The Silence of the Liars: Aria
What happened to those four pretty girls in those three long weeks?
The group of friends stood huddled together as the mysterious blonde girl was rolled away from the smoking underground lair, and the police approached them immediately after the gurney passed.
They requested the five girls be sent with Sarah to the hospital, but Aria spoke up. "No," she rasped as her bottom lip wobbled and she started to cry again. "I need to go home and see my family."
The police began to argue with her but Spencer stepped forward and shut them up. "Do you see any of our limbs dangling uselessly on our bodies? It's just some bruises. We're fine." Physically, maybe. But the five girls were still silenced by what had happened for the past three weeks, and none of them believed they could ever bring themselves to speak a word about it, unless that word was "help."
Each girl had pounding headaches that had been continuing for those twenty-seven days that refused to lessen even after their rescue. Aria reached her hand up to her head and pressed her finger into her temple, dirty from the smoke. She could feel her brain pounding through her skull, and just like how Spencer had felt after having been gassed and stripped of clothes from A, like her eyes were being torn out of their sockets.
A hand came down gently on her shoulder, and it took Aria a moment to recognize that it was Ezra's hand and Spencer and Toby were approaching. "We can take you guys with us. Hanna, Caleb, Emily, and Mona will take, well…" Spencer shuffled awkwardly and acknowledged Ezra. "Your car, if you don't mind."
Ezra, seeing the numbness in both Aria and Spencer's glistening eyes, handed his keys to Caleb without a single doubt, and when he and Toby glanced at each other they both knew that Spencer and Aria needed each other more than ever before tonight.
Spencer stepped forward and linked her arm with Aria's as she started to cry again. "Let's go home," she announced as Aria, her stubborn silence becoming one of Ezra's concerns, let Spencer lead her away.
"How do you keep it together?" Aria whispered as soon as they were near Toby's cop car. Toby and Ezra lagged a little bit behind, wanting to give the girls space despite how desperately they wanted to spend time with them.
"I never am," she replied, pulling Aria into a hug. "I just hide it really well."
Across Spencer's shoulder Aria caught Ezra and Toby's eyes before glancing at Hanna, Emily, and Mona in the distance. Pulling out of Spencer's embrace, she thoughtlessly ran back through the trees and draped her arms around the three of them. "See you tomorrow," she croaked, barely able to control her emotions anymore. "I never thought I'd say that," she said, but it was spoken so quietly no one seemed to hear her. In truth, they did, but responding to the comment was almost like an invitation to talk about the past three weeks and why they thought they'd never see each other again.
While Spencer and Toby sat in the front seats, Aria shakily took Ezra's arm and held onto him for dear life in the back. Her grip made her knuckles turn white, like she was a frightened animal waiting for the predator to strike. Ezra noticed, and couldn't begin to imagine what was flashing past her hazel eyes, tinted in darkness and waxed in fear.
To Aria the three weeks had passed like a lifetime. She could remember the smooth scissor blades in her trembling hand as she lifted her hand and snipped her brown tresses off, her fingers dyed pink from the hair color she'd put in not too long ago. Other than that, her brain refused to bring up any other memory of that hell hole. Spencer's was doing the same. No one spoke much.
Without hesitation, Spencer exited the car as soon as Toby had stopped in front of Aria's house. Ezra kindly helped her out, though she didn't need it, and Aria and Spencer instinctually hugged each other tightly, their tears staining their shoulders.
"Call me if you can't sleep," Spencer rasped.
"Same here," Aria replied, muffled by Spencer's shoulder.
"Call me in the morning, too."
"Of course."
"And stay inside tonight."
"I know. Thank you."
The two separated, said their goodbyes, and Ezra and Aria waved to their friends as they drove away. As soon as the taillight was just a speck down the street, Aria heard the front door of her house open and a shriek come from the same spot.
"Oh my God, Aria!" Ella, Byron, and Mike rushed out of the house and Aria immediately began to sob again and ran to her parents and brother. "Oh, thank you. You're okay. Thank God you're okay." The four practically crashed into each other as Aria was clasped in the middle, crying heavily into Byron's shoulder.
