Hey there, readers! I am so, so sorry for the insanely slow update. In short, I tend to take on way more than I can reasonably manage and then slowly drown in a pile of work which never gets done. I'm working on it though, so I'm back to writing this story. I'm just about finished, actually, so I can update fairly regularly and/or frequently from here. So, if anyone's still reading, or if anyone's just started reading, please do leave me a review and let me know. I'd love to hear from you. Sorry, once again, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

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It was just before third period when an announcement rang through the halls, summoning them all to an impromptu assembly. Emily paused, halfway through retrieving her Bio book from her locker, and watched almost identical looks of confusion pass over everyone's faces. Assemblies were usually scheduled well in advance, and normally at the start or end of the day – not during the middle, with hardly a second's notice.

"Hey," said Toby, appearing from beside her without a sound. Before she'd gotten to know him, Emily had found his habit of moving quietly, if not downright stealthily, a little off-putting, but now that they were friends she just found it amusing.

"Hi," she said, putting her book back in her locker and shutting the door. "Any idea what this is about?"

Toby shook his head. "Not a clue."

They fell into step beside each other as they made their way to the hall, wondering what this could be about. The last impromptu assembly Emily could remember having had been after Alison was officially declared missing, and the principal had brought them all together to instruct everyone to stay calm, keep an eye out, and contact the police if they saw anything. From what Emily could tell, the police were then bombarded with calls about people who'd seen someone matching Alison's description. But time wore on and no arrests were made, and Alison didn't come back.

Blinking away the memory, Emily realized Toby had been talking. "What?" she asked, giving him her best apologetic smile.

"I was saying that it might be because of that teacher who was fired last week," Toby repeated patiently.

Emily thought back, and dredged up a memory of being told that one of the Art teachers had been fired over some kind of disagreement. "I thought it was just a pay dispute," she said.

"No, I heard she was caught in bed with one of her students."

"Wow." Emily didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry, so she just shook her head sadly, wondering what the world was coming to.

They'd just about reached the assembly hall when Emily came across the very person she was trying to avoid. Hanna came to a stop when she saw her, and she and Emily shared a look. Although Toby didn't know what was going on – Emily had never told him about her relationship, if she could even call it that, with Hanna – he picked up on the fact that something was happening, so he said something about saving Emily a seat and ducked into the assembly hall ahead of them.

Emily shifted her feet, looking at the girl she used to know better than anyone, and felt like she was looking at a stranger. It occurred to her that she hadn't eaten all day, but she pushed away the gnawing feeling of hunger and focused on the girl in front of her. "Hi, she said at last.

"Hey." Hanna folded her arms, but Emily recognized it as a gesture that was insecure, not necessarily defensive. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Emily replied cautiously, thinking about the last time she'd seen Hanna. It had been the day after Ben had attacked her, and Emily had been sitting with Toby. Hanna had come over, looking like she wanted to talk, but Emily had been too shaken up to say anything, so Hanna had left with a disheartened look on her face. Every time Emily had tried to explain to her, to apologize, words and courage had both failed her. Now she felt the need to confide in Hanna like she once would have, to let Hanna hold her until the tears stopped, to quietly be able to fall apart, but there was so much distance between them now that Emily wasn't sure Hanna would be able to catch her if she fell. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." The way Hanna said the words made it clear that she didn't mean them, but Emily didn't think she had the right to question it anymore.

Still, she needed to say something, so she gestured to the hall and asked, "Do you know why they called the assembly?"

"Not a clue," Hanna said with a shrug. "I guess we should go find out though."

"R-right." Emily stepped back to let Hanna go through, and the other girl acknowledged it with a tight nod. Emily followed, and watched as Hanna headed straight to sit next to Mona. With a tired sigh Emily went and sat next to Toby, who gave her a sympathetic, albeit confused, look. She shook her head slightly to indicate that she didn't want to talk about it, and he didn't say anything.

