A/N: Hey guys! I was gone for a little while, but now I'm back! Missed you all :)

Disclaimer: I don't own PLL.

PART 1/

"Being with Ezra is a risk, but he's someone I'm willing to take a risk for…"

Sixteen-year old, Aria Montgomery sighed at the memory of her conversation with her friend, Hanna after the whole near bust at the art museum incident. If only she and the others knew what Aria was planning to do now.

Or rather, what "A" was planning for her to do…

Surely they'd stop her, no question about that. All while risking their own lives and reputations. Plus the deadly wrath of their mysterious messenger.

Which is exactly why Aria couldn't let that happen. Sure, "A" had her wrapped around his or her finger, knowing right where she weakest. And sure, "A" wanted to ruin her life. But could "A" succeed if Aria didn't give him/her/it the satisfaction?

No. Absolutely not.

So with the hopes of trying to reason with the horrible beast who liked to feed on bending the will of others, Aria took "A" up on a small (or not so small) offer…

Wanna know how you can keep your little secret? Meet me in the woods at midnight. Alone. –A

The risks were insurmountable. As were the consequences if Aria angered "A." It would be the end of her life. Aria was sure of it.

So sure, she had paid a visit to Ezra's apartment and left a note for him explaining why she needed to do this to keep him safe, why he had to promise her he'd watch out for her friends, and how she would always love him despite other people's opinions. Luckily, he wasn't home when she arrived, so it became slightly easier.

"Yeah, slightly easier yet all the more difficult." She thought.

And once she'd finished taking care of the task, she returned home, leaving another note behind for her family. She shoved her phone in her drawer, preparing for her imminent doom when the small electronic device began ringing loudly.

Aria glanced toward her drawer, almost tempted to see if it might be Ezra, but she knew she wouldn't be able to go through with what "A" expected of her provided she answered. Things were better this way.

Then again, no they were not. Nor would they ever be after tonight. When "A" took down another pretty little liar. When "A" ended another human life.

Aria quickly shook the thought from her head, tears blurring her eyes. "I have to do this. I have to be strong. Be strong…" She began full out blubbering, a memory she had of Ezra suddenly making its' way into her mind. It had been the week after "A" sent Emily the picture of them kissing near Jason's house. She remembered telling him someone could possibly want to expose their relationship, shaking as he held her in his arms.

He had kissed her forehead, rocking her gently while repeatedly whispering in her ear how much he loved her. And when she finally calmed down, he pulled away, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"No matter what happens, we're in this together. I love you and I never want to leave you. You just have to be strong. For me…"

"For him…" Aria sniffled, wiping her eyes with her sweater sleeve. "I have to do it for him."

And with suddenly no misgivings or fears of any kind, Aria exited her room, stepping into the hall. She scanned her surroundings one last time, trying her hardest to memorize what it all looked like granted she really didn't make it back.

She had a strong feeling she wouldn't.

Ezra Fitz blew out a heavy sigh as he dialed Aria's number for what must've felt like the hundredth time. He hung up frustrated when he'd only reached her voicemail, the words scrawled across the paper in the note she gave him clearly etched on his mind.

My Dearest Ezra,

Above everything else, know that I love you no matter what anyone else thinks and I always will. I need to go out of town for a little while so that's why I'm reminding you of this.

Why I'm going out of town, I can't say. It involves very personal issues for me and my close friends. Issues that are just starting to make their way back into our lives.

Should anyone ask where I am or any of what is pertained in this note, you have to lie. I didn't tell you anything and no we are not in a relationship.

You're probably extremely confused, but this is all to keep you safe. Should I not return, I need you to promise me that you'll look after Emily, Hanna, and Spencer.

If they ask, which I'm highly certain they will, you can't mention any of this to them either.

I know you love me, so please do it for me.

Forever Yours,

Aria

What on earth was she talking about? About lying for her? And taking care of her friends? And what did she mean when she said she couldn't tell him where she needed to go or why?

Shaking his head, Ezra folded the note in the pocket of his suit coat, grabbing his keys. He left his apartment and climbed into his car with the hopes of finding Hanna, Emily, or Spencer to ask them if they knew about any of this.

To his surprise, he found Spencer on her way home with Toby, so he parked a short distance around the block.

"Spencer! Spencer, wait up!" He started yelling crazily.

The brunette turned around, exchanging confused glances with her boyfriend, whose arm was draped across her shoulder.

"Mr. Fitz, is something wrong?" Spencer raised a brow, puzzled.

"Yes." He nodded, slowing his pace as he reached her and Toby. "It's Aria…"

"Aria? What about Aria…?" Toby looked from Spencer to their former teacher then back to Spencer. She pulled him aside, whispering something into his ear before he pecked her cheek and climbed into his truck.

