Chapter 10
The atmosphere in the room was tense.
The Kahn Cabin rarely played host to such serious a meeting as the one ongoing that night. There were still discarded red cups, and half-empty beer bottles scattered sporadically around the place. Streamers from parties past hung depressingly from the rafters, chairs were strewn about the place and there were even some lurid slogans scrawled across the walls in permanent marker.
Noel Kahn, dark and brooding stood in a corner, glaring viciously at the back of Jason DiLaurentis's head, while Jason and Melissa Hastings spoke quickly and quietly to one another. All three snapped their attention toward the door to the cabin as it opened, admitting Wren, fresh from work, looking strained and Cece, looking effortlessly radiant. Melissa and Jason's attention was only distracted for a moment, before they returned to their conversation. After a few seconds they conversation wound down and they moved apart, drawing Noel, Cece and Wren into the conversation.
"You heard what happened then?" Melissa demanded furiously.
Cece nodded, "Sure, they moved against them."
"Or those around them," Wren reminded, "Hannah's Mom and Aria's have both been fired from their jobs."
"Was beating me up really necessary?" Noel demanded, crossing the room and squaring up to Jason angrily.
Jason raised an eyebrow, "What would they have thought if they'd seen us talking? You should just be glad I didn't break anything."
"You should be glad I didn't fight back." Jason replied shortly.
"Quit the arguing," Melissa half-ordered, her dark eyes bulging, "Noel, he did it to cover for you because you've gotten sloppy and Mona's almost on to you. Jason…you really didn't need to beat him up…he's got enough crap going on in his life."
"Speaking of which," Wren interjected, smiling disarmingly to try and cool the tension, "Mike was just taken into the hospital, I need to head back really, but I said I'd take at least half an hour. There's a junior nurse dealing with him, but I should be able to intercept her initial analysis."
Cece frowned, "Some might say it was overkill to bring the kid into this."
"He knew what he was getting into," Noel countered, "and it gives me a little longer in Mona's confidence. I can find out what she's planning."
Melissa ignored him, swishing her brunette hair, and focusing on Wren, "Get back to the hospital."
She turned to the others who clustered around her, "We need to fix this – now."
._.
S.O.S Texts were becoming regular features in Hannah's inbox. She crept down stairs, her fluffy slippers muffling her footsteps and a hoody hastily thrown over her pyjamas as she eased down the hallway and into her kitchen. She opened the garden door and slid out, shutting and locking the door behind her, and then scurried around the side of her house and out onto the driveway. She made her way along in the dead of night, before coming to the bench, lit by a streetlamp overhead and sat, waiting for Emily.
Her friend emerged out of the darkness, dressed in a purple hoody thrown over her own pyjamas and a pair of snug Ugg Boots affixed to her feet. She inclined her head and Hannah frowned. She knew exactly what that meant. Instead of having a chat on a bench, outside, while it's freezing, we have to be secretive, and go into the bush, where, not only is it cold, it's also uncomfortable. Great.
Begrudgingly Hannah got up and stole away into the bushes, and turned round as Emily rustled through the branches herself. The two girls stood in silence for moment, quite disbelieving that in such a sleepy and safe area as Rosewood, they couldn't have a chat in the middle of the night on a bench in case someone was missing.
"What's the emergency?" Hannah enquired, yawning and immediately slapping a hand over her mouth to try and keep the noise in.
Emily frowned, looking almost tearful, and produced the Danby letter. Hannah scanned it and then handed it back.
"Yeah…well…you aren't the only one with problems, okay? –A got my Mom fired from the Bank today." Hannah mirrored Emily's own glum expression. "Did you hear from Ar or Spencer?" Hannah prompted, only to cut through the silence and draw her away from dwelling on her Mom's misfortunes. Emily shook her head. "Well…I'm sick of just taking this from –A."
"Hannah," Emily said urgently, "we're outside, remember."
Hannah flushed red, "Okay…sorry…but seriously Em let's just go and see Mona and deal with the bitch."
