"Em! Wake up!" I sat up in bed because I'd know that voice anywhere. Even if she'd just broken my heart and used my secrets to manipulate me.

Alison DiLaurentis.

"What? Are you OK?" I asked. I still felt protective toward Ali.

But she didn't laugh, or say something like "Easy there, Killer." like I expected she would. Instead she just looked around with a panicked expression on her face. "We have to get out of here. Now."

"What? Why?" I looked around. Maybe there was somebody following her.

"I can't explain now. We're taking a bus to the airport, and we're leaving." She looked really determined.

"Where?" I asked. Honestly, I loved Ali so much, I would follow her to the moon.

"I don't know. Anywhere. Wherever the quickest flight takes us. We'll use my dad's frequent flier miles. I've got to go to the bathroom. Get dressed while I'm gone." Ali crossed the room to my bathroom.

"Emily? What's going on?" My dad peeked his head into the room. "It's 3:00 in the morning."

"I can't sleep. I think I'm going to read a little and see if I can get back to sleep." I said, the lie slipping smoothly off my tongue I'd never been a particularly good liar, but for some reason this time it worked.

"Okay. Sleep well." My dad closed the door quietly, clearly hoping I would just fall back asleep. That happened a lot.

I hopped out of bed and pulled on my favorite jeans and pulled off my PJ shirt. Ali stepped out of the room and smiled at me. Again, I thought it would be some sort of teasing about what I liked to do in tree houses, but she didn't say anything. Just blushed. I self-consciously pulled out a long sleeved shirt from my drawer.

"Grab a sweater too. It's cold out." Ali leaned casually against my wall, as if sneaking out of the house at three in the morning was something she did every week. Well, maybe she did sometimes with her high school field hockey friends.

When I was dressed, I peered out the door of my bedroom. My dad had gone back to his room. I walked out and Ali followed me. The door was unlocked, so we just walked out.

When we got to the bus station, Ali threw her arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I thought she murmured something like "Finally I'm truly free."