•

"Will The Circle Be Unbroken?"

Slightly panicked, Emily shifted her stare around the courtyard. She hadn't seen Spencer among the bustling students either crowding the halls and taking up tables. The four friends were standing offside, under the enclosed walkway where they nestled up against on of the large, brick pillars. "I was hoping she'd be here, but she isn't," Emily said, fretting already. She didn't know how to break the news of Toby's fake funeral programme to her, just like she didn't know how to break it to her parents Red Coat had punched her driver's side-window through.

"Do you think Spencer just didn't get your SOS?" wondered Aria, gifting their missing friend the benefit of the doubt.

"Maybe, but she must have gotten one of the other twelve messages we sent," responded Emily, as she shut that suggestion down.

From her spot, her back to the courtyard, Halle simply quipped, "I ignored all your asses yesterday, and I got your messages."

"Yeah, but you replied to the SOS's," Aria rebutted.

"Okay, you guys," Hanna jumped in to save some of their wariness, "she has ditched school before, alright? It's not a big deal," she said, almost convincingly if not for her eyes dropping to the floor like she didn't quite believe what she was saying either.

Unwillingly, Aria sighed and conceded, "Yeah, you're right, I guess."

"Okay—" Emily took charge, speaking to them very carefully, "we just need to get through the day." Then, she suggested, her tone more calm, "If she doesn't call or show up, we'll go to her house after school."

"Cool," Halle said, not particularly in-satiated by their awfully drawn together plan. It hadn't sat well with her that Spencer didn't show up to either Hanna's or Emily's SOS-texts. After all, it was Spencer that implemented them again when Mona's A sprouted its wicked head.

The bell rang out, and students immediately started to clatter around them. The volume spiked, many wishing friendly goodbyes or 'catch-you-laters'. None of which Halle — nor her friends — had the privilege of saying often. It was always tainted by something bad. Something always happened to be around the corner. Today, it was their principal.

Principal Hackett managed to catch them just as they went enter the school, through the courtyard doors. "Girls." He met them welcomingly, but they knew it was bad when they saw the person next to him. "Good, you're all together. I think you know Spencer's sister, Melissa."

"Have you seen Spencer?" Melissa instantly blurted out at them, voice shaken with emotion. Her hair was much shorter now and the grey scarf around her neck made her appear older — more mature. It didn't help that she was instantly on them with concern, acting the way Veronica Hastings would. "Have you talked to her?"

"Not today," Emily answered.

Aria's eyes flitted to and from her friends before they at last zeroed in on Melissa. "Is something wrong?" asked Aria, greatly suspicious of Melissa's uncharacteristic worry. Melissa Hastings had only ever acted this way when it was Spencer — or the girls — asking questions and prying into Ian Thomas.

Yet, Melissa seemed to have a reasonable excuse to her behaviour. She panicked before the four of them, "Spencer didn't come home last night," she said, and Spencer's friends all cast their gazes away. "She's not answering her phone. I was hoping she was here with you, that maybe she stayed at your place last night," she added, directly looking at Halle. "Which is why I came here before I went to the police."

While the girls all uncomfortably wriggled, Hanna was the one who questioned Spencer's older sister in mild shock; it was one night. "Police?" She said it in a tone of 'already?' — like the time correlation didn't fit, not just added onto her own selfish want to avoid all police.

"When was the last time any of you saw her?" Melissa asked them.

"At The Brew yesterday, around noon," Aria said, quite matter-of-factly.

"She came by mine afterwards," Halle added.

"How was she?" Melissa jumped on her, her question instantly caused Halle to crane her head back in surprise.

"I don't know — Spencer," gave Halle helplessly. There wasn't another way of describing her friend's nature the day prior other than Spencer, if they were still leaving out the Toby and the A-of-it-all.

"I understand Spencer's been a little 'distracted' lately," Principal Hackett said, hinting massively. "Was there something on her mind that she shared with you? Anything about her plans?"

"No, Principal Hackett," said Emily, firmly set on him in the beginning. "Um... she hasn't said anything to us."

"You're her friends," Melissa pushed back, "she must have said something."

Both the adults watched the group, carefully inspecting every slight twitch or movement, going girl to girl for any sort of explanation. They leaned in, waiting, but there were no answers.

With that, Principal Hackett decided for Melissa, "You can, uh, call the police from my office."

"Thank you," Melissa said, smiling small in relief. She turned already, ready to head towards the office as an immediate consequence.

Principal Hackett instructed the girls, "Let me know if you hear from Spencer."

"Yes, sir," Aria swiftly said, barely registering his nod before he then escorted the elder Hastings sibling away with his arm extended out. Her mind went to Spencer and that early easiness she felt, sweeping Spencer's morning absence under the carpet, disintegrated.

Meanwhile, Halle was actually floored. She let out a disbelieving scoff, "Colour me shocked, Melissa could actually pass as a good sister,"

"Hey—" Emily was fast in shutting it down, "not now."

"What?" Halle looked at her incredulously. "Are we gonna pretend like she ain't the worst?" Insisting strongly, Halle said, "She's never cared for Spencer as long as I've known her."

"But she's the one looking after her while Mr and Mrs Hastings are in London, isn't she?" remarked Hanna.

"Meaning what?" Emily asked her.

"Meaning, Melissa's responsible," Hanna put in plainly. Her perfectly shaped eyebrows arched up as she made her point. "She won't like not being the perfect daughter."

Aria huffed, shoulders deflating as she watched Melissa's plain figure disappear in the distance. She was indifferent as she said, "Can you believe Spencer said they used to get on?"

Hanna showed he shell-shock, "What?"

"Yeah, apparently they were kinda close up until a few years ago. As close as you can be to a sister five years older and like Melissa," Aria informed them, facing the three. "Spencer told me, it just happened right around this time three years ago; they've been at each other's throats ever since."

"Yeah, exactly why I don't trust her ass," Halle chimed in, unwavering in her stoic stance against Melissa Hastings.

"Weren't you defending her, like, a month ago?" reminded Emily, slightly stunned at Halle's one-eighty.

"Just because I didn't wanna confront the woman on her lying — about a miscarriage, by the way, you insensitive freaks," she insulted them with a scowl, "don't mean I gotta trust her. She's still the Black Swan. And in my books, that means she's connected to A— Or at least Mona."

"She could be the brunette from the cafe," suggested Aria, piping up, and Halle sighed in agreement. "She could've gone for the short bob, so Holden wouldn't recognise her."

"It suits her," Hanna said fondly, somewhat in her own thoughts. She snapped back, "You know, the short hair."

Groaning, Emily said, "Come on, we're gonna be late."

"Keep in touch," Aria requested. "Text if any of you hear off Spencer."

"Yeah, we will."

•

The end of the school day sounded with another shrill bell, telling students where they should and shouldn't be. The group of four filtered out, down the front ivory steps. Throughout the day, Halle's — and her friends' — messages had stayed empty of Spencer-updates. None of them had heard off her, and with the police now involved because of Melissa, concern grew vast.

"Melissa must have the police out looking for Spencer by now," said Emily.

"I do not need more police in my life," Hanna grumbled, hands gathering up her long pink skirt as she descended the steps.

"Yeah, none of us do," countered Aria, throwing the blonde a look. It was her and Halle who were also accomplices to Hanna's latest crime; she didn't need the reminded of officers sniffing around.

"We do if we want Spencer found, so—" Halle shut her eyes and shook her head, a shiver passing up her spine at what came next, "Can't believe I'm saying it— ugh— but pick your battles, cops are necessary evil right now."

"Okay—" Aria turned towards them. The friends stopped, standing just off to the steps as they continued. "The only thing that counts right now is finding her." Facing Emily, Aria asked her, "Now, are you sure Spencer didn't say anything about what she was gonna do?"

"Just that I should stop looking for Toby," Emily answered before Halle added in,

"That I should listen to the facts."

