"SO, how do I look?" I beamed, placing my hands on my hips and swaying side to side. Ledgers eyes cast up from the newspaper he was holding, they lit up at the sight of me and a grin made its way across his face.
"You look beautiful." He stood up and sauntered over to me, I chuckled and wrapped my arms loosely around his neck. "What am I gonna do without you tonight?" I pouted, "I'll try get off early as possible but, no promises sweetheart." Ledgers grimaced.
He'd been called into work last minute when we'd had this night planned for ages, I had to have a last minute costume change too as I was now going solo. The theme us girls were going for were famous movie stars but as I couldn't think of any, I decided to go as a woman from the 60s.
"What time does the train leave?" Ledge asked, moving across my kitchen and helping himself to a glass of water. "I think it leaves at six? I'm not too sure, but I'm going to head over to Aria's and we're going to go together because Ezra cancelled on her too." I sighed, glancing at my reflection in the window and readjusting how my hair sat.
"You ready to go now?" Ledger placed his glass in the sink and grabbed his keys off the counter, I hummed in response, grabbing my phone and bag before trailing behind him out the door.
༄
Aria and I sauntered into the brew, a flash of light flickering across us as Lucas stood by the entrance with his camera. "Wonderful ladies." He smiled sweetly to which we returned.
"Are the others here?" I asked Aria, looping my arm through hers as we glanced around the room in search for the rest of our friends. "I don't think so." She mumbled.
"The shuttle for the ghost train is leaving in five minutes, we have plenty of shuttles so don't panic if the first one is full." A man's voice called over the PA speakers.
"Hey look! there's Han." I pointed towards the entrance as Hanna strutted in, white halter neck dress and her striking blonde hair curled up into a bob.
"Oh my god, you look amazing!" Aria and I gushed as Hanna stopped before us. "Oh...no big, I just put it together, barely took six hours" The blonde shrugged, humble as always.
"Who are you again?" Han asked Aria, "Daisy, from the Great Gatsby."
"The movie?"
"No...the book." Aria grimaced. "Oh, where's your author?" Hanna asked. "Ugh, Ezra had to cancel on me." She sighed heavily.
"Great! Well, I mean...now I'm not the only one without a date, so." Hanna retorted. "What about you Quinn? Where's Ledger?" She asked.
"Got called into work last minute, so that's three of us going solo." I shrugged. "Well I think that we make a perfect trio." Aria chuckled, linking both her arms through mine and Han's as our gazes re-fixated on the doors.
Noel Kahn moved over to us and eyed us suspiciously, Jenna's hand in his, funny how she was a pirate and had one eye patch on, when everyone much preferred her with two eye patches on.
"You guys on your own? What a shame." His sarcasm made me want to punch the smug look clean off of his face. "What are you doing here?" I asked sternly. "Nice to see you too." Jenna smirked, looking me up and down, I scoffed at her. Pathetic bitch.
"I thought you always threw your own Halloween parties?" Aria asked Noel, "this year I decided to let someone else do the work, so I could concentrate on what's really important." His eyes travelled over to Jenna before he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss. Hanna fake gagged while I grimaced at them both.
They soon left us and we each looked around the room for any more of our friends arriving, my eyes settled on someone stood across the brew dressed in a long brown costume with some sort of a baby ghost or skull mask covering their face. A shiver ran across my upper back and I looked away immediately.
"How could you possibly think that we would be the same thing?" Spencer strolled over to us with a grin plastered on her lips. "Spence you look beautiful." I beamed at the brunette who returned the compliment back to me.
"Did Garrett ever come back?" Aria asked her quietly, Garrett had shown up to Spencer's house earlier on, informing her that they needed to talk but Toby interrupted so she never got to hear what he had to say.
"No." Spencer hummed, crossing her arms over her chest, "did you call his house?" Hanna asked.
"His phones been disconnected, I don't know where he is now." Spence shrugged lightly.
