"Derek…"

"You didn't think I dressed you up like this just because I was giving you a pet, did you?" he said with a small laugh.

Her heart sank. What had she expected? Of course he would never do anything kind to her without asking for anything in return. Everything he did was always in his own favor.

"Stand up for me, baby."

She wanted to refuse, she wanted to tell him she would never do as he asked, but she reminded herself of what he was already going to do to her later, and she couldn't afford to displease him even more now.

She hesitantly stood up, glimpsing over her shoulder, to see her new cat sleeping as sweetly as before.

Derek walked closer and pushed some locks of hair away from her face, his expression focused and turned on. "God, you're beautiful. Now, just stare right into the camera for me, okay?" he said as he walked a few steps away, holding the camera up in front of his face. "We'll take it easy at first, so you can get warmed up in front of the camera."

Peyton felt her insides squirm uncomfortably, and she felt more than a little awkward. This wasn't her. But she had to do this. She clenched her teeth together, and stared into the camera pointed at her. There was the sound of a snap and Derek smiled. "Not bad. Don't look so scared though honey, it's only me. Try to relax…"

She had a sickening feeling at the bottom of her gut, but she tried her hardest to loosen up and relax. He continued to take picture after picture, moving around her and giving her instructions, and she tried to follow them, even if all she wanted was to scream to his face how much she hated this.

"God, that was a good one," he said a while later, after taking a picture of her, with one of her hands tangled in her hair, and her head leaning to one side. He looked down at the camera with energetic eyes, analyzing the newest picture. Peyton thought miserably to herself that it could be worse. She just had to wait for him to finish this photo session, and then she could finally tense down a little again… for a while, anyway.

He looked up at her, biting his bottom lip with a thrilled look. "I think we're ready for my next idea," he mumbled. He walked over to the couch, gently lifting the sleeping Penelope up, and walked over to a basket filled with blankets. Peyton hadn't noticed that one before. He put the tiny cat down into it, but she was still sleeping heavily. Derek looked over at Peyton. "You can sit down."

She did as he said, and sat down in the couch. She suddenly noticed she was shaking slightly. Derek placed a tripod in front of them, then attaching the camera to it. He sat down next to Peyton, placing his hand on her knee. He slowly stroked his hand up her leg; probably his idea of being comforting, but all it did was send chills down her spine.

"Now I'm gonna need you to kiss me… properly this time," he panted into her ear. Peyton closed her eyes. She couldn't do it, she knew she couldn't.

She started shivering harder. "I can't."

"Yes you can," he said calmly, his heart beating in his chest. "We can practice first. No need to use the camera at once. I need it to be perfect, and we have all the time in the world."

She saw his face coming closer, and shut her eyelids tightly as their lips met. He pressed his lips forcefully onto hers, but she refused to respond to his touch in any way. He withdrew from her almost at once, staring at her with a frown on his face. "I know you can do better than that."

They sat like that for 20 minutes, with him kissing her repeatedly, and her keeping her mouth and eyes pressed shut. She whimpered softly, and was absolutely disgusted by what he wanted of her, but he continued pushing her. At last she forced herself to open her mouth to him. She tried imagining something good, anything to distract her mind from the way his tongue moved so disgustingly against hers, the way his arm stroked up and down her thigh, and his other hand tangling in her hair... She walked next to Lucas, their arms brushing against each other and she blushed… Brooke was sleeping over at her house, and they were jumping in bed as the finale of a Dashboard Confessional song rocked the room at the loudest… Everyone were at the River Court, playing a game of basketball and cheering, having the time of their lives… Her mom had her arms wrapped around her, humming a song into her ear, helping her fall asleep after a bad dream…

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"

She opened her eyes. Derek was looking back at her, smiling. She realized drops of sweat were running down her face, and she dried it with the back of her hand. Derek walked over to the camera to see how the picture had turned out.

"Mm, amazing... You're doing a great job, Peyton. This picture is perfect." Honestly, he had expected her to break by now, he had expected her to completely refuse doing this, but he was happy she was doing what he told her to. He'd thought he would've had to bring out his gathered evidence by now, but she must finally be starting to realize that fighting back was pointless. This was her destiny.

