Disclaimer: Still don't own it
The day of the Prom came upon us faster than I thought.
The week seemed to just flow by fast as I helped coordinate with everyone on what the plan was going to be Friday night.
It had not been easy given that A was always watching and it had been too risky to gather everyone in a group to lay out the plan. So an old way was thought up to get past A's electronic surveillance net; using letters and then destroying them afterword's. It was through that method that we managed to get Lucas and Jason in on the plan while letting them know about Mike. Thus they were now watching him like a hawk so that we knew his every move; as well as make sure A did not.
Currently, I was sitting on Hanna's bed as she got ready for Prom; somewhat sad that I couldn't help her with her makeup. She was wearing a long green dress that really brought out her cleavage but wasn't really that slutty. I had helped her pick it out just days earlier while traveling with her to the mall along with the rest of the girls. They were actually considerate and listened to my advice on picking a dress; which was amazing given our history. I had even helped Paige pick out a great yet still very feminine suit.
"So you all rented a limo?" I asked while Hanna was touching up her eyelashes. We still had an hour to go so there was still plenty of time.
"Yeah; we pulled all of our money together though Spencer offered to pay for the whole thing," Hanna answered, taking a quick glance at me.
"I suppose it will add to the deception; Alison and Courtney would never believe that you would waste that much money if you were only going to use the limo for a short while," I said as she moved onto powdering her face.
"I always wanted to ride in a limo so it will be fun even if it's going to be a short," stated the blonde. I smiled at her since I knew what she meant; we had talked about riding in one for our prom together back during sophomore year.
"At least I get to be there though not as I imagined," I said, a little depressed since this was not the prom I would have wished for.
"At least we can make it the most memorable dance in the history of the school," stated my friend as she sensed my sadness. She knew that I had spent a long time looking forward to tonight only for it to be taken from me by A.
"Yeah; no one is town is going to forget this day for a long time," I said with a smirk as she moved onto getting her hair ready.
"I still can't believe you met an Angel," Hanna said with obvious disbelief in her voice. After Benny had left me, I returned to her house and told her what had happened.
"You sound like you never believed in them," I said as I got up to check her face for any smears as she fixed her hair. Hanna was going to wear it long for the dance with no clips.
"Well I just never considered that there was a Heaven until you came back as a Ghost," admitted the blond as I looked over her shoulder.
"Your future stepfather is a Pastor of a Church and you don't believe in Heaven?" I asked with disbelief; finding that hilarious and surprising at the same time.
"Given all that we have gone through, it's a little hard to believe that there is someone up there looking out for us," Hanna answered and I could kind of see what she meant since I was still wrapping my head around it.
"I know what you mean; I am an accident," I said, sort of mocking my Reaper who I hoped didn't hear that.
"Let's hope that there aren't any more accidents tonight; we have a chance to end this once and for all," stated my friend and I nodded in agreement.
This was the night that we bring down Alison once and for all.
It was better said than done since we were dealing with A. All the past plans to take the fight to the enemy have not gone well in the past; with my death as one of the many failures. Right now we were betting on the secrecy of our plan for it to be a success as well as the possibility that there was only Alison and Courtney that we had to deal with. Since I never managed to get to the Lair, I wasn't sure that there were any hoodies that we had to deal with. This left us all in the dark about our enemy.
There was always the chance that we might be facing Sydney or Noel as possible obstacles but with Mike holding their leashes, I doubted it. I had a feeling that the sisters were not leaving anything to chance given the fiasco of the twins so it was a safe bet that they were doing all the grunt work themselves. Given that I witnessed Alison killed Cece and then bury her at her own hideout from the cops, it was apparent that the sisters were doing their own dirty work for once without help.
This actually gave us the advantage for once since as a collective group, we outnumbered the b***. When I was A, the main advantage I had was that the girls never knew it was be that was harassing them; thus they and their mates were never able to gang up on me since they were in the dark. That advantage was now gone with the added bonus of us now knowing where their lair was. This meant that we could now hit them where they operated and destroy their blackmail evidence so we could put them out business permanently.
