•
"For Whom The Bell Tolls"
There was more than one video. The memory-drive was full of them. Alison had them organised neatly in rows ready to be clicked on — ready to be used. One of them was — not by Alison but by A, in the exact way Alison had intended to use it. Alison had the videos and armed herself with them, ready for a war on her best friend. If Alison was alive, it would have been her who leaked the video of Halle.
The girls moved. Aria, Emily and Hanna all sat around the laptop, in a makeshift semi-circle on the bed. They were gripped by the videos and were determined to see each one, which meant watching Alison over and over again. It was like some twisted reality where even after death, Alison was still very much alive. She lived in video-form and was young for eternity.
That's immortality, my darlings.
Halle had her own videos, too. She was in a few. Sometimes there was just a glimpse of her, hardly a person of interest for the camera-lens. In others, the camera zoomed-in on her while she was in a party or she was hanging out with Alison in the DiLaurentis backyard that last summer. The video leaked on the school computers on there — in full, with no cuts. Halle begged them to turn it off.
"But if we watch it, we might be able to figure out who took it," Aria suggested.
"And have you watch me make a idiot of myself again? No, turn it off," Halle said. She turned her head from where she sat on the end of her bed and saw none of them moved to exit the video. Enraged suddenly, Halle snapped. "I said turn it off! I don't want you watching that!"
Hanna began, "But if we—"
"No, Hanna — it's not fair!" Halle exclaimed, cutting in as she stood abruptly. She was glaring at her friends with a fierce storm brewing behind her dark eyes. "How would you feel if your best friends watched the worst moment of your life on repeat — for a clue? You guys don't get it, it was bad enough the school saw that, I don't want you seeing it again. Now turn it off!"
Seeing her point, Hanna pressed her lips together and sent a small, sad smile towards Halle. "Turn it off," she said, and Aria closed down the window tab on Halle's laptop.
Halle sighed and said quietly, "Thank you."
They clicked on another. Instantly, Halle recognised Jason's voice among a bunch of chatter. She looked up when she heard it, towards the laptop. No one else picked up on it. Then again, no one else knew him intimately — the way she did. Music played in the background and there was a lot of fuzzy, drunken clatter; Jason's voice wasn't on their radar.
"You're in this one too," Aria said, spying Halle in the DiLaurentis kitchen with a plastic cup in her hands. The camera went in on her, gliding down her soft skin, exposed slight by the low-cut top, until a body stepped in front of the camera. Whether it was an accident or projection, none of them would know because the screen went black and when it a visual came on again, Halle was gone.
"You don't know who could have taken these?" Emily asked Halle seriously, looking over the the curly-haired girl stood at the foot of the bed.
"I was stoned, Em, I don't remember," Halle tried to explain it away. "I was trashed most of that summer. I don't even remember the parties, how am I supposed to know if someone had a camera?"
Halle certainly didn't notice anyone with a camera. She was always with Jason at those big parties. She remembered him with a video-camera that time after the frat-party and sometimes he took photographs, but that was all. Confidently, Halle knew she couldn't bring up Jason; they jumped the gun when it came to blame and he was an easy target. Plus, if she told her friends that truth, they'd never trust her again.
"You have to remember something," Emily said. "You were talking with the person behind the camera in one of them."
Stumbling around, Halle said the first lie that came to her head. "It could be Ali!" she said loudly, throwing her hand out. "I mean, you found the drive in her old lunchbox, in a container she had the only key to, and the key was hidden a gift she gave you, Em. They could easily be her videos."
"Why would she video herself?" Hanna asked, baffled at the suggestion.
"She was obsessed with herself, she probably hired someone to do the ones she's in," Halle reasoned. "She knew everyone's secrets, this is how."
"These aren't Alison's videos, she's the star," said Spencer, her sat up against the headrest of Halle's bed, arms crossed over her body. "Besides, not even you would bad-mouth Alison to her face."
"And, well, you know..." Hanna cocked her head to the side and mimicked taking off her shirt.
"Exactly," Spencer said. "Alison found them and wanted them safe, that's why she had the container and gave Emily the key."
Aria clicked onto another video, hoping for another clue. This time Halle was nowhere to be seen. The camera focused in on a downstairs window of a house, zooming further into the home.
Squinting her eyes, Hanna asked, "Is that Jenna?"
"You're late."
It was Jenna. Before the sunglasses. Before she was blind. Before Alison. Back last summer when everything was somewhat normal for the girls —when there was no A.
"Who's she talking to?" asked Aria.
Jenna Marshall smirked a sickly one. She turned around and the person behind her was revealed.
Spencer sat up in a flash. "Toby," she said softly, and she appeared to look just as interested in this as she was the first. Spencer scooted herself closer to the laptop, eyes firmly on the screen, invested in the videos once more.
"It's not right," Toby said to Jenna.
But Jenna had snaked her arms up and around a tense-looking Toby's neck. "There's nothing wrong about us, Toby," she said, "we're not really related." Slowly, she curled her body around her as if she was a snake constricting her prey within her grasp.
"Halle, come see," Emily urged, having notice Halle, although interested, was still standing far away from the screen.
"I'm fine right here, thank you," Halle put in sardonically. "This way I don't have to bleach my eyes at the same time as I stab my eardrums."