Ella, having calmed down from her uncontrollable crying, noticed Ezra standing awkwardly to the side and waved him over, and he closed the gap in the family, making a perfect circle.
…
While the family of four plus one piled into the home, escaping from the chilly night after an extremely emotional reunion, Aria was overwhelmed with people willing and wanting to please her in any way: Ezra, without really asking, helped her take her coat off while Byron asked her if she wanted him to make his fancy grilled cheese and berry pancakes; Ella requested she draw a warm bubble bath, which Aria had never really done before she went missing; and Mike said he'd sleep downstairs with her if she didn't want to be alone. Shutting her eyes, Aria blocked out the chatter for a second to think about what she truly wanted, and the idea of showering and washing away the physical grime of the horrific experience was what she wanted most. "I just want a shower, guys, but thank you."
Despite claiming that was all she wanted, Byron headed to the kitchen to make the grilled cheese and pancakes and Mike offered to fix the couch up for Ezra to sleep over. Ella hurried upstairs to grab fresh, warm towels and scented candles to make Aria's late night shower more relaxing.
But before she could make it up a single step on the stairs, Ezra's hand stopped her, his fingers brushing through before gently clasping hers. His other hand reached out and ran through a part of her hair. "Your hair is pink," he pointed out, and the comment almost made her laugh. However, she was reminded of the torture chamber that made her dyed it.
Her hands came up and she ran her fingers through her hair. Ezra noticed her eyes gleam over and he knew the nightmares were replaying in her mind. "Oh," she eventually said. "I guess I forgot." Ezra let her go and watched her walk, ghost-like, up the stairs. In less than a minute he was distracted by Mike, who bounced ideas off of him about what fun stuff he could whip up for Aria tomorrow to assimilate her back into daily life. Ezra told him that the thought was nice, but the best thing Aria needed for the moment was some rest and recovery on her own time.
As Aria started the shower and stripped off her clothes, she caught her reflection in the mirror and stepped forward to look at it more closely. Her face seemed gauntly thin and hollow, connected to a gaunt head on top of a scrawny neck with hollow, bony shoulders; the dark circles under her eyes were not caused by mascara run-off. Her skin seemed ghastly pale, glowing in the fluorescent light. But most notably her eyes looked dead, reflecting how her brain had melted and rotted over three weeks of torture. They were the same eyes she saw her friends have the day they finally saw each other again.
The scene replayed in her head: Aria, finally allowed to exit her room, saw Spencer across the hall coming from her room, too. The two, rather than run towards each other, stared at each other up and down. In Aria's mind, she was wondering if it was really real. Three weeks of hearing Spencer's occasional, terrified screams made her wonder that, after a while of not hearing her or any of her friends through the walls, if A had finally shut them up and she was going to be the lone survivor.
Turns out, Charles did that to all of them: gave them the impression that they were going to be the only one to make it out alive, until they heard a scream from a room nearby, and a scream had never brought so much relief.
Fingers trembling and mind swirling, Aria took a box of her mom's hair color into the shower with her and planned to wash up and recolor her hair from its terrible, provocative pink state. The warm water ran through her hair and down her shoulders, and she watched as the dirt and soot circled down the drain.
The warm, soothing shower provoked her brain to pound harder against its skull and the memories to rush back like a sudden rush of blood flow, making her dizzy for a few seconds. Slowly she slid her body down to the bottom of the tub, pulling her knees in and propping her head on them, the water from the spout still running down her back like the rain they'd been pelted with the first torturous night there.
She couldn't remember the beginning of those three weeks. In her memory's eye, she saw Mona blurrily get kidnapped, then her eyes opening to the bright lights of a dark morgue, and, realizing her nudity, held back the urge to cry over fear that Charles had harmed them, for the first time, one-on-one. She shivered at the thought of those gloved hands on any of them. After that, she couldn't remember much except for the screams.
