Thursday morning, Chloe sat in the backseat of Melissa's SUV. Spencer sat in passenger's seat, and Courtney sat next to Chloe. All three of them were giving her concerned stares, except Melissa who'd been glancing at her through the rear view mirror. Yesterday day morning, Chloe had woken up in the woods behind her old house in Yarmouth. She already knew Ali and Nick had placed her there the night before. After knocking on the neighbor's door and asking to use their phone, Chloe revealed her presence to Rosewood by calling Spencer.
"Where are you, Chloe?" Spencer cried. "Everyone has been worried about you."
"I'm sorry," Chloe said. "I'm in Yarmouth, by the house where I used to live."
"Yarmouth? How did you get there?"
"I snuck out of the barn last night while you and Courtney were out with Melissa, shopping for townhouses." Chloe paused, pretending to be conflicted. "I miss Ali. I know she was a killer, but I know how much she loved me. And we've always had a special bond with each other. I just wanted to be close to her."
Minutes later, Spencer picked up Chloe and brought her back home. She barely listened to lectures given to her by her parents and her sisters, as well as Aria, Hanna, and Emily. When she came home, though, she learned the media had gone into a frenzy, reporting on the short disappearance of Chloe Hastings, formerly Chloe DiLaurentis.
And today was no exception.
Courtney opened her mouth, as though she were about to speak. But before she could say a word, there was a sharp knock on the passenger door. Chloe looked up and saw they'd pulled to the curb of Rosewood Day. Three reporters swarmed around the car, snapping photos and pressing their faces against the window. "Miss Hastings?" a woman called, her voice loud through the glass.
"What the hell?" Spencer said. "She was only missing for a day."
"She's Chloe Hastings. Of course there were going to be reporters when we got here," Melissa said, her hands still on the wheel.
Courtney took Chloe's hand and kissed it. "Ignore them."
Chloe pushed the door open and barreled her way through the throng. Cameras flashed. Reporters babbled. Behind them, Chloe saw students gaping, perversely fascinated by the commotion. "Did Alison kidnapp you?" the reporters called. "Do you know where she is?" "Is she actually dead?"
Chloe kept her mouth shut, but she knew the answers to all these questions.
She moved past them, gliding up the walk and bursting through the first available door, which led to the back stage of the auditorium.
The doors banged shut, and Chloe let out a held breath and looked around. The big, high-ceilinged theater was empty. Boat sets from South Pacific, the school's recent musical, were stacked in a corner. Sheet music was strewn haphazardly on the floor. The red velvet auditorium chairs spread out before her, every single seat folded up and unoccupied. It was too quiet in here. Eerily quiet.
When the wood floor squeaked, Chloe stiffened. A shadow disappeared behind the curtain. She whipped around, knowing exactly who it was. It's Ali. It's my big sister. She's here. But when she moved closer, there was no one there.
Chloe turned back to face the theater. She knew a presence was close by, watching her. She'd developed that sense when she was a very small girl, all because of Ali. But what Ali didn't know was that it was an advantage to have that feeling. And Chloe wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to outwardly say or do anything that Ali could see or hear. Yes, she loved Ali, and they were friends again. But she couldn't completely trust her.
Chloe took a deep breath and headed out of the auditorium. The halls smelled like freshly baked pastries from Steam. As Chloe approached her locker, she decided she wanted one—she was supposed to go with Courtney and Spencer to meet up with the others at Steam—but she was going to be meeting them there in a few short minutes.
She was going to make every moment with them count because now that Ali had let her go, she was going to say goodbye to each of them. And she was going to start with Aria.
Later that afternoon, Chloe stood in the foyer of the Byron and Meredith, Aria's dad and stepmom, purchased last year in January. She had to admit that the place was really charming. It was an old Craftsman-style bungalow on a secluded corner of the street with walnut-colored hardwood floors and quirky brass chandeliers and sconces. There was a little attic bedroom with great light for painting, which made it perfect for Aria to have as her room.
