Hey everyone. we've passed the halfway point now, but I'm already working on a sequel, so don't worry. ;)
Welcome to new readers/reviewers SwanQueen4055 and RinShade; thank you for the reviews, and I look forward to seeing you in future chapters.
Sgdp1261 - ah, yes, see, -A's plan is to torture the girls with a series of progressively smaller guillotines, until finally they end up with a box that could either contain a guillotine so small they can't see it or it could contain nothing, and they're not sure so the suspense kills them. Awesome, right? ;) Thank you for the review, as always. I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job. And, confession, I really like writing the characters as sort of evil... having Toby enjoy his job is fun to write.
Runawaybaby555 - I'm glad you liked the chapter. Aria and Emily do make a good team; they seem to understand each other (or at least Aria understands that since she's the smallest she gets the short straw every time). XD Out of curiosity, do you (or does anyone) know what the ship for them is called? Are they Arily? Emaria?
insertnameherex - I love Toby too, and everyone on the A-Team actually. They all enjoy their jobs so much and it's really interesting to write. Thanks for the review, and I'm really glad you liked the chapter. As I've said before I tried to pack as much action/excitement as possible into it, so it's great to hear I'm succeeding.
Forever Courage - I'm really liking your guesses as to who -A is. I've been dropping clues around the story and it's great to see you're trying to put them together. As always, not saying whether you're right or not, but keep the guesses coming.
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Aria was, yet again, late. The others were already at Ali's house, getting ready to go see a movie. She knew they'd tease her for turning up late again, but it wasn't her fault traffic had been so bad. Ali had this theory that Aria had a secret boyfriend, and that was why she was always running late and looking flustered. She'd done her best to quell this theory, but sure enough, Ali was on it the second she walked through the door.
"Nice of you to join us, Aria," Ali said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm glad you could drag yourself away from your lover long enough to pay some attention to your friends."
"For the last time, Ali, I don't have a secret lover." Aria folded her arms and sat down as far away from Ali as possible.
"Oh." Ali leaned back, giving each of the girls a long look. "I must be mistaken. Maybe you're not the one with a secret boyfriend."
There was definite emphasis on the word you're. Was Ali trying to give her a hint? Aria glanced around at the others, but they all looked as confused as she was. Did that mean Ali was the one hiding something? Or was Aria just misinterpreting things?
She sighed. It must be nice not to have to second-guess everything your friends said. But then again, if they were all open about everything, she couldn't keep any secrets herself. And that thought made her feel vulnerable. Sometimes secrets were good for the soul.
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Friday afternoon, Aria and Emily met at Hanna's house. None of them had heard from Spencer, and they were starting to get worried. She hadn't been at school, and it wasn't like her to skip it – at least not without telling them. They were torn between giving her space to get over her breakup with Toby, and knowing that they needed to talk to her about everything that had happened. This latest message from –A was clear. If they didn't back off, someone would get hurt. But that wasn't going to stop them. If they could find –A first, they could stop this.
After a quick meeting they made an executive decision to go to Spencer's. If she was really a mess they could pass it off as a casual visit, and leave without upsetting her. But if she was up to it, they were going to tell her about the message, and the lack of success at the style studio.
"You okay there?" Emily asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror on their way over to Spencer's house. "You look kind of stressed."
Aria had been digging her nails into her thigh without even realizing it. "I'm fine," she said quickly. "Just thinking."
Today was the day. She was sick of having Ali's warning hanging over her head. She was tired of lying to her friends. If they were going to track down and take on –A, they had to be united. No more secrets, no more lies. She was going to tell them about Arlene, no matter what. Although she was determined, she was also apprehensive. Her nervous energy was being directed into any repetitive action she could find: digging her nails into her leg, winding the window up and down, tapping her foot against the back of the seat in front of her. She knew it must be driving her friends crazy, but they didn't mention it.
When they got to Spencer's, her sister opened the door.
"Hi girls," Melissa said, stepping back to let them inside. "Spencer's in her room. Go on up."
