Thanks a lot to subway20 and emma{.}ray for sharing their passion about fanfics. Special shout out to my beta-reader emma{.}ray , I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks a lot to saii79 for the amazing cover that totally cracked me up. I'm French so really, every review or feedback is very much appreciated.
2018. A year has past since Alison DiLaurentis delivered the spawn of Satan into our midst. The world is now divided into two categories: the worshippers of the Beast - or ADeists - and the Pailists. The Earth is dry, supplies are hard to find. People are fighting over drinking water, bargaining the only thing they have left to not succumb to a horrible death - their body parts. ADeists feast on every bit of fresh meat they can find, stealing babies, maiming teenagers, trapping maidens to eat them bit by bit. The world is now a living hell.
Everything you ever knew doesn't exist anymore and if you find this, it means I have succeeded. My name is Paige McCullers and this is my story.
*** July, 13, 2018 / 2am
I can't find her anywhere.
I have been looking in every place I could think of. I've been riding my Harley for days now, visiting all the places that once meant something to us, every diner, every apartment in College Terrace, fighting ADeists for gas, food, water, but she is nowhere to be found. I had hoped she was hidden somewhere, in a secret place where only I could find her but she wasn't.
The last place on my list is the one I dread the most. Rosewood. Birthplace of the Beast itself. She has to be there.
*** July, 13, 2018 / 7pm
I've been riding non-stop since I decided to go to Rosewood. I know that if she is there it means that the Beast has her. I'm not afraid. I know I can't live another day without her so I'd rather die doing something right.
I stopped by the Pailist camp in Pittsburgh to find some much needed supplies. Spencer was there, she's been leading the Resistance since the Beast killed Aria in 2017. She bears a few new scars on her face but her glance is as piercing as ever.
There are so many refugees there. Pregnant women, children, old men, cripples, all looking for protection, tired of fighting these relentless cannibals. To be able to get in you have to strip, show that you don't bear the mark of the Beast. That purulent « A », burnt in the flesh, from where the wickedness spreads like the most virulent disease.
*** July, 13, 2018 / 11:32pm
Spencer came to see me, offering me some old whiskey she had kept for a special occasion. We drank without saying a word. She knows. She knows she is still missing. She knows I'll do anything to find her. She knows I feel in my bones that she isn't dead, that the Beast has a plan for her.
She gave me her lacrosse stick, rigged with sharp blades, the must-have tool to separate the ADeists' rotten head from their already dead corpses. We laughed a little, remembering the time we played lacrosse together, my fierceness in the field, our fleeting problems. We talked about Hanna, who turned ADeist after Caleb was eaten by Ella Montgomery, Mona, who's leading another refugee camp in Charlotte (talk about a coincidence erm), and Toby, always looking for refugees.
We hugged for a while. She knows where I'm going tomorrow. She didn't try to stop me. Nothing and no one can.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 6am
It's a five hour drive from Pittsburgh to Rosewood. I didn't sleep much last night, Spencer and I spent a few hours drawing a map of Rosewood and thinking about where the Beast could have her. We narrowed it down to a few places: Welby, Radley, Alison's house and of course, the high school.
I should go.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 9:12am
I've been driving for three hours straight now. I saw Spencer looking at me as I crossed the gate and I think I saw her cry. Don't worry Spencer, I'll bring her back.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 10:46am
The air is more and more unbreathable as I get closer to Rosewood. I had a few encounters with ADeists and Spencer's weapon has proven to be really useful: it cuts their heads like it would cut grass. I expect to find a lot more of them on the road as they are attracted to the Beast same as flies are to dog poop.
I should stay away from the main roads to avoid them as much as I can.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 11:25am
I traded my Harley for a pink glittery bike I found down the road. Not as sweet as the wheels I once had but it's the apocalypse, I can't be fussy. I have to be as quiet as possible to not raise the alarm.
The air is filled with sulphur. It's getting hard to breathe, my lungs are on fire. I drank the last drop of water I had two hours ago and the ADeists are everywhere. I can't pass them. I'm fucked.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 12am
I don't have a choice. I circled around town but couldn't find a way in. There's only one way I can pass the guards. There's only one thing I can do.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 1pm
I found the perfect spot in the woods. I started a small fire and put my knife into it. I rolled up my sleeve and stared at my arm for a while. I had to do it. I had to do it for her. I took her picture from my pocket and put it right in front of me, staring at her perennial smile as I pressed the incandescent knife on my skin. The smell of my own burning flesh made me sick and the pain was so keen I nearly fainted. Just one more. That's it.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 4pm
I just woke up. The pain was so strong I passed out. My hands and legs are tied. Where the fuck am I ?
*** July, 14, 2018 / 4:10pm
Lucas just came out of the shadows. Lucas. Of course. He was there for Hanna. Loyal as a labrador.
I told him everything. He listened, a sad and understanding look on his face. He untied me and told me the Beast was living in Rosewood High. Obviously. This place was already hell when I went there, except for the time I was with her. She saved me then, I was going to save her now.
Lucas told me he had been living in the sewers for nearly two months, since he found out Hanna was alive and that she joined the ADeists. Even if her feelings for him were never reciprocated, he wanted to take her away from this place. I didn't have the courage to tell him that once a person had the mark on their skin, it can never go back. I didn't have much time before I started turning. I had to hurry.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 4:40pm
Lucas showed me the way through the sewers. I'm right under Rosewood High. He can't come with me, Hanna is patrolling near City Hall, he has to go back to look after her. He gave my stick back and wished me luck, although I can see on his face that this is a farewell. Au revoir Lucas.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 4:47pm
I can't breathe. I feel a fever running through my veins, I don't know if it's because of the toxicity of the air, the pain caused by the mark or the curse starting to take control of my body.
