Chapter 11
A/N: Ok I feel like I need to start off with a short little message about how sorry I am. This has been way overdue and it's mostly because as most of you may or may not know, my life has been one big shit show for the past couple of months. It's been one bad thing after another and I really can't catch a break, but I finally decided to channel all that negative energy and bad feelings into writing so I could get this done finally.
Thank you so much if you've stuck around for the long wait, to make up for it I've provided you with almost a whole novel's worth of content here, so it should take you a while to read. Thank you to everyone who's messaged me and asked me about my situation or even offered help, your support is what kept me going!
(Also don't mind any typos or grammar errors, I did my best but a girl can only edit so much on her own)
Without further ado, get to reading! I know you've been waiting :)
On the dark and stormy night that was the present, a grim fate met multiple people, a grim twist on the end of a grim game. One that had gone too long, one that hadn't gone long enough. If only it had gone longer, maybe a few would've made it out alive, if only…
Alison came limping out of the Radley hotel, her feet had been moving in almost robotic lengths since she had managed to pick herself up off the ground of the Radley roof. She paused and looked frantically for a moment, tears blurring her vision. It took her a minute before setting sights on her girlfriend behind her.
She turned and clutched onto Emily with all her might, finally letting them fall to the ground again, together. She continued to let her tears fall freely, her sobs just mixing with the sound of thunder resounding through the night air.
Aria and Hanna came out next, clutching to each other as well. They moved towards the ambulance, all had suffered multiple cuts and wounds from the ordeal. They too, had their minds fixated on the tragedies of the night. No injury they had obtained physically, could be as severe as the injury left on Alison's heart.
Veronica stood by the entrance, behind police tape, she barely noticed the cluster of girls, but instead, was looking for Spencer and Mary to come out behind them. Upon realizing that wasn't happening, she became panic stricken.
She ran under the tape, not caring what consequences she might face, to a grief stricken Alison, who was held by a sobbing Emily, both women on the ground. "What happened?" She yelled the question to the sobbing women. "Where are they?" They didn't even look at the older woman, her presence not acknowledged. "What happened to Spencer, and, and, Mary?" She shouted out in frustration now.
Neither of the girls said anything, Alison felt the grief emanating from Veronica. "Alison! What the hell happened?" She was at the point of insanity, but Alison couldn't hear her, she couldn't hear any words. All she heard was the ringing of the thunder, and the ringing in her own ears.
Veronica turned as she saw body bags being wheeled out of the Radley, followed by multiple paramedics. Her breath hitched at the sight, two of the women she cared about the most, missing.
Two body bags to match.
Alison buried her head into Emily's shoulder, unable to watch the bags as they went. Veronica however, marched straight over to the paramedics, "Open the bag." She commanded, her strong voice wavering.
"M'am, I really shouldn't…" The woman said, it wasn't protocol. She was never allowed to let ordinary citizens see the victims. This whole interaction might cost her the job.
"I said… open the bag." Veronica stumbled again, the words shaking out. She didn't want to see who the bags held, but had to know, for her own sake.
The paramedic sighed, and closing her eyes, unzipped the first bag so Veronica could survey the victim. She recoiled backwards as she stared in horror at the body of Mary.
The woman had a gunshot between her eyes, her eyes, still open, had glossed over. Veronica suddenly felt like she was going to throw up, tears streaming down her face. That was the body of the woman she had such a conflicted relationship with, the woman she never got to tell the truth to. Mary had died not knowing how much she really loved her.
The paramedic moved to the next bag, with a heavy sigh, she unzipped it. In the bag lay the body of Spencer, no gunshot was visible. She looked at the pale face of her daughter, her dead daughter. The girl was gone, and she never got to truly apologize to her for everything she had said, everything she hadn't said.
"No, no, I can't lose both of them." She sank to the ground, grief fully taking over her senses. She no longer had any capacity of time and space, she was just a being, a being crying on the ground as rain poured over her.
What was happening? This had to be a dream, she couldn't of lost them, not this easily, it wasn't possible. She refused, even though she had seen the bodies with her own eyes, she refused. Who had done this to them? Who was the monster who killed the women she loved in cold blood? She would find them, and kill them, if they weren't dead already.
Veronica sat in shock, so many thoughts racing through her head that she couldn't keep them straight. She felt a tiny hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Aria. The girl extended her hand, offering to help her up. She took it, looking at the girl silently, as she was led over to the other three. She had so many questions for them, but her mouth wouldn't speak. "Who did this?"
"Mary, she did this." Aria spoke finally, her voice raw after not speaking for a while. She watched as the body of her best friend, a girl who had become more than just her best friend, was wheeled away with the body of her murderer.
"What?" Veronica asked, not sure if she had heard Aria correctly, she looked at Emily and Hanna who were trying to convince Alison to stand up off the ground.
"She helped him. And she killed Spencer, would've killed all of us if it wasn't for Alison being pregnant!" Aria explained, spitting the sentence out with venom and tears. "This all happened, because of her!"
Veronica couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that Mary was responsible for this, after all this time. She thought the woman had changed, had gotten better, she trusted that she was no longer insane. "I don't believe it…"
"She even fooled you, I thought you were smarter than this Veronica!" Aria shouted. She had been the only one to see past Mary's facade, after all this time, she still believed the woman was insane, evil, and it turned out that she was right. "If you all would've listened to me, Spencer wouldn't be dead!" She hated them, all of them, for having been so gullible.
Hanna stepped forward holding the tiny but mighty girl back as she lunged forward to try and do who knows what. "Aria, we're all a little upset right now, but you need to calm down."
"Calm down? Calm down? Spencer is dead, because of that psychopath and you want me to calm down?" Aria was raving now, not even Hanna could hold her back for much longer.
"And she's dead, so is Mona, nothing we say now can change anything." Hanna tried to convince the girl calmly, feeling her own tears of anger slip out. She realized now that they hadn't seen Mona's body at the bottom of the stairs when they came down, and assumed she had already been taken care of.
Alison stood up finally, Emily holding her. She could barely stand, clutching onto her stomach as she ran out of her grasp to go throw up in the bushes.
"If she loses those babies, you'll only have yourselves to blame!" Aria shouted again, breaking free of Hanna's grasp, and storming away from the group. She got into her car, driving away as she couldn't stand to look at them any longer. Hanna didn't know what to do, she stood somewhere in between the shell shocked Veronica, the visibly shaken Emily, and the sick Alison.
Veronica couldn't believe this was real, it had to be fake. Had to be a bad dream, or a sick joke. Mary wasn't the villain, she couldn't be responsible for inflicting all this pain on the women she loved. She didn't know what to think, what to feel, her body going completely numb as she crumpled to the ground. One thought playing over and over in her head, This isn't real, this isn't real.
But it was real, and nothing would ever be the same, ever again.
24 Hours Earlier...
Mona tapped away at the keyboard on her laptop, looking from screen to screen frantically. She didn't want to let the girls down, she still felt she owed it to them to help. Now that Alison was missing, stakes were higher than ever.
"What are you doing? What are you finding?" Emily asked Mona, she was pacing back and forth, her nerves running wild.
"If you remain calm, Emily, it will make this go much faster." Mona said, not looking up from her computer screen.
Aria tried to stop Emily from pacing, holding onto her forearm to steady her. "Mona knows what she's doing."
"I don't doubt that, it's just taking her a long time, time we don't have!" Emily yelled out in frustration, she wasn't really angry at Mona, she was angry at herself for letting Alison out of her sight.
Hanna ran in suddenly, her hair a mess, makeup smudged. She was out of breath, panting heavily as she finally sat down into a chair. "I hopped on the first flight I could, I'm so sorry."
"It doesn't matter now! She and Spencer are both missing and I'm freaking out!" Emily snapped, having another person to center her anger on.
"Spencer isn't missing." Mona pointed out calmly, still typing her different combinations of code. "She's with Mary, so at least she's safe."
"What's going on with Mary?" Hanna asked, having not been there to witness her falling out with Jason in all its glory.
