•

"She's Come Undone"

Aria Montgomery folded up in to herself, impassive and stewing in immense melancholy. Her forlorn expression was cut up with streams of tears. It wasn't sadness that consumed and writhed in her stiffened, numb body; it was anguish.

Betrayal.

Utmost and brutal humiliation.

She didn't know how she managed to push it out. How she put her pain into actual words and told them what heinous thing Ezra had done to her — across her. He had lied to her. He had not once told her the truth. Even the start was a lie. Yet, Aria did tell them. Through the crying breaks and she screams of anger that tore at her soul, Aria told her four closest friends what horror he had done and let she let bewilderment and hurt fill the living room at the back of her house.

On the other side of the couch to a stuffy Aria was Spencer. Her stomach had been gnawed at by the guilt of telling Aria that her on-and-off boyfriend -- and their collective teacher — was A. That he was the one bullying them, torturing them, making their lives a living hell meanwhile he pretended to be their supporter. Still, Spencer found the ability to ask, "Did you actually read any of this book?"

"A few pages," said Aria, ever so quietly. The four had to strain to hear her because she was so quiet. "Bits and pieces."

"You don't have to tell us what you read," Halle offered, although she craved to know desperately.

Aria knew this, too. She said, "Ezra knew who I was before we met." Water welled in her eyes, building and building, but never broke. She had already done that on the ski lift, staring directly down at Ambrose Pavilion. She grew angry at that flooding memory. "He knew who all of us were." Shamed, Aria dropped that grit and rage as another wave of sadness crashed upon her. "And he knew Alison too."

"So, he—" Emily was shaky as she spoke, "admitted to being in a relationship with her?"

"Yeah, a brief one," Aria said, not wanting to cry anymore.

"Then he must be Board Shorts," Hanna pressed.

"Well, Ezra didn't try to kill Alison," Aria defended. She stammered, "His—H—It—His— his whole book is trying to piece together who did it."

"How is he gonna do that when the police can't even figure it out?" countered Spencer, baffled.

"I don't know," answered Aria. "He had a theory though."

"And?" Emily leaned closer, more eager. "What is it?"

Aria's glassy eyes looked towards Halle, knowing exactly what power her next words held. She disclosed, "He thinks that one of us did it."

While everyone else scoffed in disbelief, Halle fell to silence. Her stare remained fixed to a weepy Aria, who did the same just more helplessly. The crunch came back to Halle. She felt this was clarification — the truth finally coming to light. This was what she needed for months, nearing on a year now.

"You're kidding, right?" burst in Spencer.

Emily even found it humourous and said, "Well, now we know it's a work of fiction."

"Which one of us is he trying to pin it on?" Spencer asked almost demandingly.

"I didn't get that far," Aria told her.

Hotly, Spencer returned, "You didn't think to ask?"

"Why?" Aria fought back out of defence. "We know it it's not true," she said. "Alison's not in that grave."

"But she could've been," Halle put. She spoke up for herself — for her own muggy memory of that night. Halle owed it to her scared fifteen-year-old self to get those answers. "Guys, I think it's time we go over everything we know from That Night."

"Which is nothing," Hanna said flatly.

"It's not nothing," Halle argued, fiercer now. "We each have a memory, we should go over them."

"Okay—" Emily decided to take charged, "can we just focus on one thing at a time?" She looked at Aria, "Okay, just because he wrote a book doesn't mean Ezra's not A." She was keen to suggest, "You know, he could be using it as a way to place the blame on one of us and keep suspicion off of him."

"No," Hanna rebutted, "he doesn't need to do that. He knows that Ali's alive."

"Yeah, but he didn't know that when he started writing the book," Spencer swiftly inserted.

"So you think who killed Faith is that book..." Halle concluded, "'cos he thought he was solving Alison's murder, not realising Ali was never in that grave."

"Guys, listen," Aria grabbed their attention with a firm tone, "Ezra's not A." She grew more aggravated, enraged the most she thought how it, as the heated words spilled from her. "He's just a writer who found a great opportunity to make a name for himself — and he used me!" The water in her eyes welled at her lash-line, brimming over. Harshly, Aria threw out, "He used us!"

Her tears fell. She didn't want them to, but the devastated frustration got the better of her and when she finished, they dropped. It quietened her friends for a moment. They dwelled in shared misery of what was revealed. That Ezra Fitz wasn't A, but he was lying to them. He was lying constantly to Aria. He had known about the bullying and the stalking, and yet, he sat back, let it play out and watched them all suffer under the weight of A. It crushed them, and it utterly destroyed Aria.

"So what are we saying?" Spencer asked the group. "That all of that stuff in that room in Ravenswood, that was just—" she struggled to comprehend, "research for his book?"

"Ain't a chance in hell," Halle refused to accept it. She shook her head and adamantly said, "No, he's A. He's Board Shorts and he's A, right? He was spying on us the whole time — at school, with the police, hacked our alarm systems. That ain't research, that's stalking." Halle exclaimed at her friends, "That's A!"

"Halle," spoke Emily, "he's been caught out. There's no coming back from this," she declared. "If he was A, he would've owned up."

"Would he?" Halle asked her.

Severely broken and disappointed, Aria cut off that with a sad remark, "He's not A." She said, "He's just... It's his book. He's been working on it for years." After, she exhaled shakily, completely wrecked with tears; her heart had been chewed up and spat out.

"Well," sighed Hanna, "we've seen the surveillance equipment, so we know he's been watching us."

Miserably, Aria squeaked, "He's probably hoping we'd lead him to Ali so he could finally get his big ending."

"If he's been watching us," Emily started to voice, "then he has to know about A." Anger flared up within her as she digressed further, "I mean, how could he sit back all this time and not do anything to help you?"

Aria dipped her teary gaze from them and pouted her trembling lips. "It's simple," her voice cracked. "He never really loved me."

•

An ugly niggle filled Halle the next morning. Her mind was on Fitz. And Aria. And what he did to Aria. It consumed Halle. She overthought every conversation — every nice deed her teacher did, or every fight he pulled her out of, or how he called her mother personally with a list of colleges. One of them was Cicero. Cicero led to Fitz, whether he liked it or not. Tippi the bird had given Halle and her friends the number, which led to the sorority house, which led to Grunwald and Ravenwood, which led to Ezra's lair. It connected them to him.

Halle couldn't wrap her head around why. Why? Why would he risk them finding out? Why he would give her mother the college that tied him into everything? If Halle thought about it hard, it was like Fitz wanted to be caught. He was daring them to catch up. They had. Now they knew he was liar just like them. It just happened to be better at it than Halle and her friends were.

Dread coursed through Halle as she arrived at school. She didn't want to see him. Or even think about seeing him. But what Aria had said drove Halle to Rosewood High that following day. He thinks that one of us did it. The crunch came back to Halle. Alison's bloody head stirred up the nightmares again. Halle had been doing so good as well. She knew the resurgence was because of that book and the theory inside of it. Halle hoped, despite all the rage and upset in her, that if she saw Fitz, then she could have that information too.

She would finally have peace. It seemed to be right around the corner, within a stretched hand's distance. She wanted it. She needed it. Halle was most definitely going to get it, or she would demand it from him.

"Hey."

Halle had just climbed out of her car, swinging her bag over her shoulder, when Jason approached her in the parking lot. "Oh, hey," she said, taken aback. Halle noted his basketball shorts and athletic top. "You on the courts today?"

"Uh, yeah," he answered. Jason then mentioned honestly, "I was hoping I'd catch you first."

"You were?" asked a surprised Halle. She straightened up, closed her car-door and locked the vehicle with the key, looking at him for the reason why.

"Yeah," Jason told her. "I wanted to talk about what you told me." He lowered his voice, "About Fitz and that book of Ali's."

"Oh, yeah, 'bout that," Halle began. She shut her eyes, preparing for how she could bend the truth for the time being. "Yeah—" Halle scratched the side of her neck, at the spot behind her ear, "there's been some... revelations." She sighed, not yet ready to get into it this early. "Uh, can I... Can I come by later, fill you in?"

"What's there to fill in?" Jason was floored at the brush-off. "Fitz is A, he knew Ali, he killed her."

"It's..." Halle hid behind a strained grimace and said, "It's more complicated than that."

"Yeah," Jason bristled, "I get that impression from you girls at lot."

"Can I just—? Aria?" Halle cut herself off when she spied her friend speed across the lot. It shocked Halle to see Aria. It frightened her. "Aria!"

The hot-headed, determined girl in question whipped her head towards the shout. Aria's wide, bloodshot eyes, were full of alarm. She looked directly at Halle, stared her in the face, but ignored Halle. Aria blistered too violently to stop and talk, the way Halle would force her to, and continued to storm off towards the entrance.

Baffled by the lack of interaction, and Aria's icy glare, Jason asked, "What's going?" His hand curled around Halle's wrist, pulling his ex-girlfriend to a stop. "Is this about Fitz?"

"I—uh—" Halle writhed with an urgency. "I'll find you later, okay? 'Cos if I don't sort this, it's gonna be really bad, okay? I have—I have to go," Halle rushed out apologetically. Then, she quickly tore herself away from Jason. She hurried along the car-park, practically running to catch up with her devastated friend. For once, Halle was thankful for those extra physio sessions with Coach Rhodes that helped build up her core and stamina. "Aria!" she shouted. "Aria, just stop a sec!" Halle kept at her. "Aria, please." She chased Aria through the hallways, narrowly avoiding students who were crammed down every which way they turned. "Aria, can you just slow down and talk to me?"