The only glitch was that the weather vane on top of Ian's house was visible from Aria's bedroom window. It also had a view of the barren woods where they'd found Ian's dead body last year. Chloe remembered the aftermath of everything: The police vehicles and search equipment were gone, but the ground was torn up in spots, and there were lots of boot tracks in the mud. Now that she'd known everything Ali had done, she couldn't look at the woods without thinking of Ali. And when she'd stood on the front porch earlier, waiting for Meredith to unlock the door, Chloe had sworn she'd caught a flash of someone disappearing behind a house at the end of the cul-de-sac. But when she stepped back to get a better look, no one was there.
Aria emerged into the foyer, slipping something into the back pocket of her skinny jeans. "Hi, Chloe," she said. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey," Chloe said. "I just wanted to stop by and see how everything was here."
Aria eyed Chloe suspiciously. "Are you okay? You seem...not like yourself."
Chloe shook her head. "I'm okay. I've just been thinking about a lot of stuff. Mainly stuff that happened last year." She paused and waited for Aria to speak. When Aria remained silent and continued to stare at her, she broke the silence. "The Valentine's Day dance is on Saturday."
Aria scoffed. "Don't remind me. Noel and I haven't been getting along lately."
Chloe cocked her head. "Why?"
Aria looked behind her, then back at Chloe. "It doesn't matter. We're trying to work through it, but I'm having a hard time with it."
Then, as if Aria hadn't said the last couple of sentences, she changed the subject. "So how are you doing?"
Chloe didn't speak. She knew how much Aria hated Ali after the Poconos fire had happened. All the girls did, including Melissa. Courtney didn't, though. She was disappointed in Ali because she thought that Ali was better. But after reading that letter, the one Ali had slipped under the door of the back bedroom, confessing to everything, it was very clear that she was still crazy. She was just pretending she was better. But why? Was she trying to manipulate everyone into thinking she changed so she could do terrible things and get away with it? Was she afraid Chloe might not love her anymore if Chloe knew what she'd done? Or was it both?
Chloe knew these were questions only Ali could answer.
"I've been good," Chloe answered. She thought long and hard about what she wanted to say next. "Aria, is it bad that I miss Ali?"
Aria looked stunned. "No, I don't think it's bad. Why would you ask that?"
"Because Ali was a murderer, and she'd done terrible things. But even then, I still loved her."
"You and Ali had a different relationship," Aria said bluntly. "For some reason, Ali was always good with you. Even before she got sent to the Preserve and was there for years, everyone at school noticed how she was with you."
Chloe took a deep breath. "Do you think Ali loved me?"
Aria gave Chloe a soft look. "I think she loved you in the only way she knew how."
It was silent for a moment. Chloe looked around the room, wondering if they were alone.
"By the way, Noel's here. He came by just before you got here," Aria said, breaking the silence. "Go upstairs to my room. I have an early Valentine's Day gift for you."
Chloe blinked, not expecting to hear that at all. She climbed the stairs and ducked into the small, cozy bedroom. It was the perfect bedroom, with skylights over the bed, a cushy window seat, and slightly slanted wood floors. Aria's stuffed animal puppets were strewn out on the platform bed her parents had bought for her at a warehouse in Denmark.
She was just about to look for the gift Aria had told her about, but then she heard a familiar voice come from downstairs. It was Noel.
"I didn't know, Aria," he said.
""Why? Because you love her so much and can't see how evil she is?"
"I don't love her, Aria."
Chloe already knew Noel did love Ali at one point. It didn't matter, though. Even now. He couldn't protect Ali from what would happen if Ali had done something horrible. Chloe would make Ali pay one way or the other. But as of now, they were friends. And Chloe hoped for Ali's sake it would stay that way.
Chloe snuck out into the hall and stood near the top of the stairs. She waited by the railing of the spiral staircase, listening to Aria's and Noel's conversation.
"Look, I loved someone who didn't exist," Noel protested. "I stopped loving her when I fell in love with you." He choked back a sob. "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't excuse anything. I understand if we can't be together. But I want you to know that I'll always regret what I've done."
His voice was so small and scared that it made Chloe's blood boil. She tried to think of Ali in a good light, but her anger was taking over again.
"I want you to tell me everything," Aria said in the toughest voice she could muster. "How often you saw Ali at The Preserve. Who else you saw there. What she said to you. If she told you . . ." Aria took a breath, as though she was trying not to burst into tears. "If she told you what she was going to do to us."
"I had no idea what she was going to do to you, I promise," Noel said fiercely.
