Active: Alison DiLaurentis

A/N: Hey guys, just a small one shot companion to my story: "Dollhouse" that should be up in a couple days. Read and hope you like it. PS : I own nada.

Sirens were loud in her head. The images of the intertwined bodies of Jenna and the neighborhood freak were burning behind her closed eyelids. The heat of the fire warmed her body.

She had done it. She had truly hurt someone.

Alison DiLaurentis always got whatever she wanted, even though she wasn't an only child, she had managed to get her parents wrapped around her little finger.

They never said 'no' to her. no one ever did. She knew she was intimidating even though she didn't know why. Climbing to the top of the social ladder had been scaringly easy and since the third grade she had been Rosewood's golden girl.

She had carefully picked four girls to create a posse and, like she knew they would, they followed her everywhere. They never talked back. It was hard to not imagine them as little dolls in her little dollhouse, always obeying her.

But it wasn't enough. Deep inside she wanted them to speak up. To tell her to stop. She wanted them to see the scars she kept hidden from everyone. She wanted them to get to know who Alison truly is, not who Alison wanted them to think she is.

But they never did. They went along with everything she said.

They even let her throw a stink bomb at one of Emily's neighbors and then they were so freaked out that she had keep her own pain and regrets hidden deeply. They needed her to be their strong leader, but what happens when the leader needs support?

No the four girls weren't her friends. They were merely puppets and Alison was their master.

That was how she found herself one night, four days after the fire at Jenna's house standing alone at the half build foundation for her house's gazebo. Her parents were out of town once again and Jason, the only person that could see beneath her Alison mask, was at a date with his latest fling. Her friends were nowhere to be found.

Closing her eyes, Alison sent a quiet prayer to a god she never truly believed in, that Jenna would be alright. She disliked the girl but no one deserved to be blind because of a prank gone wrong. Maybe what she was about to do, would sway God in healing the innocent.

She was about to take the final step and fall in the few feet deep hole in the ground. she was already slightly dizzy from all the painkillers she had taken. Suicide was never this hard on TV.

She felt something hit her hard on the back of her head. Pain flashed in her head and she saw stars. Her body fell limp down the hole. Her cerulean eyes looked up out the hole to a face she knew all too well.

Why would they hit her?

She blinked slowly. She wanted to call out to the person but she couldn't. She felt bile rise in her throat. Something began covering her in spurts. It smelt funny yet earthy. she breathed it in and slowly she was submerged in it.

She let out a breath and felt her lips curl in a smile. It was finally over.

It was noon when the town car stopped in the garage. Jessica DiLaurentis came out the passenger seat holding a precious cargo of new dresses for her daughter. Her husband was holding an even bigger pile of presents for their children.

"I'll go give these to Ali"

Jessica said. On Alison's pillow was a letter addressed to her parents with Alison's signature heart pendant over it. Jessica's hands went limp and the boxes fell to the floor.

Something was terribly wrong.

She took the letter trembling and read it quickly. She fell on her knees

"KEN!"

In the months that followed the small family deteriorated.

Jason, filled with guilt, went back to doing drugs. He head seen the turmoil and sadness in his sister's eyes, but had done nothing to alleviate it. Some small sick part of him was glad Alison wasn't around anymore.

Jessica went to a full robot mode, refusing to accept it. For two months she kept lying to everyone saying that Alison was spending time with her ailing grandmother

"What a great daughter"

Everyone would say.

Ken was always silent. Distanced from his hurting wife and son. He was the father of the family, the protector of his children. He was nothing.

One rainy day in late August his assistant reminded him of a board meeting he had to attend in Los Angeles. A tiny spark of hope was born inside him. With a kiss on his wife's cheek and a ruffle through Jason's unruly hair he left knowing what he had to do. He would give his family closure.

The Institute was large. People of all ages, sexes and races would walk around aimlessly or read books. Others were in small groups drawing or attending to potted animals.

He felt as if he was in rescue center looking for the perfect puppy.

"Are you ready to pick one sir?"

the chestnut haired woman asked him. Adele DeWitt was looking at him. She had gone over his notes for the engagement and had consulted him in creating a personality. The British woman knew when she had made a sell.

"That one"

Ken pointed to a girl, no older than sixteen years old, drawing something or another. Adele smirked behind the man's back, the girl sold like crazy.

"Let's go to my office, shall we?"

She guided Ken away as the girl's handler went to fetch the Active. A trip to the in house salon for clip-on blond curls and blue eye contacts before getting dressed in Alison's signature yellow color, the Active was placed on the table.

Fifteen minutes the cerulean blue eyes popped open.

"Hello Alison"

Ken greeted the Active that would be his daughter for a day.

"Hello daddy"

'Alison' greeted back. As the two left the building 'Alison' looked discreetly behind her. An ash-blond man in his mid thirties and a brunette woman in her late twenties winked at her. They would be making their escapes during her engagement so she wouldn't be searched. She smiled back

Ken brought 'Alison' home. She had a job to do and that job was to set the record straight. She would fake a disappearance. His family needed the closure and people needed to stop asking about Alison.

It was cruel but it was necessary.

The end.