She'd only been sitting there a couple of minutes when all the lights dimmed. She looked around curiously, trying to see the principal or whichever teacher was leading the assembly, but everyone looked as confused as she felt. As soon as the projector up the front of the room switched on, seemingly by itself, Emily started to feel very uneasy. This had 'set up' written all over it, and she tried to find her friends, to see if they were having the same thoughts, but she couldn't find them in the crowd.

"What is that?" Toby asked quietly, and Emily whipped around to face the front again.

What she saw was like a nightmare, only worse. On the projector, displayed for all of the school body to see, was a single image, one that she'd seen a hundred times before. Heck, she had a copy of it that she carried around in her wallet. And even with everything that had happened between her and Hanna, the picture still made her smile.

Now, though, she just felt horrified. Right there in front of her was a picture of her and Hanna kissing; it had been taken in a photo booth after their first real date, just after they'd finished watching a movie that neither of them paid much attention to. Everyone was staring at it, but nobody had said a thing. Emily blinked hard, trying to convince herself that she was dreaming, praying that she would wake up and this would all be over.

But when she opened her eyes the picture was still there, and she felt her cell vibrate in her pocket. She didn't need to read it to know who was behind this. There was only one person who would want to hurt her this way. Cursing A, she clenched her fist and looked for the nearest exit. That was when the laughter started.

It was soft at first, but by the time Emily had gotten to her feet and stumbled toward the door it was ringing in her ears, unbearably loud. Her chest felt tight, and to her horror she felt tears start to spill down her face. She heard a couple of people call her name – it sounded like Spencer and Aria, but amid the noise she couldn't be sure – but it was the sight before her that caught her attention. Somehow in her daze Emily hadn't noticed Hanna fleeing the room before her, and now they were standing face to face a few feet away, as they had been only minutes earlier.

It felt like a lifetime, though, and the weight of what had happened fell in between them, pushing them further apart. Emily opened her mouth, but before she could say anything Hanna just shook her head, the sadness in her eyes overwhelming,. Then she dashed down the hall, turning a corner and disappearing from sight, leaving Emily standing by herself, more alone than she'd ever been.

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The realization settled over them like a blanket. Hanna's mind was spinning. It would make sense that A was more than one person, given all they'd done to them; it would explain why A always seemed to be everywhere, watching them all the time, always staying one step ahead. But as much as it made sense, it was also terrifying. It had been believable that one person hated them enough to torment them, although it had taken them time to come to terms with the fact that someone could have such a grudge against them. But to think that more than one person hated them that much made Hanna unbearably sad and also incredibly scared.

She leaned against the wall, wondering just how far this A thing spread. For all she knew it could be a whole network of people working against them. In theory it would only take a couple of very influential people to coerce more into joining their cause, so it was possible that only one or two people had a grudge against them, and they had somehow convinced other people to help.

Spencer was obviously thinking the same thing, because she said slowly, "Aside from the people in this room, and Emily, we have to assume that it's not safe to trust anybody. If A is more than one person, then at least one of them is probably somebody close to us."

Hanna thought of the people close to her, and was relieved to find that, aside from Mona and Caleb, most of them were the girls. There was no way any of them was involved, so she was safe with them. But the others had people close to them too: Paige, Toby, Maya, Holden, Jason. It could be any one of them, or any combination of them. Hanna hated to think that someone close to her or her friends could be so twisted, but it wasn't out of the question. Someone – or several someones – was out to get them, and they couldn't rule anyone out.

"So how do we figure out who it is?" Aria asked worriedly. "Or rather, who they are."

"If it's more than one person, that'll make it harder for us to find them," Hanna said. "They're probably covering each other's tracks."

"Actually," Spencer said, "it might be easier to find more than one person."

The other two turned to her, confused.

"If it's a team of people," Spencer explained, "then they'd need a way to communicate, right? No matter how they do it, they're going to leave tracks. Texts or notes or whatever they're using."

