OK so here's the chapter that reveals all including who's A. Shout-out to caitycaites for guessing closest and Emilee Amethyst for second closet. You can all see how it matches up with your own theories, but this is personally what I think could happen in the show.
No one could know. There was red and yellow in front of her, on the ground. 'Just go back and sleep it off OK'.
She had probably lost at least ten IQ points. That was the first thought that crossed her mind as awareness slowly returned to her. She'd been knocked unconscious, drugged, tortured and oxygen deprived more times in the last week than she had been in the rest of her life. Which was saying something given her life.
The second thing she realized was that at least she hadn't been tied up again.
And the third thing was that she wasn't alone.
Spencer cracked open one eye carefully taking in her surroundings while trying to stay as still as possible. She was lying on an old, bare mattress in a dingy, poorly lit room. Another basement. But this one was much larger. With filing cabinets and furniture and other junk. Not a house, something else.
And every single wall was covered in photos and masks and other memorabilia of Alison, Spencer and their friends. Dolls sitting on every surface. She was in A's lair.
Three figures were huddled together across the room. But even in the dim light Wren's build gave him away as did the accented words she caught now and then. Both blonde women had their backs to her. Wren's accomplice from the hospital still in uniform and someone else who was still to be identified.
She shifted slightly trying to find an escape but not wanting to draw attention. Spread out on the ground only a few feet in front of her was several files, cell phones, a laptop, some video recorders, a camera and an open first aid kit. She inched across the mattress and reached out grabbing a recorder.
"So in going to the hospital to make sure you couldn't be tied to kidnapping, you went and made sure you got tied to kidnapping."
It wasn't a surprise to hear CeCe Drake's voice. What was surprising was that it didn't come from the blonde in the cop outfit.
Spencer slipped the recorder on and hid it in her pocket. Getting them to incriminate themselves on tape would be helpful.
"We needed to know what she had on us. We don't know how much she got from the house!"
"The house that you let her escape from! And then stuffed up every chance to shut her up since."
She risked reaching out again to the First Aid kit and snagged an Epi-Pen. Not ideal but it might come in useful.
"In case you didn't notice I was outnumbered the other night. And I don't recall you having any success either. Besides she's the one who couldn't drown the girl." Wren gestured angrily at the unknown conspirator.
"Hey I did drown her! You said her medical report said she drowned. I drowned her. It was her fault that she didn't stay that way!" She made it seem like not helpfully dying made Spencer the one at fault.
Her would-be killer stepped into the light for a moment and Spencer finally recognized the face. Meredith Sorenson. The woman Mr Montgomery had had an affair with and then drugged Aria and locked the girls up.
So at least two of her four potential abductors were certifiable lunatics. Terrific.
She needed to grab a cell phone and call for help. The three were still distracted, she just had to reach out and grab one.
The door opened catching the other three's attention and Spencer dropped limp to the mattress.
"What's going on?" She held her breath. She knew that voice.
"The genius doctor here decided a repeat kidnapping was in order." CeCe's voice echoed quietly around the room, harmonized by the footsteps coming towards her.
"No wonder you had trouble getting into medical school." The cutting comment made the hair on her arms rise. Alison was right behind her. "Guess we can cut the theatrics this time round." She kicked the mattress with her foot. "C'mon Spencer it's time to quit playing. Wakey, Wakey. All those questions can finally be asked. Don't you want the truth?""
She knew. She knew Spencer was awake. And if these monsters got their way the only way her loved ones would see her again would be in a casket. She needed time and answers.
She slowly pushed herself up needing time to build up her fortitude for what was to come. Besides if they thought she was more injured than she was they might let their guard down.
'It's now or never.'
"Depends who I'm talking to. Are you Alison or Courtney?"
Alison/ Courtney looked impressed. "So you figured it out? If anyone could it would be you Spencer. Congratulations. You're the first to guess. Everyone else who knows were told."
"What about Mona. I doubt you told her."
The smirk said it all. There was all Alison's smug superiority. The look that said she knew something you didn't. The amusement that Spencer could sense but never quite understand. The confidence that no one could topple her.
But there was something else too. Some imperceptible aura of anger, resentment and madness.
This was Courtney.
"Mona wasn't as smart as she thought she was. She had pieces too, some the same as yours, a couple were different. But she had them mixed up. She gave Alison too much credit. And not enough. Jenna was the same. Congrats Spence you beat them both. You cracked the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis and A. What gave me away?"
"'I'm the one you can never hide from.'" the phrasing had been bugging her since the doll had opened its mouth. Now she knew why. "D.I.D. Dissociative Identity Disorder. Two personalities. One body."
Her dreams, the nagging feelings she'd been having, Dr Palmer's notes, Radley. All parts of her brain trying to remind her of the psych books she had poured over after Mona's initial diagnosis. Hanna's twin theory that just helped everything to fit. "Alison doesn't know does she?"
"No she doesn't." Courtney eased herself into one of the rickety chairs like a queen. She was so like Alison. And yet the differences couldn't be missed. It was uncanny. "It's annoying. I keep trying to make her go away but she won't stay gone."
