Hanna followed the other three girls through the forest on the outskirts of Rosewood. It was getting hotter by the minute, bugs were flying all around them, and they were starting to get irritated with each other. They were on their way to an old shed in the middle of the woods, where they used to hang out with their old friend, Alison.
They'd decided to come out to the shed to have a final remembrance for Alison. The funeral just hadn't seemed like enough for Hanna, and she was sure that the other girls felt the same way. There was something that told Hanna that she was still around, but she wasn't sure if it was a need to say goodbye or the fact that A was taunting them all with secrets that only Ali knew.
"Whose idea was this again?" Hanna asked as she pushed another branch out of her way.
"Emily's mom," Spencer answered.
"The shed was me," Emily said. "My mom just said we should do something for us."
Hanna was starting to get annoyed with the other girls. The heat was starting to piss her off, and she was pretty sure she was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. "Well, couldn't we do something without mosquitoes?" she snapped.
"They're not mosquitoes," Aria said. "They're gnats."
"Whatever! They're small and annoying, and they're flying up my nose," Hanna said grumpily.
Spencer chuckled as they climbed a small hill. "They're attracted to your perfume. And your hair product. And your lip gloss."
Hanna rolled her eyes. "What are you saying? I attract flies?"
"Gnats," Aria corrected.
"Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Emily asked, stopping under the shade of a large tree and ignoring her friends bickering.
Hanna stopped behind her, enjoying the coolness of the shade. The grove of trees around them looked exactly the same as every other cluster of trees they had passed in the last fifteen minutes. Hanna just wanted to go back home where it was nice and air conditioned 24/7. Even the birds were dead silent in this heat, but the buzzing of the mosquitoes never ceased.
"No, this is it. I remember that tree. It's the halfway point," Spencer said. They all looked at the large tree that they had stopped under. It looked vaguely familiar to Hanna, but there hadn't been that much ivy on the side of the tree last time they'd been out here. "There's one hundred and thirty six steps left to the shed."
Hanna looked at Spencer with confusion. The fact that she could remember the exact number of steps left to the shed was absolutely insane. Emily and Aria were looking at her the exact same way. "Have you been out here since Alison?" Emily asked, lowering her voice when she said Ali's name.
"Me? No, no way," Spencer said quickly.
"But you remember that tree," Aria said.
That was just how Spencer was. She had a knack for remembering the tiniest details of almost anything she studied: dates, names, numbers, etc. Hanna didn't really think anything of it. She was too busy trying to keep the mosquitoes—and they were mosquitoes, no matter what Aria said—away from her as much as possible.
"You guys, it's not that weird. We came out here in eighth grade, like, every day. Even after," Hanna said.
"I think this is the wrong place to do this—whatever you call it—shrine," Spencer said.
"It's not a shrine," Emily defended. "It's just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?"
Spencer shrugged. Hanna was on Emily's side with this one. As much as she tried to forget that Alison's body had been found barely two weeks ago, she wanted a place to remember it too. She couldn't think of another place to do it, and she would bet that Spencer didn't either.
"It makes it look like we have something to hide," Spencer said.
"You're worried what other people think?" Emily asked.
"Aren't you? Do you really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?" Spencer shot back.
Hanna elected to ignore that question and continued down the path. Wilden had been practically living at Hanna's house for a while now, and any mention of him made the secret want to come bursting out of her mouth. She couldn't say anything though. It was too awkward and embarrassing, and frankly, her friends didn't need to know about her mom's fling or whatever it was. The only reason she had even confided in Mona was because Hanna was sure she had been caught too.
"Hanna, why are you so quiet?" Aria asked, as the group followed her down the path.
"I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth," she said impatiently.
"You're allowed to have an opinion on this," Emily said.
"You want my opinion?" Hanna asked, turning abruptly to face Emily. "I say we hold off and not remember her until we know for sure she's not still here."
She had expected the look of utter shock on each of her friends' faces. Hanna stood her ground though. To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure if Ali was actually gone. Maybe it was denial, but the texts from A were just too much like her for it not to be.
"What?" the girls said in unison.
"What are you talking about?" Aria asked.
"You think she's still alive?" Emily asked.
"Hanna, they found her body," Spencer said, an eyebrow raised.
"Okay, stop," Aria said. "I'm officially scared. Can we not—?"
"Okay, you know what?" Hanna interrupted. "You asked for my opinion. I don't believe she's really gone."
She turned and continued down the path. "We went to her funeral!" Spencer called behind her.
Hanna was officially over this conversation. She knew that she must be crazy to think that Alison was still alive, but the circumstances just seemed way too fishy to her. "Yeah, and when we left, we all got a text from her," she said.
"It wasn't her," Emily protested. "Someone is messing with us."
"How do you know?" Hanna snapped. "And what about all those nasty messages? I mean, how does this A person know stuff only Ali knew?"
"This conversation is giving me a hive," Aria sighed.
"That's a bite," Hanna said, stopping again and turning to her. "Mosquito."
"Spencer, have you gotten any more messages?" Emily asked.
"Haven't you?" Spencer replied.
