BRIGHT

Chapter 50- Peyton POV- Not Again

"Josh, what's going on?" I asked frantically, getting off of the ice. He was breathing very heavily and I could tell he was close to crying.

"Th-th-they took Meredith," he stuttered. Oh my god. My basically big sister taken by those evil people.

"Who took Meredith?" Greyson asked.

"The people who took Peyton. Apparently, the Emerson's applied a gene-edit to Meredith too. She never told me," Josh said.

"Oh my gosh, seriously?" Grey said. I hadn't said anything yet.

"Her edit was active," I whispered in a monotone voice.

"What do you mean her edit was active?" Greyson asked.

"She has superior strength. She never went to the gym and her muscles were spot on. She could lift anything. The Emersons were scientifically able to prove that her gene edit worked," I explained. Josh looked down and said nothing. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't want any chance of this happening."

"I understand. We need to go, now. I have to figure out more about what exactly happened," Josh insisted. I nodded and the three of us quickly returned our skates.

Nobody said anything on the way home, but I could tell Greyson was worried about me, so he sat in the back with me. He kept his hand on my thigh the entire ride home, which only reminded me of the place in my heart I still had for him. We pulled into Greyson's driveway.

"Keep me updated okay?" he said. Josh and I nodded. "Let me know if you need anything, and I mean anything."

"Thanks, Grey," I said. He nodded and jumped out of the car. I crawled up to the front seat. Josh wasn't saying anything and he started the quick drive to our house. He stared at the road the entire time and didn't move unless it was to turn. As we pulled into our driveway, he started to get out of the car but I reached over to close it shut. I grabbed his keys and locked the door.

"Look at me Josh," I instructed, but he continued to look down. I grabbed his chin and gently turned his head towards mine. "I know how hard this is, and trust me, I'm scared too. But look at me, I was taken by them and I'm perfectly fine. She's going to be okay," I assured him, lowering my hand. Thin tears started to roll down his cheeks and he hugged me. His head was on my shoulder and his tears made my sweatshirt wet. I gently rubbed his back. 

"It's going to be okay," I coaxed.

"I'm scared, I just can't believe her birth parents operated on her too," he whispered.

"I know, and I am scared too. But she's going to be fine," I promised. He nodded, sat up, and took a deep breath.

"Let's go inside," he offered and I nodded, unlocking the car. We walked into the house and our parents were waiting for us on the couch. They walked over to us and hugged Josh and me right away. My mom put her arm around me and led me to the living room.

"Okay, we understand how scary and confusing all of this is. But, Meredith had a gene-edit also," my mom started to say.

"We know, Peyton knew about it before. She has extreme muscular strength. But, how did they find out?" Josh asked.

"Wait, you knew?" my dad asked me. I bit my lip.

"Yes," I replied nervously and my dad rubbed his forehead.

"We will deal with that later, but you guys need to know what's going on," my dad said.

"Meredith's birth parents confessed to genetically altering her as well, which is illegal. So, SWAT was forced to go get her. We have been told that her surgery will be tomorrow to remove the gene-edit, but we, surprisingly, can go see her. So, if you guys want to, we need to leave like, now," my mom explained. Why would my parents have confessed? That was so low of them and I knew they did it just to get back at me for telling about my gene-edit.

"Let's go then," Josh said.