"So is Caleb going to meet you here and then wait for the limo?" I inquired since I had focused more on the major details of tonight than the prom stuff.
"Yeah; Spencer and Toby will pick us up in the limo and then we will get the other girls. Once we are there, we will wait for you and Ezra," Hanna informed me as she just about finished getting ready.
"Just Ezra; I am heading to the Lair alone and will meet you guys there," I told her and she looked at me in surprise since I was altering the plan in a sense.
"You are heading there alone? I thought we were all going to hit that place once Jason and Lucas distracted Alison," Hanna stated and I shook my head.
"We can't be one hundred percent sure that Courtney will be at the dance or if we would be able to pick her out since she might be wearing a disguise; so it will be for the best if I go alone and do some recon while I wait for you guys to show up," I said and she looked hesitant about my plan.
"Are you sure you want to do this? It sounds dangerous," Hanna said and I gave her a bored look since she seemed to have forgotten that I can't be harmed.
"I can't get any deader Hanna so I think I will be fine," I stated dryly and rolled my eyes.
"Well I don't think the others will be happy that you are changing things; especially Spencer," said my friend and I scoffed.
"Spencer is just going to have to deal with it; my plan, my rules," I pressed, making a point that it was because of me that they had the chance to finally end things.
"You enjoy rubbing that in her face," Hanna said, more as a statement than a question and smirking at me.
"Of course; it's nice to see Spencer Hastings knocked off her high horse sometimes," I said as I examined her to see if she was ready.
"What do you think?" asked the blond as she turned to show me her face.
"You look beautiful; you are going to knock them dead on the dance floor and make Caleb jealous with all the guys giving you looks," I answered her and she beamed at my praise. I was being honest though since she did look good in my opinion.
Truth be told, I had altered the plan not because of me doing reconnaissance but a reluctance to attend Prom. I had been looking forward to the dance my entire life and it was depressing that I could only attend as a ghost. The fact that I could not be picked up by a guy, ride in a limo, and wear a dress that I would only wear once was affecting my emotions; as well as a reminder that Alison would be participating when I could not. It made me burn inside that one of the greatest nights in high school life was blocked to me because of that bitch and her sister.
As much as I wanted to tell Hanna about that, I knew I couldn't because this was her night to shine and I did want to get her down. I knew my death had affected her in certain ways and being reminded of my circumstances would spoil the brief fun she was going to have tonight. Even though tonight would be mostly business for the girls, it was expected that they would at least have some fun while they were at the prom. This was their night too and they shouldn't let A screw it up for them since they couldn't get it back.
There was a knock at the door and we turned to see Ashley enter the room and stared at Hanna with mixed emotions evident on her face. She walked over to Hanna and tried to straighten her dress even though there was nothing to straighten and I could see the tears in her eyes. It was obvious to me that Ashley was full of pride at seeing her daughter like this; making me that much sadder since my own mom had this moment ripped from her violently. I suddenly became angry which affected things around us since the temperature dropped more than a few degrees.
"Did it get cold in here?" Ashley asked as she shivered and rubber her hands to warm them up as her breath could be seen.
"Sorry," I said as I attempted to bring my emotions under control. Hanna gave me a look of sympathy while her mother wasn't looking.
"Must be a draft," Hanna said sheepishly and shrugged as she just smiled at her mother; trying to look positive.
"I should go; spend time with your mother and enjoy her swooning over you," I commanded and I then left the room.
I headed downstairs and was surprised to see Caleb waiting at the bottom of the steps since I never heard him arrive. He glanced my way and acknowledged my presence though I could tell that he was nervous. He was wearing a spiffy black tuxedo and looked rather cute in it despite his obvious discomfort. What really shocked me was that he had shaved for the special occasion tonight; ridding the scraggly facial hair that had made him look like a bum and a drunk. Though I think I liked him better that way.
"Wow; you actually look like someone I could date," I said to him as I joined him at his side. I was teasing him but since he was so nervous, he couldn't tell and seemed to believe me.
"I am pretty sure I am not your type," he said dryly as he waited for Hanna to come down. He had a rose for her that was customary for our school.
