I was sling free, I still had to take it easy, but i could drive Toby's truck back to his, I pulled up outside and honked the horn. Spencer was gonna be outside Emily's house so I would walk up after I was finished .

"Hey." Toby smiled.

"Hey." I nodded and threw him the keys. "Later." I went to walk away.

"I would never tell." i stopped and turned around "About what happened that night, Jason spoke to me told me what you saw. You know I would never tell."

"Do I? I back you up on a lot of things Toby but seeing you talking to that fire chief and with the harlot of Rosewood, who goes through more boyfriends than I do skirts. What am I supposed to think?"

"What happened to being my number 1 cheerleader?"

"What happened to never being in the same house as Jenna again?" I retorted "I'm more than happy to stick up for you when I know you haven't done something but this, you did go back into that house with her, after everything she put you through. You did go back to being her lap dog. Whether or not you don't say anything about what happened that night. I don't support you willingly going back into her clutches." I walked away. I saw Spencer sat in her car and I got in

"What did Toby say?" she asked

"That he didn't say anything about the Jenna thing. Doesn't mean I'm happy abut him being within breathing distance of her, fire or no fire, she's still a bitch that you would never get tired of slapping."  Emily came out five minutes later and we drove to school.

------

We were having coffee in the courtyard, I sat with most of the girls when Spencer came bounding over

"Guys, I figured it out." she sat down "Alison took out a classified asking A to meet her in Brookhaven and A responded. This was going on for like a month. Look 'Dear A, what's it gonna take to end this? You need to stop A.D'" she handed the news paper to Aria

"'Hey desperately seeking silence, who says I wanna end this? A'" Spencer quoted

"What's this one?" Em asked looking at the last news paper

"It's the last paper before Labour Day Weekend. Alison was set to meet A at 235 Spruce street." that sounded familiar

"Why do i feel like I know that street?" I wondered outlaid

"Because we walked on it. The Creepy Doll Hospital." Hanna replied remembering. Oh yeah.

"Guys." Emily caught our attention, we looked at her and she was looking away, I turned to see Toby guiding Jenna.

"She took off the bandage." Spencer whispered

"And she's not using the stick." I add

"Why is she still wearing the shades?" Hanna questioned staring at her

"Hanna, stop staring." Emily told her. We cleared the table of the papers off the table as they joined us.

"Thank you Toby, I'll see you inside." Toby glanced at Spencer and I before leaving. She went to sit next to me and I shuffled up.

"Sorry to interrupt." she started

"Can you see or not?" Han questioned bluntly.

"Han" Spencer slightly scolded. I hid a small smile, but said nothing. Jenna shook her head and my smile dropped

"Wait the surgery didn't...?" Aria trailed off

"No, it didn't. I went in knowing the odds so I can't be shocked . the funny thing is I woke up this morning and, uh, i could see clearly just not with my eyes. You could have left me in that smokey room Hanna. But you didn't, instead you saved my life and it made me realise that people can grow. So now it's my turn, and that's why i'm here. I'm here to apologised and to let go of the anger that's been holding me back. So can we please move on." she cried

"What exactly are you apologising for Jenna?" Em asked a little confused

"For holding a grudge and hating you." I shared a WTF look with my sister "We've all done things we're not proud of. I know what you think of me. but your wrong. I've never been the person you really need to fear." She stood up and unfolded her stick before leaving.

For once Jenna Marshall had left me speechless.

-----

"Please don't tell me you bought that?" Em questioned.

"No, I'm just speechless that she had the balls to say it. I have the feeling we're being punked or something." I replied

"I kind of did." My twin admitted

"Guys, if that surgery didn't work there's no way she hates us less. I still believe she had something to do with that fire." Em retorted

"So you think she just set that fire and walked into it?" Hanna asked incredulously

"Yeah, i've heard of cutting off your nose to spite your face, but that's...." Spencer cut Aria off

"Cutting off your whole face."

"Well if Jenna isn't A then who was she talking about? Garrett?" Em added

"Melissa" Hanna continued

"Hanna, Melissa openly admitted to sending Ali angry texts messages. If she was A why would she do that?" Aria questioned the blonde

"I don't know. I don't have the answer." Hanna rubbed her temples

"I think Vivian did. I think she found out. That's why she's not sitting with us" Spencer says

"So what do we do now?" I question

"we retrace Ali's steps, go back to Brookhaven. We're too close now to back off."

---------

"Classrooms are creepy where they're empty." I commented. Aria was leaving a note for Mom saying that we were gonna be with Spencer after school. I saw her flicking through something

"What's that?" I slipped off the desk and walked over she showed me the note.

