❝ I genuinely thought the worst of this nightmare was over ❞
Halle Brewster told a lie, and the secrets kept growing. After slaying one stalker, another reared its nasty head, and Halle was starting to wonder if she'd ever be free from the friendshi...
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An abrupt vibrating woke Halle from her slumber. Groggy, she struggled to open her heavy lids. She squinted in the pitch black, blurry eyes stinging with sleep. The phone, screen down, lit the surface of the bedside table with a thin outline, and Halle clumsily threw out a hand to grab at it. Once it was in her grasp, she turned it and grumbled at the shot of light, it jolting straight to her head.
"Argh— crap!" she cursed out, groaning. Blinking several times, trying to clear her vision, Halle was finally able to make out the caller ID. Halle grumbled and answered the phone with a sour tone. "I swear to god, Aria, if this ain't important, I'm gonna—"
"I burned the pages," Aria blurted out, cutting Halle off immediately.
Halle darted up in bed, the sheets falling from her. "You did what?!"
"I burned the pages," Aria repeated for her friend.
Aware of Jason's sleeping form next to her, Halle spared him a glance. He looked so peaceful, his face rested tenderly against the comfort of the pillow. For the longest time, it was Halle's best sleep as well. Now, it was ruined. Destroyed by a single phone-call; and the way it started to sound, it seemed like her sleep was the first — and not the only — thing to be destroyed by this call.
"Yeah, I heard you the first time—" Halle countered, as she slid out of bed, "I was giving you time to take it back."
"He was gonna turn himself in, Halle, I didn't have a choice," Aria whined down the line. "He didn't do it, he didn't kill Ali."
Taking up spot on the desk chair, Halle pulled her right knee up into her chest as she spoke quietly, as not to wake Jason. "But you burned them?"
"They didn't tell us anything we didn't already know," Aria replied, almost monotone, numb from all the happenings around her.
"I know, but..." Halle drifted off into a pause. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, calming herself before her heart-rate no doubt picked up. "But, Aria, you thought he could've done something—"
"But he didn't," Aria jumped in, fast. "It was Meredith. She made me think he did, she got in my head."
"She got in your head for a reason," Halle said knowingly. She felt the mass of those words, too. A wormed their way into Halle's head for a reason. Because she was susceptible to it. Because Halle felt guilt and that was the easiest emotion to play with, to tug on until the other person either unravelled entirely or tangled themselves up so tightly they couldn't break loose. "Part of you must've believed it a little."
"I believe he didn't kill her, Halle," Aria said confidently. "I know he didn't. Meredith got to me because I was just upset, and angry he lied. He told me about the affair, he never told me about Ali blackmailing him — about seeing her That Night."