"Cause that worked so well last time you were seeing her?" Emily prodded knowingly.
Hannah face curled downward, "It wasn't…a complete success…but last time I was just kinda talking to her. This time we're going to interrogate her."
"You sound like Wilden." Emily joked wildly. Hannah looked supremely focused, and then Emily frowned, "Wait, right now? Han it's the middle of the night!"
"All the more reason. Mona moves in the shadows, we have to too."
Emily couldn't believe she was quite looking at Hannah.
"I'll meet you at yours in ten."
._.
Wren looked distinctly uncomfortable. His face was creased and sweating slightly. Ella and Byron Montgomery didn't look much better – they both wore heavy bags under their eyes and showed strained lines on their faces. Aria was watching the conversation warily, but wasn't quite in earshot – even this late at night the hospital wasn't completely silent and intermittent chatter was making it hard to listen to what was being said.
"Mike is in a fairly fragile state," Wren frowned severely, creasing his forehead, "he took a lot of painkillers and his body is entering what we could only describe as melt-down. He's about to go into surgery and I'll do my best for him." Aria could see Wren mouthing the words but she couldn't discern what he was saying. She turned her head to the elevator and her jaw-dropped, bold-as-brass, Meredith was striding out of the lift. She looked refreshed even in the middle of the night and was heading straight for Aria's parents. Her heart-pounding Aria stood up and moved on a collision course to intercept Meredith.
She stopped her in her tracks.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Meredith smiled innocently, "Byron…that is…your Dad, received a call in the middle of the night and left without saying a word. I had to figure out why and he told me he was here. I wanted to come and support him."
Aria's eyes flared viciously, "Get out of here, now. My brother may be dying. You may be a bitch, but you can't be completely heartless – the last thing my Mom needs right now is to see the person who destroyed her marriage."
Meredith leaned close to Aria, "I may have slept with your Father, but I didn't destroy the marriage Aria, dear. You did that all by yourself." Straightening up, Meredith turned on her heel and headed straight back to the elevator. Aria turned away from her and strode toward her parents, and instead of feeling the fury in her heart dissipate, it intensified. Her parents were arguing, while her brother might be dying in an operation room.
"You want sympathy Ella? You're just angry because I've kept my job despite what happened with Meredith, and you got fired for helping a student cheat on their test. You're pathetic." Byron snarled viciously.
Ella laughed riotously, "I'm sorry, you're proud of that? You slept with a student – all it takes is an email Byron, one word to the Dean! I could work again Byron, can you say the same? If it boils down to it, would you be able to go back to teaching?" Byron looked thunderstruck, his jaw ajar, "So just lay off me Byron."
Aria's gaze fell upon the doors to the operating rooms, and in the second it took to think she was on the move. She crashed through the doors, ignoring a shout from the receptionist and bolted through the twisting maze of corridors, urgently searching for Mike. She'd move past stretchers, protesting Nurses and people crying and screaming but she tuned it all out. She was alert now, and all she wanted above all else was to see her brother again. She couldn't believe finding Mike.
She could see it distinctly. Pills all over the floor, and her brother hanging limply from his bed, eyes closed and mouth opened. She should have checked on him sooner…there was so much she would have done. At last she spotted Mike's room, her brother was propped up in bed, looking pale and drawn, but healthier than when she'd last seen him.
She burst into the room and grabbed his hand, Mike's eyes focusing upon her.
"You're gonna be fine, you're gonna go in for surgery and come out, and you'll be fine Mike. You'll be fine."
"Don't worry," he confided, "it's gonna work out Aria."
The door opened behind Aria and she frowned, Wren was looking at her as medical staff flooded into the room. He gestured for her to leave and she did so, moving to stand beside him as the bed moved off.
"Look after him." She said, watching after him and feeling her eyes start to burn with tears. She watched as Wren sprinted off in her brother's trail and sank back against the wall sobbing.
._.