They thanked her and traipsed up the familiar stairs. Spencer's door was closed, but when they knocked they heard a faint 'Come in'. To Aria's dismay, she saw that Spencer was still in sweats, with no makeup, looking as gloomy as she had the day before. She didn't even smile when her friends walked in.
"Hey Spence," Emily said cautiously as they settled themselves around the room: Aria on the end of the bed, Hanna on the beanbag in the corner, Emily at the desk chair. Spencer's eyes flicked over all of them and then away again, uninterested.
"How are you feeling?" Aria prompted.
"I broke up with Toby," Spencer reminded her. "Toby. You know, the love of my life? How do you think I'm feeling?"
There was venom in her voice, and Aria winced even though she knew it wasn't directed at her. It was directed at –A, who had forced the two lovers apart. –A, who had been messing with their lives for over a year. –A, who was the reason for so much of their anguish and suffering.
Aria couldn't help wondering whether making Spencer break up with Toby was some kind of punishment for them turning up at the diner; if –A thought Spencer had set them up, they definitely weren't above doing something like this. Spencer had told them that she'd finally responded to one of –A's messages, saying that she'd had enough of this. –A had said they could end it; all she had to do was meet with them at the diner. She'd been pretty sure it was a trap, but she'd thought she could stay a step ahead and just get a look at –A… and this is how it had ended up.
The girls exchanged a look, silently agreeing that Spencer wasn't stable enough to hear what they had to say. But Spencer was more alert than she appeared; her eyes narrowed as she looked at them. "What?" she asked. "What was that look for?"
"Look?" Emily echoed, trying to brush it off. "There was no look."
"Guys, I'm heartbroken, I'm not stupid." Up until now she'd been slumped against her pillows, but now she sat up straighter and surveyed her friends with more interest. "What's going on?"
There was no use hiding it now. Aria took a deep breath, knowing she was about to change things and not sure if it would be in a good way or a bad way. "We went back to the studio last night," she said. "Me and Em."
"Oh. How did that go?"
"Um, horribly," Emily said, letting out a little laugh.
"Uh oh. What happened?"
Aria quickly retold the story of their late-night adventure, watching Spencer's eyes widen with each sentence. As she finished she handed over the note, which she'd been carrying around in her pocket all day. Spencer read it twice, then looked from Aria to Emily to Hanna.
"It looks like –A isn't joking around anymore," Spencer said grimly, handing the note back to Aria.
"-A was never joking," Emily pointed out, "but now it seems like…"
"Like they're tired of playing games," Aria finished.
"So what does that mean?" Hanna asked. "Are we, like, heading into some kind of showdown?"
As if on cue, the girls' cells all went off. With that all-too-familiar sinking feeling, Aria flipped her phone open and read the message.
Get out your guns and spurs, girls. If it's a showdown you want, that's what you're gonna get. – A
They took a moment to process this, but before they responded they were hit by another message.
By the way, you might want to check the mail. See you there! – A
Without speaking Spencer shot from her bed and padded down the stairs, the others only a step behind. They reached the mailbox and Spencer pulled it open, muttering something about having already checked it today. Then she reached in and withdrew four gold envelopes, each addressed to one of the girls. She handed them out and the girls started to open them.
"Wait," Aria said. "Let's go back inside. I feel too… exposed."
-A had sent all the invitations here. That meant they knew that all the girls were at Spencer's, and that probably meant that –A was somewhere around here. The thought made Aria's skin crawl.
Once they were back inside Spencer shut the bedroom door and sat down on her bed, opening her envelope. Aria turned her attention to her own. The swooping font, the way the 'A' curved and the 'r' curled, made Aria wonder if whoever had written it had taken any calligraphy classes. She ripped open the envelope and stared at the piece of paper inside.
The others were already reading theirs, so she quickly unfolded it and scanned the contents. It was an invitation to the Rosewood Country Club's annual gala, to be held a week from tomorrow.
"The country club's gala?" Spencer flipped the invitation over to see if there was more, some kind of secret message or even threat from –A. There wasn't. "Why does –A want us there?"
