So, nearly all of Athena's secrets will be coming out in this longer chapter. It was just pretty ridiculous to drag it out just for suspense when I can inject that into the story in plenty different ways and secrets. Please let me know what you think, more to come.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER FOUR

THOSE UGLY TRUTHS

"Honestly, guys, this is a tough one to talk about. I mean, I've covered some terrible things, but last night, I felt it. The hunt for Tyler O'Neill ended in tragedy and another Lakewood teen lost her life. And the press will be hyping the curse of Brandon James and looking for someone to blame, but I've met these kids. Their loss is impossible to describe. So, I'm not gonna try. My heartfelt condolences go to the friends and family of Riley Marra. I'm sorry for your loss."

"Can you turn that off?" Elena asked from her perch on Athena's bed.

Athena hit the button on the top of her iPod jack, "Sorry. It's just so typical."

Elena shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, I didn't know Riley but she seemed nice. It's still sad."

"Not that," Athena sighed, flopping onto her back on the bed next to the other girl. "All those words are just that – words. She's not helping or doing anything. She's just talking."

"What else is she supposed to do?" Elena asked, leaning down with her head in her hand, propped up on her elbow. "Tyler is dead. It's over with."

"Yeah, sure," Athena muttered to herself, knowing deep in herself that it definitely wasn't over. But she wasn't going to say anything to the girl. She actually liked her. It had been a couple days since Riley died and she took the time Emma was spending away with Brooke to hang out and work with Elena on their romance scene.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked, slightly leaning over her.

Athena stared up at her, "It just doesn't feel like the conclusion this kind of thing is supposed to have. Usually, isn't the bad guy hauled away to jail yelling that the meddling kids will rue the day they got him caught?"

"This isn't Scooby Doo," Elena smirked briefly before getting serious. "It's real life. Real terrible life lately, but still reality. Tyler is dead, it's over."

"Of course," she responded, feigning that she really believed that. She didn't, not by a long shot. But Elena wasn't mixed up in what she was. And she'd rather it all stay that way. There was no sense dragging more people into the mess of a serial killer spree than the killer already intended.

"Let's do our romance scene," Elena smiled, bubbling at the opportunity. The girls sat up and faced each other, rattling off their lines, facing each other in character – characters in love. Their faces grew closer over the course of their scene, and Elena was staring at her lips.

"You okay?" Athena asked, breaking character.

Elena didn't answer, her eyes lidded, and then she pressed her lips to Athena's, both their eyes closing. Athena froze briefly, not understanding what the hell was going on. But Elena's lips were insistent against hers. She pulled away, blinking her eyes open to Elena's confused face. "What are you doing?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Elena babbled, blushing deep red. "I thought you were... I mean..."

"I am," Athena cut her off, her lips pursed. "But why are you doing this? I'm not okay with being someone's experiment."

"I like you," Elena whispered, blushing deeper. "It's the first time I've liked a girl, and I'm a little confused. But it's not an experiment."

"Okay then, continue," Athena smiled.

Elena let a little giggle and leaned forward again, kissing her. Athena took over from then, leaning over her until she was laying on top of her on the bed. Elena opened up her legs to cradle her between them and flushed as Athena peppered kisses down her neck.

Just then there was a knock at the door and it creaked open as Sam poke his head in, "Hey, Athen—uh..." he trailed off when he saw her tangled up with Elena's body on the bed. "Oh."

"Sam," Athena groaned, utterly embarrassed as she lifted herself off of Elena and sat in a less compromising position. "Why are you here?"

"Just hanging out," he shrugged, rubbing his hand at the back of his neck. He held out a small brown package, "Ian said this was waiting for you by the door when he got home. I was just bringing it up."

"You can set it on the desk," Athena gestured over to it, keeping a straight face.

"Right," he murmured, setting it down on the desk and then walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"That was awkward," Elena groaned, laying back against the pillows. "I should probably head home. My mom's being a little paranoid since Riley was killed at the police station, so she always expects me home before dark."

"Alright," Athena responded a little out of sorts. "We're okay though, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm a little random today," Elena grimaced, hopping off the bed. "I swear I'm not about to ghost on you."

"Good," Athena smiled, letting Elena kiss her one more time before she left. Once the door closed she got up to her desk and picked up the package. It wasn't big, it wasn't even properly labeled. It just had her name scrawled on it in black ink, no postage or anything. Whoever left it at the door, wasn't the postman, but the person themselves.

