chapter thirty eight
let the water hold me down
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The group of friends had soon taken Hanna back to Spencers, and gotten her changed before sitting her in front of the fire, hoping to warm her up and had called Aria, telling her what happened. Aria sat next to Hanna and handed her some pills. "Here's some aspirin." she said before Hanna took them from her before she held her hand in Aria's for a moment. "You want me to make you some soup?" she offered.

"Thanks, but...I'm not hungry." Hanna declined as Spencer walked back into the living room and grabbed a blanket from her couch. "You want a blanket?" she asked. "Sure," Hanna sighed before Spencer wrapped a blanket over the robe she was wearing while Emily walked back in with Josie and Richie. "Here's your bag." Emily said, sitting next to her as Josie and Richie sat on the floor in front of them, as Josie leaned back onto Riches chest. "I think Caleb called, your phone was making Noise." Emily added as Hanna went through her bag.  "Han, now I know that you might not be ready to talk about this but the sheriff said that they're gonna drag the lake first thing in the morning," Spencer said softly.

"Lucas isn't in the lake." Hanna said as she stared at the fire in front of her, as her friends shared a look. "He didn't come up to shore, Han." Josie told her gently. "We waited." Emily added. "He knows how to swim, alright?" Hanna said, finally looking away from the fire and to Emily before looking back. "He's out there somewhere, I can feel it." she said softly. "I... I still can't believe that Lucas would help 'A'." Aria said, confused and shocked. "Why not?" Spencer asked. "Jenna did the same thing with Caleb." She answered her own question. "'A' knows Lucas is close to Hanna." Emily said, as if Hanna wasn't even there, making Josie sigh.

"No, I... I get it, I just..." Aria stammered and trailed off. "Don't really see Lucas being that violent." she added before Hanna spoke up. "He can be." she said, making everyone turn to her. "Lucas was the one who destroyed Alison's memorial." Hanna admitted, making everyone's eyes widen as Richie took a look at Josie who had sat up, shocked. "I found out the night I got out of the hospital." she continued.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Spencer asked, looking over at Hanna. "Told me to keep a secret." Hanna said. "Why?" Emily asked. "To protect him. He's been through a lot, Alison really tortured him." she said, making Josie sigh and shake her head as Richie rubs her sides, hoping to calm her down, knowing how angry she was about the destroyed memorial. "Maybe it's time to start protecting you." Spencer told her but Hanna shook her head. "I have a headache." she said, putting the aspirin in her mouth before reaching into her bag and taking out her water bottle, not noticing it was lake water, but everyone else did. "Hanna! Don't drink that!" Emily exclaimed, causing Hanna to pull the bottle away from her mouth, swallowing what had drunk of the lake water, before looking at the bottle disgusted.

"Too late." she said with a grimace. "How the hell did that get in there?" Richie asked in shock, eyes wide. "The bag was outside in the car." Emily said, as she looked at the bottle with lake water in it. "But all of us were in here." Aria pointed out. "Not making anything better Aria." Josie mumbled. "Yeah, Lucas wasn't, maybe he just wants to finish what he started." Spencer said as she took the bottle from Hanna and spelt it, before grimacing, making Josie shoot her a confused look as a phone went off. Hanna pulled her out her phone, and looked at it, while the others looked at her.

No fun chugging lake water is it?
Choke on this, bitch
⎯ A

Hanna read out the message, before putting her phone down, in shock and disbelief as thunder booms from outside, making the girls and Richie look towards the windows.

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The girls met up at Spencer's house, she wanted to show them something she had found. Spencer emptied her bag onto the counter before setting the bag down. "'A' was definitely in the lake house." Spencer said. "You found these in the attic?" Josie asked, shocked as she looked at one of the prepaid phones. "The picture Caleb decrypted off 'A' cell phone of the dolls, that was taken at the lake house." Emily said in realisation. "Looks like A got pretty cozy." Aria said sarcastically. "Well, my family never uses that house after labor day. It's the perfect place to set up an evil lair." She said, making Josie sigh.

"And look. Just look at the date on this." Spencer said as she took out a receipt that she found with the rest of the stuff and Hanna took it from her. "Wait, that's around the time Caleb and I went up there." Hanna said as she looked at the date on the receipt, which caused her eyes to widen. "A was in the lake house when Caleb and I were...." Hanna trailed off and looked at Spencer, who gave her an unamused look.

