Emily's POV
The next few weeks went pretty quickly, Sophie's Dad got out of hospital and her Mum was looking after him, her grandparents left last weekend and I spent a lot of my time around there. The girls and I would spend a few nights a week going over the A thing and still tried to find Ali but we hadn't heard back from her. We looked everywhere we could think of and even looked at some other closed down motels we found just out of town but there was no sign that anyone had been there in a few years and we hadn't heard from A in a while which was starting to worry us especially after the game is about to begin message I received from them.
On Friday we all thought it would be a good idea to just take a break from all the stuff going on and have a girl's day and since we all only had school until lunch we decided to go into Philly for a shopping day.
"Are we picking up Sophie too?" Hanna asked when I jumped in her car, I was the last one she had picked up.
"No, she's still got another lesson after lunch and then she is spending the night with her parents. It's good because her birthday is in a week and I want to buy her a present" I said "18's a big birthday and even though we've only been dating about a month I still want to get her something special." That received a lot of Awwws from the girls
"What are you getting her?" Spencer asked
"Thinking a bracelet with our initials and the date we started dating, but I have to find the right one first then I'll see from there" I blushed when the girls awed again.
About 5 hours later we had finished shopping and were walking back to Hanna's car to put our stuff away before getting some dinner when I saw a reflection in one of the windows, I quickly turned around and managed to see a red coat and blonde hair running through a group of people.
"Guys, Red Coat" was all I said and we took off running after it. We followed for about 10 blocks then we got to a fork in the road,
"You guys go right, me and Hanna will go left, meet back here in 10" I said to Aria and Spencer, who nodded, grabbed Hanna's hand and pulled her along. We were jogging up the street looking into shops and alleyways until I spotted a red coat in a bin about half way up one and went and got it. We looked around to see if there was any hiding spots and we saw a door down the very end of the alleyway, it was unlocked and when we walked inside there was Ali, standing there like we had kept her waiting.
"ALI!" Hanna screamed and we went over and gave her a hug
"How did you know we were in Philly?" I asked
"I didn't, I saw Hanna's car so I waited for you guy" she admitted
"Then why didn't you just wait for us? You knew I saw you" I said
"Because I didn't want to be seen. I knew you would come this way so I waited you out." She said all knowingly "Do you have my money? I finally got a hold of Shana who said you had it" she said.
"Yea, why do you have $5000?" I ask
"Saved my allowance for a rainy day" man she had an answer for everything "do you have it on you?" I did but didn't want to admit it until we had some answers.
"Why can't you come home yet? Who are you afraid of?" I ask hoping she answers that then I'll give her the money. She paused and looked at both of us, both of us with the fear, questions and sadness in our eyes.
"I don't know" she looked away and in that instant she seemed so scared "I was hit from behind remember. All I know is I was walking through my backyard then I wake up buried underground and that person thinks I'm dead, so until I find out who it was, that's how it's going to stay." She'd gone back to aggressive Ali now but at least we know more than we did.
"Where have you been staying?" Hanna asked
"Here and there. I'll come back soon and I'll explain everything but right now I need my money" she said looking over to me "I know you have it Em, you wouldn't trust anyone with it except yourself." And as usual she was right, I pulled the coffee bag out of my bag and hand it over
"I put my phone number in there in case you ever need anything" she opened the bag and a look of relief washed over her face.
"Thank you so much, is there one more thing I can ask from you guys?" she asked "help me come home, I know you all know things, little things that don't seem important, put them all together and you'll get closer, use that smart brain of Spencers. I've gotta run"
We met back up with Spencer and Aria and told them what had happened,
"So she's ok?" Spencer asked
"As ok and she can be, she's on the run Spence" Hanna said
"We should all write down everything we know, don't leave anything out and we figure out what we got from there." Spencer was already trying to figure out what she knew and was talking a mile a minute as we walked back to the car. I put my hand in my jacket pocket and felt the box in there, glad that I never lost it in the run but felt guilty for not tell Sophie about this, but it's not my secret to tell, its Ali's and I just hope she doesn't hate me too much when she finds out.
The trip went pretty quick, we were all going over things we knew, things we had found out separately, things we found out together and by the time we got back to Rosewood it was about 10 pm.
We all went back to Spencer's and started to write down everything we knew. The house was eerily quiet with all of us in our own worlds remembering every little detail. It was really late when we heard a crash down in the kitchen, we dropped our stuff and went running down the stairs, a black hood running out the kitchen door. We chased after it but lost them at the corner, walking back to Spencers we all kept an eye out for anyone we may know in case they were A and had quickly taken off the hoodie, but we saw no one. We stayed in the kitchen for a little bit, in silence, realising how close we came to at least catching one of them, Sophie told us her idea that we should look for people that know each other well and if we know who one A might be we could figure out who the others are but with it being a small town everyone knows each other. I went back up to Spencers room to continue writing down information but when I got up there it the window was open, our stuff gone and there was a message from A
"Guys! Get up here now!" I yelled down to them and they came running up and stopped when they saw the mirror
"Thanks for the help. Kisses –A" we all read out loud and moaned.
