Disclaimer; I do not, nor have I ever, owned anything OTH related.
Chapter Twenty Five
Jake glanced at his friend sitting next to him and let out a silent sigh. He could see how worried and apprehensive he was, and he couldn't blame him. He was sure that he would've been the exact same way if it was Peyton that was "missing". He couldn't even start to imagine the way Nathan was feeling right now, and wished that there was something he could do for his best friend. But right now there wasn't anything neither of them could do. All they could do was wait till the plane landed, and then take it from there. Haley could be anywhere by now, if she was in fact abducted by that psycho. And he didn't even want to start thinking about what he might be doing to her.
He felt uneasy by the thought and briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them again he could see Nathan tapping his fingers at the top of the armrest while restlessly bouncing his knee up and down.
"We'll find her, Nate." He spoke calmly and noticed Nathan's breath got caught in the back of his throat. "Do you have a plan of what to do when we get back?" He added as Nathan closed his eyes while taking a deep breath.
Nathan had never in his entire life felt so helpless as he felt right now. He hated the feeling, more than anything. He felt trapped and suffocated, and there was nothing he could do to get out of it. At least not right now. And the amount of thoughts and fears that were running through his head right now didn't make it any better. He tried not to let them take over, but it was hard when he was almost positive that it was Damian that was responsible for Haley's sudden "disappearance".
The bitter taste in his mouth appeared slowly when he heard Jake talking next to him, and it suddenly became very hard to breathe.
Damn it, he couldn't lose it yet. He had to stay strong until he found her, until he knew she was safe. Falling apart was simply not an option, not now and not ever. He would walk through fire and move mountains for Haley. He would do anything for her. And he sure as hell wasn't going to let that scumbag of an ass take his girlfriend away from him.
The woman who made the world around her smiling and so much brighter. The woman who made his life complete.
The love of his life.
He breathed in deeply and tried to collect his thoughts.
"I should've done something sooner." He spoke low staring blankly ahead of him. "I could've prevented this if I ha -"
"Don't. This is not your fault, Nathan." Jake interrupted and shook his head. "No one could've predicted this, and don't forget that you guys like just came back from France, so when the hell were you supposed to take care of this, huh? Don't do this to yourself. That asshole doesn't deserve your guilt, okay?" He looked intently at Nathan who still kept his eyes at the back of the seat in front of him.
Nathan couldn't do anything except focusing on his breathing as he heard Jake talk. He needed to be home right now and look for her. He couldn't waste his time sitting on this fucking plane that took forever to get back. He wanted to scream out loud and yell at the pilots for taking so god damn long to get them back to Charlotte, but he hadn't lost his sense, at least not yet, so he tried to swallow the anger.
"What did Lucas say before we boarded?" Jake asked.
"He was just getting in his car." Nathan raked his hand through his hair and let out a sigh. "Damn it! I can't be here now, Jake. This is taking forever, and I need to be looking for her. I don't know what I'll do if I don't…" A lump formed in the back of his throat and he had to swallow hard to keep himself in check. His insides were churning by the uneasy feeling he had about the situation.
"Hey buddy, look at me." Jake prodded at him.
Nathan clenched his eyes shut.
"Nathan, look at me!"
Nathan slowly opened his eyes and turned his head.
Jake saw the hurt in his eyes and felt his heart sink. "We won't stop searching until we find her. And we will. We will find her, Nathan. Believe in that." Jake nodded his head firmly once and held his gaze.
Nathan nodded his head slowly while Jake's words kept replaying over and over in his head. He was right. They were going to find her, anything else was simply not an option. And who knew, maybe Lucas had already found her and had her waiting for him at the airport with him.
He needed to think positive and stay optimistic, otherwise this flight would be the end of him.
Haley reluctantly followed Damian as they walked towards his car at the parking lot. She had tried to get the attention of the few people that had passed them in a hurry on their way out, but no one seemed to catch her desperate look, they were too engrossed in their own things and didn't even glance at them once. She knew that if she tried to scream or make a scene, then he would only snap and probably hurt her in one way or another, and then he would definitely hurry things up and get them out of there. This way she could at least buy herself some time by walking slowly next to him, in case a familiar face would show up - which, at this point, was her only chance to get away.
She kept swallowing continuously to try and get the bitter taste in her mouth to disappear, but no matter how much she swallowed it seemed like it only intensified along with the constant churning in the pit of her stomach.
"You've been good, Haley. Almost there now." The confident, cold tone of his voice made her tremble with disgust.