Aria gave a hopeless sigh, "Well, what are supposed to do, just sit in our rooms and do our homework?"

"No, because that would mean we're normal teens," Halle replied, a pressed sardonic smile upon her lips.

"We look for her," Emily asserted. "We look where the police won't look, because we know her better than them."

"Like that book store that she likes," Aria said, picking up on it.

"Or that crazy lab theatre at Hollis," Hanna inserted briskly.

Halle knowingly said, "Or the greenhouse."

Emily's eyes shone with worry, appearing extra large as she implored them on. "We look, we keep talking, and we check in with Melissa in case she hears anything."

With the plan in motion, Halle planned to go straight to the greenhouse. She crossed the parking lot outside the front of school entrance and made her way towards her car. Peering inside her large handbag, Halle searched for her keys. She did her favourite trick of rattling the bag around, listening in for her keys. After locating them, the numerous key-chains clattered against one another, Halle pulled them out only to hear her name be called as she neared her desired vehicle.

"Halle— Halle, hey! Wait up!" Noel Kahn was saying a quick goodbye to the group of jocks, all donned in the Rosewood letterman-jackets, after he spotted her. He tapped one guy on she shoulder while he manoeuvred his way through them; the guys were forgotten the moment his eyes connected with Halle's curly bun. "Hey," he said when he jogged closer, smiling although he appeared a tad breathless.

Rolling her eyes, Halle stifled the groan she wanted to give him. She turned, faced him and said, tongue to her cheek, "Hey."

"Look, I just wanted to clear the air after yesterday," Noel started. "You know, us now doing physio together," he expanded. "I don't wanna make it awkward, or hard — for Coach Rhodes." His mouth tended to turn upwards. "She's actually alright."

"Oh, screw her if she weren't," Halle dryly remarked, over this conversation before it had barely begun. She couldn't get a handle on the arrogance he often exhibited and excused it to being a Kahn; his father and older brother were the same.

"No, no—" Noel tried to retreat and reattempt, but Halle was ruthless when she had an opinion formed. "It's just, I don't wanna waste her time. I'm actually doing it to get better, not to annoy you," he said.

"Yeah, Coach told me," Halle responded. Just like how Noel's worst trait emerged, as did Halle's: her stubbornness. And when Halle got stubborn, she got smart and short, her tongue clipped with every sentence. "The world don't revolve around me, apparently, and I should suck it up."

At that, he lightly chuckled, "Well, she got one thing wrong." Noel noted how her gaze lifted to his, holding it there as she questioned his comment with a quirked up brow. "The world does revolve around you."

"God—" Halle scoffed, jokingly shoving his arm as she fought back a large grin, "you're such an idiot!" She laughed with him, "Who does that work on?"

Admittedly, Noel knew it was cheap but it got her laughing. So, decidedly, he continued to jest back, "Two people you and your friends don't like very much," which caused Halle to smile gently in acknowledgement. She had forgotten how easy it was to slip back into old habits with Noel; she forgot they were once close friends.

"Look," she began, lowly trying to agree to his approach. "I don't wanna cause Coach Rhodes to split us up and have to do separate sessions. Lord knows she doesn't get paid enough for that crap. So, if you wanna truce for physio, consider my white flag up."

"Mine too," Noel said, grinning. He even mimicked waving his own imaginary one, again for coax a light chuckle from her. Then, after swallowing nervously, Noel's hand reached up to rub at the nape of his neck as he tried to move the conversation elsewhere. "Do you—?"

Halle cut him off. "No offence, Noel — but I gotta be somewhere," she said, her thumb pointing off behind her, towards her car. "I gotta find Spencer and—"

Noel blinked at her. "Spencer?" he questioned. "Why, where's Spencer?"

Sighing, Halle caved, "She didn't show up today and her sister now got the cops involved 'cos she didn't come home last night and I've gotta find her."

Instantly, without any hesitation, Noel asked, "Do you need my help?"

"No, I—" Halle paused. That funny, helpless feeling surged up into her chest again. It made her feel weak and pathetic, like it often did whenever somebody was there, in front of her, offering help when Halle convinced herself she didn't need it. I can handle it, she'd respond, I got it. But, this time, Halle didn't know why what left her was, "Please."

They made the choice to take Halle's car since she would be driving out to the middle of nowhere. For the most part, it had been tolerable. Enjoyable, even. The steady hum of the engine just sat below the Mind, Body & Song CD playing and filled the majority of the silence. It served as a good distraction from her bubbling concern for Spencer's whereabouts, and Noel's presence settled her enough to tap out the beat onto the steering wheel and sing the odd few lyrics along that slipped out.

Halfway out, on the opposite side to the woods behind Bridgewater, Halle felt Noel had traced his stare to her profile. That relaxed feeling she got turned her self-conscious. She warily asked him, "What, am I too loud?"

"No, no, you were good," he replied. "Just..." Noel took a deep breath and blurted out, "I heard that you and Jason broke up."

Halle sucked her teeth in response, suddenly freaked out while behind the wheel. She didn't have the words to explain what happened to yet another person, especially when she feared the 'I-told-you-so' narrative everybody else had been missing but Halle felt paranoid enough to believe they were all thinking.

"I thought you'd be taking it rough," Noel said.

"Do I look like I'm taking it rough?" Halle half-snapped, not nearly as annoyed as she should be at that sentiment. She knew her break-up with Eric plunged her into a depressive episode, a trigger and regular downside to her bipolar disorder, but Halle felt confident enough to say she wasn't that person. She wasn't the person to make heart-break her personality. She'd feel it for a while then get over it like she did everything else.

"No," Noel gifted her the answer she craved, yet followed it up with some sincerity. "But I know you, you're good at lying."

Eyes on the road, Halle swallowed back anything she wanted to reply with. She indicated off; the streams of green forestation surrounded them, and soon parked outside the beat-down and shabby looking greenhouse. "We're here," she said, and Halle ignored the previous comment.

If Noel had known why Halle chose to avoid it, which he most likely did, he didn't pick her up on it. Halle cut the engine, killing the music, and the pair climbed out the car. Having barely taken two steps, Halle's phone pinged. Dread filled her like it always did. A crept up on her, and being here — where A had attacked her and her friends— added to the fear she recently lost her handle on.

"You checking that?" said Noel, referring to her phone. "Could be about Spencer." The boy ventured ahead of Halle, nonchalant about the chiming of the device. The sound of a text wasn't a nuclear bomb seeking utter destruction in his life. To Noel, it was just another text.

Halle checked it and felt relief coat her bones. "It's just Aria," she told him, with a soft smile. It comforted her in a way Noel would never fully understand, but he nodded as he carefully opened the stiff glass door to the greenhouse.

No Spencer at the book store.
From: Aria

Blowing out a exasperated huff, Halle stated, "No Spencer."

"Still nothing?" Noel asked her, just as they crossed into the building. Halle shook her head and accepted the greenhouse was a bust too. Noel voiced it though, "Looks like she hasn't been here either. We can look around the woods if you want."

"No—" Halle shook her head gently, "she's not here." Halle glanced around at the abandoned greenhouse. Dead plants and overgrown shrubbery consumed the place. The glass plains had gone opaque from the rain and dirt, staining it in a thick film. Thankfully, it was less creepy in the day than at night.

"Why out here anyway?" asked Noel curiously. "It's not exactly—" he overlooked the mold in the corner, "a nice place to be."

"Good place to get away with murder," Halle retorted without a second-thought. Until she heard Noel's laugh, she hadn't questioned her immediate gut-reaction. She thought, perhaps she should be more mindful of her comments; they did get Halle into trouble. She added, "It's private enough."

"Spencer need a lot of that?" Noel said. He paced around slowly, one step at a time, eyes searching for something just not entirely sure of what.

"We used it last year," explained Halle, "to meet up when our parents put that no-friends ban on us."

"Oh," Noel remembered that.

