Facing Him

Chapter 22- Gone

(GIF of Haley)
Haley's POV
I heard Lydia come in at about five in the morning so I decided that I was going to let her sleep, she needs it after the night she had.

Truth is Lydia blames herself, which is why last night I let her go to her spot. She has always had a thing for parks, whenever she was upset she would go to one and just sit there for hours. Stefano would eventually go and get her because he worried so much but sometimes I convinced him to let her be.

I don't know how I'm gonna do this on my own. This baby is going to grow up without a father and one day he's going to ask me or Lydia where his dad is and I'll have to tell him everything and the thought of that is killing me.

I figured that I would make her some breakfast to help cheer her up a little. However when I called her down she didn't answer, so I figured I would go up and wake her.

My heart sunk when I saw that she wasn't there. Instead, there was a note on her bed. I started reading it and knew that I had to get all of her friends together and tell them. I went through my phone and scrolled down to see Piper's number, I pressed call and she answered with sympathy.

"Hi Haley, how are you doing?" Even though she couldn't see me, I shook my head and tried to hold back my tears. "Not so good. Um I need you to text everyone and tell them to come to the house, even that bitch Grace. Lydia's missing and there's something I need to show you."

"Oh my god, yeah we will be right over. I'll call them now, see you soon. Stay strong." She hung up the phone and within an hour everyone was in my living room with concerned feelings.

"You've all probably heard by now the news I told Piper, and in that case you have heard correct. I woke up this morning thinking Lydia needed some time to herself, however when I went to go surprise her with her favorite breakfast I saw she wasn't in her room and I panicked. That was until I saw the note she left. I called you all here because I read it and in the note she addresses all of you and I think that in order to make peace with this you need to read it." They all nodded and we read the letter together.

Dear Everyone,
        I'm tired of grieving. I'm tired of everything. I have found out so many things that make me just want everything to stop, and if it weren't for my talk with Brandon everything would've stopped for me. When my mother died, she left us a note telling us to fight until we can't fight anymore and that is exactly what I intend to do. I am going to go away for awhile, I don't want you guys to look for me, I don't want anyone to find me unless I come back here.
       Haley, I want your baby to have the best life it can ever have. Which is why I can not be in its life while my father is still breathing and hunting me down. The baby already has to grow up fatherless, I couldn't live with myself if something were to happen to you too. I want you to promise me that one day you will tell him/her about me and that I loved them very much. Haley, you have been the best sister I could ever ask for and I want to thank you for that.
    Piper, you never failed to make me laugh or even help me with my boy drama. You have been the best girl friend I have ever had and I love you for that. Promise me that while I'm gone you will take care of everyone. Make sure nobody goes off the deep end and especially make sure that nobody comes to find me. If news gets out about where I am, I'm as good as dead. You and Gray are the glue of the group, so please, do me a favor and make sure that you all stay close no matter what. Don't let this change anything.
    Gray and Vince, you guys always tried to help Piper meddle in my love life which I thought was the greatest. I was glad to see that people cared about me, and for once I actually felt normal so thank you guys for that. Vince, you take care of Piper for me. She's really gonna need you after all of this. And Gray, I don't want you to make your dad find me. Nobody can find me until this is over.
     Nate, what can I say? You were my first best friend, and you never gave up on me. If as you grew up, I was stuck in your head. I want to thank you for getting me out of trouble as a kid and for fake marrying me in order to save Vince and Piper from that evil wedding chapel. I've had some of my most embarrassing moments with you but you never made me feel out of place for them so thank you.
    Blaire, even though you were acting like a bitch these past few weeks, we were great friends in the beginning so I want to thank you for always making me laugh, and teasing me about Brandon from day one. If it weren't for you pushing my true feelings about Brandon out, I probably wouldn't have fallen for him so thank you for that as well.
    Grace, you have been a bitch to me since day one but that's okay because I want to thank you anyways. If it weren't for you spilling my secrets at the ball then I wouldn't be where I am right now and most importantly, I wouldn't be fighting back. I don't know what it is but when I got here I was this scared little girl and then you started being bitchy and that brought the fire out in me. If it wasn't for you then I would still be that little girl who runs away from her problems instead of facing them so a huge thank you goes out to you Grace.
    Brandon, I owe you an apology. I snapped at you last night and I was a complete bitch to you when we first met, however you never gave up on me. You turned your life around for me and that actually made me feel something other than useless. You made me feel like me again and I will always love you for that. You always made me feel better when I was upset and you made me realize something last night. You made me realize that instead of cowering in fear, I actually have to get off my ass and do something about it. You have seen me at my worst and yet somehow even then you still managed to bring me out of my slump. I was going to tell you at the ball that you are the one I wanted to be with. I love you with all my heart and nothing will ever change that.
   I love all of you (maybe not Grace) in different ways and I want you to know that it's because of my love for all of you that I am doing this right now. Once upon a time there was a scared little girl running from the dragon. The story ends with the girl killing the dragon. I'm writing these letters in case I don't make it back. My father always had a trick up his sleeve, but now I have a few tricks of my own and I'm ready to fight back. Thank you all for having such an impact on my life.
~Lydia

