She Isn't There
Emily leaned back into the wall, hugging her legs as she pulled them into her chest, staring blankly at the locked door of her personal prison. Waiting for someone, anyone, to open it and tell her it was all a bad dream and she could go home… It wasn't just a bad dream, it was a nightmare, one that she couldn't escape from no matter what she did.
In the outside world, things weren't going as well as the liars had hoped it was going. Their partners, parents, and the police were no closer to finding the girls than they were when they first discovered the lair at the Campbell farm. On the brighter side, with the proof Tanner had that Mona was in fact alive, her first order of business was releasing Alison for Mona's murder.
"We need to get that tape Cavanaugh. Do you have anything we could record on so we can take it back to the precinct?" Tanner said as she hovered over A's TV monitors, watching the video of Mona and the girls in the dollhouse.
Toby rustled around in his pockets and took out his phone, giving it to Tanner.
"This will have to do for now." Tanner takes Toby's phone and records the monitor, making sure the girls are visible and talking to Mona, mentioning her by name. She stops recording and plays it back to double check that she had sufficient evidence to get Alison out of jail. Looking at the video one last time, she shakes her head and closes her eyes, finally giving Toby back his phone she gives him instructions.
"Alright Cavanaugh, I know you want to stay here but I need you to do this for me. I've already made enough mistakes when it comes to these girls so I need to right this wrong first. Go straight to the chief and show him this video, have him release Alison DiLaurentis and wait for her at the jail, the MINUTE they release her, fill her in on the situation and get her over here. No sirens, is that clear? We don't need to cause a panic."
Toby sneers at Tanner, he wants to help and still holds a grudge against Alison but deep down he knows she's the key to getting the girls back.
"Yes, ma'am." Toby runs up the stairs and slides into his police cruiser; he floors the gas pedal and heads off to the station.
It was only about 15 minutes before he speeds into the parking lot, almost hitting another cruiser on his way in. He runs into the Chief's office and bursts through the door, scaring the chief half to death.
"Mona Vanderwaal is alive; you need to release Alison DiLaurentis immediately." Toby says, panting in-between words.
The police chief looks up at him as if he's crazy, before he could say a word; Toby takes out his phone and plays the video.
"My god…" He looks from the video to Toby who was still trying to catch his breath, the Chief stands up and goes to the door.
"Officer Maple, would you come over here a moment?" He says, motioning for Officer Barry Maple to enter his office.
As Officer Barry enters the room, the police Chief closes the door behind him.
"Alright, Officer Maple you need to make a call to the prison and order a release for Miss Alison DiLaurentis, as it turns out Mona Vanderwaal isn't dead at all. She's being held captive along with Officer Cavanaugh's girlfriend and the other 3 girls that were supposed to arrive today."
"I'll get right on that, sir." Officer Barry exited the room to make the call, leaving Toby and the chief alone.
"Sir, Detective Tanner gave me orders to escort Alison DiLaurentis to the Campbell farm once she's released to help locate the girls."
"You'd better get going then, Cavanaugh. She should be released within the hour."
Alison sat alone in her jail cell, lying on the lumpy cot, tossing and turning, worrying about what A did with the girls. She sat up, taking the picture she had of the girls and looked at it, pulling her legs up to her chest; she hugged her knees and just started to cry. Every tear was a conversation she wished she had, every drop that left her eye and ran down her face was an apology she wished she wrote, every regret, every harsh word, everything she had ever said and wished she had taken back poured out of her soul and into her tears.
"I'm sorry..." Alison managed to whisper as she gasped for air, "I'm so, so, sorry…"
She cried and cried, Ali could feel her heart physically breaking as she held the picture in her hands, she could barely see them through her watery vision. Her fingers hovered over each of her friends faces, her hand shook as she continued to cry uncontrollably. What had she done to cause someone to do this to her friends and family?
"Why didn't you take me? Why did you take them?" Alison began shouting, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE ME! IT'S ME YOU WANTED! WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE ME INSTEAD?" She kicked her cell door over and over, falling to the ground, gripping the picture in hand...
"Why didn't you take me, instead?" Alison covered her face with her hand as she continued to cry, shaking as she tried to get up.
Suddenly she heard footsteps, Ali expected the officer to come over after hearing the fiasco she just made. She stood up, wiping her tears on the sleeve of her orange jumpsuit, and tried to run back into her bed to make it seem like she was asleep. It didn't work.
