This takes place right before the girls meet up after Spencer sends her SOS text in the Season 2 premiere. It is right after the text and right before they gather to send the text back to Ian. This is just want I imagine was going through their heads and texts A could have sent them.

Review if you like it. Thanks. :)

-E

Emily clambered out from her second story window onto the roof. The sky was a smooth black with not even a single star poking through. It gave Emily comfort. Maybe the stars were on their side, tonight. Something out to be.

She shimmied down the trellis that her dad had hammered to the side of their house three summers ago before he was shipped across seas. With one quick, flawless jump, Emily landed on the soft ground. A perfect landing, she praised herself. She didn't give the house a second look as she sprinted down the driveway.

Emily could feel rocks kicking up from under her feet as she ran down her street. Toby's house looked even more foreboding in the dark than it did in the daytime. Jenna was somewhere in that house. Just as the starless sky gave her comfort, the idea that Jenna was innocently sleeping did the same. If Jenna was sleeping, then she couldn't be A. Because A was everywhere. A knew everything. A didn't sleep. Emily knew, and as she thought it the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up, that somewhere in the darkness that she found so comforting just moments before, A was watching her.

Emily wasn't afraid of getting caught tonight, though. Her mom wouldn't wake from the sound of a creaking window. Emily was more afraid of her friends being caught than herself. Hanna, though she has the ability to hide a boy in her basement for days without being caught, is clumsy. A flash of Ms. Marin's angry face as she finds Hanna at the bottom of the stares, having knocked over the umbrella holding as she walked in. Hanna would have to tell her where she went. Then they would all be in trouble.

Aria was devilishly sneaky. Emily admired her for it. But now that the Montgomery's had forbidden the girls to spend time together, they seemed to keep an annoyingly close watch on their oldest child. Aria, in a lengthy eight page text, explained to Emily how she hadn't even found a way to see Ezra outside of school. Aria still had his Hollis College degree that they found in the shrinks office. Had Ezra noticed yet that it was missing?

Spencer wasn't a worry. Not in Emily's mind. Above all, Spencer was cunning. She was smart. If her parents caught her, her first instinct would be she was seeing Toby. Her parents would be mad but that let the other girls off the hook. Even then, Spencer wouldn't get caught. Her house and property was larger than Emily, Aria and Hanna's combined. She could just as easily say she wanted to take a midnight walk.

Emily pushed her legs faster. The idea that A could be watching her sprint across Rosewood was an incentive to get there faster. Part of Emily wanted to be back in her bed. But even there, Emily no longer felt safe. Despite not wanting to leave her friends, the idea of moving to Texas and leaving A behind was captivating. A couldn't follow her there and still keep an eye on the other three. No, in Texas, Emily was free. Her phone jingled in her pocket. Emily slowed and hesitated, wanting nothing more than to be with the girls before reading her text. But the possibility of it being a text saying one of them was caught was too great a risk to miss, so Emily shoved her hand in her pocket and extracted her slim phone.

The message, like all the ones before it, was a restricted number. Tentatively, Emily opened the text.

You can't outrun me, Emily. I promise. -A

Every brush of the trees made Spencer jump. With Melissa's cell phone clutched in her hand, she took off down her long driveway to meet the other girls. If Ian was alive, he could be watching her right now. How many people were watching her? Ian couldn't be A. A killed Ian, or so they thought. So now did Spencer have two complete psychos watching her every move?

Spencer sped up at the thought. She wasn't running. Flip flops weren't made for running. As she turned the corner down the winding street, Spencer cast a fleeting look behind her at her house. It wasn't a home anymore. Even if Melissa did want to hear Spencer's story, how did Spencer know that Melissa wasn't involved with Ian? The thought spent shivers up Spencer's spine. Would her own sister cohort to murder her? They had never gotten along and Melissa had a jealousy problem even worse than Spencer. It was the one thing the two Hasting sisters had in common. Had Melissa caught Ian with Alison and killed her? Was Ian simply covering up for his wife?

The phone felt cold in her hand. Even though there was a warm summer-esque breeze twisting through her hair, Spencer couldn't help but feel ice cold. Things had finally been getting to a nice place with her and Melissa. Now, Spencer couldn't help but wonder if Melissa trying to be nice to Spencer was only a way to break her down. But Melissa couldn't be A, Spencer thought. She wouldn't have pushed Ian down like that and besides, she was in the hospital. A was methodical, manipulative and dangerous but she or he wasn't Melissa.

