Emily sighed, uncrossing her legs and impatiently tapping the floor with her foot. The plastic seat wasn't exactly the most comfortable place to be waiting. As she waited for Aria to arrive, she spotted Spencer's parents entering the waiting room through the corner of her eye.

"This isn't acceptable," Veronica was violently whispering, her eyes darting back and forth.

Mr. Hastings whispered something back, which Emily couldn't hear but which prompted Spencer's mom to lightly push him away, disgusted. She had never seen them act that way in public before but, then again, their daughter had never been kidnapped before. They smiled her way as soon as they saw her, as if she hadn't just seen what had transpired.

"Are you here for Spencer Hastings?" a doctor looking down at a clipboard asked.

Emily preferred to wait for Aria to see Spencer and Hanna, so as to give the families some privacy beforehand. She was hoping Aria would show up soon, as the cold, sterile environment was making her uncomfortable. Thoughts of Maya were slowly creeping back into her head, even though she thought she had effectively found closure.

"Have you seen them already?" Aria rushed in, two bouquets in hand, her face flushed.

"No, I was waiting for you. I didn't think to get flowers!"

"No worries, they can be from both of us," Aria smiled, handing one over.

Hanna had never been so pale, her blonde hair matted and without a pinch of makeup on. Her eyes were not the ones of a carefree teenager, but they hadn't been that way in a long time. Holding her friends' hands tightly, she produced a genuine smile before expressing how happy she was that they were able to return home earlier.

"We wish we could have escaped with all of you," Aria replied, guiltily averting her eyes.

Emily felt no better. It was something she couldn't stop thinking about, and she hoped Hanna and Spencer weren't so fixated on it. Anything could have happened to them during the time they were still captured, and she shuddered to think of it. As she caught sight of Hanna's bruised legs while she sat up in the hospital bed, the knot in her throat tightened.

"You did what you had to. No one can blame you for wanting to survive. We're here now," she smiled.

Spencer produced a similar response when they visited her. It was nice of them, but it was of little comfort.

As Emily climbed into her bed, she couldn't stop the thoughts from echoing in her head. She reached over to her bedside drawer and pulled out the tattered letter from Maya from the bottom, running her hands over the letters. It had been tucked away for a while. As she slowly folded it again, a scribble on one of the back corners caught her eye. In a very light hand, eight small numbers had been written: 51391225.

Emily sharply sat up, making sure it wasn't just her tired eyes playing tricks on her. Pulling it closer to the light of her lamp, she contemplated the digits. What could they mean? She quickly pulled out her laptop, running a search on codes. She tried the first that appeared, described as the simplest. Each number corresponded with a letter of the alphabet, in order. It took her a while to decipher the meaning, as two-digit numbers complicated matters. When she found her name staring back at her on the paper, Emily breathed out.

Entering the address to Maya's website, her whole body felt terribly cold. She wiped her palms on her pajama pants before typing in the number with shaky fingers. A video popped up, but it was one she had never seen before. Maya's eyes were red and she kept running a hand through her hair as she explained the following:

"Emily... I'm glad you found this. You need to know something important…"

She briefly closed her eyes and breathed out heavily before continuing.

"I haven't been completely honest with you... I- there's someone very dangerous out there. I don't know who he or she is but they threatened to tell Lyndon where I had moved... so I agreed to help. They told me what I had to do was simple: just be your friend... But then things got so complicated and I learned about what Mona was doing and it was all so wrong... I'm so sorry, Emily."

A sob escaped her lips as she struggled to continue.

"Everything that happened between us was real, though, I promise. I wanted to stop helping but then I received a message: leave Rosewood or die... And I was scared... Just, please. Please, be careful. There are so many awful people who want to hurt you and your friends... Don't trust anyone... Take care, Emily and I really am so sorry. I hope you can forgive me someday."

Emily continued to stare at the screen long after the video had finished, trying to register everything she had heard. How was it even possible? Before she could hit the replay button, the page went dark. When she refreshed it and a 404 error came up. Slamming the keys angrily, she tried to get the website to reload, but to no avail. It was gone.

The only thing she could think to do was text Aria, if she was still awake. When she promptly responded, she begged to video chat, explaining that something important had happened. Aria's face mirrored Emily's as soon as she heard what had happened.

"I don't know how to feel. She seemed scared and that hurts, but she also hurt me. I don't know why I don't feel like crying."

"Em, it'll get better, I promise. Having someone you love hide something like that from you makes you feel… well, like your entire world is crumbling down, but things will look up. Maybe once you think about it more calmly, you'll understand it better."

"Yeah, maybe."

"You should get some sleep, but I'm coming over tomorrow morning to check up on you, alright?"

After they had said their goodbyes, Emily sat on her bed, littered with paper from her code-cracking. Among them was the letter. Angrily, she pushed them all onto the floor with a sweep of her arm before climbing under the sheets.

She tossed and turned for hours. When she was finally able to fall into her thoughts and let the world melt away, perturbing visions taunted her. As Maya explained everything once again in her dream, someone violently grabbed her. As she turned to see who it was, the blue eyes and ski mask made her shriek.

"Honey, it's just a dream," Mrs. Fields hugged her crying daughter as she woke up.

"Mom..."

"I heard you screaming from my room. It's over now, Emily. You don't have to go back there ever again," she murmured, stroking Emily's hair gently.

"It was Ian..."