I kept my gaze downward on my arms that rested on the cold metal table before us. Dried mud scattered over my skin, the dress I had on was pale orange, like a champagne sort of colour in a way. That was ruined, mud was all over it front to back.
Spencer was sat beside me, Hanna the other side of her and Aria at the head of the table. Each of us looked as if we'd rolled around in the woods; but the dried tears on our cheeks told us otherwise.
My head slowly turned over to the big dark window facing us, I knew there was someone behind there. Possibly Garret, or anyone else who's been out to get us this entire time.
The door leading into that separate room opened, black shiny shoes shuffled into the room and as my eyes dragged up the body to meet the face of whomever it was, my breath hitched in my throat.
"No-fucking-way." I whispered in disbelief, each of the girls beside me uncomfortably sat upright in shock.
"Did you miss me?" Detective Wilden sarcastically asked as a venomous smirk grew on his lips.
He moved over to the table and rested his hands on it, leaning forward and dropping the tone of his voice down a notch. "This doesn't just look back it is bad, homicide is a capital offence in America, and you girls are going down." He hissed.
12 hours earlier...
"Doctor Sullivan, are you home?" Han called as she peered into the window, I rattled my fist on the door over and over, no answer.
Emily paced up and down the porch as the doctors voicemail kept coming out through her phones speaker. "I got that same voicemail." Aria huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
Spencer crouched down and picked up a few newspapers scattered on the porch decking. "Yeah she probably sends it to all her clients."
"So she's definitely not here." Hanna mumbled as she sauntered back over to us.
"I don't think she has been for a few days, these newspapers go back to Monday." Spencer sighed, holding it up to show us; today was Thursday...
"Maybe we should call the police." Em suggested, shrugging slightly.
"And say what to officer Garrett when he starts asking us questions." Hanna retorted with a small snort after, she had a fair point.
"Hanna's right, Garret, Jenna, Ian, Jason, they're all connected we cannot trust any of them." Spence said, folding her arms over her chest, I glanced at the floor quickly before looking to the side.
"The last time somebody thought she knew who A was she got hit by a car, sorry Hanna..." Spencer rambled on, Han shrugged.
"Okay so what do we do?" Em asked quietly.
"We go into terror alert and hope that our phones don't ring!" Spencer said sarcastically, one of our phones rang straight after that and I stifled back a laugh.
"That did not just happen!" Spence hissed.
Emily pulled it out of her pocket and gazed down at her phone, "It's Maya." She beamed. Ever since Maya got home from True North her parents sent her to, she lost touch with Emily, but recently Em reached out to her and they're back on track like nothing ever happened.
"Look at you suddenly all happy." Hanna teased, Em shot her a deadpanned look.
༄
"Take lots of photos to show me what you look like later, okay?" Ledger asked, coming up behind me and resting his hands delicately on my hips as I stirred the milk into his coffee.
"Of course I will, I'm gutted you won't be there." I placed the lid onto his flask of coffee and turned round to give it to him. I loved how he looked in his scrubs, the shirt made his arms look so big and defined and I could've melted on the spot before him.
"I know babe, but I've got a twelve hour shift I would have no chance in getting off, plus I don't really know Hanna's father." He shrugged, I leant my free hand up to tuck a loose stray of hair back on top of his head as it had dropped forward to dangle over his forehead slightly.
Today was the day Hanna's father was marrying Isabel, and Hanna would officially become Kate's step-sister. I felt bad for the girl, from what I've heard she's done to Hanna, Kate sounds like the devils spawn.
"Will I see you tomorrow night?" I asked Ledger quietly, his hands lifted up to cup my face gently, "Yeah, I finish at six tomorrow evening so on my way back I'll pick you up and you can stay at mine?" I nodded at his offer.
"I love you, have fun tonight." He mumbled, leaning down and kissing me softly, I leaned further into the kiss and placed his flask of coffee onto the counter behind me, wrapping my arms around his neck and running a hand into his soft hair. Ledger ran his hands down my back and placed them onto my waist, connecting our hips together and groaning slightly at the friction.
