Alison and Courtney
Author's Note: I had this idea in my head, what if instead of the Bethany Young it was Courtney? Courtney who died in the hole and at the hands of Jessica and Peter Dilaurentis. This is an AU of the show, Post Season 5. Season 6 and 7 never existed. For good reasons. I don't own PLL or Sarah Shepards wonderful series Pretty Little Liars, if I did own the show Courtney Dilaurentis would have existed!
Enjoy!
You know, most people really don't know me -Marilyn Monroe
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. -Stephen King
They would be bound together, bleeding together. These girls would be the fire that burned Rosewood and the people who lived there. Rosewoods most mysterious twins (girl).
Alison Dilaurentis was the It girl of Rosewood, beloved and hated equally.
Courtney Dilaurentis was the forgotten. The ugly truth hidden under the Dilaurentis facade. She was the pimple that they couldn't get rid of no matter how hard the Dilaurentis family tried to hide her.
Sometimes Ali never wanted her friends or Rosewood. All Alison really wanted was to yell or ignore them. She was the same Ali D, oh there's no doubt about it. Alison was still manipulative, spouting lies and all with the charm she oozed back in high school.
But coming back from the 'dead' still felt like that-dead. Her friends moved on with their lives and from her, along with the population of Rosewood. Everything around her kingdom changed and Alison remained the same immortal girl.
She always was immortal.
The media was raving about the girl who came back from the dead. This infamy for Alison that made the residents of Rosewood look sideways at her, as if she was a peasant begging for money. Life went on in Rosewood, Ali kept to herself in the security of her house trying to get her High School diploma. After the media left and everything seemingly calmed down, Ali made her way to the old cemetary where a body in her name was buried.
It was when the excavation on fake 'Ali' caused a big secret to erupt. It was a media circus then when Ali disappeared, was found buried in her backyard and it was still a fucking circus when the news spread about twins. The Dilaurentis twins. Because of course Alison Dilaurentis had a fucking twin. Of course she did.
Her name was Courtney. The same blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes and her pink bow shaped lips in a sly smirk that could have charmed Rosewood like Alison did long ago.
Rosewood erupted in whispers when Alison walked down the sidewalk, all whispers about her family. Her parents were arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder and negligence. In Ali's mind, they deserved it. But the whispers still followed her all talk about her dead twin and her murderous parents.
And it was all, "Do you think she knew what her parents did it?"
No, she never did.
Her parents ignored Courtney from the moment she was sentenced to the Preserve for her mental health. Bipolar disorder, that's what her parents whispered when they thought nobody was around to here, Ali did. They casted Courtney out of the family, out of utter existence and expected Jason and Alison to do the same. And Alison did because she was a teen, ignoring the guilt, rebelling against her parents and never once feeling this awful guilt that came up when she passed her sister's room in the hallway. But when the house was quiet Ali swore her sister was here, as if she was waiting to come home.
The name on the headstone in the cemetary was wrong. It wasn't her-it never was her to begin with. It was always Courtney. It would always be Courtney Dilaurentis, who died alone in a hole behind her house that end of summer in 2009.
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None of them knew what she was going through, how could they? Their family wasn't entirelly as fucked up as hers was.
All everyone could say was how horrible the Dilaurentis parents were ever since news and evidence came back that Jessica and Peter murderd and covered the death of their child. That's all the residents of Rosewood could say while holding themselves up on their fucking high horse, as if any of the adults had secrets as horrible as Alison's did.
The worst thing to come out was Courtney's medical records. Somehow someone from the Preserve facility leaked the sensitive documents surrounding Courtney's health. Alison knew what was on those files, read them the first few weeks after the investigations started out curiosity and guilt. Bipolar disorder and anxiety along with bouts of depression. Basically she was crazy in the eyes of Rosewood but for Ali she was just suffering through theses illnesses without the support that her parents never gave.
"Schizo"
"Psycho"
"Crazy bitch, probably her sister has it too."
"She was already crazy! I'd rather die for good reasons if i was like her." Hannah blurted out to the group, not knowing that Alison had walked into the apartment-barn that Spencer was living in.