Emily was at her wits ends with all three of them, none of them seeing how dire this situation was. "It's not important, we need to all focus on finding Alison, and getting her back safely!"
Aria forced Emily to sit down next to Hanna on the couch, not willing to watch as her friend singlehandedly destroyed herself emotionally and physically. "Everything is going to be okay, I'm sure Alison is…" she trailed off, not knowing what to say.
Emily snapped her head up, looking Aria square in the face. "Finish that sentence, I dare you."
Mona couldn't be bothered to deal with this, she was the one that was relied on to find Alison by tracking her phone, she didn't have time for the petty nonsense. "Listen, if you all shut up, and sit down I'll be able to think clearly, and it might speed up this process." She snapped finally.
Emily realized the woman was right, she sat down reluctantly, praying that wherever Alison was, she was okay.
Mary sat back down onto her bed, rummaging through various papers she had managed to retrieve. It was everything she need, all the information she could ever possibly want to pull of their plan.
She was distracted out of her thoughts when she heard a brisk knocking at the door. She tried to ignore it, knowing it wasn't Spencer or Alison, so then what did it really matter? But the knock sounded again, so she reluctantly got up and answered it.
"Veronica, what are you doing here?" She asked when she answered the door and saw the woman standing there. It wasn't like her to just stop by unannounced, or was it? She really wasn't sure but still found this odd.
The woman launched forward, wrapping her arms around Mary's neck and pulling her into a tight hug. "I was so worried, I saw Jason leave and I was scared he had said or done something." She sounded relieved, almost like she cared.
Mary rubbed the woman's back, pulling away finally in order to catch her breath. "I'm fine, I promise you I'm alright." She cupped Veronica's face in her hand, staring the worried woman in her eyes.
"I just, I did some thinking and if you're going to go to jail we don't have much time left and I just wanted to say–"
She cut Veronica off by speaking herself. "Please, don't worry about me, I'll figure a way out of this." She didn't want to get into the whole Jason situation, this conversation could be saved for later, when she wasn't busy.
Veronica shook her head, now interrupting her right back. "Goddammit Mary Drake I've been trying to tell you something for a long time now and you never let me." She shook her head as she realized it was pointless, whenever she worked up the courage to say it she was stopped.
"I'm all ears." Mary said, now realizing she should probably be a little more attentive to Veronica if she wanted to get rid of her. Things really weren't what they seemed and she was still trying to figure it out.
"I'm not good at words, I never have been." Veronica said, feeling tears form in her eyes. She had been trying for so long to just say those three words, but whenever she found the confidence she was shot down one way or another. "But you know that, which is why you're looking at me like that."
"Looking at you like what?" Mary asked, not sure exactly what she meant. She almost rolled her eyes, seeing that Veronica was struggling to fathom whatever she wanted to say.
But the woman didn't say anything, she grabbed the woman by the waist, finally deciding that she was brave enough to do this. If she couldn't say it she could do it, she could prove it.
"Veronica, what are you–?" Mary began to ask but she couldn't continue the question before Veronica's lips were on hers in a passionate embrace. Her eyes widened, immediately realizing she had read this situation very wrong.
Veronica's eyes widened too, it had only taken a moment for her to realize that something was wrong. She had only kissed Mary once before, twenty years ago, but she could still tell that this wasn't her. Her taste, her touch, it wasn't her, either that or she had changed immensely, grown cold and animalistic. This wasn't the woman she had once loved.
She felt as Mary began to push her away, the woman was breathing heavily, her face white as a ghost. "What the hell, Veronica?" She nearly shouted, running her hand over her lips which the woman had just violated. She couldn't believe this had just happened.
"I'm sorry, I just thought–" Veronica began, realizing she had really messed up this time. She never should've stopped by, she never should've done that. She tried to explain herself but found herself muttering frantically under her breath.
"You thought what?" Mary snapped, feeling anger and disgust boil inside of her. She had definitely not signed up for this.
Veronica began to stutter, tears slipping down her face. "I thought you… I thought we..." She became flustered, choking back a sob as she had never cried in front of anyone before, and didn't plan on starting now. Even faced with this abrupt heart break, she couldn't say the words she longed to.
Mary scoffed, "Well you thought wrong." She couldn't believe Veronica had just come into the cabin, kissed her like it was nothing. "It's not like I'm a lesbian." It disgusted her to even say it.
The senator was more confused than ever, "You told me you were, but I guess lying to yourself and me is a good way of getting rid of me." Something had changed, Mary had wanted this, wanted her for so long, and she knew that. The woman had made it fairly obvious without trying to, and she had always found it quite adorable, but now, now something had changed.
Mary realized that she had messed up big time. She should've done her research before she took this on, but she hadn't, and now she had to deal with the consequences, "I just, I can't do this." She stormed out realizing she would need to do major damage control later.
Veronica was left standing in the middle of the cabin, shellshocked at what had just gone down. She looked over to the bed at the paperwork Mary had just been surveying, wondering if that was the reason she was acting differently. She saw a card for Diane at the Carissimi Group, and typed the number into her phone.
This was a start, but she continued looking through the different documents until she found various blueprints and maps from everywhere in town. Whatever was going on, it definitely wasn't good, and Mary was definitely involved, and she was going to figure it out.
First stop; The Carissimi Group.
When Alison came to, she couldn't see a thing. She tried to open her eyes, realizing that her eyes were already open, and she was just sitting in a darkened room. Sitting, she was sitting in a chair, her arms and legs tied down, hands bound. How had she ended up here? The last things she remembered was sitting upstairs, considering going to Mary, and now she was sitting tied up in, well, she didn't exactly know where she was.
She tried to scream, bile rising in her throat, she quickly learned that there was tape over her mouth. Whoever had put her there really didn't want her screaming or moving around. She prayed that Emily and Jason were okay, and not somewhere in this dark room as well. She heard a low moaning sound, coming from somewhere around her, and did her best to muffle a scream, indicating to whoever it was that she was there.
Spencer, who had just now woken up from whatever drugs she had been given, heard Alison's scream, she could tell it was her cousin's because of its high pitch. She realized Mary must be in the room somewhere as well, and struggled against the ropes that kept her attached to the chair.
Alison meanwhile, had been working to loosen the tape from her mouth, and had succeeded. "Who's in here with me!" She yelled out, realizing that whoever it was still wasn't able to un-secure the tape. "Whoever you are, we're going to get out of this, just stay calm!" She tried to reassure the nameless victim.
All of a sudden, the lights flashed on in the room, blinding both Alison and Spencer momentarily. When Alison's eyes adjusted, she found that there was no other person sitting with her in the room, but she could've sworn she heard somebody. "Where are you? I heard you?"
Spencer could see Alison straight ahead of her, she tried to scream out through her tape, but it was no use. For some reason, she could see Alison, but Alison couldn't see her. She fought against her restraints again, still trying to wrap her head around what she was doing here, why Alison couldn't see her. She looked around the room now, her head having been stuck in one direction. She looked to her right, seeing her mother, tied to a chair next to her, but still unconscious. "Mary!" But the sound came out muffled.
"Don't try and fight it darling, the ropes are strong, stronger than you even." Spencer looked away from her mother and straight ahead to the room Alison was sitting in. She recognized the voice, deep, and as cold as ice.
"Aunt Mary?" Alison asked in disbelief, not trusting her own eyes at this point. She was hallucinating, the drugs hadn't worn off, maybe she had hit her head and gotten a concussion, or this was all a dream.
Spencer looked from the Mary that had just walked into Alison's room, to the Mary that was sitting unconscious next to her, realizing what was happening.
"How did you get your tape off?" The woman snapped, moving forward to survey the girl she had finally managed to hold captive in the room. Her partner had given her no assistance, and drugged, the woman was heavy.
"I'm good with my tongue." Alison snapped back, realization set in that she had been played, played by this woman who had supposedly loved her. "What the hell is going on Mary?" She yelled out in frustration.