I excused myself from the girls to quickly head to the bathroom, weaving my way in and out of the groups of people stood near the ladies door. A hand caught ahold of my wrist and I gasped, swinging round and coming face to face with Jason. Jason.
"I thought that was you." He smiled softly down at me, I nodded and gave him a once over, his dark blue jeans hugged his waist along with a white t-shirt and a collared red jacket on top. His hair styled neatly into a quiff with a chunk curling down onto his forehead.
"Hi...how are you?" I asked, "Alright, I haven't seen you in a while..." Jason's brows furrowed tightly as he took me in with his eyes, I gulped nervously under his gaze. What the fuck is wrong with me?
"I've been here." I shrugged.
"The shuttle for the ghost train is leaving in five minutes!" The PA sounded out on the speakers once more.
"I'll see you on the train?" Jason asked, "Yeah, maybe." I gave him a tight lipped smile before rushing into the bathroom.
༄
Us girls, Toby and Paige were the first to enter the shuttle, it was silent, no music, nothing. "Well this is fun." I mumbled under my breath to which Hanna snorted a laugh.
Clicking of drumsticks caught our attention and lights flicked on to a band at the front of the shuttle on a small stage. "You have got to be kidding me." Spencer gasped.
Now playing - Cuckoo by Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert and his band began performing one of their top hits, Han grabbed my hand and dragged me forward with her so we could dance, my white heeled boots stomping on the floor to every beat.
Hanna spun me under her arm before I turned round to Aria and held her hands as we swayed to the beat of the song. The crowd pushed me back away from the girls slightly and I felt someone brush up against my back and I apologised as I'd trodden on their foot. "No worries." Jason's voice whispered hoarsely in my ear.
"I need to talk to you." His hand lightly came onto my lower back, I stopped my movements and turned to face him, not realising how close the crowd had forced us together until the tips of our noses brushed. I jolted back away from him and what I thought was a flicker of hurt crossed Jason's expression, but it was probably disgust knowing him.
"Now?" I asked loudly. He nodded, looking down before intertwining our hands together and pulling me through the mass of people dancing.
We headed towards the back of a train before Jason stopped and slipped into one of the private booths, I hesitated before following in behind him, closing the door after me.
"How well do you know your boyfriend?" He asked, tone sharp.
"What? What kind of question is that?" I reared back, shocked as to why he even cared.
"I found this note, on my porch, about four or five nights ago?" He held out a slip of paper and I took it from him with shakey hands.
'Quinn doesn't look so good, maybe the doctor isn't a very good healer as he says...'
My eyes widened, A. This was referring to my injury after Ledger had hit me, which was completely healed now thank god. But still, nobody could find out about this, of course A was choosing now to screw with me.
"I don't understand, sorry." I handed him back the note. Jason hummed and sat down, placing his forearms on his knees.
"It was him wasn't it?" Jason mumbled, his eyes moving upward and meeting mine, I gulped and my mouth ran dry. "What do you mean?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest and keeping my frame tall.
"When you were bruised..." he gestured to his cheekbone where I'd been hit, "It was Ledger." Jason sneered at the sound of his name rolling off of his own tongue.
"Jason that is a fucking bold accusation to make...what?" I gaped at him, trying to keep my composure cool and act shocked.
"Don't lie to me Quinn...it's me, come on." Jason stood and lightly placed his hands on my upper arm, bending his head down so our faces were level.
"Exactly! It's you. You didn't give a shit about me in high school, so why the fuck do you now?" I snapped, he dropped his arms and leant back, running a hand through his hair and huffing in defeat.
"Because any man who lays a hand on you like that deserves to be put six feet in the ground." Jason hissed through gritted teeth.
"It wasn't Ledger. He loves me and I love him, I'm shocked you'd even think that he would do that to me." I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest and shaking my head slightly.