She gingerly pushed her fingers through the taped lines and pulled them apart, leaving a cardboard box. She pulled the lid off and her brow furrowed in confusion. It was a wooden carved heart, with letters etched deeply into its surface spelling out 'UNKNOWN.' She looked and saw a piece of card paper at the bottom of the box and pulled it out, unfolding it to read a message not unlike the one she got after her first day at school.

'Who are you, really? Do you even know?'

She quickly put both the card and the wooden heart in the box, closed it, and shoved it in the drawer of her desk. She shook her head to herself, this was crazy. This person was crazy. And they definitely weren't going to guess at her past just to freak her out. She wouldn't let it. She then felt her phone buzzing and pulled it out of her pocket, seeing a text from an Unknown number. With trepidation, she opened it.

She saw four photos of Riley, Brooke, Emma and Nina in that order, with red X's on Riley and Nina's faces. It was some sort of poll to vote on who would be the next on the chopping block – in other words, vote on who would be next to die. She didn't know if the psycho built this and was spreading it around to terrorize the girls, or if some other asshole put it up and the killer was just passing along the message to bring it to her attention.

She knew one thing for sure. It wasn't over – it definitely wasn't over. And she didn't know if she should feel some sort of self-pride in knowing that before now. Knowing that it couldn't have been Tyler who was killing everyone. Knowing that the killer had more design than the police seemed to. She didn't feel proud to know that because it didn't make any difference. She didn't know the important stuff that could help. She didn't know what the plan was, what the point was, what was next – who was next.

She decided to go see Emma, if only to distract herself.

Emma was almost out the door when she got there. "Hey, where's the fire?"

"I was just coming to get you," Emma gasped, holding a thick and wide book in her arms – like a yearbook. "I got this in the mail today. We need to go show Noah and Audrey. You guys are the only ones who know everything about this guy."

"Let's go," Athena shrugged, taking the large book Emma was handling. It turned out to actually be a yearbook, it looked like one from their High School, but when she looked at the spine the year was 1994. "Who gave you an old yearbook? I think this is the year Diana and Till graduated."

"My mom and dad graduated that year too," Emma explained as they drove to Noah's work. She parked a bit haphazardly before rushing in, startling Noah and Audrey at the clear glass desk.

"Emma," Noah greeted dubiously, looking worse for wear. "Uh, welcome to my nightmare. What's up?"

Emma took the book from Athena and pressed it on the counter, "I got this in the mail. I think the killer is sending me some weird message."

"A yearbook?" Noah asked, not getting the big deal. "That's not so weird." Emma started flipping the pages open, revealing the crudely cut out photos. Noah gaped, "Oh, Holy Manson Family album!" Audrey smacked his chest. "Hey!" He looked at Emma sheepishly, "Sorry. Just... these were Brandon's victims."

"He cut out their faces?" Athena asked.

"And then he scratched out my dad's. The only survivor," Emma added. She paused, and gave a look to Athena. "He also, uh, wrote on Diana's."

"What?" Athena asked, grabbing the book and flipping to Diana's photo. It red ink the words 'LIAR' and 'FAKE' were written. "Liar? Fake? What does that mean?"

"Well this person is using my mom to get to me because she's been lying to me about her involvement with the Brandon James fiasco," Emma surmised. "And Diana has been my mom's best friend since middle school. Maybe Diana knew and helped my mom hide it. I don't know."

Athena shifted on her feet, "You told me your mom was Daisy. Brandon was obsessed with her. Did he ever talk to her? Maybe... give her gifts? To prove his feelings for her or something."

"Yeah, he used to carve wooden trinkets for her," Emma replied, confused. "Why?"

Athena looked to the ground, "Nothing. Nothing."

"That look doesn't look like nothing," Audrey spoke, deadpan. "What's going on with you?"

Athena looked up, seeing all three of them looking at her, and sighed, "Look, I've gotten things in my room. Just a couple..."

"What were they?" Noah asked eagerly, earning another jab from Audrey.

"Well, after my first day here, there was a note in my room asking if my name was Jules or Athena and that my secret would come out," she explained. "Then today I got a package – a wooden heart with the word 'UNKOWN' carved into it."

"The truth lies where the mask was made," Noah read the wording around Emma's dad's photo, then looked at Athena. "Mr. Branson called you Jules on the roll sheet that first day. What secret is the killer talking about?"