"So that's it? We just go on with our lives? I can't pretend that she was never here. I can't pretend that I never loved her. So what the fuck are we supposed to do? Sit around and wait?" Brandon says angrily. I knew that he was going to have a hard time with this.

"If there's one thing I've learned about her it's that she's a fighter. She'll be back. It may take awhile but she will be back." Grace replies reassuringly, causing everyone to smile. "What?" She snaps, Piper chuckles.

"I think that is the nicest thing you've ever said." Piper teases, Grace rolls her eyes. "I may be a bitch to her but that's only because I'm jealous of her."

Even I was surprised she said that. I mean here we have the queen bee who pretends to hate everyone, yet the truth is she actually likes them. It's priceless.

"Never thought I'd here those words come out of your mouth." Blaire adds on with a smirk, Grace rolls her eyes again as everyone laughs. The happiness soon turned to sorrow when they realized why Lydia really left.

"We need to find her-"

"She told us not to Brandon-"

"I don't give a shit about what she said. I want to have a future with her and that means having her alive. I love her! And I'm not gonna just sit around and wait for something to happen. Gray, you said your dad was a P.I so maybe he can trace her phone and we can look for her." Everyone looked at him with wide smiles on their faces, he grunts.

"Why are you guys so happy?! She's missing!" He protests, I cross my arms and smirk. "You said you could have a future with her." I tease, his face goes blank as he chuckles.

"No I didn't. I said I wanna find her, so are we going to do this or not?" He snaps. Oh the wonderful world of denial! After everything blows over, I am making it my mission to get those two officially together, maybe even eventually engaged.

"We can't Brandon. Whatever this is, she's doing it for a reason-"

"She's gonna get herself killed!" Vince shakes his head in disagreement. "No. Grace is right, she's a fighter. She's angry and she's going to use that anger to fight back."

"If you guys wont find her then I will-"

"No you won't Brandon. Look, we all love her but there is a reason she left and that reason is so she could come back once everything with her father is done-"

"Wait so she's going to kill him? That makes her a psycho!" Grace protests, we all shake our heads but I decided to speak on Lydia's behalf. "She's doing what has to be done. Lydia's father was a monster Grace. You may think you know everything but you don't. Carlyle killed the rest of her family so her and Stefano ran for their lives with the help of their uncle. Technically that was their witness protection. Everywhere they went he hunted and killed everyone who got in his way which included friends, family friends, and even boyfriends. I was lucky that he never found out about me after he killed my brother Wesley. So yes Grace, she will kill him if she has to."

She deserved to know who she has been dealing with all this time. She deserves to know the truth.

"Oh my god... I had no idea-"

"Well what the fuck did you think it meant Grace? A person doesn't just change their name and whole persona just for the fun of it." Brandon snaps, she shakes her head.

"How the hell was I supposed to know?!" She shouts back, Brandon laughs. "Because it's not rocket science! If you actually would've put two and two together then you would've figured it out. But instead you were too bitchy to even ask!"

"I know! And I said I was sorry!"

"You should be sorry! If you didn't do any of this bullshit then maybe her father wouldn't have found out where she was and she wouldn't have run away! It's ALL YOUR FAULT-"

"ENOUGH! Fighting about this is not gonna bring Lydia back! She's gone and your all going to have to learn to deal with it!" It was official. Grayson had snapped. Everyone went silent.

"Grayson is right. You guys are going to have to pretend that you don't care and act like everything is normal, at least for now because you never know when Carlyle is going to make an unexpected visit or if he's still here. We can't slip up. Let's make a pact. No matter what we are doing and where we are, we will not give up on Lydia. She has a plan, and if that plan goes wrong she's going to need us. I suggest that all of you guys take self defense classes just in case. Promise me." They all nod in agreement.

"We promise."