It was like the air in Alison's lungs just gave out. It didn't surprise her that her friends would be taking about Courtney, it never surprised her that they were talking shit about her dead sister. But the anger that erupted inside Alison was aching to be let out and lash out at her friends. (They were never friends after she returned, they never were) Her face was a blank mask, something the four girls have never seen since high school. They all froze looking at Alison as if this was the first time they were all meeting her.
They never knew Courtney, none of them did. Sure, call her a bitch behind her back (who wouldn't have called Alison that?), her armor was alway on but Courtney never had that armor that Alison perfected for years to defend herself. Courtney never had a chance alive but Alison would be damned if her sister was going to be attacked when she was dead.
"Ali" Emily spoke, standing up her mouth was stupidly agap. Alison scoffed and as if her sixteen year old self came through, turned on her heel and slammed the barn door just like she did all those years ago on a summer night.
When she got home, Ali made her way to her room. The moment she stepped inside, the waves of anger and grief engulfed her like a thunderstorm. She slid down on the floor curling up, sobbing for a sister that she never got to know, who died knowing she was unloved. She cried and screamed, echoing back in the empty house. This was Alison's storm alright and lighting was yet to come down on this town.
She came back from the dead, Courtney never came back.
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In the quiet house, meters away from the hole where her sister died, Alison swore Courtney was here. But when has Alison ever believed in ghosts? So she willed herself to stop thinking that her dead twin sister was roaming the halls of her home, but sometimes when the house was quiet again Alison could hear a giggle.
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She valiantly stepped into Courtney's old room. It was painted soft purple with a single bed, desk and toys scattered around. Books put haphazardly in the shelves, the room looked like it was frozen in time as if Courtney was going to step into the room once more. Alison knew it wasn't true, that it could never happen again.
She found the journals, five of them, all hidden in a box labeled memories under Courtney's bed. The journals were in different colors, the from scribbled in years with the first one from 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009. Courtney was ten when she was sent to the facility and died when she was fifteen. Six years in the preserve and all Alison did was ignore her sister at the order of her parents.
Alison sat on the bed and opened the first journal that was labeled 2004-2005. She started reading her sister's life.
Nobody knew Courtney Dilaurentis, not Rosewood, her parents, hell not even Alison herself knew anything about her twin sister. But now she knew enough to feel connected to her besides sharing a last name and a face.
Courtney Dilaurentis had her hair cut into a bob in 2006, hating how it got tangled when she grew it out. She never liked the cookie-cutter life that everyone in Rosewood thrived to be, especially her parents something that made Alison laugh. She loved mystery novels, her favorite ice cream was chocolate chip, and wanted to adopt a German shepherd when she was older. Her favorite color was purple, thought old Hollywood was fascinating, wanted to visit the beach and would just like to be better.
Maybe one day I can reconnect with Alison. We could be a family again, roam the east coast and then the west coast. All I want is my sister, that's all I'd in the world.
All Courtney Dilaurentis wanted was to have her sister by her side, to have an ally.
I hope one day that my parents can finally love me. Maybe if i wasn't born a problem, i'd be loved, that's what mom said once to dad when they thought i was asleep on the drive to Rosewood.
All Courtney Dilaurentis wanted was a sister, to be better and to be accepted by her family-her parents more so.
Courtney described the worst of the preserve. How her, their parents left her with a small suitcase on the steps never once coming to visit her when she called for visitations from them. It was once a month and even those were scarce. Courtney resented her parents every year, she wanted to come to be welcomed not forgotten by her parents, hurt by how they treated her. It broke Alison's heart seeing Courtney describe her years alone ultimately till her last day on earth.
The last day on earth, Courtney was alone surrounded by no one. Alison could never picture that, her twin trying to cry out to anyone-her parents, Jason, even Alison and nobody would come.
Sometimes Alison wished she defied her parents and went to visit her sister during her stay in that cold place. Maybe things could have been different, Courtney wouldn't have felt alone, she could have had a sister to love. But now in an old room, with a dead person's memories all Alison could think was that she did love her sister, even though it was too late.