Even though she was glad she didn't have to see another video of Alison or herself, Halle didn't want to see Toby in one either. The sound of Jenna's chuckle made Halle feel physically sick. Her stomach lurched.
"It would be so easy for me to convince your daddy and my mommy that you've been forcing yourself on me," Jenna said slyly. Jenna wore a proud smirk, her body draped over Toby's, as she took off his shirt. "You have no idea who you're dealing with."
Facing away, her stomach in knots also, Spencer said, "Turn it off."
Emily didn't have to be told twice. Toby was her friend, too. She took a hold of the corner of Halle's laptop and closed it shut.
With a shaky voice, Aria said, "Do you realise what these videos are?"
"Validation," Halle gave. It was what they were to her; she wasn't insane and neither were her friends. She took a seat at the edge of her bed, hanging her head low as the dizziness came back.
"They're of us..." Aria struggled to comprehend everything, frozen in place on Halle's bed as she worked through it. "Ali, Jenna... We're young girls in our bedrooms changing clothes. We're naked!" she finished, with her anger working up as she spoke in slow realisation.
"Exposed," Spencer said, turning her body away.
Suddenly alarmed, Hanna asked, "Do you think someone was watching us and getting off on it?"
"Uh-duh!" Halle faced her friends, motioning to the laptop and then to them. "Predator-prey," she said strongly. "Or in Jenna's case, predator-predator. Someone was watching these — and us," Halle stressed.
From her closed-off position, Spencer commented, "Well, we all know who had a thing for younger girls."
Emily's upper lip turned upwards and her eyes filled. "I feel sick," she claimed, her face contorted.
"In some of these were just kids," Hanna mentioned warily.
"We still are kids," remarked Halle.
Quietly, Aria realised, "Ian's been watching us for years."
Spencer's voice cracked as she spoke. "And he killed Alison to make sure nobody found out."
Emily was equally as distressed, close to tears. "I wish Ali would've told us about these videos."
"You guys," Spencer moved and grabbed the memory-stick from out of the port and said, "it's not too late to help her. We can use this to prove that Ian killed Alison."
"How are we going to do that?" Emily asked, with Hanna clutched to her.
"Yeah, all that proves is that someone — not Ian — is a pervert," Halle said. "We have nothing the moment we hand that over."
"I wasn't going to suggest giving it to the police yet," Spencer corrected. "We start by finding out what Jenna knows."
Aria's eyes bulged. "Are you on something?"
Hanna was quick to agree with Aria. "No, Jenna's at the top of our A list."
"Look, I get it, okay? But she knows that these videos existed," Spencer reminded them strongly. "She was looking for them. That's why she hired Caleb — to find that key!"
"No, Spencer, how are we ever supposed to believe anything that bitch says?" Hanna pointed out.
"If that bitch is A, then this could be a trap," Emily said.
"You guys, Ian was watching all of us," Aria told them seriously, "and for all we know, he still is."
"Hhm," Halle hummed sarcastically, "comforting."
"He could be the one behind your video," suggested Aria, and suddenly four pair of eyes were glued to Halle.
"No." Halle looked around, at each of them. "No, it wasn't Ian," she said.
"How do you know? You said you were stoned," Emily tried.
"I'm telling you it wasn't Ian," Halle told them fiercely. "It wasn't Ian — not that video. I wouldn't do that around him, stoned or not. I barely went near him that summer, I remember that much."
"Maybe if we watch it," Aria put in again.
"We're not watching it." Halle stood up abruptly and snatched the USB-drive from off Spencer. She walked over to her bedside table and held it over a glass of water.
"No!!" all of them screamed at Halle, panicked.
"If any of you mention watching that video again, I won't hesitate to drop it. Test me, I dare you," Halle threatened, eyes burning.
"Just... don't," Hanna said slowly.
"Halle, that's the only thing we have," Emily said.
Halle kept a firm hand grasped around the drive and tucked it into her chest. "None of you are watching that video, ever," Halle told them.
"Fine, you can keep the drive," Aria said, trying to defuse the tension in the room. "But Spencer's right, we have to try."
Spencer span around and faced her friends. She said, "We've been afraid of her since the Jenna thing, and now we finally have something that she wants. And Alison gave it to us."
•
It took Halle until the next morning before she caved into the memory-stick. It sat openly on her bedside table, next to the half-empty glass. She was tempted to do as she threatened in the first place: toss it into the water and let the circuit fry. She didn't. Halle had her friends to think of; they'd be livid if she did that, and she couldn't risk losing them. Not when she only just got them back.
Still, Halle caved. She grabbed her laptop and the USB. She loaded up her laptop, typing in her password. Immediately, she slotted the stick into the port and clicked open when a new screen came up. Halle hovered the mouse over the video titles, watching intently as their screencaps came up. It didn't take her long to find the one of her from the night of the party. Halle opened that one.
A cracking sounded through the speaker of her laptop. She heard her voice first. "Is that a camera? Are you recording me?" she was teasing, drunkenly wagging a finger at the camera. "Do I look good?"
"You look great, Brewster," Jason complimented, and Halle responded by dramatically tossing her hair her shoulder. "Just say what you were saying before. Imagine the camera is Ali."
Halle looked behind the camera at Jason. "I can't."