Athena wrung her hands together, "It's..."

"You can trust us," Emma swore to her. "I mean, if it's big enough that you're being targeted for it. We need to help each other."

She sighed, knowing that for safety sake, she should tell them the truth about her. It was just something she never wanted to share with anyone in Lakewood. "I wasn't born Athena Tyler," she revealed to them. "Until about a month ago, I thought my name was Athena Contos. I thought my parents were Alonzo and Gretchen Contos."

"You thought?" Audrey questioned.

Athena nodded, "I was applying for jobs, for some extra money. I was called in for an interview at a yogurt shop and when I showed up, the police were there, wanting to talk to me. They didn't even tell me what it was about, just corralled me into their car and took me down to the Portland PD station. They let me sit in an interview room for an hour and half before a lady cop comes in to tell me that my parents aren't my parents."

"They weren't your parents?" Emma asked. "Who were they then?"

"My kidnappers," Athena breathed.

Emma gasped and she, Audrey and Noah all looked at each other before looking back at her. Noah gaped, "Kidnappers? Oh, my god."

Athena nodded, "Yeah. Apparently they couldn't have children of their own, and adoptions had fallen through last minute three times in a row. They lost hope. And they lost it. So, they came to a random town – Lakewood – and picked up a baby at the park. I was three years old. There was no trace of me after that. Until I started applying for jobs with a dummy social security number. Then the police found me, arrested my dad – I mean, Alonzo – and returned me to my real family. Biologically, Diana and Till are my parents, Ian and Lana are my siblings."

"Wow," Emma murmured. "Somehow, the killer knows. Or they are trying to figure it out. He's obsessed with revealing secrets in our past."

"But why me?" Athena asked. "I have nothing to do with Brandon James. He wasn't obsessed with my mom, Diana hasn't had the chance to lie to me about it because I haven't lived with her all my life. Plus, that just proves it's not Tyler. I didn't even know him. He was already gone when I got here. He never heard Mr. Branson call me Jules."

"It could be anyone who knows that the Tyler family had a third kid though," Audrey surmised. "It doesn't have to be someone who heard Branson call you Jules."

"I still never thought it was Tyler," Athena shrugged. "He just doesn't make sense to me. And even though it is completely illogical to go around murdering people, there's still usually a reason, some kind of twisted logic behind it that makes sense to the killer."

"The truth lies where the mask was made," Noah repeated. "You know, the mask Brandon James wore was actually a surgical mask. Some say it was all that held his face together..."

"Noah," Audrey warned, cutting off his monologue.

"Okay, okay," he sighed. "Uh, just... it was to protect his sutures from infection, post-op."

"So, who made it?" Emma asked.

He shrugged, "I don't know. Brandon's surgeries were done at Lakewood General, out on the turnpike, but it closed down, like, six or seven years ago." He paused, looking at Emma with wide excited eyes, "Please tell me we're going there!"

"No," Emma quickly shut him down. "We're not going anywhere."

"But it's a great lead!" he objected.

"Look, I know that you want to do something for Riley," Emma sighed. "I do too. But, uh.. this could be a trap."

Noah shrunk, "Uh, yeah, fine. Okay. Why don't you take it to the Sheriff? Go be a law-abiding – whatever."

Emma bid farewells and Athena and Audrey followed her outside. Athena tugged on her arm, "You're not going to that hospital alone."

"I have to go," Emma insisted. She looked at Audrey, "I keep thinking about what you said this morning. About what a relief it would be if it actually was Tyler who was behind all of this. And, I mean, if he sent me that yearbook, and he's dead, then this isn't a trap. He's not there to ambush me. And you'd have your answer." She shifted on her feet. "But also, if it wasn't him..."

"We're going with you," Athena deadpanned, leaving no room for argument.

"Prepared," Audrey added.

"Okay," Emma nodded. "Should we take Noah?"

"Oh, God, no," Audrey answered instantly. "He'd be like a four-year-old at Disneyland. We'd have to put a leash on him."

"Fair point," Emma agreed.

"Let's just go before it gets too dark tonight," Athena urged, already walking to the car. Seeing that Emma was either to driven or too shaken to drive, she took the wheel and drove them with Emma's directions. "Look, we have to be smart about this, okay? I have my taser gun with me, so stick close to me in case some fucker with a mask jumps out at us, okay?"