Mary stepped forward, pulling a chair forward to sit down in front of Alison, smirking at the thought of Spencer struggling in the next room, but she payed no mind to the one way glass window. "I'm sorry Alison, I really am, but this had to be done." She ripped the tape that was still hanging from Alison's face, causing the girl to yelp out.
Alison shook her head, looking Mary in the eyes, trying to get her to look back. If she could just find the damaged woman underneath all of this, she could get out of here alive. "You wouldn't hurt me, my babies. I know you, you're not this woman." She tried to talk her once beloved aunt out of this. "This isn't the woman I know and love."
"I'm not the woman you know and love, I never have been." Mary said, leaning forward to survey the terror in Alison's eyes. "Charlotte was right, you are gullible." She spat, laughing at the girl's reaction.
Spencer was still fighting against her restraints, trying to scream out through her tape, trying to tell Alison what was really happening, what she was really seeing. She figured out by now that this was a one way glass window, liked the ones used in police stations. She had managed to chew a little of her tape off, she had enough room to speak, but not enough to get it off her mouth completely. She knew that screaming out to Alison wouldn't help anymore, no point in wasting her breath. Not only was the room see proof, it was soundproof as well. She tried to see if her mother was okay instead, "Mom, mom please wake up!" She said as loud as possible, the tape still muffling her voice a little. She prayed hat her mother would wake up, knowing that both of their lives depended on it.
"Why are you doing this?" Alison screamed out to the woman who was supposedly Mary, causing Spencer to look back up at the scene unfolding in front of her. "Who hurt you? What went wrong?" As far as she had known, Mary had been happy, not having any reason to turn on her.
"Nothing went wrong, the plan went accordingly." Mary explained with a devilish smile that sent chills down Alison's spine. "Well except for kissing Veronica Hastings, that definitely wasn't a part of the plan but it was an extra added bonus."
Alison's brow furrowed in confusion as Mary continued as if she had said nothing at all.
"The plan, oh it really was a great one. I got you to trust me, Spencer to trust me, hell, even Veronica to trust me. You opened your homes to me, and I gave her all the information she needed."
Alison heard what she said, realizing that she wasn't the mastermind behind all of this, of course she wasn't. "She? Who's she? Who are you working for? A.D?" Alison asked desperately now, trying to get answers out of the woman.
Mary laughed, sitting back in her chair as she watched the young woman beg for information. "Why would I tell you that?" She was interested to see what response her niece could come up with.
"You're going to kill me, right? I want the truth before you kill me." Alison begged, trying desperately to hold back her tears, not wanting to appear weak in front of the vile woman she had once considered her aunt.
"Actually, you're one of the two who aren't going to die, I made him promise me." Mary informed her with a smirk, they couldn't kill Alison, not while she was pregnant with twins. They might've been villains, but they weren't completely sick.
"Who's the other one, who's not going to die?" Alison asked, feeling sick to her stomach. She prayed that Emily and Spencer were somewhere safe, far away from here, out of reach from this psychopath.
Mary stood up, moving her chair back to it's original place in the room. "You annoy me, Alison. So many questions, and you never stop talking." She rolled her eyes. "Who are you working for? Who hurt you? What went wrong?" She said, mocking the girl's voice, and laughing as she saw rage pulsing through Alison's veins.
"Fuck you." Alison swore out, wishing she was untied so she could wrap her hands around Mary's throat and squeeze until she saw the light draining from behind her eyes.
Mary pulled a switchblade out of her pocket, putting it to Alison's throat and flashing that deranged smile once more.
Spencer screamed out from the other room, the first sound that actually made it through her tape, causing the Mary she knew to stir from whatever medically induced sleep she had been in. She looked around the room confused, and saw Spencer looking out the window across from her. "Spencer!" She muffled out, leaning to see what the girl was looking at.
She saw herself, holding a knife to Alison's throat. And her eyes widened in terror realizing that whatever she had been drugged with must've been incredibly strong. They heard Alison whimper, not wanting to lose her life, the life of her children. "Please, don't do this Aunt Mary."
Mary smiled, lowering the blade. "All three of your lives are in my hands." She said sweetly, moving her hand over Alison's baby bump, her voice suddenly turning cold, "Remember that next time." With that, she walked out the door, leaving Alison more frightened than she had ever been in her life.
Spencer took a sigh of relief, now noticing her mother was awake and watching the scene frightfully next to her. "Mom, is it really you?" She muffled out, not knowing what to believe at this point. Which one was the real Mary, the one tied up next to her, or the one in there with Alison?
Mary didn't have to muffle however, she had managed to work the tape off her mouth just as easily as Alison had. "Spencer where are we? What's going on? Is that who I think it is?" She had so many questions she didn't know which one to ask first. They both looked up as the wall to their room opened, a hidden door having been there all along.
"Well look who's finally awake!" The woman who looked identical to Mary said with a fake cheerful attitude. "You always were the late sleeper, Mary."
"Jessica, you're supposed to be dead!" Mary yelled out in frustration, seeing that the woman she had constantly been in fear of was now standing in front of her. Spencer would've backed her mother up, but the tape had found it's way back over her mouth.
"I guess lesbians and tape really don't mix." Jessica, no longer having to pretend to be Mary, muttered under her breath, moving forward and ripping the tape off Spencer's mouth. "At least your sexuality is one thing you didn't get from this bitch." She told her niece with a sneer, looking back to the two women sitting in front of her.
Spencer looked between her mother and her aunt, confused for a moment, before realizing that she should probably have a come back. "Homophobic, and insane, wow Aunt Jessica, you really are something else."
Jessica smirked, appreciating her niece's humor. "It's not that I'm homophobic." She began, locking eyes with her sister. "I just don't understand, why Veronica Hastings, out of all women?"
"You leave her out of this!" Mary snapped at Jessica, finding the courage to speak even though she was terrified. If Veronica got hurt she would never forgive herself. "She hasn't done anything wrong!"
"Her first mistake was getting involved with you." Jessica sneered. "Anyone who falls in love with Mary Drake ends up paying for it in the end."
Mary realized now, "That's why you're doing this?" She shook her head at her sister, she couldn't believe this was happening. "You think Veronica means anything to me? She's just the woman making my life a living hell!" It hurt Mary to say those words.
Jessica laughed, "Veronica payed me a visit earlier." She bent down to get on Mary's level. "She's like a love sick puppy."
Spencer was slowly beginning to understand, "She doesn't mean anything to either of us, she's jealous of us." She watched nervously as Jessica turned to her, having forgotten that she was even sitting there.
"No, she means everything to Mary, don't you understand?" Jessica realized from the look on Mary's face that Spencer was blissfully unaware. "She didn't tell you."
"Tell me what?" Spencer asked finally, her nerves off the wall upon being in this life or death situation, taunted by yet another one of her family members. "Mom?" She asked, turning to Mary.
Jessica looked to Mary, seeing as the woman's face drained of all color. "Do you want to tell her, Mary, or should I?"
"Jessica, please, we don't have to get into this now…" Mary began, but she stopped dead in her tracks as her sister put the blade to her throat.
"Mom!" Spencer yelled out, not wanting to witness her mother's death. "Whatever it is, just tell me!"
Jessica snickered, pressing the blade in a little farther. "I know you have problems talking about your feelings but I think you better start talking."
Spencer hated Jessica for doing this to her mother, seeing her in so much physical and emotional pain. "Jessica, why is this necessary!"
Mary shook her head, her eyes shut tight, breath caught in her throat. "Spencer, she wants me to admit that I –" She stopped, unable to speak any further.
"Say it" Jessica snapped, pushing the blade into her throat. She was enjoying this way too much. Spencer yelled out again, wishing this would just be over with.
"Why? Why does this matter to you so much?" Mary asked desperately, she didn't want to say this, she couldn't.
"Five… four… three.." Jessica began counting down, and Spencer began to panic.
"Mom just say it! Whatever it is, just say it!" Spencer begged, not willing to let her mother die because of this.