"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat behind us and I almost frickin' screamed. Shoving Ledger backwards I lightly brushed my lips with the tips of my fingers as I looked over to Hanna who stood in the kitchen entrance watching us with raised brows.
"Sorry, I best be off." Ledger laughed lightly, grabbing his coffee cup and bidding Hanna an awkward goodbye before slipping out the front door.
Crimson flushed over my face as Hanna burst out laughing, "Shut up!" I groaned and turned away from her. "Damn, I almost got a whole fifty shades of grey scene from you two!" She gushed, laughing her head off.
I moved around her shaking my head as a grin tugged at my lips. "We need to head to Spencer's because she said she needs to show us something." Hanna called behind me as I pulled my boots on.
"Okay let's go!" I chirped and opened the front door, Hanna trailed behind.
"Oh! And wipe your mouth sweetie, your lipgloss is everywhere." She giggled, I smacked her shoulder causing her to laugh even louder as we headed down the pathway.
༄
"I walked Toby outside, and when I came back inside it was here." Spencer hugged her arms over her chest as we all stood round in a circle, a massive box laid on the floor in Spencer's sitting room before us.
"'Open or she dies'" I mumbled as I read aloud the red printed words plastered on the top of the box.
"Here like here in the middle of your kitchen or here on your porch and you brought it inside?" Aria asked.
"I haven't touched it..." Spence shrugged defensively.
"Guys I haven't told you this but, Doctor Sullivan really helped me." Hanna said quietly, I couldn't really relate because by the time the girls had opened up to her about A, I was halfway across the world.
"Yeah that was the reason that we trusted her..." Spence sighed, "she helped all of us."
"You don't think her ears in here, do you?" Hanna suggested, I grimaced and looked away quickly, Spencer groaned.
"It's a big box for an ear." Em added.
Aria unbuckled one side of the boxes lid, Hanna and Emily did the other side. I stepped back slightly to keep my distance from whatever was inside.
Once the lid was off, we each peered over anxiously and looked inside, a note laid on top of whatever was under the grey cover at the bottom.
"You have until 7pm to save her. These are my demands." Aria read aloud. I leant down and threw the cover out the way, revealing four dolls.
"Oh hell no, I've seen Child's play, I'm not doing this shit!" I threw my hands up and turned away.
"Dolls? Seriously?" Hanna groaned.
"Okay...so this one's yours." Spencer picked up a brunette doll that had an 'Aria' pendant on the necklace it wore; handing it to Aria.
She then gave Hanna hers and then gave me mine; I grimaced as I eyed the doll in my hands.
"Wait." Aria gasped, she pulled a string attached to the back of her dolls neck.
"Make Jackie go away." The dolls voice hissed, it was high pitched and terrifying. We all shared a look of horror. "Is there a creepier word than creepy?" Hanna asked rhetorically.
Spence handed aria a few pieces of paper, Aria snatched them and read them quickly. Spence stilled held a chunk of papers in her hands that she skimmed her eyes over.
"Wait this is the paper Jackie's getting published on Theodore..." Aria mumbled, "-Gericault?" Spencer added.
"He's this French painter..." She rambled on, "Who painted." Hanna added with a small shrug, "Yeah in a word." Spencer sighed.
"But A also gave you this French article on Gericault and it's the exact same as Jackie's paper, she plagiarised this." Spencer informed her, Aria glanced at the two papers.
Hanna pulled the string at the back of her dolls neck. "Stop the wedding." Her dolls voice hissed. I shared a look of confusion with her before glancing down at my doll.
Spencer picked her doll up and pulled it's string. "Keep Toby safe." It's high pitched voice ordered, Spencer exhaled heavily and looked down at the floor. "Oh my god." She whispered under her breath.
"When Toby was driving his truck this morning, his brakes went out. That wasn't an accident, that was A." She rushed out frantically, lifting her hand up to her face to grip the bridge of her nose.