She let her gaze wander around the parking lot to see if there was anyone else out there, but the ones she could see was either too far away or driving away - the glare of the taillights was like another knife stabbing through her rapidly, pounding heart.
She then tried, in another desperate attempt, to jerk herself away from him which only caused her to cringe in pain when Damian increased the pressure of his hand that gripped tightly around her arm.
"Oh no, don't even think about it. I'll let you go as soon as you get into the car, until then you'll stay right here with me." He spoke low, but firm. "Like I would ever let you go when I've gotten you this far. You're mine now, Hales."
Another set of trembles shot through her body by the sound of her nickname erupting through his lips. "Don't call me that!" She hissed through gritted teeth.
"Someone's a little grumpy." He laughed. "You used to love me calling you that, didn't you baby." He added and stroked his index finger along her cheek.
"Well, things change, don't they." Haley said angrily and wrung her head to the side in distaste and tried to push herself away from him again, but his grip around her arm was too firm, so there was no use. She wanted to cry out loud when he started to laugh softly next to her, and felt herself becoming weaker and weaker the closer they got to his car.
"You know, the more cooperative you are, the easier it'll be for you." He said as he pulled the car keys out of his pocket when they stopped next to his car.
Haley quickly swept her eyes over the parking lot, in one last desperate hope to see someone. Again, she was met with disappointment as there was no one in sight. She felt another wave of nausea rush back into her throat and her head started to spin uncontrollably. She supported herself against the car with her hand to prevent herself form falling down, and felt Damian tug hard on her other arm.
"Hey! Don't you dare faint on me now. At least have the curtesy to wait until you're in the car!" He snapped at her angrily as he opened the door to the back seat.
Haley felt the vomit rise into her mouth, and before she could even think or stop herself, she hunched her back and emptied her stomach contents all over Damian's legs.
She groaned out loud and placed her hand over her mouth before she slowly straightened herself back up. She kept her eyes glued to the ground, too afraid and too embarrassed to look directly at him. Her head was spinning wildly, while her stomach was still churning uncontrollably.
"What the hell!? You fucking bitch!" Damian yelled and the next thing she knew his hand connected with her face, making her stumble and fall into the side of the car and slide down to the ground.
She clenched her eyes shut and put her hand on her face as the excruciating pain continuously fired through her head.
Tears had already formed in her eyes, and as she slowly opened them up they spilled out and rolled fast down her cheeks. The flashbacks from last time sprung into her head and made her even weaker than she already was. She felt completely helpless right now, where she was laid on the ground next to his car. Every single hope she'd had about someone finding her, or that she would be able to get away from him, was fading fast.
All she wanted to do was disappear. She wished the ground would open up and just take her away from all of this. She couldn't even think about what he was going to do to her or where he was taking her without feeling sick and completely paralyzed.
Her hand fell to her stomach when she felt like she was going to throw up again, but she managed to control it by taking a deep breath.
Haley's head was throbbing like crazy and her ears were ringing loudly. She tried to make it stop by pressing her hand to her forehead, while she leaned her head back into the side of the car and closed her eyes.
Suddenly she heard Damian's voice as he cursed out loud and grabbed onto her arm to pull her up to her feet. "Come on, get up!" He snarled and pulled her roughly into a standing position.
"Hey!"
Haley heard someone shout from the other side of the parking lot and turned her head around to see who it was. Her vision was too blurry from all the tears to recognize the person, but she saw someone waving and running towards them. Feeling that tiny bit of hope rising within her again, she tried to wrestle her arm away and push Damian away. But her head was still reeling after he'd hit her, and she didn't have enough strength to fight him off.
"Get in the fucking car, now!" He yelled before he aggressively took a deathly grip around her neck and threw her into the backseat. He closed the door angrily before he quickly climbed in behind the wheel, wasting no time before speeding off like a madman.
Lucas walked outside to the parking lot at the hospital. He'd been walking around asking people if they'd seen Haley, and everyone had given him the same answer. No one had seen her or heard anything from her. He'd started to lose every hope of finding her here, when suddenly a doctor came over to him after he'd overheard him ask another nurse about Haley. He told him that he'd met Haley in the hallway outside the changing rooms no more than 10 minutes ago, which ignited the hope of catching her here, or at least find her close by. That's when he'd decided to go outside and wait there for a while, in case she was still inside, cause it was almost impossible to find her in there when he didn't know his way around, and he figured that she had to come out at some point.
He hadn't even been outside for more than 2 minutes when he heard a commotion at the other end of the parking lot and saw a guy slap a woman so she fell to the ground.
