Chapter 2

Grave New World, Part Two

"Do you think that was Ali?" Aria asked the question that was surely on the others' minds.

"I have no idea…" Hanna said, shaking her head. "We should split up. It'll be easier to get to each Red Coat."

The girls nodded and partnered with whoever was standing nearest to them. Emily stood closer to Aria while Spencer and Hanna teamed up. Emily decided her and Aria should be the ones to try to get to CeCe after Aria claimed to want to finish what she started in the warehouse. Spencer was more than happy to be the one to go after Alison. Spencer's brain was about to burst with questions she wanted to ask her, and she was going to get answers from Alison no matter what. With Alison alive, they could shut this whole game down. Ali was the key to every goddamn thing.

The girls were about to part ways, but heard something rustling in nearby leaves. They all glanced at each other, but before they could go charging into where the noise came from, a rabbit popped out next to the bush.

"Okay, are you freaking kidding me?" Hanna asked incredulously.

Spencer reassured her, "It's ok. It's just a rabbit." Spencer, if she wasn't so busy with other things, would have smiled. Her mind flashed back to that mid-September day. The girls had just reunited and they were all still planning where to place Alison's memorial. She remembered how Hanna heard something and Spencer insisted it was a rabbit. It was such an innocent time. They hadn't been framed for anything yet, A wasn't constantly throwing cars at people, and this whole charade wasn't as screwed up or as dangerous as it was now. It was, so far, only threatening texts. All that had changed pretty fast. Hanna pulled her out of her thoughts and tugged her arm towards the mansion that was semi-hosting the party. Emily and Aria went towards the tent where all the party-goers were.

Ezra was sitting, plotting, at the piano in the cellar. It was dusty and smelled awful down there, but it was a perfect place to trap those girls, one steal-happy girl in particular. He heard clicks descending into the stairwell closer and closer. He felt nervous, but then didn't know why. He was the one the liars were afraid, not vice-versa. He saw a Red Coat and instantly got excited. A tiny part of him said, "Here's Ali," but he knew it was CeCe, and it sure enough was.

"I know, I screwed up. Let's not even start in on that. They're here. And they're more than ready to get Alison before we can," CeCe partly begged, while pulling her mask off.

Ezra removed the head gear from his costume so he could talk to CeCe clearly. He ignored the first part of what she said and, barely under a shout, said, "What the hell happened back there, CeCe! That wasn't part of the plan!"

"Your little girlfriend almost killed me! That's what happened."

Ezra raised his eyebrows, confused and surprised. "How did she…?"

"Well, you know how she's with that karate instructor?" CeCe asked, with a smirk on her sinister face. She knew very well that he did, but decided to kick Ezra where it hurt. "Apparently he taught her some moves. And then she used those moves on me! You should've seen it. You would've thought it was cute," she added while she roll her eyes.

"But, what about Emily?" Ezra asked, not even flinching at her comments about Aria. He had gotten used to it in the last months. CeCe was always bringing up Aria to taunt him and saying hateful, sarcastic comments. CeCe hated her the more than the rest of the liars, and Ezra had a pretty good idea why…

"Ali saved her. She stopped the machine. She ran out and Spencer ran after her. I ran upstairs and then that eyebrow bitch followed me. I fell off the balcony and when they were comforting Aria, I got up." CeCe chuckled and looked at the ground, "Those she-devils didn't even hear me."

"Stop calling her that. You graduated high school, CeCe, so stop acting like a high school girl, for Christ's sake," he ordered.

"Oh, but I thought you like high school girls. Am I wrong? Change your type?" CeCe teased with a devious smile. "By the way, I'm totally fine," she said sarcastically, referring to her fall, full on knowing Ezra didn't care enough about it. She liked being partners in crime with him. They were never anything more, not since that summer…

One of the down sides with working with Ezra was his affection for Aria. CeCe had bigger plans for her, saying it was too suspicious that she always got off without a scratch. CeCe planned for him to drive the car into her house instead of Emily's, but Ezra refused. Hell, the most CeCe got to torture Aria was putting bees into her mom's car. CeCe would've much rather put them in Aria's. But of course, Romeo couldn't let anything ever happen to dear, dear Juliet.

"They got her diary," Ezra spoke up after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.

"What?!" CeCe yelled, not thinking about who could hear her.

"When Spencer followed Ali, Alison led her to the lair. I checked the cameras. Hanna took it. I don't think she told the others though. She slipped it into her bag."

"Ezra! That's gonna mess this all up! Alison wrote about you!"

"No, no she didn't. She wrote Beach Hottie. I think we're ok."

"She wrote about how Beach Hottie took English courses at Hollis! There's no one we can pin this on! Don't you get that?"

"Wren?" Ezra asked innocently.

"Wren didn't go to Hollis. He didn't even live in Rosewood!"

"Well, right now Hanna's the one we've got to worry about. She got the diary. She looked at my suits… and she's getting Caleb to come here and hack into the computer."

"Well, did you lock the door?" CeCe questioned Ezra, talking to him like he was four.

"Yeah. How did Ali even get in? Did she have a key?" Ezra wondered, not directly asking CeCe.

"I guess or she picked it… Look, they're not going to get to Alison. I bet we aren't either. That bitch is good. We should just focus on Hanna. I think she's with Spencer. They're probably going to come to this mansion, so let's go. I'll focus on the other two…"

"No. Go to the lair. Completely shut down the computer so Caleb won't get inside. Take out the suits. Just take everything that could give either of us away. They'll go back. I promise." He paused and saw CeCe preparing to argue. "I can handle stuff here. Go. You have keys to my apartment. You can stay there tonight if you don't want to go to the crawl space. They're onto that, you know?"

"What am I supposed to do after I clear out the lair? Stuff it all under your bed then go to sleep? No. Hell no!"

"Try to find Mona then or something. Just get out of here. Call me the second you get out of the lair, understand? I've got a new plan…"

A/N: I know, not the best chapter. But the next chapter is going to be great! Trust me! it'll have a lot of action and i'ts going to be longer than the others BUT... there will be a little bit of a wait! Tomorrow is my birthday so i'm gonna relax and party lol! and grades are due wednesday and i have missing work at school so ive got to get that done. Part Three of Grave New World should be posted somewhere between tuesday and thursday next week! :D

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reviews, follows, favorites, and views! I have nine followers, so you should spread the word about this fanfic and get me twenty for my birthday! It would add to my thrill of writing this! It would mean so much more to me than it already has and that would be amazing.

Have a good weekend everyone!