Chapter one – A living nightmare.
It was a dark, black night outside of Peyton Sawyers window, the only thing lighting up her room was the occasional loud crack of thunder and bright flash of lightning. Peyton Sawyer's dreams where much like the storm outside, restless.
Whimpering sounds, small pleas and cries could be heard escaping the curly blondes mouth as she twisted and turned in her sleep trying to escape from her worst nightmare, her memories.
Her memories of all that had been happening to her since Larry Sawyer, her adoptive father had died. Larry Sawyer had died three months ago, he was on his boat working when the storm hit, and he never made it off.
It was two weeks after the storm until his body was found, pulled up on the shore and identified, as one of the only people Peyton had left in her life. He may have not been her father biologically, but that didn't matter to Peyton, he was still her Dad, and he always would be.
Peyton hadn't known how to feel after her father's death, she was grieving yes, but she was angry too. With him. For leaving her alone. For lying to her all her life. See Larry Sawyer wasn't the person who told Peyton she was adopted; it was her biological mother, Elizabeth Harp.
Two days after the news of the storm had been dumped on Peyton, the news that her father was missing. Ellie Harp showed up on her doorstep, with custody rights to take her away from her home. That was when Peyton found out about her parents, or who she thought were her parents, not being her really family. That was when this nightmare started.
Suddenly Peyton's cell phone began to ring on the table next to her, shaking her violently but thankfully from her nightmare. Peyton's eyes shot open as she jumped up in bed gasping for air, she looked afraid.
As her eyes trailed around the room she was in, her fear grew, this wasn't her room, her house, the place she had grown up in, this wasn't her place of safety, this was the bedroom in the small flat that Ellie had made her stay in.
Peyton's attention was drawn back to reality when she heard shouting.
"Shut that thing off before I throw it out the window!" Ellie Harp's angry voice sounded through her room, making Peyton jump in surprise.
She looked to the phone and saw that it was 1:20am, who would be calling her at 1:20 in the morning? Quickly Peyton picked up the phone and answered it. She was about to say hello when the other person on the line beat her to it.
"P. Sawyer where are you? I cancelled my shift tonight so we could have a girl's night. You were meant to be here hours ago!" Brooke's harsh voice sounded down the phone.
Damn it! Peyton thought to herself, she was meant to be at Brooke's tonight, but she must have fallen asleep after coming to the flat.
Peyton didn't know why or how it happened but she suddenly felt herself crying, and she just couldn't stop no matter how hard she tried the tears kept on flowing and nothing could stop them.
"Peyton?...Hey...what's the matter?" Brooke softly spoke down the cell phone. From the tone in her voice and the softness you could tell that she was worried about her friend.
"I'm...sorry.." Peyton spoke into the phone through tears; she had no idea what was happening to her. Why she was becoming so emotional, why she was breaking. She knew why she felt this way; however what she did not know was why all it took was her best friend to be mad with her to set her off.
"Peyton, please don't cry...it's not too late to come over you know?" Brooke said down the phone concerned.
"I'm sor..." Peyton attempted to speak down the phone once again, however found that she couldn't when her mother's boyfriend came and took the phone from her hand and threw it hard against the wall, smashing it, along with the connection to Brooke.
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"Peyton!...Peyton!" Brooke shouted down the phone, but it was too late as the cut off tone from Peyton's phone could already be heard.
"Damn it!" Brooke muttered to herself angrily, she knew something was up with her friend and was now very worried about her. Quickly in a fast motion Brooke hung up her call with the disconnected phone cell, then redialled the number in hope that they had just been cut off accidently, and that she would be able to find out why Peyton was so upset.
However as she placed the phone to her ear to wait for the ringing tone, she heard the cell go straight to answer phone.
That was it! In that second she heard the answer machine cut in, she knew something was wrong, something was wrong before hand to make her best friend cry. But now she feared something really bad had happened, she did not like the way that that call had ended one bit.
Quickly Brooke grabbed her car keys, purse and jacket off of her bed which she was sat on, then ran to her door and left the house as quickly as she could.