"Fine. Then tell me at least why you started seeing her."
He sighed. "I don't know. I felt sorry for her."
"How did you know she was at The Preserve?"
"My parents had me talk to someone after my brother committed suicide. It was a therapist who worked in an outpatient building at The Preserve. One day, I bumped into this girl going in when I was coming out—it was Alison. She was really cagey, and I thought it was, you know, the girl I knew from school. The next time I went, she was there again—and I was really confused, because the sixth-grade field hockey team had a game that day, and Mason, who was watching the game, had just texted me that Ali had scored a goal."
Aria nodded. "Got it."
Noel paused to take a breath. "I explained to him that it wasn't Ali he saw, but that it was Courtney because Ali had left school earlier that year and hadn't come back. I started thinking about how Ali was always in and out of school at Rosewood Day and how no one ever knew where she was during those times she was supposedly out sick dealing with health issues. I kind of put it all together in my head as I was looking at Ali come out of the therapist's office. She realized it, because she waited for me after my appointment and confessed who she really was. She told me she was Courtney's twin, trapped in a hospital, blah blah blah."
"And you believed her?"
"Well, sure. She didn't seem crazy. Just . . . a victim."
"So that's where you guys got to know each other? Outside the shrink's office?" Aria asked
"No. After that, I . . . I visited her at the hospital." Noel sounded ashamed.
Chloe's hand made a fist. "How often?" Aria asked
"Regularly."
"Why?"
He twisted his mouth. "She made me feel heard. Important."
Sucker, Chloe thought. Ali—and Courtney—had a way of making you feel very, very special. But with Ali, it always for her own selfish needs. "And let me guess, she made it out like Courtney was the crazy one?" Aria spat.
"Pretty much. She said that she shouldn't have been in the hospital in the first place. She told me about how she'd been at the Radley, too, and how they'd been treating the wrong twin."
"You had no problem hanging out with Courtney, though," Aria pointed out. Chloe remembered how Noel had attended every party Courtney threw. He'd sat at the four girls' lunch table and winged Cheetos at Courtney's head. He'd partnered with Courtney for a three-legged race during the sixth-grade field day, laughing hysterically when they'd stumbled over the finish line. "In fact, in seventh grade, you even went out with her!"
Noel cocked his head. "No, I didn't."
"You did, too! I know because Courtney told you I liked you first—but you came back and said you liked her instead. She liked you, too—but then dumped you after a few dates." Chloe could remember the incident as clear as day.
Ali had been released from the Preserve for a weekend shortly after she got sent there the first time. Chloe watched her carefully. Until she turned her back for a few seconds, then Ali was gone. When she finally found her, she saw Aria talking to Courtney—she'd called her Courtney just before Chloe had gotten a few feet away from them. She'd heard Courtney say those things, but then she realized the truth. It wasn't Courtney who Aria had spoken to. It was Ali. Chloe knew Ali's voice from Courtney's. They both had husky, seductive voices, but Ali's had a hardness to it whereas Courtney's was soft and sweet.
When Ali turned and saw Chloe standing there, watching the whole thing, her face paled. "Chloe, I..."
"Courtney, let's go back inside," Chloe said, grabbing Ali's hand and pulling her back into the house. She dragged Ali into the kitchen, squeezing hard on Ali's wrist.
"Chloe, stop. You're hurting me," Ali said.
Chloe let go of Ali's arm and turned to face her. "I knew you were going to pull some shit like this. You tricked Aria into thinking you were Courtney so you could say something awful to her and have Aria think that Courtney was the one who said it."
"Aria's a loser, Chloe. She deserves it," Ali said.
Chloe slapped Ali hard across the face. "And you deserved that."
"You can't hit me," Ali said, her voice breaking.
"Sure, I can," Chloe said, slapping Ali again.
Ali grabbed Chloe's arms, but Chloe pushed Ali off of her. "Why do you keep choosing Courtney over me?" Ali howled. "She doesn't love you. But I love you. I just want us to be friends, Chloe. Why can't we be friends?"
"Because you're a crazy, psychotic freak," Chloe spat, pushing Ali and shoving her hard. Ali fell back against the wall, then she grabbed Chloe again. Chloe scratched Ali's face, and Ali screamed.
