season 2, episode 16
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"Here's some aspirin" Aria said, holding out two small tablets for Hanna, "You want me to make you some soup?"
The girls had retreated to Spencer's house after the party, none of the girls wanted to be alone after the events that had unfolded. They were all pretty shaken up, none more than Hanna.
The blonde was sat on the couch in front of the fire, wrapped up in a number of thick blankets as Sophie rubbed her back. Aria had been on the hunt for some aspirin, Emily was fetching the rest of the things from the car and Spencer was in charge of making the fire.
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry" Hanna mumbled.
"Here's your bag" Emily said, walking into the living room, "I think Caleb called, your phone was ringing"
Hanna didn't respond, she just stared blankly at the fire in front of her.
Spencer sighed, taking a seat next to the blonde on the couch, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Han, I know you may not be ready to talk about this, but the sheriff said their gonna drag the lake first thing in the morning"
"Lucas isn't in the lake" Hanna denied, shaking her head.
"Lucas didn't come back to shore Han" Sophie said carefully, "we waited"
"He knows how to swim, alright?" Hanna snapped, "he's out there somewhere, I can feel it"
"I-I still can't believe that Lucas would help A" Aria muttered.
"He had every reason to hate us" Sophie answered her. Although Sophie would admit it was weird to think about Lucas helping A, considering how close he had become with Hanna. However, there was no denying that he didn't have the motive to. Alison had ruthlessly tormented him when she had been alive, and although she hated to admit it, Sophie did too.
"Why not?" Spencer questioned, "Jenna did the same thing with Caleb"
"A knows Lucas is close to Hanna"
"No, I-I get it, I just-" Aria muttered, "I just didn't think Lucas could be that violent"
"He can be" Hanna finally said, her voice quiet, "Lucas was the one who destroyed Ali's memorial, I found out the night I got out of hospital"
The group fell silent at the revelation. Sophie's lips parted as she let out a gasp.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Spencer asked, her voice raising ever so slightly.
"Told me to keep a secret"
"Why?" Emily asked.
"To protect him" Hanna snapped back, "He's been through a lot, Alison really tortured him. And so did you Sophie"
Sophie didn't know how to respond, and it seemed like none of the other girls did either. The blonde felt a pang in her heart, she deeply regretted the ways in which she had treated people back when Alison was around and it was only now that she was a victim of merciless bullying that she realised the severity of her actions.
"Maybe it's time to start protecting you" Spencer said.
"I have a headache" Hanna said sharply, it was clear that she was done talking about the matter.
The blonde reached around in her bag, pulling out her pink bottle, unscrewing the cap in order to take the aspirin Aria had gave her earlier. The action went pretty much unnoticed by the girls, it was a seemingly normal thing to do. That was until Sophie caught eye of the murky brown water in the bottle.
"Hanna, don't drink that!" Sophie exclaimed, trying to swipe the bottle from the blonde's hands.
"Too late" Hanna grimaced.
"That's lake water" Aria stated, "how did that get in there?"
"The bag was outside in the car" Emily explained.
"But all of us were in here"
"Yeah, Lucas wasn't" Spencer snapped, "maybe he just wants to finish what he started"
It didn't even surprise the girls when Hanna's phone chimed moments after.
"No fun chugging lake water, is it? Choke on this, bitch –A"
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The five girls sat around Spencer's kitchen island the following morning. Following the A message and the events from last night, the girls stayed over for an impromptu sleepover.
Spencer was pouring out the contents of a tote bag onto the table, scattering them across the marble.
"A was definitely in my lake house"
"You found these in the attic?" Sophie questioned, reaching out and picking up a burner phone. She couldn't deny, it looks identical to the one that a dropped. There was another burner phone and another bunch of random junk.
"The picture Caleb decrypted off of A's cell phone of the dolls, that was taken at the lake house"
"Looks like A got pretty cozy" Aria muttered.
"Well, my family never uses that house after Labor Day, it's the perfect place to set up an evil lair" Spencer replied, "and look, just look at the date on this"
Spencer picked up a piece of paper, it seemed almost like a receipt of some kind. Hanna took the paper from Spencer, quickly skimming over the writing printed on it,
"Wait, that's around the time Caleb and I went down there" Hanna gasped, "A was in the lake house when Caleb and I were..."
"Fraternizing on my Nana's sofa" Spencer cut her off with a sarcastic smile.
"Okay who told?" Hanna said, looking between the girls.
"It doesn't matter" Spencer dismissed, "there are like four bedrooms up there with actual beds in them"
"Did anybody see anybody, hear anything?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, you were getting' busy" Spencer scoffed.
"He was probably trying to clean up after Garrett and Jenna" Spencer said, "And look, there's and address, Smitty's 801 Hyperion street"
"Smitty's?" Sophie raised her eyebrows, "What's Smitty's?"
"Restaurant? Bar maybe"
"Isn't Hyperion Street in Philly?" Sophie asked again, "I think it's not far from Daniel's new place"
"Do you guys want to go after school to check it out?" Spencer asked.
"Okay, yeah" Aria said after none of the girls replied, "If it means you're not going alone, then count me in?"