This was Brooke's plan, go to Peyton's, find her, bring her back home, and make her happy. In the Brooke-world that was a master plan that nothing could stop from working, but however in reality it could so easily go wrong.
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Lucas Scott, boyfriend to Brooke Davis, and good friend to Peyton Sawyer, was sat under the bus shelter in the middle of town; he had been stuck there waiting for a bus for the past hour since his car had broken down up the road. However with the severe weather warnings that were out at the moment, no public transport was running at the moment, and no one was around to pick him up as his mother was still in Italy at the cooking school, and Keith was out of town for the night on business.
Suddenly after what seemed like hours to Lucas a car headlight could be seen shinning in the distance like a star bright at night. Lucas squinted his eyes in his characteristic way just like the broody blonde always did when sad or in too much light. However this time he was doing it to see if he could recognise the car approaching. The car that was slowing down to a stop in front of him.
Lucas, watched trying to see who was in the car as the windows were wound down, however finding it difficult because of the fierce down pour of rain.
"Broody? What are you doing out here?" A voice said from the car. Lucas recongised that voice, it belonged to his girlfriend Brooke Davis. Lucas breathed a sigh of relief, running a hand through his wet and matted hair, finally he would be able to get home.
"I could ask you the same question cheery. My car broke down, and no one is in town to pick me up. I couldn't get a ride from you could I?" Lucas said flashing Brooke a smile.
Brooke thought for a second, she really had to get to Peyton, she was worried about her. However she couldn't leave her boyfriend out like this, after all Lucas's house was pretty much the same way as Peyton's, it would only take her five minutes extra.
"Sure." Brooke said, returning the smile, hoping to god that Peyton was okay and the five minutes longer it takes her would not do any damage.
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Brooke's car came to a quick stop, outside, the large apartment building that Peyton now lived in with her biological mother, due to the fact she was selling her dad's house. Brooke still found it strange to think that Peyton's parents had really been her adoptive parents. She also found it strange that Peyton was selling her dad's house, she loved that house, her room, she loved everything about it. So why sell it?
Brooke knew that there was a bigger part to the picture that what was seen on the surface, but she also knew from experience that pushing Peyton Sawyer, only resolves in her pushing you away. She didn't want that to happen, she knew Peyton was still hurting and needed her, she just hoped that Peyton would come to her when ready.
And she had waited. Not anymore though. Peyton Sawyer crying down the phone to her was not a good sign, she knew Peyton needed her and was now determined to find out what for, whether Peyton wanted to tell willingly or not.
After locking her car with the push button on her keys Brooke quickly made her way into the apartment building getting soaked with rain in the process. She then began to climb the run down dirty staircase to floor two, where Peyton lived in flat 209 with her biological mother Ellie.
Brooke reached the flat in no time at all due to the fact that she had been running up the stairs. She stood still for a second to collect herself, and then knocked loudly on the door three times.
She waited, patiently, but no one came. So she knocked again, and again, and again. Until finally the door swung open revealing a tired and annoyed looking Ellie Harp.
Brooke swallowed nervously and shifted her weight with her legs from the look Ellie was giving her. "Ellie, hi. Sorry to bother you so late. Is Peyton here? I really need to speak with her." Brooke said building some courage back.
Ellie looked Brooke up and down annoyance showing on her features. "Whatever it is Brooke. I'm sure it can wait until a more decent hour in the morning, when you see Peyton at school." Ellie answered angrily before slamming the door in Brookes face.
"Well that was rude!" Brooke scoffed, as she blew a piece of strand hair out of her face that the slammed door had moved there
Brooke sighed, she knew her plan was not going to work tonight if she couldn't even get into the flat, but Ellie was right, there was always tomorrow at school. Slowly Brooke turned and descended the staircase worried about her best friend and what it could be that was making her even more emotional than she already was.
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Hey guys thanks for reading, please drop me a review to tell me what you think, I will try and update by next Thursday the latest, but hey if you butter me up with reviews maybe I'll write quicker lol.