I opened the latch and climbed into the hallway of that high school I once loved. The light can't penetrate inside, the blood sprayed all over the windows is keeping the sun from seeing what's inside that hell-hole. The lockers are filled with rotten limbs and bones, the smell is so pugnacious I have to cover my nose with my scarf. I try to be as silent as possible, the only thing I have on my side is the element of surprise.
I go from classroom to classroom, nobody's there.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 4:55pm
I'm hungry.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:01pm
I heard a noise upstairs. I went to check only to find Cindy and Mindy fighting over the thigh of what I think was once an obese person. I tightened my grip on my stick and beheaded them faster than it takes to say « Coconut Cupcake ». My sight lingered on the limb. I knew this could happen but I thought I had more time. The mark is itching and I see black blood running through it. Hurry up Paige, you have to do it.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:24pm
I went to every room, I can't find her. Or the Beast. Or the Mother of the Beast. It's strangely calm, no one is here, no ADeist except for the twins I slayed earlier. I have another place to check.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:32pm
The smell is more and more horrid as I approach the swimming pool. It has to be there.
I cut through the brambles to be able to enter and the spectacle that lies before my eyes is worse than I could have ever possibly imagined.
Half of the swimming pool is filled with heaps of decaying corpses and the other is illuminated, allowing me to discern operation tables and more torture devices than the Inquisition could have ever dreamt of.
Three thrones are standing where coach used to sit, a bigger one in the middle, and the thing sitting in it is the most magnificent creature I have ever seen. I'm feeling drawn to it, with an irresistible urge to offer myself, to let it feast on my soul and my body. I have to free myself from its grip. This thing is half her, half evil-concentrated and it flourished in the most evil human being's womb. Of course it was going to be magnificent.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:37pm
I tried to get closer but an army of ADeists just arrived. The Mother of the Beast came out of the locker room and I swear I saw her eyes shining with a red light. Alison. As evil as she always was. Maybe a little bit more but hey, now she can sport her true nature in broad daylight. She sent off her army to a Pailist Camp. I have to kill her before they reach it!
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:49pm
Her army left and she is now breastfeeding her creature. I'm gonna be sick. It's the perfect opportunity for me to strike as they are busy with each other.
I just have to crawl through the sea of dead bodies to approach and kill them in one strike. The smell is entering through every pore of my skin. Rotten flesh all over my face. Dead juice in my hair, my mouth, my nose.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:52pm
I heard her. She is here. I know that. It isn't the fever or the pounding in my head that are giving me hallucinations. I feel her.
My heart stopped.
My love.
Are you okay?
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:57pm
I missed my window. They aren't on their stupid thrones anymore. They are approaching the operation tables. What are they doing?!
*** July, 14, 2018 / 5:59pm
I didn't notice the small cage in the corner of the pool. Alison opened the latch and there she was. My Everything.
She looked wretched. Her clothes were nothing more than what seemed to have been a pillowcase. She looked dirty, famished. Every glimpse of hope and joy had totally left her body. She was just a shell. Alison leant in to whisper something in her ear but I'm too far away to hear. The Beast took her and carried her to an operation table, then he put a mask on her head to force her to sleep. I have to move, QUICK!
*** July, 14, 2018 / 6:01pm
I moved fast. Too fast. I was being careless. I couldn't bare to see her hurting like that. I didn't care about the amount of dead flesh I have to cross, I just couldn't. I saw red. I scrambled my way through the ocean of bodies and ran towards them.
Yes it was stupid. Yes it was completely and 100% idiotic. Alison saw me and started to laugh. The Beast grabbed me. I couldn't breathe. She was there but I couldn't reach her. Alison approached me and told me stupid Alison things « blablabla pigskin blablabla » just like evil people say in movies. Her grand plan was to steal another egg to create another Beast, and with her psychological torture not working, she was going to take it by force.
I tried to weasel myself out of the Beast's grip but it held tight. Alison came closer and rolled up my sleeve. She was gloating. She saw the mark, the black veins. She laughed. She told me I could say goodbye, that it didn't matter anymore.
The Beast let me go, I ran to her side. My love. How I've missed you. I took the mask down to kiss her but the drug had started to work: she was in a daze and didn't recognize me. My love. I'm here. Everything's going to be okay. I managed to slide my knife in her hand before the Beast grabbed my arm again. Alison then went to her side to put the mask on again but my love gathered her strength and put the knife right under Alison's chin. The Beast let out a scream and let go of my arm. I grabbed my cross just as the knife was carving into Alison's skin. The blood started to flow. So she was human after all? The Beast tried to jump as an attempt to save its Mother's life but only met my blade. Their dead bodies were lying, side by side, in a horrific embrace. It was over.
*** July, 14, 2018 / 6:12pm
My arm was burning. The mark felt like a hundred needles were piercing trough my skin, my flesh, my bones. I fell, only to be caught before I reached the floor. I was in her arms. We were both crying. It was over. She was free. WE were free. She kissed me, softly, like she was afraid she was going to break me. I wasn't the one who had been living in a cage for months and yet she was the one taking care of me. She looked at my arm and all the relief I saw in her eyes seconds ago disappeared. She told me she was going to fix me. She told me everything was going to be okay, that we were going to live together in a nice apartment with puffy drapes, that she'll chose the color on the walls because the purple I chose was hideous and we laughed. And cried. I started convulsing as I heard her voice fading away, whispering promises that I knew we would never live.
I love you Emily.
Epilogue
*** July, 25, 2018 / 4pm
I really rock at riding my bike with one arm.