"Why? Why should?" Aria threw out heatedly. "You'll only stop me. I mean, I thought you'd understand," she said pointedly. "You've never liked him."

"Yeah, but this ain't just about him," Halle tried to explain, but Aria was persistent. "Aria, come on!" Halle's shout caught the attention of Emily and Spencer, who were sat in the little bench-seat under the courtyard's alcove. The shout hadn't slowed Aria as she furiously stormed ahead. Halle's alarmed eyes dashed to their. "A little help please — now."

The two shot up. They were hot on Halle's heels the same way Halle was for Aria. "What's going on?" Emily asked in mild confusion. "We thought you were taking the day off," she said to Aria.

"Need to speak to Ezra face-to-face," a monotone but angered Aria claimed.

"Whoa—" Spencer picked up her pace as panic flooded, "wait, Aria."

Fast, the three rounded a hallway after Aria. A vengeful Aria had yet to ease up. "I don't know where the truth begins and where the lies end," she fumed, speeding onto the English corridor.

"Hey, hey!" Halle curled her hand around Aria's forearm and tugged her friend to a halt. "You're not thinking clearly," said Halle. "Wait until after class to attack him, okay? I'll hold him down so you can get some kicks in if you need to."

"Why should I wait?" Aria angrily shot at her. "He embarrassed me, it's only right I get to do the same to him."

"And I agree," Halle said, pulling an impatient Aria back. "But there are better ways for you," she made sure to stress, "to do it without embarrassing yourself more than you already feel."

Hastily, Spencer seized. "Listen, we know that you need answers, okay?"

"—And you certainly deserve them," inserted Emily, just as Hanna appeared over her shoulder from out of the girls bathroom.

"But confronting him at school is not the best idea," Spencer said.

Aria stopped looking at them. She had stopped listening, too. All her fury deadened every sense she had. Everything was insipid. Aria saw the red mist; she heard all the lies he sold her; smelt his rottenness mixed with all her foolish actions; tasted venom on her tongue from words she bit down; and felt her fist clenched in her rage. Anger was all she knew, and it knew her intimately also. She was a scorner lover but so was her body.

Her friends could do nothing when she yanked her arm from Halle. She charged into Fitz's classroom. Aria's wrath took her there and grew in shocking humiliation while it sank in deeper than he was too cowardly to show.

Aria demanded of the unsuspecting substitute, "Where's Ezra?"

She said his name so blatantly — so openly malice — it caused the freshman class to look at her in shock. Aria had only ever called him 'Ezra' at school in front of people by mistake once before, and he made her feel inferior for the accident for days after.

The stand-in proposed, "Do you mean Mr Fitz?"

"Yeah," Aria said sternly. "I need to speak with him. Do you know where he is?"

Coolly, the teacher replied, "Mr Fitz took time off for a family emergency. Is there something I can help you with?"

In her aggravated state, Aria grew snarky. "Oh, a family emergency? Right."

It hit Aria in the gut. After everything that happened last night, Ezra continued to lash at her. She wondered how much more she could withstand? What else was he going to put her through? Ezra had already made her a liar and ruined her life. Aria had nothing left to give. The least he owed her was answers.

She retreated out the stunned, now-gossiping classroom. She re-entered the worried fold of her best friends. Aria saw them and grew angrier, stalking down the hallway. "God, he's a liar and a coward."

"Aria, wait," Halle said.

"I'm fine," responded Aria.

"Aria, slow down," Hanna said and tried to grab at Aria's distressed arm.

At the touch, Aria flinched. She whirled around and lashed out on them. "I said — I'm fine, Hanna!"

Her shout echoed in the empty hallway, but her four friends stood strong like durable mountains in the face of an angry hurricane. It caused Aria to waver. Guilt ate away at her. She stared at the group as tears started to well up. Aria wanted to give up, the injury to her heart was a dagger. A bomb had gone off in her life and wreaked its havoc on every alive part of her.

Her friends recognised it well and would take the anger if it meant they got to care also. So, when Emily noted the waver, she handled Aria delicately. "Okay, let me take you home," she said, and Aria nodded as she started to cry.

•

"So, he's writing a book?"

Out of duty — and respect for handling a delicate situation better than she had ever done previously — Halle found herself agreeing to meet Jason during study hall. She took herself outside, walked all the way to the basketball courts, and planted herself on one of the benches, waiting for him to join her. He did, not long after she arrived, and Halle filled him in as best she could.

"Apparently," a wry Halle replied.

Jason's exposed arms glistened with sweat. His damp hair hung over his face as he leant forward on his knees, panting as he caught up. "And that's it?" he asked her. His green eyes went to her frame, surveying her over for a hint of a lie. "All that talk of him being A the other day? Us finding that book in Ali's room?" He seemed to be offended more than anything. "It means nothing?"

"Not nothing," Halle assured. "It means—" she loathed it with every disgusted, crawling fibre of her body, wholly creeped out by her teacher, "he knew Alison That Summer and he had a relationship with her."

"So, he's the one who got her pregnant?" Jason sat up straight, his temper soaring. "And he's a teacher?!"

"—No, no, Jason— Halle tried to cool it as best she could, "No, he's denied all of that."

"Well, he's not gonna admits it even if it was him," Jason argued. "Two days ago you were dead-set he was A — convinced he was the one who hurt her."

"I'm not convinced Ali was hurt in the first place," Halle mumbled under her breath, saddened, and disgraced with her own voiced thoughts.

"What?" Jason stilled. "You can't seriously think she's alive? What, because of what happened in Ravenswood?" he questioned.

Panic flooded Halle's dark eyes, swirling in them as she faced him, pleadingly. "Jason, you thought it back there for a second, too," she insisted. She couldn't — wouldn't — tell him what she actually knew for certain. That his sister was alive. That it wasn't Alison in that grave. That Halle had seen and spoken to Alison, and Alison was very much alive and well.

"Yeah, for a second," Jason pressed. "I admit," he let out a hard breath, "when your friend Caleb told me you guys thought she was alive, it made sense. Everything that had happened since her body was found, it added up that it wasn't her in there. The way my mom was behaving, and my father... All the tight lips and doing what we always do—" spite itched at his tone, "refusing to talk about..." Jason shook his head like he was auto-correcting due to Halle's presence. "Refusing to talk about her," he said. "But that all went away when we heard Grunwald's tape." He looked at his ex. "That's what it was, it was a tape."

Carefully, extremely cautious not to knock him too far, Halle checked, "So, you don't think... there's a chance she could be...?"

"Alive?" Jason glanced away, looking up whereas in the past he would've kept his head down. Something in the stretch of his eyes being away from Halle changed him. When he returned, his stare was cold. "Alison is the one in that grave," he said firmly like it had been rehearsed. "There's no other option for my family."

"But... for you?" Halle asked him, gentler than she had been with him in a while.

Jason withdrew his eyes again. "It has to be for me, too," he said. "And—" he cleared his throat, "I think that's what it should be for all of us."

Halle's brows furrowed, the crease between them. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means—" Jason stopped from pushing too strongly. He sighed, "It means let it go. For once, let Ali rest in peace."

"I can't," Halle struggled with the very core of it. Her whole centre wavered at that thought. From day one, she had been tangled in the web of lies and enwoven into every thread of the mystery. A had made sure of it. Because if there was ever a tug or a snap of Halle wriggling free, A always yanked her back with a force that punished her for even daring move past Alison. "It won't let me," she said.

He blew out a small pump of air. Jason ducked his head, gradually rolling it around to fix Halle with a pointed look. "It, or you?"

•

Emily read through her French notes over as she walked to her next lesson's oral exam. She was planning on power-walking all the way to the languages hallway, through the courtyard, when Paige decided to call out to her unexpectedly.

"Hey, Stranger."

Stopping, Emily turned to Paige in confusion. They hadn't talked much — at all, really — since Emily told her about Halle. Emily didn't particularly want to play 'friendly' with her ex-girlfriend, not today, when she had way too much going on to add Paige to the equation.

"Relax," said Paige. "I come in peace."

"Do you?" Emily was dubious of that. "Because that was never your thing, Paige."

Sighing, Paige replied, "It was raw. It still is raw, but I still wanna be your friend."

"Do you really think that's possible?" Emily asked her truthfully.

"It could be," chimed Paige, sat at the table looking up pleadingly at a fictitious Emily. "If we tried," she said. "What are you doing after school? I don't have practice today."

"Actually, I can't—"

Paige cut in, "Come on, you're not busy."

"But I am," Emily stated, already fed up with this conversation. She and Paige had had thousands like it. Still, Emily felt the need to justify her actions and the time she spent. "I have a few errands I've gotta run, I have to go visit Aria and then I'm having—"

"Yeah," Paige immediately interrupted, "I heard she flipped out in Fitz's class today."

Emily was off-put. She didn't like the gossiping lilt to Paige's tone, especially when it was directed at one of her best friends. Aria's trauma was the latest thing to churn Rosewood High's rumour mill and Paige was active cog in the machine. "You know what?" Emily snapped, "She's actually having a really hard time right now and you talking about her like that doesn't help. You're no different to everyone else at this school, Paige." After delivering a scolding, Emily pulled away. "Yeah, I don't think this will work."

