Chapter 28:
"Oh my God! Mike!" Aria gasped.
"Aria!" Mike sobbed, his face wet with tears, his eyes filled with terror and Aria took a step towards him.
"Don't move!" Caleb said menacingly, pressing the gun harder against Mike's head. Aria stopped dead, tears spilling over her face. She looked helplessly at her brother, her face as white as a sheet. Ezra took a step towards his crying girlfriend, but Caleb pointed the gun at him, his arm still tight around Mike's neck.
"Take another step and I'll shoot you." Caleb threatened.
Ezra hesitated and stopped. He was only a few steps away from Aria and he had absolutely no idea what to do.
Caleb pointed the gun back at Mike, and looked behind Ezra, at Hanna, who was staring at him with a mix of anger, sadness and disbelief on her face. "How could you?" she asked, her voice cracking.
Caleb laughed. "How could I?! You have no idea what you girls have done to me, especially that bitch Allison." he spat.
Aria and Hanna looked at each other for a moment, confused. "What did we do to you?" Aria asked, trying to contain herself.
"Your dear friend Allison ruined my family! She's the reason my parents divorced, the reason I had to run away from home. She's the reason my sister is blind!" Caleb shouted.
The colour drained from both girls faces as they stared at each other, wide-eyed as they put two and two together. Both were thinking the same thing. How had they not figured it out before?
"Jenna." Aria whispered.
"Yeah, Jenna! That bitch Allison blinded her the weekend before I was supposed to move to Rosewood, and you knew all about it but didn't say a word to the cops. You let my step-brother get charged with it. Do you even know what he had to go through because of you? Our parents hated him, couldn't even look at him. They wanted to disown him, and they argued about it all the time. That's why they got divorced. YOU RUINED MY FAMILY!" Caleb shouted angrily, making Mike flinch as the gun pressed harder against his skin.
"So this entire time you've been pretending to love me, you've really been scheming ways to ruin my life?" Hanna asked, her voice cracking slightly as she tried to hold back her tears.
"You deserve nothing less. You ruined my life, I ruined yours." Caleb said simply.
"Caleb." Aria spoke calmly. "Put the gun down and we can talk about this." she said, holding her hands up so he could watch her as she started to walk towards him.
When she stepped forward, Caleb pointed the gun in her direction, pulling the trigger.
Aria screamed, Ezra and Hanna rushing to her side. The bullet had just barely missed her.
"DON'T MOVE!" Caleb shouted. "That was just a warning. Take another step towards me and I'll actually shoot you." he threatened. keeping the gun trained at Aria, who whimpered softly.
Ezra looked at Aria, then at the gun, trying to think fast. He looked at Mike, who stared at him, wide-eyed. He seemed to be trying to say something. He looked down with his eyes, and lifted his foot slightly. Ezra nodded ever so slightly to show that he understood.
"Caleb, wait." Ezra said. "We can settle this without guns. Please, let's just talk about this." he reasoned, trying to distract Caleb.
Caleb turned to him and the next few seconds were a blur as Mike stomped on Caleb's toe, catching the boy by surprise. As he let out a cry of shock and pain, Mike grabbed his wrist and forced the gun out of his hand. It hit the floor as Mike wrestled Caleb to the ground. Ezra rushed forward and grabbed the gun a split-second before Caleb's hand could reach it. He stood up and pointed the gun at Caleb, who was pinning Mike to the ground.
"Get off him and lie down on your stomach or I'll shoot." Ezra said calmly.
Caleb stared at him for a moment, hesitating.
"If you try anything I won't hesitate to pull the trigger." Ezra said, staring Caleb straight in the eyes.
Caleb slowly got up off of Mike and lay down on the floor. "You won't get away with this." he said angrily.
"Coming from the guy who's lying on the floor." Hanna said, rolling her eyes.
Aria walked over to Mike, helping him up off the floor. "You okay?" she asked, examining him for cuts or bruises.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks to Ezra." Mike said, smiling appreciatively at him.
"It was your idea." Ezra replied, smiling back.
"I love you both." Aria said to both of them.
"I hate to interrupt the love-fest but we have a situation here." Hanna cut it.
"Right." Mike said. "What do we do with him?"
Ezra stepped forward so he was standing in front of Caleb. "On your knees, now." he commanded.
Caleb obediently sat on his knees, trying not to look at the gun pointed at him. With one swift movement, Ezra hit Caleb with the back of the gun, knocking him out.
*PLL*
Caleb awoke to see Aria, Ezra, Hanna, Mike, Spencer and Emily standing in front of him. He was tied to a chair.
"He's awake." Hanna said and the others gathered around.
"What the hell!" Caleb said, angrily, trying to break free of the ropes.
Hanna stepped forward and crouched down so she was level with him. She stared at him for a moment before her hand came up and she slapped him. Hard.
"OW!" Caleb shrieked.
"That's for messing with me and my friends. You're lucky that's all I'm doing to you." Hanna said angrily.
"So what are you guys going to do to me?" Caleb asked.
"The police should be here any minute." Aria said, checking her watch. As if on cue, the police arrived. They listened to everyone's sides of the story before taking Caleb away in handcuffs. Before he left, he mumbled something in Hanna's ear.
"What did he say?" Emily asked, as everyone looked at Hanna curiously.
Hanna took a deep breath. "He said that he'll be back. And that he will get revenge for Jenna."
Spencer, Emily and Aria pulled Hanna into a hug, assuring her that everything would be okay, that Caleb was going to jail for who knows how long. Somewhere through all of this they all started to cry and they held each other, sobbing. They couldn't believe It was finally over.
WAIT! There's still one more chapter left. Don't forget to review. Sorry if you didn't like the chapter, this way one of the hardest ones to write, but I hope you liked it!