"Why can we never seem to do anything right?" Hanna asked
"We do do things right, just A always takes it from us." Spencer answered
"I think from now on I'm just going to sit at home, watch movies and eat ice cream. That way I'm not doing anything A can use against me or you and I can have somewhat of a normal life" Hanna said and we all had to agree but then I remembered what I told Sophie
"We can't guys, we have to figure out who this is otherwise we are gonna regret giving up and not finding out. Just as long as we be smart about this," I went over and turned Spencers radio on "from now on if we are in a situation like this where we are doing something important and we hear something only 2 of us go so the other 2 can keep an eye on our stuff, whenever we talk about A or Ali we turn the music on louder than what we are talking, we take note of anyone we see doesn't matter if we happen to run into them in the ice cream isle, we do things smartly because then we can find Big A and then Ali can come home, then we all go off to our own separate colleges and we will never have to worry about this stuff again." I said and the girls looked at me in agreement
"Way to go Ems, you definitely aren't the weak link any more. I think you're the strongest one out of all of us." Spencer said and I had to thank Sophie, if it wasn't for meeting her I would probably still have been down about Paige leaving and probably would've given up on everything.
Sophie's POV
I woke up on Saturday feeling awesome, life was great, my parents had told me last night that they were getting back together, I have an awesome girlfriend, great friends, great job and everything's great. Except A but not even they could mess with my mood today. I looked over at the clock and realised I was late, I had to do the weekend shift at the school today and am supposed to start in 15 minutes so I jumped up, got changed, ran down stairs, kissed the parents good morning and goodbye then left.
I got to work with 3 minutes to spare not bad Sophie, not bad at all. I did my rounds and everything was good until I got to the files room and noticed the door had been busted open. I got out my pepper spray, slowly opened the door and walked in. There was no one in there, but it was obvious I interrupted someone when I got there this morning, files where spread out in a semi-circle like someone had laid them down in front of them, I looked back out into the hall but I didn't see anyone and I stayed really quiet and couldn't hear a single sound. I went over to the files to put them away when I noticed the names, Spencer Hastings, Toby Cavanaugh, Emily Fields, Paige McCullers, Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, Caleb Rivers, Mona Vanderwaal, Alison DiLaurentis, Sophie Williams and even Ezra Fitz which would've had to have been gotten from the principal's office. I called the cops and the principal and they said they would be there in 10 minutes so I quickly went and put Ezra's file back, he and Aria didn't need that right now. I was waiting with the files and I got curious so I opened mine and realised the bio page was missing, I opened the rest and all of theirs were too so I grabbed a different file out of the cabinet and realised on that page is name, date of birth, address, emergency contacts, phone numbers, allergies and any medication. I was about to text the girls when the cops rocked up and told them what had happened then had to repeat it once the principal got there.
They finally left a bit before 12 which was when I knocked off so I rang Emily "Hey babe, where are you?"
"I'm at Spencers, are you ok? You sound weird" she asked
"Something happened at the school today and I need to tell you guys, I'll be there in 5 k" I said and hung up not giving her time to reply.
When I got there all four girls were waiting for me in the kitchen "Hey so this morning I was doing rounds-"
"Is this A related?" Hanna interrupted
"I think so why?" they all looked at each other then Spencer went and turned on the music, not really time to listen to some Rhianna but I continued anyway and told them what had happened.
"The only thing I can think of why the page is missing it for the allergies, so do you guys have any that we should worry about? I'm not allergic to anything, so I should be safe food wise" I said and all the girls said they were good except Aria was allergic to cat hair and Hanna was allergic to bees. "Well I think we'll notice cat hair and bees in our food and drink so that doesn't help much" Aria said
"Why would they have gotten out Toby, Paige and Caleb's files? I didn't even know they had files there still" Hanna said
"Most places keep records for a few years after the person leaves" Spencer informed us
"Oh they also had out Ezra's but I put it back before the principal and cops got there" I said to Aria
"Thanks, that's the last thing I need to worry about."
"So if it's not allergies then that leaves medication" Hanna said
"What about emergency contacts?" I asked "It's an easy way to get our parents information, maybe A needed it for some reason" we all looked at each other with 'I sure hope not' looks on our faces.
*Beep Beep* Get set –A I read as I show the girls the message "Must be pissed I walked in on them today there's no kisses" I laugh and Emily looks at me worryingly
"Babe this isn't a joke, I need you to be safe"
"I will, don't worry. I've got a year of self-defence classes and 17 years of a protective mother teaching me things up my belt. I'm actually more worried about you guys." I said, wondering why none of them thought some self-defence would be a good idea.
"We will be fine, A knows that if they hurt one of us the rest push back even harder and they don't like that." Emily said, pulling me closer "I just don't want anything bad to happen to you, now that I've found you I don't ever want to lose you" that received some awws from the girls and a giant kiss from me "like I said, I'm not going anywhere" then I looked at the time "except now, I told dad I would go with him and mum to physio at 2" I gave her a kiss, said bye to the others and left. I was walking down the street when I got another text Go –A, Go? Go where? I stopped and remembered the other texts I had got 'Get Ready, Get Set, Go' I started turning to head back to Spencers when I saw movement, felt a sharp pain, then everything went black.