Hanna's POV
23:30 that night
"Alright, I'll go pick up Emily and then we'll meet you outside the greenhouse." I replied into the speaker.
Emily had gotten out of the hospital two hours before and said that her mom had just gone to bed. It was time to put the plan into action.
"Sounds good. See you then." Spencer said through the phone.
It had been a wild day, and part of me didn't think that Emily was completely up for sneaking around at night and meeting up with her worst enemy. Hell, was I even up for it? Were any of us? This was a time that we would be so close that we could unhood our harasser, we could bring this all to a close, but A was too good for that.
As I was putting my phone back into my pocket, I walked over to the pantry and pulled out a bottle of vodka and started pouring it into my bottle.
Liquid courage, we all need a little right?
I took one last look at my kitchen before I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. The streets outside were dead, and there was an eery silence to it, like no one was even in their houses. It felt as if the streets were deserted, and waiting for me to be the first to dare to drive on them.
I got into my car and pulled out, driving on the black top, passing by houses filled with ignorant people. They were so unaware to the monster that resided in their town, tormenting teenage girls with nothing to their name but the possible murder of their own best friend. Our lives had been flipped upside down, and we couldn't turn right side up. Life wasn't handing us lemons anymore, they were rocks and boulders.
One right after another.
As I drove, I took a sip of my courage and finally pulled up to Emily's house. I flashed my lights into her window and watched as her shadow passed by her window, making her way through her room to her door, I suspect. Finally she showed up outside her front door and made her way into my car.
"You ready for this?" I asked, as she got situated with the seat belt.
"As I'll every be, I guess." She replied, sounding a bit exhausted. I'm sure we all were at this point.
Silence fell over us as I made a u-turn and started driving for our destination, it was only a matter of time that our lives would be on the line. Driving down Emily's street, I saw a car parked on the side of the road, the first car I'd seen the whole time I'd been out. It seemed strange as I drove by it, like there may be someone in there. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if it was A waiting for us.
—
Robbie's POV
I felt wrong sitting here. What was I doing? This was none of my business. Whatever Emily was hiding from me, it wasn't my right to know what it was. I shouldn't be sitting here in my car this late at night. But I just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to Emily and the rest of her friends.
They had been very hush hush about something happening tonight, and if it weren't for the pale white faces, I wouldn't have bothered to find out what it was. After leaving Emily, I tried to drive around and distract myself, make it seem like everything would be okay. But from what happened with the stranger outside the hospital, and the terrified looks in the girl's faces, I had to go check on Emily.
When I pulled up to her house, I noticed that another car was waiting in her driveway and flashing their lights towards what I would assume is her window. About a minute later, I saw her front door open and Emily popped out wearing all black and got into the passenger seat of the car. Another minute went by and the car was off, driving right by me and I noticed that it was Hanna who was driving.
Where were they going?
Remembering what my dad had taught me, I waited three seconds before turning on my car and taking off down the road the same way they had passed me. I had to know what was going on, even if it felt wrong.
Something is so wrong about this.
—
Aria's POV
Tonight was the night, the night we had to face A willingly or almost willingly to retrieve our friend. The night that we lay all fears aside and hope to God that A doesn't pull something potentially life threatening. Was I ready?
Would I ever be?
Just then I saw lights flashing in the front windows, Spencer. She was finally here to take me to the green house where we'd find out what our fate was. I could feel myself shaking in my jacket, it was an uncontrollable feeling being terrified. It was a terrible feeling.
"You ready?" Spencer asked as I got into the passenger seat and put my seatbelt on.
"Do I really have a choice anymore?" I whispered, looking out the window.
"We'll get through this, like we always do. Together." Spencer replied, taking my hand and squeezing it.
And then we were off, driving towards the green house, nothing stopping us now from what we were about to do. I had a pit in my stomach, growing into nervousness that was spreading throughout my body. I was still visibly shaking in my jacket.
I can't do this.
—
Emily's POV
What was I doing here? Why was I risking my life to save someone else. God, even someone who cheated on me. Cause no one deserves this, no matter what they've done.
We had pulled up to the green house just a few minutes prior, but neither Hanna or I made a move to go inside, not without the rest of us. I didn't have a good feeling about this meet up tonight, it felt like something was going to go very wrong. At this point though, what could we do, turn tail and run? There was way too much at stake and if we did that A would probably make our lives so much worse.
Finally, Spencer and Aria pulled up next to us. Spencer was the first one out of the car, of course, because she seemed the least bit scared. Though she was probably just as scared as the rest of us. Next was Hanna, playing it off as if it were just another day in our lives. Aria and I were the last ones to get out, which just goes to show how scared we were. This wasn't just another day, so many different things could go down tonight.