"Hey!" Lucas shouted and started to run towards them. They were too far away for him to recognize who it was, but he had a nagging feeling that this was Haley and that psychotic asshole.
He saw the guy turn his head around and quickly pull her up on her feet. When she got up, he was finally close enough to see that it was Haley, and he felt his heart starting to beat faster as he ran as fast as he could.
No, no, no! He screamed in his head as he saw Haley being thrown into the car while he was still too far away to reach them. When the car took off he cursed out loud and stopped abruptly, trying to catch his breath. He knew he had to act fast, so he quickly pulled out his phone and dialed 911, before he turned and ran fast towards his car.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"I just saw a woman being pulled into a car outside Carolinas Medical Center." Lucas said slightly out of breath as he rushed into his car, taking off after the car that held his brothers girlfriend.
"Do you have any identification of the car or the owner or where they are going?" The lady asked calmly.
"I'm in my own car now, following them. The car owner is Damian West, he's a doctor at this hospital. And the woman he abducted is Haley James, my brothers girlfriend." Lucas started to explain. "I couldn't catch the license number, but the car is a BMW X5, black."
"Do you still have a visual of the car, Sir?"
"Yeah, it looks like he's heading for Scott Avenue and Park Road Park, towards Ashbrook-Clawson village."
"Ok, I'll get a hold of a squad car at the nearest place, please hold the line."
"Yes, I'll hold." Lucas said and squeezed the steering wheel hard with his other hand. No matter what he did, he couldn't lose them, he had to make sure he found out where they were going. He would never forgive himself if this prick got away with Haley. That was out of the question.
He put his phone on speaker and placed it down next to him, so that he could use both of his hands on the wheel. He clenched his jaw while pressing his foot slowly down on the gas pedal, making the car go even faster. He didn't care if he broke every single speed limit right now. The only thought in his head was Haley. He couldn't let her out of his sight. She had to be okay. His brother would be devastated if anything would happen to her. And he would damn well make sure that this Damian guy wouldn't be able to do more harm to her than he'd already done.
He couldn't believe how fucked up this guy was. How anyone could ever hit a girl in the first place, but also stalk them and actually go through the lengths to make their life miserable and then abduct them?
"Sir, are you still there?"
"Yes, I'm here."
"Okay, I'll have a squad car waiting right outside Ashbrook-Clawson village, and there will be another one coming up from East blvd. Where are you now?"
"Umm…I'm at the intersection just before where East blvd meets Scott Avenue."
"Okay, and are the BMW far ahead of you?"
"No, 40-50 feet I guess."
"Then I'm sure you'll see the squad car very soon, and they'll see you too. But I'm going to ask you to still hold the line until I've got conformation that they have you in sight."
"Absolutely." Lucas said, keeping his eyes firmly glued to the BMW in front of him.
"Do you know if the suspect is armed?"
"I don't know, but I know he's insane enough to use violence. He's been stalking her for a while now, and threatened her by several occasions, so there's no telling what he'll be willing to do to her, or anyone else for that matter."
"Are the victim an acquaintance of the suspect?"
"Yes, they have a history from a year or a year and a half ago I think, and they're working at the same hospital. But I don't have too many details about it, I only know that he used violence back then too, and then disappeared for a while before he came back."
"Okay, may I ask, what's your name, Sir?"
"Lucas Scott. My brother is Nathan Scott."
"Thank you Mr. Scott. I now have conformation that the officers have visual of the BMW, which means you should be able to see them too. I would like to ask you to slow down and let the police take over from here. But please stay mobile and within reach, I'll give the officers your phone number for them to call you when they have the situation under control, okay?"
Lucas inwardly sighed. He didn't want to slow down. He couldn't. But he didn't want to get in trouble either, so he reluctantly released some of the pressure on the gas pedal. "I will. And thanks for your help."
"You're welcome, Mr. Scott."
Lucas sighed again, out loud this time, as the line went silent. Could he trust the police to do their job? To make sure that Haley would be okay? Somehow there was something he simply didn't feel right about, but he didn't know if he should continue to follow them or stop all together. He was torn. He kept the speed somewhat up while trying to decide what to do. He was still close enough to see the cars, which was easier now when he could spot the police car in front of him.
He jumped slightly in his seat when his phone started to ring. He dragged his hand through his hair and took a deep breath before he picked it up and answered.
