The floor was hard and cold as her body trembled against it. The room was so uncomfortable…when it was hot, it was hard to breathe like being trapped in the midst of a sauna. When it was cold, it felt like a thousand sharp daggers being plunged into your body. But through it all, Peyton never complained. Her body may have physically reacted with sweat or shivers but most of the time she tried to block it all out, pretend she was someone else, anywhere else.

"Peyton, you're shaking."

She closed her eyes. Derek was back. She hadn't even noticed.

"Here", he said softly, draping a blanket over her body.

She continued to shiver involuntarily.

"Peyton! Peyton, what's wrong with you? What's happening?"

The shakes became more violent, adding to Derek's fear. Panic enveloped him when her eyes began to roll back in her head.

"Peyton! Peyton!"

He picked up her body, which felt limp and clammy. Her face was pale and she didn't look good. He held her in his arms, wrapping her in warm layers. Grabbing a nearby bottle of room temperature water, he used a straw to put droplets in her mouth, like a newborn. Finally, the trembling stopped.

"Are you okay?"

No answer.

"Peyton, we're not gonna keep doing this shit, you hear me? You have to talk to me!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

She was still and quiet, an eerie blankness in her eyes. He sat up her in a corner as he paced the room like a rabid animal.

"You know, I'm really trying here! I don't know what else to do! I give you food and water! I try to keep you warm when you're cold and cool when you're hot! I talk to you, I love you…I do everything, Peyton and it never seems to be enough! All you do is sit here and mope and cry! You don't want to eat or do anything! That's not good for you, you're making yourself sick! I, I know what you're doing. I'm on to you. You're trying to get sick enough on purpose so I'll take you to the hospital. It's not gonna work, Peyton so you may as well cooperate around here!"

She hugged her knees to her chest. God, she hated when he started ranting like that. It was scary. How could one person make such a drastic transformation? What happened to the gentle, lovable, always joking guy she used to love to hang out with? She'd watch in horror as his eyes turned so dark blue that they were almost black. His mannerisms became animal like as he'd go into an angry trance. It would scare her so badly, it made her physically hurt. She just wanted it to stop. All of it.

"Food…"

Her voice came out in a croaked whisper as she had not uttered a word in days. Derek did a double take, making sure she had indeed spoken.

"Peyton…"

"I, can you get me something to eat, please?"

She sounded like a frightened little girl. A smile came to his lips as he crawled over to her.

"Peyton", tears came to his eyes. "You…you talked. You spoke to me."

She fought back her own tears.

"Derek…"

He wrapped his arms around her even though she cowered in fear and disgust.

"See? It's okay, baby. I knew it. I knew you'd come around. Peyton, I knew you would come back to me."

There were grocery bags in a corner. As he warmed up a pot of Ramen noodles, Peyton's stomach growled loudly. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was. In her defiance, she had refused all food and water, only adding to her captor's fury and frustration. Derek had been right about one thing…Peyton was definitely making herself sick. She hadn't done it maliciously or even to go to the hospital as he had suggested. She had simply tried to shut everything off. Each day became more surreal but Peyton could never quite wake up from a nightmare that was frighteningly real.

"Thank you", she said quietly as she accepted the impromptu meal along with a bottle of lukewarm juice.

Derek just watched her every bite and every sip. It unnerved Peyton as his morbid fascination with her only seemed to increase as time went on. He idolized her like some unattainable celebrity but then it went deeper. It was as if she were a pet or a doll. He had kidnapped her without realizing the reality of the dire situation. It wasn't a game, it was real. But Derek didn't care. For two whole years he had watched her. He had loved her from afar. He had been the perfect guy, throwing out all the obvious signs but she had been oblivious. There was always someone else. First Jake Jagielski, then that meddling, do gooder, punk ass Lucas Scott. Jake had never had time for Peyton. He was too busy chasing after that bastard child of his while running from her psycho slut mother. And Lucas? That was another story and just the thought of his rival sent Derek into a rage.

"You look so beautiful right now", he swooned.

"Please don't…" she begged.

"Why not? I can't tell my girlfriend that she looks beautiful? See, that's really sad, Peyton. You are an incredible woman and all those other jack offs you dated, they probably never took the time to appreciate your beauty, much less tell you. It's a shame, really but I promise you, baby, those days are over. I'm gonna treat you like the queen you are."

She willed herself not to cry.

"Derek?"

His eyes instantly brightened. He knew she'd come around. Eventually she'd get over her tantrum and want to talk to him.

"Yes, baby? What is it? Talk to me."

She swallowed hard. The last thing in the world she wanted was to have a conversation with him. She didn't love him and she didn't like being there with him and she didn't want him to think any different. But it was hard. The fear and the loneliness cut like a knife. It was like being in prison. Worse, it was like being trapped in a tomb. Mentally it was taking its toll on her and she had no choice but to reach out to him. His sickness, his evilness had put her in that spot but like it or not, he was her only companion.

"What day is it?"

She struggled with the question but she had to know. The minutes had turned into hours and the hours into days and for all she knew, the days into weeks. All alone stuck in a tiny, cramped, dark basement that resembled a dungeon with no windows and one bolted door, Peyton had lost all sense of time and that troubled her very deeply.

"It's Friday."

"Friday?"

Tears sprang to her eyes.

"It's Friday afternoon, about one o'clock."

