"Maybe it's time to start protecting you." -Spencer Hastings
The five of them were at Spencer's. Aria handed Hanna a pill. "Here's some aspirin."
"You want me to make you some soup?" Isabel offered, sitting up.
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry," Hanna muttered.
"You want a blanket?" Spencer asked, holding one up.
"Sure," Hanna nodded, and wrapped it around herself.
"Here's your bag," Emily sighed as she gave it to Hanna. "I think Caleb called. Your phone was making noise."
"Han? Now, I know that you might not be ready to talk about this, but sheriff said that they're gonna drag the lake first thing in the morning," Isabel said gently as Hanna stared at the flames in Spencer's fireplace.
"Lucas isn't in the lake," Hanna said firmly.
"He didn't come up to shore," Emily replied. "We waited."
"He knows how to swim, all right?" Hanna snapped. "He's out there somewhere. I can feel it."
Isabel put a comforting hand on Hanna's shoulder as Aria spoke up again."I-I still can't believe that Lucas would help 'A'."
"Why not? Jenna did the same thing with Caleb," Spencer scoffed, and Isabel shook her head at her. Too soon.
"'A' knows Lucas is close to Hanna," Emily added.
"No, I-I get it, I just... don't really see Lucas as being that violent," Aria responded.
"He can be," Hanna muttered, making the girls turn to her in confusion. "Lucas was the one who destroyed Alison's memorial. I found out the night I got out of the hospital." Isabel's mouth dropped open. Lucas?
"Why didn't you tell us?" Spencer scoffed.
"Told me to keep a secret," Hanna muttered.
"Why?" Emily frowned.
"To protect him," Isabel guessed, and Hanna nodded.
"He's been through a lot," she insisted. "Alison really tortured him."
"Maybe it's time to start protecting you," Spencer replied.
"I have a headache," Hanna said, shaking her head. She took the aspirin, and pulled out her water bottle, but then Isabel noticed there was lake water in it.
"Hanna, don't drink that!" She yelled.
"That's lake water," Aria added.
"Too late," Hanna gagged, pulling the bottle away from her lips.
"How did that get in there?" Isabel demanded.
"The bag was outside in the car," Emily frowned, and Isabel stared at her. Not an answer.
"But all of us were in here," Aria said.
"Yeah, Lucas wasn't," Spencer scoffed as Hanna handed her the water bottle. "Maybe he just wants to finish what he started."
Hanna's phone beeped, and she read the 'A' message aloud.
'No fun chugging lake water, is it? Choke on this, bitch. -A'
-
The next day, the girls met up at Spencer's. She dumped out a bag of items she found at her lake house, just cell phones.
"'A' was definitely in my lake house," Spencer scoffed.
"You found these in the attic?" Aria asked, staring at the phones.
"The picture Caleb decrypted off 'A' cell phone of the dolls, that was taken at the lake house," Emily nodded.
"Looks like 'A' got pretty cozy," Isabel muttered, picking up one of the phones.
"Well, my family never uses that house after Labor Day," Spencer shrugged. "It's the perfect place to set up an evil lair. And look. Just look at the date on this." She handed Hanna a reciept, which she stared at.
"Wait, that's around the time Caleb and I went up there," Hanna frowned, looking at Isabel. "'A' was in the lake house when Caleb and I were..."
"Fraternizing on my Nana's sofa," Spencer scoffed, glaring at her. Isabel smirked, and Hanna blinked confusedly at her.
"Okay, who told?" Hanna huffed, glancing between all of them.
"It doesn't even matter," Spencer said. "There are, like, four bedrooms up there with actual beds in them."
"Beds are overrated," Isabel shrugged, sticking up for Hanna so she wouldn't kill her for telling Spencer.
"Did you guys see anybody, hear anything?" Emily asked them.
"Em, we were kind of busy," Hanna muttered, and Isabel fake-gagged pointedly.
"Yeah, you were gettin' busy," Spencer scoffed."Also, why are you gagging?" She asked, rounding on Isabel. "I bet if Ali were around, and she knew what you were doing with her brother, she'd do more than gag."