"Do you have the phone?" Hanna slurred as we convened together in front of our cars.
"Yes, it's in my pocket. I just hope that A decided to be nice and bring Paige with them." Spencer answered.
"I guess we'll find out soon." Aria whispered, scooting closer to my right side.
We stood there for a few minutes, just staring at the green house, as if it were the portal to hell. I couldn't see anything inside the house, it was covered in shadows, and there didn't seem to be any movement inside.
Then I hear from behind us a stick snap, as if someone's walking around behind us. It was a few feet away but the sound seemed to be booming, and it caused us all to jump visibly.
"What was that?" I whispered, looking around in the darkness.
"Probably just an animal, we should head inside. Before someone comes snooping around." Spencer answered quickly, heading towards the house with the rest of us on her tail.
—
Robbie's POV
I drove for a good twenty minutes before they reached their destination, it was a place on the outskirts of town. It looked like a greenhouse, but it was so isolated and surrounded by trees that it couldn't have been used for the past decade at least.
I parked about thirty feet back from where Hanna and Emily had stopped, hiding my car among the trees. Thank god it's dark because another car pulled in shortly after I turned my car off. As I got out of the car, I noticed that it was Spencer and Aria in the second one that pulled up. Soon all of the girls were standing in from of the cars, whispering about something that I couldn't hear.
As I tried to get closer, I noticed that Spencer had pulled out the phone that I found the first night I was in town.
What was going on?
Just then, I saw another figure lurking around in the dark. It was hard to see, but it looked like they were almost sneaking around the trees, trying not to be seen or heard by the girls. They were ducking behind trees and walking slowly, picking up there feet and determining their next steps. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could tell that they were wearing a hood, just like the stranger from the past two nights that followed me.
What the hell are you doing here?
Turning my attention away from the girls, I took a step towards the direction the stranger was heading and inevitably stepped on a stick snapping it in half.
"Shit." I whispered to myself, freezing in my spot to see if the girls noticed, which they had.
Although they heard, none of them made a move to come check it out, instead Spencer made her way to the greenhouse, with the other three following close behind. Once their backs were turned I start to move again, planning my footing accordingly as the stranger had done. Once I figured they were inside, I became a bit careless about my footing and focused on getting to the stranger quickly, not looking where I was going.
Suddenly, I felt my foot connect with something hard, and whatever it was it made a grunting sound.
What the hell?
When I looked down, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
—
Spencer's POV
Why did we choose such a dark place? It was so hard to see, especially since the only source of light was the moon above us, and that was barely anything.
Stupid choice Spence.
As we filed into the house, we stood in the one spot where the moon shined the brightest, I guess it was our way to feel safer. After a moment, I remembered that I had an iPhone which had a flashlight on it, thank god.
As I shone the flashlight around the room, I saw a shadow move from behind the house.
"I think A's here, guys." I whispered to the other three who had gotten the same idea with their flashlights.
"Where?" Aria panicked, looking around.
Just then a flower pot fell to the floor, smashing into a million pieces and causing us to jump out of our skin. Turning around quickly, we saw the dreaded hooded figure standing three feet away. The sight was more frightening than it should of been, but I couldn't help catch my breath.
"We have what you want." I yelled at the figure, "Where's Paige?"
The only thing the figure did was place their gloved hand out for the phone.
"Not until I know Paige is safe." Emily said. In response the figure took a step towards us, menacingly.
"You back off, creep. We want to know Paige is safe!" Hanna yelled, slurring a little bit.
"We had a deal." I stated as sternly as I could, but my voice caught in my throat.
The figure took another step towards us, and we all took another step back. Suddenly, they lurched forward grabbing on to Aria's wrist and yanking her to their side. Aria screamed bloody murder as A held up a shining knife.
"Look, give Aria back, and hand Paige over and we'll give you the phone. You have my word, just give us them back." I yelled, tears forming in my eyes.
The figure didn't move, just continued to hold the knife up making sure we knew what would happen.
What were we going to do?
—
Emily's POV
A had Aria, A had Paige, A had Aria and Paige. What were we going to do? A had both of them and we didn't even know where one was. They also had a knife, shining in the moonlight.
Aria was crying, yelling for us to get her back but we knew if we moved she could get hurt. It was hopeless, we had to give it back.
"Just give them the phone, Spence." I whispered, defeated.
"But it's our bargaining chip!" Spencer yelled.
"It's all we have to get them back, but Em's right." Hanna agreed, "We need to hand it over."
"I guess you're right." Spencer admitted, as she took a step towards the hooded stranger, moving her arm forward with the phone.
Just then, a dark figure came flying from behind the stranger, tackling them to the side and causing them to lose grip on Aria.