Aria shrugged. She didn't even want to consider the possibilities. " I guess the question is… do we go?"
"Do we have a choice?" Emily asked. "We've learned the hard way that if we don't do what –A says, someone ends up getting hurt."
"But if we do follow –A's instructions, it's usually us that gets hurt," Hanna argued.
Spencer folded the invitation back up and put it in the envelope. Then she got up and started pacing, and the others watched her nervously. She'd been almost catatonic yesterday, and now she was pacing. For some reason that made Aria feel uneasy. Spencer turned to them, and she had on what her friends affectionately referred to as her 'Hastings face'. Aria felt better at once; even though she was heartbroken, Spencer was still Spencer.
"Okay, let's take a vote," she said. "Those in favor of going to the gala, and those against. Majority rules. Got it?"
Everyone nodded. Nobody argued when Spencer had her Hastings face on.
"Those in favor?"
Aria and Emily raised their hands.
"Those against?"
Hanna's hand shot up.
"Spence?" Aria asked. "You didn't vote."
Their friend ran a hand through her hair, thinking. Then, with an apologetic smile at Hanna, she said, "I think we should go. It might give us a chance to find out more about –A."
Hanna rolled her eyes, but she didn't try to argue. She knew she'd been outvoted and there was no point in pressing the issue.
"So that's it then," Aria said. "We're going to the gala. We'll be right where –A wants us."
The others agreed uneasily, and then there was a break in the conversation. It was just long enough to make Aria feel guilty about not speaking up earlier.
"Guys," she said, and they all turned to her. "I have something… I mean, I haven't been entirely honest with you."
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked, shooting a nervous glance at the others. It was never good news when one of them announced that they'd been keeping something from the others.
"I…" She'd practiced this in her head a million times, but now that the moment had come she felt at a loss for words. She picked at a small ketchup stain on her dress, remembering how she'd yelled at Mike for spilling it on her, and he'd felt so bad he'd ended up squirting some ketchup on his own shirt to make her feel better. "When Ali was alive, she told me not to trust you guys. Not to trust anyone. And she set me up with this fake identity, like, fake ID and name and all."
"Did she take you places and get you to, like, pretend to be that person?" Emily asked.
"While she was Vivian?" Hanna added.
And suddenly it all became clear. Alison hadn't singled Aria out; she'd loved all the girls but trusted none of them, setting it up so that if any of them wanted to escape, wanted to make a clean break, they could. It made her feel simultaneously relieved and somehow strangely cheated.
"So she did the same thing to all of us," Spencer surmised. "What do you think she was trying to do?"
That was definitely the million-dollar question.
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Toby comes by that afternoon with the guillotine. He places it on the table, gives me a sort of nervous smile (he's not normally nervous around me – we've been working together for a long time, after all – but I must look particularly intense today), and then leaves.
I sit down at my desk, thinking. So dear little Alison had set up fake identities for all her favorite girls. How lovely of her. It's pretty clear what she was trying to do: turn them all against each other. Throw suspicion onto all of them, because she didn't trust any of them. Maybe this is her way of controlling them from the grave. The thought makes me laugh. She may have been a bitch, but she was kind of brilliant. I'm actually a little jealous.
But her scheming doesn't really affect my grand plan. A plan which, I now remember, needs to worked on. I take out my notebook and flip through it, trying to work out what still needs to be arranged. There are four girls, and only three of us. No matter. We're smarter, more organized, and, you know, a lot more evil.
As I write down more notes, my brain working almost feverishly fast, I absently run my hand along the guillotine.
"Ouch!" I exclaim as, predictably, I cut myself on it. I hold up my hand, watching a trickle of blood run down my palm. It doesn't bother me. A lot more blood is going to be spilled before this is over – and I guarantee the rest of it won't be mine.
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So Aria/Arlene's secret is finally out! What do you think will happen next?
And, as always, please do share your thoughts/theories. It sounds like Ali is now the frontrunner in the list of -A suspects, although Jenna is a new contender. In about two chapters' time you will find out another A-Team member, so stay tuned. See you guys next chapter. :)