"Why can't you? You just were," he encouraged. "Get it all out, she's never gonna see it. Just because she's my sister doesn't mean I'm gonna—"
"You don't know her like I know her. Ali is a bitch." Halle threw her head back in laughter, settling herself down on the couch in the DiLaurentis' woodshed. "Oh, don't play stupid. Everyone know exactly what Ali is — a bitch — and everyone's so enamored by the golden light emitted from out of her ass."
Jason broke into hysterical laughter. He was loaded after all and found everything far funnier than it was. Halle bit her bottom lip, enjoying hearing him happy. She smiled, bringing her knees up to her chest. She liked it when Jason laughed, and her cheeks went warm knowing she was the reason.
Watching the video, Halle couldn't hear her badmouth Alison again. It was too raw for her, knowing now what Ian had done because Alison had these videos. She used the mouse to go ahead. She watched the miniature-screen that came up over the time-bar. She saw herself on the screen move and smile, so Halle clicked there.
"What?" Halle asked, looking up through her lashes at Jason.
His voice came out through the speakers again. "Smile — just for me, Brewster," Jason said. "Just for me."
And she did. Halle brought her shoulder up to her chin as she lips curved up into a playful smile. Her eyes told it all. In that moment, she felt euphoric. She and Jason hadn't done anything but get high up at that point. It was only after that night, they started renting a room at the Edgecourt for them to get away from town so they could hang out without watchful eyes.
"You're beautiful," he said.
Halle shook her head. "Don't," she said quietly. Her voice was gentle, fragile she would say. "I don't believe you."
"Why? Surely you know you're one of the pretty girls," Jason said, humorously.
"It sounds like a lie," Halle said simply. "And I hear enough them."
"You've told enough of them," Jason replied. All his amusement had gone. He shifted on the couch opposite. "Come here," he said, and she did.
Halle stood in front of him, the camera put aside, and his hands found her waist. The video stilled showed them in the very corner of the screen. Halle rested her arms around his neck and stared down at him, waiting for his next words.
"I think you're beautiful," Jason told her, playing with the ends of her hair. "I know I shouldn't, but I do. You're Ali's best friend and you're—"
"Don't." Halle silenced him by pressing a finger to his lips. "Don't, let's not talk Ali now. I don't wanna talk about her, not anymore," Halle said, and she leant down and pressed her lips on his.
Halle kissed Jason for the first time in a woodshed, on the night she was furious with Alison, while both of them were stoned and drunk. Still, it started something she couldn't quite stop that summer. Something she longed for in her life. They were twin flames crossing for the first time, burning brighter than any two had ever done before, and it started a fire inside of Halle that hadn't died out yet.
The thought of it still made her smile. Halle never wondered if she made the wrong choice kissing Jason that night. Part of her knew she made some pretty terrible choices that night, like what she said about her best friend and the strip-show caught on film later. And at the time, kissing Jason was also one. They shared many kisses after that. The one in the motel room, the ones in his bedroom, the one the night she and Alison argued, all the ones after her letter reached him in Cape May. But that night, when Halle kissed Jason for the first time, she did it because she was angry with Alison for ditching them, but she never once regretted it. Kissing Jason was never a wrong choice in Halle's eyes. She only wished she kissed him longer when she had the chance.
Halle closed the video before she saw what she wanted nobody else to see just as her bedroom door opened. In walked her father, dressed for work, and smiling the moment he saw her face. "You busy?" he asked, nodding towards the laptop.
"No, just emailing a teacher about some assignment," Halle lied easily. She asked, "What's up?"
"Nothing, just checking in," said Nick Brewster. "I'm going to take you to school today. That's if you're okay with your old man taking you. You're not too cool for that now, are you?"
"For you? Never," Halle said, sending him a sweet smile.
"You any feeling better?" asked Nick, his true motive and concern showing.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess," Halle said. She lowered her gaze and added, "I don't remember a lot, but I know that I didn't see Ali... Even if I thought I did."
"Was it real?"
In surprise, Halle met her father's eyes questioningly. "What?"
He elaborated for her. "Did it feel real to you? Because it's okay if it did," he reassured, "it's normal that you see her from time to time. Gently, Nick requested of his daughter, "Just when you start seeing Alison more than from time to time, you have to tell me so I can help you. You don't have be afraid of your own mind, at least not alone."
"Thanks," said Halle. "Dad... Can I ask you something?" she asked quietly after.
"Anything, Hal," Nick said.
"When that video of me got out, how did you make it go away?" Halle asked him. She had been dying to ask that question since her father came out of Principal Hackett's office when it first happened. Now, being faced with the video, Halle had gained the courage to ask it.
That wasn't what Nick Brewster expected his daughter to ask him. His jaw clenched and he looked pained behind his dark eyes. He told Halle, "I did what I had to do for you. I'm not a perfect person either, Halle. I've done things I regret, but not once have I regretted protecting you like I did that day." He looked directly at her and said, "I'd do it again if it meant keeping you safe."
Halle should've thrown her arms around him in that moment, but she couldn't. She didn't want him to question her further and start asking questions about things she didn't want him to. Instead, when she arrived at school that morning and found Emily, she immediately thrust the USB-drive at her.