Quickly, Paige's hand darted out to stop Emily from leaving. "Em, please, I—" Paige had yanked at Emily's handbag instead of her arm and pulled it off Emily's shoulder in the attack. It hit the ground with a hard thud, causing the items to come crashing out. "Oh, crap, I'm so sorry,"

With a large huff, Emily said, "It's fine." She put down her folder along with her French notes on the table before Emily then crouched down to collect up her belongings from the floor.

"Here, let me," Paige offered sincerely and joined Emily. "I really didn't mean to—whoa." Paige halted when she picked up a thick envelope, swiftly discovering its green contents. "Do you always carry that much cash around?"

"Oh, um..." Emily plastered on a smile as she took the money from Paige and tucked it into her bag again, more concealed this time around. "It's a late birthday present from my grandma," she said to an unconvinced Paige. "I need to deposit it — it's on the list."

Paige decided to dig with a tiny joke, "What is she, a stripper? Why give you that much in cash?"

"She doesn't trust banks," said Emily breezily. "Her whole life savings has been stuck in coffee cans and cookie jars," she gave a light chuckle, "yeah." Getting up from the floor, before it grew too awkward or intense, Emily began, "Listen, like I said, you might be free tonight, but I'm not — I have a date."

"With Halle?" Paige questioned despite knowing the answer and how peeved it already made her.

And Emily confirmed it without any guilt or shame. "With Halle."

•

Aria's house was empty. Halle and Hanna cupped their hands to their faces and peered through the front window. When they saw nothing but the furnishings — not a single movement — they tried the back entrance. They frequented it most and if Aria was inside, she was mostly in the snug, informal living room. Still, there was nothing.

No sign of Aria.

"I can drive around, look at her favourite spots," Halle suggested, while Hanna held her mobile up to her ear as she waited for Aria to pick up.

"What favourite spots?" shot Hanna, her hand covering the microphone of her mobile. "Everything she ever did was with Ezra. So unless you count The Brew, Aria has no spots. Ughhh," Hanna groaned, "She's not answering," ending the dial-tone when she ripped the phone from her ear.

Mumbling, Halle said, "She used to." With a sigh, she then decided for them, "Okay, you go back to school and check the art rooms — she might be in woodwork or the pottery. Oh, and don't forget the bathrooms—"

"And the roof," Hanna said.

"Exactly," Halle agreed. "I'll drive around town. I'll go to Hollis if I have to," she muttered out.

"Don't you have class soon?" Hanna asked her.

"Yeah, but right now we don't have Aria," Halle countered, running her hand tirelessly through her hair. "Much worse if you ask me."

"You're really worried about her, aren't you?" Hanna easily concluded from Halle's trembling actions.

"And you ain't?" Halle shook her head and chided, "Our best friend just found out everything she's ever known is a lie — I'd be worried if I wasn't worried."

"Same," Hanna let out shaky breath. "I just really needed to hear you say it first."

In her car, while her lunch break steadily ate away into her fourth period lesson. Halle scoured the streets, calling Aria every two minutes to try and find her. She had already checked The Brew and The Applerose Grille; then the little art supplies shop, and the photographer studio — that offered the job Aria quit within a month because she wasn't spending enough time with Ezra during a particularly difficult patch. Aria had to be entirely devoted to Ezra. Nothing worked if she wasn't.

For him, at least.

Alone, driving at a slower speed than usual, in the silence after the dial-tone had gone dead, Halle's mind slipped to Jason. His name was also on her 'Recents'. Their brief encounter, no matter how short, left its impact. And as always, with Jason, it was a huge chasm in her brain's melting point. It wasn't her place to tell him Alison was alive, she knew. The chaos that would cause would be unimaginable. Halle would voluntarily inflict further destruction to a family who still were grey from their grief. Only four months prior the pain was dug up with the body. Then again when it was served up on ice; and again when they reinterned it. No matter how hard they tried — or Halle tried desperately —Alison was always the name of their lips.

It, or you?

Halle couldn't deny his imposing question. She had asked it herself too many times. Just when Halle thought she was one step out of the haunted fun-house, she ran head-first into a mirror and bounced into a whole hall of them, pin-balling backwards, falling trapped. Somewhere a clown laughed. At this point, this far into the mystery, Halle often couldn't tell if it was A or Alison.

But right now, Halle had bigger things to agonise over than who was laughing at her. She had to find Aria. She had to help her. She pressed 'call' for the twentieth time and begged Aria to pick up this time like it was different than all the other times Halle had called.

Halfway to Hollis, after another missed call, Halle decided on whim that she would have to call Mike or Mr Montgomery. She was ready to press the button to disturb Aria's father's lecture at Syracuse when Hanna's name flashed up on her screen. Propped up on the stand, Halle's mobile lit up with a new text.

Spencer has an idea where Aria is.
Go to Fitz's apartment, we'll meet you there.
From: Han

At the next available chance, Halle made a sharp swerve and turned her car around. She headed straight for the building. What Hanna said was true: Aria had no spot of her own because Fitz was her only spot in the world.

Aria's spot was him.

When Halle parked up, a street over, she found her friends already at the door. "Well, her car's here," Halle said, nodding towards the silver vehicle across the street.

"I'm hoping it means she is too," Spencer replied, as she proceeded to press every button on the intercom until she got an answer.

"Yeah?" sounded a very miffed lady.

"Delivery," Spencer said, and the front door gave a buzz and came free.

The four hurried inside and fled for the stairs. They climbed three stories to Fitz's floor, rounded the corridor onto his, and discovered apartment 3B's door was wide open. Slowly, her breathing suddenly shallowed, Hanna called out, "... Aria?" She pushed the agar door open more and was left shocked at the state of the small studio apartment.

Broken glass littered the floor, shards among strewn files, scratching the wood, crinkling the papers. It was everywhere. Every inch of the room was covered in something. Things were thrown around the cluttered apartment, which was once neat as a pin. Aria had even smashed up furniture, tossed cabinets over and torn the film posters from the walls and in half for complete destruction. In the middle of the mess was a timid, bunched-up Aria who wept into her balled frame.

"What the hell happened in here?" asked a gobsmacked Hanna.

"Oh, my god," gasped Emily, "Aria."

In concern, they sped to her. Their feet crumpled across a blanket of files and sheets of torn papers, crunching over glass. Carefully, the four joined Aria on the floor and crouched down beside her.

Breathless, Spencer struggled the most. "Hey, are you okay?" She was on her knees in front of their pink-faced, sniffling-nosed friend.

Aria's voice was tender, ripped raw from the evident violent lashing she had inflicted on her surrounding. "Every secret I told him about Ali," she paused as she wobbled, "and about me and about you guys, he wrote it down — it was all for his book."

Her friends watched as Aria's weak arms hugged her knees close to her chest, and felt they could do nothing to rescue her. This betrayal was one unlike any other. The closest they had were Mona and Toby. Yet, Ezra's one wrecked them. It destroyed them as a group. Their entire belief system was shattered by it. Every lie they had told was in that book and they never suspected the kind, friendly teacher than pulled each of them out a dark place at least once was behind it.

He had known Alison.

Hanna sighed and told Aria, in other words, how much better she was, "Aria, if it were me, I would've burned this whole place down."

"We can still do that," Halle gently offered with the tiniest of smiles. "Grab his stuff and torch it."

When Aria had yet to do much else but leak silent tears, Emily changed the tactic. "Come on," she ushered, "we're gonna get you out of here, okay?" Emily turned to Halle and whispered, "She doesn't need to be surrounded by him any longer." Again, Emily returned to Aria and put a hand to Aria's back. "Come on."

Slightly, Aria moved just an inch. She lifted her head and sniffed. Emily saw her distraught friend was far to exhausted to stand alone and used both her hands to assist Aria up from the messy floor.

"Come on, here," said Emily, and the four of them practically lifted Aria up as a joint effort. While Emily and Hanna pulled, Halle and Spencer pushed. Together, they got her upright and, the former two fell in by Aria's side, supporting more thoroughly. Emily, along with Hanna, guided Aria to the door. Halle rose next, ready to leave right behind them, when Spencer stilled.

"Wait, you guys," Spencer said, on her hands and knees amongst the rustling papers. "This is some of the stuff from Ezra's apartment in Ravenswood. Shouldn't we take it with us?"

"Spencer," Hanna whisper-scolded the insensitively, "not now." She said dismissively, "It's nothing we haven't seen before."

"We have all of it, anyway," Halle reminded. "We have photos and videos of it, Spence."

Nicely, Emily requested, "Can one of you grab Aria's bag?"

"Sure, I got it," replied Halle, as Emily and Hanna escorted Aria out with delicate care. When Halle turned, she found Spencer out of breath and unable to move. Halle briskly stumbled into panic. "Spence—Spencer, you good?"

"Yeah," panted Spencer when she very obviously wasn't.

"Do I get you anything?" Halle asked her, hovering.

"From here?" Spencer retorted, thinly humorous. "No, it's probably poisoned," she said, as she tried to stand but struggled. Her legs buckled under her weight. She abruptly went light-headed — all at once woozy —and Halle dashed forward to caught her.

"Hey, hey— careful there," Halle said, and helped coax Spencer down to the couch. "Do you need anything? What can I do?"

"I just need—" Spencer covered her tired, pale face with her hand, hoping to relive some of the pressure, "I need a moment." She winced as she breath, almost wheezing; Spencer hunched over in agony.