Can you send over Aria and Erica's transcript over? Byron then she showed me the other page it was a transfer for to a boarding school.

"What the fuck!" i snatched it from her and looked through it. "Son of a bitch, son of a bitch. I'm gonna kill him." I dropped the papers and stormed out of the classroom.

"Erica, Erica!" Aria called then grabbed my arm. "Stop we need to think about this."

"Think? Think? Aria i'm gonna go postal, actually I'm going nuclear."

"Then what happens" she took me to a quiet corner "they'll get arrested. We need to be smart."

"How are you not pissed?"

"Oh I am, but what good happens from when you  get pissed." I sigh "What is it you like to say? When this happens on tv."

"They shouldn't get mad only even." I repeat

"Brookhaven first, then we'll deal with this." I nod in agreement

--------

"We weren't going nuclear but we were still pissed  after school. Aria and I stormed towards the doll hospital.

"he couldn't run Ezra out of town. So he's killing two bird with one stone and shipping us off."

"What did Ezra and Jason say?" Spencer asked

"Well, he's not really that surprised?" Aria replied

"Really cause Jason thought we were actually moving somewhere finally. I swear to god he's been saving this. Lure us into a false sense of security of possible acceptance. This is war." I sneer.

"So what are you gonna do?" Spencer wondered

"Can you hurry up and figure it out? Vermont is like Iceland, the sequel." Hanna added I turned on my heel with a smirk.

"Uh-oh. I know that smirk. You're about do something very Ali like." Emily stopped

"Worse, very Katherine Pierce like. But that's for later." we turned out attention back to the matter at hand.

"There's no 235." Spencer stated

"You guys look." Hanna nodded her head to look behind us. I turned and There was a woman about to entered the doll hospital.

"Um, Hi! Hi, sorry excuse me." Spencer jogged over and we followed, the woman turned around.

"We're not open." She stated

"oh, well, we've tried to call you, your shop couple of times. We just wanted to ask a couple of questions." Spence smiled sweetly

"You can ask, doesn't mean i'll have the answers." she retorted. Nice (Can you hear the sarcasm)

"We wanted to know if you keep a record of the customers who purchased your dolls?" Spencer wondered

"We don't see much, it's mostly repairs."

"Oh, well. You do sell some dolls because a friend of our might have received that one as a gift."  she pointed to the one in the window

We never sold those. That was left here an never picked up."

"Well could you tell us who left it, then." I sigh, he gaze drifted to mine

"I couldn't tell you what I had for lunch, ya'll better come inside." She opened up

"Seth, turn on the light will ya, we got guests." she took us down to the basement which was a 100 different kinds of creepy.

"My late sister, kept the books. i've been trying to sell the shop, haha. No takers. Kids these days only like things they can google." she walked to the back "Which was it again? So many faces in here, they start to blur."

"It was a small one, kind of folksy and burlap-y"

"Terrifying" Hanna and I clarified

"They mean the voodoo doll. There was another girl. Came in asking about the same one." the little boy, Seth. told.

"When was this?" Aria wondered

"Summer before last."

"I can't make heads nor tails out of this, let me check that stack over there." the woman moved away

"This girl who came in, what was she asking?" Hanna questioned

"Was this her?" Emily showed a picture of Ali.

"That's her face, but she had dark hair, lot's of it like that" he pointed to one of the dolls.

"Did you ever figure it out? The person she was looking for?" I inquired

"No, put i told her to stop looking."

"Why?" I continued

"There are people who wanted to hurt her. A man and A woman." He answered

"Seth hold your tongue." we looked back to the woman.

"What is he talking about? When did these people come into the shop?" Spencer questioned

"They didn't. That's something he saw in his mind. He see's things. Things that haven't happened yet. He's gifted."

"Prove it." I folded my arms. "Go ahead kid, read me." I challenged

"You are a lion cub preparing to defend your pack. Your food chain has changed and those that were close to you are now the enemy." my demeanour changed I looked at my sister. How the fuck did he know this shit?!

"Okay, I believe you." I cleared my throat and nodded

"Do you know what these people looked like?" Spencer asked

"They had dark hair like yours."

"Did the woman have sunglasses, and a cane." Emily continued

"Was she blind." Hanna bluntly put it.

"Oh, no. she can see."

"Seth, baby. why don't you take The groceries up to the kitchen." Seth grabbed the bags.

"Sorry to hear what happened to her. Must have been awful breathing dirt into your lungs. I don't even like sand in my mouth."