I looked at the girls who stared at me, waiting for my one, lifting a shaky hand up to the back of my dolls neck, I gripped the string lightly and tugged it away.
"Tell the girls where you really were that night."
My mouth dropped agape slightly and I kept my eyes fixated down on the floor, I felt their eyes burning onto me. "What night?" Hanna asked abruptly.
I sucked in a sharp breath and lifted my chin to face them, "The night that Ali went missing."
"I don't understand this, these orders we've been given are things we want but are selfish impulses so we're scared to act on them!" Spencer placed her doll down on the table. "But yours Quinn, yours is just about telling us a secret you've kept from us?" She asked, thinning her eyes at me.
"It's probably because it's been killing me inside keeping it from you, A taunts me all the time because they can clearly see it bothers me that I wasn't honest with you girls!" I defended.
"Okay, then be honest with us?" Em shrugged.
"I will." I mumbled, placing my doll down and taking a seat on the sofa behind me.
"It was a week before Labour Day weekend, and Jason and I were going through a small rough patch, this was right before I'd found out about the bet..." I started.
˚✧₊⁎❝᷀⁎⁺˳✧༚
My footsteps grew louder as I stormed up the stairs, "Jason!" I shouted, making a beeline towards his bedroom and pounding on the door with my fist.
The door swung open and Jason stood there, shirtless, with just a pair of black running shorts on, "Why are you mad?" He asked, his tone was calm, but as my throat tightened, I had to fight the urge for my tears to spill.
"You've been ignoring me this past week! Have I done something?" I asked him frantically, he moved back and allowed me into his room, locking the door behind him.
"No? Why would you think that?" He tilted his head and I immediately felt stupid. I sounded like a clingy, bitch girlfriend.
"I'm sorry, it's just it seemed like you were giving me the cold shoulder at school and I-" I rambled on, Jason moved closer to me and hushed me by placing his forefinger against my lips.
"I don't have to be with you all the time, you know where I live, and I'll be here, if you wanted me baby you could've just said so." He whispered, a small smirk tugging at his lips. I looked up at him with doe eyes that I knew drove him insane.
Leaning up onto my tiptoes I kissed him softly, expecting him to pull away and bid me goodbye, but instead his hands gripped my hips and tugged me closer to him, deepening our kiss. It became more sloppy and frantic and I was stifling my moans as he made his way down my neck and chest.
"Will you stay tonight?" He asked me quietly, looking up at me, his face was hovering by my stomach. I nodded as I was too breathless to speak.
We spent the entire day making out, having sex and just touching eachother, I loved it whenever he was like this with me, constantly needing me near him and making me feel prioritised.
Alison had been in Georgia visiting her grandma, she was due back next weekend. So that meant Jason and I were alone all evening, up until Mrs Dilaurentis got home later of course, but she usually didn't get home until nine pm. Mr Dilaurentis was away at a work conference.
"If you'd told me they were coming over, I wouldn't have stayed." I groaned as I grabbed a hoodie of his and threw it on. Jason trailed behind me, stumbling side to side as he'd just done three lines of the drug he promised me he'd stopped. I'd had like four or five cans of beer and I was a little bit fuzzy-minded, but there was no way I'd do the drugs if they offered.
"Quinn, Quinn...look I'm good? I'm fine!" He grabbed my shoulders to stop me, I watched as he attempted so hard to keep himself upright.
A few figures bounded down the stairs after us.
"Come on JD, we're just opening another can, you want one?" Ian called, his voice made me feel sick, how was he absolutely fine yet Jason was hammered? It didn't make sense to me.
Jason chuckled before looking back at me, his expression faltered slightly, "You have fun, just be careful, I'll see you soon." I sent him a small smile before moving past him.
A hand wrapped around my arm and I was spun back round and pulled into his chest, sighing heavily I looped my arms around his waist and let him squeeze me tight like he always did whenever he was drunk or high.
Pulling back his hands sloppily cupped my face and he kissed me softly, I laughed lightly at how gentle he was with his kisses baring in mind the state he was in.