"I can handle myself," Emma argued, but Athena heard the tremor in her voice.

"I'm sure you think that," she allowed. "But I think out of the three of us, I'm the only one with actual combat training."

"You have training?" Audrey asked from the back seat.

She shrugged as she drove to park in front of this hospital place, "My dad – I mean, Alonzo, – he, uh, wanted me to be prepared for anything. He was protective like that."

They helped themselves out of the car and Emma looked up at the building, "So, what do you think?"

"Uh, second thoughts are setting in," Audrey admitted.

Emma steeled her face, "Look, this guy killed Riley at the police station and Nina at her house, and he's been in Athena's room and I know for a fact that he was outside my house the other night," Emma explained. "If he wanted to kill me, he's had plenty of chances."

"That's sketchy logic," Audrey deadpanned. She shifted and sighed, "But it almost makes sense."

"He's playing a game," Athena pitched in. "It would be a pretty boring game if he killed off his key player before he was done. And he wants to expose everything fake in her life to her, she has to be alive for that."

"What about us?" Audrey asked, looking over at the new girl.

"He's targeting Athena now too," Emma pointed out. "He brought her into the game."

Athena pulled out her taser gun, "And I'll protect you too. Let's go."

The girls ventured into the dark building, squinting their eyes to see and look around. It was vast inside and cluttered with shelves and other things. Audrey looked around, "This place is huge. Maybe we should split up."

Emma gave her a side glare, "That is not even remotely funny."

"Just messing with you," Audrey smiled to herself.

Athena took the front of the group, "This way." The girls stopped when they noticed a crude trail of blood.

"This can't be good," Emma breathed.

"Let's keep going," Athena goaded, following next to the trail until they reached some double doors.

Audrey let her flashlight crawl up the doors until they saw a red painting of a Brandon James mask. Athena squared her shoulders and pushed through the doors. She walked until they got to a large operating theater. There was a plethora of xrays taped the the wall and an empty gurney in the center of the room. She paused at the other side of the room by a curtain whereas Emma was looking at the xrays and Audrey at the bloody sheets on the gurney. A faint buzzing sound began bugging her, she reached up to swat around her face but saw nothing. "Guys do you hear flies?"

The girls looked at her, a little lost, both shaking their heads.

Athena sighed, walking towards the curtain, where the noise got stronger. So, she pulled the curtain away and gasped at the sight of another gurney with a dead pig with a slit in his belly, practically gutted. "Oh my god!"

"Is that a pig?" Audrey groaned behind her. "Oh, God, I'm never eating bacon again."

The girls all covered their noses as Athena took a closer look, "It's missing it's heart, I think."

"My mom got a heart in a box," Emma revealed. "This is where it's from."

"Lovely," Audrey deadpanned.

"The head is missing too," Athena told them. "Anyone care about that part?"

"All of these xrays are of Brandon James," Emma mumbled. "There are pictures and all of his previous masks. This is where they tried to fix him. Each mask was custom made for Brandon's face after each one of the surgeries."

"There's more than one mask?" Audrey asked, concerned and a little frightened.

"If it was easy for us to find this place, it'd be easy enough for the killer to find it and take one of the other masks," Athena suggested. "I mean, the one he wore that night is with the police. But if the killer found all of this then he could have gotten his hands on another one and it would look nearly identical."

"That's a good point," Noah's voice sounded behind them.

All the girls screamed out loud and whipped around to see the boy jump from the fright of their shrieks, covering his ears. "Geez, I think you broke my ear drums."

"Forget about your ear drum!" Athena chided. "You nearly gave us all a heart attack. What the Hell are you doing here?"

"Does that really require an explanation?" he asked her. "You know I wanna make this guy pay just as much as you do."

"Hey," Audrey cut in, "don't blame them. Blame me."

"Guys, we have bigger problems," Emma cut them off.

Noah was already looking around like a kid in a museum, "Holy Christmas. Oh, I knew it. It's a genuine killer's lair."

"That's a thing?" Emma asked.

"Oh, please don't get him started," Audrey begged.

"A lair is an extension of the killer's psychosis," Noah fan-girled. "Like Hannibal Lecter's kitchen. I mean, every fictional killer has one."

"The difference is that this isn't fictional," Athena cut in. "This is real scary shit and we need to find out why it's all here. I mean, it's all just laying around for us to find? That's too easy. No, we were meant to find this place for a reason."