"Inmate!" Alison turned over to see the guard; she stood up to the cell door to see what was going on.
"Alison DiLaurentis?" The guard asked.
"Yes?" Ali replied, looking confused/
"You've been released." The cell door opens and Alison steps forward towards the door, suddenly she sees a familiar face. It was Toby.
"Toby? What's going on? Did you find the girls?" Alison said as she walked with the guard to get her things.
"I'll explain when we get outside, something's happened." Toby replied.
Alison gets dressed and she meets Toby out front in his police cruiser, she runs to the passenger side door and buckles her seatbelt. Finally, Toby gives her his cellphone and plays the video; she listens as she watches Hanna… "You are not Alison, you're Mona and this is not your house, okay? You're not here alone anymore; there are five of us and one of him, her, it, BITCH. Let's find a way to get the hell out of here." Suddenly the alarm sounds and the five girls cower in fear, then, the video stops.
Ali puts the phone down in disbelief, a worried and confused look forms on her face as she turns to Toby.
"What do you guys know so far?" Ali asks as Toby drives
"Next to nothing practically, I'm taking you to where we tracked the signal that hijacked the police vehicles. Tanner and the Hastings are there; hopefully they found something by now."
They drive to the Campbell farm; cops still surrounded the area as Toby drove up. Alison ran over to Mr. and Mrs. Hastings to see how they were doing.
"Have they found anything yet?" Alison said, running over to the parents
"No, not yet. Alison, I'm so sorry." Veronica hugged Alison; Peter followed her lead, however reluctant he was in doing so.
Suddenly, Tanner came up from the basement and motioned for Alison to come down, Ali followed Tanner down to where the TV monitors were, hoping Ali could identify where A was holding them.
"Do you know where they are?" Tanner said, looking for any reaction out of Alison.
"No, I've never seen this place in my life… It looks like they copied every single one of my friends' rooms, down to every last detail and put them somewhere." Alison's eyes widened, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Are you sure?" Tanner asked, she was still somewhat suspicious of Alison even though she knew she had nothing to do with it.
"Positive. Believe me, detective, if I knew where this place was, we wouldn't be standing here right now arguing about it."
"She doesn't know." Toby says as he comes up behind them, causing Tanner to back off a bit.
"Alright, well we need to get to work here. Cavanaugh, will you please escort Miss DiLaurentis and the Hastings parents out, this is now a crime scene and we can't have civilians around here."
Tanner motioned for Toby to take Alison home; she realized that there was no more they could do tonight.
"But, wait, aren't you going to go out looking for them? Send out a search party? Something?" Alison said, getting aggravated that there wasn't anything else she could do.
"Miss DiLaurentis you were just released from prison, enjoy your freedom, see your family. Let us take care of this." Tanner replied
"No, I won't accept this, there has to be something else we can do, we can't just stop while my friends are trapped by some maniac!" Alison started getting more and more assertive, Toby took noticed and pulled Alison away before she gets locked away for something she DID commit.
"Listen, neither of us can do anything right now, Tanner is right. We don't have anything to go on. Caleb, Ezra, the Hastings and I are staying at my apartment and we're trying to look for the girls, we'll head back here tomorrow and see if we can find anything."
Ali nodded her head and the two headed back to Toby's apartment to see what they could find.
They found nothing.
It had been two weeks since the liars pulled the prom stunt on A and broke into their lair, a stunt that proved to be an almost fatal mistake for the five girls. After being starved, tortured, and punished relentlessly for a week, A decided they had learned their lesson and put them back on a normal routine. Every day the liars would wake up and get dressed in the outfit A picks out for them followed by tea at 10, then game time from 10:30 to Noon, Lunch from Noon to 1:00, then the liars go back to their rooms for the night until Dinner.
The girls had lost all concept of time at this point, being trapped underground where the only source of light was large construction lighting equipment that only A controlled meant it could be day or night for them at any moment. A controlled everything.
Suddenly the door opened, Emily reluctantly got up from the floor and headed towards the hallway where she met the other girls. The life that once filled the group had vanished from their faces; they had lost the will to fight and lost the will to live. None of them cared what happened to themselves anymore, they looked at each other as they waited for the chimes to sound, "Cling! Cling! Cling!"
Looking over to Spencer, Emily noticed how puffy her eyes looked; she looked like she had been crying all night and only stopped when she ran out of tears.
