Alison walked into her apartment at the end of the day. She realized Emily's keys were sitting in the bowl on the counter by the front door.
"Em, I'm home!" She yelled.
She expected Emily to answer the minute she screamed out, like she so usually did, but only silence hung in the air.
Alison figured she might've been asleep on the couch. She kicked off her heels and walked through to the living room where the television was off and the pillows practically untouched.
Alison felt confused. Where the hell was she? She snuck around to the bedroom and saw the bed fully made from the morning and the bathroom light was off.
"Emily?" Alison asked, slight panic in her voice.
She walked swiftly into the room and pulled out the drawers to find they had been cleared of all of Emily's clothing. Alison checked the closet. Emily's boots and military dufflebag with her dismantled rifle and other army gear was gone too.
"Emily?!" Alison screamed through the house, tears streaming down her face.
Where had she gone? And most importantly, why the hell did she leave?
----------------------------------------------
Emily checked into her room at The Radley and plopped onto the bed. She had started to feel panicked, yet no tears began to fall.
Mermaid, what are you doing? You know I'm not safe without you here, The Other Alison begged.
"Shut up!" Emily yelled.
She picked up a lamp that was sitting on the dresser by the hotel's beautiful King sized bed and chucked it across the room so that it shattered against the door.
Don't you yell at me. That's not going to fix anything Emily. You better watch yourself, The Other Alison threatened.
"Shut the fuck up!" Emily yelled again, enraged.
Or what, Emily? What are you going to do about it?
"GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD!" Emily yelled again as she picked the flatscreen TV up and chucked it against the wall, the screen cracking in multiple places.
Oh hon. You're going to have to try a lot harder than that.
Emily began to unzip her duffle bag ferociously and found the parts of her rifle. She quickly assembled it, her fingers shaking as she loaded the bullets into the magazine.
She moved the barrel so that it was under her chin and clicked the safety out of place.
"Get out... Please... Please leave me alone," Emily begged, eyes closed. She fingered the trigger.
It'll all be over soon, Mermaid. All you have to do is just pull the trigger, The Other Alison cooed.
Just then, the door kicked open.
Hanna burst into the room, her eyes ablaze.
"EMILY!" She screamed.
Emily sat still shaking, her expression stony as Hanna yanked the barrel out from underneath Emily's chin.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU FUCKING THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Hanna shouted as she slapped Emily across the face.
Emily held her cheek and lay against the blankets of the bed, her mind dead. She felt as though she could die, every inch of her soaked in emptiness.
Hanna watched her worriedly and pulled her cellphone to her ear. "Yeah, I found her. She's okay, I think. Come as soon as you can. It's not good."
Aria and Spencer ran in, their eyes searching the room frantically.
"Oh thank God. You found her. Ali's been blowing up my phone bawling her eyes out for the past hour," Aria said.
"Yeah, mine too. I just got off the phone with her," Hanna said.
"Why is your rifle out?!" Spencer demanded.
Emily was still laying on the sheets, staring at the walls. She felt as though she could cry, yet she didn't. As hard as she tried, it didn't come out.
"Emily!" Spencer yelled again.
"She won't talk. She tried to shoot herself," Hanna concluded as she noticed Emily's poker face.
"What?!" Spencer and Aria said together.
"I found the gun under her neck. If Ali hadn't gone home and noticed she was gone, I wouldn't have looked for her. The doorman told me she checked in," Hanna said again.
"Emily. You have worried Ali sick. You've worried us all. Why would you try to kill yourself?! We're your best fucking friends! What about us?! What about your mother?! What about Alison?!" Spencer shouted.
Emily flinched at the sound of her name. Alison. God, it drove her crazy.
"I just got a text from Ali. She's on her way over here," Aria said.
"No," Emily croaked.
All three girls turned to the fourth lying on the bed incredulously.
"No? No?! Are you insane, Emily?! This is the girl who is in love with you. You left her, didn't even leave a note, and tried to just commit suicide!" Spencer shouted.
"She can't come here! She can't see me like this!" Emily hissed.
"You know what? Too fucking bad, Emily. Boo hoo. Stick a dildo up my ass and call me Goober," Hanna started.
"Um... Hanna... I don't think that's really pertinent to the subjec-," Spencer interrupted but Hanna cut her off.
"No. Emily, Ali loves you. Okay? I don't give a shit what type of excuse you make. She has cleared everything for you. You don't get to make whatever call you want. It's not just yours to make," Hanna said.
"She has a fair point there, Em," Aria agreed.
They heard the rushing of heels as Alison stumbled in, her puffy red eyes growing wide at the sight of the broken objects strewn across the floor and the fully loaded military grade rifle that Spencer was now holding.
"Spence... What is that?" She croaked out disbelievingly.
"Ali," Aria began.
"No... No, she wouldn't," Alison had begun to cry again.
Emily sat up on the edge of the bed and saw how broken Alison looked. Her face seemed gaunt and her eyes were sallow. Everything about her screamed misery.
"Ali," Emily barely whispered.
"Do you have any other weapons we need to know about, Emily?" Hanna asked angrily.
Emily gritted her teeth. "There's a handgun in the bottom of the bag in the secret side pocket. Unloaded."
Spencer dug around in Emily's Army duffle bag and pulled it out slowly. "This isn't modern military," she said.
"It's my father's. From when he was on tour," Emily said flatly.
"We're going to leave you two to talk things out," Aria said as she steered a very angry Hanna and Spencer out of the hotel room.
Alison stepped over the broken television set and sat down in one of the chairs by the desk in the corner, her expression emotionless.
"Ali," Emily began.
"Shut up Emily," Alison said shortly.
"Ali," Emily said again.
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Alison screamed as she stood up to Emily's chest and slammed it with both of her fists.
"Ali... Ali please," Emily begged as she tried to grab the blonde's flailing fists from inducing egg sized bruises. She wanted so desperately to cry in defeat. Why couldn't she?
"YOU TRIED TO LEAVE ME!" Alison was wailing now.
"Ali, baby. Please listen to me," Emily said again.
Alison continued to push Emily away as Emily tried to get her to look her in the eyes.
"Alison Dilaurentis, I love you," Emily said.
Alison collapsed into her arms and cried into her chest, her tears soaking Emily's shirt.
"I'm sick, baby girl... I don't want to admit that but I am... You're not safe around me. I had to leave," Emily admitted as she thought back to her conversation with Rollins.
"I'm safest when I am with you. Please, Emily... I love you more than anything in this world. Don't leave me... Please, God, don't leave me. If you want to kill yourself, come to me... I'll help you... I love you for gosh sakes. You're all I have left," Alison sobbed.
Emily pulled Alison off of her chest and lightly kissed her lips, the heart in the center of her chest finally beginning to ache.
"I love you. Shh... You're safe now," Emily whispered.
She sat like that for hours on the edge of the bed with Alison clinging to her, too afraid to let go, and too afraid to be alone.
But Emily couldn't help but think she was still simply better off dead or gone.
Alison would never truly be safe until she was.