chapter fifty five
stolen kisses
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"Mona's trying to help us, why else would she give us this?" Hanna asked as the girls sat in Emily's room. "Emily's still on the phone." Aria told them as she walked back into Emily's room. "She seemed to take it okay. Didn't she?" Josie asked softly. "What, like we should be used to hearing from ghosts by now?" Spencer asked sarcastically. "Spencer, why can't you admit that she is trying to help us?" Hanna asked her. "Hanna, did you ever stop to think why Mona would want to help us?" Spencer asked.

"Because she's afraid of something just like we were afraid of her." Hanna answered. "I don't know." Spencer responded. "Yeah, you don't know but the cops are still after my blood." Hanna said. "I told you, my mom will handle that." Spencer told her, making Hanna sigh before standing up from Emily's desk. "I hate needles." Hanna remarked. "Okay, look, whether this is fake or not, we've got to figure out what's on that site." Aria explained just before Emily walked into her room. "It was Nate." she explained.

"What did he want?" Josie asked. "I promised to hike up with to the old boat house, told him it was Maya's favourite spot in rosewood." Emily answered. "You're not... gonna, like, tell him about this, are you?" Spencer asked. "If i did that, i'd have to tell him how we know about it." Emily responded. "Em, what do you... want us to do about this?" Aria asked.

"Do you mind if we try and break into Maya's site?" Hanna asked her. "We have to." Emily answered after a moment of silence. "Okay, um, well, how do we get past the password?" Aria asked. "It's just a password, there are ways of cracking it." Josie told them before Emily stood up and sat at her desk before attempting to log into it but it was incorrect. "Though I had an idea of what it was. Guess I don't know her as well as I thought I did." Emily said before shutting Spencer's computer.

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Hanna and Josie had moved to Josie's house after leaving Emily's house. Hanna was watching as Josie tried hacking into Maya's site, but it didn't seem to be working. "I thought you said you can crack it." Hanna groaned as she moved around Josie's kitchen. "I can, okay?" Josie said. "I just have not done it yet." Josie responded as she crossed a password idea off of the list she had next to her. "None of the regular work-arounds are working." she added.

"So when do you give up?" Hanna asked. "That is completely the wrong attitude." Josie scolded her. "Josie, we have to know what's on this!" Hanna responded. "Okay, but it's not a piñata, I can't just whack at it with a stick!" Josie remarked. Josie took a breath, "Okay," she muttered before trying another password, but once again, it didn't work. Josie put her head in her hands. "Okay, I think I may need help with this." Josie admitted. She knew the way around but she wasn't a hacker, not like Caleb. "What kind of help?" Hanna asked and Josie gave her a pointed look.

"Oh," Hanna muttered. She hated this as much as she knew Hanna did. "Richie told me he heard that Caleb was back from California." Josie said. Richie had called her as soon as he found out. "Yeah, I haven't seen him, but... yeah, I know he's back." Hanna responded.

"He wouldn't even have to know what this is for, I promise, Han, I'll just ask for tips on how to get around a tough password." Josie assured her. "Yeah, you know what, go ahead." Hanna told her. "At least one of us might be able to be in the same room as him." she added. "Okay, i'll talk to him tomorrow." Josie responded as Hanna's phone went off while Josie tried another way around the password. 

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"Are you ready to do this?" Richie asked as he and Josie stood in the parking lot. "Yeah," Josie answered. "Okay, I'll meet you inside." Richie told her before he kissed her before leaving. Josie sighed before walking over as Caleb got out of his car. "Caleb." she called out, making him turn to her. "Nice car." she told him. "My mom doesn't use it much since the accident, so she let me take it." he explained and she nodded in understanding. "You drove from California to Rosewood?" she asked. "I had a lot of thinking to do, driving helps." he answered before the two of them began walking.

"Yeah, I get it, trust me." she told him. "So, I have, um, an abstract computer question, I was wondering if you could help me out?" she asked him. "What's the question?" he asked. "Well, I was wondering the best way to, you know, get around a really tough password protection?" Josie asked. They stopped walking as Caleb moved to stand in front of Josie. "That's about as abstract as a brick wall," he remarked. "Yeah, okay, maybe we are talking about a real password." she admitted. "Maybe?" he asked. Josie sighed. "Fine, there's a particular site that I cannot get onto." Josie explained. "Whose site is it?" Caleb asked and Josie sighed.

Caleb and Josie moved to sit at a table outside of the school. "If it is real, I have no idea how Mona got it, but if it's fake, it's an insanely cruel thing to do to Emily." Josie explained. "Now, i know we've asked you to do something like this before, so i get, i do, if you don't—" josie started. "No, I'll do it." Caleb cut her off. "Really?" she asked. "Look, whatever happened, Hanna's important to me, so if I have a chance to crush the Mona monster, I'm in." he told her. "After school?" he asked. "yeah, here's my address." she responded before writing it down on a piece of paper and gave it to him before he walked away. Josie finally let out a breath she had been holding in, when suddenly her phone goes off, making her pull it out of her pocket.

UNKNOWN ID
Mona's almost gone,
Hanna's next
⎯ A

Josie looked around to her, nervous, before getting her stuff and walking into the school.