"Two…"
"I don't care! Whatever it is, it's not worth all of this!" Spencer was screaming on the top of her lungs now, tears slipping down her face.
"One…" Jessica finished at last.
Mary realized she had to just say it, even though she had never admitted it to herself she had to admit it to them now. "I'm in love with Veronica, is that what you wanted to hear?" She yelled out finally, her body shaking from how close she had come to death.
Jessica laughed, dropping the knife from her sister's throat. "Was that so hard?"
"Go to hell." Mary said, swallowing the lump in her throat and feeling tears fall down her face. She looked from her sister, to Spencer, who was sitting shell shocked.
"I don't understand? Why does that matter?" Spencer didn't understand the significance of that reveal, "So she loves Veronica, what difference does it make?"
"Not only does she love her." Jessica said with a smirk, "But they have a past! A past that they both lied to you about!" Jessica was eating up all the dirty little secrets she was able to expose, the family drama she was able to unleash.
Spencer looked shocked, tears forming in her eyes as she looked to Mary. It finally made sense, those awkward conversations she walked in on, the cryptic explanation of what was going on between them.
Jessica looked and saw this was working perfectly. "Isn't it just magnificently devastating! Finding out the people you love the most are lying to you?"
Spencer shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "You two knew each other?" She looked to Mary, feeling a little blindsided, but she knew this was what Jessica wanted. "Mom, why didn't you tell me?"
"It would've made things so complicated, for all three of us." Mary tried to explain desperately, realizing that Jessica had accomplished exactly what she wanted. "This is exactly what she wants Spencer, don't let this get between us."
Spencer nodded, "You're right, we have more pressing matters, like the fact Jessica's been torturing us." She turned to Jessica again, shooting her a look.
"Really?" Jessica asked, expecting Spencer to take the news a little harder. "I just told you you've been lied to again, and you're still on the whole torture thing?"
Spencer scoffed, "You burned my house down, and you killed somebody in the process!" She still had never found out who that person was, but hoped they were living happily in the afterlife somewhere. "That kind of trumps omitting the truth about a past relationship."
"Poor Jenna Marshall, for a blind girl you'd think her sense of smell would be a bit better." Jessica sneered, she still felt a little bad that the girl had gotten mixed up in the fire, "My original target was Veronica, but I'm glad she didn't die, because then I would have no leverage over either of you."
Mary looked at her sister, her rage overcoming her fear. "I swear to god, if you touch her..."
Jessica snickered, looking to her worried sister. "You really missed out, she's a great kisser." She watched as Mary's face turned white, and Spencer fought against her restraints. "And she really loves you."
"You son of a bitch, I'll kill you!" Spencer shouted, seeing that Mary was frozen in fear and shock, unwilling to speak anymore.
Jessica smiled, moving forward with a needle in hand. "Don't worry, I'll make her death quick and painless, just for you."
And that was the last thing Mary heard before she felt a sharp pain in her neck, realizing she was being drugged again. Spencer watched as her mother faded off into a drug induced sleep once more. "You son of a bitch. You really just outed her, and for what reason?"
"You should be thanking me for finally giving you the answers you deserve." Jessica said, realizing that her niece was an ungrateful little bitch who didn't deserve her help. "You'll have plenty of time to talk it over with her, make sure to ask her about Marion Cavanaugh, that's a great story." She spun around, sticking a plunger in Spencer's neck, causing the girl to scream out, before fading into darkness once more.
Mona looked up from her laptop after another twenty minutes of trying her best to track Alison's cellphone. She didn't want to get the women's hopes up, but she was pretty sure she had figured it out. "I think I got a location." She said simply, and Emily shot up from her seat on the couch and came running.
"Where is she?" Emily asked, looking at the screen and trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
Mona's brow furrowed in confusion, and it was Aria who questioned this. "Mona, what is it?" Hanna was now standing on the other side of her, she didn't know much about how this whole thing had started, as no one was willing to tell her, but she was still concerned about Alison.
"It says her phone is, here." Mona said, reading off the location from her laptop.
Emily sighed in frustration. "Did we seriously just go through all of this, and not check to see if her phone was left behind?"
Aria was upset that this was all suddenly being blamed on them, "Don't look at me, I'm not the one who lives here!"
"And I just got here from my vacation, so you can't blame me for this!" Hanna added onto this, Mona sat back and watched as they tore each other apart, her job wasn't to babysit, it was just to find Alison.
"Well then who's fault is it, because somehow, Alison is missing, and Spencer isn't responding!" Emily yelled out again, if there was ever a time she actually needed Spencer and her uber smarts, it was right about now.
"I'm sorry I got here as soon as you called." Jessica had just walked into the house, still pretending to be Mary. She surveyed the fight that was currently ensuing between the girls. She laughed at this silently, realizing how much chaos she had created.
"Yeah well it wasn't fast enough!" Emily yelled at 'Mary', knowing that snapping wouldn't help, but still doing it anyway. "It's been an hour, and you didn't even bring Spencer!" She had hoped that Spencer wasn't far behind, but now seeing Mary's confusion, she realized they had bigger problems.
"Spencer wasn't with me." Jessica stated with confusion, looking around at the worried faces of the girls. "After what Jason said, I thought she was angry with me, truthfully I've been crying by myself for the past hour." She looked at how desperate Emily was, tears forming in her eyes when she heard this.
"Oh my god, I can't believe this is happening." She sank down to the couch, Aria wrapping her tiny arms around the swimmer.
"What are we going to do?" Jessica asked, moving forward to see what Mona was looking for on her laptop. She noticed that she was tracking Alison's phone, which was currently in her pocket. She tried to remain calm, "What are you trying to do?"
"We tried to track her phone, but it says it's already here, so she must've left it behind." Mona said, looking back on the laptop. "We could try tracking Spencer's phone, but she could've just as easily left hers behind."
All of a sudden, Emily's phone buzzed. Her face turned pale, looking down at the text message she had just received. "No, no, this isn't happening, I'm not doing this."
Jessica looked up, the plan was working, the text had sent. Hanna walked over to look at the screen, she read it aloud.
"Choose one, or they both die, time is ticking
-A.D."
Attached were two pictures of Alison and Spencer tied to a chair, mouths taped. Emily and Aria both started crying, looking at the two that meant everything to them.
Emily shook her head, "I can't believe we have to do this, I can't believe I'm going to have to choose between them." She looked at Aria and Hanna, and they both knew what she meant. They had to choose Alison, because she was three lives, and Spencer was one.
"We have to choose Alison." Aria was the one to voice this choice finally. She looked between her friends and 'Mary', seeing the older woman flinch at the thought.
Mona was confused, "Why? Why do we have to choose Alison?" She hated that the friends had given up on Spencer already, and personally, she had always preferred Spencer over Alison.
Emily let out a sob, "Mona, she's pregnant, pregnant with my two children." She looked between the others, Aria who had just found this out yesterday, Hanna, who hadn't, and Mary who couldn't even look at them any longer.
"We have to, Alison counts for three lives, Spencer counts for one." Hanna said finally, "That's like choosing one pancake over a stack of three pancakes, it's wrong."
The girls all looked at her for a moment, no one saying anything at her pancake analogy.
"What? We're choosing Alison." Hanna said, defending her choice once again.
Jessica didn't know what to say, she managed to produce a couple of tears, remembering that these two were her niece and her daughter. She looked up from the ground now. "We can't just give up, we have to figure out a way to get them both back safely."
Emily stood up and moved next to the older woman, taking her hand and looking her in her tearful eyes. "Mary, this isn't easy for any of us, but she's pregnant. We can't risk her dying, we can't bend A.D.'s rules or we could lose them both."
"So that's it? We're just sending Spencer off to the slaughterhouse, just like that?" Jessica could feel her blood boiling as she really got into this. "Don't you always figure something out? Some way to save them both?" she shouted now.
Mona sighed, "She's right, I don't support this. It's not fair to either of them." She wished there was something she could do to save them both, but she hadn't yet figured it out.