"Ali gave you the key, that means she wanted you to have, and I don't want it," Halle said fiercely. "I don't want any part in that, okay? And you're the only —the only one — I trust enough who won't watch that video of me. Promise me you won't watch it."
Startled at the confrontation, Emily promised, "I promise I won't watch it." Emily then asked her seriously, "Halle, what's happened? Has something happened?"
"Those videos happened," Halle stated, an acidic taste rising in her throat. "Everything bad that's happened is because of them. My family is wrapped up in this... My dad... I don't want any part in having them or I'll fry them, Em. I will destroy them."
"Okay, okay, I'll take them," Emily said, rushed. "You don't have to anything to do with them, okay?"
Hearing the tapping of a cane reminded the two it was show-time. Halle and Emily peered over their shoulders to see Jenna Marshall working her way through the hallway. The two then look to their friends. They all had the same feeling: they were ready to confront her. Time to stop being scared of Jenna and make her scared of them.
They followed Jenna into the music room. One by one, they filtered in after the other, and Jenna's working senses heightened. She heard footsteps. "Who's there?"
The Hastings girl spoke first. "Spencer."
Jenna turned on the spot and planted herself to the ground. "Who else?"
"Aria, Emily, Halle... and Hanna," Spencer revealed with a heavy sigh.
"Should I call security?" asked Jenna, aiming her words at the blonde.
"Should I call the police?" fired back Halle. She enjoyed watched the confused look come across Jenna's face and the scared one that replaced it when Spencer spoke again.
"We have what you hired Caleb to find," Spencer said confidently.
"You didn't think it was wrong, but Toby did," Emily said, hating that part of her for believing the lies Jenna told about Toby's file.
"So, you've seen it?" Jenna asked them.
"We saw everything, Jenna," Halle taunted, her jaw locked.
"Every frame," agreed Spencer, just as angry as Halle was.
"What do you want from me?" asked Jenna, gulping.
"The truth," Hanna said bluntly. "Can you handle that?"
"You can start by undoing all the lies you've told us," Halle said. "Starting with Alison."
"Look, when I said Alison came to visit me at the hospital, I was telling you the truth," Jenna told them. "She didn't come to talk about you, Spencer. That was a lie."
Spencer crossed her arms over her chest. "And how do we know that you're not lying to us now?"
"You knew Alison, okay? You knew what she was capable of," Jenna tried to appeal to them, to appear scared for herself. "I told you, Halle, about what she said to me about you. I also told you that Alison said she was done with you, the ultimate betrayal," Jenna added.
"That has nothing to do with this now, Jenna," said Halle. She did her best to look unconcerned with what Jenna was saying and said, "Continue, we're waiting."
Jenna said, "It was the day before she went missing and she was on her way home from Georgia." Unknown to Jenna, the girls start exchanging looks. "She had just found the video... She couldn't wait to play it for me."
Jenna had just finished telling them about Alison's visit when Spencer instantly asked her, "She was on her way home from Georgia?"
"Th—that's what she said," Jenna stumbled. "And then she made some joke about her... tan," she said sourly. "Too bad I couldn't see it. You and her are a lot alike, Halle, making poor jokes about the blind."
"I don't make jokes about the blind, Jenna, I make jokes about you being blind," Halle corrected her firmly. "There's a difference. You being blind has nothing to do with your character."
"Just like being a cheerleader has nothing to do with you being a bitch," Jenna returned.
"Precisely," Halle said snidely. "We're just two bitches, one's a cheerleader and the other's blind."
"Did she tell you anything else?" Spencer asked. She was doing most of the talking in this.
"It was a short visit," Jenna claimed. "Look," Jenna began, "I— I have given you what you've asked for, what are you going to give me?"
"We'll make sure the video stays in a safe place," Spencer stated, not wanting to offer Jenna anything more.
Halle heard Jenna scoffed and snapped. "Or we can put it online and show everyone how you abused Toby."
"You wouldn't, you'd go to prison," said Jenna.
"Funny that I don't care," said Halle boldly.
"And she's good pretty good lawyer," added Spencer, sticking up for her friend. She shared a brief, reassuring smile with Halle, as if to say she had her back.
"Okay," Jenna gave in, agreeing. She moved towards them and the girls parted for Jenna to walk through. At the door, Jenna stopped and turned back to face them. "We all make mistakes. Remember, I'm still playing for yours."
The second they were left alone, the five uncomfortably gathered around. Their conversation with Jenna gave them all the creeps. "Sick," Hanna had muttered under her breath.
"For all we know, she wrote that story," Aria shot immediately. She was distrusting of Jenna. "And what did she mean, the ultimate betrayal?" she asked, looking at Halle.
Halle gave a shrug. "It's something she said Ali told her when she went to visit her, she said it to shake me when I went to see her about the memorial."
"How do we even know if Jenna's telling the truth?" Aria said.
"Because it sounded like Alison," Halle said.
"But we still don't know how Ali got the video," mentioned Emily.
"Yes, we do," Spencer told them. "That video was Alison's insurance policy and she cashed it in the day that she got it."
"The joke," Halle said knowingly. "The joke Ali told — the tan. She was at Hilton Head."
"Which means she was with Ian when she found it," Aria concluded.