And Halle had the rare urge to overshare. "We confronted Mona here one night, back when she was bullying us."

"A, right?" checked Noel, gaze lingering on Halle's figure; a metre or two kept them separate. It sounded odd — a person outside the five of them speaking A's name into the space without pressuring them to crack open. It was a foreign feeling, and Halle wasn't exactly sold on it being a good thing.

"Right," she said. "We almost caught her that night, but..." The memory still bugged her now. It mocked her — and her friends — how they had Mona trapped there that night and through pure stupidity, Mona slipped away. Again. "... We messed up."

"How?" Noel seemed genuinely interested to know. Rather than press her for information, Halle willingly parted with it.

"We didn't think she would do that—" Halle pointed at the ceiling, towards the broken glass panel, its sharp shattered parts on the floor beneath. Halle said, "She threw a plant pot through it, ran out while we ducked from the glass."

Next, Noel asked a truly impossible question, "Why did she even do it? Why target you girls?"

Halle had gone over this a thousand times. It never felt good. She got that familiar ugly knot, anchoring deep within the pit of her stomach. It churned every so often and made her feel like a violently awful individual. Yet, it never fit, not entirely. There wasn't an answer to that question which made her feel good or satisfied enough. It hadn't mattered to her how much torture and turmoil Mona had gone through; she didn't have the right to inflict that onto others so they'd know the same rejection.

But Halle said the same she always did when asked, not that she liked or agreed with it. "We let Alison bully her."

"Alison bullied everyone, Mona wasn't special," Noel counteracted, short, similarly to how Halle once did.

"Okay, ass," Halle called him out on it, amused but offended at the invalidation. She hated how insensitive it sounded. She wasn't aware — at what specific point — she had softened. Lately, Halle had melted like a pad of butter on hot toast for people she would gladly choke out for what they did to her friends. Halle said, "I guess Mona figured when Aria came back, we'd slip back into our old ways — become friends and she'd be side-lined again. She told Spencer she wanted to get ahead of that, use A to bring us together, then when the time was right, she'd send herself a text and we'd accept her into the group."

"She wanted to be your friend?" Noel said in conclusion.

"Apparently," Halle said, not too fond of it either.

Neck craned back, Noel refused that suggestion with the strongest argument, "She hit you with a car."

"I'm aware," Halle replied, pressing her lips together.

Following along, Noel then asked, "How was she gonna end it?"

With a shrug, Halle answered. "I don't know."

His thick brows shot up at that. "You didn't ask?"

"No."

"Don't you wanna know?" he said.

"No, I don't think I do," Halle answered truthfully. She raised her eyes to his, wondering, "Is that weird?"

Noel shook his head at her. He dismissed every bad feeling Halle ever got about herself — refused to let her question herself, at least while he was around. "It's hard for you, I get it," he sympathized well.

"It's not like ain't got any," Halle said earnestly, "I've got so many questions — some with answers..." She purposefully surveyed him closely, realising she had disarmed him enough to maybe get more. "Some with a hundred, some I'm just filling in the blanks in my head, and none of them make sense — but I don't know what to do with them."

"Crossing them off would be helpful, I'd wanna know the answers," Noel told her.

"You would?" Halle questioned him, as she took a step nearer, trying to appear nonchalant in both her words and movement. She didn't want Noel to think he had been taken out to the middle of the wood and backed into a corner, forced to answer every question in Halle's traumatised brain.

"Yeah, totally," Noel said, and he had fallen into the thin-veiled trap Halle just left for him.

She arched her right brow up at him. "And you'd force the person to be honest with you?"

He even laughed, which made Halle more certain she was going to get what she wanted. Noel boasted, "I wouldn't give them much of choice to."

"Okay..." Halle drew out a big, deep breath and braced herself. Then, within a blink of an eye, she switched up on him and got straight to the point. "What happened that night with Em?"

His face dropped, and Noel warned her gravely for overstepping, "Halle..."

Carefully, Halle started to approach. She used his own words against him to gain something she needed — something her friends needed. "You said you'd ask—"

Yet, Noel started to get angry with her. "Is that what this is? Is that why you brought me out here, to confront me—?"

"No!" Halle exclaimed loudly. "But I need answers, Noel, I need—"

He interrupted her, frustration firing out at her. "Is Spencer even missing—?"

Halle was downright offended by that. "Of course she is, I wouldn't lie about that."

"Just everything else," Nick shot.

"Noel," Halle said his name like a prayer, pleading for him to do this one thing for her. "I need you to give me this. You said you'd ask, so I'm asking you, please," she begged, "what happened?"

•

Spencer's OK!!!
from: Em

The latest text summoned Halle and her friends to The Brew. At the end of her shift, in the busy evening, before it closed, Emily took time to recount what she knew to her friends. "Melissa wanted me to know that Spencer was in Radley, so she came in on her way out there," Emily said. "Dr Sullivan called her."

"What's Sullivan got to do with this?" asked Aria, confused.

Awkward, Emily became finely tuned to the fact when Halle had walked in, the cheerleader came with Noel Kahn, and he was still lingering around like a bad smell. She sent a conscious glance towards him, then turned her body away and lowered her voice in fear he'd hear. "Sullivan found Spencer at Radley," Emily said.

"She does psych-evaluations for the State," Halle inserted, more knowledgeable on all things her therapist than others. Yet, it still left her stumped. "Wait, but why was Spencer at Radley?"

"That's where the Rangers sent her," Emily told him, now hugging herself closely for comfort.

"What?" Confusion only doubled for Aria, spiking with it. "Where was she?"

Emily stressed to them, "Melissa said that Spencer was in the woods all night."

"Wait—" Hanna appeared thunderstruck, floored by the information, "she was just wandering around in the woods? Why?" 

"—Why?" Halle asked at the same time as Hanna did.

"Was she looking for Toby?" asked Aria, seemingly with the only explanation, but Emily was hopelessly left with nothing to give them.

"I don't know," Emily sighed depressingly.

"You guys, we have to go there," said Hanna instantly. It was a driven need, no push-back. "We have to talk to her."

Yet, Emily crippled them with devastating news. "Family visits only," she claimed. Her eyes once again drifted over to check Noel was still there, and he was. "It's some kind of mandatory evaluation." She snapped at Halle, "Okay— what the hell is Noel Kahn doing here?"

"Yeah," Hanna seemingly agreed, "what's that about? I thought we all said he was shady."

"He is shady," Aria threw back sourly.

"About that..." Sheepishly, Halle thought it poor to shock them with more bad news, but it had to be done. No secrets, Halle told herself; it was what she had to work on. "I have information..." After her hint, Halle's stare found its way to Emily. "About the night Alison's grave was dug up."

It hadn't taken much to get the girls gathered around, in collective intrigue, so easily. Soon, the four of them were around a table and cornered Noel into paralysis, frozen as beady eyes glared holes into every side of his head. Emily's burned the hottest; he wasn't surprised in the slightest. "Jenna and I had gone to Eric's party at the cabin," Noel claimed, "but I did leave."

"Like Holden said you did," Aria noted, and he nodded. "Where did you go?" she asked him.

"I got a text," Noel said, and immediately that intrigue turned uneasy, swirling around in irritable balls in their stomachs. "Telling me to be outside Spencer's house, that I'd find out who planted those test answers in my locker last year." He shot out a remark, "Apparently, it wasn't you guys."

"Oh, but you thought it was," Hanna scoffed, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "Typical."

"Sorry, Hanna, but that is typical," Noel chided back at her. "None of you are total angels, you'd set people up to take the fall for you before."

He meant Toby. He meant The Jenna Thing. Noel knew.

"Well, we didn't," Hanna shut down.

"So who did?" Emily asked curiously.