Emily's phone chimed again, and she looked down, reading the text:
"Made a decision? Time's a wastin.
-A.D."
Emily passed the phone over to Mona, she couldn't bear being the one to send her friend to her death, couldn't be the one to type the word. "You do it, just type that you want Alison to live."
Mona shook her head, not accepting the phone. "I'm not doing it, I won't be responsible for this murder." She still stood by 'Mary' one hundred percent.
Jessica sighed, looking as the other two shook their heads as well, "If this is what we're really doing.." She began, her voice cracking as tears continued to spill out. She sighed, her voice shaking. "I'll do it."
The girls all turned to look at her, admiring the older woman's courage as she stepped forward and took the phone from Emily. They watched as she shakily typed out their request, tears slipping down her face as she did. When it was done, she threw the phone across the room, and crumpled to the floor.
Emily went running over, she felt horrible for putting 'Mary' through what was nothing less than the worst torture imaginable. "I'm so sorry, Mary I'm so sorry." She cried out, wrapping her arms around the woman.
Jessica was floored by this, not having felt this loved and appreciated by someone in a long time. In a weird way, she liked feeling Emily hug her. She didn't say a word, continuing to sob. She wrapped her arms around Emily, allowing the girl to cry to her as well. The corners of her mouth hinted at a smile.
The chimes of Emily's phone broke them all out of their daze, it was now lying on the floor where Jessica had thrown it. Mona got up, a single tear evident on her face. She read the message out loud.
"Great choice, come to this destination to claim your prize!
-A.D."
She looked down at the phone, running back to her laptop as she furiously typed. Emily came up from the ground, letting go of 'Mary' as she looked at the phone.
Before she could ask, Mona explained, "It's coordinates, coordinates to a location, presumably where we need to go get Alison." She tried to distract herself with this and not think about the fact that their words had just killed someone close to them.
She stopped, causing all of the girls to inch in closer. As they surveyed the screen, they still couldn't figure out what they were supposed to be looking at.
Mona explained again, "It's an address." She pulled up x-search and typed in the number. "It's the address to the Radley."
Jessica shivered at the mention of Radley just for effect, causing Hanna to put a hand on her shoulder. Aria eyed her from the right, still not trusting her.
"So we're going to pick them up at the Radley?" Emily asked, just to be sure she had heard the information correctly. Where the hell would A.D. have kept them in the Radley?
"We're not going to pick them up, we're going to pick Alison up." Jessica reminded the group, her act as grieving aunt and mother still in full swing. Frankly, she didn't give a damn about Spencer, she was just glad the group was smart and chose Alison.
"Right." Emily said, feeling the tears she had choked back resurface. She rested her head on Mary's shoulder as the older woman wrapped her arm around her.
They all looked up as Emily's phone chimed again, Mona read it out loud.
"Meet me on the roof of the Radley, it's the final showdown.
Game over bitches,
-A.D."
The others looked at each other, they realized this was it, A.D. wanted to reveal themselves, wanted to end the game. They would give Alison back, and then go on whatever rant and then try and kill them.
"We need to get ready." Mona said, knowing from past experiences that when you're about to face a super villain, you needed to suit up.
"We?" Aria asked, moving forward from the group. "You are not going anywhere, this isn't your fight to fight, it's ours."
Jessica stepped forward, finding this completely uncalled for. "She helped us get this far, without her what would we be?" Mona smirked, she was beginning to like this 'Mary' woman after all.
The group went silent, nobody saying a word as 'Mary' finally spoke the truth that they all had been too afraid to admit, they needed Mona.
"Fine, Mona you can come with us." Emily spoke finally, giving in to both Mona and Mary's wishes. Mona giggled like a small child, she had been waiting to be accepted into the group for years now.
"I know where we can get everything we need to face this monster." Mona said finally, getting down to business after her gleeful moment of acceptance was over.
"We don't have time to waste." Jessica said, trying to bite back her smile. "Lead the way."
Veronica moved out from behind the Carissimi Group office, she knew that something was off with Mary, and it all started after she and Spencer snuck off here without telling her. Whatever it was, Veronica intended on figuring it out, she wanted her family back.
She grew worried though, thinking of Spencer she realized she hadn't seen the girl at all since she left with Mary. In fact, she hadn't even heard Mary mention her. If the older woman had gone rouge, possibly been working for the other side, who knows what happened with Spencer?
Suddenly, the door to the office building open and out walked the woman she had talked to over the phone. Of course, she could've walked in instead of waiting and stalking her, but she was no fool, and knew that wouldn't get her any answers. So, as the woman walked around the corner, she reached out, pulling her into the brush that she had been hiding in.
The woman screamed out, trying to fight her way out of Veronica's strong grip. But it was no use, she weighed next to nothing and Veronica pinned her up against the side of the building, "What happened to them?" She asked sternly, looking the terrified woman in the eyes.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have any idea as to who you mean." Came the woman's sickeningly sweet southern accent that made Veronica's skin crawl.
The accent only caused her to become more enraged, "Cut the sweet southern bell crap, I know you met with them, and now they're acting strangely, so you tell me what happened in your meeting and I'll spare your life" She threatened.
"Maybe if you gave me names I could help you…" The woman said, her voice shaking as Veronica's frustration grew.
"Spencer Hastings, and Mary Drake." Veronica said through gritted teeth. "Now tell me what you know." She was about ready to strangle this woman if she didn't come up with answers.
"Oh them? They're such a nice pair, mother and daughter actually. They just wanted to find a file on the Carissimi Group beneficiary and so I gave it to them and sent them on their way." It wasn't a complete lie, but close enough to one that the woman still felt a little guilty.
Veronica wasn't having it, she pulled out her pocket knife. "I'm a lawyer, I can tell when people are lying, and you are." She pressed it into the woman's neck just enough to scare her. "Now tell me the truth."
The woman could now see Veronica wasn't messing around, "Why do you care, what are they to you?" Fear flashed in her eyes as she hoped distracting Veronica could buy her some time.
"They're my family." Veronica said, tightening her grip on the woman. "And I love them." If it were different circumstances she would've let her mind wander, but she knew that was what the woman wanted. "Now, time to talk."
The southern woman realized she couldn't do anything but tell the truth. "I was blackmailed, I did what I had to do in order to protect my family, just like you're doing this now to protect them." She tried to use Veronica's family oriented nature against her.
Veronica could see she was telling the truth just from her change in voice, lawyer habits you know. "Who blackmailed you?"
"A man." She replied instantly, knowing that she wouldn't be happy with this but knew she didn't have any further information.
"A name, he must've given you a name." Veronica insisted, she planned on finding out who this was and giving him hell.
The woman looked hesitant, debating in her head as to whether she should divulge this information or keep it to herself. Either way she was probably going to be killed, might as well help the good side, she thought to herself.
"The man's name, what is it?" Veronica asked again, she wasn't about to let this woman go without a name.
"He didn't give me a name, I'm sorry." The woman sounded genuine, wishing she had gotten more information to give Veronica. "But I do know that whatever they were looking for in that file, it had something to do with whoever it was."
Veronica's eyes widened, taking her hands off the woman, and removing the knife from her throat. "That's it!" She shouted, "That file, it must be in all those papers I took from her cabin!" She broke off into a sprint, leaving behind no explanation to the woman who she had just held at knife point.
But it was this woman who got the last laugh, for she had gotten off very easy with the questioning. She smirked as she pulled of the latex mask that hid her real identity, smirking as she realized that it was a lot of fun to play the game again. Veronica was so easy, another piece in the game to manipulate as she wished, but yet a little more challenging than most. She watched as the woman scrambled into her car, frantically searching for the file she needed, and the information that would end it all, or so she thought.
When Veronica did find the file, she looked down at it, eyes filled with shock and horror as she read the name plainly listed on the dotted line. She had to do a double take, not believing her eyes at first before realizing that this was the person behind it all.