"What the fuck?" Hanna exclaimed as Spencer and I made a break for Aria, "Who is that? What's going on?"
A and the mystery person struggled on the floor, with the mystery person visibly pulling back their arm to strike a punch. As they did, I heard the crunch of bones from presumably A's face.
Good riddance.
"The the hell out of hear!" A familiar voice hissed at us.
"Robbie?" I asked, stunned, as I shined my light on the two, I saw that it was indeed Robbie. When she looked up to answer though, A took the chance to throw her off of them.
"Fuck." I heard her mumble.
"What do we do?" Aria asked, panicking.
We watched as Robbie got up, and grabbed the back of A's jacket hauling them to the ground hard. She brought her fist back up like before and landed one in A's stomach, to which A kicked the back of Robbie's knee, causing her to fall forward next to them. I saw A get up and straddle Robbie's back, grabbing her hair and smashing her face into the concrete.
"No!" I yelled as I stepped towards the two.
Without wasting a moment, Robbie threw her hand backwards, shoving her two fingers into the nostrils of A and pulling down causing them to let go. Once A was on the ground, Robbie stood up and grabbed the collar of A throwing them into a near by table.
Good, she's winning.
—
Robbie's POV
What a piece of shit.
I watched as the pathetic being attempted to crawl through the remains of a table. They seemed to have been having trouble with one of their arms, like it was broken or something. Once I got close enough, I stooped over and picked them up again. They were light, but it might be the adrenaline pumping.
Once they were lifted, they snapped a punch in my gut, causing me to lose my grip. They caught their stance, and kneed me in the gut, making me lose my breath.
Shit man.
"Robbie run!" I heard from behind me, I think it was Spencer.
They kneed me again and I fell to my knees, putting me in the perfect position to spin kick the back of their knees and get them down. Once down, I got myself up again and waited for their move. I watched as they stood up and turn towards me, seemingly very calm and then equally as calm they took a step forward. Not wanting them to get any closer, I kicked their ribs enjoying the sound of some of the bones cracking. Next I one-two punched them and ended with an uppercut to the jaw, disorienting them. Finally, I grabbed the sides of their head and head butted them as hard as I could.
At least that was the plan.
After grabbing the sides of their head, I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen, just below my ribs. And then another one to the right and lower down. As I looked down, I saw that blood was gushing out of me like a waterfall. I had been stabbed. I staggered back a little bit, and saw the glint of their knife in the flashlight of one of the girls. It was covered in blood, my blood.
Shit.
I watched as their arm curled up, knife in hand, and came smashing down connecting with my left shoulder. Unfortunate for them, it got stuck there, leaving them weaponless. With the small opportunity and what strength I could muster up, I grabbed them with my good arm and sent them through the glass behind us.
After I was sure that they were through, I pulled the knife out of my shoulder and fell to my knees. It was suddenly getting harder to breathe.
"Robbie? Robbie, oh my god, Robbie!" I heard from a distance. Everything was starting to go black, and I couldn't see anything anymore.
—
Aria's POV
Robbie was on the ground and A was no where to be found, along with Paige.
"We have to check to make sure A is gone, we can't risk another attack." Spencer stated as calmly as possible as she made her way to the hole that A made with their body.
"Did you not see the way Robbie launched them? There's no way that they could walk away, and if they could I doubt they'd come back here!" Hanna pointed out.
"Can someone call the cops or get us moving to a hospital? She's losing blood." Emily yelled, looking at all of us.
Just then, we heard the door to the greenhouse opening, and panicked. I hid behind a beam, Hanna was behind a table, Emily stayed near Robbie and Spencer grabbed up the knife that A used. As our flashlights fell on the being at the door, we all soon relaxed as we realized who it was; it was only Paige.
"Paige?" I asked, looking at the girl with the pale face.
"Boy am I glad to see you guys." She half smiled, as her face fell upon the body on the floor, "Is that Robbie?"
"Yes, please tell me you can help." Emily pleaded, looking up at her ex.
"First, how did you escape?" I asked, looking up at her.
"Robbie found me in the woods right after the creep left me. She carried me to her car and untied me, told me to wait here and if she wasn't back soon to call the cops." Paige rambled, looking at Robbie with terrified eyes.
"Well did you?" Spencer asked, looking at Paige.
"I..what? No, not yet." Paige stuttered, "I don't have a phone."
"Another important question, did you see that creep outside when you came back in?" Hanna asked quickly.
"No, I didn't." Paige answered.
"Alright, help us get Robbie to my car and we'll all go to the hospital. I'll take my car, Hanna grab yours, and Em you can get Robbie's" Spencer delegated.
I watched as we all slowly moved to do what we needed, Paige walked over and grabbed Robbie's good arm, slinging it over her shoulder and Spencer joined on the other side. Em stood for a minute trying to get her bearings before moving towards the door.
