Thanks for your reviews! This chapter will be a bit long, and this will be a bit different then from the original story, but I hope you enjoy this one just the same.

Ruthie awoke the next morning, the sun pouring into her bedroom through the closed curtains and the smell of pancakes and coffee filling her bedroom from downstairs. Ruthie rolled over to block the sunlight from her face. She wished for rain and something not as tasty; it suited her gloomy mood.

After several long minutes she gave up, and opened the curtains, letting the sunlight pour into her room.

After using the bathroom, she headed downstairs, only to hear quiet voices in the kitchen.

"I'm worried about her." Simon.

"Simon, it's all right. She'll be okay." Lucy.

"Yeah, but they're best friends-they've been through everything together since they were preteens, and now…"

"Peter didn't mean to do what he did…did he?"

Simon sighed, "You know Luce, I think he did. I think he did it intentionally."

"But why? Peter was always a great kid."

"I know, Lucy, but he was angry, and instead of blaming himself he blamed others."

Lucy looked as if she were ready to cry. Ruthie stiffened. Peter was gone, and she might never see him again. It was time for her to move on, and to forget.

She slowly walked down the stairs. Simon looked up and forced a smile. "Good morning Ruthie, how did you sleep?"

She glared. "How well do you think?" she asked, opening the fridge and poured some orange juice into a glass.

"I'm sorry."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Who's taking me to school?"

"You aren't going," Simon said. "Mom and Dad said you could stay home today."

Ruthie nodded. "Shouldn't you be at class?"

"Not today."

Ruthie turned up the stairs, and as soon as she disappeared, she heard Lucy whisper, "I'm sorry, Ruthie."

Lying down on the bed, her head began to ache…but her heart ached much more. "I thought I loved you, Peter," she whispered, "But you abandoned me." Her eyes slowly drifted close, and she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

A hand lay gently on Ruthie's shoulder. "Ruthie, honey, wake up." And Ruthie awoke, glancing at Peter's twinkling blue eyes, his blonde hair, his smiles, his happiness. But something wasn't right.

"Peter?" she tried to touch him-but her hand went through his body.

"I'm with you, Ruthie, forever."

Tears trickled down Ruthie's cheeks. "No, Peter, please come back!" He shook his head. "I can't come back to you, but I will be in your heart forever. Don't forget me and what we have shared." And then Peter drifted away, Ruthie crying, "Peter, please come back…"

And then Ruthie awoke, her face drenched with sweat, but she was shaking all over.

She heard hushed voices downstairs. Creeping slowly down the stairs she tried to listen:

"I'll go talk to Ruthie now," Annie Camden's voice was heard. And then Ruthie heard footsteps.

She hurried back up to her room and pulled the covers up to her chest, and pretended to be sleeping.

"Ruthie, wake up please." Ruthie pretended to slowly open her eyes. Her mother tried to force a smile although her eyes glistened with tears, "I knew you were listening. How much did you hear?"

"Only that you wanted to talk to me."

Annie nodded, "Yes." Her father, Reverend Eric Camden joined them. "Ruthie," Eric began, "There really is no easy way to say this." He took a deep breath and said, "Peter was killed; the police believe he shot himself. A gun lay next to him in the woods."

Ruthie just stared; she didn't say anything.

"I'm so sorry," Annie said, trying to hug her daughter. Ruthie didn't move. Her love, the man she had wanted-expected-to marry, gone for the rest of her life?

"We thought you'd like to go to the funeral. You can stay home another day," Eric said.

Ruthie nodded. Her parents quickly hugged her, although she hardly felt anything, and then left her alone.

She glanced at the picture on her dresser in its frame a picture of Peter, smiling as he sat on the porch at the back of the Camden residence. It had been taken two years before, when they had begun high school.

She sighed. Her perfect world was slowly turning upside down.

I hope you guys are enjoying this! I'm enjoying writing this dark fanfic, because I love dark sides. Don't get me wrong; happy stories are great too, but I'm in the mood for something a little, I don't know, darker.

Please read and review! They encourage me to write.

-Babs567