Chapter 3
Grave New World, Part Three
CeCe turned around and faced the room before leaving. She left the timelines untouched just because Ezra and her worked way too hard on them. Although she did tweak them a bit; she printed out a few pictures of Ezra out and slapped two of them on the timelines and two others on a wall. It was too suspicious for there not to be any pictures of him.
She took the other Alison diary. There were two and Hanna got the other. She took bank statements and mentally cursed Ezra for leaving them out in the open, but was slightly happy. She knew the girls had seen the statements and she knew one of them had a few payments made out to her. That proved that she actually wasn't the one in charge. Now, with those liars knowing that, she could turn the focus off of her and onto Boardshorts if worse came to worse.
She sighed before leaving and locking the door. At least once a week, reality hit her. She would remember everything she had done. She would remember why. Every once in a while, she honestly felt guilty- for some of it, at least. She felt bad for almost killing Jason in that elevator "accident" because one time, way back when, she did really truly like him. But what could she do? She knew she was selfish and she'd save her ass to no end. The twisted part of her – the part that taught Ali – was proud of that.
She truly liked Alison once, too. She was happy that there was someone in the world who looked up to her and trusted her. She was a good friend to have, and vice versa. She knew that all the monsters Alison made was the result of the monster CeCe started, but again, a tiny part of her was proud.
Although, she did miss having a friend. She laughed because Ezra was the closest thing to it. But, so far, he was the only relationship of hers that didn't end shattered. There was no chance of ever reconnecting with Jason. Or her short term friend only because of other friends, Melissa. She missed Alison a little bit too. She missed having that little sister role in her life.
She sort of tried to regain one with Spencer instead of Ali. Spencer was very similar to her. They both were competitive souls and fierce personas. Jason was even her brother! She tried with Emily, Hanna, and Aria briefly, but none of it felt right. Especially not Aria.
She wondered what Ezra was doing at the moment and what his "new plan" was. She wanted to go back to the cemetery, but decided to try and stay in his good graces. When he got angry, he really went all out.
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Spencer and Hanna marched into the mansion with purpose, yet not really knowing what they were looking for. There were only a few other people in the house, not a single one of them noticing Spencer and Hanna.
"Where do we start?" Hanna asked while scanning the small crowd for any familiar faces.
"Well the upstairs is blocked off," Spencer pointed to a stair well with a chain hanging over the bottom steps, "but I don't think it can block out A." They walked over to the steps, but someone stopped them.
"You aren't allowed up those stairs. The party is in the den and the library," a strange old man told them. Hanna just stood there but Spencer's jaw dropped. It was the gardener that her and Toby ran into. The one who stood next to her at Ravenswood cemetery hour. Spencer didn't know what to say when the man looked at her quizzically, most likely puzzled by the way she was staring at him. "The den is over there. The library is down the hall. Enjoy the party."
Hanna walked away, but Spencer stayed. Hanna whispered her name while tugging her arm. Spencer relented, but glanced back at the man who hadn't moved.
"What was that about?"
"He works for Grunwald, I think."
"I thought we trust her. Why do we care about Mrs. Creepy's creepy servants, anyway?"
Spencer thought about that and knew Hanna was sort of right, so she shrugged.
"Look, I doubt A would actually go to upstairs. He probably knew that we'd go up there looking for him because it would be shut down to guests. He's gotta be here somewhere, though. Wanna check the library?" Hanna suggested, slightly thinking back to Ezra. Ezra liked books. She wouldn't be surprised if he was plotting in a library as she spoke.
"Why are you so sure A is a guy now? An hour ago we thought Redcoat, CeCe, was in charge."
"You said yourself that you think all roads lead back to Board Shorts! In case you forgot, Board Shorts got Alison pregnant, so I'm pretty sure that couldn't have been CeCe."
"She wasn't pregnant. She thought she was, but Mona said she wasn't."
Hanna raised her eyebrows, "Now you trust Mona?"