Ali grabbed Chloe's hair and pulled hard. Chloe made a growling sound as she grabbed Ali's hair and pulled even harder. Using all her strength, Chloe threw Ali against the kitchen counter.
This was her cue.
She ran up the stairs, and Ali chased her up. As Ali's hand snaked around her ankle, Chloe kicked her hard. Chloe made it to the top of the stairs, but then Ali caught her and grabbed the hem of her skirt, trying to pull her back. When they came face to face with each other, Chloe slapped her again for a third time, then a fourth time. Ali's eyes were filled with tears of anger and pain. Then, just as Chloe expected, Ali pushed Chloe hard, sending her falling down the stairs.
Seconds later, Courtney and their parents ran into the kitchen. "Alison!" Jessica shouted. "Look what you did!"
Chloe pretended to flutter her eyes open and closed, and as she did, she saw Ali looking down at her, fear and regret on her face. Ali fled down the hall, and Chloe heard a door slam. Ali must have gone into her room. Everyone else crowded around Chloe, making sure she was okay.
The sound of Noel's voice broke Chloe from the memory. "Courtney never told me about you. I never liked her. She probably said that I liked her just to piss you off."
"If you really thought Courtney was dangerous, why didn't you warn anyone?" Aria said.
It was silent for a moment. "Because she didn't really seem dangerous. I stayed out of it. Besides, Ali told me not to tell a soul the truth. I kept my promise."
"And that's why you didn't tell me? Your girlfriend?"
"I wanted to so many times. But . . ." Noel sighed. "I'm sorry."
"So, at the end of seventh grade, did you know that Ali was out of the hospital for a few days?"
Noel didn't answer at first. He probably wondered if Chloe was listening. "I went to the DiLaurentis house the day before graduation. I only saw Ali, though. I didn't see Courtney."
Courtney and Chloe hadn't been home that day. They were out at the King James Mall, spending some quality sister time together. Ali wasn't aloud to leave the house. So to prevent Ali from sneaking out and following Courtney and Chloe wherever they went, Chloe locked Ali's door from the outside. While they were out, they went into a bathroom stall and whispered the entire plan to each other. Technically, it was Chloe's plan, but she knew Courtney would go along with it. When everything went down, Ali would be blamed for doing something horrible, and she'd get sent back to the Preserve forever.
At least that's what Chloe thought.
"When Courtney went missing, did you suspect Ali?" Aria asked.
"No way," Noel said forcefully. "She seemed really happy that weekend, not like she was planning anything crazy. Then, when she disappeared the next day, I thought it was because of her health issues. I had no idea it was because she was planning on killing Courtney and Chloe and her parents sent her away because of it."
"Did Ali contact you when she was back in The Preserve?"
"She wrote a letter saying that sending her back to The Preserve was a huge mistake," he said. "She seemed so worried about Courtney and Chloe and so shocked that I fell for it."
"And you visited her again, for years."
"Yeah." Noel sounded ashamed. "Until Ali came back."
"Did you meet Tabitha Clark while you visited The Preserve?"
Noel swallowed hard. "I saw Tabitha around, but I didn't hang out with her except for this one time when Ali was released for a weekend. Her parents didn't want to see her, so she stayed with Tabitha in New Jersey. I took the train there and went to the movies with them."
Chloe's gazed darted toward the first floor where she'd left her tote on the kitchen counter when Meredith had let her in. Last night, after everyone had calmed down about Chloe going missing for day, she'd gone inside the barn, wanting to listen one of her vinyls. She sifted through the records and chose Britney Spear's In the Zone album. But as she was pulling the record out of the cover, a faded ticket stub fell out onto the floor. THE WOODS CINEMA, it read in purple ink, which was a theater in Maplewood, New Jersey, where Tabitha was from. The stub was a pass to a Spider-Man movie. The latest Spider-Man had come out the summer before Chloe had started seventh grade—a few months before Ali was released from the Preserve.
She turned the stub over. There was faded handwriting on the back, but Chloe could still make out the words. Thanks for believing in me! Next time, I'll get the popcorn.