Spencer really didn't know when to help herself sometimes. "You do know killing her will cause some difficulties for you right?"
Courtney rolled her eyes. "Oh please don't see so one-dimensional Spencer. Of course I know I can't kill her. Not physically at least. I want her to want to leave. To realize she has nothing left to cling to. I want her to run. To be so scared that she just goes into hiding."
"You want her to be a memory," Spencer realized. "Something trapped in your mind the way you've been trapped in hers."
"I'm the stronger one," Courtney yelled the chair crashing to the ground behind her as she paced the floor. "I took the abuse and the threats and I ended it. I had no one and I used it to help me. I remember everything! I'm the one that made the hard decisions. I made the deadly strikes. I didn't let emotion hold me back! I am A! I have power over her, over you, over everyone in town, in the entire Eastern United States! I'm in charge but she's the one who everyone looks to. It's pathetic. And I'm done being a by-stander."
Horror crept through her. If Alison knew nothing of the condition then she really didn't know how A could read her mind. It was because A literally could. "Alison's memories. When she's in charge you still remember but she doesn't when you manifest. When she goes to wherever she goes, what does she think happens?"
"She remembers what I want her to remember and then she fills in the blanks." Courtney spared her a cool look. "When you're as pathological a liar as Alison things happen the way you said they did. Any other version is the sham."
"That's how she passed the polygraph," Spencer theorized. "She'd convinced herself what she was saying was true so she convinced the polygraph too. What happened that night? You didn't hit Alison but someone did. It was on her medical exam. Did the same person hit Bethany? What happened? Who was responsible?"
"Were you responsible?" Courtney sneered raising one delicate eyebrow, lowering herself back to the chair. "That's what you want to know right?
"Boy you were out of it that night. Completely off your head and way pissed off at anyone who came near. Particularly blondes in yellow tops. You were capable of anything then." Courtney smirked as dread flowed through Spencer. Did that mean she had attacked someone that night? Was she ultimately responsible for the death of an innocent girl?
"It wasn't you." Spencer started at Courtney's sudden interruption into the silence. "You didn't hit Bethany or me for that matter." Relief hit Spencer so hard that if she hadn't already been sitting down her legs would have given out. As it was she still felt herself sag against the wall behind her. She'd been carrying that fear with her for so long.
"Alison did it. She was pissed about all the attention that Bethany was getting from Mom. Mom had bought her the yellow top. Alison thought it was a gift. She didn't realize it came in multiple copies for our potential stepsister. A way of getting us to bond. We shared the same taste in clothes therefore we should be friends." So that's why Bethany had been dressed like Alison that night.
"She walked in on your and Alison's little showdown. You'd dropped the pills. Were too busy getting on your hands and knees begging Ali not to rat you out. Your emotional breakdown kept you too preoccupied to notice Bethany arguing with Alison. Went for her actually, the psycho. Alison grabbed the shovel in defense and bang. Dead girl on the ground. You went to sleep it off and brought the shovel with you. Which helped get rid of Alison's DNA and adding yours which pretty much ensures along with everything else that you go down for that too." Courtney said it so cheerfully. Like letting Spencer take the rap for a murder she didn't commit was a favor. "I don't know who buried her though."
"You sure you aren't the homicidal nut-job letting Alison take the fall for you?" Spencer regretted the words as soon as Courtney's foot made contact with her broken ribs.
"You should be thanking me! If it wasn't for me you'd have died in that bell tower."
"Ian. You're the one that killed him."
"It was self-defense. He tried to kill you, Alison pushed him and when I confronted him he came at me. I couldn't have him blabbing all over town that I was actually alive. It would have ruined my plans." Courtney stared at herself in the cracked dusty old mirror. "And I hate having my plans ruined."
"Was that why you killed Mona? Because she was ruining your plans."
"I didn't kill Mona," Courtney glanced behind her to Wren. "He did."
"Unfortunately Mona decided to negate any of the improvements she had made by fixating on proving Alison was A," Wren explained. "Which made things rather difficult for her recovery."
"And for you," Spencer accused. "So you killed Ian, Alison hit Bethany, Wren killed Mona, who tried to kill you or Alison?"
"I may have let my heart overrule my head," Wren confessed. "A flaw of mine I'm afraid. I tend to be too passionate at times, but would any of us get what we wanted without passion?"
"You hit Alison?" Spencer was shocked. Of all the potential suspects in the world Wren had never made her list. It wasn't that Wren knew Ali that surprised her. He was obviously too involved with A not to know the blonde girl. But what motivation did Wren have.
"She lied to me! She told me she was eighteen! If it got out what we had been doing, I'd have been finished!"
"Cape May. You're the Beach Hottie. The guy Alison thought got her pregnant." She glanced over at CeCe who was watching them warily. What else had the older girl lied about? "She was fifteen!"
"I didn't know about her age," Wren protested but Spencer wasn't interested. Ali had hooked up with half the guys in North America that summer. And as she'd long since realized Wren would flirt with anything female.
"You knew mine and Hanna's." He was worse than Fitz.