She pulled out her phone, but paused as she wasn't sure who she could trust to call. She decided on Alison finally, but knew the girl would never believe her. Still, she dialed the number anyway, and hoped the girl would answer…
"We're going to need to be armed, we don't know if whoever this is wants to kill us." Mona explained, leading them down to her weapons cellar.
Jessica rolled her eyes, "I think they want to kill us, considering they made us choose between Spencer and Alison." Sometimes these girls were too stupid for their own good.
Mona typed a code into the keypad, opening a huge metal door. "Okay, fair point, all the more reason to arm yourself."
Hanna looked around the room, how had Mona kept this from them? She had an armory as big as one she had seen in the military movies. "Mona, don't take this the wrong way, but how the hell did you get all of this stuff?"
Mona laughed, "Han, this 'stuff' is highly classified and dangerous. Now take one." She handed Hanna a gun.
Emily stepped forward, "Woah, woah, I think we need to slow down." She took the gun cautiously out of Hanna's hand and handed it back to Mona. "Let's not hand untrained young adults guns."
Jessica stepped forward, taking the gun out of Mona's hand. "Why don't I hold that, and you, can take a pocket knife." She handed a knife to Hanna, and took the gun for herself as she had been through proper training with it, and would need it to overthrow them later.
"Mary, you know how to handle a gun?" Aria asked, looking the woman up and down. She still didn't trust her, but gave her credit for finding time to learn how to properly protect herself.
"Suddenly, I like you a lot more." Mona said with a smirk, handing her a gun holster to attach to her belt.
As Jessica was holstering her gun, one of their phones started to ring. The girls looked down, realizing none of their phones were ringing. Jessica froze, realizing it was Alison's phone ringing from her pocket.
She looked to them apologetically, "It's mine, I should take this." She moved back to the corridor of Mona's weaponry room, answering Alison's phone.
Veronica's voice came through the phone, she sounded flustered, her voice shaking. "Alison, you need to meet me back at the house right now, I know who's behind all of this…"
"Veronica, Veronica calm down." Jessica put on her best calm voice, remembering how much Mary cared for the woman.
"Mary?" Veronica's heart sank down into her stomach as she heard the woman's voice. She didn't know what to say as she still wasn't sure if she could be trusted. "I'm so sorry about earlier, I'm so sorry I hurt you I never meant to hurt you I feel terrible."
Jessica did her best to sound remorseful, knowing now that Mary cared for the woman very deeply. "It was my fault, honestly I got so overwhelmed with everything going on that I lost my head." She added in a sniffle, "I'm so sorry for hurting you baby, I never should've denied you."
Veronica's breath hitched, "Where are you now? Why are you on Alison's phone?" She couldn't let her emotions cloud her judgement, she still had one thing in mind and that was telling Alison the truth behind this.
"Alison went missing this morning and I have her phone because we were looking for any information we can use." Jessica explained calmly, hoping that Veronica wouldn't mention Spencer as she really didn't want to go into that.
"What about Spencer? Wasn't she with you this morning?"
Jessica sighed. "I didn't want to tell you this because I didn't want to worry you, but she's missing Veronica, and I'm doing everything in my power to get her back." She hoped that the lie would work and ease Veronica's stress.
But the woman was more worried than ever as she realized everything was wrong and no one had bothered to tell her. The A.D. situation had started again and no one bothered to tell her. "Please, Mary, bring our daughter home." She said pleading with the woman even though she was still unsure.
"I'll bring her home to us, I promise." She almost laughed to herself.
Veronica sighed from the other end of the line, "Please, stay safe will you? God forbid I lost both of you I don't know what I would do."
She almost chuckled again at the irony in this, but kept it to herself as she heard footsteps coming from the corridor, "Listen, Veronica if I don't make it out of this alive."
"Don't say that, Mary, don't say that because I'm not about to lose you to this." Veronica said, she was sure she could hear the woman crying on the other end. "Mary, I –"
"I love you" she interrupted, her comment caught Veronica off guard because the woman had been trying so hard to say those words on three separate occasions now, and Mary just did it without hesitance. She was about to respond as she heard the line disconnect, and realized that the whole conversation had been one big act.
She was a lawyer after all, she knew lies when she heard them.
Emily came walking down the corridor, eyeing Mary suspiciously. "Who were you just saying I love you to?" She looked and saw Alison's phone in Mary's hand. "And why do you have Alison's phone?"
"Emily, I can explain. I just, I didn't want anyone else to know." Jessica began to lay on the charm, she knew it would be hard to convince Emily. "I can't let this be exposed, not now, it's just not the time."
Emily shifted her weight from one leg to the other, "Fine, I'm listening." She became suspicious and Mary was really testing her patience.
Jessica closed her eyes, looking away from Emily and tucking Alison's phone back in her pocket. "Veronica and I, we're… I guess we, it's new." She hoped Emily would believe this.
Emily smirked looking at Mary with raised eyebrows, "Good for you, finally getting the lady."
Jessica looked at Emily with her own smile, she didn't think Mary's crush was common knowledge. "Finally? You knew?"
"I might've had an idea." Emily said, looking at an obviously happy Mary. "But why did you have Alison's phone?"
Jessica nodded, knowing that Emily wasn't born yesterday. "She left it at the Lost Woods yesterday and I stopped by to drop it off this morning but then Jason interrupted so I never got around to it. Then when I found out she was missing and you were tracing her phone I got nervous and hid it for fear you would think I was responsible." She was never more proud of a lie in her life.
Emily nodded, finding that the woman's story made perfect sense. She still felt bad for Mary because of everything she had been put through today. "Your secret about Veronica is safe with me."
"C'mon ladies! We don't have all day to meet up with this psychopath." Mona's voice came echoing through the corridor, the others walking behind her. "You can have your lesbian gossip session later."
Jessica was stunned as she realized that everyone knew about Mary's crush but her, and wondered how everyone had kept it to themselves for too long. Aria and Hanna stared at her with raised eyebrows as they walked on and she felt her blood boiling, "What, never seen a lesbian before? I know, what an interesting new sight, not like you've dealt with any other gay women before–"
Emily put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from continuing, "It's alright, I know it's been a long day but you really should just ignore them and focus."
She nodded, once again Emily was right. "I'm sorry, I just get so defensive."
Once they began walking, Jessica lagged to the back of the group as the four girls walked in front of her. She wondered to herself how the events of the night would go down, hoping they wouldn't be too upset she would turn on them, then again, what did she care? She looked up as she noticed Mona walking next to her.
"Hey Mary." Mona said cautiously, breaking the woman out of her daze. "How are you holding up?"
Jessica looked up, not used to people asking about her. The girls were really starting to grow on her, "As good as one can be when her daughter is possibly dead, her niece is kidnapped, and she's marching into her death."
Mona smirked, "Yeah, I figured as much." She looked over at the older woman, some part of her idolized the woman, or just respected someone on the same intellectual playing field as she was. "I always wondered where Spencer got her smarts from, and it obviously wasn't Peter."
Jessica chuckled, "I appreciate that, it's nice to meet you finally." She looked at Mona, who didn't seem at all nervous about marching into her death.
"So, when did you learn to shoot a gun?" Mona asked, she figured she might as well learn some things about 'Mary' in case they didn't get out of this alive.
Jessica thought about this for a minute, "When I got out of Radley, I fled to London and learned how to use a gun properly so I could defend myself." She smiled at Mona, thinking about what Mary would say next. "If only Jessica could see me now, defending myself and the people I love."
Mona smiled back at her, "I'm sure she's rolling over in her grave somewhere."
And just like that, Jessica was completely over Mona and her ingenious ways. "I'm sure she is."
The group stopped walking suddenly, and the two had gotten so lost in their conversation that they didn't realize how far they had really gone. "Guys, we're here." Emily declared.
Jessica looked up, hoping that everything had gone according to plan and that they were on the rooftop as planned. She looked over to Mona, who's hand hovered over her gun holster. She leaned into whisper to her, "Mary, if this goes south it'll be up to us."