"Maybe! You always did!" Spencer paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "Who do you think it is, Hanna?" she questioned, still sounding frustrated.
There it was again. That Ezra chant that she got earlier started up again. She pursed her lips, wanting to say her idea, but thought better of it. "I don't know!" Hanna waited a few seconds before going down the hall to the library, thinking Spencer would follow her.
Hanna walked down the dark hallway. Every door was closed, so she took a chance and opened the second door on the left. Once she was inside, she looked around. There was nothing but dust and a rickety stairwell in front of her. When she turned around to see if Spencer was behind her, the door slammed and Hanna nearly jumped out of her skin at the loud creak it made.
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Spencer had turned around for longer than she should have to scan the crowd like Hanna had minutes before. Her gaze fell on the man again, but then was ripped away from him when she felt someone touch her arm. She was surprised to see Caleb next to her.
"Caleb! How'd you know we came to the party?"
"Hanna texted me about it a while ago. Where are the rest of you?"
"We split up. Aria and Emily are still at the cemetery. Me and Hanna," Spencer stopped and realized she was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Hanna?"
"She was here one second ago!"
Caleb and Spencer looked around the room some more, but she was gone.
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Aria and Emily's eyes were looking for any piece of red cloth or a gas mask. No such luck.
"Do you think CeCe would really come in here? She's probably hiding in a room or outside somewhere. I doubt she'd come to the party," Emily stated.
"Well, we're not just looking for CeCe. We're looking for anyone. If we see someone who could've been connected to Ali, we've gotta find them, Em."
Right when Aria finished, Emily's phone beeped. They both held a breath and looked tense. They both expected a text from A threatening to kill them for stepping into the lair. They let out the breath when Emily told Aria it was from Caleb. The relaxation didn't last long, though, as Emily read the text.
"Hanna's gone. Me and Spence have no clue where she is. Meet us outside the mansion?"
Aria was already heading toward the exit and Emily jumped on her tail. Right when Aria stepped into the cemetery, Emily felt someone yank her back. She gasped and turned around, eyes almost bulging out of her head. It was the Grunwald.
"What are you doing here!?" she hissed.
Emily stuttered, nervous that Mrs. Grunwald would hit her or something. She remembered the paddle in the sorority house, so she wouldn't put it past her. "We're trying to find other people in town who might have had contract with Ali or…"
"Or what? You need to leave, now! All of you."
Emily stared at her, mentally begging her to let her go. She let her arm drop when Grunwald let go. "Don't get her hurt again. She doesn't need that."
Emily nodded and ran out of her reach. She looked around. "Not Aria, too…" she whispered to herself. She was relieved though when Aria popped up beside her.
"Where were you? What happened? Why didn't you follow me?"
"Grunwald's here. She said we have to leave or Alison will get hurt again."
"Well, we have to find Hanna before we do anything else."
They began to walk toward the mansion when Aria's phone beeped.
Aria let out a groan before reciting it.
"Take Hanna. Leave Ali. Leave now or all of you will be sorry. - A"
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Ezra watched from the bushes as Aria read the text to Emily before walking towards the hosting house. He stuffed his phone back into his pocket before heading towards the mansion. His path was quicker than the way Aria and Emily were going, so he knew he'd beat them there. He had mapped out the whole party beforehand having a strong feeling that the Liars would end up there.
He headed to a secret entrance to the cellar where Hanna was probably inside by now. He had every intention of getting that diary back. No matter what he had to do, he would get it back.
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Hanna cautiously walked down the old stairwell that lead to a cellar and wondered just how old the house was. It smelled rotten once she got down to the bottom of the stairs and she held her nose. She remembered how Mr. Fitz read The Cask of Amontillado to the class a while back and instantly became worried that that story would become her reality. A second later she told herself she was silly and moved more into the room.
There was a piano covered in cobwebs and racks of colored liquid in jars. She wished she hadn't left her phone in the car, but she knew that Spencer and the girls would already be trying to find her.