Noel sucked in a breath, eyes flitting to Halle; he had answered all these questions before for her, but he knew he had to repeat it now. "I don't know," he said. "All I know is this text told me to be outside Spencer's at eleven. I was there for almost an hour waiting, I was about to leave— Jenna was ragging on me over the phone for leaving her — and then I saw Emily leave." Scoffing, he admitted, "I thought that meant I was right, one of you did set me up. But—" Noel looked to Emily and explained, "you were all over the place, I wanted to offer you a lift home, but it seemed like that's where you were going."

"But I didn't," Emily said.

Noel gave a subtle shake of his head, his voice dropped. "No."

Already with that answer — that piece of the puzzle of what happened that specific night, Emily filled in, "I went to Paige's."

"You broke down on her porch," Noel reminded. He writhed uncomfortably in the chair, cracking his neck nervously at being judged so harshly. "I thought it was too personal, like I shouldn't be hearing it. You were talking about Maya, crying about Maya." He put his gaze down at the table. "I knew you wouldn't want me listening, so I left."

"You left her?" accused Hanna, nasty in tone.

Immediately, Noel's eyes shot up and defended himself fiercely, "I thought she was safe, that Emily was gonna stay at Paige's. How was I supposed to know she'd leave?"

With a sigh, rolling her wrist in motion, Halle said, "Just, continue."

Noel rolled his eyes at that, yet conceded to the instruction. He sounded a little more peeved this time as he spoke; his annoyance clear and aimed at the girls. "I went back to the party, got chewed out by Jenna for abandoning her."

"What time was this?" Aria asked.

"I don't know, how—? I don't—" Noel flailed over his lack of a good memory. He didn't have specifics; it wasn't like he thought he'd be needing to recount that night like an alibi — to remove reasonable doubt. "Like, after twelve, maybe later, I don't know," he eventually managed. "I went back for Jenna; we were driving back to Rosewood when we found Emily," he said, and it matched with Jenna's own timeline. "Outside some diner, drunk off your ass."

That part was different — to Jenna's first version of events. When the news first hit the girls, Spencer called them both out on it in the game of Truth. Outside some diner, new. Drunk off her ass, true.

"Was a brunette with her?" Hanna wondered, and Aria jumped in with her own question,

"In a red coat?"

"No," Noel responded, not faltered by those details. "No one. I thought Paige would've been with her, but—" he faced Emily again, "You were alone."

Briefly, Emily lowered her head in embarrassment before she anxiously swallow back the lump in her throat. She said to Noel, "Holden said I left with a brunette in a red coat."

"Jenna had a red jacket on, but... no red coat," he delivered unfortunately.

"Maybe that's who Holden saw," Halle said, eyes on a sunken Emily.

Yet, Aria remained strong. "Holden said the brunette came out of the bathroom."

Noel shook his head. "We never went inside." He told them, "Emily was alone when we found her, on the curb, head in her hands, slurring all her words." His stare returned to Emily, pulled up at the end of the table. He found it weird talking about her and not to her — not addressing Emily when it was so personal and invasive. "I tried to get you to stand, but you were way worse than when I saw you earlier. You could at least walk then; you were stumbling all of the place, your legs were like jello."

Wary of what was real and what wasn't, Emily sought honesty from him. "Is any of what Jenna said true?"

"You did freak out at a red light, that much was true," revealed Noel. "You were going on about missing someone, I thought you were gonna start crying about Maya again and I'd have to call Halle." After, he spared a glance to Halle, who already torn her own gut up with unabashed guilt.

Emily narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. She grew dubious, believing it was just another ploy to butter Halle up when it came to forgiving him. "Why didn't you call Halle?"

"Because you said her name..." Noel drifted off and watched while all four girls expressed great confusion on their faces. However, none of them expected them to say what he did next. "You said Alison."

And the mood shifted.

The four got really quiet and folded in on themselves. Something as simple as her name held such power that all their strength broke and those smashed fragments retreated into the dark place where they kept Alison's memory.

Noel continued with care, "And I knew Halle was still dealing with a lot when it came to her, unpicking that damage, and I didn't wanna put her through it again. I was trying to save you some hurt," he directed at Halle, and they pair held each other's stares for a little longer, forgetting for those seconds they weren't the only ones there. He snapped them away just before she drew him in with her deep eyes.

It couldn't just be about protecting Halle.

... Could it?

"Then you got out the car," Noel said, back to Emily. "I tried getting you back in but you wouldn't, you wouldn't move and freaked out on me — screaming, crying. Jenna started shouting at me, said someone was gonna see and call the cops, so I had to choose — you or her." Regretfully, because it ended badly for him, Noel said, "And I chose Jenna."

"Because she was still pretending to be blind," Hanna concluded with a annoyed scoff.

"If the police came, everyone would know she was lying." Noel refused, shaking his head, "I couldn't do that to her, she wasn't ready."

Aria asked him seriously, "That's the last time you saw Emily that night?"

"That was the last time," Noel replied, his eyes never staying in one position for too long. There was a moment where they thought he lied, but Noel was there. He was in front of them giving them answers, and he gave Emily peace of mind.

Emily left Spencer's house and went to find Paige.

She met Paige; they kissed and when Paige went inside for a glass of water, Emily vanished.

Somehow, she got to that diner, with that brunette in a red coat.

Holden saw her, showed concern, but ultimately let Emily leave with the brunette, who then just dumped Emily on the side of the road to be found by Jenna and Noel on their way back from a party at the Kahn Cabin.

From there, after jumping out the car, Emily made her way to Alison's grave where her friends later found her.

The girls watched on as Halle bid Noel goodbye. The pair were still in listening-distance from the table, talking as they normally would rather than lowly like they had been doing previously.

"Thanks for helping," Halle started. "Thanks for this—" she gestured back at the table with her head, causing her three friends to shoot their heads down and act like they weren't earsdropping, "as well."

"I'm sorry it took me this long to tell you the truth," Noel sincerely told her.

"Why tell the truth now? You could've lied, kept us in the dark," Hale said.

Instantly, Noel said, "You asked." He stretched his arm up and began to rub the nape of his neck. "Directly, not through Truth or in front of your friends. It was just you."

In that moment — with those words spoken aloud — an understanding passed through them. The once-close friends fell into place, and, feeling it, Halle closed the distance and leant up. She put a kiss to his cheek — an act of affection she hadn't placed on him for a long time. With his eyes fluttered to a close, Noel's knees buckled down to ease the distance like he used to, making it easier for her to reach. Yet, the moment after, Halle was already settling her trainer back to the ground.

With the feel of her lips still tingling his cheek, Noel felt like the girl softly smiling up at him had gutted him. He felt sick as he said, "If you need me, all you gotta do is ask."

"Thank, Noel." Halle hugs him.

"So, what?" Emily propositioned Halle the second she returned to the table, almost with irritation. "We trust Noel now?"

While Hanna's phone chimed, disturbing the mild interrogation, Halle sighed and said, "Noel's just trying to help."

"Yeah, but there's still so many unanswered questions," Aria mentioned.

"Like, who dug up the grave?" Emily asked.

"Are the blonde and brunette the same person?" Aria kept asking them aloud, her eyes drifting to Emily. "And did they take you to the diner from Paige's or did you meet there?"

Halle threw out, "More like why did they disappear on you?" Now more determined, she stated, "We need to talk to Spencer, tell her what we know."

Honestly, driven by the distrust the group openly shared for the elder Hastings sibling, Aria put in, "I don't like the idea of Melissa being the only one that's able to get in there."

"I know," said Emily, sighing heavily. "That's why I left Dr Sullivan a message."

"Guys..." Hanna gulped nervously, face full of fear as she held up her phone. There, on her tiny screen, shone an image of Ashley Marin exiting her car with Detective Wilden next to her from a tape-recording. On it, a red letter was plastered,

A.

•

The smell of ginger and soy sauce filled their air and floated around the Brewster family kitchen. Luisa laid each of the steaming salmon fillets onto a separate plates, neatly beside a pile of brown rice, while she talked through Halle's day with her. "Is Spencer okay? Is she hurt?"

