"Hanna? I know that's you — please dear god, don't hang up — don't hang up."
Caleb Rivers begged desperately through the phone.
Hanna gasped, holding the phone tightly. Her expression danced between shock, longing and pure unadulterated panic.
I guess that is what happens when the boy you abandoned is still the boy that you love.
"Cal.." Hanna breathed.
Emily yanked the phone out of Hanna's hand and slammed it down on the receiver.
"No," I roared, lunging for the phone, but it was done. I turned on Hanna. "How could you? Do you know what you've done?" Then I turned on Emily. "Do you know what you've done? He knows it is us now. He can track our location."
"What would we have said?" Emily said. "Would you prefer Hanna to have continued her sentence and spill our his name?"
"We could 've yanked the phone out of her hand and pretended to be someone else!" I roared. "That way, there wouldn't be a big sign pointing our way giving away everything we had worked for! Pack your bags. Now. All of you. We are leaving."
"But we just got here!" Hanna yelled.
"And now we are getting out of here. Amelia's right. They could be here in seconds," Spencer said, looking at me reassuringly.
"Is that so bad?" Hanna whispered away from us. Her expression fell into a swarm of melancholy. A look that I knew too well. I look that said that all she wanted to be was in Caleb's arms.
I tensed in anger, "Yes. Hanna. It is bad. Because you are suggesting that we abandon all that we built because, just like a puppy, you miss your dearest Caleb."
"Just because you're heartless enough to forget who you loved, doesn't mean I am," Hanna roared. "I understand if you refuse to feel about Jason, but Caleb? He was your best friend. I was his girlfriend. How do you not feel anything?"
"Are you listening to yourself?" I shouted back. "You get one damn phone call from Caleb and you want to destroy the life of the rest of us just because you've decided that you want to be by his side. You want to ruin everything. Do you understand that?"
"And you are deluding yourself if you think any of this is helping us figure out who A is. Atleast if I went back, I know Caleb would still love me. That he still loves me now. I wouldn't see the same for you, as you know, you have no one." Hanna said, glaring me with the full force of a tsunami.
It was like she had slapped me.
Like she was holding a sign saying, "Oh look, here is the very definition of abandoned. Amelia's parents are dead. Amelia's brother is dead. Amelia's life is dead, don't you wish you could be her?"
And I am so done of being kind.
"Do you think he could ever love you after what you've done?"
Hanna stared at me, shocked. I continued.
"Do you think any single person could ever love you after you killed all the people you did? I don't think so. I know so. The thing is Hanna, you can't live with that, but I can," I growled. "We don't have time for this. We are leaving or I'll drag you out myself."
Hanna stumbled back and looked away from quickly, like I had hit her.
"Well good thing we didn't unpack," Aria sighed from the corner. I gave her a look that meant get your ass back into your bedroom and come back out with your stuff in five minutes.
Aria rolled her eyes but nodded. Hanna and Emily followed while Spencer and I walked back to our room.
As soon as we entered, I walked to the other side of the room where the closet was located and pulled out two large suit cases, passing them along to Spencer who pushed them out of the room. I picked up the car keys from the dresser and made my way out.
Luckily, the girls seemed to understand timing and were already outside with their bags.
"Aria," I called, she swivelled around to face me. "We need a new place to stay around here in an hour."
Aria, the one who formed the lies nodded.
I guess that's when we headed out.
Out of the room.
Out the hall.
Out of the motel using a back laundry room door that was closer to the car park.
"I'm driving," I announced as I spotted the black van we had parked closer to the compound for quick getaways like today.
Surprisingly, Hanna didn't complain about me driving. Hanna was all about quiet now that I had shouted at her.
The tension was solidly tangible. I could reach my hand out and grapple it if I wanted to. But the only thing I wanted to grapple was safety, and that was getting out of here.
I opened the door of the van and swung into the drivers seat. The van jostled as the girls jumped in after me after shoving the luggage in the back.
Spencer snuggled herself down in the passenger seat and pulled out her laptop. "I'm erasing all the data that states we were at this hotel," Spencer said.
I nodded approvingly, but I knew that it was too late. It was Caleb after all. He would've figured out everything by now.
I swerved the car out of the car park and onto the main road.
"Aria, where are we headed?" I said after 30 minutes of continuous driving.
"The Spearheart motel is a couple miles away, we could go there?" She said.
"Perfect," I replied as Spencer reached across to type in the address into the GPS. "We should be fi-"
Hanna cut me off.
"We're being followed."
"What?" I said, even though I had heard her clearly.
"Red Mercedes, a few cars back," Hanna said.
I checked my mirror and frowned when I saw the red Mercendes. I swerved to the right and it followed.
"For how long?" I said.
"I've been tracking it for the last five minutes," Hanna said blankly. Clearly, she was still pissed at me.
I looked in the mirror thoroughly, analysing the model of the car which was definitely not Rosewood located and something Caleb definitely wouldn't have the money to own.
Ezra?
"Aria is that-" I started but was cut off as the Red Mercedes roared forward and slammed into the back of the van.
I gasped as the steering wheel shoved into my ribs and was jolted forward. Spencer shouted and Aria started shouting and Hanna began to unbuckle her seat belt.
"It's not Ezra, Amelia." It was Emily who answered.
"Oh, I figured," I gasped, trying to regain my breath and keep the van on the road. "Unless Aria forgot to tell us that she had a fight with him several months ago, and that he holds grudges and a really nice Red Mercedes."
"Oh god, Amelia, just drive this thing. I don't understand why you always decide to make jokes in times like this," Spencer said and I laughed dryly and shoved my foot down on the accelerator.
The car plunged forward quickly, only for a moment before I regained back the speed limit.
Hanna yelled at me, "Go faster! It's gaining on us."
"You know," I said, "I prefer for us not to be caught by the police for speeding. Alright?"
"Well if you keep going at this rate we are going to get your wish but end up dead," Hanna roared.
I growled and swerved into the right lane, the car tailing behind me.
"Can we lose him?" I turned around for a brief second to look at Spencer who had her computer on her lap, typing away at the maps app furiously.
Spencer sighed heavily, "There is only straight roads here, around the river that's coming up. A few miles forward we could lose him in the suburbs, but it's night and he'll know where we are. "
"So you are basically saying we have no hope?"Aria said.
"That's one way to put it," Spencer said.
"Oh I wouldn't say that just yet," I grinned oddly.
Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Spencer narrow her eyes. I threw her a small cheerful smile as I eyed the bridge over the river that we were coming up on.
"Keep your hands on the door ladies. We'll float for a bit but then we will drown. Chin up, take your seatbelt off, wait till the car fills up, and then push yourself out. We shall meet up in Spearheart motel." I said.
"You are not serious," Spencer said, her voice laced in alarm.
I nodded slowly.
"Oh my god," Emily said. "Amelia has gone insane. She has gone completely insane."
The van moved onto the bridge. The Red Mercedes following us closely. Man, was I going to strangle the person that bruised the beauty that this Van is.
"You really can't be meaning this," Aria said.
"Am I missing something?" Hanna said confused.
And then I swung the Van off the bridge and watched It as we plunged into the river.