She saw a smaller opening towards the corner and went inside. It was a tunnel to god knows where. She walked past a brick wall, but quickly turned around after seeing words written on it. "HELP ME" was written in big red letters. She thought that it Alison could have written it, but the handwriting didn't look right. And, what would Ali have been doing all the way down there anyway?
She heard something behind her and the footsteps sounded heavy. They didn't sound like the dainty heels the girls or Alison would have been wearing, so she ran down the tunnel, praying that there wouldn't be a wall that led to nowhere at the end.
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Ezra huffed and puffed because she got away. He picked up the hat she was wearing which must have fallen when she ran off. He threw it at the wall then quickly came up with another plan.
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CeCe unlocked the navy blue door and stepped inside. She slid the key into her pocket and rubbed up and down on her bare arm. She had to sew on the sleeve as soon as possible. Her wrist was still throbbing where Aria had grabbed it. She took off her freshly ripped red coat and sat down on the couch. She didn't want to just sit in Ezra's apartment but she didn't exactly want to play Desperately Seeking Mona either.
CeCe walked to a small vent after grabbing all the evidence from her bag and stuck it inside. That was another thing she taught Alison; where to hide stuff was both one of their specialties. That's what made it so easy for CeCe. She knew Ali's hidings spots because most of the things, she helped Alison hide.
She got up off her knees and closed up the vent. When she got up she noticed a frame picture of Ezra and Aria she never noticed before placed on his desk. She picked up the picture and looked at it they're huge smiles in the picture. She wondered who had taken it. Part of her wondered if it was a picture from Mona's old lair that he'd grabbed before they cleared out the motel room. She was bored with looking at their faces and dropped it onto a stack of ungraded papers about Shakespeare. She wanted to find Aria's and write a big, fat F on it.
When she came back to town and met up with Ezra, she slightly wanted to rekindle their short lived romance, but that couldn't happen. They had met that summer in Cape May. They dated and had a lot of heavy make out sessions, but it wasn't anything. It didn't have the chance to be anything thanks to Alison.
She shook out the thoughts and grabbed the Rosewood Observer off the coffee table. She looked at the sketch of her guilty face which, frankly, didn't do her justice. She hated newspapers. They always got the facts wrong. She chuckled while reading the journalist's possible motives for a quote "seemingly sane and kind young woman" to kill a cop. Nobody knew her real motive. Nobody but her and Fitz.
A/N: Gotta admit, I didn't like this chapter as much as I wanted to, but I've already started working on the next chapter and I actually like it! I think it'll probably be the last part of "Grave New World."
Did any of you catch the ending A scene reference in the last section when CeCe is in Ezra's apartment? Think 4x10... If you catch it, write it down in your review or pm me! I put that in to see if you'd catch it ;)
also, once again, thank you sooooo much for the reviews, follows, favorites, and views on this story! So far, I've only gottenpositivefeedback which makes me feel great! I hope I don't let you down.
and, VERY IMPORTANT - if any of you have theories regarding Toby's mother, Mona's B-Team involvement, who they buried since Alison is alive, Ezra's A involvement, Alison theories, Wren's involvement, Maggie, really anything that regards what could happen in 4B, please please please send them to me! I have a pretty good idea of where I want to go with each of these things, but if you have any strong theories/opinions/thoughts/ideas/etc. please tell me! I might include it and if I do, I will give you credit for the theories! Especially Wren involvement theories! i know he'll be in one 4B episode and he was hella shady in 4x10, so tell me your theories about the cute but creepy British fellow we all love to hate and hate to love ;) Well... i do anyway lol
Also if you have thoughts on who Mona's new love interest will be, but i think i know who i'm going with and im pretty sure the writers are going with the same person (which if they are, i will literally cry tears of joy and bounce off the walls in excitement.)
Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next one will be up sometime between Sunday to Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your weekends, guys! xx
ps i'm gonna try to finish the vast majority of this fic before the halloween episode because i feel like my whole story will be COMPLETELY off of what they actually do and you'll probably stop reading but anyways...until next time my dear readers!