"Now what's this about Aria?" Spencer's expression grew worried. Mr. Fitz started fumbling through his suit coat, removing the letter before handing it to her.

"I think she's in trouble. You?"

Spencer's dull brown eyes skimmed across the paper, her insides churning more with every word. "I know she is…"

"So what do we do?" Mr. Fitz seemed like he was on the verge of crying. Spencer re-folded the letter, jamming it inside her pants' pocket.

"We don't do anything. You stay here while I go and find the other girls. The three of us will handle it…"

"But…"

"Look, I'm sorry, Mr. Fitz." Spencer placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "But Aria's right. We need to keep you safe, so you just have to hang back."

"Fair enough, I guess." He conceded. "One question, though."

"Shoot…"

"What's this personal business she has to take care of…?"

"I can't give away that much, but it's something that has to do with our old friend, Alison…"

And leaving no room for any further questions or protest, Spencer spun on her heel in the direction of Hanna's house.

Aria trudged through the woods, both shaken and shivering. It was so dark she could barely see and clumps of leaves kept falling in her hair. She struggled with picking them out, so after a while she just gave up. She walked deeper and deeper into the woods, nearly tripping over a hard object at her feet.

When she bent down to pick it up, she realized it was a flashlight and quickly scrambled to find the button that would turn it on.

A little something for your travels. Hope it helps you light the way… -A

"Of course." Aria suddenly thought out loud. "Because this is just what I need."

No sooner than she had said those words, a shadow started moving in the distance. Toward her.

"What do you want?" Aria quickly backed away, careful not to trip over anything else.

The figure only moved closer. "You know." A jumbled noise came out of what was clearly a voice disguiser. "You got all my texts, didn't you?"

"Who are you?" Aria panicked when she felt her back hit a tree. She had nowhere to run now.

Her luck, the figure caught up and stopped mere feet in front of her. "I'll never tell. And neither will you." He or she hissed hot breath against Aria's neck. The young girl gulped, shuddering.

"So she sent Fitz a note and then he came and found you?" Emily asked as she, Spencer, and Hanna rushed toward Spencer's house. By now, practically half of Rosewood knew Aria was missing and the Montgomery's were in a panic to find her.

"Apparently." Spencer nodded. "She told him she needed to go out of town to take care of some personal things and that he should look after us if she didn't come back."

"Why wouldn't she come back?" Emily shouted in disbelief. "Unless…"

"Unless this whole thing is another set up by A and she went for it." Hanna interjected.

"Do you honestly think so…?" Spencer looked at her blonde friend, shocked. Hanna rolled her eyes.

"Hello, isn't this "A" we're talking about here? How many times has he, she, it laid out traps before...?"

"Spence, Hanna's right." Emily nodded, "I mean how…"

The rest of Emily's thought was interrupted by the buzzing of her cell phone.

"What does it say?" Spencer swallowed nervously.

One pretty little liar down, three to go. Try and find her and I'll make sure Ella gets that note. –A

"Oh my gosh, what did "A" do to her?" Emily shrieked, ready to slide her phone shut. Hanna grabbed it out of her hands, however, and began to tap the keyboard.

"Hanna, what are you doing?" Spencer's voice cracked.

"Texting back this witch. I'm going to give her a piece of my mind."

"But what if she tries to hurt Aria?" Emily cried. "She's dangerous!"

"Yeah, well who said she hasn't hurt Aria already?" Hanna retorted. She pressed send, awaiting a response.

"If she's dead, what are we going to do?" Running a hand through her brunette locks stressed, Spencer also began to cry.

Just then, Emily's phone buzzed again.

"You check it Hanna." Emily sniffled. "I don't think Spencer and I can handle it."

"Okay." The blonde expertly maneuvered her perfectly manicured fingers over the device. She gasped when she opened the message.

"What? What does it say?" Spencer almost choked. Emily nodded, hands shaking.

This is what happens when you risk it all for love…and fail. –A

Hanna turned the phone toward Spencer and Emily so they could see. They also gasped.

On the screen was a picture of Aria lying against a tree, patches of dried blood on either side of her forehead. Her eyes were closed, meaning a) she was clearly unconscious or b) she was…dead.

"Hanna, what did you say to "A" to make her send this?" The tears streamed down Emily's cheeks a lot more profusely now. Hanna shrugged, wiping her own tears.

"Nothing. I just asked where she was. If you don't believe me, it's in your text records…"

"Let's not argue now." Spencer stood in between them. "Especially since we know Aria might be d—" Spencer couldn't bring herself to say the word. Hanna and Emily agreed, hugging each other tightly as if to signify peace.

