I do not own the characters of Pretty Little Liars nor Desperate Housewives.
Mary Alice Young sat quietly in the corner of the mystical waiting room anticipating her eternal fate to be determined. She had been there for quite some time and was beginning to get restless. She didn't think she was a bad person, but she knew she wasn't exactly a good person either. She had made many mistakes throughout her life but never thought she would end up here.
Just as Mary Alice was deep in thought reflecting on her life, she was disturbed by the sound of the door opening. A young girl walked into the room and took a seat directly across from her. Mary Alice took a close look at her and was quite shocked by her sight. The girl looked to be only about fourteen or fifteen years old; much younger than anyone else she had ever seen coming through there. Since Mary Alice was not exactly new to this place she could not help but wonder, what could this girl have possibly done to end up here. Not only was she too young to die, but what horrible things could she have done in her short life to potentially endure eternal damnation. She was just a child.
Don't let them hurt you. Don't ever compromise. Don't walk into their web of lies.
Mary Alice did not realize she was staring until the girl shouted, "Take a picture, it will last longer." Mary Alice was stunned. There had to be more to this girl's story than met the eye, and she had to know what brought her here.
"Sorry," Mary Alice said shyly and looked away. She tried hard not to make eye contact with the girl, but still could not get her out of her mind. Having a troubled teenage son of her own, Mary Alice was no stranger to teenage angst. But she could never think of anything so horrible her son, Zach, ever did that would land him here. She thought of all of the young teens she knew. Even her neighbor, Andrew Van de Kamp, who was probably the most troublesome teenager she knew, was not bad enough to land himself in a place like this. So what was so special about this girl?
It didn't take long for the doors to open and the judging entities to come out. "Alison DiLaurentis," they shouted. The young girl immediately stood up and walked with them down the long hallway.
"Alison," Mary Alice whispered out loud to herself when the girl was out of site. She tried hard to listen to the meeting going on in the next room but could not hear very well through the walls. The only word she knew she heard clearly stuck out vividly in her mind: "Blackmail". This intrigued Mary Alice even more, mainly because blackmail was one of the primary reasons why she was in that very place. Mary Alice knew all too well what she did in terms of blackmail and there was no mystery in her mind that she deserved whatever sentence that was coming her way; but this girl was only a child. What could she even know about blackmail?
You gotta stand up. You gotta take control. You gotta keep those boys in line.
When the doors opened again Mary Alice watched as Alison slowly descended into the same chair across from her. She sighed loudly as she slumped into her seat. Mary Alice could tell that she was not pleased with whatever they had to tell her in the next room. She was probably experiencing the same rude awakening that Mary Alice herself had experienced when she first got there; knowing it was going to be a long, bumpy ride before receiving any answers.
"It's not as bad as it first might seem," Mary Alice told Alison trying to be comforting. Alison just looked at her. "Blackmail can only be as serious as you let it," Mary Alice continued.
"And how would you know?" Alison snapped, "I don't deserve to be here; I did what I had to do. I was helping people do the right thing."
Mary Alice did not know what to say. "Excuse me?" Mary Alice asked.
Alison did not want to talk to this woman. She might have thought that she was being helpful, but she didn't know anything about her. She looked like just an ordinary housewife, like her mother. In Alison's eyes the life of a housewife was no where near interesting enough to understand her or what she was going through. Her life was far more complicated than that. "No offense, but you don't know anything about it. Or about me," Alison said as she looked away.
"I bet I know more than you think," Mary Alice told her. "Blackmail is a big part of the reason why I'm here too."
"What did you do, stiff the maid?" Alison asked sarcastically.
"That's funny," Mary Alice joked, still trying to reach out to the young girl. "But actually blackmail is what ultimately brought me here. You see I was keeping a big secret and somebody threatened to expose it..."
"Why didn't you just lie?" Alison interrupted, "Or even better, get them back. You don't have to come clean. Sometimes a really good lie is better than the truth."
Don't let them use you. Don't let them fool around. There's only one thing on their mind.
Mary Alice almost could not believe what was coming out of this girl's mouth. Partly because the girl was so young, but mostly because at one point, she completely agreed with her which is how she got in this deep to begin with. "I admit, I once thought that sometimes a little betrayal is good for the soul; but my secret had been eating away at me for years." Alison finally looked up as thought the story was finally juicy enough for her. "Go on..." Alison instructed.
Mary Alice had not intended on sharing her whole story; even in death that story was much too painful for her to disclose, especially to this teenage stranger, no matter how badly she wanted the young girl to share her own story. "Let's just say that when someone threatened to expose me, I knew didn't have any other option; so that's why I'm here."
Alison sat silently, confused for a moment. "So wait, you brought yourself here? Someone threatened to reveal your secret and you killed yourself?" Alison asked stunned.
"I felt as though it was my only option," Mary Alice confessed, "I didn't know what else to do. The secret had been eating away at me for over fifteen years; someone close to me found it out and sent me an anonymous note threatening me with it. I was trapped."
You gotta stand up; don't take it lying down. Get off your back, it's such a crime.
Suddenly, Alison felt as though her cold, dead blood had turned to ice water. The woman's story resembled her own in a way, since she, too, was receiving anonymous threatening messages occasionally, but there was something deeper in Mary Alice's story that really stuck out to her. Before getting too wrapped up in her own thoughts and exposing herself, Alison quickly responded, "What you should have done would be dig up some dirt on the person who sent it to you and expose them. If you don't want to get hurt, hurt them first." But then she froze.
That's when it hit her. This. This line she just said is what landed her in this place. Alison had always thought of her actions as protecting herself, but at that moment it finally occurred to Alison just how dangerous her actions were. Mary Alice may have done her fair share of wrongs, but she was a victim. Alison was an offender. She had once blinded a classmate and blackmailed the girl's stepbrother into taking the blame. That probably wasn't even the worst thing she's ever done. After hearing Mary Alice's story, she realized that she, herself, could have easily put someone right into Mary Alice's position. For this, for the first time she could ever remember, she felt horrible and began to cry.
If you don't want to get hurt, you gotta hurt them first.
"I didn't get here on my own," Alison finally admitted, "someone else... put me here."
"You mean someone killed you?" Mary Alice asked in astonishment. She knew this girl was hiding something but she never thought it would be to this extent. "Who would do that to you?"
"I- I don't know. I have some ideas but I never saw their face," Alison cried, "I was trying so hard to protect myself and my own secrets that-"
"I understand," Mary Alice interrupted.
Just then, the hall door opened and an entity emerged. "Mary Alice Young," it called out.
Mary Alice stood, "That's me," she said as the entity handed her an envelope. Mary Alice opened it up anxiously and gasped. "I've been approved!" she exclaimed, "I'm finally moving up."
"Congratulations," Alison told her honestly.
"Thank you," Mary Alice replied, "it was very interesting meeting you. I'm sure I will see you upstairs some time in the near future."
Alison smiled for a very brief second but then said, "I doubt it," knowingly admitting that all actions have consequences and that her fate was bound to end up differently.