And I'm back again, after an excessively long wait!
Things have just been so hectic, but I'll just take a moment to wish all my fellow Singaporeans a Happy National Day!
This week, I'll be posting chapter 9 and 10, and that's the last of this story for a couple of weeks. I promise I won't forget about this story; I just need the extra time to study. I really hope to post Chapter 11 in the first week of October, as soon as all the exams are over, but if I get caught up in other matters, I'll be back the next week at the latest.
A big thank you to all of you who stuck by my story from the very beginning, and please, enjoy the next 2 chapters!
.xXx.
Chapter 9: Lost is found
"Mona's dead?" all four girls gasped.
"Yes, she is. The French police found her body poisoned by arsenic, and sent me to question you. They also found a sort of holding cell in the basement. She was murdered, most likely by whoever was in it, but we don't know who. All the fingerprints were wiped clean," Tanner explained.
"We… we haven't talked to Mona in years. We don't know what happened to her!" Hanna cried. Just like when she found out Aria had died, she felt no sorrow, but no happiness either.
"Very well then. But if you know who could have done this to her, do call," Tanner smiled, getting up, but pausing before she reached the door. She turned around, facing Spencer. "Please do use more of the wonderful crop that is sugar in your coffee, Miss Hastings. Good day."
And with that, she left, leaving the girls grimacing at each other.
.xXx.
The Montgomery estate was once one of the most welcoming places Spencer had been to. With its looming Bohemian architecture and warm lighting, it made Spencer feel safe.
Now it just looked threatening and mysterious.
"Spence, we shouldn't be doing this! If the alarm system is still on, this could look very bad for us, and we don't even know that she's here, and – Spencer! What the hell are you doing!" Alison yelled.
"Shush! Hanna's hunch makes sense, okay? And the alarm won't go off if we use the – key! If Aria is in there, she hasn't thought to remove the spare key!" Spencer grinned.
"Well. That's great, but can we go now?"
"No! And since when do you care about getting in trouble, Ali? You blinded Jenna!" Spencer sighed.
"To answer your question, since I got buried alive under my gazebo! And I'm not ready to face Aria, anyway! We don't even know if she IS alive!" Alison cried.
"You're the one who saw her!" Spencer sighed as she opened the door and pushed Alison in. "So get in. The only way to find out if she's alive is to go in!"
Alison sighed as she followed Spencer into the house, noting that it did look cleaner than it should have been. Maybe Aria was alive, but that would mean that the funeral the next day would be for nothing…
Shaking off that thought, Alison wandered into the kitchen. Groceries had been hastily dumped on the table, and plates lay piled in the sink. Weird.
"Alright, so maybe someone's been crashing here, but we don't know who. Can we go now?" Alison groaned.
"No, we can't. And even if Aria isn't really alive and this was all for nothing, we need to find out where those pages are hidden! It's the only way to stay one step ahead of Alex, okay?" Spencer exclaimed.
There was a thump behind them, and the two girls whirled around, frightened.
"Spence? Ali?" Aria gasped.
.xXx.
"Where would you hide the pages of a diary which contains information that a mad replica of Spencer Hastings is after?" Hanna thought aloud as she tossed out a pair of old heels.
"Han, stop bombarding me with your inner thoughts, I do not need you listing off this season's fashions for the fourteenth time," Emily sighed, fingering the bright pink post-it that had been stuck on the diary. "Why is 'rock bottom' highlighted? It has to be a riddle of some sort. Like an anagram or a number code."
"Wait, let me see that," Hanna said, snatching away the post-it without waiting for an answer. "Rock bottom…" she mumbled, thinking hard.
"Em! I've got it! Stop thinking so hard – the answer was right in front of our face!" Hanna cried, jumping up. "Rock bottom – Em, it isn't an anagram or a code, it literally means the bottom of a rock!"
"Han, there are a million rocks in Rosewood. Even if some of them are too small to hide those pages, there are still hundreds of thousands of rocks to search!"
"And Aria knew that! Which is why those papers are hidden at the bottom of the Kissing Rock!" Hanna grinned.
Emily gaped at her, something which she seemed to be doing a lot these days. "When did you start eating brain supplements?" she finally offered weakly.
Hanna grinned again, dragging Emily out the door. "Come on, let's go!"