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"Mona's almost gone? Gone where?" Aria asked as she, Hanna, Emily, Spencer and Josie stood around in the courtyard. "The doctors at Radley want to send her to another hospital," Hanna explained, making them all look at her. "One with thicker bars." she added. "How do you know that?" Emily asked. "Wren told me." she told them. "He did?" Spencer asked. "What does he have to do with any of this?" Aria asked. "Well, he thought I should know." Hanna explained. "and he said that Mona's been passing her meds to a visitor." she told them.

"Lucas?" Emily asked. " Wait, you're saying that the pills that Aria found in his bag might be from Mona?" Josie asked. "I don't know Wren didn't tell me, so i didn't ask." Hanna answered. "And 'Hanna's next'." Emily said. "You guys, I don't want to give anyone any of my blood, I need all I got." Hanna said. "My mom is handling it." Spencer assured her. "Wait a second, if they send Mona away, we're not gonna find out why she gave us Maya's site." Aria realized. "If it really is Maya's site." Emily added.

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Josie and Caleb were sitting in her living room, Caleb trying to get into Maya's site. "I usually can figure out a password." Josie said. "That's because most people don't want good passwords, they want passwords they can remember." Caleb explained as he did something on his computers. "Passwords keep you from going in the front door, I like to look for an open window, something that allows you to get into the system and unlocks things from the other side." he told her.

"Like a burglar," she remarked and he nodded. "That's the idea." he nodded. "Nice computer, your parents?" she asked hesitantly. "My mom," he responded. "Hmm, new car, new computer," she listed, smirking. "She just lent me the car." he told her with a laugh. "Okay," she shrugged before pointing to his sweater that was next to him. "But that, that she didn't lend you." she added. "No, it's a rental." he explained, making her laugh. "What? Do you just want me to admit that my mom bought me new clothes?" he asked.

"That is not just clothing, that is $400 worth of sweater." she responded, making him look over at it. "So I should probably wash it on 'gentle' then, right?" he asked sarcastically, making her laugh. "No." she told him. "You need to dry clean it, if you wash it, you'll end up with a seat to a shih tzu." she laughed. "No, I have never been a dry cleaning kind of guy," he said. "Well, you are now." she responded.

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Richie was now over at Josie's with her and Caleb. "These are so good, thank you." Josie thanked Richie, who had brung them something from The Apple Rose Grille. "Put the chips down, and cross your fingers." he told them as he typed something into his computer and clicked enter before Maya's website logged in. He did it, they were in. "We're in." he said as Richie moved to hover over their shoulders to see. "Oh my god." Josie muttered.

Caleb pressed play on a video of Maya. "'But as my back I always hear, time's winged chariot hurrying near'" she read out. "Andy marvel, what a marvel," she said with a laugh. "Talking to his coy mistress about how they shouldn't waste any time, like you're doing listening to me." she added. "I cannot believe you got us in!" Jose exclaimed before she and Caleb hugged. Richie smiled, he just wished he knew who he was to Josie. "Thank you Caleb." She thanked him as they pulled away.

"This is where I'm going to put things to keep from losing them." she said to the camera. "I'm always losing things." she admitted. "So, guess this rally is Maya's site." Richie commented. "Yeah. it is." Caleb responded to him. "If you're looking at me, beware, this site is cursed." she said before pointing towards the camera and making noises before she clapped and laughed and soon enough a bunch of other videos popped up, like a website, photos of her and Emily, files with probably more videos and photos. "I need to tell the girls." Josie said. 

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The girls were in Josie's room, Caleb had left not long after he got into the website, Richie was in the kitchen, calling his mom, telling her that he was staying the night at her. The girls watched another video of Emily laughing at the camera. "You're making me laugh, I'm trying to eat." Emily said to Maya, who was holding the camera. "We should not be watching this." Aria remarked. "There are hundreds of videos and you don't know what they are until you open them." Spencer explained, having gone through it when she got to Josie's.

Josie clicked off the video and the website itself popped up again before she clicked open a file, with other files in it, before she clicked on a picture. "Everything's jumbled up." Aria commented as she looked at everything as Josie went through photos of Maya, who looked like they were taken at the camp she was at. "Yeah, it's more of a junk drawer than a journal." Spencer said as Josie clicked on a video.

"Yeah, but this is real." Hanna responded, making them look at her. "Maya gave us a genuine article." she added. "How?" Aria asked. "Why?" Spencer asked. "To help us." Hanna answered. "How much of this did Caleb see?" Aria asked Josie. "He didn't wanna see much once he knew what it was, but he got us in there." Josie answered before clicking play on a video. "I think Emily's got a very old soul. I feel it when I kiss her, I can hear clocks all over the world running backwards." she spoke softly.

"I'm so out of my comfort zone." Spencer said as Hanna clicked onto another video. "Hanna, no–" Aria tried stopping her. "No, Just one more." Hanna told her. "I'm such a coward, I know that, I have to face my fears. I can't hide forever. I can't keep being afraid." she said, it looked like she was standing in the middle of a dark street before they saw a flash of red light and Maya put the camera down. "Call her." Hanna demanded Spencer, referring to Emily. "Her phone is off. " Spencer answered as she moved off of Josie's bed.

"Okay, well, call her again." Aria remarked as she, Josie and Hanna continued to watch a video, they were afraid that it was the last time Maya was alive. "We can't watch this without her." Josie remarked as she paused the video as Spencer called Emily again. "At least it's on this time." Spencer said as the phone rang.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter <3 okay, yes, i've changed it from Spencer and Caleb trying to get into the site to Josie and Caleb, because sibling bonding, even though he doesn't know she is his sister