Halle knew it well. She had seen and heard enough of it, but was lucky enough not to have an 'addiction' herself. It was the people she loved the most. Two of them were related. Halle noted this was Spencer sweating out a withdrawal. "I can call your mom if—"

"No, don't," Spencer said rather forcefully in her feeble moment. "She'll only worry."

"She's already worried, baby," said Halle, soft in her honesty. "And so am I."

"Don't be, I can—" Spencer cut off starkly. Her eyes had locked onto something and remained there — fixed indefinitely. Her arm stretched out and fetched up the specific item to reveal an image they had seen before — early last year — in an A-threat.

It was of Alison. That Night. She was in her yellow top, passing by the barn with a shadow they already identified as Spencer, stalking after the blonde. It had been taken from Alison's bedroom, angled from the left. On it, a blue post revealed Fitz's source.

Mona Vanderwaal.

The two were for enrapture by it — how they hadn't seen this at the apartment — that they hadn't heard Hanna's platform heels come for them. "Guys, come on," Hanna said.

"Uh, yeah," Halle called back. "We're coming, one sec." Once she had said it, Halle's wild eyes snapped to Spencer. "Grab as much as you can," she ordered. "I'm guessing he kept some it it here to be safe."

Fast, Spencer slid off the couch, grabbed at her satchel and started clasping handfuls of paper to shove inside of the leather. Halle did the same. She seized at every file she could, especially the thick journal from where they had been sat with Aria, and pushed all of it deep into her own bag. Then, Halle clutched up Aria's keys from the table and met Spencer, who now had Aria's bag too, by the open door. They looked over the apartment, wishing they could snatch everything and yet they couldn't. This would have to do, for now.

•

Halle refused to leave Aria's side. Everybody else had things they had to do — Spencer was on parental watch and ordered to go home immediately after school, Hanna wanted to be at the court hearing for Travis's dad, and Emily had a duty to drop off that wad of money for Alison in Killingsworth. So, that left Halle. She willing saddled herself to Aria and treated Aria with tender touches and a delicate disposition like Aria was the most fragile thing to ever exist in Rosewood.

Her phone pinged. It was Jason.

Can we talk?
I need to tell you something.
From: Jason.

From that late morning, his mood had changed. While earlier he wanted her to forget, now he wanted to talk. Halle figured with the message, she was just as much of his loop as he was hers. Jason — and Halle — were on the outside of each other and Halle wasn't exactly sure if that was her fault or his. She supposed it was her own, and yet, Halle wanted to pass the blame. None of this would've happened if Jason hadn't left. However, Halle wouldn't been in such a good, healthy place if he hadn't. It seemed when she was whole, people around her weren't.

"You can answer that," mentioned Aria. She was folded up on the sofa, like she had been last night, peeking out from behind the knees she hugged to her chest.

"Oh, no," Halle said, sliding her mobile away into the jacket that hung over the back of the armchair she sat in. "It's not important."

As if she could read Halle's thoughts, Aria chimed, "You don't have to stay the whole time, I know you have school council today."

"Student council can miss me for one day," Halle told her. "Besides, you need me a hell of a lot more."

"So, you're babying me, too," Aria pointed out most blatantly. "I don't need you to do that. It's bad enough from the others, I can't take it from you."

Softly, because softness was all Aria deserved right now, Halle accepted the criticism. "Sorry," she said. "I'll stop. But you do need somebody to stop you from punishing yourself, so I'm staying put for now."

"I'm not—" Aria inhaled painfully through her strained chest, "punishing myself."

"Sure seems like from my angle," Halle chided, and Aria fell into silence. It had rung too true. Halle didn't like how her words caused Aria to quieten. She pressed her lips together, gearing up to fill it. "What—" Halle took a second, sighing as she shook off the dread. "What happened at the cabin?"

"Halle..." Aria buried her head further, into her knees, so that she could only see the darkness of her folded-in lap. "I really can't talk about that right now."

Instead, Halle asked, "Okay, then why did you lie?"

"Why do any of us?" returned Aria. She peered out, her vision clearing as it landed on a concerned Halle. "I thought I was protecting him — me and him. I was protecting our future. I had to lie," Aria strongly said. "Ezra convinced me it was the only way we could be together — that me feeling strange about lying to you guys was my heart telling me he should be the person I'm closest to."

Disbelieving, Halle blew air out of her nose. She deflated at the harm of which she heard leave her friend; it physically hurt her to see the damage to Aria's brain and its own thinking. Ezra had reconstructed it for himself and Aria had still yet to begun to unpick it all.

"Aria," Halle awed, "you do get how screwed up that is, right?"

Fresh tears kissed Aria's eyes. "Yeah," she said meekly. "I do now, but I still love him, Halle." Her voice broke. "I love him — I'm never gonna get over him."

"Okay, Aria—" Halle scooted to the edge of the chair, smothering Aria's knees with comforting palms. "Aria," she said, "listen to me, yeah? That strange feelings you got — that knot in your stomach you told us about — yeah, that's not him. That's you. That — is — all — you," she made certain to remind her. "Telling you that something is wrong, that you're not safe with him, that you deserve better." Halle reached up a hand and wiped at Aria's fallen tears with her thumb. "Please listen to yourself, baby." Her own gaze filled with water. "You're only keeping yourself safe."

"I'm scared, Halle," Aria let out a loud sob. Her tears freely fell, streaming down her face, as she wept. "I'm scared that my whole life is a lie. Nothing I ever had was real. It was all a lie. Everybody's gonna know how much of an idiot I really am when they read his book and I'm still catching up. I only read a part of it and the rest I'll find out when the rest of the world does."

"That's not..." Halle swallowed deeply. "That's not necessarily true." Withdrawing from Aria, Halle turned away and brought up her large bag from the floor. She collected out the a thick journal that Halle had taken from Ezra Fitz's apartment. "I got this back for you," Halle announced, as she presented it to Aria. "I saw it amongst everything else and I knew I couldn't leave it behind or have someone else find it."

Aria nodded, more tears splashing down into her lap as she lowered her knees. "Because of our secrets."

"Because it's yours," Halle returned. "It belongs to you, nobody else.."

Timidly, Aria accept it. "Did you read it?"

"No," said Halle, shaking her head gently. "Like I said, it's not mine to read."

"But it is," Aria urged. "It's not just me in there. It's you too." As she held it out, Aria said, "I think you should read it."

Halle pushed it back "Aria, I don't know if I'd want to."

"Why?" Aria asked quietly.

"I'm scared, too," Halle admitted as well, the truth leaving her easily. "I'm scared to know what he knew about me, I guess. I look back on moments I had with him, things I said, how involved he got with me at school... It makes me feel sick," she cursed out in distain of her teacher. "But then I think about you—" her eyes locked onto a tearful Aria, "and I feel even sicker." Halle said, "What he did to you, the lies he told you, I could kill him."

A shaky, sharp breath left Aria. It escaped her involuntarily, shocked but not surprised at the weight of Halle's statement. Holding her tongue for as long as she could, Aria finally bit. With a giant exhale, Aria began, "Halle, what I said about Ezra's book earlier, I really need to tell—"

A knock interrupted them, and Aria's frightened eyes shot to it. "That'd be Hanna," Halle claimed reassuringly with a smile. "Hold on."

•

AD Incorporated.

It was too obvious. It was right on the nose. There was hardly any secretary to any of it. Emily supposed that was how Alison stayed gone — and so close — for the length of time she had. Alison hid in plain sight.

Stood in line, in a Speed Demon postal service in Killingsworth, Emily shouldn't have felt as at ease as she did. She figured delivering the money almost two hours from Rosewood was safe. It apparently wasn't safe enough. Because, unlike Alison, Emily hadn't been gifted with keeping secrets and lies. That much was clear when a familiar voice came from behind her.

"Depositing the money in your bank account, huh?"

Emily turned at the sound of it, stunned and off-put by her ex's presence as she approached on her at the end of the queue. "Paige," Emily let out. "What are you going here?" Her bulging eyes slackened as realisation dawned on her. "You followed me."

Paige McCullers ignored the accusation. "I know you were lying about your grandma and her coffee cans." She asked, "What is A making you do?"

"This has nothing to do with A," Emily refused lowly. She didn't want to cause a scene. It was already troubling enough with five-thousand-dollars on her person, she didn't need to add 'public argument' to that. Emily's anxiety swirled over-time, overcoming her with every slight glance around her unknown environment.

"Then who is the money for?" Paige demanded, causing Emily to take extra notice of their whereabouts.

Clutching tighter at the envelope, Emily said, "I'm struggling to understand why that matters. Like I said, it has nothing to do with A and it has nothing to do with you, either. I don't have to tell you anything."

"Don't or won't?" Paige proposed to her, unwavering.

It gathered the attention of the others in line with Emily, and Emily grew self-conscious at the swarming. "Don't," she was certain to repeat. Emily had to make it known that Paige should be at a distance from her, yet Paige didn't like that.

"Well, you're gonna have to tell me something," Paige near to threatened.

Enraged, Emily glowered fiercely. She gripped at Paige's forearm and shoved her towards the door. "Move," Emily ordered. "I can't have this conversation with you here."

Paige walked. She let out a sigh, foolishly grateful that Emily would indeed be sharing this secret with her. What Paige hadn't expected when Emily had said that — then directed her outside the shop — that Emily would stalk off from her. "Emily—?"