Jessica nodded, trying to keep the smile off her face. "I've got your back if you've got mine." She could laugh at how easy this was.
They began their ascent to the roof, looking around the gloomy staircase. Hanna couldn't help but shiver, "How did I not know this was here?"
"No offense, but you're not always completely aware of your surroundings." Aria said, seeing that Hanna looked slightly offended, but Mona snickered from in front of her.
Emily scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Not that I'm not loving the witty banter, but let's keep in mind we don't know what we're walking into."
"Yeah? Well you're not the one leading the way." Jessica quipped back, her inner bitchiness always came out in high stress situations.
"I'm also not the one with the gun, even though I also went through gun training." Emily snapped back, she knew that they both were overreacting due to the stress.
"Both of you! Shut up!" Aria yelled, causing them all to stop in their tracks. "You're both bitching about wanting to get Alison back, and yet all you've done is stall the process!"
Jessica rolled her eyes as she continued walking, "I'm shooting you first." She muttered under her breath.
"What did you say?" The tiny girl snapped, turning around to face her. She was enraged, having never liked 'Mary' in the first place.
Jessica turned around, ready to face Aria, and Mona saw this heading south quickly. "Remember who the real enemy is." She reminded the two, they wouldn't even have a chance to be killed by A.D. if they killed each other first.
"How do we know the real enemy isn't her?" Aria yelled finally, she had noticed how different 'Mary' had been acting lately. "How do we know she isn't leading us right into a trap and she's the one holding a gun!"
Jessica couldn't believe that after all this time, it was the little one that had figured her out. "Couldn't we discuss your distrust to me after we get Alison back?" She was in awe at how much she sounded like her older sister.
"No, I think we should do this now!" Aria argued back, she would've moved to attack the woman if they weren't in the cramped space of the staircase.
Hanna rolled her eyes, "Now you're being ridiculous!" Aria had been the pot calling the kettle black. "If AD is up there, they can hear us coming a mile away!"
Jessica wanted to give the blonde a round of applause for finally speaking some common sense. The small girl could've actually gotten them all figured out if they weren't already figured out. Luckily for them, AD already knew they were coming.
"Keep walking." Mona said with anger, nudging Aria up the stairs. She turned back once more, giving 'Mary' a scowl, and the woman shot her a sickeningly sweet smile.
Things were still going exactly as planned, not even Aria could ruin that. All of a sudden, the women's heads turned as they heard a scream resounding from the top of the stairs. Emily recognized it immediately as the sound of Alison's scream, she broke into a sprint, nearly pushing Mona and 'Mary' down the stairs.
"Alison!" The swimmer yelled as soon as she had made it to the roof. She looked around frantically for a moment, her eyes scanning the empty roof until she found her girlfriend bound and gagged, lying in the corner against one of the smoke stacks. She ran to the woman, holding her in her arms finally. "I've got you, I've got you."
The other three came running up the stairs shortly after, forgetting how fast Emily really was. Alison looked up at the group, her eyes widening when she laid eyes on 'Mary' with them. She screamed out through her gag, which Emily hadn't taken out of her mouth yet.
"Alison! Thank god you're okay!" Jessica said, running forward to the girl and trying to keep up the ruse for as long as possible. Alison reacted violently, inching further away from her and into Emily's arms.
Emily took the gag out of her mouth, and the woman screamed. "She's working for AD! She's the one that kidnapped me!" She had been dying to get the words out.
The whole group turned to 'Mary', who realized there was no point trying to keep up the ruse anymore. She turned to Mona, pinning her arm behind her back and taking the gun from her holster. "You made this too easy, first arming me, now giving me the perfect opportunity to hold you all here?"
"I gave you my trust!" Mona yelled, trying to squirm out of Mary's grasp. She wouldn't go down without a fight, that wasn't her way.
Aria could feel her blood boiling as she helped Emily untie Alison, they weren't able to do much else as 'Mary' had two guns, one pointed at Mona, one at them. "You all did, and guess who didn't? Me!"
"Now is not the time to gloat, Aria!" Emily and Alison both shouted at the same time, looking between each other and then back to the small girl.
Jessica couldn't help but laugh, "Aren't you idiots at all curious as to who's actually behind this? Or should I just shoot you now and put you out of your misery?"
Mona tried to jerk out of 'Mary's' arms again, she was determined to kill this woman one way or another.
"If you don't stop fighting, this isn't going to end well for you." Jessica snapped, breathing down Mona's neck. But the young girl was still trying her hardest.
"I'm never going to stop fighting you." Mona said through gritted teeth and wondering to herself how Mary was so strong.
Jessica tsked, "And I thought you were the smart one." She turned around to face the staircase, deciding that she would finally let Mona go, as she wanted.
"Mary, no!" Hanna screamed out, but it was too late. She had already pushed Mona down the huge flight of stairs, her body rolling lifelessly to the bottom.
She turned back around with a smirk, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess that takes care of that problem." Now she had a free hand to hold another gun, two guns on four girls and two unborn twins.
Hanna was sobbing in Aria's arms, not even aware of anything else that was going on around her. Mona, the girl she cared about more than she liked to admit, was dead at the bottom of a stair case.
"I left you for less than a day, and you already managed to kill two people."
The girls all turned around, hearing the voice of someone familiar behind them. They didn't want to believe what they heard, but couldn't deny what they saw.
Alison let out a sob, trying to wipe the tears out of her eyes to make sure she was seeing clearly. "Tell me this isn't what it looks like!" She screamed, feeling a pit form at the bottom of her stomach.
"I'm sorry, dear sister, but it is." Jason replied with a wide smile, watching in amusement as Alison recoiled in terror, tears slipping down her face.
Emily held onto her girlfriend, holding a hand over her stomach. This couldn't be happening, she should've seen this coming sooner, she should've known. Jason was the one all along, from the beginning he had played them all, and so had Mary. She couldn't help but wonder how Alison was feeling, how she was even still standing in place.
"You son of a bitch!" Emily yelled, anger at Alison's supposed family taking over her fear. "I could kill both of you for doing this!"
Jessica walked over to Jason, handing him one of the two guns so that they could properly surround the girls.
"Why?" Aria yelled out, questioning their motive. Alison was too shocked to speak, her mouth hanging open, hands turning white as they clutched onto Emily's. Emily too enraged to fathom any possible reason this could be happening, why Alison's family would turn on her in this way.
Jason pointed the gun to Aria now, "Because you deserve it, all of you deserve it." He sneered, turning to Jessica and then back to Alison who was still dumbstruck on the ground. "The time for revenge is finally ours."
"Revenge for what?" Emily screamed, still not understanding what the point of this was. "What did we do to you, either of you?"
Jessica sneered, "When Jason first approached me and asked me to join the game, I couldn't refuse. I wasn't sure if I could get you all to trust me, but he assured me you were all very naive." She turned to Alison who was shooting daggers at her now. "And he was right, you and Spencer were both too easy."
Alison sniffled, finally speaking now. "Spencer, where is she?"
Jessica turned to Jason, knowing that they had agreed to keeping Spencer alive. But was curious to see what body he had come up with. He moved over and dragged a body out from behind a chimney, placing it down in front of them. "Here's your beloved Spencer, what's left of her now anyways."
The girls all looked on in horror at the terribly burned body of Spencer, the only thing recognizable was her face, barely at that. Alison buried her head in Emily's shoulder again, feeling like she was going to throw up.
"You monsters! I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I swear to god when I get my hands on you–" Aria screamed as she saw the body of her best friend lying there. She had always been closer to Spencer than she was the others, and seeing her like this was, it was heartbreaking.
Jason whipped around, firing a shot that just barely missed Aria's shoulder. "That was a warning shut, now keep quiet you little shit."
Hanna spoke finally, not afraid to die now that Mona was already gone. "Mary, you helped him kill your own daughter, how could you?" She knew they were evil but didn't realize until now how extreme they were willing to go.
Jessica shrugged her shoulders, "All collateral damage in the end. I knew none of you would ever truly accept me." She still had her gun pointed firmly at Emily, knowing that girl was the most able of all of them.