"And she couldn't wait to play that video for Jenna," Spencer said. She scoffed in disbelief, "God, do you remember about happy Ali was when she came back from that trip? I think it's because, for her, the Jenna Thing was over."
"Nice of her to share the safety net with us," Hanna muttered sarcastically.
"'Wait for it, girls. Wait for it.'" As Emily said it, Halle knew what she meant. She remembered the day well.
"Wait for what?" asked Spencer.
"That's what Ali said when we met her at the taxi," Emily said. "Maybe that's what we were waiting for."
"To share the safety net," Halle said.
"Do you remember at Alison's funeral, when we were all wondering why Jenna was there?" Aria reminded them. She said, "If she's telling the truth, Jenna came back because she could.
"And Ali's the one who got buried," Hanna finished.
•
At lunch, another bomb went off in Halle Brewster's world. Emily Fields sat at their usual table and told Halle that her parents wanted to relocate to Texas for a year. Halle had only just gotten her friends back, and now she was losing her closest one. Emily was the reason Halle's hard shell first began to crack and soften. Emily was kind and sweet, and Halle wanted to be worthy of having someone like that in her life. Now, she was losing that.
Aria tried to keep the conversation hopeful. "Well, if you want, my dad can call your mom and officially offer you the guest room."
"This is so not fair," Hanna complained. "I mean, we lost each other for a year, I can't imagine you not being here."
Emily looked to Halle. Softly, she said her best friend's name. "Halle... you've been quiet."
"I just... I'm just not ready to lose you all over again," Halle confessed earnestly. "You guys are the best thing to ever happen to me, I don't wanna lose that."
Before anymore sentimentality could seep into the conversation, Spencer stalked over to the lunch table and burst into the chatter. "I got it," she claimed, rounding the table to sit in the empty chair at the head.
The conversation shifted. "Okay, and you're sure Ian can't trace this number back to us?" Aria asked Spencer cautiously.
"It's a prepaid phone, I used cash and the number isn't registered, so... the service is anonymous," Spencer stated simply.
With a shrug, Halle said, "I'll take those chances."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Hanna asked Spencer, as the Hastings girls was unpacking the burner phone she bought on their lunch break.
"Don't you ever watch CNN?" asked Spencer. Noting Hanna's blank stare, Spencer waved it off and continued unboxing the phone. "No need to answer that." She explained, "Homeland security is trying to ban these things."
Across the cafeteria, Aria caught sight of Coach Thomas chatting with some of his team. Casually, he leant against one of the vending machines without a worry, unaware of the obvious pain he caused in the lives of Alison's friends. Aria was disgusted by him. She hated the sight of him and voiced it. "He acts like he doesn't have a care in the world," she muttered. Her annoyance caught the attention of her friends, who all glanced over at the coach.
Sadly, Hanna agreed. "He thinks he got away with it."
"Well, he hasn't," Emily reminded them. So long as they knew, Ian Thomas wasn't going to get away with anything.
"Okay," Spencer drew her friends back to the current plan they were putting in motion, "so we convince Ian that isn't about anything but money," she said.
"That should throw him off us, hopefully," Halle put in. It was her idea: to ask for money, and thankfully Spencer was on-board. Halle explained, "He'd know we'd want justice for Ali, but this," she gestured to the phone in Spencer's hand, "anonymous person wants cash. If he wants his home movies, it's just gonna cost him."
Spencer continued, "And then, when he shows up for the drop, we—"
Hanna interrupted, holding up her own cellphone. "We make our own movie," she stated. Of that much, Hanna knew. The blonde wanted Ian gone for good, as they all did.
"Right," said Spencer. "And we take that, the flash-drive, and the prepaid phone into the police."
Halle nodded along. "We let them deal with him."
Leaning further into the conversation, Aria said in hushed voice, "The second he responds with a text, we know that he's guilty."
Sucking in a shaky breath and then letting it out forcefully, Spencer picked up the prepaid phone and began to type out the message meant for Ian. The group had already talked it over; they knew what they were sending. Still, Spencer hesitated. Her finger hovered above the send-button.
Hanna was staring right at the girl's face, waiting. Now wasn't the time to be overthinking. "Send it already," Hanna urged strongly, and then the chime of a sent message sounded.
Expectantly, the girls then shifted their gaze over to where they last saw Ian. He was still by the vending machine, talking to a few male athletes, when his phone gave a chirp. The group eyes him suspiciously, watching his next move. It seemed that the very moment he had taken in the message, Ian excused him without a word.
Guilty.
They all thought it. A collection of sighs came from them as they turned back to their table. Quietly, not noticing the other lowered heads, Aria spoke, "There must have been a part of me that didn't believe it because I just... I— I feel..." She couldn't put a word to, but Emily did.
"Numb?" the swimmer offered up easily, though the situation itself was hard to swallow.
Even as the most determined, the one who had been out and bought the burner, Spencer shared in that emptiness. "Somehow I thought I'd feel better when we found out for sure," she said.
To try and ease some of that pain shared, Hanna remarked, "Well, I know what they do to guys like him in prison, and that makes me feel a lot better." She exchanged a few looks with her friends and her eyes landed on Halle, who nodded and found comfort in that thought too.
Softly, Halle added, "That'll be enough justice for Ali."