"Hey you." He sighed relieved, glad to see it was Brooke who was calling. It was too soon for him to talk to Nathan. He wouldn't know what to tell him at this point, so it was probably better that he was still in the air.
"Hi baby. Please tell me you have good news?"
"Well, I have news at least. I just got off the phone with the emergency." He heard Brooke gasp in the other end.
"Oh my god! What happened? Did you find Haley? Is she hurt? Where are you?" Brooke fired the questions in a rambling matter.
"Okay, first of all I'm just outside Ashbrook-Clawson village." Lucas started but got cut off by Brooke.
"What, why?"
"If you'll let me finish, I'll explain it all to you." Lucas chuckled lightly. Patience had never been a quality of Brooke Davis, and this time was not an exception.
"Okay, I'm sorry…please continue." Brooke sighed, feeling the anxiety rise within her.
Lucas continued to tell her everything that had happened without any interruptions from Brooke.
"Oh my God, Luke! I can't believe this!" Brooke exclaimed, slightly shocked by what he'd just told her. "You can't let them out of your sight. You know how much Nathan cares about her, and so do we. Please Luke, you have to make sure she'll be okay." Brooke choked up at the end and felt her eyes well up with tears.
Lucas nodded his head even though she couldn't see him. "I know, I know. I can still see them, and I'm not giving up now, not when I've gotten this far. Besides, Nathan will definitely kick my ass if I he found out that I pulled over." He tried to lighten the mood a little by joking, but he could hear how upset Brooke was on the other end.
He sighed silently to himself. "Try not to worry, okay? Oh hold on…they just got cut off down the road by another police car that came from the opposite direction. Shit." Lucas mumbled and slowed down a little.
"Oh my God! What happened? Did they manage to stop them?" Brooke gasped and held her breath.
"No he turned off onto a side road, but I think this road is a dead end, so he will have to stop eventually."
"Oh, okay. I'll let you concentrate on driving now, I would't want anything to happen to you too. But call me when you know more, okay?"
"I will."
"And please be careful." She added before they both ended the conversation.
Damian clenched his jaw shut and squeezed the steering wheel till his knuckles turned white. His legs were soaked with vomit which filled the car with the worst smell, and on top of that Haley was groaning and crying in the backseat like a little brat. She had no right to complain, this was all her fault. If she hadn't puked all over him, then he didn't have to slap her, and that guy wouldn't have noticed them, which meant that they would be driving away in piece and quiet to the small place he had set up right outside town.
Instead, he was now being followed by two fucking police cars, in which one of them had forced him into taking off the main road and onto a smaller side road. He had no idea where this road ended or where it lead, but he didn't have much of a choice but to keep going. It was either that or stop and get caught, and that wasn't an option he was very keen on right now.
He felt himself shake with fury, and glared at Haley in the rear view mirror when she let out another sobbing groan.
"You disappoint me, Haley! What the hell happened to you, huh? You used to love me, and now look at you. You're this ungrateful, little whiny bitch. What the hell did that loser do to make you like this?!" He shouted and kept moving his eyes between the road and at her through the mirror.
Haley jumped by his sudden outburst and closed her eyes. Tears were silently running down her cheeks and her head was still throbbing.
She was scared to death by the speed he held and wished that he at least would pay attention to the road instead of looking everywhere else. It felt like he didn't have much of control right now, and with him being unfocused, an accident could easily happen.
She tried to block out his voice and think about other things. Suddenly, she could see his beautiful face, and his sparkling blue eyes smiling back at her. An excruciating pain shot through her chest and it suddenly became very hard to breathe when the thought of never seeing Nathan again slowly surfaced.
Everything hurt right now, and Nathan was the only one who could make her feel better. He always made her feel better. Except that he was not here. He was far away and unaware of where she was and how helpless and scared she was feeling. She tried to hold onto the mental image of his face while she took a few deep breaths.
After a few moments, she managed to calm herself down a little as she kept picturing Nathan in her head. His strong arms holding her close to his body, making her feel safe and loved. That was all she needed.
He was all she needed.
"Look at me! Don't you dare sit there like a fucking mute!"
She jumped again as Damian's voice pulled her out of her thoughts and back to this nightmare that was her reality. She hugged her arms around herself to feel some sort of protection and swallowed hard before she opened her eyes again.
A powerful, cold chill ran down her spine when she met his dark, angry eyes in the rear view mirror, and her entire body trembled with fear.
She didn't want to say anything to him, he didn't deserve anything from her, but the longer she remained silent, the angrier he got. And the thought of him might losing it while he was behind the wheel, which technically made him in charge of her life, she figured she should give him something.