"So what now?" The aforementioned girl spoke up, holding a shaking Alison in her arms. "What's the plan now that you've exposed yourself to us?" She still didn't think this was all, there had to be more, they didn't even have a real reason to be doing this.
It was Jason who pointed his gun towards Alison now, "We kill you all, starting with her."
This set off multiple red flags with Jessica, she stepped forward now, knowing that this wasn't the agreement. She began to panic slightly. "No, we spare Alison, that was the agreement."
Jason laughed, it had been so easy to convince his mother to go along with the plan. "That was what you agreed to, but I never planned on that."
"No, you promised me Jason. You promised me we wouldn't hurt her or the twins. You promised me." She could feel tears slipping down her face. She had been a shit mother in the past, that much was evident, but she was so proud of Alison for how far she had come, and she wanted her alive.
"I don't keep my promises, and she goes first." He turned to face her, aiming the gun as Emily stepped in front of her. She was going to go down before she let the love of her life and her children go down.
She put her hands up, "Kill me, but don't hurt her." The swimmer had never been one to give up, but now, now she knew she could only do some bargaining to save their lives. "Please, don't hurt her and the twins, they're my babies."
Jessica couldn't let this happen, he had promised her, and now he had broken that. "If you want that family you're going to have to get through me first." She stepped in front of Emily, who was still in front of Alison.
All the girls turned to her now, confused at what was happening and how quickly she had turned on Jason and came back to their rescue. Why had she made the promise to protect Emily and Alison, but not her own daughter? It didn't make sense to them, but none of them could really process this information in the moment.
"The last Drake, the last bullet." He said with a slight chuckle. "I planned to kill you later on but now is just as easy."
Jessica scoffed, her gun pointed at Jason and his gun pointed at them, "I will go down with them, but you know just as well as I do that I'm not a Drake, I am–"
The shot fired, cutting her sentence off abruptly.
She fell to the ground, the bullet had lodged itself between her eyes, the excess blood splatter covering both Emily, and Alison who was now just crumpling to the ground after her aunt. She hovered over the woman's body, knowing that there was no saving her, no last words, no chance for amends.
She was gone on impact.
"Aunt Mary no, no, no." She hit the woman's body over and over again, finally taking out her grief on the dead woman. She had been a fake, a villain, an evil co conspirator, but she had done her best to save them in the end, and died because of it.
She looked up from the body, face and hands covered with blood completely as she locked eyes with her brother, rage filling her lungs. "You did this!" She lunged forward, grabbing the man by the throat and managing to knock the gun out of his hand. She picked it up, Emily having obtained Jessica's gun from her cold hands.
Alison pointed the gun at her brother, Emily holding the other now as she came to stand next to her girlfriend.
Hanna moved forward from behind them, bending down to survey 'Mary's' body, seeing that she was very dead.
"You killed Spencer, you killed Mary, you tortured us, impregnated me with Emily's eggs." Alison began, tears of rage falling down her face, hot and heavy as she blocked everything else around her out and focused on her brother and only her brother now. "You had me on the ground begging for my life two seconds ago now tell me why I should spare you."
Jason put his hands in the air, "Alison, I'm your brother." He said with his sad yet strained voice, knowing he could play on her vulnerability for family. "We're family, you couldn't hurt me."
Alison shook her head, pressing the gun into his chest. "My family was Spencer, and you killed her in cold blood. Mary, as evil as she might've been you shot her too. Emily, you planned to kill her too." She spat in his face. "You are the furthest thing from family, and for that you deserve exactly what's coming to you."
She pulled the trigger without batting an eyelash, feeling her rage totally consume her as she watched her brother's body convulse upon the bullet entering into his chest. He staggered backwards, falling over the guardrail on the roof, and into the brush ten stories below.
Alison let out a final sob, dropping the gun in defeat somewhere in between Spencer's body and 'Mary's' body, she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, but also didn't want to remain on the roof any longer. She heard sirens fill the area around her as she began her slow descent downward, leaving the other three on the roof behind her.
Present Time…
Hanna shuffled over to the nearest officer she could find, and that was Tanner to her dismay. "My friend, Mona Vanderwaal, she was pushed down the stairs by Mary Drake, did you find her?"
Emily and Alison came limping up behind her, "And Jason, the one who was torturing us, he was shot and he fell off the roof, did you find him?" Emily was the one who spoke for both of them, hoping that they had both been accounted for.
Tanner couldn't help but feel sorry for the girls. She knew Spencer meant a lot to them, and her having died so violently couldn't have been easy on any of them. And poor Alison, finding that her aunt and brother were both evil and trying to torture her, that couldn't have been easy either.
"We found Jason in the bushes, dead. We found Mary and Spencer both on the roof, dead." Tanner said, she couldn't bring herself to look the grieving girls straight in the eyes, not wanting to slip into tears herself.
Hanna cut through all of their thoughts, "Mona Vanderwaal, did you find her at the bottom of the stairs?"
"Yeah, and who called authorities?" Emily asked as she continued to rub Alison's back to calm her down. She could feel the girl shake in her arms and knew they had to get home soon as they were both feeling extremely exhausted.
Tanner finally looked up at the three, "Nobody was at the bottom of the stairs when we arrived." She could see the look of confusion grow on Hanna's face.
"No, we watched her fall limp to the bottom." She turned to Alison and Emily, "We all watched Mary push her."
Alison spoke finally, voice hoarse with grief. "Tanner, who called you?" She really couldn't give two shits about Mona and where she had disappeared to, not when she had a million other things crossing her mind.
"They didn't leave a name, just asked to be left anonymous." Tanner said, "You owe them a hell of a lot, though." She turns and walked away, leaving the women to their thoughts.
They all waited in anticipation, this seemed like a perfect moment for their phone to all ring in unison, for the game to start again. They braced themselves, knowing it was coming, but after a minute or two they realized it wasn't. Maybe it was actually over, Jason had said his main goal was to eliminate the Drake family, and now they were all dead, and so was he, and it was all over.
Now they had one thing left to do, grieve for the people that left them behind. That was easier said than done, though.
Spencer's eyes shot open, at first all she could see was a bright white light. I'm in heaven, but heaven doesn't exist. But maybe it did, maybe all of the Christian beliefs had been right all along. After all they did all say that the first thing you saw was a great white light. Holy shit they were right. But then her eyes finally adjusted and she sat up, the feeling shooting back to her sore muscles finally. In that moment when all the pain came back to her, she wished she really was in the afterlife.
When she looked around her, she saw with relief that she was laying on the bed in her barn. She sighed, this whole thing had been one big nightmare, she had dreamt that they were kidnapped, that Jessica had come back, that Alison had been in danger. She flopped back down onto the bed and closed her eyes tightly, allowing herself to slip back into a deep sleep, but she stopped and shot back up again.
Her barn had burned down, it didn't exist anymore. That much she knew she hadn't dreamt which meant that there was no way she was sleeping in her barn.
"Mary? Alison?" She called out, feeling her sore neck where Jessica had stuck the needle into it. She realized that she hadn't been dreaming, it had been real, but then where was she?
Upon hearing no response, she called out again a little desperately this time. She knew that if she wasn't dreaming Mary and Alison had to be here somewhere. "Mom?" She called out again, finally making her way to the door that didn't seem now like her door at all. Her hand hovered over the door handle and she was about to open it when she heard an ear piercing scream from somewhere.
It sounded just like that of her mother, one that she was only familiar with when she had heard her awaken from her nightmares countless times before. "Mom I'm coming! Stay where you are!" She called out again, hoping that she could be heard as she threw open the door and faced an all too familiar hallway.
It had lights trailing down a path, a path that led to an uncertain fate, but the other direction led to another door. Her jaw dropped as she realized this had to be what she thought it was, but it couldn't be, how could it? It had been demolished years ago, there was no way it was still standing.
But somehow, some way, Spencer found herself standing in the hallway of The Dollhouse.