"Beautiful." He whispered, kissing me once more before pulling away, I tapped his hips once lightly before spinning on my heal and heading out the door.
Within the next week the bet was exposed, and I had spent every single minute crying my eyes out. I felt pathetic, used, vulnerable. All because I cared for a boy who just used me for a cheap laugh with his friends.
Anger took over me on the Labour Day weekend and I had bounded round to the Dilaurentis house late in the evening, hoping to catch Jason so I could give him back all the shit he had left at my house that was his.
I wandered round to the back of the house and decided I'd head into the house from the back porch, it was a nice night. My hand gripped around the bag I was carrying as I gazed around the Dilaurentis garden; until a shadow flickered across a bush nearby me.
I jumped back and turned round quickly, only to be met with Alison, hands on hips, gazing at me as if I was pathetic.
"Jesus Ali!" I gasped and clutched my chest, she smirked, looking back and forth from her house to me.
"I thought I told you to stay away from Jason?" She asked venomously, I sighed heavily and looked to the side.
"It's a good thing I'm only here to give him back his stuff then huh?" I scoffed, holding up the bag and waving it slightly. Ali raised a brow.
"You know you shouldn't really be wandering around at night, there are some evil people in the world." Her fingertips twirled a strand of her curled blond hair around.
"I could say the same for you." I bit back a small smirk as Ali looked irritated.
"Aren't you supposed to be with the girls?" I asked.
"They fell asleep about twenty minutes ago, I got bored." She shrugged, placing her hands back on her hips.
"Whatever, tell Jason his stuffs here, I'm going home." I mumbled, placing the bag onto the porch before beginning to turn away but her voice halted me in my position.
"I warned you that he was gonna hurt you in the end." Ali called smugly. I shrugged it off and headed back down the side of the house, it wasn't until I heard voices behind me once more that I stopped and glanced back.
I couldn't pin who the voices were, but I heard Alison talking, there were two other voices but they were too quiet for me to figure out who they were.
Taking a small step back towards the back garden I stopped immediately as a branch snapped beneath my feet. There was no way I could make it back there without being heard.
Two thumps, loud thumps, echoed around the garden, and I clasped a hand over my mouth, what the fuck was that? Someone gasped, a woman, I don't know who.
I took that as my opportunity and I dashed down the side of the house out towards the front, bounding down the pathway past the Hastings house, towards my own at the end of the street.
Jason didn't even know that I was even there that night, so when I was questioned by the police the next couple of weeks after, it went like this:
"I was at home all evening, my parents had been out for their anniversary meal, no one came by and I didn't hear anything."
༄
"Quinn..." Spencer sighed heavily, I fiddled with the bracelets around my wrist and kept my gaze downward. Em placed a hand on my knee, looking up to meet her gaze she sent me a small reassuring smile.
"It wasn't until the police started confirming how she did, hit to the head, I literally heard her being murdered. And I did nothing about it." A tear escalated down my cheek that I didn't have the energy to wipe away.
"No, no it's not your fault, whoever it was could've been dangerous, they could've hurt you!" Aria knelt down on the floor in front of me, grabbing my hands and cradling them in hers.
"If only I just took a few more steps forward and peered round the building, we'd know who killed her." I shook my head slightly.
"So was Ali really against you and Jason together that whole time?" Hanna asked, I glanced up at her and nodded.
"Do you guys think that, maybe that could've been why Jason killed her?" Spencer asked, I reared back and snapped my head over to her.
"What? Jason?" I hissed, she shrugged in defence.
"No way, he couldn't even walk properly let alone kill his sister, we're not going there." I defended, sitting back and folding my arms over my chest.
Hanna's phone pinged and she groaned as she read the text on her screen. "I need to go, but let's do this another time okay?" She suggested, picking her doll up and heading out the door.