"You know as much as me," Halle replied.

Abruptly, Luisa waved a finger up at Riley. "Hmm, Riles, be careful, not so big please," she cautioned. At the kitchen table, with the large wooden utensils appearing more like weapons in Riley's tiny hands, the nine-year-old tossed the salad, a cherry tomato rolling away from the bowl. "Sorry, honey—" Luisa's attention landed back on Halle. "Carry on, I'm listening," she said, now picking up her glass of white wine glass.

Unbeknownst to Luisa Brewster, the half-empty glass looked particularly tempting to Halle. Her throat went dry just thinking about tasting the yellowish liquid. She wondered if she could sneak a glass behind her parents' backs — for relaxation purposes. Lately, Halle discovered her back wound up tight; she could feel every swollen, contracted muscle. Somehow, despite than hankering she had and her sandpaper tongue, Halle managed to speak. "They found her at a camp-site, she had been out there all night."

"She must have been terrified, and her parents are away too..." Even with a clawed hand around her glass, she brought it towards her chest. "Poor girl," she cooed. Lightly, she ordered of her daughter, "You tell Melissa — anything she needs, we're there, okay?"

Halle mused grumpily, "Not happy about it, but will do."

"I'll give Veronica a call in the morning, let her know we're here and thinking of Spencer," informed Luisa. Her expression fell into a deep frown, eyes glassed over with empathy. "It's scary how fast things change overnight."

"Mom," Halle's voice rang far too soft for her liking, but now wasn't the time to be rough. She waited until those glassy eyes — pools of honey brown — met her own darker ones. "I never asked how hard my diagnosis was on you."

"Oh—" The wine glass came down, and Luisa breathed out. "It was never about me." She expanded, because that was what Halle needed, "But once we got it, though, so much about who you are made sense. And, yeah, your dad and I argued but that was mainly on me. The only thing we ever agreed on was it had to be what's best for you." Her lips quirked up at their corners however, doubt swiftly entered and lowered them again. "You're not scared of your bipolar, are you? Because it's nothing to be scared of, honey," Luisa assured her. "It's completely manageable and we've got the sweet spot for your meds now, and Dr Sullivan said—"

"Mom," Halle interrupted her, a reassuring smile upon her mouth. "I'm good, I'm really good," she said, and Luisa let out a sigh of relief.

Feet carried into the room, and Nick Brewster entered with a large grin upon his face. "Whoa, that's some expert salad tossing right there, kiddo," he said to Riley, who beamed up at him as a response. Nick went to her, kissed her head and whispered, "Good job," into her hairline.

"You all packed?" Luisa asked her husband, causing him to raise his head.

"Yeah, overnight bag is packed and by the door," Nick answered.

"For—?"

"Halle, plates please," Luisa cut her daughter off without meaning to.

"Yeah, sure," Halle said, blinking. She picked up two plates and brought them over to the table while her mother did the same. Halle asked her dad, taking to her chair, "For the New York seminar with the bank, right?"

By now, he had left Riley to go grab his own glass of wine and topped off his wife's as well. He looked over to Halle, now sitting. "Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, just Hanna's mom's going too," Halle mentioned, trying to seem indifferent. "She's gonna be staying at Em's."

"Oh, that's right," Nick recalled, "Ashley's up for the promotion."

"Good for her," Luisa praised, graciously accepting the glass from Nick. "Thanks, my love."

Nick smiled at Luisa then proceeded to take his seat beside her, opposite his two daughters. "Are you asking because of the relocation?"

"What relocation?" asked Halle, stumped just as she drove her fork into the baked fish.

"The promotion Ashley's up for, it's at the New York branch," Nick let Halle know. "She'll be relocating if she gets it."

Halle deflated. Her entire self had been pierced over her salmon and brown rice. Now, she really wanted that wine. Halle had committed a felony to keep Hanna — and she was leaving? Did Hanna know, or was she in the dark too? The scream she held back would've set the world on fire, but Halle settled for digging her fork into the flaky pink fish.

"Everything okay?" Nick checked in lightly.

"Yeah, yeah—" Halle diverted her eyes down at the food she no longer wanted, "fine."

In jest, Nick began to tease her, "You can cope without me for a couple days, can't you?"

"Oh, please, we won't notice you'll be gone," joked Luisa, smiling as Riley snorted with laughter. Across the table, the mother-daughter duo shared in bright smiles and lively chuckles.

Feeling her phone buzz in her jean-pocket, Halle reached for it just as her father laughed sarcastically and said, "Go on, get it out, gang up on me."

"Mom said you're needy, you want us to miss you because you miss us too much," Riley teased jokingly.

"That might be true, because how could I not miss that cute face?" Nick asked his youngest sweetly, to receive her poked out tongue at him afterwards.

Rosewood mall
parking garage, 9PM.
From: Unknown

Halle's brows furrowed, the vertical crease appearing down the centre. Her mind raced; thoughts zoomed to connect one to the other, but in the end, Halle was just as confused to begin with. Each suggestion her brain pulled up just fogged up her thought-pattern more and soon enough the throbbing returned after weeks of absence.

"Hal," her father's voice cut through the brain-noise, and Halle snapped her eyes to him. He spoke with caution, all the laughter had been sucked from the room. By the looks on each of three's faces, it hadn't been the first time Nick had said her name, just the first time Halle heard it. "If you need me to stay, I can." Nick glanced to Luisa, next to him, then back to Halle. "If you need us both here, because of what's going on with Spencer, I'll—"

"No, no, I'm fine, go," Halle rushed in quick to assure her father that wasn't what needed to be done. "It's just... I, uh..." Halle set aside the phone, pressed against her thigh on the chair and lied like often she did. "I forgot I have a group presentation tomorrow, is it okay if I go to Em's after dinner? I'll be back for ten," she said.

"Sure." Nick agreed without issue. "If you have a project, I see no reason why not, but—"

"Be back for ten," cut in Luisa, saying the exact same thing her husband was planning on just more stressed and insistent.

•

Anxiety had swirled up a storm within her and the acid in her stomach grew. Halle bit the bullet when it was dangled in front of her. She started to question whether Spencer had been right when she said Halle was reckless. Impulsive. Leaned closer to the dark than light. Halle wondered if she liked putting herself in dangerous situations, loving the rush that surged through her when she nearly didn't make it out. She wondered how much of that was her — and how much was A.

The thrill of it gave her a sense of excitement. Perhaps Halle was designed for danger. To love it. To hate it. To roll around in it and toy with the inevitable. Halle made it out. She always made it out, no matter how close to death she got. Each time, she danced further down that knife's edge. It never cut her.

The Rosewood mall shut around eight every evening, and most workers had been cleaning up before then so they could head out as fast as they could. When Halle set off the sky had already been an inky blue and it kept getting deeper and deeper until she arrived at the parking unit where it was near black.

Grey concrete made the garage appear darker. Her car headlights were on, directing her around every corner that were sharper at night. The wheels crunched over the occasional gravel and passed the odd parked car. She needed the fourth floor.

Then, she saw it.

The car in the far side.

Halle flashed her headlights on arriving. She did at as soon as her car reached the level, and in retaliation, the distant car shone its lights twice at her. On the opposite side, further up, Halle parked her car in one of the bays.

Her eyes shut for a moment. Halle inhaled deeply, shoulders rising, before she exhaled for four seconds. She felt the fuzzy ball of anxiety drop with her settled breath, and Halle took the plunge. Swiftly, she shut the engine off, unbuckled her seat-belt and snatched up the large notebook from the passenger seat.

In the dark, lit dimly by weak yellow strip-light overhead, Halle followed her shadow. Her trainers dragged despite the determined nature within her and she clutched the notebook to her chest. She hadn't meant to, but Halle slammed the door shut to the car she just climbed into.

There, in the driver's side leered Detective Wilden. All the lights on the console were off; the radio wire unplugged and in a place were Halle could note she could speak freely. Her first words were evident she had that knowledge.