"Fraternising on my nana's sofa" Spencer deadpanned. "Ok, who told?" Hanna asked, looking at Emily, Josie and Aria. "You know what, it doesn't even matter. There are, like, five bedrooms up there with actual beds in them." Spencer continued, causing Hanna to look away awkwardly. "Did you guys see anybody, hear anything?" Emily asked. "Em, we were kind of busy." Hanna said. "Yeah, you were getting busy." Spencer said sarcastically, making Josie snicker as Hanna smiled and shook her head. "Ok, so, wait. You said that Lucas went up in the attic like he knew his way around?" Aria asked. "He was probably trying to clean up after Garrett and Jenna," Spencer said. "And look. There's an address," Spencer said as she took the receipt and handed it to Aria. "Smitty's. 801 Hyperion street," Spencer said, reading it but Aria stopped her.

"W-w-wait, Smitty's? Smitty's what? Restaurant?" Aria asked, confused. "Bar?" Emily guessed. "Isn't Hyperion street in philly?" Josie asked, looking around at her friends. "Do you guys want to go after school to check it out?" Spencer asked, making the girls either share looks or sigh. "Ok. Yeah. If it means you're not going alone, then count me in" Aria said. "Is it okay if I pass?" Hanna asked, causing the girls to look at her in confusion as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I still have the taste of lake water in my mouth." Hanna admitted quietly, making Josie sigh sadly.

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At school, Josie had met up with Richie almost straight away. "So she found prepaid phones and stuff up in her attic at the lake house?" Richie asked lowly as the couple stood at Josie's locker where she was getting her books out of it. "Yeah." Josie answered with a sigh, making her boyfriend frown, before wrapping his arm around her waist, causing her to look at him. "Hey, everything is gonna be okay, and even if it isn't, i'm always gonna be here for you," he said, causing a smile to appear on Josie's face.. "Has your dad managed to call you back?" He asked, as Josie shut her locker, turning in Richie's arms to face him. "No, and he isn't answering mom either." she said, shaking her head.

"I just wish i knew if it was Caleb or not, i want to get to know him, not just as Hanna's boyfriend, but like you know, my brother." Josie sighed as the two of them walked down the hallway of rosewood high. "You'll figure this out and anyway how sure are you that Caleb is your brother, he might be homeschooled." Richie said, making Josie sigh, "Just hoping, I guess," she said as the two reached the outdoor area, and spotted Spencer heading there as well. "Hey Spence." The couple greeted her, making her turn to them. "Hey guys," she greeted as the three of them sat down at the table with Aria.

"Hey, so as soon as I download this train schedule, we'll be good to go," Spencer greeted Aria as she sat down next to her and with Josie and Richie across from her. Aria nodded in response to Spencer but didn't look up from her phone. "Ugh. Worst reception out here" Spencer groaned in annoyance as she moved her phone around, trying to get better reception. "I know right," Richie agreed. Josie noticed Aria's concentration on her phone, making her curious. "What are you doing?" Josie asked, as she leaned over to see what she was doing, as Spencer and Richie looked over as well.

"Oh, buying tickets to the rangely playhouse." Aria answered, not looking up to Josie. "Weren't you supposed to go there with Ezra?" Spencer asked, confused. "Wait, how are you getting better service than I am?" Spencer asked, getting side-tracked. "Wait, switch places." Spencer said, making Josie laugh as Aria looked at her confused. "Come on," Spencer said. Aria rolled her eyes but nodded as they both stood up and switched places. "Yeah, well, now I'm going with Holden," Aria said as she sat back down. "What happens if Ezra's there?" Richie asked with a raised brow. "That's the point," Aria said, making Richie, Josie and Spencer give her a look. "Ezra bought his tickets, like, two months ago, and he loves Arthur Miller, so I'm pretty sure he's looking forward to it." Aria explained but seeing our looks she sighed.

"Holden said that we could do whatever I wanted," Aria defended. "Right. So, if Ezra just happens to be there and you happen to see him." Spencer said. "Then maybe we have fate on our side." Aria said with a smile. "I just wish I didn't have to use Holden to figure that out." Aria sighed. "Ugh!" Spencer groaned, looking at her phone in annoyance, obviously the new spot wasn't working, making Aria sigh before taking the phone from Spencer to fix the problem. "Oh come on your not-" She started but Aria cut her off.

"Next train is in 20 minutes, we should probably get going." she said with a smile, as Spencer's eyes widened in shock as she gave Spencer her phone back before getting up. "What?" Spencer asked in disbelief before getting up and following Aria out of the courtyard, leaving Josie and Richie there. "Well, that was an interesting conversation." Richie said with a smile, making Josie laugh and nod her head.