.xXx.
Aria stared at her two friends and them at her, none of them knowing what to do. For a moment, all was normal, everything forgotten, nothing having happened between the three.
Then Aria ran.
She dashed out of the house faster than she looked like she could run, tearing down the street. "Hey, wait!" Alison yelled, hot on her tail. But Aria was still faster. With the speed of a horse, she ran into the down the street and turned round the corner as the girls chased her. On and on they ran, until they reached the edge of the woods. Still, Aria continued running, straight through the trees and pulling up her red hood.
Spencer and Alison stopped just in front of the first tree, panting heavily. "Do we go in?" Spencer asked in between breaths.
"Now you want to stop? When we're this close to getting answers?" Alison panted, "We're going in there." And with that, she followed the trail.
Spencer and Alison approached cautiously, not wanting Aria to bolt again. There was a slight rustle and a shadow up ahead. "That's her!" Spencer cried, dashing ahead.
Twigs snapped, leaves crunched, branches were pushed aside. The trees cleared up ahead and the two girls sped up, knowing that they were close.
BANG!
With a loud 'ow' from someone, Spencer crashed into someone else, who rubbed their skull as Alison skidded to a stop
"Emily? Hanna?" Alison gasped, "What are you doing here?"
"We could ask the same thing! We're looking for those papers!" Hanna cried as Emily berated Spencer for slamming into her.
"'Rock bottom'! You're right! That's a clue hiding in plain sight!" Spencer gasped.
"Could you please shut up and start looking?" Emily snapped, kneeling down and scanning the bottom of the rock.
Each of the girls took a different corner of the rock. They searched once. Twice. Three times. Still, they found nothing, to the point that Alison started searching nearby rocks.
"That clue was either a dud, or we're just searching in the wrong place," Hanna sighed.
"Can we just look one more time?" Alison looked at her.
"Okay," Hanna sighed tiredly, giving the rock one last pat-down for any holes. "Ow!" she yelped, withdrawing her hand to find crimson-red fluid. "Something cut my hand! I'm bleeding over here!" Hanna cried, waving her arms. The others just ignored her.
"What could have cut my hand anyway? It's a smooth rock!" Hanna said, peering at where she had been cut. A tiny opening, no taller than a piece of paper and not much wider, was cut into the rock. If you looked closely, you could see a tiny grey ribbon sticking out of it.
Eyes widening, Hanna called out to the others and traced her fingers over the hole. It was sharp to the touch, and a drop of blood dripped from it. Spencer carefully slid her fingers into the slit, catching hold of the ribbon and tugging. A few pieces of paper tumbled out, covered in a layer of moss. Emily swept aside the plants to reveal familiar, neat, handwriting, continuing from where the girls had left off.
kill them all. A.D. is Alex Drake, Spencer's twin sister. She wanted to live Spencer's life at first, but then we started getting all nosy. The girls are getting closer, Alex knows that, and if she gets caught it's all over. She's sick, literally. I checked her files – she has a mental disorder.
Killing them straight out still isn't good enough for her. They're going to die believing that when I walk into that shed tomorrow to save them, I did it to earn their trust back. They're going to believe I killed them. And they're going to die a slow, gruesome death. I don't know how, but they are.
I know that walking in there tomorrow is absolutely crazy, but I have to do it, or they'll die right away.
The entry ended right there.
"She knew she was going to get herself blown up for us before it happened," Spencer whispered, "and she still did it."
"There's more," Emily said, picking up another piece of paper. It was an address, scribbled hastily onto the paper, the words 'answers over here' scrawled under it. "Obviously we're supposed to go there," she looked up, hope sparkling in her eyes.
"That's not Aria's handwriting," Spencer pointed out.
No one paid her any heed. They were all too preoccupied with hoping all of this to be over. Permanently.
Maybe they should have listened again to Spencer.
.xXx.
Photos and crumbs of food lay strewn over the table, much messier than it should have been. The figure in the black hoodie munched on a crumpet, using a pencil to circle key points on a map.
They looked at the dolls in the dollhouse, each one resembling one of the girls. One hand reached out to toss Mona in the trash. Another grabbed on to Aria, half hidden in the shadows, and quickly snapped its head off, placing it on the table.
Things were about to get way messier than A.D.'s desk.