Derek released the camera from the tripod again, while staring at Peyton with a purposeful look. "The next thing I need you to do for me, is to take off your dress."

Peyton suddenly felt her body becoming rigid; even more than it was already. "What?"

Derek's voice shivered with excitement as he answered her. "I said I need you to take your dress off."

She shook her head. It was bad enough having him look at her undressed without the camera, but having him take pictures of her like that, was not something she wanted to do.

"Please Derek, don't make me do this…"

"You will do as I say Peyton. It's not like you're naked under there. Either you take it off, or I take it off. So which is it going to be?"

Peyton stared at the floor. "Fine."

With trembling lips, she slipped out of the silky dress, until she stood there in only her underwear. She brought her arms up to her stomach, self-consciously trying to cover herself up.

"Don't worry baby, I've seen you before… There's definitely nothing to be embarrassed about."

As he pulled her arms away from her stomach and excitedly started taking pictures again, she felt absolutely humiliated. She hated her body; she hated the way he took control over it and she hated the fact that she let him. She despised the marks and bruises covering her body, she despised the way he had marked her both on the outside and within. And more than everything, she absolutely hated the way he couldn't remove that hungry look in his eyes as he stared at her body.

"Now, the rest of it too."

"Excuse me?" She already knew what he meant; she had expected it ever since he asked her to remove the dress, but she was hoping to be wrong.

"Take the rest of it off. Everything."

This was where she drew the line. She would not have him take whatever was left of her dignity… she wasn't some porn star, and she would rather take his terrible beatings than have to model in front of him naked.

"You can do it. Baby, you are so sexy, and you have nothing to hide, trust me. You don't need to hide from me. I love you."

Peyton met him properly with her eyes for the first time, glaring angrily. "No. I won't, and you can't make me." Her voice quivered from both anger and fear. "I don't even care if you beat me, I still won't do it," she said stubbornly.

"Well, I can't say I wasn't expecting this."

She was shocked to see him smirking at her.

"You're probably wondering why it took me so many days only getting you your dress and your new pet… Well, the truth is, that's not the only thing I did. I also made a little visit to that familiar town of yours; Tree Hill."

Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. Tree Hill? What was he doing there? Had anyone seen him? She hoped someone had!

"You probably won't like this Peyton, but-" he started looking for something in his pocket, while staring at her with an obviously fake, sad expression "-I went to check how your dear Lucas was doing."

Peyton's heart started beating faster, and her breath got heavier. What was this about? The way his eyes glistened so evilly worried her.

"Yeah, apparently, he was doing rather well." Derek struggled to keep a serious face as he found what he was looking for in his jeans' pocket. "I hate to be the one to tell you this Peyton, but…" he placed the picture into her pale hands and smiled, "he's together with Brooke again. And he seems really happy too. He's obviously not looking for you anymore."

Her eyes fell down on the picture, not really registering, not really believing what he'd just said. She saw two people embraced in a tight, loving hug, and she could instantly see who the two figures were; Brooke and Lucas.

And just like that, everything fell apart. Peyton's hands started shivering, and a big lump formed in her throat. The figures in the picture were her two best friends… and she knew she should be happy for them, but all she felt was a numbing pain pulling at her heart. She saw Brooke's head buried into Lucas' shoulder, and his arms were wrapped so caringly around her. A choked sob escaped Peyton's mouth.

Of course Lucas didn't love her, he loved Brooke… it was always Brooke. He'd told Peyton that, he'd told her Brooke was the one he wanted next to him when his dreams came true. She couldn't blame him for that. But the look in his eyes had always told her a different story… it was clear now that she had misunderstood. Only seen what she wanted to see.

Hell, what had made her believe that she could actually get what she wanted for once? Her whole life was a proof of how things never came in her favor, and this was just the same. Her mom died, Nathan used to treat her like garbage, her dad was always away, Jake left, her second mom died too, and look what her supposed "brother" had done to her. Why would it be any different with Lucas? He always picked Brooke over her, just like last time, and Peyton wondered why she had thought that would ever change.