"Not dead, then — shame," Halle commented. She tried to act more mature, more certain of her place in the world — or theirs. Rosewood. Halle wasn't. She had been spun around, unbalanced and outcast for years. She was confident in a lot, just not in her belonging in Rosewood. Still, those around wouldn't know.

Jason did. He'd hate her for what she was doing right now. If he could see her, he'd shout and yell at her that she wasn't this dumb. And she wasn't. But, Jason wasn't there to tell that. He was gone. Halle felt reassured in dealing the final blow to that stab-wound by acting against what she knew he'd send her that steely, brooding glare of his for.

"Yeah, took a few days off," Wilden kept his tone short. "But I'm back now; I've got business to sort."

"Is that what this is? Business to sort?" Halle asked.

"I was surprised you agreed to meet," he mentioned honestly, which made Halle retort,

"I was surprised you text," she said. "Didn't think it was appropriate—" she emphasized, "for you to have my number."

"It was on the file," Detective Wilden stated. He leant across her and Halle gasped, darting back, but Wilden just chuckled. "Relax," he said in way that wouldn't make anybody relax yet alone Halle. He unclicked the glovebox and when it fell open in front of the cheerleader, the manila folder from before — the one that had been seen by her parent — fell against the lid. "Thought curiosity would kill the cat."

"'But satisfaction brought it back'," Halle quoted as she reached for it. He gave her a strange look. "My nana hated when folks never finished their proverbs." Opening it, Halle faced down at the printed words that caused her parents to go into a frenzy. The accusation her friends were actually her enemies still stung, yet seeing it now, Halle started to wryly laugh. "Is this it? This is your big play to get me on-side?" She scoffed, "Pathetic."

His mood switched on her. Anger came out to greet. "This," he said, "account here—" Detective Wilden pointed, "links directly to your friends, with money leaving theirs to be put into this. The card linked to this account was then used at this store—" he pointed out a specific transaction, "and was used to buy three burner phones, all used to message you."

"It doesn't make sense—"

"Your friends are manipulating you and you're protecting them—"

"No," Halle cut him of sternly. "This—" she gestured down at the file, "doesn't make sense." Flipping through the papers, between the bank statements and phone-records, Halle was yet to connect anything to her friends despite their names being there. "Em can't afford this," Halle explained. "She works at The Brew — as a barista. She can't afford to put, what—one-fifty? —into an account every month, I doubt she makes that much a month."

Halle continued, "And Hanna, like, come on!" Halle shot him an incredulous look. "You've been around her enough to know if she had that much, it'd be spent on a new pair of shoes in a heartbeat. And you're missing a key piece of information." Plainly with a roll of her eyes, Halle said, "Hanna ain't got a separate bank account, it's one her mom set up under her name, and I don't see Ashley Marin anywhere, do you?" One final glance over it, Halle planned to rid all this from her brain. She'd erase if fast; it didn't mean anything. Yet, a name caught her eye.

ACCOUNT HOLDER: VIVIAN DARKBLOOM.

A.

This was A.

Not that Halle needed anymore proof it was. The only people who knew about Vivian Darkbloom were A, the girls and Alison.

Trying to sound indifferent, Halle asked him, "Did you look up this holder's name?"

"Hmm? Oh, Vivian Darkbloom," he noted. "Came up to some address in New York, it's a business not a residence. No one with that name exists, it's a false name." He took the folder from her and flipped through the pages, searching. "I checked with the bank, all I got was this," he told her, and handed her a printout of screen-grab from a security camera from out of the file. A dark haired women in a red coat with cat-eye shades large enough to cover the side of her face. "Whoever it is, knew where the cameras were."

Quietly, a smash of muttering, Halle said, "Could be Alison."

"What?" Wilden didn't quite hear her.

"Nothing," said Halle, shaking it from her. She handed it back to him. "Whoever's doing this is smart enough to avoid cameras and set this up."

"You think someone's setting them up?" Detective Wilden questioned her in great disbelief. "You think this person broke into Rosewood PD's server and did this just to set your friends up?" He wanted to laugh. "Come on, Halle, give me something more believable."

"This is—"

"Or I might just have to stop by and see your friend," he wickedly warned, as he cut her off. "See what Hanna has to say about this."

"Leave her alone," said Halle instantly. The cockiness she met him with vanished, and the certainty came with her fierce protectiveness of her friend. "I swear to god if you—"

Again, he interrupted, taunting her threat like she was powerless, "If I, what? You'll do, what? I've got the badge, who's gonna believe you?"

Halle countered back, "With what I know about you, everyone." Her voice lilted with smugness. "I think a lot of people will be very interested to know the lead detective on the Alison DiLaurentis case knew her. Actually met her the summer she was murdered."

"You don't have anything on me," he said, a snarl worn on his face.

"I have enough," Halle claimed, because she did. She saw him retract and knew he didn't think she was the type to make empty threats. "And that scares you; because you know once they see what I have, they're gonna start asking questions." To drive her point home, Halle said, "One by one, men who were interested in Alison are dropping like flies — you're next."

He sat up straight, the collar of his shirt tighter around his pink neck. "Is that a threat?"

"Not the one I'm making," she replied with a certain harshness to it.

Detective Wilden argued, "Somebody is making me look guilty."

"Yeah, that somebody has experience doing that," Halle put in, agreeing. "They're the ones pulling the strings, that's what this—" she wafted the folder up, "is," she said. "They did it with Ian Thomas and Garrett Reynolds, too."

"People who saw Alison That Night," spoke Wilden like a ghost had sent a frosty chill up his back.

The anxiety from before returned to Halle, and she asked, "Did you?"

"I saw that day," he confessed, leaving Halle shocked but not surprised. "I didn't see her the night she got killed."

Halle built up the courage to ask, "Why? Why did you see her?"

"She had something on me," Detective Wilden revealed to her. "A video," he added, and Halle sat up more. She, too, had her own video and knew too well the power Alison wielded on how she intended to use them. "That Summer in Cape May, I spent doing things I should've have. Partying, drugs, bribes, girls—"

"Underage girls," Halle corrected.

He switched out on her, his glare turned icy. "I didn't ID everyone who got on my boat, that's not my failing," he said, causing Halle to scoff at him. "What did you want me to do, ID every girl that stepped foot on the dock That Summer?" He gave her a look. "There's fake IDs, anyway. You girls find away around everything."

"Oh, it's our fault?" Halle threw at him sourly.

"It is if you lie," he snapped at her.

"So what, Alison lied and that means she deserved what happened to her?" Halle asked him, disbelieving while simultaneously offended. "You're pig."

"Believe me or not, I didn't mess around with your friend." Detective Wilden dismissed it, "I posed with her for photograph, and, yeah, she was at a few parties I threw at the Cape, but I didn't know her like that."

"Just enough to see the day she died," Halle chided, disgusted.

His voice rose. "She was blackmailing me! Her and her friend!"

"CeCe Drake," Halle answered flatly for him. "You were hooking up with her."

"Occasionally," Detective Wilden responded. "But the bitch set me up — her and Alison," he spat, upsetting Halle to hear the spite spoken around her dead friend's name. She could say it — nobody else.

Halle asked the question she dreaded, "What was the video?"

"All the things I mentioned... and something else." The detective took a moment to lull it over, the cogs turning in his head, until he finally caved. "The video had me and Melissa Hastings."

"You're playing?" All front dropped while extreme shock consumed Halle. She was left gobsmacked, stunned into her seat. She blinked several times, trying to take it all in.

Detective Wilden told her, "She found out Ian was screwing some girl behind her back — I didn't know anything about him and Alison at the time," he briskly said. "But they broke up because he was seeing her behind Melissa's back. She wanted revenge, she knew where to get it."