"Please follow the lighted pathway!" A familiar voice said over the intercom. The liars complied and followed the long hallway into the DiLaurentis living room; there they see Mona dressed as Alison sitting in her usual spot, pouring tea for the girls.
"And how are we this morning, girls?" Mona asked, pouring the hot liquid into each of their cups.
Even Mona looked discouraged nowadays. After the prom plan went awry, the girls knew there was no escaping the dollhouse; they were trapped indefinitely until someone found them. The liars made small talk, trying to keep A happy while keeping themselves alive in the process while trying to keep their sanity intact.
They went about their day as dolls, doing exactly what they were supposed to do and finally it was night. The generator shut off like clockwork, the liars ran out and met in the hallway where they always met, but this time something was different. Mona had something in her hand; Spencer immediately took notice and identified what it was.
"Oh my god… Is that what I think it is?" Spencer's face lit up
"What is it?" Hanna raised one eyebrow, still confused at what she was looking at
"This is a bomb." Mona said, raising the small contraption.
"Where the hell did you get that?" Emily said, backing away a little bit.
"When we had our little prom fiasco, I saw this sticking out of A's lair so I stole it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys sooner but we needed to make A think that we gave up. They won't see it coming." Mona said, smiling
"Wait, so how is this going to help us? We're still trapped by the electric fence!" Hanna replies, skeptical about the entire thing.
"Tomorrow during our little tea time, there's going to be a little 'accident' in the living room. When A comes to put the fire out, we run into the lair and lock the door. Since we're in the middle of nowhere, there has to be a landline connected somewhere, I'm guessing it's in the vault, from there we call the police."
Suddenly the girls heard a click; it was their cue to run back to their rooms.
"Got it?" Mona said as they ran back, the girls nodded in compliance and shut their doors behind them. This was it.
The girls awoke the next morning acting as if nothing had changed; they got dressed and headed to their teatime as they always did. Suddenly, Aria and Spencer started fighting, A took noticed and zoomed in on the two girls as they rolled around on the floor. Off-camera, Mona lit the small bomb and threw it on the opposite side of the room by the piano, suddenly… BOOM! The cherry bomb went off and shattered the small window, destroying some of the piano with it.
"Please follow the lighted pathway. Please follow the lighted pathway. Please follow the lighted pathway." The voice was saying it over and over, A was in a panic. The girls ran to their rooms as the doors shut, all except one. Mona's. Mona had put a tiny bead in the way of the doorframe so it wouldn't shut all the way, it worked, and the door didn't shut.
Mona bolted towards the vault, shutting it behind her and locking the door. The plan worked. A put the fire out and turned around, Mona watched as the hooded figure turned around and realized that her door was open. The hooded figure walked over to the bedroom door, bending down to find the small bead that blocked the door from shutting, they picked it up and turned to look straight into the camera. Suddenly, a voice came over the intercom.
"Game over, bitch." Mona said.
The hooded stranger started destroying the room they had built, throwing furniture across the room, breaking everything in sight. The girls started crying in relief, some started cheering, it was over. Mona found the landline and called 9-1-1, they were on their way.
Emily took a deep breath, Spencer, Mona, Hanna, and Aria looked at each other, assuring each other that they were finally free, that for the first time in years, they were finally free of A. The girls stood outside their gated prison, the sound of police sirens echoed for miles, helicopters hovered all around them as the police escorted A in handcuffs.
"We've waited years for this, so why do I feel like we lost?" Spencer said looking on as the blonde woman was shoved in the back of a squad car.
"Because Spence, after everything she did to us, we never saw her as human, we saw her as a demon that did terrible things to us for no reason. We were wrong…" Aria replied, linking arms with Spencer.
"I can't believe Cece would do this to us… To Alison…" Hanna held Emily's hand, laying her head on the brown-haired woman's shoulder.
"I'm sorry," Mona circled around the girls so she could all see her; they looked confused by the apology.
"Sorry for what, Mona? You had nothing to do with this… Right?" Hanna replied, obviously concerned.
"No, but I feel somewhat responsible. When Cece came to visit me in Radley I was in a dark place, she offered me freedom and another chance at revenge and I took it. I'm sorry." Mona started to tear up, the guilt she had built up for years had finally eaten away the shield she had around her. The girls looked at each other and teared up as well, gathering around Mona they embraced each other and hugged. There was no more blaming, no more suffering in silence, and no more secrets.