Jason sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look...I just don't trust him okay? I looked this guy up, did you know he was put in jail for six months when he was 19?" Jason's face scrunched. A pang hit my chest, maybe it was my heart crumbling at the thought. Truth is, I didn't know that about Ledger, what could he have done to be put in jail for six months? And how on earth did he get a job as a doctor after that?
"First of all, that was years ago, what was he even arrested and put away for?" I asked, trying not to lose my shit. The next words that came out of Jason's mouth caused my knees to buckle under my weight and I had to sit down before I fainted.
"Abusing his girlfriend."
I looked down at my hands trembling in my lap, Jason crouched to the floor and took my hands in his own, keeping his gaze fixated on mine whilst mine watched how his fingers lightly caressed my own.
"Quinn..." he mumbled weakly, weakly? I didn't even think Jason could do such a thing.
"Look, whatever happened in Ledgers past is in the past, he's changed now, and I know he would not lay a hand on me." I looked back up at Jason and watched as his eyes thinned quickly before returning to normal.
"I'm just saying Quinn, be careful...not everyone is who they say they are these days." Jason mumbled before letting go of my hands and standing up. He ran his palms down his jeans to straighten them out and cleared his throat.
"It's not your place to look through my boyfriend's life online and dig up stories from his past...you've really crossed a line there." Tears stung my eyes but I forced them back, not tonight.
"Alright." Jason nodded, he held his hand out to me to help me up but I stood up on my own. My head was spinning at a million miles per hour and the last thing I needed was comfort from the one man who had hurt me the most.
I moved to leave the booth but Jason caught my arm, "I care about you Quinn...is that so hard to believe?" He whispered, worry and concern leaked in his eyes, he was always good at acting.
"Yeah...yeah it is." I sighed before slipping out the door and leaving Jason by himself in the booth.
What the fuck was I supposed to do with that information? I couldn't even look it up online right now as I didn't have service on my phone, so that meant I'd have to confront Ledger himself on the topic. Maybe I didn't know him so well after all.
༄
I headed towards the middle of the shuttle as I'd seen Hanna rush through there a moment before me, Spence and Emily were stood talking in the empty corridor when I joined them.
"Everything okay?" I asked, "where have you been?" Hanna hissed, "I got caught up in twenty-one questions with Jason, sorry." I mumbled.
"What did he want?" Spence furrowed her brows, I shook off her question and she didn't ask again.
"Have you seen Aria?" Em glanced towards me, "No...not since we first came on here, why?" My face scrunched in confusion.
"Aria's missing, and I got this text about ten minutes ago...from A." Spencer handed me her phone to which I read the message that said: 'Guess who's not going to make it to the end of the line.'
I felt violently sick, my baby cousin, the girl I'd watched grow up and taken care of her and Mike since they were kids, I taught her how to do makeup, I took her to get her hair dyed for the very first time. Now A had their hands on her. And I wanted blood to get her back safely.
"Arias not gone, she has to be on the train." Spencer reassured us. "Unless she's not...anymore." Em mumbled, "No, no she's still here, we just have to find her." Spencer's game face came on and that's when you knew shit was about to get serious.
"Okay what about all that crazy stuff Garrett told you?" Hanna asked Spence. I shared a puzzled look with Emily, "what 'crazy stuff'?" We asked simultaneously.
"Garrett said that he saw Aria's Dad with Ali the night that she was killed." Spencer rushed out, my words got caught in my throat. That was my frickin' Uncle they're talking about.
"What and you believe him?" I scoffed. "We have to find her, why would he lie to us now?" Spencer retorted. I shook my head and looked away from them all.
"To mess with us! Everyone's messing with us." Hanna shrugged, "you can get a varsity letter messing with us!"
"Okay but he says that he has to leave town and this is what we needed to know." Spencer was growing frustrated that we each struggled to believe Garrett.
"Why does he have to leave?" I asked.
"Because he's afraid of something, or someone." Spencer suggested, "Yeah he's gonna be afraid of me when I get ahold of his lying ass." I mumbled, Han giggled at my remark.
