MY head hurt. After receiving the video from A last night I didn't sleep for a second, the sound of the smack echoing in my ears.
To make matters worse, Emily basically hated all of us for good now, Spencer and Hanna had tried to dig up some form of evidence that could link Paige to being A by going through her bag when her and Emily weren't around; Which backfired immediately. So now Emily has taken somewhat of a 'spontaneous' trip to a cabin just outside of town with Nate.
I made my way over to where Aria and Spencer were sitting in the courtyard, perching myself sideways on the bench and tucking my bag between my legs on the floor. "Have you heard anything from Em?" I asked.
"Nothing, we tried speaking to her again before school but she wasn't having it one bit." Aria huffed, picking up her phone and glancing at it before dropping it back down on the table.
"God it feels awful but in reality we're doing the only thing possible! Em would do the same if the roles were reversed." I shrugged, turning my head to the side as Hanna came rushing over to us with a distressed look on her face.
"So things just went from worse to worser." Hanna sat down beside me and placed her bag on her lap. "That's not a word but...continue." Spencer mumbled, a faint smile painted itself on my lips at her remark.
"Paige wasn't in Spanish today, yo hablo sicko." Hanna told us, I had to shut my eyes briefly to stifle the giggle threatening to spill. "What?" Aria asked, "she went home sick." Hanna retorted quickly.
"Or is she at Emily's?" Spencer suggested sternly, "Okay I don't know about you guys but I'm really willing to take this to the cops." Aria shuffled in her seat anxiously.
"We need to think about this, Hanna's already on their radar!" I chipped in, "But we don't know what Paige is capable of!" Aria sighed.
"We should call her parents, tell them everything together." Spencer suggested. "Spencer's right, there's strength in numbers." Aria looked toward me and I nodded once.
We all glanced towards Hanna who looked unsure on the idea, "Alright." She finally agreed quietly, before pulling out her phone. Then suddenly one by one our text tones rang out.
"Oh for fucks sake." I mumbled under my breath.
"Stand down bitches, play it my way and Emily stays safe. -A"
I shared a quizzical look with Hanna whilst Spencer gritted her teeth together as if this was the final piece to loop all the holes in the plot together.
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My appetite felt non-existent as I attempted to eat the bowl of noodles Hanna had cooked for us all. I couldn't stop thinking about Emily, she's in so much danger but she doesn't know it. We all thought Paige was good for her especially after she lost Maya, but Paige is only going to destroy her completely and there's nothing we can do or say that will make Em believe us.
"Paige is just a monster that Alison created." Spence mumbled, placing her empty bowl on Hanna's bedside table. Aria scoffed, "She's been gone two years and we're still caught in her web"
Spencer's tablet beeped and I placed my bowl down on the floor in front of me, sitting up and moving over to them on Hanna's bed. "It's from A." Spencer picked up the tablet and opened the message.
"Let's settle this, Alison's grave. 10 pm. Bring Maya's bag." She read aloud. "There's an attachment, look." Spence clicked on the link and flipped her tablet to portrait so we could see.
"It's another photo from that night." Aria stated, the photo was of Spencer, Aria and I stood around the open grave. I sighed and tipped my head back, Han rested her hand on my knee and rubbed it soothingly.
"You guys..." Spencer handed the tablet to Aria, I leant over to look at the screen. "Another picture."
"Tell Emily and I'll leave you holding the bag." Aria read the text written over the photograph of a body bag. I felt like I could suddenly throw up all the contents of my stomach. "Is that Ali?" I asked timidly.
A door slammed shut downstairs and we collectively gasped. "What was that?" Aria and I questioned simultaneously.
"Do you think your Mum's home early?" Spence asked as Hanna abruptly stood from her seat and rushed to her bedroom door, we all followed behind.
My head poked around the door frame, "Mum?" Hanna called but received no response. A shadow flickered across the wall downstairs and Aria clutched my hand in hers.
"There's someone downstairs." Spencer hissed and shoved us all back inside before closing the door, I grabbed the nearest object to me which was a book and held it up as a weapon. Hanna grabbed her lamp and stood in front of us all as the footsteps grew nearer, and louder.