"Is it okay if I pass?" Hanna asked, "I still have the taste of lake water in my mouth"
"It's okay, me and Aria will go and check it out"
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"I could've sworn that my mom caught me" Aria sighed, "I told her I was making a date with Holden"
"Holden Strauss?" Spencer asked, eyebrows raised, "I thought he was in Portugal and most importantly, why were you calling Ezra from your own phone"
The three girls came to a stop once they reached Aria's locker, the brunette girl unlocking and starting to unload her bag. Sophie wasn't really paying attention to what the girl was saying at all.
"Because I couldn't think of a good excuse to get out of the house and use yours" Aria explained, putting her books into her locker, "not that it really matters, Ezra has stopped answering. My dad threatened to turn him into the police"
"What? Aria I'm so sorry" Spencer said sympathetically, "How are you?"
"I thought my parents would understand, or at least try"
"Can you blame them?" Sophie chimed in, ignoring the look Spencer was giving her, "I mean the age gap is bad enough and it would've been bad if you dated him after he quit teaching, but considering it was before is just unethical"
"What and your relationship with Jason was?" Aria snapped right back.
"First of all, you can't say anything about me and Jason after what you did" Sophie scoffed, "and I honestly don't get why you're surprised that your parents are acting like this. What did you think was going to happen? That they would just accept him with open arms? Get a reality check Aria"
"Okay guys can we not?" Spencer said, stepping in between the two girls before the situation could escalate further, "I want one day where you're not at each others throats"
"You know what, you're right" Aria snapped, slamming her locker shut before storming away without another word.
"Now I'm not saying you're wrong" Spencer said, turning to Sophie with a disappointed look, "but I'm saying you're wrong"
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The liars had all gathered around the kitchen island in Spencer's house, her kitchen was quickly becoming their designated meeting spot. They were debriefing, Hanna was telling them about how Lucas had snuck into her house in order to explain himself. Thankfully, Caleb had been there when he turned up, A's helper or not, they weren't entirely sure if they could trust him.
"So, wait" Spencer said, "Somebody else showed up at the greenhouse when we set that trap for A, it wasn't Lucas?"
According to Hanna, Lucas had spent money that Caleb had asked him to look after. When Lucas couldn't scramble the money up quick enough, he thought that telling Hanna might've helped soften the blow when he told Caleb, which is why he was calling the help line.
"So, what about Hanna's water bottle? It was filled with lake water, and what about the rowboat?" Emily asked.
"Lucas wasn't even in Rosewood" Hanna told them, "he was driving around all night trying to sell off his collectibles to pay Caleb back"
"So, we can cross Lucas off the A list" Sophie sighed, "Spence, what did you need to tell us?"
"Oh right" Spencer said, walking around the table to where her bag sat, pulling out a large, leather book.
"Hey Em, did you order dumplings?" Hanna asked.
"Two orders" Emily nodded as Spencer dropped the book in the middle of them, "what is it?"
"This is the sign in book from Jenna's blind rehab center"
Sophie reached out the flick through the book, pages upon pages of sign in sheets were written into the book. Names, dates, times – all in different handwriting.
"Wait this is the day before Alison went missing" Aria said, stopping Sophie from turning over the page.
The girls all leaned over to look over the page, and sure enough, it was dated the day before Labour Day the year Alison died.
"Jenna said that Alison came to visit her that day" Emily said.
"Her name isn't anywhere on here" Sophie mumbled.
"So, what, Jenna lied to us? The story she told us was fake?" Hanna asked.
"Who knows" Spencer shrugged, "Ali might not have visited Jenna, but look who did"
Sophie looked down at the book again, reading over the name in which spencer was pointing to.
Garrett Reynolds.
"And not only do guests have to sign in, they also keep track of when the patients leave" Spencer said, running her finger over the page, showing the girls the times.
Garrett had signed Jenna out of the center at 10:15 that night, however there was no time for when they returned. No one knows how long the two had been out that night, for all they knew, they could've got back at some point the following day.
This also meant that Jenna's alibi for where she was that night was now invalid. The girls had thought that Jenna was out of Rosewood the night Ali had died, but now?
Or at least the other girls knew that.
"I can't deal with anymore drama, I need food because if I don't eat, my head might explode" Hanna shook her head, reaching for the unopened Chinese takeout.
The girls nodded in agreement as Spencer closed the book and pushed it aside. Sophie reached for the plates, passing them out to the girls as they all reached for their own box of food.
"Okay but, Jenna said that Alison blackmailed her" Aria said, "Jenna also said that she stayed in rehab until the day of Alison's funeral"
"So, where was she the night Alison went missing?" Emily asked.
"She could've been anywhere"
"How much do you want to bet she was in Rosewood?" Spencer joked, "you've not said much Soph, you, okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good" Sophie nodded, "just putting it all together, you know?"
That wasn't exactly the whole truth so to say – but she couldn't tell the girls that. They didn't know that she already knew Jenna was in Rosewood that night but again, she couldn't exactly tell them how or why she knew that information. Not right now anyway.
Turning her attention back to the girls, she watched as Hanna spilled the food out onto her plate, clearly expecting it to be dumplings – but that wasn't the case.
The two blondes let out a loud gasp as Hanna dropped the box in shock horror.
"Oh my god" Sophie screeched.
On the white plate was a pile of dirt with pink worms wriggling about in it.
"Oh my god!" Emily shouted, dropping her own box to see the exact same thing pouring out.
"I'm going to be sick" Hanna gagged.
Of course, the dirt and worms were followed by the chiming of their phones.
BLOCKED NUMBER
'This is what live bait looks like. Now we're even, bitches - A'
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Word count: 2173