"But she's not," Isabel said, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, so, wait. You said that Lucas went up in the attic like he knew his way around?" Aria replied loudly before Spencer could retort.
"He was probably trying to clean up after Garrett and Jenna," Spencer shrugged."And look. There's an address."
"Smitty's, 801 Hyperion street," Isabel read off the reciept.
"Wait, Smitty's what? Restaurant? Bar?" Aria frowned.
"Hyperion street. Isn't that in Philly?" Hanna said, titling her head.
"Do you guys want to go after school to check it out?" Spencer asked.
"Okay. Yeah. If it means you're not going alone, then count me in," Arai nodded, and they both turned to Isabel.
"Don't look at me, I still have a scar from the night 'A' used me as bashing practice," Isabel scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Is it okay if I pass?" Hanna muttered. "I still have the taste of lake water in my mouth."
-
Isabel was at Hanna's, watching as she cleaned out her water bottle.
"Just throw it out," Isabel scoffed.
Hanna was about ot retort when Emily walked in.
"Hey, Isabel, Hanna," she said, but frowned when she saw what Hanna was doing. "Haven't you washed that already? Four times?" She added, sitting down next to Isabel.
"Yeah, but it still smells wretched," Hanna gagged, sniffing it.
"Throw. It. Out," Isabel repeated.
"Where's Maya?" Hanna asked Emily pointedly.
"She's meeting me later... I think," Emily muttered, shaking her head.
"What's wrong?" Isabel frowned.
"Maya's keeping something from me," Emily replied nervously. "I mean, she keeps getting these calls and these text messages, and I can tell it's making her upset. But...I should just ask her about it, right?" Emily asked them as Hanna turned around from the sink. "I mean, I'm a part of her life again. I should know what's going on, shouldn't I?"
"God, why isn't anyone allowed to have a damn secret?" Hanna snapped, walking over.
"Because the calls, the texts?" Isabel repeated, quoting Emily's words.
"I'm starting to worry that it's 'A' going after her," Emily agreed.
"Em, just because we want to throw up every time our phone rings, doesn't mean everyone else is living in fear," Hanna pointed out.
"You think I'm paranoid?" Emily scoffed.
"I think that Maya could be bugging up for a hundred different reasons that have nothing to do with 'A'," Hanna shrugged. "And besides, if she is keeping something from you, maybe it's for your own good."
"What's got your wand in a knot?" Isabel frowned, and Hanna stared at her. "It's a Harry Potter reference..."
"Yeah, and, Hanna, promise me that you never take a job at a crisis center," Emily huffed.
"I'm sorry. It's just Caleb and I got in a fight, and I'm just trying to protect him," Hanna griped, walking back to the sink. "But it sucks being the girlfriend who knows too much."
"Yeah, well, it sucks just as bad being the girlfriend who doesn't know enough," Emily snapped, bringing her hand to her head.
-
It was later that night when Emily asked Aria for a fake ID at Hanna's.
"Don't you have your own fake ID?" Aria frowned, pulling hers out. She was all dolled up for her 'date' with Holden. "We all got new ones together."
"It's for Maya," Emily explained.
Aria raised her eyebrows at her. "I look nothing like Maya."
"You're 5'2" and brunette, blue eyes," Isabel said, taking the ID and reading off it as Hanna walked in.
"So is she," Emily added. "Minus the blue eyes. Anyway, it's the best I can do on short notice. Besides, we're going to the bluebird in Camden."
"Oh, Jersey? Yeah, that'll totally work," Isabel nodded as she gave the ID to Emily.
"Okay, so all the windows and doors are locked," Hanna informed them as she walked over.
"You can still call Mona, see if she'll sleep over," Emily suggested.
"She's mad at me, too," Hanna scoffed.
"Well, maybe Caleb will calm down and come over later. How bad was your fight?" Isabel asked, knowing Caleb.
"Bad. He thinks Lucas needs our help," Hanna huffed, crossing her arms.