Before her ex could plead her case, Emily whipped around furiously. "You have no right to show up here, Paige," she said. "You have no right to follow me and then corner me like that when things don't go your way."

"That—That's not what this is," Paige stuttered.

"Oh, it's not?" Emily hotly countered. "Could've fooled me."

"You lied to me," Paige mustered up a pitiful argument.

"Me lying to me doesn't give you the right to follow me," Emily said firmly. "God, Paige, we broke up, what I do isn't a concern to you anymore."

"It is when I know what I know," Paige justified. "There's a lot of money in that envelope, Emily. What don't you want me to know?"

"A lot, Paige — a lot!" said Emily angrily. "That's why you're not a part of my life anymore. It's why we're not together — or friends at all. I made that clear to you two weeks ago and I made it clear to you this morning too."

Jealously stoked the fire in Paige. "So this is to do with Halle, then?"

"Oh, my god," Emily scoffed in astounded disbelief. "You're a mess." She looked directly at Paige with a steely fierceness locked in her eyes and swore, "This has got nothing to do with Halle. Not the money or why I'm here or why I'm not telling you stuff anymore."

Along with the green envious monster rearing its ugly head, Paige sparked with anger at what Emily said. Her face grew sour and scornful. She acted before Emily could, and Paige shot out her hand to yank the envelope right out of Emily's hold. From it, panic floored Emily. Paige registered it. It justified her selfish actions and once Paige had read it, she flung it around and pointed at the address. "What is AD Incorporated?"

Madly, Emily attempted to steal it back, but Paige held onto it with an iron-grip. "Give it back, Paige!" she pleaded desperately.

"Not until you answer my question," Paige snapped.

"I told you," Emily echoed more seriously, "it's none of your business." Shaking her head, Emily scolded, "You can't keep doing this — we broke up."

"Well, we might've broken up, but I can't let A continue to control you like this," Paige decided hypocritically.

So, Emily called her out on it. "Oh, like you are right now?"

Paige's upper lip snarled. In this moment, Emily believed her ex-girlfriend was so much like Alison with how manipulative and narcissistic she grew in incidences like these. Paige only added to this when she said, "If you won't tell me what AD Incorporated, maybe the police will."

That petrified Emily. "No, you can't take that to the police."

"Why not?" Paige threw back spitefully.

Emily trembled. Her body shook violently with a frightened trepidation. That envelope meant more to her than anything did right now. It was their worst secret the group had to keep, and they had to keep it. They had no choice but to keep it. But Paige wasn't giving Emily the choice. Emily fought with it restlessly, tearing herself apart to keep this for Alison — and them. "B—because somebody needs that money."

It wasn't good enough for Paige. It was never going to be good enough. "Who?" she demanded. "Last chance, Emily, I'm serious."

"So am I," Emily severely defended. "I need that money and so does somebody— Give it to me."

"You're giving me no choice."

"No!" Emily seethed madly. She raged at her ex-girlfriend with an insipid fire. "You're giving me no choice!"

"Tell me or I tell the police," Paige warned, wholly dismissive of Emily's emotions.

With no other option, Emily reluctantly lifted the lid off her biggest secret yet. "The money's for Ali," she said with a hefty exhale. "She's alive."

•

The fire was being fed with pieces of Ezra Fitz. It roared louder with each torn page Aria had put to the flames. His research crackled as it burned, whispering a it curled around the flames. Halle and Hanna watched on, hearts aching for the heartbroken girl by the fire, who must have been sweltering in her moon-crescent jumper that close to the heat.

Softly, Hanna asked, "Are you feeling any better?"

The last page that Aria had torched broke apart. It snapped and fell to the bottom of the fire. Aria sniffled at the sight, the n rotated her head away so she could face her friends instead. "Worse, actually," answered Aria. Again, her first emotion that reared was anger — anger at herself. "And the more I think about it, the stupider I feel."

"You're not stupid, Aria," Halle put in gently. "It's not on you."

"Yeah," Hanna agreed, "it's on him."

"But what about me made him choose me?" Aria wondered miserably. "There had to be a reason, right?"

"Maybe," said Halle. "But you'll just hurt yourself trying to figure it out."

"I already am hurt, Halle," whimpered Aria. She inhaled sharply. "There had to have been signs —- how did I miss them?" Aria was kicking herself, frustrated at how she failed to see it when it was so obvious — when it was right in front of her face.

"Aria, no one thought he'd be capable of doing what he did," Hanna said.

Aria's eyes searched for Halle. "Did you? Honestly?"

Halle pressed her lips together and shook her head. "It ain't a secret that I didn't like him, but I never thought he was A until Spencer suspected him," she told her vulnerable friends.

"I think I did," Aria claimed in a whisper. "Back in Ravenswood, when Ezra called me... he said something and I got this really awful, horrible feeling in my gut. It was this knot—" her eyes contorted, scrunched up at she recalled, "that never left me. It stayed with me the whole time I was with him. Every time he was close, I could feel it... It hurt."

"That's your subconscious," Hanna reassured. "You weren't to know what was real or not."

"Yeah, but what if he chose me for a reason?" Aria asked, her voice trembling from it.

Rising, Hanna made the few steps from the armchair to hover by Aria. "He fooled all of us," she said.

With an exasperated sigh, Aria tore herself away in a freshly awakened madness. She turned her back to her friends. "Yeah, but you're not the one who was sleeping with him."

Halle stood also. "Aria," she said, "you can't blame yourself for him."

Aria hotly faced them. "But if it weren't for me, he wouldn't know things about you guys." She beat it out of her heart with a fiery self-hatred. "Personal things that I trusted him to keep between us." She inhaled, her chest cavity surging as she neared on a panic attack.

Calmly, Hanna assured, "Aria, he wasn't just getting information from you." Out loud, she wondered, "Do you think that's how he found out Ali was alive? The Grunwald tape?"

A highly emotional Aria was left confused. She blinkered, unsure. "Yeah, well, it makes sense. I just..." She said, "I don't even know how he would've gotten the tape in the first place," then she exhaled.

"What if he is... A?" Halle voiced in dread. Her two friends both stared at her, and Halle all of sudden had a sickly pinched look to her face. "I know you said he's not, that it's just the book, but what if it's not?"

"He said it's not," Aria pushed out through a severe whimper. "He's just using A — and Ali—" she sniffled, "and us — to get ahead in his career. He writes this and he can write anything he wants afterwards. We were a stepping stone, Hal," Aria said to her.

"Were?" Halle questioned carefully., capturing Hanna's interest as she also looked to Aria in search of an answer. "Are we not anymore?"

"Maybe we're not," replied Aria, her voice extremely thin. It shocked the two with her. Aria lowered her watery gaze to her lap. "You know how you were already at the lodge last night when I sent that SOS, and I told you about how Ezra got on the ski-lift with me?"

"Yeah, it sounded terrifying," Hanna sympathetically said.

"It was," Aria admitted. "But before I dropped the manuscript—" she paused to correct herself, "before he knocked it out of my hands, Ezra said he was going to burn it. That he'd destroy the book for me — for us," she said, and she meant her and Ezra not Aria and her friends.

"Would that really change things?" Halle asked her, surprised thoroughly if it would.

"I don't know how the book does erase everything we went through," Aria told her, her running eyes up on Halle. She held Halle hostage with her intense stare, captive with the big tears that welled and fell. "It's too hard," she sobbed. "He knows everything about me."

"He knows everything about us, too, Aria," Halle argued. "It ain't just you. You said that to me, remember?

"I don't mean the book, Hal, he knows everything about me from me," Aria stressed. "I can't just forget everything we've been through together, how much I love him. It's not that simple," she defended, "I can't turn that off."

"He wrote a book," Halle reminded sternly. Her annoyance surged higher than her compassion for her emotional friends. The delicate nature she had handled Aria with earlier vanished. Halle was hurt as well and, selfishly, didn't want Aria to forget that this book affected them, too — it hurt them, too. So, Halle side-stepped Aria's pain to unleash hers. "A whole ass book, Aria, turn that crap off right now or I will—"

"—Okay!" Hanna raised her voice to slice between the two battling friends. Halle's fiery stare still met Aria's icy-cold one. "That's enough, okay? We're not mad at each other, so don't take it out on each other either. Please," Hanna said, head whipping between the pair.

Halle broke the hold first. She snapped out of it and apologised. "I'm sorry, Aria, I shouldn't have said that." She said, "I know what you're going through is hard and I'll never be able to get that or understand completely, but you gotta understand that I don't want you to just forgive him for what he's done. After what you told me," she pleaded.

"It's okay, I know, I get it." Aria ducked her head again, withered low into her hugged knees again. "I get why you're hurt," she said truthfully. "But you can't expect to make a decision about this — or have everything figured out already. I'm still getting my head around it myself," she confessed.

Sighing, a concerned Hanna was grateful the argument had stopped, but was still uncomfortable. She asked Aria, "Have you eaten today? Do you wanna get some food?"

"No," Aria said, and wiped at her wet cheeks. She sniffled, head hidden, hugging herself to help self-soothe.

"We can order in," Hanna suggested, causing Aria to deflate with a weak smile.

"You can go pick up food, Hanna," Aria comforted. "I'll be fine to be by myself for ten minutes. Also, Halle's here."

"Halle is here," said the cheerleader with her hand up.