"Seth, go you've said enough" OK now I was officially freaked out.

------

We were at Hanna's and I was still a little freaked from that boy. Everyone but Aria was quiet as we sat there, processing.

"You think this will be enough to split?" Aria asked. I didn't even look up to see what she was talking about.

"Guys, seriously. He's 9 years old, he's never seen the sun and he probably lives in a cupboard with, like 600 dolls.Okay, so you don't need to get all freaked out over a newsflash by Casper the friendly host."

"Aria, he remember Alison. he warned her something bad was gonna happen." Em retorted

"Well, If not Jenna and Garrett, who was the couple he saw?" Aria sighed

"Melissa and Ian." Hanna replied

"Can you let that go?" Emily rolled her eyes

"No. He said the girl wasn't blind." Hanna retorted

"Doesn't mean we have to go back there." Aria argued

"Yeah, we do." Spencer spoke "My parents thought that Melissa could have killed Alison."

"Bossy one, say what?" I turned my full attention to her

"They hired a detective after Ali disappeared "

"What did the detective find?" Em wondered

"I don't know. But Melissa tried to convinced me that my father wanted to see Ali dead." oh now I was catching on.

"Wait." Aria paused "Melissa accused your father of wanting Alison dead. Why? Why would he want that?"

"Because Alison knew that my Dad...My Dad is Jason's father too." she admitted I stood up and wrapped my arms comfortingly around Spencer.

"She would, like, drop hints and make weird jokes about how close our families were and then Jason figured it out and told me. Recently."

"So your dad..." Hanna trailed off

"Did Ali rub this in Melissa's face too?" Aria questioned

"All i know is that Melissa hated Alison's guts. She worked in the next town over and she probably drive past that creepy doll shop everyday." my phone started beeping.

"I'm back home - Dad"

"Okay as much as I don't want to cut this short. We need to leave." I say standing up straighter.

"What why?" Aria asked

"Seth was right, vague but right. Defending the pack, those close are now the enemy. I'm nipping this boarding school thing in the bud. Let's go. We will catch up later. Be nice, Spencer is struggling with this."  I take my sisters hand and we leave. We were our porch and took a deep breath.

"Erica what are you gonna do. you're scaring me."

"I'm scaring myself, but I refuse to back down. If I have to be the evil twin, fine." Whatever you do, don't blink and I mean that metaphorically." I opened the door and strutted in.

"Good, you're here." I smiled

"Erica, what's going on?" Dad asked

"Oh you'll find out, take a seat. Parents." Mom and Dad sat down. I dropped my bag on the dining room table.

"So here's the thing. I dragged your ass back here because my darling sister and I found a rather interesting document." I pulled out the transfer papers. "Transfer papers to a boarding school in Vermont. how enlightening." they sighed

"We were just exploring options."

"What a relief. No midnight whisking away. You're only exploring ways to ruin our lives."

"Erica calm down." Dad sighed

"This is me calm, Father. this is me not ripping your eyeballs out, be grateful. You see this is what we can get. One minute you're processing the idea of Aria and Ezra, close to accepting Jason and I. Then there's you, softly smiling while i teach my boyfriend on make a fresh apple pie. The next we're being exiled?"

"This is not why we're considering this. There is something going on in both your lives. I know your being bullied."

"The only people bullying us is the two of you." Aria snapped

"We are just trying to keep you safe. You've been hospitalised twice Erica!" Mom argued

"You might be. but he isn't." Aria pointed to Dad

"Which is why shit just got real." I took and envelope out of my bag, then removed the bag from the table. I dropped the envelope in front of Dad.

"Go ahead Daddy dearest. take a peak." He glanced at Mom then cleared his throat. I turned my head to Aria who looked a little confused as I turned on my heal and leaned against a pillar.

"So here is the thing. Aria reminded me of today. There was no point in getting mad. Shouting and yelling wouldn't get us no where. It won't make you see who serious we are that in regards to this war you've so kindly started, you won't win. So I settled in getting even. Do you like my detective skills, Daddy dearest." i saw his face go drip white.

"Byron what is it."

"That Mom is how I will end his career if he doesn't back the fuck off." I pushed my self off the pilar. then leaned on the chair

"in that envelope is proof, something of which you don't have regarding my sister. That he had a relationship with his student. You can keep that because there is a copy with someone that should should we be shipped of to boarding school, or your report either Ezra or Jason to the police, I will bring you down with me." they looked at us shocked

"Checkmate. Let's go Aria." I pulled my sister upstairs and into my room. my bravado that I had downstairs dropped.

"Oh my god. I am speechless."