The note was punctuated by two little doodles. Chloe recognized them right away. The first one was of a girl playing field hockey, her hands curled around a stick, the ball shooting through the air. The second one was a heart, and inside of it were the words Ali and Chloe. Those same exact doodles had been on Ali's Time Capsule flag. The one Chloe stole and never gave back. Chloe always knew where she'd kept the ticket stub, but she realized she needed to take it with her, especially when she was going to run away with Ali, because it was proof that Ali was capable of love and being good.
"Did you meet anyone else at The Preserve?" Aria asked.
Noel raised his eyes to the ceiling. "A girl named Iris. Super-skinny, really blond."
Chloe knew exactly who Iris was. She'd met her several times, and to be honest, she liked her way more than Tabitha.
"How about any guy friends?" Aria asked.
"I can't think of a single one. Why?"
"Ali had a boyfriend."
"I never met him."
"Did she ever talk about him?"
"Nope."
"So last year, when they let Ali out, she contacted you again, right?"
"We met once before that press conference."
"Where?"
"At my house. She said that everyone would know about her soon enough. And then you guys did. When all of you seemed so friendly with one another, I thought it was great. She seemed really happy, too. A happy ending."
"Did she tell you she lied to us? Told us she changed and wanted to be friends with us?"
"Of course not. Like I said, I had no idea until after the fire. I wasn't helping her in her master plan, I swear," Noel urged.
There was only silence again. Chloe listened, but Aria and Noel didn't speak again after that. She turned and went back into Aria's room. She looked around for the gift Aria mentioned. When she gazed at Aria's bed, there were two small paintings laying face up. Chloe looked at the first one, and another memory came to mind. The first painting showed Chloe walking down an alleyway. Behind her was a dilapidated wooden garage, and a pair of unblinking eyes peered through the glass of the garage's murky windows, staring straight ahead.
Back in November, Chloe had gone to Hollis, Pennsylvania, where Aria used to live. She was on her way to meet Aria at the art studio just down the street so they could hang out. Somewhere along the way, Chloe made a wrong turn and ended up in the alleyway behind the apartment building where Meredith's old studio had been. As she walked down the alleyway, she passed by a dilapidated wooden garage. A filmy shadow move behind the garage's murky windows. Then a pair of unblinking eyes peered through the glass, straight at Chloe.
Chloe stopped and turned to face the garage. But when she moved closer to the window, the eyes vanished, as if they'd never been there at all. She found her way back out of the alleyway and went to the art studio to meet Aria. After that, the feeling of being watched started to happen.
And she knew it was Ali.
Chloe could tell just by looking into the person's blue eyes. It was her big sister, watching her.
Chloe looked at the second painting. The background had a mixture of hot colors: red, orange, and yellow. But the orange was the most dominant.
Fire, Chloe thought.
There were trees in the background that appeared to be on fire, reminding Chloe of the fire in the woods behind Spencer's house.
In front of the fire and the woods were two girls: one with blond hair and one with red hair. It was easy to tell that the painting was of Ali and Chloe. In the painting, Ali wore her black hoodie, except her hood wasn't over her head. Chloe leaned close to Ali while Ali held her in her arms. Both of their eyes were closed, which made Chloe feel a sense of peace and safety. The painting would have looked different if they're eyes had been opened. Would Ali's eyes look sinister? Would Chloe's look mysterious?
Then Chloe noticed the angle of Ali's face. Her lips were pressed gently onto Chloe's forehead, as though she were giving her a kiss.
Chloe smiled and tucked the paintings into her arms. Then she bolted down the stairs and searched for Aria. When Aria reappeared in the foyer, Chloe hugged her tight. "Thank you so much, Aria."
"You're welcome, Chloe. I'm glad you like them."
Chloe pulled away and waved goodbye to Noel. He waved back, and then he wrapped an arm around Aria. As Chloe left the house, she thought about the other three girls and Courtney. Emily, she decided. I'll say goodbye to her next.
As Chloe started walking down the street, she thought about the ticket stub again. Ali had given it to her when Chloe had gone to see the Spider-Man movie with her, Tabitha, and Noel. She always knew that Ali wasn't truly evil. There was good in her, and Chloe was the only person who could bring out that side of her. And it was proven again when Chloe had been at the townhouse with Ali and Nick a couple of nights ago. They'd said things that showed Ali's true good nature while they thought Chloe was either unconscious or asleep. What they didn't know was that Chloe had been awake the entire time. And she saw and heard everything without them knowing it.