"You two were at each other's throats, like, ten seconds ago," Hanna recalled with an incredulous look.

Halle pouted and claimed humorously, "Thirty seconds, really." She smiled at Hanna and reassured, "Come on, you know us. We're at each other's throats one moments, all lovey-dovey the next." When Hanna shot her another look, Halle placed her hand over her heart and vowed, "I will hold my tongue and be on my best behaviour, I swear."

Smiling feebly, a tad amused by Halle's comments, Aria said, "We'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" checked Hanna with Aria, who never audibly answered but did nod several times.

It was Halle who spoke. "You can go Han, I got this."

"Okay," Hanna conceded. But—" she reached out and took the journal, "no more torching Ezra until I get back and—" she pointed at Halle and cautioned, "no talking about him either, it's not good for either of you." Hanna was right. She tended to be when it came to her best friends. That was why when Hana carefully set the thick journal down on the coffee table, away from the two previous bickering pair, she spared a glance at them, debating leaving. She smiled painfully at the serrated edge to Aria and Halle, before she did walk out of the Montgomery back door.

At the shut of the door, Aria gave a huge exhale. She hadn't realised she had been holding that agonising breath in for so long until she released it and her world became unsteady under her. Aria's knees buckled, weakening in an instance. Then, in a flash, her body crashed to the floor.

"Aria!" Halle yelled in fright. She hurried to her friend, sinking down to the ground also, to figure out what happened. When Halle heard the cries break free, she knew. "Oh..."

Sobs erupted from Aria, causing her crumbling frame to convulse every time one raked through her. To keep her safe, Halle simply moved closer and encircled her arms around Aria, hugging when Aria clung to the fabric of her wettened shirt tighter. They stayed there until Aria tired herself out, until the second storm had passed.

•

Paper crinkled where Spencer dragged her sweaty palms over them. The pill she had snuck back had only recently entered her system. Her heart-rate was inclining. It made everything more electrified — intense. Every beat felt like a gunshot had gone off. Spencer shook with it, but pushed through the difficult palpitations. She focused her shrunken, tired eyes to the collection of miscellaneous items she and Halle had stolen from Ezra Fitz's apartment. They stung as she focused on the word of a particular page, burning when a memory came back to her.

Lightning struck. Spencer stormed out of the Hastings' kitchen and through the overgrown pathway between the houses to end up in Alison's backyard chasing after the blonde in an almighty fury. "Hey!" Spencer yelled to the back of the girl in the yellow, ruffled top. "Hey! This conversation isn't over!"

Alison whipped around, scowling, just as a flash of white cracked across the sky. "It is over, Spencer," Alison seethed, by the wooden table the construction workers had left by the open earth where the gazebo would soon be erected, "and so are we."

At the cruel sight of Alison's back put to her again, Spencer went livid. "Don't you walk away from me." Desperate for Alison to see her seriously, Spencer scanned for help. She landed on the wheelbarrow and briskly snatched up the shovel from inside of it, striking it up as a threat. "Damn it, Ali — I said, stop!" she screeched.

It served to grab Alison's attention, but Alison merely looked at the girl wielding the shovel with pity. Alison looked at Spencer like she was pathetic. She told her as much, "You're way out of your league, Spencer."

Settling in, Spencer gripped harder at the shovel. "Am I?" she asked over the growling storm. Her head ticked to the side. "You sure about that?"

Finally, Alison's gaze connected with the shovel. Her eyes flicked behind Spencer; then, with a nervous gulp, returned to Spencer with the makeshift weapon. "Why don't you put that thing down before you hurt yourself?"

For a second, when lightning clapped above, Spencer recognised fear on Alison's face. She was convinced that she had made Alison afraid. Spencer held her breath and brought the shovel up higher just as lightning flashed a second time and Alison's fear was gone.

Eagerly, Spencer snatched up her mobile and called the first person she knew would understands the complexity. The only one willing to accept wrong-doing when it came to That Night. Spencer sniffed, a harsh sound again the skin of her finger.

"—Hey," Halle's greeting was short. "Hang on one sec, I'm with Aria."

Spencer listened in like she had super-hearing. Her ear twitched at the sounds of scuffled footsteps and the dull close of a door.

"Okay, I'm in the kitchen, I told her I'd make us some tea," Halle said, not that Spencer was particularly interested. "What's up?"

"I found something," Spencer unloaded, zipping too fast. "In the stuff we stole from Ezra's— Do you still have his journal?" Her words rambled over each other, overlapping as they rushed to fall out of her determined mouth.

"Uh, no," Halle answered her, distracted a little by filling up the manual kettle. "I gave it to Aria."

"Why?" Spencer asked, furious in her reaction.

"Because it belongs to her," Halle answered clearly. She put the kettle down on the stove and turned on the glass, bright blue flame hitting the copper bottom of the item. "If it were any of us, we wouldn't want somebody nosing in on that stuff."

"Aria once thought we should watch your NAT video to see if A was in it," Spencer reminded firmly, "and you're protecting her with a journal?"

"Okay—" Halle put a pause there, "first thing, my video ain't an NAT one — we still don't know how Ian Thomas got it. Second thing, just 'cos she did that don't mean I will to get back at her. Two wrongs don't make a right."

"Yes, they do," Spencer strongly claimed. "It's basic fact — two negatives make a positive. It occurs in English, Math and Science." She ordered of Halle, "Now, get back in there and grab it from her — that stuff could help us find A."

Halle blinkered at the demanding attack and countered, "You can't seriously think talking to me like that will get me to do anything for you right now."

"Halle!" argued Spencer impatiently. "This is important — we could solve who A is with Fitz's journal."

"Well," Halle muttered under her breath, "I still think Fitz is A, and I lied to Jason about it."

Spencer knitted her brows together, indignantly. "Why are you lying to Jason? Better yet, why are you even talking to Jason about this?" She snapped, "I thought you broke up."

Taken aback by the outrage in Spencer's tone, Halle recoiled, "We did break up." She said, "I'm only talking to him 'cos he helped us the other day with finding that book of Ali's. Why?" she started to feel insecure. "Do you think I talk to Jason too much? Do you think Em's bothered?"

"Why are we talking about your relationship right now?" Spencer said, snapping, shaking her head at the loss of thought. She rushed, "What we should be talking about is me hitting Alison That Night."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Halle said, confused. "Hold the damn phone, what the hell are you talking about? You didn't hit Ali That Night."

"But I could've," Spencer said, oddly sounding a lot like Halle did a couple of months prior. Their spots had been traded in a flash, teetering and imbalanced just the same. "I was looking through what we took and listen to this, okay?" She gripped harder at the page, sniffling thrice more before she read. "'CeCe told me she stopped by the DiLaurentis house to talk to Alison the night she went missing. When CeCe arrived, she witnessed a fight. She said Alison and Spencer were in the middle of a heated argument in the DiLaurentis backyard, and it resulted in Spencer threatening Alison with a shovel. CeCe didn't tell anyone what she saw because Mrs DiLaurentis paid her not to. Mrs DiLaurentis also witnessed the fight.'"

When Halle was satisfied that Spencer had finished, she simply said, "So... what?" Halle sounded distracted, a low bubbling in the background, while Spencer reeled in heighten panic. Halle said, "CeCe and Mrs D saw you and Alison fight, it proves nothing."

"Do you hear yourself?" Spencer snapped angrily. "Or me? I said, 'shovel', Halle — CeCe said 'shovel.'"

"And CeCe's a well-known liar to us," retorted Halle, unflinching. "She lies like she breathes, I wouldn't worry about it."

"But I remember it," Spencer freaked, stressing out. "I remember the fight in the kitchen and I remember following Alison out into the yard." She exclaimed in dire need to be heard, "I didn't remember back then, but I remember it now — I went after her — like Ezra wrote! — and I picked up that shovel!"

"Okay, okay—" Halle settled in trying to calm her friend through the phone, "that might be true, but where in what you just read to me says you hit her?" Logically, Halle reasoned, "If you hit her then, it would've been in his notes. CeCe would've sold you out by now, so would Mrs D. And CeCe purposefully pointed us at Wilden knowing it was dead-end lead. Spence," Halle was careful to explain, "if you didn't walk away after that argument, if you did anything with that shovel other than put it down, they would've seen you hit her." Strongly, Halle said, "They didn't, because you didn't hit her."

"But I had the shovel," Spencer kept at it. "I had the shovel, I could've hurt Ali—"

Halle interrupted, "But you didn't. You didn't murder Alison with a shovel because the shovel didn't kill Alison — it killed somebody else."

"Okay—" Spencer was locked on the idea enough to switch up fast, "what if I killed her instead?"

Exasperated, Halle defended, "You just said you remember fighting with Alison."

Spencer madly persisted, "Okay, but what if I went back with the shovel and hit that girl instead?" She took precise and heinous aim at Halle, quickly spiralling to the bad place. "So I need to step back out onto the ledge with me here, make yourself useful and think damn hard if you saw a rock or a shovel cave a blonde's head in That Night — and if I was me!" she screamed, and the whistle blew and scared the pair of them.

After she jolted, Halle swiftly plucked up a cloth and removed the kettle from the lit hob. She ignored how hot it was even through the material and focused all her attention on Spencer. With her head tucked in low, Halle said, "It was a rock, and it was a nightmare." She pushed it down as far as she could, burrowing it deep. "We all agreed it was a nightmare — that my mind mixed up The Prank with actually what happened. The same with Em," she stated. "We were all in the barn."