"Good point," Noah admitted. "It all looks staged. You see lairs on TV, not in real life. Take Pretty Little Liars. They're always chock-full of bloody clues and creepy unrealistic icons. I mean, seriously, how would A get her hands on four Victorian dolls that look just like the main characters? How do you shop for that?"

"More importantly," Athena smirked at him, "how do you know so much about Pretty Little Liars?"

Noah gaped at her a little like a fish, "That's besides the point."

"Hey, guys," Audrey called their attention to another table where little trinkets were placed. She held up her camera, pointing it towards a little figurine, "This is Rachel's."

Emma walked over and looked at a necklace, "Nina's necklace."

"This is Riley's key chain," Noah pointed to a four leaf clover. "The bastard took souvenirs."

"This is mine," Athena interrupted, reaching out to a wishbone necklace. "I didn't even notice this was missing. This sicko has been in my room."

"You definitely need an alarm system or something," Audrey told her.

"The missing yearbook pictures are here too," Noah said, flashing his phone's flashlight up into the ceiling. Each yearbook photo hung from strings, along with a smattering of photos of Emma too. He looked through them until he noticed something, "Wait – I don't remember this woman being one of the victims, it's an extra photo."

"What photo?" Athena asked. He reached up to pull it from the string, easily grasping it. He handed it to her and she gasped, her hand jumping to her mouth.

"What? What is it?" Noah asked eagerly.

"My mom..." Athena whispered in horror.

"Diana?" Emma asked, looking over her shoulder.

Athena stared at the photo, the young girl with dark hair, dark eyes and high cheek bones, smiling blissfully. "No... the mom who raised me. Gretchen."

"She was from Lakeview?" Audrey asked.

"She told me that she was born in Eureka," Athena was still staring at the photo in shock. "She always told me that she met my dad when she went to college in Portland. This must be the reason they chose Lakeview to go kid shopping." She took a deep breath and put the photo down on the table with the other objects, "We should go. All of this should be in the police's hands, right?"

"Because they did such a good job before," Noah snorted.

Athena faced him, "I know they failed. But it's just stupid to not involve them when we found the bad guy's lair full of evidence. If they find us in here, tampering with it, it'll all be inadmissible in court and this sicko could go free even if he gets unmasked."

"Okay, let's go," Emma agreed, leading them out of the room. She came to a grinding halt by another table where there was a purple laptop, "Wait—this is Nina's laptop."

"What?" Audrey intoned, coming to her side.

"The police have been looking for this," Emma explained, opening it up to Nina's desktop. There were a multitude of yellow folders with names attached to them of teens in Lakeview that Nina knew.

"Whoa," Audrey's eyes widened. "Folders for all her friends?"

"Maybe photos?" Emma suggested.

Noah pointed to one in the top corner, "Was she friends with the Mayor?"

"There's one for the Principal and the Sheriff too," Athena pointed out.

"Nina, what the hell were you doing?" Emma spoke to no one in particular before clicking on a file. A screen popped up for a pass-code of some sort.

"They're encrypted," Noah realized. "I could get 'em open, but I'd need some time."

"We can't take the laptop," Athena instantly shot down. "But would we be able to take the files, even if we can't open them right now?"

"Yeah," Noah shrugged.

"Does your camera have a SD card?" Emma asked Audrey.

Audrey nodded and pulled the blue card out of her camera and handed it into Emma's gloved hands. Just then they heard a loud sound like a slamming door and some shuffling feet.

"Someone's coming," Noah urged as Emma slipped the SD card into the computer.

"Okay, it's copying," Emma said back.

"Come on, we gotta go now," Athena hissed. "How much longer?"

"Ten seconds," Emma whispered.

"We don't have ten seconds," Audrey insisted.

"I know, I know, I know," Emma bounced on her feet, watching the computer screen with rapt attention.

"Uh, perimeter alert," Noah said, catching sight of flashlights. "We gotta go now."

"Five seconds," Emma whispered.

They heard the sound of another door opening and Noah said again, "Emma, we gotta go!"

"Okay, we're done," Emma yanked the SD card out of the laptop and shut it, following the others as they tired to run off. They came to a tall shelf where a lone Brandon James mask sat propped up at the top. "What's that?" Emma asked.

"It's Brandon's mask, the one," Noah told her.

"Forget it, we gotta go," Athena insisted.