"Did Aria ask you to come?" Meredith raised an eyebrow and smirked as Ezra stopped on the cups of entering the hospital.
"Yes, clearly – why else would I just shop up at the hospital?" Ezra's browed furrowed as he studied Meredith. "You're Byron's girlfriend?"
"And your the teacher sleeping with his student." She commented, her smirk only broadening.
Ezra rolled his eyes, "At least I didn't destroy a life to be with Aria. You destroyed that entire family."
"As I just told your girlfriend, she's responsible for that. They're trip to Iceland had rescued the family – when Aria and you…got together, that's when the cracks started to show in their relationship."
"Do you tell yourself that at night when you're in bed with Byron? Do you tell yourself that he won't remember how he lost the love of his life and chose you instead? How he took such a massive step down to be with you? You're nothing Meredith, a sad, pathetic woman who's still sleeping with her Professor. At least Aria has a personality, you're just vapid and mediocre in everything you do.
"Ella Montgomery is smart, intelligent and one of the greatest woman I've ever known. Byron knows that too, and he's hurting that he lost her through a foolish mistake. At first that's all you were Meredith, a stupid and foolish mistake. Then he saw a way to use you, to get back at Ella, and that was what he decided to do with you."
Meredith had a blood vessel pounding in her forehead, "You're lying! You're not making any sense! Byron loves me…we're going to have children together!"
Ezra frowned at her, "I'm afraid you're wrong about that. He already has two children, and, I'm fairly sure he doesn't want anymore. Especially not with you. You're a tool in Byron's games. He's trying to use you to hurt Ella, but she's moved on and found someone who's right for her – so what do you think will happen when Byron realises you've become irrelevant? You'll get dropped Meredith. So I suggest you let the Montgomery's have some private time now, and then you can decide what to do later."
Meredith, looking truly devastated, shrank away into the darkness and Ezra turned back toward the hospital. He strolled to the elevator and boarded it.
._.
Spencer shook violently and couldn't breath. She grabbed at her neck and then moved to the island in the kitchen, grabbing onto it for support as she surveyed the uninvited guest in her home. The guest smiled, "Take a seat Spencer, I'm not here to hurt you." Spencer tried to nod, but found it impossible to move her head, and a little reluctantly crept across to settle in the chair. "Good," the guest replied, settling onto the couch opposite her, "I've been so desperate to have this little chat. Things have become a little murky of late, but that's nobody else's fault but by own."
Spencer regarded her in abject shock. Her dark brunette hair, her distant eyes and the startling, pale complexion. It was all so unsettling, finding her here in her house, waiting for her. "What are you talking about?"
"The mysterious videos…the nonsensical texts," she raised a perfectly kept eyebrow, "you didn't ever suspect Spencer? Of all of you I thought you might have deduced something. Dear Cece practically gave you the idea on a plate."
"That there are two A's?" Spencer frowned deeply, "You're involved somehow?"
She rocked her head affirmatively, "I always have been. It was always thought prudent, at first I sought to control Mona and her little ploy – and I was seeding. Then she went rogue, turned upon me and I was forced to find an alternative means of…dealing with her."
"Why are you here? Why now?" Spencer prodded urgently.
Jenna smiled confidently, "Because I have an appointment to keep, and I need someone I could rely upon."
._.
If Radley Sanitarium had given Hannah the creeps, Mona's new permanent home was like something out of a horror movie. It was an Georgian-style building, but its trappings showed none of the colour or radiance of the period. Instead, it was cast in a dull grey, the windows were barred and the doors, heavy and very obviously locked. She wouldn't have been surprised if there were motion sensors in the gardens or something else to catch people trying to sneak-in, but if that had been so, she was also sure they would have been captured before finding an open window. Emily had gone first, dressed in her Kim Possible-attire, while Hannah herself hadn't found the energy to get dressed and struggled through the window in her pyjamas.