"You don't—!" Spencer stopped herself from yelling. She exhaled a big breath. "You don't believe that any more than you did last year."

"I have to," Halle bravely trained herself to say. "'Cos I didn't see that shovel hit that girl, Spencer, and neither did you."

"I—I—I—" Spencer stammered, trembling violently. Her head seared and she winced at the sting. "I—Argh," she groaned, "I don't know what to believe. My memories— my memory of That Night is all jumbled up, I can't—" She let out cry and Halle felt her heart sink. "I can't remember, Halle, I need..." The pills had slowed her down, dragging her into the sludge of her overworked, overheated brain, and now Spencer lagged. Her machinery was breaking. "I can't—I can't remember."

"It's okay," Halle soothed. "It's okay, none of us do. That's why, when we find Alison, we'll ask her all our questions and we'll get answers, okay? We'll ask her, Spencer, I promise."

Sniffling, Spencer requested, "Can you come over please?"

Halle inhaled sharply, torn up herself as her eyes shot to the door to where Aria was. "Can you just—" Halle turned off the stove and said, "Can you give me twenty minutes? As soon as Hanna gets back to watch Aria, I'll come over, okay?"

With a dramatic sigh, Spencer caved while she cried, "Okay."

•

Meanwhile, Aria kept stewing over it. The journal that she had already read, that Halle had gifted back to her, tortured Aria. It mocked her as she glowered at it. She willed it to come alive to give her the answers she deserved.

But it didn't.

Ezra stole that from her. Like he stole everything else.

Aria couldn't look back at a good memory fondly. Or a bad one. Every single moment he had used. It was hard for her to imagine anything between them, or him and her friends, was private — that it wasn't in his book.

She snatched at it. She wanted to launch the leather-bound journal at the wall but settled for angrily zipping through it. Aria gathered that on every page she'd land on, there would be something to get angry at. Yet, what she discovered instead caused her blood to run cold.

Hidden between careful instructions on how to pull fingertips from flat surfaces, Aria found a latter. She sat up further as she folded it. Then, her stomach fell through the floor at what she had found.

Dear Ezra,
Random House loved your latest instalment. Please call to discuss the ending. We're all very excited about your recent progress and we are looking forward to seeing how it develops.
Kind Regards,
Anna Gibbs

Aria bolted up out of her seat, gasping. Shock coursed through her, her body now shaking. The letter in her hand crinkled as she held it. She zeroed in on the sender, panicking, and snatched up her mobile to dial the number. When it started ringing, she set down the paper on the table and prepared to talk. Anxiety flooded her. Her heart was in her throat as the call was answered.

A droll-sounding woman greeted her on the other line. "Galassi Literary Agency."

"Hi—" Aria's voice was pitched up as she spoke, nerves getting the best of her. "Hi, my name is Victoria Blackwell, uh," she lied. "I work at Rosewood High School where Ezra Fitz works."

"Oh, hi," the lady said, more chipper now. "You're in Pennsylvania, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I am," Aria couldn't fake her politeness for long. She rushed to why she had called in the first place. "Actually, we just found out about his book, and we wanted to throw him a little surprise party. Do you know if there's a publication date set for that yet?"

"No, but he's actually here now discussing it with Anna," the lady told her. "So if you call back tomorrow, I should have more information then."

Stunned, Aria could hardly find the words to speak. Her world kept crumbling, exploding around her. Aria was burning in the hottest, fiercest hell ever to scorch her and she wanted to make certain that Ezra Fitz would roast alive with her also.

A stirring came from the front of the house. Aria's wild eyes shot up at Halle's voice and she briskly dropped the journal to the table. In her furious state, terrified Halle would stop her to talk sense into her, Aria swept out of her house, slamming the door on her way out.

"Okay, so—" Halle nudged open the door with her back and walked into the back area of the Montgomery house, speaking out loud without knowing there was nobody there to hear. "Sorry it took so long, Spencer phoned and I had to talk her down from..." Halle drifted off when she eventually turned to find an empty spot on the sofa. "Aria?"

Puzzled by the abrupt absence, Halle set down the tray of hot tea to the desk. "Aria?" she called out again. Wondering if Aria had somehow snuck past her and headed upstairs to her bedroom or to use the bathroom, Halle was tempted to go back through the door she came through when she heard an engine kick up. A car sped off from outside and Halle darted to the window to soon discover that Aria's car was missing.

"Crap," Halle uttered.

Immediately, she moved to collect up her jacket from the armchair — to grab at her mobile — when her sight caught onto something else entirely. Her stare chanced the letter upon the open journal and Halle picked it up, suspecting this was what caused Aria to steam out of her home. When Halle read it, she understood what it meant and spurred her to continue to find her phone.

Halle didn't bother calling Aria; her phone was on the sofa where she left it. Halle resulted to the only option she had left to use.

SOS.

She knew it was dangerous to send out to her group of friends, and yet, it was all Halle could picture after she saw that letter. She imagined a bloodbath in the damage of this morning. Where there were shards of broken glass and trashed papers that had been torn and shredded, dark crimson would soon spill now. To prevent it, Halle fetched up her belongings as fast she could and jetted out of the house. She clambered with her bag, rattling it in desperation as she searched for her keys. She yanked them out of it, fumbling in her swift hurry, darting down the back steps to the sidewalk. Halle had forced her driver's door open when her mobile started to ring in her hold. In a flash, it was by her ear.

"Aria!"

"No — it's Hanna," said the girl on the other line. "Why'd you send an SOS? Did something happen?"

"I lost Aria," Halle admitted heatedly. She heaved a huge sigh and swept her hair from out of her hot, sweltering face. "I lost her."

"Wait—" Hanna was rightfully confused, "how'd you lose her?"

"Spencer called — and I didn't wanna to distress Aria anymore, so I took it in the kitchen to get us a drink," Halle freaked, "but when I came back, Aria was gone."

"You let her go?" Hanna couldn't help the accusatory lilt to her tone.

"I didn't let her do anything," Halle argued breathlessly. She panted, her heart racing. "She left without telling me and I have this really, really bad feeling she's gonna do something to Fitz."

"What?!" shrilled Hanna.

"Aria found some letter in his journal," Halle informed, panicking, as she climbed into her car and slammed her door. "It was from a publishing house."

"Crap," swore Hanna as she caught up.

"Yeah," hurried Halle, "and we have to find her before she finds does something she regrets or finds Fitz — or whatever, okay?!" she madly snapped.

"Okay, okay," Hanna argued without an argument. "I'm just leaving The Brew, I'll take main street down Parkside and meet you at Fitz's, you take—"

"Heart and Cornwell, I know," Halle cut in desperately.

"Yeah, if she's going anywhere, she's going to his," Hanna claimed. "I'll call you if I find her."

"Ditto," Halle said. kickstarting her engine.

Hanna sighed and wished, "Drive safe, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Halle dismissed her in her rush, "you too."

•

Night fell suddenly. Winter was bitter and dark, and made twisting down narrow side-streets more troublesome. Hanna slowed due to it. She made a left and turned down a street full of the cosier, cushier bungalows, all lined neatly with their trimmed lawns enclosed behind white picket fences. Hanna was taking it at a snail's pace, eyes focused ahead to hers and Halle's set destination when she spied a familiar white and crescent-moon patterned jumper she recalled Aria wore.

Steering off, Hanna parked up. She noted that it was Aria's car up ahead, on the opposite side of the street, and it was definitely Aria who got out of the vehicle. Still, as Hanna stepped out onto the road herself, she called out in confusion, "Aria?"

Aria looked dead at Hanna but continued walking in her heat determination.

"Where are you going?" Hanna asked her. "Halle's got us out looking for you, she's worried."

"Ezra's moving forward with the book," said Aria, steaming ahead with a very specific location pinned in her mind. She didn't hear the last part; she was too consumed in her own anguish to listen to anything other than what she wanted. Her rage had ruined her.

Hanna darted across the road to chase after her friend. "What?" she said. "I know Halle said there was a letter—"

"It's not just a letter, Hanna," Aria cut in abrasively. She fumed, "He's meeting with his agent in new York right now discussing a release date."

"Release date?" questioned Hanna. Unable to keep up the fast pace in her tight heels, she said, "Can you just stop?"

Aria raised her voice, infuriated. "I — cannot! —believe that I actually believed he was actually gonna destroy the book to save our relationship," she scornfully exclaimed in her friend's face. She looked ahead to carry on walking. "Now I know that everything he says or has ever said is a lie," she seethed, "it's a big fat lie!"

Hanna figured it out where they were. Her eyes doubled in size, alarmed. "Okay—" she started to panic, "why are you going to Principal Hackett's house?"

"'Cos I'm telling him everything about me and Ezra," Aria admitted in all her fury. Her determination never slackened. She had a set plan and she was sticking to it. Her ill face contorted up like her heart did, withered with betrayal.

"What do you mean, you're telling him everything?" asked Hanna, sick at the very suggestion.

Whipping around, Aria raged at her, "I'm not gonna be the only one that suffers from this, Hanna!"

Quietly, in a firm whisper because they were outside the bungalow she knew was Hackett's, Hanna lectured, "Aria, if you tell Principal Hackett about your relationship, Ezra's not just gonna suffer, he's gonna go to jail."