A branch snapped, not too far away from where they were standing. They froze, instantly feeling the sense that someone was watching them. Of course, they had felt like that ever since that text at the church, but they could almost see a shadowy figure standing in the woods, eyes fixed on them. Hanna's heart pounded in her chest as leaves rustled further into the woods. "What was that?" Emily asked. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes, I heard that. I'm standing right next to you," Aria said shakily.
Hanna scanned the trees, searching for any movement, any sign of life that might give away their stalker's position. A glimpse of hair, a peek at their face, even a hoodie or something to give them some proof that they weren't losing their minds. "Hello?" Hanna called. "Is anybody out there?"
"It's probably a rabbit," Spencer said quietly, though the fear in her eyes said otherwise.
"Hello?" Hanna called again.
"It's a rabbit, Hanna. It's not going to answer you," Spencer repeated, a little more forcefully.
"Can we just get to the shed?" Emily asked.
Another crack ripped through the forest, shattering any sense of security Hanna had left. "Okay, that is definitely not a rabbit," she said. "Someone's out there."
"Let's turn around," Emily suggested.
The girls agreed and turned to head back the way they came. Clearly, the shed was not as safe an option as they thought. A was going to follow them wherever they went, so they might as well do it in a place that was slightly more populated. Out here in the woods, they were completely alone. Anything could happen.
Their phones let out chimes as they made their way toward the street. With a grimace, the girls stopped and pulled out their phones. They knew what was coming, and Hanna figured she might as well get it over with.
Heads up, BFFs. It's open season on
liars and I'm hunting... --A
They looked up at each other, panic rising in each of their chests. Someone really had been out there with them, watching, listening, planning their next attack. They ran through the woods, trying hard not to look behind them in case A was chasing them. All they wanted was to be at home, with their curtains closed and doors locked.
The excursion into the woods the day before had left Hanna shaken to her core. She had barely slept at all that night, and what little sleep she did get had been filled with nightmares about Alison and A. When it was time to get ready for school, she had about two full hours of sleep to go off of. She could only hope that the day would be an easy one, completely A-less and drama free.
She went down the stairs and into her kitchen. Unfortunately, all hopes of a stress-free day were wiped away when she found Wilden standing in front of the fridge with the door open, wearing nothing but one of her mom's favourite white towels and holding a tub of her mom's fake butter. She felt her stomach physically turn over at the sight of him.
"Morning," Wilden said, way too happily for that early in the morning.
"Where's my mother?" Hanna snapped.
"She ran upstairs for something," he said, not taking his eyes off the butter. "I'm trying to figure out what makes this stuff spreadable. Want a waffle or something?"
She most certainly did not want a waffle from the man that had become like a parasite on her life. "No. Thanks," she said bitterly as she shoved a textbook in her bag.
"There she is," Wilden said as Mrs Marin walked into the room, putting on her favourite pair of earrings. Hanna tried to ignore the fact that her mother was totally checking out his muscled back. "It's canola oil!"
"Darren, why don't you go get dressed?" Mrs Marin suggested as he closed the fridge door. Hanna rolled her eyes. "I'll take care of breakfast."
"Yeah," Wilden agreed. He tossed the butter down on the kitchen island, kissed Mrs Marin on the cheek, and left the room, adjusting his towel as he went.
Mrs Marin glanced at Hanna awkwardly. She could probably feel Hanna's anger from the other side of the room. "So what? He lives here now?" Hanna spat as her mother poured herself a cup of coffee.
"Take out the milk," Mrs Marin dismissed.
"Is this a permanent thing?" Hanna asked.
"Would you keep your voice down, please?"
Hanna pulled the milk out of the fridge and continued her rant. "God, it was one pair of sunglasses, and they were last season's."
Mrs Marin continued to ignore her. "Hand me the bottles," she said.
Hanna was furious that the situation with the sunglasses had even gotten to this point. There was no reason that Wilden should be hanging around in their kitchen all the time. He wasn't her dad, he wasn't even her mom's friend aside from them sleeping together, so what was the point of him being there?
"Mom, you don't have to do this," Hanna said.
"Do what?"
"Squeeze his grapefruit."
Mrs Marin stared at Hanna in shock. She'd gotten a lot of that lately, but Hanna was used to it by this point. She deserved a say in what was going on. She did still live there after all. "We will talk after breakfast," Mrs Marin said pointedly.
"I don't eat breakfast," Hanna said, "and neither do you."
"Look." Mrs Marin turned away from her coffee. "Until he gets the store to drop the charges from your shopping spree, we're not kicking anyone to the curb. The last thing we want is an enemy on the police force."
"I get it, okay? But I didn't count on having to buy him a Father's Day card either."
"Hanna!" Mrs Marin snapped. "The situation is delicate. And, by the way, if you're buying anyone a card, it should be me."
Hanna shook her head and grabbed her bag. She couldn't take another minute in that house knowing that Wilden was going to be there, watching everything she did. She prayed that the store would drop the charges as soon as that day. One more minute with Wilden lurking around, and she would lose her mind.