A phone beeped, and Hanna gulped. It was hers, and the dread of A swept in. With all this, they forgot about enemy number one. Checking her screen, Hanna sighed in vast relief. She gave some of that relief over to her friends, "It's just my mom making sure I stayed out of bed."
A second later, it was the prepaid cellphone that pinged. Spencer shot up in her seat and grabbed at the device, clutching it. She slid the screen up to read the message. She told them, "He wants to know what we want."
Tired of the hesitating, Hanna took the phone from out of Spencer's hands. She gave her friend a quick glance and then took a breath before diverting her eyes to the screen. Hanna began to type out a message with her thumbs; the clicking was deafening.
Bring $10,000 to Willow Park. 9pm. Come alone.
Halle sucked in a shaky breath and said, "So, it's done."
Just after Halle spoke, another voice interrupted the tense group. Mona Vanderwaal stood by the girls' table, a yoghurt-pot held in her perfectly manicured fingers and a bright smile on her face. "Is this the 'let's love on Hanna' lunch committee?" she questioned them. Without anything said between them, Mona took the next chair beside the blonde. She put a gentle hand upon Hanna's shoulder and asked, "Feeling better, sweetie?"
Hanna mustered up a small, appreciative smile for her friend, but it was overclouded by what had happened previously. The five friends of Alison were all still reeling in the aftermath of their friend's murder and now the possibility of catching her killer.
"I'm sorry, I have this thing that I have to do," Spencer said. By the time she had finished speaking, she had already collected up her bag and the prepaid phone, leaving right after.
"And there were five," commentated Mona, still smiling at the others.
Aria made a dash for her own bag. "I'll help," she said, even when Spencer was nowhere near their table any longer.
Emily was quick to agree. "Yeah, me too."
"And then there were three," Mona mentioned, confused at the sudden leaving of the two. She looked hopefully towards Halle and put on a smile.
"Yeahhh..." Halle drew out the word, uncomfortable she was left in the situation. "Duty calls?" she offered out. It wasn't meant to be a question, but with her lack of an excuse, it came out as more of a question. She shot Hanna a quick look before she too left the table.
Mona tried her best not to sound off-put by the sudden leaving. She smiled and pushed down the thought that it was because of her, turning to Hanna after. "And then there were two."
"Um, I'm really sorry, Mona," Hanna began softly, "but Spencer has this thing, and she really needs her friends right now." Immediately, she felt bad. Yet, Hanna couldn't fight the gut-feeling she had: she couldn't involve Mona. The blonde instead of eating with Mona, stood up with her own bag and left also.
Mona sat defeated. At a table that was once full, she was now alone at with only herself for company. Sighing, Mona uttered out, "And then there was Mona."
•
Waiting in the dark never got easier. The cold gave Halle a strong chill and made goosebumps a permanent place on her skin. The hairs of the back of her neck stood up the longer they were there. It got increasingly worse when Spencer hadn't shown and the shakes started when Emily suggested they call Garrett Reynolds for help. Halle told herself over and over that it was the cold that was putting her on edge, and not the trusting of anyone else with this outside of the five of them.
A's latest text didn't help either.
Buckle up, bitches.
Nothing is as it seems.
--A
It cemented the idea in Halle's head that A should never be the background-thought. A was the first enemy and should've been the first slain. A was the reason Emily called Garrett for help now.
Sat staring at the phone, Halle waited. Her thoughts were a constant churning cycle, bouncing off the sides of her skull. She felt a tight knot rush from temple to temple across her forehead and squinted her eyes to relieve some of that pressure. When she finally closed them, everything happened at once.
Emily halted her pacing. "He's here," she declared as a car pulled up, the headlights shining through the clearing.
At the same moment, Aria's phone — the one Halle had been burning holes in with her eyes — began to ring. Aria snatched it up as Halle's eyes snapped open. She did her best to ignore the pulsating blood around her head and the dizziness she felt. Nausea slowly crept up on Halle until she tasted acid in the back of her throat.
"Spencer, where are you?" asked Aria in a panic. After a moment's pause, Aria spoke again into the phone, pausing for Spencer. "No, stay with Melissa — We're safe — Okay — Bye." The call was short and to the point, ending just as Garrett approached the four of them.
"Thanks for coming," Emily said.
"Trust me, I'm glad you called," Garrett replied.
Maybe it was the ache spreading across her head, but Halle didn't know how to swallow his words. She knew he meant that he was glad they called him — that he was worried about their safety. Yet, Halle had a niggling feeling that wouldn't go away. She took his words in another way — to trust him. There was gap, she told herself. He needed them to trust him first before anything else.
Halle didn't want to trust him though. Even as Garrett searched around the area, seemingly to look out for the girls, Halle had the feeling that ate away at her, telling her it was two sentences and not the one he intended.
"Okay," Garrett started. "So, no one else knows you're here but me, right?"
Hanna must've felt the same because she lied to him next. With her arms crossed for warmth, Hanna told the off-duty cop, "Well, I left a note for my mom in case anything happened to us."
Playing the game too, Halle nodded along. "And I told Eric I'd ring him tonight, so he's expecting me to call," said Halle. She played the best card she had: the boyfriend. "He'll get worried if I don't, I thought it was better than my parents."