The doorknob turned slowly and we all gasped as Hanna reared her arm back ready to swing at whoever it was. Caleb strolled in and plucked a headphone from his ear, "what are you doing here? I almost killed you!" Hanna shouted.
"With a pink furry lamp Hanna?" Caleb asked sarcastically and took the lamp from her to place back on her dresser.
"No seriously Caleb what are you doing here you're supposed to be watching Emily's house?" Aria asked. "There are like a dozen reporters camped out on her lawn, her Mum is home, she's safe." He retorted.
"We heard from Paige and Mona." Spence handed him the tablet and we watched anticipating his response as his eyes cast across the screen.
"You guys aren't showing up there alone." Caleb ordered.
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"Can I stay tonight?" Ledger mumbled against my lips as he pulled me onto his lap. I leant back and sighed heavily, placing my hands on the sides of his face.
"I'm staying at Spencer's tonight, but you can stay tomorrow?" I retorted. "I can't tomorrow, Diem has her school talent show at seven."
"Oh okay, well how about Sunday? Mum will be thrilled to have another person to cook for." I grinned, Ledger chuckled, the vibration of his chest ricocheting through my entire body.
"Sounds good to me." Ledger tapped my hips lightly and I pushed myself up off of him. "Want me to drop you off at Spencer's on my way home?" He offered as he pulled his jacket on and ran his fingers through his hair, tidying it as I'd messed it up from running my hands all over it.
"No it's okay babe, I'll walk." I grinned before leaning up onto my tiptoes to give him one last peck goodbye before he slipped out my bedroom door and down the stairs.
I groaned internally at the task we had to face tonight, pulling on a black denim jacket and grabbing my phone and mini can of mace, I waited approximately seven minutes after Ledger had left to then head out to Spencer's.
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"Alright, the app is voice activated, so it'll record any sound that it hears." Caleb explained, I clutched my jacket tighter round my torso and my eyes fell onto my little cousin who tried to look brave and fierce but the slight sense of fear struck in her eyes if u looked close enough.
"And I can pick up the feed so I'll be with you every step of the way." He handed the phone to Hanna who nodded thankfully. "Caleb I think you should take Maya's bag with you." Spencer suggested. "It's our only form of leverage, and if she doesn't admit to digging up the body she doesn't get the bag."
"Alright I'm just gonna get out of sight." Caleb picked up Maya's bag and headed off away from us.
"So...what do we do now?" I asked quietly. "We wait for A." Spencer kept her tone sharp, she was so brave in these situations, I was about five seconds away from peeing my pants.
I spent the next (what felt like an hour) twenty minutes kicking twigs into a little pile on the ground before me. Hanna paced impatiently, Aria fiddled with the bracelets wrapped around her wrists, Spencer stood still with her hands in her pockets and gaze ahead.
"It's 10:40...I get Mona being fashionably late, but Paige?" Hanna huffed.
"Somethings not right..." Spence thinned her eyes in thought. "We're meeting A in front of Ali's empty grave, there is nothing right about this." Aria rushed out, "Amen to that." I mumbled.
"Who are you calling?" I asked as Hanna dialled a number on her phone and lifted it to her ear. "Nate." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, I noticed she does that a lot when she's anxious. I used to do the same.
"Hey Nate, it's Hanna, can you give me a call back? I just wanna make sure that you guys are ok." Hanna said before clicking off the call and onto the app that Caleb had set up for her.
"Caleb do you see anything?" She spoke into the speaker. "Nothing...not a car in sight" Caleb's voice crackled out, it was like a walkie-talkie kinda thing.
I wandered off from the girls to see if I could try see anyone nearby or hear anything that might indicate someone coming towards us. But nothing, the night was absolutely dead. I shuffled back over to the girls and caught the back end of Hanna complaining that Nate still wasn't answering the rest of her attempted phone calls.
"Maybe Paige sent us here to keep us away from Emily." Spencer suggested, "It makes sense...all of us in one place, Emily in another, so Paige could get to her." I chipped in, trying to piece it together in my mind.