She nodded. The sun was surely shining. Tree Hill was always gorgeous in the summer but it suddenly hit her. She didn't even know if she was still in the same town. He could have taken her anywhere.

"Where…where are we?"

He opened his mouth to speak but suddenly stopped short. It could have been a trick.

"It, it doesn't matter, okay? We're safe."

"How long has it been, Derek? How, how long have you had me here?"

He looked away.

"Almost two weeks."

She desperately tried to remember. It had been a Sunday night when it all happened. Her flight was due to take off early Monday morning.

"I was supposed to be in California", she said, staring off into the darkness.

"Yeah, um, I know. You, you were pretty excited about that, huh?"

"I gave Karen the idea to start Tric so the teens in our town could have somewhere cool to hang out. Then she hired me to do all the promotions and stuff. Gosh, I remember the first time I had to hire a band. I was scared out of my mind. I felt like I was in over my head."

"I know. I remember you talking about it on your PodCast. You were so nervous, Peyton, so unsure of yourself. But I had faith in you the whole time. I knew you could do it and you did. In fact, you did it over and over again. I was so proud of you. I used to watch you backstage with all those famous people. And you were so good. You're a pro. I used to be so proud of the way you handled things."

Peyton shook her head.

"It was a big, old front. I was scared shitless."

"Well, no one ever saw that. And all those managers and agents and important record company people? Man, you never let them push you around."

"I, um, I learned that from Ellie."

"Ellie?"

"Yeah. We decided to do the Friends With Benefit CD and we had to get some artists to do it. Well, I knew I could probably get Fall Out Boy because they had been so cool about doing the Halloween show. And Haley had recorded her song and Chris Keller offered to lay down a track but I needed some more people. Ellie was living with me at the time and she found out that Nada Surf was doing a show in Charlotte. So we take a little road trip and I'm all excited. We get there and she works it and gets us in, it was so cool. So I'm waiting for her to talk to the manager and instead she kind of throws me to the wolves. I was so scared but uh, I did it and they were in and everyone else just sort of followed suit."

"That was a great CD."

"Yeah", she actually smiled for the first time in a long time. "It was great for so many reasons…the music and the cause and um, mostly, mostly because of Ellie. We put that whole CD together in like three weeks but it was great, the greatest three weeks of my life."

"Ellie would have been proud of you, Peyton."

Peyton shrugged.

"I'd like to think so."

"I, I'm sorry about L.A. Look, I know it meant a lot to you…"

"Tomorrow, Epic Records is holding their big annual launch party for the music coming out this fall. They're debuting some new artists. My first two weeks was gonna be interning, getting a feel for the business, probably being a gopher and stuff. But I didn't care. I was just stoked to have such an amazing opportunity."

"I'm sorry, Peyton…"

She shook her head.

"I was supposed to be there."

"It's okay."

"They probably hate me. They probably think I just bailed."

"No, they don't."

"Then what do they think, Derek?"

Her voice was mixed with anger and hurt.

"I, I don't know, okay? I'm sorry. Peyton, I don't know what they think. And I know how much this meant to you and yeah, my timing really sucks. I'm sorry it all had to go down like this but I swear to you, one day in the future, our future together, I am gonna make this up to you."

"Derek…"

"No. I mean it. You really wanted this and I guess it's kind of my fault you didn't get to go so I owe you. I'll make it up to you, Peyton, if it's the last thing I do. I promise, honey."

He looked so sincere. It would have been sweet had they been two consenting adults involved in a mutual relationship instead of a twisted, love struck kidnapper holding his scared victim hostage.

"You can't make this up to me."

Her eyes and words said it all as she looked him right in the eye.

"Tell me some more", Derek cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. "Um, tell me more about Ellie and about making the CD and all the bands and stuff. That's really interesting."

For a few minutes, the conversation had been good. Not good as in good but as in it had temporarily saved her sanity for the time being. She had to speak and someone had to listen, even if that someone was Derek.

"I can't…"

"Peyton, please don't do this. Don't shut me out. I want us to share everything. Talk to me."

"Derek, I can't."

"Why not? It was going so well just a few minutes ago. Why can't you admit it? You were having a good time."

"I'm sorry. I can't do that. It's too hard for me. Yeah, for a few minutes it's like it's okay and the old Derek is back but then I realize that's not the case. Look around. Look where we are. I don't want to be here, Derek and you know that. Talking about Ellie and the CD and pretending things are normal won't make them normal. Nothing about this is right."

He sighed.

"You feel that way now but it'll get better. You'll see."

"Derek…"

"I love you, Peyton. I'll do anything for you. What do you need, huh? What can I do to help you now, make this better?"

"Just for now, could you, I don't know…I, I'd like to be alone, please."

She needed away from him. No more talking, no more having him look at her, even if it was just for a few minutes.

"Okay, okay, Peyton. If that's what you want."

She nodded, her whole body tensing as she felt him place a wet good bye kiss on her forehead. There were footsteps and then he was gone. Finally Peyton was alone again and there was silence. She took a deep breath as she laid her head down. Sometimes the silence was more overpowering than any noise she had ever heard. It was driving her mad. She needed some type of human contact and unfortunately, there was only Derek. For a few minutes she would give in, only to be sickened later. So there were two choices…silence or Derek. Or she could always opt out for the voices in her head. Closing her tear filled eyes, she put her hands over her ears, in a desperate attempt to block it all out. Sometimes the silence did make a noise.