"Well, Caleb won't believe Lucas is dangerous until he knows what Lucas did to Ali's memorial," Aria pointed out.
"Yeah, well, I can't spill that without, like, spilling a million other beans," Hanna replied as she walked over to the dining table and sat down. "Meanwhile, I'm home alone and Lucas is out there waiting for me."
"You know what?" Aria sighed and walked over to Hanna. "I'm just gonna call Holden and cancel."
"Maybe Maya can go with someone else," Emily added, walking over, too.
"Yeah, and I'm free," Isabel offered.
"No. No, my mom will be home before you and Maya leave, Aria, don't cancel just for me, and Isabel, you might wanna get home fast," Hanna insisted, looking outside at the pouring rain and lightning.
"You sure?" Emily frowned.
"Yeah," Hanna assured them, looking down. "I'll be fine if someone's around."
"Okay," Isabel sighed skeptically. With one final glance at Hanna, she finally picked up her stuff. "Well, I should probably get going, then."
"Me too," Aria agreed.
"I'm gonna go upstairs and get changed," Emily said. "Scream if you need me." Isabel and Aria stared at her. "You know what I mean."
Isabel hugged Hanna before leaving, saying, "Reme,ber, if you ever change your mind, I'm just one call away."
-
Later, Isabel met up with the other girls after Hanna had talked to Lucas.
"So wait, somebody else showed up at the greenhouse when we set that trap for 'A'?" Spencer frowned after Hanna had explained everything. Emily walked over with some takeout, but Isabel was too agitated to think about eating. "It wasn't Lucas?"
"What about the water bottle?" Emily asked, opening the bag.
"And the stunt with the rowboat?" Isabel added.
"No, Lucas wasn't even in Rosewood," Hanna explained. "He was driving around all night trying to sell his collectibles to pay Caleb back."
"Spence, what did you want to show us?" Aria asked, looking up at her.
"Oh, yeah," Spencer said, dashing to get her purse.
"Hey, did you order dumplings?" Hanna asked Emily.
"Two orders," Emily nodded, handing them to her. "And one steamed veggie box, and one rice without soy sauce," she added, giving Isabel her food.
"What is this?" Isabel asked when Spencer set down a log of some sort onto the table.
"This is the sign-in book from Jenna's blind rehab center," Spencer replied truimphantly.
"This is the day before Alison went missing," Aria realized, reading the dates.
"Jenna said that Alison came to visit her that day," Emily frowned as they scanned the book. "I don't see Ali's name."
"Wait, so that story she told us, that was a lie?" Hanna scoffed.
"Well, who knows, but that's not all. Look who did visit," Spencer replied, pointing to a name.
Garrett Reynolds.
"Garrett Reynolds. He was there for, like, what, 20 minutes that night?" Isabel read, looking back at Spencer.
"And not only do guests have to sign in, they also keep track of when the patients leave," Spencer said, pointing to where Garrett signed Jenna out.
"Garrett signed Jenna out at 10:15 P.M.," Emily read.
"And there's no time that they signed back in," Spencer added. "She could've been gone all night."
"Can we just look at this later?" Hanna sighed, rubbing her forehead. "If I don't eat something, my head is going to explode."
"Isabel, would you please pass those plates?" Spencer asked her.
"Yeah, sure," Isabel nodded, turning to take them out.
"Jenna said that Alison blackmailed her and that she stayed in rehab until the day of Alison's funeral," Aria pointed out as Isabel handed everyone a plate.
"So where was she the night Ali went missing?" Hanna asked.
"She could've been anywhere," Emily said.
"Well, how much do you want to bet she was in Rosewood?" Spencer scoffed. Aria gave them a knowing look, then opened her takeout. When she did, it toppled over and they all gasped as dirt spilled out. Not just dirt. There were worms in it.
"Oh, my God!" Emily gulped.
"Oh, I'm gonna be sick," Isabel gagged for the third time today. Spencer opened the rest of them, yet they were all the same.
Suddenly, Emily's phone beeped.
'This is what live bait looks like. Now we're even, bitches. - A'