Somewhere in the distance Spencer could see the thin outline of Aria coming down the road. The excitement of seeing her best friend tore through Spencer's veins. It made her run quicker; they had only been apart for several hours, but now that they were forbidden to see each other, the desperation of Spencer's text hit her full force and she wanted nothing more than a hug. A soft vibration came from her pocket. Spencer didn't think to hesitate. She grabbed her phone from her jacket pocket and slid the cover open. A restricted text showed up and Spencer's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.

Melissa and Ian sitting in a tree, P-L-O-TT-I-N-G. -A

Aria's heart was racing as she stepped out onto her porch. Her parents went to bed early which gave her an extra ten minutes to get to where the rest of the girls were meeting. Spencer's text didn't give much information which made Aria exceptionally nervous. She had learned not to question, though. When Spencer had an SOS, they came. No explanation needed.

The tips of her fingers felt numb as she winded down the long streets of Rosewood. The girls didn't live that far apart but with the rustling of the bushes in the wind and the darkness of the night, Aria felt uncomfortable. Her bag rubbed against the bare skin of her leg and every time it made Aria flinch. She had never been so jumpy before A came along. Or maybe she was, and she had simply never noticed it.

She still hadn't emptied out Ezra's degree from her bag so the weight was particularly straining on her shoulder. Even still, she hadn't talked to Ezra. Aria knew what she wanted. She wanted Ezra, it was as plain as that. But the idea of him working alongside the girlfriend that he got over only once he began falling for Aria made her uncomfortable. Was it her dads affair affecting her, or a simple twinge of jealousy? Part of Aria's brain was telling her they would be better off if he stayed at Rosewood Academy; though, logically, they couldn't continue their relationship much longer without getting caught. Ezra transferring to Hollis would give them piece of mind. Now that Noel was back, anything could happen.

Up ahead, Aria spotted Spencer's lanky frame. She seemed to be walking at an incredible rate of speed, giving Aria the impression that Spencer had had one too many cups of coffee. Just as she saw Spencer reach into her pocket for her phone, Aria's jingled as well. With a quick glance at Spencer's shadow, Aria looked at her phone.

If you have to question if you're jealous or not, you already have your answer. -A

Hanna bit her lip waiting for the sound of her mom moving upstairs. She had already knocked down her backpack from the kitchen table as she tried to move out of the back door. When she heard no sign of her mom stirring, her hand carefully twisted the knob to the french double doors and she slipped through the smallest crack she could. Her backyard, smaller than all four of the girls, led directly to a field that Hanna could cut through to get to Spencer, Aria and Emily. The long grass blades tickled the sides of Hanna's ankles. She weaved in and out of the dirt path as she made her way towards the trees.

Truthfully, Hanna was sick of the sneaking around, the lying and the endless web of clues that the girls kept having to string together. Somewhere buried deep inside Hanna was a bitter anger at Alison; why did she have to put herself in the position to be killed and leave the girls with all this trouble? As if Alison didn't cause them enough trouble when she was alive. Even in death, Alison was tormenting Hanna. As pathetic and selfish as it sounded, even to Hanna, Hanna wished Alison was alive not because she missed her, but because Hanna missed not being followed, run over by cars, threatened and a suspect in a murder. Even Mona, who Hanna knew now had all but chased Caleb away, looked to be the least drama filled.

A stone tumbled in front of Hanna. It made her jump, warily turn, and look around at the tall trees coming closer to her. Hanna knew that even if she wasn't being stalked by a mysterious person who tried running her over with a car, going into the woods in the dead of night with no protection other than a tube of strawberry-banana lip gloss was pretty stupid. Nothing could keep Hanna away from the other girls though, especially now that they weren't allowed to see each other. Admittedly, it was a thrill to be out of her house. It gave Hanna the kind of adrenaline rush she hadn't felt since the night she spent with Calab in the tent. It was different than the feeling of pure, unadulterated fear she felt pumping through her veins when she opened a text from A or when the girls and her were so close to unraveling another mystery that she was sure she was about to be murdered just like Alison. No, this was the feeling of slipping a tube of lipstick into your purse when no one is looking at the store; the feeling of glancing at your partners test. It was a good feeling and it was a dangerous feeling. Hanna thrived on this feeling.

She could see two of the girls in the distance, their arms intertwining into one. Twigs crunched beneath Hanna's feet as she delved deeper into the woods to meet the others. Emily now joined Spencer and Aria. Of course, Hanna thought, I'm the last to get here. For once Hanna wished that she could be first at quiet beeping of her phone went off. Hanna knew exactly who the text was from; who else would be texting her so late at night other than the three people Hanna knew it wasn't? The restricted name flashed against the night sky.

Be careful what you wish for, Hanna. Do you really want to be first to go? -A