"What are you thinking about?" Paige asks you as you walk the darkened streets of Rosewood, hand in hand.
You swallow and let your eyes fall from the sky. You shake your head, knowing that Paige won't like the real answer. She's already aggravated about swim practice today where you were once again made captain for the next meet instead of her. "Nothing."
Paige stops walking and huffs, "It was about Maya wasn't it?"
You hate the look in her eyes. The disappointment and flare of anger. You nod guiltily hoping the truth is better than a lie, "It's just... stars remind me of her. She used to always make up constellations and," You smile remembering nights of laying in your backyard and just looking at the sky. "Some of them were funny."
When Paige drops your hand, you know that you're in trouble. She jams her hands into her pockets and kicks at hte ground.
You sigh. Sometimes being with Paige can be so frustrating. Generally she's a great girlfriend, but there are times when you just need to be in the past for a little while and Paige never understands, "I can't just stop thinking about her."
"Obviously," Paige spits, the flare of anger turning into a full on inferno.
"What do you want me to do?" you ask, your voice growing in volume and pitch. "Just forget about my first real love? Forget the girl that I was in love with that was murdered?"
"I just want you to have some time to think about me," Paige demands. She takes a menacing step toward you and her eyes narrow. "All you do is hang out with your friends and think about Maya. Even when you kiss me, I bet you're thinking about her. That bitch is -"
"Don't call her that!" you snap, yelling at Paige. You drop your arms and square your shoulders. "You didn't know her!"
Paige's eye go dark and her anger boils over, somewhere it hadn't gone in a long time and she shoves your. Your mouth drops open in surprise as your feet scramble to keep you upright.
Before you can react in anyway, someone comes out of nowhere and pushes Paige away from you. Your girlfriend tumbles into someone's front yard, her hand sprawled out on the grass.
There's a hood over the person's head that seems to come from a hoodie, tucked under a leather jacket. The jeans are plain and the boots are just black with two buckles on each side. Your heart races with the realization that this could be A.
When you look down at Paige, her eyes are huge and glued to the person's face. The hooded figure leans down, grabbing Paige's jacket with black-gloved hands. It looks like the person in the hood is telling Page something to which the girl nodded frantically. She glances over your defender's shoulder with terror in her eyes before she scrambles to her feet and runs off down the street at a full on sprint.
It all happened so fast that you almost let the figure get away without saying anything. You take a step closer to try to figure out what the hell is going on when the person in the hood starts walking across the street.
"Wait!" you yell, hopping off of the sidewalk, onto the street as well. It made sense that the Mona version of A had saved Hanna. You can't think of any version of A that would want to save you.
As you get close, you get a better look at the person. You decide that it's definitely female because of the cut of the jeans and the curve of the hips. The tailor of the jacket also lend to that theory.
Just as you get close enough to reach out and grab her, she takes off running toward the woods at the end of the street.
"Hey!" you yell again. "Wait!" You take off after her. It's easy for you to run after her because of your sneakers and you're hoping that they'll be enough of an advantage over her boots to catch up.
The chase moves into the forest where the girl doesn't stop no matter how much you plead as you run. She weaves through the trees and bushes until you're pretty sure that you not only lost her, but are lost yourself. You stop and listen for any noise that might indicate a person in the woods.
When you don't hear anything, you run a hand through your hair and try to catch your breath. You scan the woods around you one more time, probing all the shadows in the trees. Nothing really looks out of the ordinary until you see a flash of light to your right. It disappears and come back. You take off toward the light, but the closer you get the easier it is to see that the light is just the moon reflecting off of the lake.
You didn't realize that you had run this far out and look around the rim of the lake. You can get back home if you can just find the boathouse. Luckily you spot it just a few hundred yards around the curve of the lake. Maybe the walk will help you clear your head.
Your eyes lightly graze the ground as you slowly make your way to the boathouse. When you look up to see how much farther you have to go, you hear something. You halt all movement to get a better listen. It sounds like talking. Your eyebrows furrow and you see what's making the noise. Just inside the doors of the boathouse, you can see the back of the hooded girl taking to Nate. He leans down and says, "You weren't supposed to come back."
The girl shakes her head, her voice dissipating before it gets to you. You bend your knees and creep closer, trying to get a better look or at least hear this girl. Maybe you'd recognize her voice. Nate glances in your direction and you hop behind a tree just in time. You shift your weight from one foot to another. Is Nate working with A? You always had your reservations about him, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt because he is - was Maya's cousin.
"You sent me here to look after her," Nate's voice meets your ears and you take that as an indicator that he isn't looking in your direction anymore. You see that he is in fact looking down at the girl and puts his hands on his hips. He sighs deeply and asks, "And I'm here. Do you know who A is yet?"
Your eyes grow wide. Nate knows about A? This girl knows about A? If they both know about A, are there more people? Why do they know about A and why are they trying to find out who it is?
You shake your head at yourself. It doesn't matter anymore. Someone else knows about A and you want to know whatever those two know.
Your pace quickens as you near the boathouse and you feel your heart jump into your throat when you break out into a sprint only about ten yards from the boathouse deck. You can see Nate spot you and he tells the girl. The girl doesn't even look your way as she goes farther into the boathouse. Nate stands at the door and stops you before you barrel inside.
"Emily stop," he holds you at the doorway as you see the back of the girl run out the front door.
"Who is that?" you demand, still struggling to get away.
He keeps you at bay as the front door slams shut. "I'll explain if you stop. It's complicated."
You do something you rarely resort to and use violence. One elbow to the stomach and Nate's instantaneous reaction is to let go of you. You push past him and ran through the boathouse. You throw open the door and run out the front.
Nate's car is parked out front and you can see the back of the hood of the girl in the driver's seat, starting the car. You run as hard as you can and jump in front of the car. It starts moving, but jerks to the stop right before it rolls into you.
You place your hands on the hood and look right into the windshield. Then you blink because what you see can't be what you really see. Your eyes meet the brown ones that you loved since you first saw them. You feel your arms and legs start to give out.
This can't be right. You have to be seeing things. Someone spiked your drink again. It's a ghost or a hallucination. You stare right into her eyes until you can't hear anything anymore. You can see her open the door and stand out of the car. You can see her lips forming your name, but you can't hear it. All you can hear is a harsh pounding in your ears.
Your eyes flutter before everything goes black.