Again, sorry for the delayed update! Allow me to explain myself: I'm a little bit skittish about the ending of this story. I'm sort of afraid you guys are going to hate it, yet I don't really know any other way I can change it. Ever since I started writing this story, I knew in my mind how it was going to end, but now that I'm here, at the last two chapters in this story, where the biggest two events are about to happen... I'm at a loss. I guess I'm just sad that this story is over, but I'm also genuinely scared of what you guys are going to think of this ending...
Fortunately, I have had the help of two lovely proofreaders to give me the courage to post it, and it meant more than they can even comprehend. I just need to give them a shoutout: One is eveningshades1107, who you'll probably recognize as the most hilarious reviewer in the history of reviewers. And her charisma doesn't stop there: you guys should totally check out her stories. She's written two so far, and they're already two of my favorites, so give her a follow to see what else she might have in store.
And the next proofreader is the wonderful ihavealifeiswear, whose talent knows no bounds. This girl is the reason I am on fanfiction. Her story Challenging Fate is what inspired me to pursue writing, and on this site no less. I would not be where I am today if it weren't for her, and the best part is she doesn't even REALIZE how amazing she is. If you haven't read her stories, what are you doing with your life? Go onto her profile right now! She's a true gem, totally check out her work, especially Challenging Fate and Haunting, where I personally think her writing shines. And she has a PLL/HG crossover coming up later this year, and I just know it's going to be fabulous, so keep an eye out for that as well.
Now, for those of you wishing for me to express my feelings on the last episode (SPOILERS AHEAD), I literally cannot properly convey them on here. All I'll say is: Ezra is a big fat LIAR, Spencer needs to learn to mind her own business and stop treating Emily like a child, Hanna needs to stop being AWESOME (tell me I'm not the only one who laughed my ass off when she walked over to turn off the stereo with the romantic music that we thought was just background music. That was my favorite part of the episode, alongside "Do you kiss all of your friends like that?"), Jake needs to stop making me like him/feel bad for him, and Vanderjesus needs to COME BACK! Calling it right now: Mona is dating Mike Montgomery. I feel it in my bones, I just KNOW she is. Tell me your thoughts on the last episode! (END SPOILERS)
And now, without further ado, here's your next chapter! Enjoy, guard your heart with your life (I mean that, this chapter will do things to you that you will not want it to do), and don't forget to review at the end! :)
Ezra and Aria stared at each other for several minutes, wondering who was going to make the first move. Ezra felt like a mountain lion about to pounce onto its prey, but he knew Aria would hate to think of herself as any kind of prey.
Aria. His Aria. He had done it. He was really going to betray her in the worst way possible. After two years of pretending, two years of letting her into his apartment and making her tea, of taking her out to art shows, of fighting for a love that she had believed was right, he was ending it right here.
For the first time since the whole "war" had started, he started to realize how truly heartless he had the capacity to be.
"Do it," he finally said, the words falling from his mouth like a stone, bouncing off of his teeth with perfect accuracy. "What are you waiting for?"
Aria just continued to stare at him, waiting for his next move, but she couldn't read him. After so long, she had really thought she had known him, but she didn't know a thing about him.
She couldn't figure him out at all.
Taking a chance, yet without even taking a breath, Aria lunged.
Emily raced back down the remaining stairs, searching for the source of the sound. When she got to the bottom, she saw it.
Cece and Mona had gotten a hold of Alison, who was cloaked in her red coat and was probably hiding in the shadows this entire time while they all ran about like chickens with their heads cut off. Emily's breath caught in her throat, but nevertheless she ran over to where her old best friend, and her first love, was being strangled, in a nearby alleyway.
"Looks like Loser Mona's finally getting the upper hand, huh?" Mona said hungrily as she shook Alison, who was so weak that she couldn't fight back even the pint sized girl, who weighed all of 100 pounds. Alison let out long cries, tears streaming down her cheeks as Mona pounded her against the wall with all of her might, over and over and -
"That's enough, Mona!" Cece snapped, pulling Mona off of her as Alison sunk to the ground.
Mona stared back at her, her bewilderment emphasized by the shadows of her black hood. "What are you talking about? I was just getting started!"
Just as Alison was about to try to escape, Cece stepped on the hem of her coat. Alison fell back with an oomph, and Cece pulled her up by the scruff of the coat.
"Stop!" Emily shouted, and the three stared back at her, suddenly acknowledging her existence.
"D-don't hurt her," Emily said, her voice, and her limbs, quaking with fear as she saw Cece pull something long, black, and powerful out of her coat pocket.
A gun.
They had done it. They had found Alison, after so many years, and they were going to end her. She had just gotten her back, and now she had to lose her again. For good.
Interrupting her thoughts was a shrill laugh that came from none other than Mona Vanderwaal.
"Are you serious right now?" she screeched as she threw her head back, cackling happily, not fitting the mood of the situation at all. "Do you even realize what this girl has done?"
"Emily," Alison said, her blue eyes wide with terror, and tears. "Emily, please, don't let them do anything."
"She made my life a living hell up until I was 14," Mona listed aggressively, her teeth bared like fangs, "she got Cece kicked out of college, and she nearly got Ezra arrested without even batting an eyelash!"
"Can't you just forgive her for all of that stuff?" Emily asked earnestly as she watched helplessly while her best friend was being held to her death. But Mona merely smirked at this.
"What about what she's done to you?" she pointed out, her voice dropping now. "Are you forgetting how she taunted you with your sexuality, even after sharing what you thought was a loving kiss?"