"Girls," Tanner walked up, "I believe I owe you all an apology."
The five girls looked at each other, their body language was all it took for Tanner to get the hint, they accepted the apology however reluctant they were in doing so.
"What's going to happen to Cece?" Hanna asked, she obviously didn't care at this point, as long as wherever she went that it would be out of a hundred mile radius of Rosewood.
"Well, she's going to have a mental evaluation and we'll see where it goes from there," Tanner paused as the worried looks on the girls' faces became more and more apparent, "-from there she will most likely be tried and sentenced. She won't bother you girls ever again."
'Is it really over? Could it really be that easy?' The five girls thought, of course after all they had been through they had their doubts. Tanner continued…
"She won't be allowed any kind of technology and there will be surveillance on her 24/7, you girls won't be hearing from her any time soon."
There was a sigh of relief from the group, it was over, and suddenly they started crying. A weight had been lifted off their shoulders and they all felt it, tears rolled down all of their faces and their tears of sorrow turned to happiness and laughter.
Toby, Ezra, Mike, and Caleb ran over to their partners and embraced them. This was the moment they had waited and worked toward for so long that they had to cherish every moment of it. Emily looked over at the happy couples, her arms crossed, faking a smile… Suddenly she heard a familiar voice.
"Em?"
Emily closed her eyes, taking a sharp breath in; slowly she started to turn around to face the person who called her name. Before she opened her eyes she knew who it was, she could hear that voice in a crowded room full of blondes and recognize it immediately, it was Alison. Emily turned around to see a pair of light blue eyes looking back at her, Alison looked like she hadn't slept or eaten in a week, her eyes were all red like she had been crying for a month straight.
"Em, I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, Em, I-" Alison started crying as Emily started walking towards her, Em didn't say a word as she embraced the blonde, holding her as she continued to cry. Emily stroked Alison's blonde hair, trying to calm her down as she held her embrace, finally she backed away to look her in the eyes.
"I'm so sorry Alison; none of this was your fault… We should've listened when you said you didn't kill Mona, I'm just so sorry." Emily began tearing up herself, looking Alison in the eyes as she brushed her blonde hair out of the way.
"No more secrets, okay?" Em said, a tear traveling down from her cheek to her chin. Alison nodded, agreeing that they couldn't go on if they kept lying to each other; it's what got them there in the first place.
The girls cried for a second as Emily straightened up, she brushed a stray lock of Alison's blonde hair out of the way, smiling as she admired how even though Alison could be crying, she still looked beautiful doing it. Ali looked at Emily's deep brown eyes, and then to her lips, her eyes darted from one to the other as Em started to lean towards her. Em traced her thumb over Alison's lips, admiring their perfect shape, she moved her hand as she cupped Alison's cheek, moving her hand from her cheek to her jawbone and then to her neck.
Finally, she leaned down, her eyes moved from Alison's deep blue eyes to her light pink lips; Alison met Emily right in the middle as their lips met. The world around them had stopped, they couldn't hear a siren, helicopter, or an officer for miles, all that was left was the sound of their heartbeats in sync. All they could feel was the warmth of their touch, Emily could taste Alison's cherry flavored chapstick, Alison could taste the hours of screaming, crying, and fighting Emily endured to get to this moment. Their tongues danced around, performing a dance they knew all too well, Em pulled Ali closer, in that moment she needed to know it was real. It was real. That was the moment they realized, love is the one thing that doesn't need proof, the heart tells you what the eyes already know.
Ali pulled away slowly, the girls looked at each other, they didn't need to say a word to know what the other was thinking, they just smiled. Suddenly, the world around them started again, the group huddled together to talk.
"It's over, guys. It's finally over." Spencer said, holding Toby's arm.
"We can finally go home" Aria said as she kissed Ezra.
"Yeah and get out of these disgusting clothes!" Hanna replied, the group laughed and agreed.
"Home." Emily and Alison said, looking at each other smiling, the group got the hint and smiled as they started walking over to the squad cars that were waiting for them.
Emily and Ali walked over to their police car, hand in hand, when suddenly Emily stopped.
"What is it, Em?" Ali said, concerned
"I have a better idea," Em said, putting her arms around Alison, "how about we take a little trip to Paris?"
"Hmm… I like that idea. How long are we going away for?" Alison asks, smiling.
"How about forever?" Emily replies, smiling.
The End.