"There might be DNA on it," Emma pointed out, her voice pitching. She reached up to grab the mask and when she took it down, there was a human head behind it that came tumbling down to the floor. All the teens screamed at the startling sight, jumping away. Emma dropped the mask and gasped, "Oh, my God. That's Tyler's head!"

"We knew he didn't kill anyone," Athena agreed, grabbing her arm, "but we gotta go now!"

"Back exit!" Emma called as they ran for it. They all tumbled towards the door and pushed it open to see the Sheriff and two cops there with guns and flashlights. All the teens screamed again, facing the Sheriff who wore a deadpan expression, bordering on angry, "You three, with me. Now."

"What were you thinking?" Maggie asked, her voice scolding as she stared at the four teens on the couch in the Sheriff's office.

"Yeah, what were you thinking?" the Sheriff practically shouted. "Every piece of evidence in that hospital is potentially inadmissible because of you!"

"It didn't look like you were using any of it!" Athena shouted back, glaring at both adults. "There was Nina's laptop, the guy's trophies from his victims, Tyler's fucking head!"

"We swept that place a week ago, looking for Tyler," he retorted. "There was nothing."

"Then why were you there tonight?" Athena asked, standing up defensively. "How'd you know we were there?"

"Anonymous tip," he crossed his arms. "Someone saw you guys breaking in."

The teens shared a look, having an idea as to the identity of the anonymous tipster.

"So, why were you there?" the Sheriff asked.

Emma sighed, "A package came to the house." She looked at her mother, somewhat accusingly, "The 1994 Lancers yearbook. He cut out people's faces, he wrote things."

"Oh, my God, Emma," Maggie whispered, kneeling down in front of her daughter.

"Why didn't you come straight here?" The Sheriff scolded, exasperated.

Emma glared at him, "Because the last time I came here, it didn't really end that well."

"Hey," Maggie chided, "that's not fair."

"No, the fact that we're the ones dying for your lies is not fair," Athena snapped. "None of this shit is our fault, Miss Daisy. I just moved here and already four people have died and this freak has shown no sign of stopping. He's targeting us, because of you."

"Where is she?" Athena heard Diana's voice just outside the room. She then burst through the door, "Where is my daughter? Jules, are you okay?"

Athena's steam had still been building and her glare only deepened when Diana and Till walked through the door. "My name is Athena! God—dammit!"

"Hey," Ian ran into the room and took Athena into his arms, "are you alright?"

"No," she huffed, accepting his hug before pulling away. "We're being grilled for not coming to the police when it's the police who practically forced us into it when they allowed Riley to wander off and get herself killed."

Emma stood up and stood with Athena, "I said I didn't think it was Tyler. No one believe me."

"But you believe us now, right?" Audrey asked.

"Well, considering his head is in that hospital and his body is in the car, yeah," the Sheriff answered.

"Glad we cleared that up," Noah scoffed, going to stand up.

The Sheriff stopped him, "Sit down. Don't move. I'm gonna need your camera, Audrey." The short haired girl handed over her camera. The Sheriff took it and sighed, "Now all of you, get out of here. Go home. Do me a favor. Any further contact, you call me immediately."

"Come on, darling," Diana tried to put an arm around Athena's shoulders.

But the girl somewhat violently shook her off, "Don't touch me."

"Hey!" Till scolded her, following the girl as she practically ran out of the Sheriff's station, "Don't treat your mother like that."

"News flash," Athena whirled around to glare at them, "neither of you are my parents. And I always thought that that wasn't your fault so I tried – I really tried here. But I am not Jules, I will never be Jules." She started walking down the street, towards their house.

"Ju—Athena," Diana ran after her.

But Athena ignored her and turned to Ian, "Please tell me you drove a separate car here."

"Yeah, yeah, come on," he put an arm around her shoulder and lead him to his car. They jumped in, ignoring Diana yelling after them.

They drove in silence for a little while until Ian finally spoke, "Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"I'm sure Diana will tell you her version, Till too," Athena muttered. "I realize that I haven't been the poster daughter you all were expecting, but-"

"Stop that," Ian interrupted. "Whatever's going on, I'm sure there's an explanation. And no one can blame you for being... overwhelmed. We're all overwhelmed."