"You ready to go?" Hanna asked me as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Since we stepped foot here." I answered, moving in the direction that Em had disappeared.
A few minutes later three cars were rushing off down the dirt road leading up to the dismal greenhouse. The place where I was threatened and saved, where we faced our stalker and came out fiercer than before; it didn't go as planned but we gained something we didn't have before, someone else on our side.
—
Hanna's POV
What a fucking night.
It was only 1 in the morning, but it felt like I'd been up for days. I could feel my body starting to slump into itself and my eyes were starting to droop, I couldn't fall asleep now though, I was still driving. We were making our way to the hospital as fast as we legally could, it was only a 20 minute drive but it seemed so much longer, and I can only imagine how Robbie was doing.
Speaking of, how did Robbie even find us? I don't think Em would have told her what was happening, we had only just met her regardless of whether she saved her life or not. I mean, I'm not upset that Robbie found us, she definitely saved our asses back there, but why would she bother?
"How're you doing Aria? Did they get you anywhere when A was tackled?" I asked, trying to distract my thoughts.
"No, I don't think so." Aria replied, absentmindedly feeling around her neck for abrasions.
"That's a plus." I chuckled, clutching onto the steering wheel tightly.
"We're all okay, well..most of us anyways." Aria smiled to herself, "I'm glad we made it out of there."
Soon we were outside the Emergency Room, crowding around Spencer's car to get Robbie out without causing anymore damage.
"She's lost a lot of blood, Aria, go tell a nurse we have a stabbing patient." Spencer demanded, pressing her hands to Robbie's neck. Shortly after leaving a team of nurses were hauling ass out the door with a gurney and joining us at Spencer's car.
Without asking questions, they picked her up and transferred her to the bed, where they wheeled her back attempting to see if she was conscious.
This night is never going to end.
—
Emily's POV
As we rushed behind the gurney, I saw that the nurse had a worried look on her face, one that screamed uncertainty. Uncertainty for what though? Robbie's life?
How could this happen?
"Please, have a seat in the waiting room. We'll alert you if there's any news." The nurse at the front desk informed us.
"Thank you." Aria nodded, being the first to head towards a chair. The rest of us followed suit, taking a seat or standing in the corner.
"Hey, Spence." Hanna spoke up from beside me.
"What's up Han?" Spencer asked, directing her tired eyes in the blonde's way.
"Do you still have the..ya know..phone?" Hanna whispered, leaning forward so she was heard.
The question caused Spencer to sit up straight and start digging in her pockets. Suddenly she froze, and turned towards Hanna, nodding her head furiously. Just then all of our phones, excluding Paige, went off alerting us to our new texts.
Seriously?
"You'll be sorry. -A"
I'll be sorry? Again? They don't usually repeat themselves, something must be up. I mean Robbie did do them in quite a lot, but would that shake them? Were they afraid?
"Who was that?" Paige asked curiously, looking over my shoulder.
"Oh, no one. Just my mom. She wanted to know why I had snuck out." I lied, turning my phone quickly.
Shit my mom.
What was she going to say? I couldn't leave the hospital to go home, I'd be to worked up about Robbie, but she'd kill me for being out so late and sneaking out.
"So what's the story?" Aria asked, looking at each one of us, "Because there's no way we can discuss A."
"We had been hanging out on that cliff over town all night. No drinking, just celebrating Em getting out of the hospital. If they ask why, only discuss the ulcer. On our way to our cars someone tried to mug us and Robbie got a little too heroic for her own good. And here we are." Spencer decided, looking at each of our faces for confirmation.
"What about me?" Paige asked, reminding us that she was still there.
"You found us on the street after the fact." I answered, not looking her in the face.
Just then, a nurse came out of the 'nurse's only' doors and headed straight for us.
"You're the ones who brought in the stab victim right?" The nurse asked, looking at us.
"That's right." Spencer answered as we all nodded.
"Why? What's going on?" I asked, worry filling my voice.
"Well, you see, it's touch and go. The knife nicked part of her lower lungs, and she's lost a substantial amount of blood. We don't know if we'll be able to help her body make up for that. She'll be in surgery for a while just trying to repair the ligaments torn and the wound to her lungs. I'll let you know how it goes, but that's all we know." The nurse answered, looking down solemnly.
I was speechless, my chest was tightening and my heart was pumping fast. I couldn't stay in here any longer, the walls were starting to close in and my head was spinning too fast. I made a beeline for the door while attempting to dry my tear filled eyes.
This can't be happening.
A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I've posted. I hope you guys liked this one, lemme know what y'all thought about the fight scene? And maybe where I should take it from here. Review and follow if you dare!