DANCING WITH THE DEVIL ᵖʳᵉᵗᵗʸ ˡⁱᵗᵗˡᵉ ˡⁱᵃʳˢ

𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫.

"Thank you." She whispered as she gripped both her cup and her mother's hand. 

"Always, my darling, always."

"Detective  Darren Wilden held a press conference this morning." A news reporter spoke from the tv, bringing their attention to it. Noelle turned to look at the tv to see the same detective who talked to them after the funeral yesterday. 

"'The coroner did release his findings this morning, and although Alison DiLaurentis' body did show signs of a blunt-force head trauma, the cause of her death was suffocation.'" 

Noelle sucked in a large breath at the news, her hands digging into themselves as her mother stumbled for the remote. "That's enough of that this morning." Naomi whispered as she shut the tv off, neither of them needing to hear about Alison's death any longer. 

"I think I'm just gonna go get ready for school." Noelle stumbled over her words as she slowly stood up from her chair, suddenly feeling nauseous. 

"Are you going to be okay with going to school?" Naomi questioned as she leaned forward, her voice soft as she stared, concerned for her daughter's mental health. 

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine." Noelle waved her off. No, she won't be. "Thanks, mama."

𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐊𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 down as she slowly walked through the school hallways. She didn't want more attention being brought to her than she already had. More attention was one the four girls more than lately, especially with the funeral happening only the day before. It was suffocating. 

Noelle had just gotten to her locker, when a voice on the loud-speaker spoke out to the school. "Will the following students please come to the office?"  Noelle let out a sigh as she stuffed her face into her locker as she had a feeling she was going to be one of the students. "Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Noelle Call, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin."

"Of fucking course." Noelle cursed as the final bell rang. She removed her head to be met with the four other girls. She shared a small smile with Hanna as they stared to walk towards the office. 

"Wait," Aria called out as her phone stared to ring. The other girls shared a look as Aria looked at them in alarm. "It's from A." Noelle's heart dropped as they got closer to look at Aria's phone. 

"'Dead girls walking.'" Hanna read off Aria's phone. There was a silence that hung between them as they exchanged a look before continuing on to the principal's office. 

𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐒 one over the other as she sat in a chair next to the couch that the girls were on. The five of them passively stared up at Detective Wilden as he read through most likely Alison's file. "So let's see." He spoke as he came around the desk in the room to stand in front of them.  "You thought you heard her scream?" He spoke, pointing to Spencer. 

"I-I said that, yeah." Spencer nodded, stumbling lightly over her words. 

"And when you four woke up in the barn Alison was gone, and so was Spencer?" He asked, asking the same questions they were asked the year before. 

"Yes, I woke up before them, and I realized that Ali was missing, so I- . . ." Spencer nodded not even missing a beat as she answered his questions. 

"So you went looking for her." Wilden finished for her, as he sat on the desk.  

 "That's what happened." Spencer smiled. 

"I got that." Wilden nodded. Noelle subtly shared a look with Hanna who sat on the other side of the couch.  None of them knew where this was going. "So, what's up? Was this a slumber part, or - " He continued, but was quickly cut off by Noelle.