"True; scruffy guys with a chip on their shoulders is a major turnoff to me," I told him as I smirked.
"So did you tell Hanna that you are skipping the dance?" he asked me. I had informed him of my chance to the plan and he seemed to understand where I was coming from.
"Yeah; though I lied about why I was though," I answered truthfully. I hated having to do that to her with us so close to the end of all this.
"I am pretty sure Hanna would have understood," Caleb said and agreed with him to some extent since I knew Hanna just as well as he did.
"This is her night; the last thing she needs is to worry about my feelings on missing the prom and not being able to participate in it," I said as looked over at the time. The limo would be here soon and I needed to start moving in order to meet Ezra so that he could drop me off.
Besides Caleb, Ezra was also the only other person who knew about my impending trip to A's lair to recon the place before everything went down. It hadn't been easy to talk to him alone since Aria was constantly by his side. I actually had to confront him in the shower just so we could have a private word in without his girlfriend overhearing us. Even though he had been very embarrassed by what I witnessed, I had already seen him naked back when I had still been A; especially when he and Aria had been together.
The plan was for him to meet me at the corner on the way to the school. From there, we would me a detour and he would get me as close to Radley as he could before having to head back in time for the dance. Since the dance still had a couple of hours, I had plenty of time to scout the location to see if A had any traps for unwanted visitors. Given my state, I was the perfect person for the job and ensured that no one could get hurt. If there were any traps, I would head off the girls at the rendezvous point.
"I am going to meet Ezra; you guys have fun tonight whenever you can," I said to him as I turned to leave.
"We'll see you later and thank you," Caleb said as he watched me leave. I had to admit that it felt nice to see him appreciate and thank me for my help.
I headed out of the house and walked straight to the spot where I was supposed to meet Ezra; waiting on the street and watched as the world pass by. While standing at the corner, I watched as various fellow students picked up their dates for the dance. I saw many colored dresses as well as tuxedos of various types go past me; with me taking time to judge the attire as they all passed by me. Since I was standing at a stop sign, it was easy to see who was wearing what and make my judgments accordingly.
I was inspecting a pair of sisters when I saw a familiar person who definitely was not dressed for the dance; prompting me to leave my spot.
According to Jason and Lucas, communicating through the girls, Mike was slated to attend the dance and work the drink section along with the parents. At Rosewood High, lower classman were allowed to work the dances for extra credit and to do some of their required community service hours in order to graduate. Mike had volunteered so that he could spy on Alison while Jason helped chaperone the dance. Seeing him heading away from the school told me that there had been a change in plans on his end which gave me a sickening feeling.
Without a second thought, I bolted to where his car was stopped and jumped into the backseat just as he continued to his destination. From the backseat, I saw that he was dressed in his hoodie outfit which gave me an even more sense of dread. Next to me in the back was a bag that looked to be full of something but I could not tell what it was since it was closed. There was however a large metal flashlight in the side pocket as well as what looked like a taser; which I never knew that Mike had unless he got it after my death.
"What are you up to Mike?" I asked him as became more and more worried about his behavior. What really sucked was that I couldn't even call the girls to warn them.
Since all the traffic was going the other way, Mike made it out of town in no time and I instantly knew where he was heading; he was going to Radley. This told me that Mike had found out where A's Lair was and going to raid, confront, or possibly kill A in order to avenge me. If that was the case then I had to stop him at all costs since my former boyfriend would get into some serious trouble if he went through with that. Mike had a future and the last thing I wanted was for him to spend it in a jail cell or Hell for eternity.
He suddenly veered off the main road to the sanitarium and I watched as we were heading towards a location I was not aware of. This might be a back road the Lair that I never knew about and was curious to how Mike found out about it. There was a chance that I had put it down in my journals since my memory was still hazy or Mike had found out on his own; giving me a sense of some pride at the intelligence of the younger man. If he could hear me, I would have applauded him in between screaming at him for being this impulsive.
We suddenly stopped just as it got dark and I knew it was game time.
Please Read and Review; also a big thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read and you should check out her stories!
