It had been almost a month since Alison DiLaurentis returned from the dead and came back to Rosewood. The small town was in a whirlwind still buzzing with the news of her terrifying kidnapping, the recent and brutal murder of her mother Jessica DiLaurentis and the suspicious death of local girl Shana Fling in New York.

Rosewood used to be such a peaceful town, but those days had passed many years ago now. The town seemed to be a hub for abnormal and tragic events, the deaths of its local townspeople seemed to have increased over the years, homes had destroyed by gas explosions, fires or even cars driving straight through peoples living rooms. Nothing was normal about Rosewood anymore.

It was Friday afternoon and Paige McCullers had just arrived home from her daily swimming practice after school. She pushed the front door open and was greeted by a dark house, not that she minded, as this generally meant her parents were not yet home from their after work drinks with colleagues which usually drifted off into the late hours of the night. She made her way to the kitchen and flicked on a few lights and started rummaging through the cupboards to find some snacks to fill the hunger growling in her stomach. Upon finding some low-carb chocolate flavoured energy bars, only her parents would ever consider this as a type of 'treat food', she walked around the kitchen and started closing the blinds as the sun was starting to set in the west. She chewed down on the energy bar and aimlessly looked around the kitchen until her eyes came to rest upon a note on the kitchen bench written in her mother's impeccable handwriting.

'Paige,

Your father and I have gone away to visit your aunt for the weekend.

We expect you to have all of your homework and assignments completed by the time we get back on Sunday afternoon, no slacking off especially since it is senior year.

If you need anything you can reach us on our cells.

Love Mom

xoxo'

Paige let out a sigh of relief, finally she had some time to herself without her parents constant excessive questions about her swimming times, school grades or the sudden lack of a certain Miss Emily Fields wondering about their house as of late. It had only been 5 weeks since Emily had broken up with her, and every day felt just as hard and empty as the last. Paige still loved her more than anything in this world, would do or give up anything for her, and no matter what she did or said Emily just couldn't or wouldn't see where she was coming from when she told the police about Alison being alive. All she ever wanted to do was keep her girlfriend safe, but ultimately their relationship was the price for Emily's safety and Paige had to live with that consequence.

Paige scrunched up the piece of paper and tossed it into bin on her way out of the kitchen, she grabbed her heavy schoolbag off of the floor and grudgingly made her way up the stairs to her room. Inside her room, the air was hot and stuffy from being locked up all day, she walked over to the window by her bed and cracked it open a few inches to let in some fresh air. Exhaustion suddenly took over and Paige collapsed onto her bed, rolling over to face the ceiling feeling utterly drained from practice and so thankful that there was a soft and comforting pillow to cradle her head.

Turning on her side to get more comfortable her eyes focused on the picture frame she kept beside her bed on the nightstand. Inside the frame was a picture of her & Emily taken only a few months ago at her aunt's lake house, they had managed to sneak away together for a weekend alone without a care in the world, it ended up being one of the happiest weekends Paige had ever experienced in her mere 17 years on this earth.

Pain shot through her body and tightened in her chest as she her mind started to recall the events of this week just past, the rumors that were spreading like wildfire around school kept swimming around in her head. Every time she had accidentally seen Emily in school, Alison was right beside her, leaning in close, lightly brushing her hand on Emily's perfectly tanned skin, Paige couldn't take it and would quickly walk off in the opposite direction incase she saw something that would confirm the stories to be true and her worst nightmare possible, that Emily & Alison were now an item.

Feeling overwhelmed by it all, her head started to spin and she took a deep breath before closing her eyes to shut out the world. Pulling her pillow close to her chest, hugging it she listened to the light sound of raindrops starting to hit roof of her house, within minutes she managed shut out the world fall into a deep slumber.