"All right," Garrett digested it all. "Well, this looks like the only way in," he stated, referring to the clearing. "If Ian shows, I'll see him coming." Then, Garrett walked away. He was going to stake out the park from behind some shrubs.
"Is Eric really expecting you to call him?" Hanna asked Halle the second Garrett wasn't around.
"No," Halle admitted. "Did you leave a note for your mom?"
Hanna returned the same answer her friend gave before her. "No."
"Look, guys," Halle briefly glanced over to Garrett's car and then back to her friends, "I know we all wanna confront Ian, but someone has to get Spencer. She's gonna want to be here for this."
"She's at the hospital," Aria revealed, stunning the group.
"What?" Emily asked in shock.
"There was crash— Spencer's not hurt!" Aria briskly inserted, making her friends calm a little. "But Melissa was."
"Someone should be with her," Hanna mentioned.
"I'll go," Halle immediately spoke.
Aria's brow creased. "Don't you wanna see Ian get caught?"
"Yeah, I wanna see him rot in hell, but I figure there's more chance of me hurting him than any of you if he shows," Halle put in, and none of them questioned it. Instead, the three agreed with noises of acknowledgement or by nodding.
Halle sent a false smile towards Garrett, who was standing watch, and headed to her car. On her way, she pulled out her cellphone and flipped the screen up, finding Spencer in her phonebook. She pressed call as slid into the driver's seat, slamming the door after her. Starting the engine, Halle heard Spencer answer.
"I'm on my way to the hospital," Halle said, as she started backing up her chair. The phone was pressed between her shoulder and ear.
"Head to the church, I'm going for Melissa's phone," Spencer told her. "I'm walking now, I could use a lift back to the hospital after."
"Okay, I'll meet you there," agreed Halle. She heard Spencer's goodbye before Halle grabbed the phone and shut it, tossing into her passenger's seat. Now backed-up out of the park's clearing and driving down the hill, Halle reached for her seatbeat and clicked it in place, heading to fetch Spencer.
•
The air was cold when Halle stepped out of her car. She pulled her jacket closer, wrapping it further around her as she approached the church. She had parked down the road and walked the few short metres. Ascending the steps, Halle was surprised when she heard not one but two voices.
"She'll understand," a male spoke.
"You're gonna take care of me like you took care of Alison?" Spencer asked who Halle only assumed had to be Ian. "Huh, is that why you killed her?"
Slowly, Halle stepped inside. She was carefully to be as quiet as she possibly could — for Spencer's sake. Halle's breathing became shallow as she faced his back. They had to have the element of surprise if she was ever going to overpower him. Over Ian's shoulder, Halle managed to catch Spencer's eyes and held her finger up to her lips.
Spencer nodded small; she understood. She reached into her bag and displayed the flashdrive to Ian. "Because she found your home movies?" Spencer asked, giving another nod over the man's shoulder.
The church door slammed shut. Ian whipped his head around and saw Halle standing there, smiling sarcastically at him. He caught him in the act, and there was two of them now against him. Spencer wasn't alone anymore.
"Do you want some popcorn to go with that?" Halle asked smugly. This wasn't the plan, but at least they had him trapped.
In attempt to distract him, Spencer threw the flashdrive across the church so the two girls could get out the back. Ian went to dive low for it, him bent over. Quickly, Halle clasped her hands together and whacked Ian on the back of his head. He groaned, collapsing to to his knees and hitting his head on the pew at the same time.
Squinting Ian managed to make out Spencer fleeing for the back while Halle snatched up the drive from the floor. In a hasty decision, he grabbed at the girl's ankle and yanked her to the floor. Halle fell to the floor, gasping as a jolt of pain shot through her body. Ian managed to stand again. This time, he towered over Halle. A trickle of blood leaked down from his eyebrows and he reached up, smirking when he saw the crimson.
"It had to be you, didn't it?" Ian taunted. "I knew you'd be the one to save her. No one's gonna save you though, Halle. Not even Jason. He was usually the one saving you at all those parties. People could trash his parents house, but everyone knew it was hands off his girl." Ian smirked and asked, "Do you remember the one before he left for Cape May?"
Halle wasn't planning on going, but she went anyway. The moment she arrived at the DiLaurentis house, the party was already in full-swing. Music blasted from out a speaker in the living room, plastic cups littered the top of Jessica DiLaurentis' grand piano and people were using her fruit bowl as a ashtray; the house was packed. Halle didn't recognise most of the faces; they graduated with Jason. She was still in high school.
Heading for the kitchen was a safe option. Halle knew that most likely that would be where the alcohol was, but Jason's whereabouts was more important to her that night. It was his party, and he was sure to invite her. Never being the girl to make an idiot of herself around over a boy, Halle dodged the stairs and went to get herself a drink.
It wasn't long until she had found herself one and a few friends to chat with. Parties where she knew nobody were the ultimate place to make friends for a night. She didn't have to put in effort because she'd never see them again. Halle used people, whether it was for alcohol or drugs or mere conversation. Either way, she wasn't bothered about making nice. Halle was confident she'd never see these people, unless it was at another one of Jason's parties. And still, none of them said anything because it was always assumed that she was with Jason.
Blissfully unaware that across the kitchen was a face she knew, Halle carried on laughing with strangers. With enough alcohol in her, she could talk to anyone; a trait that was lost on her when painfully sober. Jason, however, did notice.