"I'm not. I can't believe I had to do that. Did I sound convincing?" I bit my lip.

"Convincing? Uh, yeah. Was that true? What you said about having a copy with someone else."

"Partly, When we first found out he was cheating, I had plans to tell mom but I wanted proof, so a hacked into his e-mail. To be fair it wasn't that hard his password is weak. But the you asked me not to and all the proof i found sat on a flash drive for nearly two years. I was bluffing about someone else having it. Now that I said it, it might actually be a good idea."

"You both scare and impress me, Erica."

"I'm still on the scared part."

----------

"She's bluffing." Hanna huffed. Spencer had told us about showing the video to Melissa and her reaction. Look like I weren't the only one making threats

"That's a pretty big hand to play, with no cards."

"That's what happens when you have little to nothing, you play big and psych everybody out. It's like playing poker or chess." I say sitting down.

"But what if Melissa is telling the truth? What if there was a camera the night of the Jenna thing?"

"Then you either outsmart her with something worse or you fold. But you gotta be damn sure or what the other player has and has not got." I retort

"You know what? Enough is enough. If we have to trick Melissa into sending a text message to prove that she's A. That's what we'll do." my phone buzzed and I picked it up.

Hope they fold or I will make them -A

"What is it?" Aria asks i showed her the text

"Bitch strikes again." the all looked at the text

"What does it mean?" Emily asks

"You know how you said you scared when I had my smirk yesterday?" she nodded "This is the result of that smirk. Short story is I told my parents more mainly our dad that if he didn't back off I would reveal proof of his affair with Meredith."

"That the nice way of putting it. Alison-esqe moment is the understatement of the century."

"What happens if they chance it?"

"Then what I said will happen. I 'extra-credit' in place.Go big or go home right." I looked down "I have to admit, I feel terrible" I looked back up with un ushered tears

"Erica, i would have done the same thing, but you know, with less dramatics." Aria assured

"Melissa could be bluffing, but you have to make sure she isn't before you do anything."

---------------------

Aria and I stepped into our Mom's classroom.

"Mom?" Aria spoke. Mom stopped wiping  the board and turned back around

"Well your father and i talked and the boarding school idea had been shelved, for the moment" I gave no reaction as I sat on the desk. But internally I felt like a weight had been lifted.

"Thank You." Aria breathed

"No, don't thank me."

"You pushed us into a corner, what did you think was going to happen Mom?" i asked and she turned her gaze to me

"Your threat had nothing to do with our decision. Why would we sent the two of you to another state when you're already a million miles away? I don't even recognise the kids who would turn on their own family."

"You can't ask us to turn on Ezra or Jason either, Mom." Aria calmly retorted

"You know when i found out on both occasions. I was angry and confused. But i've never been ashamed of either of you till yesterday. If you could have heard the silence after you left yesterday. I don't know how to get back to who we once were."

"We left that place a long time ago." I responded "Two years ago in fact when our whole world shattered apart." my voice broke "Not once did you see how we broke, not once. We smiled, played nice, kept our secrets. Then one day these two...knights came along and repaired us. And they've been there ever since. I refuse to go back to that dark place again, I refuse to let my sister even enter that dark place. I will fight to the death to keep that from happening. So if that means I have to play dirty, I will." I slipped off the table and walked out

------------

I sat in Jason's living room with a cup of coffee. He sat down next to me and took the blanket rom the back wrapping around me.

"What Happened."

"Do you remember the year before Ali went missing? How it was just one bad thing after another?"

"Yeah."

"And that Ali, Aria and I caught my Dad cheating?" he nodded "I wanted to tell my mom but i wanted proof, proof so he couldn't deny it and call my crazy. And I did, emails and pictures that my Dad had fallen from grace. The night I was going to show them to my Mom, Aria came into my room and asked me not to say anything, she begged and I did as she asked.

For two years the proof I had sat gathering dust most likely never to be touched again. Yet last night..." I sighed

"Last night i gave a performance worthy of an oscar, I played poker and chess at the same time. I told them that if they came after us by sending us to boarding school or you and Ezra to the police. I would bring them down with me by ruining his career." I told him he shifted slightly.

"I wish i could have something stronger."

"Rica." he breathed "Why would you do that?"

"Because i'm a psychotic bitch who loves you?" I sighed leaning my head on his shoulder "I reacted, it felt like they were stabbing me in the back and that they think they could do this and not hurt us."

"Please, do something for me." I look up at him "Don't break your family apart for us ever again."

"I promise. Besides it scared me how much worse I was than your sister." he wrapped his arms around me