"That's why she was on your boat," Halle realised. "Wait—" A gaping pit appeared in her stomach, stirring up a sickness. Spencer. Overeager for as many pieces to the mystery of That Summer, Halle asked him and dreaded the answer, "This was when?"

"I don't know— June, maybe?" guessed Detective Wilden. "It's all a blur."

"He wasn't seeing Alison, then," Halle noted. He was seeing Spencer, she thought. "That's why Melissa took that photo, why she was all friendly Alison in Cape May," she said. "It was before she knew and started sending Alison threats." Then, suddenly, her eyes darted to the detective. "But if there's a video, then Ian was involved — he's NAT."

"Ian Thomas was there, so was Garrett Reynolds," Wilden admitted. "Ian might have ran NAT, but you'd be an idiot if you think he was the only one behind the camera." His voice grew serious, more grave as he went on, "Those videos could bring down everyone, they had cameras everywhere. Ian and Garrett employed people, they liked setting others up."

The Jenna Thing.

Halle scoffed, "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"From what I recall," Wilden began dropping hints, "Garrett's widow isn't grieving as much as people thought she would."

"Jenna?" Halle's eyebrows scrunched together.

Detective Wilden stated, "She turned him in."

"I know," Halle replied. She met his raised brows with, "We know more than you think."

"How?" he asked, finally wanting his questions answered.

"You want the truth?" she questioned him. "You want this to be over? You solve this case, get a big fat promotion and move on up — I get to graduate and get the hell out this here? Yeah?" She checked in with him, her tone blunt, far too straight-forward, and Wilden nodded. "Okay, then we work together. We trade intel, here, and me and my friends get immunity." She dealt her final clause, "And you leave Hanna and her mom alone."

"I want the car," he said threateningly.

"You're not having the car, it's no use to anyone now," Halle refused.

It didn't go down well with him; as his voice raised at her. "That's not the deal."

"Correction, buddy, we've made no deal," Halle mocked him back, venom in her voice and ice in her cold stare. "You don't dictate this or I go straight to the DA and your superintendent with what I have on your ass. And I gotta an in with the DA's office, you don't wanna push me," she cautioned him very carefully, "I'll push back."

He shook his head, his jaw clenched at her denial. "I can't promise you that without something to take to the DA," Wilden told her factually, still peeved. "I need something to show him to get you guys immunity."

"That's what this is," Halle claimed, holding up her notebook. "Everything we know, how we know it, and everything Mona Vanderwaal did when she was A."

Pleasant surprise crossed his features, but still he chose to taunt her, "If you give me this, they DA isn't guaranteed to grant you and your friends immunity just on that."

A light, barely-there chuckled escaped her as Halle's mouth quirked up. "Good job that's not my only playing card."

Detective Wilden asked of her, "What else can you give me?"

"The person who killed Alison DiLaurentis."

•

"Are you insane?!"

Aria blurted out her question, utterly mortified. She stared at Halle like her head had been severed and was hanging on by its last nerves. The cheerleader as a response continued fretting over her reflection in the bathroom mirror, fluffing up her brows with a brush.

"You are not that stupid," Emily added onto it. The next day, the four hung around the sinks in the girls' toilets, at Rosewood high. It was early morning and Halle had just finished recounting her eventful night.

"It's not stupid if it's smart," Halle quipped back, only further confusing the two staring daggers at her head. "Guys," said Halle flatly. "Come on, we never make the first move. I ain't waiting for A to rat me out, I'm gonna rat them out first."

"A is gonna seriously punish you for that," Aria worried aimlessly, chewing on her bottom lip. "He's gonna take it out on us."

"Hey, I got more out of him than he did me," Halle reassure. "And look at me—" she smiled proudly, "still whole."

"Not funny," Emily said with a straight face, causing Halle to roll her eyes.

Quietly, churning over inside, Hanna's sad stare made contact with Halle in the mirror. "Did you do it for me?"

Exhaling forcibly, Halle decided not to lie. "Yeah." She saw Hanna open her mouth to argue, but Halle got in there first. She turned to face them. "I did it for you, Han, and I did it for us. I'm not playing catch up anymore," she said adamantly. "Spencer's out of the game right now, so we have play it without her."

"What you did was really dangerous, you shouldn't have done it," Hanna worried.

"You didn't tell me you were leaving," Halle spilled, and both Aria and Emily were abruptly suspended in bewilderment.

"You're leaving?" Emily asked, shocked.

"I'm not—" Hanna huffed, deciding not to lie. "This is more than a bank seminar for my mom," she said, "it could be a promotion in New York; I said I'd go with her."

"What?" Aria was stunned.

"If it gets her away from Wilden, I'm going," Hanna confessed without remorse.

"So," Halle locked eyes with the blonde and expanded, "if I can get Wilden to back down, you stay, you don't leave."

You don't leave me, Halle almost said. She couldn't take another heartbreak like that. Halle might not recover.

Hanna wanted to scream at her for being so reckless and peddling headfast into a dangerous game with the lecherous detective, even if it showed how gold Halle's secretly soft heart was. Instead, Hanna bit her tongue and shook her head. "We can't trust Wilden."

"I don't," Halle returned. "Like I said, I ain't stupid."

"So, you traded A for this?" Emily asked her, holding up the manila folder Wilden gifted Halle in exchange for the notebook.

Halle didn't tell them about the other part of her deal. That was on her. The deal Halle made was here, not theirs. She left it out on purpose. "Not just that," Halle revealed, having something else to offer. "Wilden has an NAT video," she said, and watched as her friends' jaws fell slack.

"You're kidding," Emily said.

"Doing what?" Hanna immediately asked, curious as well.

"Enough to make Alison and Cece blackmail him," said Halle.

Aria cast her eyes down. "Like she did with my dad."

"And Myles," agreed Halle, sharing in that betrayal. Their gazes locked for a beat, both dwelling in that joint hurt they carried like tiny scars on hearts that caused grey damnations when it came to trust. Halle carried on, "It was for money, but it isn't just Wilden on this video. It's Melissa's video, too."

"Melissa?!" Aria screeched.

"So, that photo on the boat?" Emily asked, clueing it together. "She actually took that?"

Halle gave a half-shrug. "That's what Wilden said."

Despite the uneasy over yet another Melissa-link, Hanna remarked with raised eyebrows, "At least CeCe told you you guys the truth."

Still holding back, Halle closed her eyes and braced them. "... Wilden said something else."

"Oh, god," groaned Emily, "what now?"

"It wasn't just him in Cape May That Summer," said Halle. "NAT Club was too. Ian, Garrett..." She trailed off, lowering her stare in shame. It felt like a dagger to her chest to speak his name. "Jason."

Emily's eyes bulged. "Jason was involved?"

"No—" Halle got firm, shaking her head profusely. "Wilden never mentioned Jason, his name never came up." She gulped nervously, "Someone else's did, though.... Jenna Marshall was there That Summer."

"Jenna?" In deep confusion, Emily questioned her, "Why was Jenna in Cape May?"

"I don't know, but according to Wilden, she was around Garrett and Ian — a lot," Halle stressed severely, "He thinks she might have been one of their employees."

"Like Jason thought Ian had," Emily recalled.

"Yeah."

"Oh!" Aria gasp cut through the warm bathroom air. "Oh, my god! I can't— I can't believe I forgot—" In distress, her hand shot to her head, pressing her palm into it, and Aria remembered, "Jenna flat out told me last year she'd been to Cape May."

"She did?" Hanna's brows scrunched up with her nose. "When?"

"When we took that pottery class together at Hollis, remember?" Aria pulled at the memory, it clearing within her her brain. "She said the piece she made was inspired by the sea at Cape May, it was right there — right there!" she exclaimed in frustration, mainly at herself for missing it. "I just didn't connect it until now."

"So what are we saying exactly?" Emily was careful in questioned, "Jenna was part of NAT, not just dating Garrett?"

"Maybe," Halle tried, shrugging, "but she was definitely around Ian and Garrett in June."