"Emily, don't listen to them - "
"And what about what she did to your little girlfriend?" Cece butted in, giggling madly. "Pigskin, was it?"
Emily flinched at the infamous nickname, but Cece kept going.
"She tortured you and your friends even before we joined in on the fun," Cece said sinisterly, still keeping a firm hold of a flailing Alison against the brick wall. "And she's been torturing you along with us!"
"Emily!" Alison cried desperately, but this just made Cece grip her hands around Alison's neck even harder until Alison's eyes were bulging out of her head as she gasped for air.
"She could've come and saved all of you, but she just sat back and watched," Cece said tauntingly, digging further and further into Emily's subconscious as she dug her fingers further and further into Alison's neck. She was reminding her of the dark times, reminding her of how stupid she was to even fall for Alison in the first place.
Emily watched, her eyes darting back and forth between Mona, whose eyes shone with a fire she'd never seen on anyone; Cece, who had a hungry, malicious look in her tan features as she hovered over her prey with a gun; and Alison, who was clinging on for the dear life she was begging to be able to keep.
And then a coldness took over Emily as she thought of how pathetic Alison was. Of how she had made Emily lose hope, made her think she was really dead, and didn't even seem to care; all she cared about was her own safety. All this time she was in hiding while Emily was trying to take on 3 different jobs to clean up the messes Alison had indirectly made.
She had to endure years of torture that Alison could've come out and stopped, but didn't find it necessary to. And because of that, A wasn't the real enemy here. A was never the real enemy.
Alison's actions and decisions had made her just as bad, or even worse, than A.
"Emily!" Alison whispered, her voice so soft that Emily had to strain to hear it. "I... I love you."
Emily closed her eyes. Now her thoughts were confirmed.
"Well, that's great," she said, disgust clear in her tone as she turned on her heel and walked away, trying to tune out Alison's screams in the distance as she kept walking toward the building.
"EMILY! EMILY, COME BACK! EMILY, I KNOW YOU LOVE ME, TOO! I KNOW YOU DO! COME AND SAVE ME!"
This kept going until Emily had reached the stairwell, until there was no more voice, no more cries, no more sound. Just the sound of a gunshot, and the sound of Emily's tears trickling down the frame of her face.
"I loved you, too," she whispered to herself.
Ezra and Aria both dove to the ground, fighting over dominance of the knife. Ezra thought he would have an advantage since he was so much taller than Aria, but what Aria lacked in height she gained in strength, and wit. She dodged his every attempt to stab her, and didn't even need to recuperate. She simply got back onto her knees and tried to grapple the weapon, seemingly forgetting that she was battling her ex-boyfriend.
Finally, when Ezra had taken a swing with the knife, Aria used this to her advantage with perfect timing. She ducked just in time to spring back up, giving Ezra a firm punch in the nose.
Ezra recoiled, and in that time Aria had propelled herself onto him, slipping the knife out of his fingers gracefully and into hers.
"You got me," Ezra said defeatedly, but there was still a small beacon of hope left in his voice. Even so, Aria disregarded it. She felt no love left for the man before her. She held the knife up, ready to do the deed, ready to end everything, but before she could she looked into Ezra's eyes.
She saw the darkness, the ice cold glint that she hadn't noticed back when they were dating, but she still, now, saw something familiar in them.
It wasn't quite love, but it was something along the lines of kindness, of gentleness. If she looked closely enough, she could find the man she had fallen in love with in those eyes.
Aria gulped back tears as she spoke in a quivering tone. "Just tell me one thing," she said quietly, hardly able to even choke her words out. Ezra looked up at her, confused toward why he didn't have a knife plunged into his chest at this point, but he nodded his head, with some difficulty given his restrictions.
"Was any of it real?" she whispered, and Ezra would've jolted in shock if he were physically able.
Was any of it real? That was a question he was still trying to answer for himself. He had gone into this hoping it would end soon, hoping he could find Alison and then leave these girls alone. The thought of a double life always scared him, and having to plunge deeper into it as the days kept going by wasn't something that was easy for him, nor was it easy for him to pretend to love someone that he didn't.
But did he love her? There was always something tugging at the back of his head, telling him that he absolutely could, but he had done his very best to ignore that part of his brain for fear of conflicting with the team. But the more Alison stayed missing and the more he had to play this stupid game and see Aria, the more he found himself growing fond of her. Her doe eyes had drawn him in from the start, and the more he got to know her, the more he started to see Alison, but the parts of Alison he liked. She was someone who knew what she wanted, but she was more docile, more subtly aggressive. She appreciated his poetry in a way rarely anyone ever did, and she really listened when he talked in a way rarely anyone ever did, and even though he wasn't really himself around her, he felt that he could be.
But did he love her? Was any of it real?
But as Ezra looked into Aria's doe eyes, the same doe eyes he had stared in many times before, he realized that she wasn't asking if any of it was real. She was asking if he wanted it to be real, but soon he realized that she wasn't even asking that.
She was asking if he knew that she didn't want it to be real. She wanted him to love her the way she had loved him, but at the same time she didn't. He knew that he would confuse her if he were to tell her he had shared her feelings at least once, and at this point he wanted her to be free of the burden. He didn't deserve her, and she didn't deserve any of this.
"No," Ezra finally breathed, watching the knife stand still an inch away from his chest. Aria let out a shaky breath, the dark look in her face transmitting to one of pure hurt, pure betrayal, as she comprehended the promises he had broken, the happy ending that was never fulfilled.
That was the last thing he ever saw, for with that she plunged the knife deep into his heart.