"Yeah, we've got way more to worry about right now than who could've been with Alison that night." Em said softly, she offered me a hand to help me stand up, I grabbed my doll and took one more look at it before placing it back in the box. I was glad I'd done my task already, in a way I felt lighter, like some sort of guilt and betrayal had lifted from my shoulders.
༄
My dress fell to just above my knees, it was a pale orange and had a square neckline, I twisted the bracelets round on my wrist, Spencer had completed her task and Aria had confronted Jackie, whether that meant she'd go away or not, we didn't know...
"Em where are you?" Aria hissed into her phone as she tried calling the girl over and over. Craning my head over my shoulder I glanced around the church, I didn't know who majority of the people here were, most of them being friends of Kate and Isobel.
"Hanna said that Emily left before she did." Spencer mumbled, checking the time on her watch for the millionth time today.
"I'm worried guys." Aria whispered, I leant forward to face her as Spence sat between us.
"You're not alone." I whispered back.
The ceremony started and the doors had closed, so if Em was going to show up late, she'd sure make an entrance.
I was listening in and out of the marriage officiant talking, some of it going in, other parts blowing over my head. "-But let each of you love one another, but not make a bond of love, let it be as a moving sea between the shores of your souls." The officiant spoke as he read from the small book before him.
"Fill eachothers cup, but drink not from one cup, give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf."
Hanna turned to face us and mimed a "Where's Emily?" To which we each shrugged.
"-But let each one of you be alone, even as the-"
"-Isobel." Hanna interrupted the officiant, all eyes panned on her.
I held my breath as Isobel turned round to face her, her father glared at her as if to say 'What are you doing?'
"Can I...talk to you for a moment?" Hanna asked quietly. Isobel furrowed her brows slightly.
"Uh, Hanna whatever it is, it can wait." Her dad mumbled. A few members of the audience murmured under their breaths.
"Um, no it can't dad." Hanna retorted.
"Ahem, let's go into the rectory." Isobel suggested, heading down the few steps towards the room at the side of the church, Hanna trailed behind, glancing at us quickly.
"I think Hanna's about to need a getaway car." Spencer whispered.
"Yeah let's go." Aria mumbled as we each slowly stood from our seats and slinked out of the church.
༄
Hanna came rushing out the church once we'd piled into Spencer's car and pulled up outside the front. "475 Grove road." She panted holding her phone out to show us the text she'd received from A.
"I know where that is, let's go." Spencer slammed her foot down on the gas and we darted down the road.
The sun had begun to melt down the sky as its casts of orange and pinks decorated the horizon. "Do we think Emily's there already?" I asked, watching out the window as we made our way onto a mudded road, trees all around us.
A large barn came into view and so did Emily's car parked outside of it.
"There!" Aria pointed, Spencer pulled up and switched the ignition off. Each of us scrambled out of the car.
"Emily!" I called, bounding over to the girl, she was lying down out cold, my hands gently touched her shoulders, "Em! Em!" We all called, lightly shaking the girl to wake her up, there were no marks on her or anything.
Her eyes fluttered open and she slowly sat upright, I gently supported her back, "What happened?" Aria asked.
"She's still alive." Em gasped, Spencer tucked a chunk of hair behind Em's ear.
"She was here." Emily glanced around in shock.
"Did you see doctor Sullivan?" Spence asked.
Emily lifted a hand up to the mouth and lightly brushed her lips. "I saw Alison." She whispered.
I glanced at Hanna who shared the same look of confusion as I.
After Emily felt okay enough to stand up, we stood huddled around together, the sunset had flipped over and nighttime arose, the only light being an old lamp above us hanging from the side of the barn.
"You blacked out, maybe you just don't remember getting the doors open." Spencer suggested, Em folded her arms over her chest.
"That wasn't there before." She mumbled, we followed her eyeline and glanced behind us to see a shovel leant up against the side of the barn.
Spencer picked it up and glanced down at it, a small slip of paper stuck to it that read "You'll need this." And set of coordinates.
"It's a set of latitude longitude coordinates." Spencer said.
"The text A sent me in the church said she was about to run out of air." Hanna informed us, I glanced around before looking back at the shovel.