"No…" she whispered, staring down at the photo, her hands trembling.

"Yeah," he said with a smirk. "And apparently, they've all stopped looking for you now. They think you're dead, and the police has given up the search," he chuckled cruelly. "You're last month's news, babe."

"No- you- you're lying… they wouldn't… he promised," she said, shaking her head weakly in denial. Tears stung in her eyes, wanting to spill from her eyelashes.

"Oh, I'm lying? I saw them, Peyton. They were all celebrating some championship, acting like you didn't exist. They were all laughing and having a great time without you. They've moved on. They don't need you. You're right where you belong, with me. And now you can finally move on too."

He watched with pleasure as his words sunk in on her. He saw her face contort in pain, and he saw tears finally starting to spill from her teary eyes. Her knees trembled, and she slowly sunk down on the floor, gasping for breath as she sobbed. She deserves this, he thought. She needs to let go, and it happens now.

"No… no… no…" she mumbled repeatedly in a choked voice, feeling everything inside crumble and break. The only thing she'd had left was knowing the fact that her friends would never give up on her. There had been a tiny stray of hope left in her, hoping someone would find her, hoping that they wouldn't give up on her, and that was now gone. She'd continued to hear Lucas' voice on replay in her head, telling her he would find her. "I will never give up on you, I promise." He'd spoken the words so truthfully when she had seen him on the television, and she had wanted to believe so bad that he would never give up. But he had already moved on, he'd already gone back to Brooke and started living his life again. They were all moving on… they were forgetting about her, and that was her biggest fear coming true.

Peyton sat on the floor, shivering madly with tears streaming down her face. She pressed her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms tightly around them, and she continued to sob brokenheartedly.

"Get up," Derek's voice demanded from above her. She didn't do as he said, she didn't have enough strength, even if she had wanted to.

His strong arms took a hold around her waist and pulled her to her feet. She waivered out of balance for a moment. His fingers touched her face lightly, drying her continuous stream of tears, and he tilted her head slightly backwards so she'd look at him. His emotionless face made her sick.

"Are you ready to do what I asked of you now, hm?"

Her bottom lip quivered as she looked at him. "No, please…" she said with a hoarse, weak voice.

"Come on baby, I know you can."

"No, I can't- don't… Please just leave me alone…"

He stared at her with merciless eyes, a slight smile playing at the corners of his lips. "You know, I'll have no problem paying another little visit to Tree Hill, if that's what you want. I'll have no problem just… paying one of your lovely friends a visit… and I definitely won't have a problem making the light leave their eyes, if you understand me." Peyton stared at him, mouth open. She understood perfectly. A knot clenched painfully in her stomach.

"Who should I go see first? Nathan and Haley? Brooke? Lucas? Or maybe that precious daddy of yours?" His eyes sparkled madly, and she shook her head.

"Derek… no. Don't make me do this…"

"It's up to you, Peyton. Either you do as I say, or I get rid of one of your so-called friends." He crossed his arms, waiting for a response. "You can even choose which one of them you want me to get rid of first. Lucas maybe? He sure deserves it, for disappointing you like this. I've always wanted to get rid of that bastard, anyway."

Peyton shook her head desperately. "No, no."

Even if they all might have moved on from her, she would never want any of them dead. She could never live, knowing the fact that one of her friends had been killed because of her. As for Lucas, her feelings for him would never change, even if he didn't love her back.

"So you'll do it?" Derek asked.

Another tear fell down her face as she nodded, her eyes on the floor.

She slowly took her last pieces of clothing off, trying not to throw up, while having silent tears falling down her face. He looked at her with eager eyes and put the camera in front of his face again. There was only one thought screaming in her head; she truly was becoming his.

It was like he was slowly breaking her, taking away everything she knew herself as. Peyton Sawyer was independent. Strong. Smart. A fighter. A person of strong opinions and beliefs. She never let anyone push her around.

She didn't feel like any of those things at all. Not anymore.