"What do we do?" Emily looked at her friends, anxiously hoping they'd provide her with all the right answers. "We're not sure if Aria's dead or alive, so we can't risk her losing her safety. Either way, we don't win."

"Yeah, but we can't just leave her there all alone in the woods with "A" using her as bait." Hanna interrupted. "We have to do something."

"I understand that, but what?" Spencer threw her hands in the air, exasperatedly. "Like Em said, either way we don't win."

"Can't we call the police and have them go and find her?" Hanna suggested. "That way we're technically not the ones responsible…"

"Hanna, do you hear yourself?" Spencer said a little harsher than she meant to. "You're not making any sense."

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you're not."

"Em?"

"Spencer's right, Han. And even if by some miracle we could get other people involved, "A" would still know it was us."

"So, you're just going to give up and let "A" have her way again when we could finally stand our ground and show her who's boss?"

"No. But Hanna, there's a lot more at stake here than our secrets. This is Aria's life we're talking about."

"Whatever, fine. Do what you want, but I'm going to find Aria." Hanna handed Emily back her phone and took off down the street. Emily and Spencer briefly glanced at one another before following behind her.

And as they did, Emily's phone buzzed a third time.

"Open it. What does it say?" Spencer said while continuing to chase after Hanna. Emily hastened her pace to keep up while reading the message aloud to Spencer.

She thought by doing what I said she'd protect everyone. Now all she's doing is putting them in even more danger. Especially three little liars and one English teacher. –A

PART 2/

When Aria awoke what felt like hours later, she had a terrible pain in her head and her back was extremely sore. There were still leaves in her hair, but now with patches of dried blood on her forehead.

What exactly had "A" done to her? And was she (or he) gone?

All Aria could see was black except for the occasional outline of bushes and trees. No people, no weapons, no "A".

Well not then at least.

"Who knows though?" Aria thought. "A could come back at any second."

And come back, "A" did.

"I see you're awake." The silhouette of the figure chuckled. "Have a nice nap?"

"No." Aria shook her head. "No thanks to you. Aren't you done with me yet?"

"A" moved closer towering above her. "Not quite. However, there is something you can do to make your time here go more quickly…"

"And that would be?"

"Go into my car and keep watch so if anyone should happen to venture near these woods, they'll find you instead of me…"

"What if I don't want to?" Aria challenged. She stared directly at where she presumed the figure's face to be.

"Like you've got a choice. But since you mention it, I'll share my ideas. I have some spies watching over your beloved Ezra's apartment. Fail me and I'll make certain they set fire to it…while he's inside…"

"No. You can't. You can't hurt, Ezra, he's done nothing to you."

"Oh naïve, Aria." A shook his/her head. "When will you learn? It doesn't matter that your sweet little teacher did nothing to me. It matters that he's tied to you, the liar."

"Fine." Aria gave in. "I'll do your bidding. Just leave Ezra alone."

"We'll see." A retorted. "Do well and maybe I'll let you go. Shame me and Fitz dies. Are we clear?"

Standing up, Aria brushed some of the leaves from her hair. "Crystal." She said before setting out to protect her lover…and fulfill A's sick, twisted whims.

Aria chided herself for thinking "A" would kill her. Because if "A" killed her, her suffering would be done.

"We've been driving for over thirty minutes and still no sign of Aria." Hanna sighed, shaking her head. "Where could she be?"

"This is "A" we're talking about, remember?" Spencer mimicked her blonde friend's earlier words. "For all we know she might have her hiding away in Texas."

"Seriously? You had to go there, Spence?" Emily scoffed annoyed, her phone in her palm. She kept re-reading the "A" text messages over and over, completely shaken.

"Why do keep re-reading those if they make you shudder?" Hanna suddenly wondered. Emily simply glared in her direction.

"I'm trying to figure out what they could mean. How we could save Aria."

"Too bad we have to find her first…"

"Hanna…"

"What? I'm just saying…"

"You two really need to give it a rest. You're totally blocking my concentration."

"Gee, sorry Detective Hastings, I had no idea."

"Hanna." Spencer stared at Hanna from her rear-view mirrors, narrowing her eyes.

"What?" The blonde said again.

"Shut up. I'm trying to focus and so is Emily."

"Okay, okay. Tough room."

"More like tough car." Emily suddenly mumbled, continuing her mission to analyze all the "A" messages. She rubbed her temples, completely stressed, time ticking away more and more with each precious second.

"Make any progress yet?" Hanna's voice broke Emily from her thoughts. Emily answered with a quick remark.

"Does it look like I'm making any progress? Besides I think I would've mentioned if I…" Emily was suddenly cut off by Hanna's phone buzzing.