"Unless it's smoke signals," Hanna pointed out, not sure why she was trying to make a joke at this precise moment.

"Well, then we'd find the remains of a fire," Aria pointed out, giving Hanna half a smile to let her know that her attempt at levity had been noticed.

Spencer let out a frustrated sigh, still evidently on a train of thought that Hanna didn't have a ticket for. "I don't think there's anything to find here," Spencer said at last. "This was probably just a diversion."

Hanna rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath and trying not to scream. It was unthinkable that they'd come all this way for nothing, but it also made a sick kind of sense. A was still toying with them, dangling Emily in front of them but keeping her just out of reach. Hidden somewhere they couldn't find her, somewhere Hanna couldn't save her. "So what do we do now?"

"We go back to my house," Spencer suggested. "We can regroup, go through the clues, and see if we can figure anything out."

It felt like a retreat to Hanna rather than a strategic move, but by this point she was aware that hanging around here wouldn't do much good. It would be just like A to get them to break into the school at the promise of rescuing Emily, only to call the cops on them and have them arrested for trespassing. "Fine," she said, turning to the door. She was aware of the others behind her, but somehow they faded away as she realized that the door wouldn't open. She tried turning the handle both ways, pushing and pulling the door, shoving it with her shoulder, but it didn't budge. "It's not open," she said weakly.

"What?" Spencer's voice was sharp and she stepped forward purposefully, quickly establishing in much the same methods as Hanna had used that the door was locked.

"We left that door open behind us," Aria said, her voice trembling. "We deliberately left the door open so we'd be able to get out."

"Well," Spencer said, her hand falling from the knob as resignation settled over her face, "it looks like somebody wants to keep us in."

"Do you think it was A?" Hanna asked, already knowing the answer. There was no way the door closed and locked by itself, and there was no one else she could think of who would want to lock them in here. It had to be A – or at least one of them.

Suddenly all Hanna could think about was how small the locker room really was. It seemed even smaller than it usually did, even though it was practically empty. Just the three of them, and yet she felt like there wasn't enough oxygen. She knew it was just panic setting in, but she couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Come on," Aria said, ducking around the nearest row of lockers, "let's go check the other exit."

They did, but it was locked like the first one. Hanna pounded her fist against it, due more to her need to express her frustration rather than any expectation that it would achieve anything, and it was only when she stopped that she realized her injured hand was still hurting. She pulled her hand back and let it hang by her side, sharp jolts of pain shooting through it.

There wasn't enough time for panic to really set in, though, because just as she opened her mouth to suggest they try the other door again, a sound rang out through the room. It sounded like someone banging on the door, a little less desperate than Hanna had been moments before, and a lot more terrifying.

"That's not the wind," Aria said, her eyes flicking to the door as if to check it was still closed.

"Someone else is here," Spencer whispered, her eyes wide.

Hanna crept around the lockers and looked at the front door, which was in fact still locked, as far as she could tell. Something tugged at the back of her mind. "If that's A," she said softly, "then they locked us in here. Right?"

Spencer nodded, and then let out a little gasp as she caught on. "So why would they be banging on the door to get in?"

"Exactly." Hanna found her last scrap of courage and walked toward the door, stopping a couple of feet away. "Hello?" she called. Maybe it was the janitor, who'd heard their voices and was coming to see what the noises were about. Maybe it was a teacher who'd stayed late. Maybe it was someone who could let them out.

There was no reply, but the banging stopped. Then there was a click, and the door started to swing open. Hanna felt Aria and Spencer come up behind her, and she clutched onto both of them, suddenly thinking that it wasn't someone here to let them out. The door swung open, and a figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the darkness of the hall. The girls stared, confused – whatever they'd been expecting, it wasn't this – and it was Hanna who found her voice first.

"What are you doing here?"

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Any guesses as to who it is? (Hint: correct guesses may lead to a faster update.)