he last shaved. He couldn't believe how much he had changed in those 6 years since he left tree hill. He almost looked like a different person. In all reality he was. He was a broken, cold, and shallow man. His eyes were once a deep ocean blue are now cloud grey. His once scrawny body was now built from all the workout he got on all the lonely days he spent in jail. The marks on the wall by the bed was proof on exactly how long he had spent there. There were exactly 1480 marks, for the 4 years and 19 days he spent, slowly and painfully breaking more and more as the days wore on. Some days he spent feeling useless, and listless. But most importantly, he often felt dead.
In a city of devils we live
A city of devils we live
He reached into his back pocket for the only thing that made him feel that life was worth living, the one thing that made him feel alive; his picture. They were allowed to keep one personal item with them at all times, and that was his picture of him and Peyton.
Find somebody to learn
Boy, you gotta love someone more than yourself
I can feel the fire of the city lights burn
And it's hard to find Angels in Hell
The picture was taken during the summer between junior and senior year. Peyton and Lucas decided to go to the beach after Lucas went to work at the cafe. It was one of the greatest days of his life. That day he was able to forget about everything painful and just have fun. Peyton was wearing a deep red bikini and Lucas was wearing black swim trunks and black sunglasses. They decided that it would be cool to get a picture of them because they don't really have any when they are actually posing. They had asked a stranger to take the picture. It was of Lucas and Peyton sitting on a towel, and Peyton's back was against Lucas chest. Lucas was holding her around her waist, and they were both smiling. Even if they were just friends at the time, you couldn't deny that in the picture they looked like a couple.
Flying along
And I
Feel like I don't belong
And I
Can't tell right from the wrong
And why have I been here so long?
In a city of devils we live
A city of devils we live
Often in his darkest times, he would look at that picture for hours at a time; trying to forget his life behind these bars. During these moments, he would lie on his bed thinking about what she was doing, what his family, and his friends were doing. He always thought about what would have happened if he didn't go to jail, or if he didn't get involved with Daunte.
Questions I can't seem to find
To the answers I already have
And you can't see the sky here at night
So I guess I can't make my way back
He knew he was wasting his time thinking about what could have been, or the what ifs, but he didn't care. What else was he supposed to do in his time?
This day was just like other days. The only thing that was different was he would be getting out in about an hour. He would be leaving, once and for all.
Lucas put the picture back into his pocket and splashed his face with water. He dried his face and looked into the mirror. The only thing he sees is a broken man he can't recognize stare back at him. Lucas shakes his head and walks over to his bed and sits down.
Flying along
And I
Feel like I don't belong
And I
Can't tell right from the wrong
And why have I been here so long?
He puts his head in his hands an thinks about his painful past. I guess that's one thing about jail, it makes you think about your past and your mistakes. Its like a little kid in time out, the only difference is that the police takes you away from the people you love. The bad thing about all of this is Lucas took himself from the people he loved. He turned himself in, he plead guilty. Technically, he didn't do anything wrong, but it sure felt like he did.
"Scott!" A voice broke Lucas away from his thoughts as his head shoots up toward the booming voice. It was a prison guard. "It's time to go." He stands up, takes a deep breath, and looks around at his cell he has been living in for the past four years. He looks back at the guard and nods, and they make their way out of the cell.
-----------
"P Sawyer! It's time to go!" Brooke yells from the bottom of the stairs. They were supposed to get up early for the opening of the new Tric. Peyton had been working on its improving Tric for the last 9 months, and now it was ready for the re-opening.
Brooke had been waiting for Peyton for nearly ten minutes, so she decided to go and check on her. When she made her way up into her best friends room, she found Peyton sitting down on the bed holding a picture frame. She walked across the room and sat next to Peyton. It was no doubt about it that the picture was of Lucas.
Brooke was there the day Peyton found out Lucas had left and never planned on coming back. That day and into the night, she alone went through 3 boxes of Kleenex. Brooke wasn't able to get her to sleep for nearly two days. It took her best friend over a year to realize Lucas was never coming back. On a very rare occasion, she would still Peyton cry herself to sleep, and that's what killed her the most. There was nothing she could do. Although, Brooke did try to set her friend up with an occasional blind date, but they never went anywhere.
"You're still in love with him, aren't you?" Brooke hadn't asked that question in months, years probably, and she never really got a real answer.
Peyton took a deep breath still gazing at the picture frame. "I always will be." She never said that out loud, and it felt good to get it off her chest. Every time Brooke had asked, she would always try to shrug it off and change the subject.
What if I wanted you here
Right now
Would you fall in the fire burn me down
If I wanted you here
Right now
Would you fall in the fire burn me down
If I wanted you here
Right now
As Peyton gazes down at the picture she can't help but feel angry, sad, and confused. So many questions she has, so much she needed to tell him. She just wished she saw it coming so she could get into his head. "I just wish I could have told him."
"I know honey…" Brooke trailed off and happened to glance at her watch. "Oh my gosh! Peyton we better get going if we are going to be able to open up on time tonight." Peyton just continued to be lost in her thoughts.
In a city of devils we live
a city of devils we live
In a city of...
"I'll meet you downstairs Brooke." She looked up at Brooke and saw that she was concerned. "I'll be fine, I promise." Sadly she smiled to reassure her that she was going to be fine. Brooke didn't believe that, but Peyton didn't need her to worry about her. Brooke nodded and slowly left the room.
Flying along
and I
feel like I don't belong
and I
can't tell right from the wrong
and why have I been here so long?
Peyton got up from the bed, and took one last look at the picture before putting it back into her drawer. Before leaving the room she whispers softly, only to herself, "It's time to let go." She's been saying that for 5 years, and part of her has let go. The other part is just holding onto hope that he will come back someday. She sighs and quickly grabs her purse, closing her bedroom door as she walks downstairs.
-----------
Lucas grabs his belongings from the prison guard, which is only a backpack mostly just full of a toothbrush, a comb, and the jacket he wore four years ago. They gave him time to shave before he came out, and gave him a fresh pair of cloths, which was only an old pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. He was also able to get his sunglasses back, which made him happy. The guard gave him the money he had earned while working in the prison. He got 3,500. It was more than enough to get him back to Tree Hill. He wasn't sure if he was going to stay in Tree Hill, but he wanted to see how everybody was, or even if they still lived there.
They begin to walk toward the exit; each step Lucas takes he feels further and further from reality. When he was behind bars he never felt safer, minus the couple of fights he got into when he was there. Jail was kind of like a sanctuary to him. They made it to the gate, where a bus was waiting to take him into the town. He walked closer to the bus, never remember feeling this scared in four years. Once he got out, he looked back just in time to see the gates close and the prison guard go back to his duties.
I don't belong
don't belong
I've been here too long
too long
He was now a free man.
A/N: Review if you want to. I don't really care. I suck at udating, but for those of you who have read this before, I'm starting over with this story completely. I'm going to really try to write most of this out, but I have the first two chapters done and I'm writing the third right now. Who knows, maybe I'll finish it…