Entering her room, she slammed her back against the door and covered her mouth in horror. There, on her bed, sat four dolls: and they all bore a resemblance to someone she knew in the outside world. The shortest one with spiky brown hair and husky blue eyes was obviously her brother, Mike; the taller man sitting next to him had to be her dad; and the woman next to him, holding doll hands, was exactly like Ella. Gulping, she recognized that A had made a doll for Ezra, too, but the shirt he wore jumped out at her and made her heart stop for a second.
It was yellow and had Hollis College written on it. It was the same exact shirt she preferred to wear when she would sleep over, but Aria refused to believe it was the same one. Her fingers shook holding the sheet around her body as she bent over and sniffed it. It was an odd scent that she recognized instantly: a mix of Ezra's cologne, her shampoo, and musk. She inspected it thoroughly, finding the oil stain from when she'd accidentally knocked over a bowl of buttery popcorn over herself, her initials marked in Sharpie on the bag of the tag much to Ezra's protest that it was his, and the hole Aria had poked into it on a night Ezra convinced her to watch a horror movie, and she'd unknowingly pulled part of the shirt apart with her fingers.
It had to be the genuine shirt. It just had to be. Yes, A could made a facsimile of it, but it was all too familiar. Tears pricking her eyes, she angrily took it off the doll and put it on herself, now wondering if A had been kind enough to supply underwear.
Her former fear had turned to anger, but that anger didn't last for long. Aria was sitting on the floor, fuming over the stolen shirt while also trying to calm her pounding heart that was freaking out about the occasional screams she was hearing from her friends, when a familiar voice penetrated the locked room. "We'd give up anything to see our daughter again." Aria's head snapped up at the sound of Byron's voice. From her perspective, it was coming from the creepy, lifeless dolls, whose heads had been turned to look at Aria, which was definitely new. It appeared that A had the controls on these dolls, too, heads and all.
"So please, if you have any information that could possibly help us locate her, we're willing to give an award. She's our child and she's done nothing wrong." It sounded like her parents had talked to the media in an attempt to bring her home.
"She's my sister. And once we find whoever kidnapped her, he's going to be locked up for the rest of his life. I refuse to see him get away with this." Mike had tried to sound threatening, but the crack in his voice told otherwise.
Aria stood up on wobbly legs and realized what A was doing. This is what Mona was talking about: playing the voices of your loved ones, but so far it didn't seem like they were speaking at her funeral. The voices continued to talk, genuine and concerned and scared, until there was a shift, and Aria knew the voices weren't the people she knew anymore.
"I tell her it wasn't her fault, but the end of my marriage was all her doing. I was happy thinking Byron couldn't cheat on me, but when he does she doesn't tell me until a year later? I wish I had kicked her out of the house with her lowlife father."
"Guy after guy, and I keep being her rebound. She's a cheater and a slut." It was the first thing the Ezra doll had said, and the accusations, though just starting, were tearing a hole in her heart. She'd rather be beat up than go through the psychological torture she was just beginning to experience.
"No, no, no," Aria cried, her voice rising in volume and pitch as the voices chanted what Aria didn't want to hear in the voices of the ones she loved the most. She ran to the door and pounded on it, desperately wanting to get out, fully aware that if she didn't the voices would keep her up for days, and she'd be convinced that what the dolls were telling her were true.
"Let us out!" she screamed as it finally dawned on her that the same was happening to her friends. She could only imagine what they were hearing: Emily was probably being attacked about how her sexuality was a sin she'll burn eternally for, that she was the cause of Maya's death and how her heart wasn't big enough to fight for Paige; she could hear Hanna's cries as A tortured her with her father's apparent lack of love for her and how it was herself that brought that on, how the body she worked hard to slim down was only imaginary; and Spencer, also probably being called a slut for Melissa's boyfriends, and Aria's brain had went through a ringer, no longer able to think up anything else, only knowing that the voices kept going; she could feel the insanity creep up her spine.
Hopeless, Aria stopped screaming and collapsed to the ground, the words swirling around her head. Slut… Cheater… Home-wrecker… Until the last sentence, spoken by Ezra, was the only thing repeated: She's better off dead.