"Did A bury doctor Sullivan alive?" Aria asked.
Spencer got up a compass on her phone, we begun following her as she tried to figure out where the coordinates were taking us. "Okay so left up here, then I don't think it's much further." She called back to us, I groaned as a twig scratched my arm.
"'Not much further' is like a marathon in these heels." Aria hissed, she was right, my feet were throbbing in pain.
We stopped at an opening in the woods because Emily felt a bit faint, I rested against a nearby tree and massaged the back of my feet, "Wait, this says this is it." Spencer read off her phone.
I moved over to the girls and looked around, "There's nothing here." I mumbled.
Hanna pointed her flashlight towards a dip in the mud before us, something was stuck out of the mud, it looked like a straw to me. "Guys." She whispered.
"Could she be under there?" Hanna asked quietly, a phone pinged and I gasped, clutching onto Aria who shot me a deadpanned look.
Hanna pulled her phone out, "She's still alive, we need to start digging!" She gasped, we ran towards the dip and fell onto our knees, Spencer stayed stood up and used the shovel.
"Doctor Sullivan!" I shouted, "Anne!" Emily called after me.
We used our hands to claw at the mud to dig up where she was, mud went up my nails and all over my dress but I couldn't care. We were frantically attempting to get her out now.
"Oh my god! Those are her boots!" Hanna almost screamed as the tips of two boots came into view.
"Doctor Sullivan!" Spencer shouted.
Soon we had dug loads up and a face came into view, I screamed but stopped immediately once I realised it was a mask. "What the hell?" Aria gasped.
Massive headlights panned down on us from above as a helicopter whirred above us in the sky.
Loads of police officers came running towards us, shouting for us to stay put and put our hands in the air; the rest of it was a blur. It was a set up.
༄
The room we were held in was kinda cold, I felt sick to my stomach, "I thought Detective Wilden was fired." Hanna mumbled.
"He was suspended for his actions, but he's been reinstated as the Chief officer in this investigation." Mrs Hastings informed us, "how could that happen?" Spence asked, leaning forward.
"He has evidence to back up his allegations." Mrs Hastings shrugged.
I turned round to face the officer stood in the corner of the room, "Can I make my phone call now?" I asked him quietly.
"Sweetie your parents are already here." Veronica said softly, I turned back to face her as I arose from my seat. "I should tell my boyfriend, he'll want to know." I mumbled shamefully.
The officer led me out of the room and I kept my head down, I could hear my Mothers voice across the room but I daren't look at them.
Slumping down in the seat with a telephone in front of me, I punched in Ledgers mobile number and lifted the phone up to my ear.
"You've reached Ledger, leave a message after the-" a tear trickled down my cheek as the beep went off, "Ledger it's me, Im in a bad situation right now and I just wanted to say I love you, and I'm sorry." I cried quietly.
The phone beeped but I kept it held up to my ear as I didn't want to go back into the room just yet, I wiped my face and looked up, Jason stood across the room staring at me.
"Jason?" I whispered, He made a beeline towards me despite the shouts of officers trying to get him to stay over where the other visitors were.
"Quinn, oh god." He sighed heavily as he reached me, grabbing the phone out of my hand, throwing it onto the table and pulling me tight into his chest. I crumbled against him, his arms tightly stayed wrapped over my shoulders as I sobbed into his collarbone.
"Mr Dilaurentis, let go of her this instant!" An officer shouted.
"Hey, fuck off alright!" Jason pulled me back away from the officer who tried to grab me. I slowly moved my arms around his waist and clutched onto the back of his jacket. Jason leant his head down to my ear, his hot breath fanned my neck, "I don't believe that you did anything bad." He whispered and tears profusely spilt from my eyes once more.
I was soon yanked away from him and put into handcuffs, Jason tried to lunge forward but was grabbed back by two officers holding each one of his arms. His eyes burnt into mine and he nodded slowly, I sent him a small smile before bowing my head to the floor.