A car started up and drove away from the cemetery, shortly after Hanna's phone rang. "It's Caleb," she lifted the phone up to her ear. "Hey, where are you going?" She asked.
Hanna listened to him talk for about a minute and then ended the call, glancing at all of us with concern lacing her expression. "We're going to Bayhead."
We piled into Spencer's car, me next to Hanna in the back as she phoned Caleb and told him to be careful and to keep her updated. Whilst Aria sat in the passenger seat holding her phone giving directions to Spencer on where to go. I leant back in my seat and gazed out the window, how is it that just over two years ago I was in my final year college, not a care in the world, no worries or doubts, hardly any fears...and now? My life is basically a frickin' horror story.
It didn't take long until Spencer took a sharp right and we pulled into a wooded area with a secluded cabin in the middle, a lighthouse not far away near the shore.
"It looks like this place is closed." Aria came up next to me, linking her arm through mine, I gave it a reassuring squeeze and smiled softly down at her.
"Wait no, there's a light on in that cabin." Spencer pointed to the wooden building ahead of us. She marched forward and lead the way, Hanna close behind.
The door to inside the cabin was unlocked, but as we walked in it was empty, obviously furnished and everything but no one in sight. "Em!" Spencer shouted. We panned out and searched the whole place, nothing, not even a trace of Emily here.
"They must be at Belmar." Hanna huffed as we re-grouped outside, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialled Caleb's number. Frantically running her hand through her hair when he didn't pick up the first or the second time.
"Okay, let's go!" We ran back towards the car and got in as quickly as possible.
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Fire engines, ambulances and police cars were lined up outside the lighthouse at Belmar. We rushed out of the car and rand towards the barrier that had been put up by the police. "Excuse me!" I shouted at an officer, he excused himself from a conversation with a civilian and moved over to us. "Can I help you ma'am?" He asked politely.
"What's happened?" I asked worriedly, whilst my eyes scanned over his shoulders for any recognisable faces. "A young man's been shot." The police officer informed us, my brows furrowed before I turned back to the girls.
"Oh my god." Spencer whispered, we glanced over to where she was looking and I immediately snapped my head over to Hanna in shock. Caleb was brought out on a stretcher, patched up with bandages all over his abdomen, an oxygen mask covering his face.
"No! Caleb!" Hanna doubled over as her legs buckled, I wrapped my arm tightly over her shoulders to keep her upright as tears profusely poured out of her eyes. "Shhh it's okay, he's gonna be okay." I mumbled into her hair as I held her close to my side.
Emily soon came into view, ditching the officer whom was interrogating her and rushing over to Hanna, pulling her into her arms and whispering apologies over and over.
I stepped back and moved over to Spencer, Paige glanced over at us, mascara smudged all around her eyes and tear stains on her cheeks. She nodded at us both to which we returned, we'd been wrong about her, this entire time.
Spencer drove us all to the hospital where Caleb had been taken, we sat in silence in the waiting room whilst Pam spoke quietly to Em. "I'm gonna get a coffee, I'll be back in a sec'" Pam smiled reassuringly at all of us before spinning on her heel and heading out of sight.
Our phones all rang simultaneously and I actually felt like bursting into tears. We all shared a look before lifting our phones up and glancing at the Blocked ID caller tag on each of our screens. I was the last to answer mine, the distorted grumble of a voice crackling through the speaker. "Emily, I owe you one."
Pam soon returned after we put our phones away, my eyes cast upward towards the entrance doors as a familiar face wandered in. Garrett Reynolds, along with Mrs Hastings.
Mrs Hastings sauntered over to us, Spencer leant forward, "Mom he's out of jail?" She asked anxiously. "Emily I'm so sorry about what you went through tonight...but I want you to know that you have helped an innocent victim." Mrs Hastings sat down beside Emily, but addressed all of us pretty much.
"Because of you, Garrett Reynolds is a free man."
My stomach churned at her words, and at the perfect timing Garrett glanced over his shoulder and smirked cockily at all of us. I visibly shivered.