…
Aria had no idea how long that form of psychological torture lasted, but she did keep count of her and her friends' screaming fits. It was the only way she tried to keep sane, hoping that keeping track of the numbers would distract her from her loved ones hating on her.
One day she passed out from exhaustion and woke up to see the dolls were gone, and in its place was a pair of scissors and pink hair dye with a note that said, They say reliving your youth brings you back in time. For if you want to relive your innocence… Maybe then I'll let you out.
Curious, Aria held up the scissors, attracted to its shiny, reflective surface. Suddenly, an image appeared behind her reflected in the blades, and Aria spun around.
A small TV was coming down from the ceiling. It was turned on but the screen was fuzzy. Suddenly the image changed and it was a news report with her parents and brother, the exact one used for the dolls except now with an image. "We'd give up everything to see our daughter again," Byron said to the news reporter. The screen flashed to a message in red font. Just one pink streak…and the door will open. Aria forced herself to look away. She was not going to fall for A's bribery; it was too good to be true, way too good to be true. The video changed to what had to be a hidden camera in her house, and she had no choice but to hear her family sob over her, mourn her, wonder where she was. She barely looked at the screen in fear that their broken faces would make her snap. She heard conversations: between her parents, her mother and brother, and even her father and Ezra. A couple times it sounded like Ezra was just talking to himself, possibly in his apartment, asking where she was and if she was okay. She'd almost lost him, and that unbearable pain and fear of the unknown crashed over her, and she began to sob with the Ezra on the screen, able to imagine what he was feeling.
Eventually she screamed, "Fine, I'll do it!" and grabbed the pink hair dye, applying it to multiple locks of hair. Her hands shook in fury and she was barely able to see what she was doing because of the tears blocking her eyes. Once she had rinsed it out with a pitcher of water A had left, she shook it out and angrily rubbed it with a towel. "There! Now let me and my friends out!"
Nothing happened. Aria punched her fist on the wall and yelled, "I did what you asked!" Another message popped up on the TV. I like your new look. Too bad it can't save you or your friends. Your punishment isn't over quite yet… Maybe if you played with Pigtunia for me.
Furious, Aria screamed and slammed her hand on the dresser, knocking over the extra pink dye. She knew for a fact she wasn't going to fall for A's tricks again, though the action of dying her hair pink had distracted her for a few minutes from her mother's sobbing. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she saw a girl in nothing but a yellow shirt from home, messily placed pink highlights, and a hollow, darkened face.
She couldn't stand it. Picking up the scissors, she was convinced she was going to slice her wrist when instead she grabbed a chunk of her hair and chopped it off. The hair fell to the ground and she kept snipping around and around until the bob was achieved. Throwing the scissors on the ground, she kicked them away and they slid under the closet door. She then collapsed on the ground and curled up, closing her eyes and wishing to see her friends.
After torturing her with voices and images and false promises, A's next goal was to torture her with silence. That was when she feared being the only one who was still alive. She assumed her friends were going through the same thing now, stuck with their thoughts in complete and utter silence as A left them alone to contemplate life and death and which was better. Every now and then she started to cry, the scissors looking so tempting, an easy slash, and screamed at Charles that she understood her punishment. This was the only way her friends knew she was alive, and now and then they did the same thing. However, despite knowing this, Aria was still afraid that one of them would give up and use what was their equivalent to Aria's scissors to end things.
Eventually Aria fell asleep again and woke up to fresh new clothes on her bed with a note that said, Hopefully these clothes still fit. Wouldn't want you to be in that shirt forever. As she was changing, staring at Pigtunia on her bed that she assumed was a fake, there was a click, and realized the door had unlocked.
The punishment was over.
A knock echoed from the door, wakening Aria from her nightmarish visions. "Aria?" came Ezra's voice. She heard the door squeak open. "Are you okay?" The door squeaked more, indicating his entrance. "Would you mind if I came in? I just…want to shave."