"Uh-oh." Spencer again glanced through her rear-view mirrors. "Is it from "A?"

"What do you think?"

"Now who's the one with the smart remarks?" Emily interjected.

"Guys." Spencer re-directed their attention. "The text, please."

Seems like Emily gets annoyed easily. Hope she doesn't have a bad temper like me. Because if she does, it could be FATAL. And that's a promise I'll keep. –A

"How does "A" know where we are? Does she like have eyes on every street corner or something?" Hanna looked from Emily to Spencer. Both girls shrugged.

"A's always watching, whether we like it or not." Spencer finally concluded.

You bet I am. –A

"Hanna, what did you just say?" Emily arched her eyebrows, alarmed. She repeated her previous sentence.

"You bet I am. A sent me that in a message."

"When?"

"Uh, not even two seconds ago when Spencer finished saying so. Weren't you paying attention?"

"Hanna, stop. This is serious." Spencer shook her head as she continued to drive. "Right, Em?"

"Right. For all we know, "A" could have this car bugged or something…"

Aria could barely keep her eyes open inside "A'"s car, the pain in her head proving too great to endure. Now Aria realized why "A" had given her this task in the first place. Because she knew she could never complete it.

She'd fail miserably and Ezra would lose his life…even after how hard she worked to prevent that in the first place.

As if sensing Aria's troubling inner thoughts, "A" approached the dark car, tapping on the window as a signal for her to roll it down.

"Need I remind you what it is that's motivating you?" "A" growled in anger. Aria bolted up in the front seat furiously fast, trying her best to seem wide-awake.

"No, that's not necessary." She swallowed hard.

"I beg to differ." "A" pressed his/her masked face close enough inside the car for Aria to feel hot breath once again.

"I-I'm sorry." Aria apologized, pleading. "D-Don't hurt Ezra."

"Oh, I won't. As long as there are no slip-ups from you for the rest of the evening."

"Technically, it's morning." Aria almost mumbled, but bit her tongue before getting herself into more trouble.

"But one more mistake, and I'll unleash the biggest bomb of all."

"Which would be…?"

"Before your precious Ezra meets his imminent doom, you'll take my phone and text him. You'll tell him you never wanted to be with him. You'll tell him you only used him to help make Noel jealous. And then you'll tell him that it worked, you and Noel secretly got back together and that you two are expecting a baby. Understood?"

"Understood." Aria nodded, watching the hooded figure depart from her. She felt like crying, but her head and back both hurt so much, she just didn't have the strength.

How could "A" expect her to rip Ezra's heart out in such a terrible way? How could anyone?

When all the fear and dispute over "A'"s latest little scheme ended, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer continued to drive, feeling more clueless and confused. Re-reading the texts proved useless and tiring and circling every block for hours upon hours got them nowhere even further. So when Hanna suggested they all split up and cover separate areas themselves, the others happily agreed.

Hanna took the north and south end of Rosewood, Emily took the east and west, and Spencer took the roads leading toward the woods. None of their individual routes proved successful, until…

Spencer stopped near the Camp Rosewood Playground, silently sprinting through the deeper parts of the woods. She stopped only when she saw a dark car parked all by itself, presuming "A" to be inside.

"Okay, witch, let's see if you'll cough up Aria." Spencer mumbled under her breath. No sooner had she uttered those words than a hooded figure appeared, quickly hopping into the car.

"So if it wasn't "A" in the car, it was…"

"Aria, Aria, Aria." "A" chuckled underhandedly. "You are so, so naïve."

"What are you talking about?" Aria froze, suddenly nervous. This only furthered "A'"s amusement.

"I saw your friend, Spencer getting ready to approach. You honestly think I'm that stupid not to realize you little liars like working around me? I know, everything, remember?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, but you do. I warned you."

"You wouldn't."

"I wouldn't." A hissed. "You would."

And passing her a black slider phone, "A" kept on driving.

"You know what to do, so do it."

Aria nodded, holding the screen close to her face. She didn't type the message "A" ordered. No, instead, she texted the number 143. The number 143 was the numerical equivalent of saying "I love you" and a secret code she and Ezra sometimes used. She sent the text, sliding the phone shut as the tears finally leaked from her eyes.

And meanwhile on the other side of town, Ezra Fitz had just returned from hours of pacing/worrying about her. Defeated, he trudged up the stairs toward his apartment, hand grasping the brass doorknob. He pulled the door open in one quick motion only to see his entire living room ablaze.

Sorry if there were any typos I didn't catch. And yes, I decided to end this on a cliffhanger. Why? Because I like to leave you guys guessing ;)