"Look, no one can get off this train while it's moving, we have to find Aria before we get to the end of the line." Em informed us. "You guys...A is on this train." Hanna whispered nervously.
"A is everywhere." I folded my arms over my chest and rocked on my heels.
"We need Paige and Toby." Em suggested, "Caleb's on board too...he surprised me." Hanna smiled softly at the mere thought of her boyfriend.
"Okay well you'd better warn him, I'm gonna keep on looking for Aria and work my way back to Garrett." Spencer took off away from us, Emily went the other way. I steadied my shakey breaths from the intense amount of information I'd received from almost everyone in my life in the past hour.
"Hey, are you okay?" Han placed her hand soothingly on my forearm, I glanced up at her and sent her a somewhat reassuring smile, "yeah, erm...I'll talk to you about it another time." I nodded before walking away from her and towards the busier parts of the shuttle.
I pushed my way through the crowds in search of Aria, asking a few people here and there if they'd seen her. I saw Jason out of the corner of my eye nursing a drink and watching me intently before he made his way over.
"Everything alright?" He asked sternly. I looked over his shoulder at a brunette walking through the crowd but it wasn't Aria, of course.
"Fine...have you seen Aria?" I tried to keep my tone causal not to alarm him in any way. "No I haven't, if I do I'll let you know." He lifted his cup to his lips and sipped slowly, I noticed it was soda and not alcohol, much to my own surprise he'd actually kept on top of the whole no drinking thing.
"Thanks." I moved past him and towards the back of the train, there was no sign of her anywhere, not on the dance floor, the bathrooms or the booths. Nothing.
I peered into the last booth before leaving once I'd seen it was empty, a big hand clasped around my throat and squeezed. I gasped for air and swung my arms behind me ferociously trying to whack the person off of me. Turning round to face them I was met with some sort of Devil-looking costume, the person was big, much bigger than me. Tears sprung at my eyes as their grip around my neck tightened.
I reared my fist back and pelted it forward at the side of their face or mask...they stumbled away from me giving me a solid ten seconds to cough and splutter at an attempt to catch my breath. Their hand grabbed my arm and spun me round to face them and I was almost ready to accept defeat as I couldn't breathe, all I saw was a flash of red charging at the person and tackling them to the ground, fists swinging in all directions before the Devil-costumed individual got up and bolted out the corridor.
I sat back against the wall and heaved deep breaths, lightly touching my now-bruised neck. "Hey hey, what the fuck was that all about?" Jason's voice came nearer as he dropped to the floor beside me and lightly held the back of my head. "Q, who was that?"
"I...I don't know." I mumbled, a single tear slipped out my eye and Jason caught it with the pad of his thumb. He gave me another two minutes on the floor to catch my breath before he helped me up. Jason kept looking behind him to see if the attacker was going to make another attempt.
"I need to go." I whispered, Jason's brows furrowed in concern and before he could protest, I threw myself into his arms. I felt so vulnerable right now, perhaps this was why I was clinging to the man who'd made my teenage years miserable. Jason hesitated before his arms wrapped around my back and held me close to him.
"Thank you." I said against his ear before pulling back, rushing out the door and heading towards the back of the shuttle.
༄
I made it to the very back of the shuttle where the storage was held, only workers were allowed in there but the door was unlocked and I could hear frantic screaming and shouts coming from inside.
"Aria!" I shouted, pulling open the door and seeing Spencer, Hanna and Emily attempt to drag a long box back onto the shuttle that was dangling off the edge, almost about to drop outside onto the tracks.
"Aria!" Spencer screamed. I moved beside Hanna and pulled the edge of the box with all the strength I had left in me. Aria's sobs and cries echoed within the box, once we'd dragged it in Em ran forward and slammed the side of the trains door shut.
"Hold on Aria!" Hanna shouted.