"I thought she was eighteen. I thought she was on birth control. She lied to me constantly"
"And that deserved attempted murder!"
"I didn't intend to. I wanted to talk. But I saw what she did. The way she treated people. I thought she was different but Alison was just like the rest of your families."
That got her attention. "The rest of our families?" Wren looked chastised, annoyed at his slip. And Spencer felt a strange certainty. "You didn't meet Ali or Melissa by chance did you? And Mrs DiLaurentis didn't have any reason to protect you. Unless you had something on her."
Wren shot her an abashed smile. "Jessica DiLaurentis has something of a pattern of covering up homicides."
"And you have proof of it," Spencer guessed. "Alison, Bethany." Realization hit her. "Toby's mom. Mrs D knew it was homicide and she staged it as a suicide."
"No need to sound so judgmental Spencer. You're family have helped plenty there too."
"What do you mean by that Courtney?" Spencer swallowed, knowing she wasn't going to like any of the answers she might get. She eyed Wren. "What do you have against our families?"
"My father had schizophrenia. When he was diagnosed my family moved to the States in the hopes of keeping it quiet. He was institutionalized, here, as a matter of fact. He was doing rather well until one day when out of the blue he killed himself."
"Walter Kim." She'd known about the man's existence for only a few days. Mere hours before she'd been kidnapped. But there was no doubt that he was tied to this nightmare of their lives. This had all been set in motion earlier than they realized.
"Yes. We took a case but despite the numerous cock-ups and faults on record, your mother ensured it got thrown out and between the case and the contract your father's office drafted my family were left to pick up the pieces. I ended up taking my mother's name to avoid the stigma."
"My parents did they're jobs. They might not have been right but they weren't at fault."
"They helped cover up evidence," Courtney nonchalantly interjected. "Some teenagers accidentally got high that night at a party – well they claimed their drinks were spiked - and were taken to Radley as a precaution. They happened to be in the surrounding rooms. Could have seen or heard something but your parents made sure that their names never made it near an official record. Otherwise who knows what testimony Ian Thomas, Garrett Reynolds, Jason DiLaurentis and Melissa Hastings might have given."
Melissa had been at Radley that night. That was why her parents had gotten involved. And what the DiLaurentis' had probably used to get them onside.
"I'm sorry for your loss." She meant it. She saw what losing his Mom had done to Toby. If Wren hadn't been as strong as her boyfriend she could understand how that could mess him up. But it didn't excuse his actions.
"If Radley won the case how could you use that against Mrs DiLaurentis? No one would believe it."
"Yes but telling her husband that her affair with my father is what drove him to suicide would put something of a dent in things."
Mrs DiLaurentis certainly had a type. "That's what you blackmailed her with."
"That and the affair she was having with my stepfather and the rather troublesome secret she shared with my stepsister."
"You're Bethany Young's stepbrother! Did you kill Mrs DiLaurentis? Except Toby saw you in London then. You wouldn't have been able to get to Rosewood in time." Timing didn't fit unless... "You switched the pills out. Replaced her blood pressure medication with my dad's."
"I advised it as a suitable means of execution. I didn't actually kill her."
"Alison switched the pills," Courtney admitted. "She was pissed about mom favoring Bethany and then burying her alive. Once the meds kicked in it was just a matter of time and someone to bury the body." Her pointed look at Meredith made that culprit clear.
"If you hate the DiLaurentis family so much then why have anything to do with them. If Alison screwed you, then why get involved with her." Spencer scowled at Courtney.
Wren looked perplexed at her question. He didn't understand why she didn't understand. "Alison hurt me. And her mother and brother and father. I have nothing against Courtney. She's been hurt by them too."
He was as insane as Courtney was.
It was four against one and the only reason they were telling her any of this is was because they didn't intend on her repeating it. "Eventually someone will figure this out. Lt. Tanner's already suspicious of Alison. She'll find out about you. And my friends and family won't rest until they know what happened."
Courtney smirked. "Oh Spencer they're going to get answers. See once the cops discover your and Mona's little Thanksgiving field trip, they're going to start putting the pieces together. I mean it all adds up: drug habit; mentally unstable; history of violent behavior; mommy and daddy covering up before cutting you off. Hell you already tried to kill Mona before."
Spencer paled as Courtney's plan materialized. "I was in custody when Mona was killed."
"But surely someone as smart as you, someone who's gotten away with it all for so long, who's had family and friends help her, could think of a way to stage a scene, tamper with evidence to cover herself."
"It won't work –"
"It will for the cops. Especially once they realize that you escaped from the hospital after stealing prescription meds. It just got too much.
"See Spence you're going to be famous. You're going to be the person who beat everyone. You're going to be A. No one could beat you. You snapped, relapsed and took this place with you. Hell you probably thought you could fly."
That had been the scheme all along. It was why she'd been taken. Why evidence had been piling up pointing to her. Spencer wasn't just being set-up for murder, she was being framed for all of it, A the torture, the blackmail, the lies. She was their scapegoat. And they were never going to let her defend herself because they were going to throw her off Radley's roof first.
Let me know what you think.