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I was never enough for them. I was imperfect in their eyes of perfection, never wanted. A monster. That's what my dad called me, maybe that is what I am, a monster living in a girl's soft skin. Maybe I'll always be like this, forgotten, a ghost alive.
I am a monster.
No, you are not Courtney. You never were a monster.
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The apologies were futile to Alison.
A year passed after Courtney's body was found, her family secrets coming to light and Alison's parents sent to jail. It was year when Alison found out about her sister.
She decided to have Courtney, after the police got enough evidence, took her twin sister's body to another cemetery. Alison wanted Courtney to have a peaceful resting place, away from the nosy eyes of the residents of Rosewood and the media. She did not want her sister's resting place to be a tourist spot that Rosewood would have loved to profit from. Alison wasn't going to risk it.
Alison buried her sister with her brother and with strangers.
Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer along with their respective partners came (Alison internally sneered at Aria and Ezra because she could never understand how you could still be with your teacher after high school), even Jason and Melissa Hastings came to the private funeral.
"Why is Melissa doing here?" Alison heard Spencer mutter to her friends in a not so quiet voice. Melissa knew Courtney, well, she knew the existence of Courtney being Ali's twin. In Courtney's journal she mentioned that Melissa came to visit her sometimes during the summer before Ali disappeared. Melissa knew Courtney and when news broke about what happened to her, Melissa was there to tell insight about the estranged sister that Alison had.
Sometimes Ali could never figure out why Spencer hated her sister, why she took her sister for granted just like Alison did all those years ago.
Melissa merely smiled at her sister and hugged Ali.
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"What is Noel doing here?" Aria looked incredulously as Noel Kahn walked up the hill with a bouquet full of daisies.
Just like Melissa Hastings, Noel knew about Courtney even if it was by pure accident but a good accident nonetheless. Noel's older brother, Jared Kahn was sent to the same facility that Courtney went. Jared helped Courtney transition into the facility becoming a buddy to the ten year old. That lead to Noel finding out about the Dilaurentis twins.
He never spoke about it to her, how could he since she would just deny it. So years passed, Ali disappeared and died three years later. He never knew she was alive and Rosewood, just like him mourned the wrong twin.
It wasn't until a year later that Ali surfaced to meet Noel. Jared Kahn passed away in 2013, a battle that ended with him hanging himself in his bedroom during a temporary visit. He was about to leave the Preserve in a couple months.
It was a private funeral but whispers always was a thing in a small town and that news reached Ali.
Noel did not believe it when she showed up, boldly, a black veil covering her face wearing a black dress with a boquete of daisies in her arms and the name Lauren Day on her lips. After the funeral, when everyone went their seperate ways from the freshly buried tomb, Noel broke down hugging a girl that was a ghost. But she wasn't a ghost, she was real.
It could be said that both of them held a candle, a soft spot for each other. Everyone could see it then and now, a murmur in this town under all the whispers of Courtney, Courtney, Courtney. But in the quiet of the cemetary, Noel's hand curled around hers and she knew, Alison knew.
Now here they were once again reunited by another corpse, another ghost.
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Courtney Dilaurentis
June 6, 1994-August 25, 2009
Courtney would be remembered if Alison had anything to say about it to everyone and she did, she really did. Courtney's memory would always be shrouded by her murder and how she lived but Alison knew the things behind this girl that Rosewood called 'crazy disfunctional' when their eyes landed Alison on the streets. It was the same looks the girls gave her when news broke about her twin sister and it would not go away.
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A giggle erupted the quiet of the hills in the old Cherry cemetary.
She was alone, everyone else leaving. Noel whispered about meeting her later, the girls tried to make an apology but Alison knew it was over. This, this friendship (was it a friendship anymore?) it was over from the beginning Alison rose from the dead. So they left with words unsaid and falling deaf on Alison.
Alison heard the giggle again. She saw a blond haired girl, the hair cut in a bob, a coy smile spread across her bow shaped lips and the same identical blue eyes looking straight at Alison. She stared at her and waved at Courtney.
Courtney Dilaurentis waved back, walking down the hill and disappeared into the unknown.
FIN