Spencer used a hammer to wedge under the lid of the box before cracking it open, Aria jolted upright and slammed herself straight into my arms, she cried onto my shoulder whilst I tried as best I could to comfort her even though I too, was a mess.
"Oh my god." Spencer gasped, my eyes caught down onto the body that was lying in the box with Aria. Garrett.
After we'd managed to calm Aria down the train made it to the end of the line, Emily and Hanna had gotten help and the police now roamed the train in search of who might've done this. Everyone was questioned as they were getting off but a few of us had to stay back at the front of the shuttle. The girls and I, Toby, Paige, Caleb, Jason, Lucas, Noel and Jenna were here.
"They wanna take statements from all of us before they let us go home." Toby informed us, my knee bounced up and down, Jason took a seat next to me on the sofa and glanced over at me. I saw Spencer watching us curiously but she didn't say anything.
The doors opened and Aria was led in by an officer, her wrist bandaged up, I stood and embraced her lightly. "Are you okay?" I asked softly, "yeah, they wanted to take me to the hospital but I wouldn't let 'em" she said quietly.
"Look, I don't care what Garrett said about my Dad, he had nothing to do with Ali." Aria said sternly, I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one could hear our conversation, luckily everyone was too preoccupied with speaking to officers or on the phone to their parents. But Jason watched us all, he always seemed to be watching.
"Why would we believe Garrett for a minute?" Em asked rhetorically. "Okay straight answer, A killed Garrett yes or no?" Han asked. "Yes." Spencer nodded, I hummed an agreement, "Yeah but why?" Aria folded her arms and rubbed her hands against her upper arms.
"That was the whole point." Em sighed, "what point?" I asked, glancing over at her, "That was why A pushed us to do things that would get Garrett cleared." Spencer finished.
"What so he could get out of jail and A could kill him?" Aria asked, "Two members of the NAT club, dead." Emily muttered. "Two people who were in that room the night Ali was killed..." Aria added.
"What do we tell the cops?" Emily asked worriedly, "as little as possible." Spencer shrugged. "They've already figured something out, look at everybody in this train, they didn't just place us anywhere. Everyone in this cart has something to do with Garrett Reynolds." Hanna said frantically. She made a very good point.
The door slid open and our eyes cast towards it, Ezra strolled in and spoke to the officer in a hushed tone before Aria rushed over to him and dived in his arms. They spoke quietly to one another before hugging once more.
Noel moved over to us, "Why don't you tell the cops you did it, so the rest of us can go home." He sneered. "You know what? Can it, Noel." Hanna snapped.
"Shut up Hanna." Jenna scoffed, I moved in front of Han, "No you shut up, bitch." I eyed her evilly, I couldn't stand the girl at all. She enraged me to a whole new level.
"Stop trying to pull everybody into every mess you bitches make for yourselves." Noel hissed, Toby stepped inbetween us all and pushed him back. "Back off." He warned, Noel sized him up with his eyes, us girls moved backwards sensing what was about to happen.
"Or what?" Noel smirked, Toby shoved him hard causing Noel to stumbled into the ice table filled with cans and bottles of drinks, "You don't wanna know Noel!" Toby shouted.
Jason pushed his way through and put a protective arm over me, I looked at him, confused. He moved forward behind Toby and watched in case he needed to step in.
The boys swung at one another for a moment whilst officers shouted at them to stop. Toby shoved Noel once more and caused him to grab onto the top of the table which suddenly fell off the legs, causing ice to slide all over the floor and the drinks to roll along the ground. A black sack was underneath all the ice and it was perfectly clear as to what it really was. My head snapped over to Jason that moved closest towards it, no.
It was a body bag, Alison's body bag.
"Jason." I whispered, he glanced over at me with fear riddled over his expression. His eyes spoke a thousand words and I shouldn't have thought this but all I wanted to do was hold him until he felt okay. Probably the wrong thing for someone like me to be thinking about right?