He was in the middle of a conversation with someone he scored off earlier when his eyes first found Halle. Jason had met her in the kitchen earlier, after getting a text saying she had arrived. He slung his arm around her and kissed her temple before he told her he was going to go get high. A smile came to his face when he reappeared and saw she was right where he left her. Jason was really starting to think this — them — could be something.
Then, he saw Ian with his camera and something got to Jason. All his thoughts blended into one. Jason had to keep Halle safe.
"You can put that away, man."
Standing directly in front of the camera, Jason made Ian shut it down. His face remained hard; eyes focused in on Ian's face. The protectiveness cut through any weed he had smoked just before coming downstairs. Jason was solid on this now; he wasn't going to let Halle be another project for Ian's mini-movie.
"C'mon," Ian tried to laugh it off, "I thought we were good with this."
"Not anymore," Jason said firmly. "Don't film her."
He went to turn away when Ian spoke up again, challenging him. Ian called Jason out, "You went and got too personal with her."
Jason turned back, suddenly enraged. "Don't talk about it like that."
"She's not your girl, Jason," Ian reminded, in almost mockery. "Surely you know that."
"I said—" Jason cut himself off, trying to bite his tongue. He breathed out forcefully, desperate to keep his cool at the party. Jason knew how he could get when he got loaded; he got angry. Jason didn't want Halle to see that side of him. "Let it go, man," he said. "I'm not down for that anymore. I don't want a part in it. Let it go, she's not game."
Not long after that, Ian had his suspicions confirmed. The entire night, Jason spent with his arm around Halle. She was his girl, at least at this party. Everyone thought so. No one dared go near her, not that they could; Jason was always with her. That was when Ian knew for sure that Jason had fallen in too deep with the girl. Ian's only silver lining was that was the night Alison found out, too.
Halle stared up at Ian, hate in her eyes. From the floor of the church, in the darkness, she was sure he felt that hate burning furiously in her. Through gritted teeth, she told him, "I was never Jason's girl."
"It's just us now and I know your secret," said Ian. He stepped closer to her, and she cowered further away from him. "I've seen a lot of your secrets... You're the reason he started pulling away," Ian remarked, wagging at finger at her. "What happened the night of the frat-party? Surely, one kiss couldn't change him. What else did you give up?"
"You're disgusting," she spat, her top lip curled up in disgust. "A monster."
"I'm only the same as your precious Jason." Ian asked her pointedly, "Did he ever tell you it was his idea? The videos I mean," he added for clarification.
"He...?" Halle couldn't get it out. She couldn't bring herself to say it. A part of her always thought she was the only liar that summer — that Jason was the one person who was totally honest with her.
"Don't worry, he never did anything else. The idea and your video was enough to keep him in the club for us," Ian mentioned. He looked down at Halle again; she was getting further away from him. So, Ian got closer. He crouched down beside her, still towering over her. "I always thought you were pretty. You never could look past Jason, could you?" He pushed a loose curl from out of her face. "You were a little risk taker, Jason liked that about you. What else did he like about you?"
Halle slapped his hand from her face. "It was never like that."
Ian let out a loud, dry laugh. "Don't lie, Halle, good girls don't lie. But then again, you were never much of a good girl." Proudly, he told her, "I saw the video, the uncut version." Ian then asked her, "Did you know Alison saw it too? She saw you and him that night at the party as well, left crying and headed for Spencer's."
He saw Halle gulp nervously, and Ian knew this was the exact thread to pull at if he was to get under her skin. Ian smirked again before he stood up over her. "Your friendship was over that night, you knew it, Alison knew it. And then there was that fight. God," he chuckled lowly, "was that something to see." He stared Halle directly in the eye, catching her trying to stand again. "Do you just black out when you get physical or... what's the deal? Did you like hitting her?" His tongue darted out and wet his lip before he pointed at her again. " I bet you did," said Ian knowingly. "It's in you, it's all over your face. How about that night she died? Weren't you at the house that night?" he questioned.
"I didn't kill her," Halle defended fiercely.
"But you had your part," Ian recalled. "It's a good job we're in a church, Halle, you get to confess," he jested, arms out in show.
With him distracted, laughing mockingly at her, Halle kicked her leg out. She aimed for the knee and kicked with all the strength she had. Ian grunted and fell back against one of the pew, having to grab it for support. Halle pushed herself off from the ground and stood over him. She kicked him again. This time in the ribs, making him toppled over to the floor.
With every word next spoke, her foot collided with it's his stomach. "GO — TO — HELL!" Heaving a heavy breath, Halle blew the fallen hair from her face and delighted in watching Ian's body curl into itself from pain. "That's for Alison, you sick freak," she sneered.
Feeling it was safe, that she had done enough to keep Ian down, Halle made the mistake of turning her back. She called out Spencer's name before a shrill scream tore from her.
Ian latched a hand around her ankle and pulled her back. Halle barely had the time to break the fall before her body collided with the ground. Her head smacked against the floor, and with a loud thud, she was out cold.
Spencer's distance cries were the last thing she heard.
IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL I SAY IT IS.
SLEEP TIGHT.
WHILE YOU STILL CAN , BITCHES.
--A
•