Aria bent her big toe, playing with nothing; instead she watched as extra hair dye stained the water around her. She heard the door open and close, the sink running, a razor running across stubbly skin. "Mike wants to know if you would want to sleep in your room or downstairs on the couch. We'll both be down there." No answer. He was tempted to check behind the curtain, fearing she had hurt herself and had been knocked unconscious…or worse. "Aria?" he spoke quietly.
"I'm fine," she mumbled, barely audible but enough to make Ezra's worrying subside for the moment.
Mechanically Ezra finished shaving and rinsed the sink and razor. What if Aria had a razor in there, with a plan to hurt herself? It was making Ezra go crazy, not knowing what she was thinking—even her family was stressing about it, too. "I don't want her sleeping alone tonight," Ella was telling Byron in the dining room as Ezra was helping Mike clean up the living room downstairs. There was a plate of warm food waiting for Aria, and Ella was sitting across from it, her hands covering her worn-out face.
"There's food for you downstairs," Ezra told her, the only sound that of the shower running. Exiting the door, the last thing he said was for her to come down soon, then shut the door behind him.
"Maybe we shouldn't leave her alone in there," Ella told Ezra from the bottom of the steps. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.
"She's—" Ezra began, but was cut off by the bathroom door opening behind him.
Aria's hair was dripping and she poked her head out. "Can you get me a towel from the closet over there, please?" she requested. Ezra did as she asked and Aria reached a hand out and took it. "Thank you," she said, her eyes catching his for a second, a strange gleam reflecting off of them.
A couple minutes later she came out in pajama pants and a robe and sat down at the dinner table with everyone else. While eating, Ella reached out and felt Aria's hair, noticing its choppy, short length. "This cut looks good on you," she commented, smiling widely to hide her distress at what had happened to her daughter, but also the tremendous, tsunami-like relief that she was home and alive.
"I remember when Aria dyed her hair pink, she walked in the door trying to hide from everyone but Mom saw it and went crazy," Mike said.
"I didn't go crazy, I was just a little surprised," Ella backed herself up. "Right, Byron? I wasn't that mad."
"Hmmm," Byron mumbled in forced agreement, but winked at everyone when Ella turned away from him, provoking a small smile to come from Aria. Mike, excited by Aria's shift in mood, jabbed Ezra in the ribs with his elbow, attempting to say the funny stories need to continue.
"I wanted to do it, but it was Alison who really pushed me into it. I was more afraid of what Dad would say, and instead it was Mom I had to worry about," Aria added to the story, followed by a short laugh.
Ezra sat there quietly and listened to stories of the Montgomery family, some that he'd heard before and some that he hadn't. He didn't say much of anything, afraid that reminding her parents that they'd had a relationship for a long time without their knowing would just make them in sour moods.
"…And Aria kept rolling around the house as we tried to catch her, just this ball of sweaters, and when I saw her rolling near the fireplace I was ready to throw myself on the fire if needed, but then Byron jumped out of nowhere and almost tackled her. Instead of thanking him, I spent a good half hour berating him about how he could have given her a broken bone or brain damage. Until the heater was fixed, we kept her in that ball of sweaters, but left her in the crib." Everyone laughed and Aria took the last bite of what was left on her plate. "After that I thought she was going to be a handful, but then Mike came along and we were lucky if we even knew where Aria was and what she was doing half the time."
"Tell the story of when I climbed the tree and fell on Aria coming back down!" Mike exclaimed, and Ella laughed in remembrance before beginning the short tale.
Around 3:30AM, Aria went upstairs to grab some blankets, her pillow, and Pigtunia, but after searching for a few minutes, Pigtunia wasn't there. Ezra came upstairs and they sat on her bed, telling funny stories from their time together—"Remember when we spent the entire day at the park just taking pictures of us and each other and random people, and I got that terrible sunburn on the back of my neck?"—and warming Aria's hardened heart. She was passing by her parents' bedroom to go downstairs to join Ezra and Mike when she hesitated, quietly entered their room, and asked them if she could sleep there tonight, just like when she was a kid.
To relive that innocence when there was barely enough innocence left in her—she slept better that night as the dark person in the black hoodie only crept in the corner of her dreams.