While Emily had landed stealthily, and attractively in a crouch, Hannah tumbled over the sill and landed in a heap on the floor. She groaned as her head banged on the floor and rang out in pain. Emily offered a look of severe disapproval before creeping across the floor and to the door. She tried the handle and it opened outward onto the corridor. Hannah, still reeling from her less than glamorous entrance followed in the wake of Emily. They moved out on the corridor and swung their heads either way, scanning the corridor: they were alone.
"I know I was the one who pushed for this," Hannah said, as they moved off in one direction, "but I'm beginning to think we need to stop breaking into places to talk to people. We could just call them."
Emily gave her an incredulous look, "No backing out now – and no cold feet. We're going to find Lucas and Mona, and finish this, tonight."
They crept along, examining the names on each of the rooms, and Hannah was beginning to think her idea had been a really stupid one. After a while all the rooms just blended into one another, and despite Emily's clear preparations, even she seemed to be getting a little tired. They drew up outside a room and paused, tired from their walk. Emily looked at her watch and frowned – it would be dawn in a few hours and they'd need to be back in Rosewood before then.
"We should head back." Hannah said simply.
Emily folded her arms, "This was your plan."
"And it was a stupid plan." Hannah emphasized.
Emily rolled her eyes, "Fine…I guess we'll come see them in the morning."
There was a noise at the opposite end of the corridor from them. Hannah's face immediately blanched with fear and Emily returned the look with her own of discomfort. "It could have been nothing." Suddenly there were the sounds of footsteps advancing upon them. The girls both turned and ran, not daring to look back and see who was following them. Though at first it had seemed to take them hours to circle the asylum, it took them only minutes to return to the office they had first come in through. The door was still open, a light breeze drifting through and Emily rounded the corner at speed. She'd already swung her leg over the sill when Hannah bounded in after her. The two girls sprang down the wall and sprinted for the safety of the car. It finally loomed out of the darkness and Emily bolted in the car, slamming the door behind her and only waiting for Hannah to get into her seat before slamming the accelerator to the floor and tearing away into the night.
"I can't go through that again Han," Emily said after a few minutes, "it was way too close."
._.
Confident she'd scared off the girls, Melissa turned on her heel and turned the opposite way to that which they had turned when they'd first entered the sanitarium. In a few minutes she was outside Mona's cell, and, thanks to her well-honed hearing, she could tell there was a conversation going on within. She placed her key into the lock, and slipped inside the room, shutting the door behind her. The gruesome twosome both looked shocked and a touch impressed.
Melissa stared at them confidently, "It's time we had a talk."
._.
Spencer was woken by a gentle shake to her shoulder, and realised they were still outside Garrett's House. She couldn't tell why Jenna had brought her there, or why they'd waited a few hours, but she'd decided she should get some rest and it only made sense for her to catch up on that there and then. Now she was wide awake and regarding the house. She turned to Jenna who was watching the house as stone, still as she had when she'd been blind and focused upon something. It was unnerving, although she supposed that was to be expected – it was a tool in her arsenal. She was still reeling from the revelation that Jenna was on her side…somehow and in someway.
Suddenly Jenna's eyes lit up and she opened her door, Spencer mirrored and moved with her towards the seemingly deserted house.
Jenna winked at her, "You think you understand a situation because you've seen it from one angle Spencer – you're wrong. You have to look at a situation from every angle to understand it, and the one angle we haven't considered is from the rear." They crossed around the side of the house and onto the back-porch. Jenna tried the door and it opened on her first pull, they crossed through the house and could hear Garrett yelling out and squirming. They crossed into the living room and Spencer gasped.
"Perfect timing as always Spence." Alison trained the pistol on Garrett and kept her heel firmly affixed to his chest. "Now that we're all here, Garrett sweetie, be a good boy and tell us what we want to know. I was a bitch you didn't cross when I was alive, and if I can come back from the dead, you'll understand the lengths I'll go to get the answers I want from you."
._.
Hope you liked Chapter 10,
Reviews and responses as always welcomed and really appreciated,
It's the only way I can improve as a writer and it's good motivation and critique,
Acrobat
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