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RIchie and Josie had decided to hang out with Hanna and Caleb over at Hanna's after school, so that's where they were currently. "Lucas called again this morning before i left for school." Caleb said to them as they sat around in Hanna's kitchen. "Man, staying there last couple days has been awkward," he continued. "Did you talk to him?" Josie asked, as she drank a glass of water. "His parents said he didn't want to talk to me, or he wouldn't." Caleb said, making them confused. "You know, I think we should just go look for him." Caleb admitted, making everyone look at him. "Did they tell you where he is?" Hanna asked, looking up from her homework,

"Staying at his cousin's house. said he didn't want to come home, that he had something to work out." Caleb said. "So I called his cousin," he added. "It's pretty obvious the guy's covering for him. I know a lie when I hear one. Lucas definitely isn't there." Caleb said, causing Richie to share a look with Josie as Hanna wouldn't make eye-contact with Caleb. "Maybe he doesn't want to be found." Josie said, with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Well, there's not many places he'd go, right? I mean, for all we know, he could be back in rosewood." Hanna said as she looked up at Caleb. "Why would you say that? Have you heard from him?" Caleb asked, looking at Hanna. "No." Hanna said quickly, making Caleb sigh before continuing the conversation. "I was thinking about checking out Spencer's lake house. you know, maybe he went back up there." Caleb explained. "Is that a good idea?" Richie asked but Caleb just shrugged. "Whatever it is that he's going through, I just-- I want to help." Caleb said, frustrated. "Caleb, he'll talk when he's ready, you just gotta wait." Josie said, hoping to comfort him.

"I don't know that he will." Caleb replied, making Josie sigh. "Look, are you gonna come with me or not?" Caleb said, looking around at them, "I don't know, I just don't think that we should go out in the middle of nowhere." Hanna said, making up an excuse. "You don't want to find him...why?" Caleb said to Hanna, making her freeze. "Well, we are gonna go," Josie said, jumping up, and grabbing Richie's hand before they walked out of Hanna's house. "Did not want to be there for a couples fight between Caleb and Hanna." Josie said whens he noticed the look Richie sent her. "Fair enough," he said with a laugh as she drove them back to her place.

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Later that night, Josie and Richie had met up with the girls at Spencers, they had ordered Chinese food while Hanna told them about how Lucas came to her house. "So wait, somebody else showed up at the greenhouse when we set that trap for A? It wasn't Lucas," Spencer asked, shocked, causing Hanna to nod. "What about the water bottle?" Emily asked as she put the food on the table in front of everyone. "And the stunt with the rowboat?" Josie asked with a raised brow.

"No, Lucas wasn't even in Rosewood. He was driving around all night trying to sell his collectibles to pay Caleb back." Hanna explained. "What did you want to show us Spencer?" Richie asked as he looked towards the brunette. "Oh, yeah" Spencer nodded before walking off to get what she wanted to show them. "Hey, did you order dumplings?" Hanna asked, turning to Emily

"Two orders," Emily nodded as she took out the boxes as Spencer walked back over to the group with a book in her hands. She set the opened book down on the counter so that they could all see it. "What is this?" Emily asked. "This is the sign-in book from Jenna's blind rehab center," Spencer said. "This is the day before Alison went missing," Aria said. "Jenna said that Alison came to visit her that day. I don't see Ali's name." Emily said, looking at the book. "Wait, so that story she told us, that was a lie?" Hanna asked, confused. "Well, who knows, but that's not all. Look who did visit." Spencer said, pointing to a name of the sign-in sheet. "Garrett Reynolds. He was there for, like, what, 20 minutes that night" Aria said.

"And not only do guests have to sign in, they also keep track of when the patients leave," Spencer said, moving her finger over to the other side. "Garrett signed Jenna out at 10:15 P.M." Emily said. "And there's no time that they signed back in. She could've been gone all night." Spencer said, causing Hanna to sigh in annoyance before closing the book and pushing it away.

"Can we just look at this later? If I don't eat something, my head is going to explode." Hanna begged and Spencer nodded and looked at Aria. "Aria, would you please pass those plates?" Spencer asked. "Yeah, sure," Aria nodded and went to grab while the rest of the group grabbed their boxes as Aria walked back over to them with the plates. "Jenna said that Alison blackmailed her and that she stayed in rehab until the day of Alison's funeral." Aria said, recalling the story Jenna told them..

"So where was she the night Ali went missing?" Hanna asked, confused as she got handed her plate. "She could've been anywhere," Josie said with a shrug. "Yeah, she could have, but I bet on everything she was in Rosewood," Spencer said before we began opening their food boxes, but soon gasped and shoved it aside when they noticed it wasn't food in there, instead, it was filled with worms and dirt.

Aria covered her mouth while Emily backed away from the counter and Richie moved Josie who looked like she was gonna be sick. "Oh my god." Emily gasped. "Oh, I'm gonna be sick." Hanna gagged, covering her mouth and Spencer quickly opened the other boxes, which were also filled with worms and dirt when suddenly all they heard a phone ring and turned around to see Emily, who had carefully picked up her phone from the kitchen counter.

This is what live bait looks like.
Now we're even, bitches.
⎯ A

Emily said, reading off what the message said, making everyone share a look.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapters <3 countdown till season three: nine chapters