She tried to collect her racing mind and wondered what would be the best way to address him. She figured she could start by talking calmly in an attempt to cool him down a little, because right now, she was really scared of the high speed they were going in. She always hated it when people were speeding, and especially when their focus was elsewhere but the driving.
She took a few, deep, shaking breaths before she found her voice. "What happened to you, Damian? Why did you change?" She was surprised her voice was even loud enough for him to hear what she was saying.
"I didn't change, you did! You just ran away like a scared little puppy the minute things got a little rough." He snapped back.
"You started to hit me, Damian! Did you really think that I was going to tolerate something like that from the man that was supposed to love me?!" Haley reacted in an instant and felt herself starting to shake with anger, and raised her tone. "I never did anything to deserve that kind of treatment from you! You were the one who, out of the fucking blue, turned into a jealous asshole, before that day, when you left me on the floor, bruised and hurt and then you took off." She felt a sting in the back of her neck as she thought back to that day, but quickly shook it off. "This last year has been one of the worst in my life, yet one of the best. Do you want to know why?" She couldn't stop the fury that rushed through her veins, and neither did she want to.
This confrontation was long overdue, and she needed to get this off of her chest, no matter what the outcome of this day would be. She'll be damned to let him know what she'd been going through. All rational thoughts about calming him down was quickly erased with the thundering rage that washed through her body.
"After you disappeared that day, I completely closed myself off from the world. I couldn't stay in my apartment in fear of you showing up again. Everything about that place reminded me of you, and it took me a long time before I was finally able to go back there and actually spend a night." She continued, not bothering to wait for his response.
"I couldn't go outside or go to work without looking over my shoulder every other second, because I knew you were out there. I was nothing but a god damn shadow of myself, Damian! You controlled me even in your absence, and I hated you for that! I hated you for making me insecure about myself and scared of opening up to other people! I was almost sure that you had completely ruined my life. Ruined my chances of having another relationship, of ever finding love again." She paused for a brief second.
"But you know what? It took me a while, but now I've finally been able to get my life back on track. I've finally gotten to experience what true love really is, which made me realize that I never really loved you back then. Cause what I feel now can't even compare to what I thought I felt when I was with you. And don't you think for a second that I'm gonna let you take that away from me. I'm done letting you control my life like that!" She was almost out of breath when she stopped talking, and the silence that quickly spread throughout the car felt like one of those moments right before an impending storm were about to break out.
She chewed nervously on her lip and held her breath.
The longer he stayed silent the more anxious she got, and she had to clench her hands into fists as they were uncontrollably shaking. She moved her eyes to the road in front of them and saw that it was narrowing into something that looked like a small, private road ahead of them.
She heard Damian curse silently to himself as he continuously checked the mirrors to see if he'd been able to lose the police cars that were chasing them. Then he suddenly started to talk, surprisingly calm which made this uneasy feeling to crawl deep under her skin.
"Don't you see that that's exactly what I'm doing now, Haley? I'm in control. And you can try all you want to tell me lies and make me believe that you don't love me, but it doesn't matter because you belong with me, and you always will. You have nowhere to go." His cold, firm voice sent uncomfortable chills up and down her spine as he kept his eyes at her once again.
Haley was about to tell him how delusional he was when her eyes suddenly shot wide open as she saw a sharp turn appearing in front of them. "Look out!" She shrieked and instinctively placed her hand on the back of the front seat.
"Fuck!" Damian cursed out loud and hit the breaks while he desperately tried to keep the car on the road.
That was the last thing Haley remembered before it all went black.
AN; First of all, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!
Second, I'm deeply sorry for the long wait! I suffered from a small writers block, and as you know, school here is always crazy from December till the end of January, and technically it's not over, but I managed to find some time and finally get this chapter done. Thanks for the patience!
So, Lucas almost to the rescue. Damian majorly pissed off. Nathan helpless and worried sick. Haley in nothing but pain. And then it all went black...
I have a feeling that you might not be too pleased with the way I ended this, and I'm sorry about that. But the next chapter will be the last one, so things will be resolved. This time I can actually promise that it won't take so long before I update and give you the final chapter.
Also, if you haven't, check out the newest chapter of mine and Kat's rotating story, Never Let Me Go, which was updated on Kat0507's account a few days ago. The next chapter in that story will be written by me. Not sure yet when that'll be, but stay tuned.
Again, thank you for being patient with me, and thank you for reading and reviewing! It keeps me going even in stressful times!