"Really?" Athena asked sarcastically. "All of you? Ian, out of the whole family, I've spent more time with you and Sam than anyone. With Lana, I understand, she's at that age where she's too cool for everything and she never knew me, let alone missed me. But the only times I see Till are at dinner and Diana's only around when others are too. It's like I have some kind of disease. They can't even look at me half the time, like they're forcing themselves to act like I was never gone."

"Mom and dad are having just as difficult a time with all of this," Ian tried to explain to her. "You have to give them time."

"That's easy for you to say, you didn't have your whole life ripped out from under you only to find out that the new one is a lie too," Athena spat as she got out of the car once he parked in front of their house.

Till and Diana pulled into the driveway and raced up behind her as she walked into the house. "Athena, you can not speak to me like that and then just walk away."

Athena scoffed, walking into the house, "Oh, cry me a river. I'm sorry I embarrassed you tonight, let's just leave it at that."

"Athena," Till cut it when she went for the stairs, "you can't treat us like this, as if you're the only one going through a transition. You're not. We're dealing with this too."

Athena guffawed, "Oh, please, spare me. Till, you're never home. And you, Diana, make plans for me. Try to set up play dates with Emma because we were supposed to grow up together. Put me in your old school. You shoved me into the life Jules was supposed to live here like I can take her place but I can't. I'm Athena. I grew up in Portland in a loft apartment with two parents and no siblings. I had a girlfriend with green hair and I got B's in school. I'm not your poster child."

"Is that what you're walking around with?" Diana asked, moisture in her eyes as she faced the younger girl. "Talk to us, Athena. Tell us what's bother you. Be honest – for once."

"Honest?" Athena laughed sarcastically. "You want to measure up honesty here, Diana? Fine, why did you never tell anyone that you knew my mother?" She cut herself off, letting out another scoffing laugh, "Sorry – my kidnapper."

Diana gaped as all eyes turned to her. Ian asked with narrowed eyes, "What?"

"Yeah, tell 'em Diana," Athena spat. "You knew Gretchen. She lived here, in Lakeview. She went to your school, she was in your class. All this time, you knew who she was. At least since she was named as my kidnapper when I was found. So, how come you held back?"

"I – I," Diana stuttered.

"It's true?" Till asked, stepping away from Diana to look at her. "You knew Gretchen Contos?"

"She was Gretchen Linda back then," Athena corrected, "but yeah, you knew her, Diana. Were you friends with her? Did you ever suspect that she was the one who had me? All these years?"

"I didn't know she took you," Diana spoke as if she was gasping for air, as if there wasn't enough around her. "God, if I did, I would've-"

"You would've what?" Athena cut her off. "Would have spoken up? Is this why you can't even acknowledge what happened? The reason you just try to ignore the glaring elephant in the room when you and I are around each other? Pretend it's not there? Because you feel guilty."

Diana didn't say anything, looking down at the ground.

"That's just great," Athena muttered. "Well, I'm done with it. I'm done trying to tip toe in this house because I feel like a stranger. I'm done trying to tip toe around you because you want me to be someone I'm not. You don't know anything about me – my favorite color, where I want to go to college, what I like to do. Because you don't care to ask. Because you don't want me to stray from who you envisioned Jules would be if she was still here. Well, tough shit, Diana. I'm Athena, not Jules. And nothing you do is going to change that." With that rant finally dragged from her throat and lungs, she twisted on her heel and raced up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door.

"Hey, Piper, do you have a second?" Emma asked as she walked into work the next morning, seeing the podcaster on the couch.

The brunette nodded, taking a sip of her coffee, "Emma. Perfect timing. I was just wrapping things up."

Emma paused, sitting down, "Wait, you're done? You're leaving?"

She shut her laptop and set it aside, "I'm gonna grab some man-on-the-street reaction bits, uh, request interviews from police, get shut down, rinse, repeat. But, uh, yeah, the case is pretty much done. Just came by to say goodbye and, uh, grab a latte for the road."

"Maybe you shouldn't," Emma hinted.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened at the hospital yesterday?" Piper asked gently. "The sheriff isn't sharing anything."

"You know, I can't talk about specifics," Emma told her.

Piper nodded, "I get it. You don't have to say anything, but barista to podcaster, if you were me, would you stay or would you go?"

Emma looked around, for who – she didn't know – before looking back at Piper and saying, "I would stay."

So, there it is! Did anyone guess Athena's secret past? It's all out there now, but it's not the whole story. Hint, hint. Please keep reading and tell me what you think. I've yet to get reviews.

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RegalGirl94