Aria's red mist transformed violently into blistering accusation. Treachery sat hot on her tongue. She unfairly and spitefully accused, "Are you taking his side?"

"No, of course not," Hanna truthfully stated. "Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't do this," she said. "I just..." She thought quick as she put, "I want you to be clear about what will happen if you do."

"Oh, I'm clear," Aria examined, and moved to place her hand down on the gate's lock.

Serious, Hanna dived out to stop her. "Aria," she said worriedly, "look, if this gets out, it's gonna hurt you, too." Hanna bore Aria's fiery glower and continued, "It'll be in the papers all over town."

Ferociously, Aria snapped, "Yeah, do you really think I give a crap about that?!"

The porch light came on, and Hanna realised she only had a few seconds to make her point — to talk Aria down. "Look, the last time we tried to tell the truth, we were called Liars — we're still being called liars," Hanna said. "This is gonna blow back in our faces — in your face — and I don't want that to happen if you're serious about this. And it's not just you. This is gonna affect your family too." It gave Aria pause, and Hanna played on that hesitation. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Glancing back at the bungalow, so close it skimmed under her fingertips, Aria pulled away. She had hesitated for too long and realisation set in, knocking her back into her quiet shell where she had stewed most of the day. Aria retreated, and Hanna praised her for it.

"You did the right thing," Hanna said, not yet realising how incredibly damaging or unhelpful was currently.

"Maybe I did," Aria said, short and irritable. "Maybe I didn't." She walked hotly down the street, her car in her line of sight.

Hanna fell behind Aria, softening. "So I'll meet you back at your place?"

"No—" Aria carried on walking ahead, reeling towards the vehicle she'd used to escape the suffocating that Hanna was doing, "I really wanna be by myself right now."

"Aria, I'm not gonna leave you alone," said Hanna impossibly. "Halle left you alone and you almost told Hackett.

"You should have let me," Aria argued with her.

Hanna's brows scrunched up at that. "This whole time you've been begging us not to do that — to help protect you and Fitz."

Aria whirled around, fire swirling in her eyes. "Maybe we didn't need protecting! Maybe somebody should've stepped in — or up! — and gotten me away from him before he had the chance to do this," she fumed. "Maybe it should've been my dad or Noel or Halle or any one of you, but you didn't. And now I have to deal with this and you won't let me do it the way I want, so no — I don't want your protection right now."

"Okay," Hanna said coolly, "but let's just go home and—"

"Hanna!" Aria shouted, erupting with insipid anger. "You are not listening to me! I don't want your company, okay?!"

Yet, Hanna couldn't let it go or knew when to call it quits. She made things worse for Aria. "Look, I know what you're going through," Hanna poorly attempted, although empathy wasn't recently her best ability. "I've been through this myself—"

"—No, no, no—" Aria refused that suggestion profusely, hands up in battle, "you — do — not—" she screeched, "know what this feels like, you haven't gone through this — at all!" Adamant, Aria told her, "I don't wanna talk to you. I don't wanna talk to anyone. I wanna be left alone. Is that too much to ask?"

Eventually, and most reluctantly, Hanna resigned, "... Okay."

•

Emily had only just seen Halle's 'SOS'-text when she exited her car. She had slid out out of her car after the two-hour drive returning from Killingsworth when she checked her phone. She barely got the chance to call her girlfriend or adjust to being back in Rosewood when Paige bombarded her at the sidewalk.

"You beat me back," Paige said in light jest.

Admittedly, once Emily got past the initial shock, utter disbelief took a hold of Emily's throat. "What are you doing here, Paige? What are you doing outside my house?"

Paige stepped up. "I thought we could talk more," she suggested. "You just dropped a huge bomb and I know it must've been hard dealing with that alone."

"Only I'm not alone," Emily chided. "I have my friends."

"Your girlfriend, you mean," Paige remarked. "Where is she, by the way?" She glanced around. "I thought you said we had a hot date."

Emily let out a deep breath. She didn't want to get into this tonight — not with her overzealous ex. "It's getting late," Emily mentioned. "I should go in and call Halle. Like you said, I had a hot date."

"Oh." Paige was obviously wounded at those words. "Alright, well, I'll just see you tomorrow, I guess."

Emily seized up when she saw Paige come towards her for a goodbye-hug. "Paige," she warned, "I think you misread the situation, me telling you about Alison. I didn't open up to you because I wanted to, I did it because you gave me no choice but to."

Baffled, Paige couldn't comprehend how quickly it had soured between them. "Are we okay? I thought after you told me about Alison, we'd be—"

"We'd be, what?" Emily called her out, interrupting. She was peeved, blatantly so. "We'd be friends again? That I'd sack off my girlfriend and be yours again? Yeah," she scoffed, "that's gonna happen."

"Yeah, you made it pretty clear that it's Halle you want," Paige said sharpish. "Think it was always her, that's why you're acting like this now."

"No, the reason I'm acting like this is you," scolded Emily. Flat, and harsh, Emily said, "I don't like being given ultimatums, Paige."

Seeing right past Emily's point, Paige responded, "Neither do I." She asked, "Is that what you think I did?"

"That's what you d—!"

Emily stopped mid-shout. In the midst of their painful, passive-aggressive back-and-forth, a car had pulled up beside them. Forever an intrusion to Paige McCullers, Halle showed up looking for Emily. "Hey," Halle said, cautious as she approached them. "Everything good?"

"Never better," Paige retorted, her tone drenched thoroughly in sarcasm. Her annoyance soared high and transformed her angry, little face pink. "You go ahead," she said, taking a step back. "You walked all over me when we were together, anyway, why not now we're broken up?"

"Hey—"

Emily put an arm out to stop her girlfriend from reacting further. "Leave it," she advised. As they both watched Paige walk off to her car in a sluggish slump, Emily said, "It's honestly not worth it." She turned her attention to Halle, concerned. "You okay? What was the SOS about? I just saw it," she said.

"Oh, that," Halle was shaken as she fought to dismiss. "It was an Aria-problem, it's kinda sorted now," she said, having gotten a text from Hanna. "But, yeah, I came here 'cos I know we had plans to order food and watch Freaky Foodies, but I think we should stay with Aria tonight."

"That's fine," Emily accepted immediately without an issue. "Do you want me to drive?"

Halle smiled in relief. "Please."

"Come on, then," Emily said, and shot Halle a smile before she ducked in to peck her cheek. "We can go now."

•

When the couple arrived at Turningleaf Lane, Halle was beyond grateful to see Aria's car in the Montgomery driveway like Hanna said it would be. They presented themselves calmly at the front door to Aria's younger brother, who let them with a few odd looks and a throw-away comment about Aria banging around upstairs. While Halle figured Aria decided to trash her own room because Fitz wasn't available to tear apart, it became clear to her when she and Emily entered the bedroom that it wasn't the case.

"Hey," Emily sighed. "Mike let us in." She paused, like Halle had done, at the scene and noted the array of clothes on the bed that Aria messily rolled up around her fist then threw inside the duffle. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yep." Aria refused to look at them in fear of her plan to escape collapsing in on her like her world had on top of her.

"Where?" Emily asked her.

Shakily, Aria answered just as she shoved a pair of jeans into the bag, "No idea."

"Aria, you can't just leave," Halle said, worried. "You ran off earlier — without a word — and—"

"And I feel really, really bad for scaring you," Aria cut in, rushed but sincere, "but I can't be here right now."

"I wasn't scared for me," Halle fiercely declared. "I was scared for you. I didn't know where you were or if you were hurt. I went to Fitz's thinking you'd—"

"I didn't go to Ezra's," Aria interrupted. "I went to talk to Principal Hackett's—" it shocked them, "but Hanna talked me out of that one," she said, folding a shirt terribly and shoving it in the bag. "And if Ezra doesn't have to be, I shouldn't have to be either."

"So, you're just gonna keep driving until you figure it out?" Emily asked her in concern, having nearly done the same thing last year when A labelled her the weakest link in the chain.

Still with her back put to them, Aria said shortly, "That's the plan." After she zipped up the duffle, Aria paused. It was very brief — a mere few seconds — but it was enough for Aria to consider staying. But as fast as the idea appeared, it disappeared. So, Aria plucked up the two bags she had packed hastily and made a sharp turn. "I gotta get out of here."

Whereas Halle stayed frozen, Emily stepped in to block Aria's way. "Hey," said Emily, "let's talk about this."

"I don't wanna talk," Aria said.

Quickly, Emily offered, "Then we'll come with you."

Even quicker, Aria replied, "—I don't want that either."

"Then what do you want?" asked Emily, pushing.

Aria raised her voice as she reacted instantly, "I want for you to get out of my way, Emily."

Unwillingly, Halle curled a hand around her girlfriend's shoulder and pulled her to the side. She cleared the doorway for Aria. "Let her go," Halle decided for the three. "She need this, give it to her."

With tears in her eyes, and access to the bedroom door, Aria whispered, "Thank you." She walked past them and stopped. Aria dropped her bags and her two friends turned to look at her, hoping she'd stay instead.

Yet, in a blink, Aria had crossed back to them and flung her arms around Halle. She held onto her tighter, squeezing as tears leaked. The hug was warm and needed and precious. She pulled back and did the same with Emily; and then, when she was done, Aria nodded, picked up her bags and fled Rosewood under the cover of a bleak, winter night.

Aria wouldn't return until she knew exactly what she wanted to do to Ezra Fitz.

•