"June?" Hanna's spine straightened up, her standing far more alert. "Did you say June?"

"Yeah, why?" Halle asked, a little confused by the sudden spark within the blonde.

"The Jenna Thing," Hanna said simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We always said Ali wanted Jenna out of the way because she was a threat, but—" Hanna took a big breath then posed, "what if something went down in Cape May that made Alison want to get rid of Jenna for good? Or at least hurt her," she said. "Something to do with NAT Club."

It clicked for the group. Suddenly, in the stale heat of the bathroom, it all made sense. Aria added to it, them realising at the same time, "And she had Ian record it for blackmail."

"Mutual destruction," Halle spoke. She quoted Jenna Marshall's words from Truth back at them, feeling the depth of that more severely now. "If Alison went down, we went down with her," she elaborated, "and Jenna couldn't say it was because of Cape May because none of us were there."

"It was the perfect cover— god!" Aria said loudly, wounded yet again by how far Alison's cruelty could stretch.

Linking it together aloud, Emily inserted, "But she found out about Toby before that happened, so she never had to use us."

"Jenna molesting him, you mean," Hanna reminded bitterly.

A chill shot up Halle's back and she shook. "Lord, I hate her."

"So what we're saying is," Aria checked for clarification, "something went down between Jenna and Ali in Cape May, and she purposefully set off that stink bomb in Toby's garage because she knew Jenna would be in there?"

"It wasn't a stink bomb, though, Aria," Halle put in bluntly. "It was a firecracker, Alison lied to us. She staged the whole Toby-in-the-tree-creeping-on-us to get us to set that fire."

Emily felt sick, her stomach flipped at the thought. "Alison wanted rid of Jenna, because of Ian Thomas."

Seriously, Aria stated, "Okay, now we need to see Spencer."

"We can't," Halle gave. "Not until the psych-eval is done."

"We could just say that we're Spencer's cousins," Hanna suggested, as if it was completely believable and not the worst lie ever uttered.

"Hanna, nobody's ever gonna believe that," Aria replied flatly; one look at them would give the girls away.

"Might have to say a couple of us are adopted," Halle hinted, lowly spoken in a sing-song sort of way.

Emily heaved a heavy sigh, her perched back to the large basin. "We have to find out why she's so sure Toby's dead."

"Well, they have to let her out after seventy-two hours," Hanna pointed out, which caused Halle's eyebrows to arch high.

Halle sucked her teeth, "No, not really."

"Halle's right," Aria agreed. Gravely, Aria confirmed, "They don't have to let her go at all if she's really—" She cut herself suddenly, seeing Hanna cross her arms and the glares both Emily trained to her. "You know..."

"What are you saying?" Emily questioned, a little clipped at the insinuation.

Deciding she was never going to win, Aria just came out with it. "I'm saying, A's been turning the screws so long, one of us was bound to snap a string." She added in a mutter, "Just never though it would be Spencer."

After a beat of silence, them stewing in the helplessness, Hanna spoke. "I did."

They all faced her, and Emily asked, "Why?"

"Because there's a downside  to being too smart," Hanna remarked.

"Or too much pressure," inserted Halle, considering that also.

When she noticed Emily's dropped head, Aria voiced, "You were never the weak link, Emily. Spencer was."

Halle couldn't help it. The repulsion coursed through her so fast, her mouth moved before her brain stopped it. "Screw that!" All of their eyes snapped to her. "Screw that," Halle repeated. "Absolutely not, we ain't using that nasty-ass nickname Mona gave us against each other. It sucks— it freaking sucks." She got irate, voice scratchy and shrill. "Why? Why is she the weakest link? Because she snapped? What, because she's struggling— ill? — Come, Aria, what is it?"

Under attack, Aria cowered at Halle's intensity and squeaked, "She's at Radley,"

"No, be specific," Halle encouraged vilely. She knew she was making her friend uncomfortable but continued the offence. "What made Spencer the weakest link? Because if it's to do with that—" Mental illness, she referred silently, "Then I'm the weakest link, and I broke a long time ago. At homecoming, most likely, when I thought Alison was in the poster," she admitted in a list. "Or at last year's carnival when I thought I saw Alison in the fun-house and ended up ranting about her to two EMTs. No—" Halle was stern with them, shutting it down, "we don't do that crap to each other, we don't call each other the weakest link. A might, but we don't."

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Aria defended sincerely, but the four all felt the extremeness behind Halle's rant. "I'm just— I think A gets in my head and makes me say things I wouldn't if I never had A to begin with."

"Me too," Emily said sadly.

"Guys, but Spencer is in Radley," Hanna voiced her worry, "she's not doing great."

"Okay, so we support her," Halle instructed. "Let her get better."

"We can't exact hurry up her recovery," Emily agreed, "we'll see her tomorrow."

The door opened, and the girls span around to look. Mona, unsuspecting, entered with the full intention of simply just using the bathroom, faltered on the spot. Her entire demeaner changed. At first she sunk into herself then the confidence trickled back in slowly, seeing the girls resign to escaping their sanctuary for gossip while at school. Just as Hanna got her grasp onto the door, Mona called them back.

"So," she began. Mona meddled within her bag, searching with purpose as she kept her eyes locked on the four through the mirror. "Where's Velma? Haven't seen her today."

All the stares turned to death glares, narrowed into tight slits which burned lasers into Mona's tilted head. Halle went to charge forward. "Let me—"

"No—" Aria's hand landed on Halle's arm, stopping her, "let me." Stepping out and heading towards Mona, Aria twisted into the cruel-place where she often went when Alison pushed her. She got in, right beside Mona, who focused on glossing her lips with a chubby lipstick; Aria's voice taunted her, slightly lilting. "If you mean Spencer, I think you know exactly where she is, she's in Radley, and you're the reason why," she accused.

Mona halted. She turned away from the mirror to face Aria. As she spoke her confused, the amusement couldn't help but slip in. "Radley?"

Hanna came over to back Aria up; Emily and Halle were in tow. "Don't play dumb, Mona," Hanna said.

"I'll still check your ass," Halle warned, steelier than the rest.

Emily added onto it, "You could've gotten through senior year and been finished, but you wouldn't leave it alone."

It was a slice of brutal truth. Just two months ago, when summer ended and started its roll into September, the five friends — Aria, Emily, Hanna, Spencer and Halle — all sat around, unaware of the plan for the end to their sleepover, and raised a toast to their senior year.

The best year yet.

What a mockery A and Mona were making of that.

Mona dropped her voice, gone was any humour or a hint of a smile. "Listen to me—"

"No, you listen," Aria cut in nastily. Her eyes bore straight into Mona's, brimming with vile hatred. "If Spencer doesn't get better, and she doesn't get out of Radley," she rushed, body wound up in blind, white-hot rage, "you're gonna wish you broke your neck when you fell off that cliff!"

Halle couldn't help the way her eyes largened at that. She was physically stunned, frozen to the spot, as she looked on in a mix of satisfaction and horror. It was so unlike Aria — the viciousness weaponized to make another small. But this — that evil side of them — was in each of them when backed into a corner enough.

Alison wouldn't have picked them if they didn't.

"Attention...
Aria Montgomery, report to the principal's office.
Aria Montgomery, to the office."

The old PA system crackled to life like it always did, and a female voice called Aria to face the consequence. To what, neither Aria or her friends knew, yet Mona's smug smile was unsettling enough to think it was this moment in particular.

A was everywhere.

All around, they felt the touch of A. Leather gloves reached for them, twisted at wrists and yanked at ankles. It nipped and spat and destroyed. And A did it all with a knowing smile. This time, its form was Mona's in a bathroom mirror rather than a stranger's blank face at a phone-screen.

A was an inescapable fate, and the game pushed them into it.

•

AUTHOR'S NOTE
MORE DRASTIC CHANGES FROM HERE ON OUT. 
YOU BITCHES KNOW NOTHING.
— L.