A/N: I know I said I was gonna do a huge final chapter but I ended up adding stuff as I edited this and it's pretty long without me having even edited the other chapter so yaaaay double finale chapters! See you when I've edited the next and final chapter...
Hanna awoke to the sound of a phone ringing. She was dressed in Caleb's shirt, no matter what he said…how he made her feel, she was still conscious of the marks on her skin and so he'd put his shirt on her to make her more comfortable before they'd fallen asleep. She was comfortable and…..content. Wrapped in Caleb's arms. Wrapped in her fiancés arms. She didn't want to move, she wanted to bask in the moment. While she still could. Caleb was right, they had needed this, this time together. I mean sure, they'd gotten engaged in that time, but even if they hadn't…spending time with him…she'd needed it before she faced whatever was going to happen next because it probably wasn't going to be pretty. It was that thought that brought her fully awake. She noted the daylight flooding in to the room. The phone continued to ring incessantly and her head snapped towards the sound. Crap, it could be the lab! She hurriedly crawled out from under Caleb's arm, making sure she didn't wake him, and she rushed over to her ringing phone. Sure enough, it showed that "McBribe" was calling. She'd amused herself by entering the number that way, but she couldn't bring herself to even crack a smile at it now. She took a breath and then quickly answered.
"Do you have the results?" She asked nervously and straight to the point. Why am I nervous? It's not like it's my test.
"Yeah….they're not a match" Hanna's blood froze and she felt the colour drain from her face. She'd been so sure.
"What? Are you sure?" she panicked, but tried desperately to remain calm.
"We tested the sample you gave against the DNA you provided….and they don't match" The tech repeated slowly.
"Is there any way that you made a mistake?" Hanna asked, trying to cling to anything she could.
"No. Those two people are not related" the blunt words hit home. Hanna brought her hand up to her forehead. After everything…everything she'd done…and she hadn't even gotten the evidence they needed. She thought this would be it…it would be proof….she needed to go back and get that confession, she would have to because without the DNA…without it….
"Okay, so there's no way that you dropped the ketchup from your hot dog or….or one of the hairs from your beard fell in there?" Hanna asked, giving in to her panic. No. no no. I was helping. I was protecting everyone that I love…for nothing? No. This can't be happening.
"Uuuhh I don't have a beard" the tech replied and Hanna sighed. Of course he didn't. She knew that.
"Look you have to be wrong" she said.
"We didn't make a mistake, they're not a match. I'm sorry" the tech sounded sincere. Hanna hung up before she could make more of an idiot of herself. She couldn't believe this. She'd been so sure, all the evidence had been there, all the pieces had been there. Sure it didn't prove that Noel wasn't AD, but this would have been a trump card. A trump card she'd needed to take to the girls. She'd almost let herself believe last night, that the confession didn't matter as long as they had the results. She'd been an idiot. She knew better. Solid proof, that's what they needed. Solid, inescapable evidence. The worst thing was she was going to have to tell the girls what happened and how big she'd screwed up because she didn't know what to do next. They couldn't just let Noel walk free, she'd been anticipating getting the DNA results, and then taking it to Noel. Getting a full confession. She couldn't do that on her own and Noel wouldn't react to Caleb at all. She'd have to tell the girls because she was going to need their help. She was going to need Spencer's brain. She opened up the group chat and sent a quick text.
Spencers House. Now. I screwed up big.
She put the phone down and groaned, hearing Caleb shifting. Of course he's awake. He probably has a little inbuilt radar that goes off when I start to freak.
"It'll be fine Han. So the DNA didn't match. We'll meet the girls, tell them what happened and then we'll all go over there and-"
"And what Caleb? We can't beat a confession out of him!" Well...we could...
"Much as I want to, I do know that Han" Caleb said, coming up behind her and hugging her tightly. "We'll have to go and talk to him."
"He wont say anything. We don't have enough on him to get him to admit it. He won't. I know he won't. Not after how he acted when I met him. So confident….condescending. We have nothing" Hanna said fretfully. "I just wanted to prove that Noel was AD. I just wanted to help".
"I know Han, and we will. We'll prove it's him, and you've done so much already. We'll just have to come up with something else to get him to talk. It's not like he's going anywhere, he's taped to a chair and last we saw, he looked like he was auditioning for Sleeping Beauty. But we can't keep the girls in the dark anymore. This is too big for just us."
"I know. I already sent a text. We'll be meeting at Spencer's house" she groaned, leaning in to Caleb's embrace.
"I'll go with you" Caleb said reassuringly.
"No" Hanna said, and Caleb looked down at her. "I need you to help Mona tail Jenna, she can't keep doing it alone, she's exhausted and she needs the help. She's trying to do that and hack Jenna's phone and hack Sara's phone and-"
"I got it Han. Mona's got a lot on her plate. I'll go and help her if you really want but are you sure you don't need me?"
"It's like you want to get bitched out by Spencer" Hanna grumbled, making Caleb laugh.
"Not really. She'll be all 'And you let her?!' and her voice'll go up that extra octave." Caleb teased and Hanna couldn't help it, she laughed.
"Please, help Mona. I don't know how…but somehow the blind girl with no eyes, needs two pairs of eyes on her." Hanna darkly muttered. Caleb squeezed her tightly.
"Okay. You sure you'll be fine with the girls?"
"Um…probably. I mean…they'll yell and then Spencer will come up with a plan and we'll go and get Noel to confess everything or….or maybe we'll get Spencer's cop to come too…or something, I don't know. But we'll fix it and then everything will be fine." Hanna said with false determination and positivity, getting a skeptical look from Caleb. She withered under it. "How about, it's daylight and I'll be with the girls, and it'd be five against one, so I feel less freaked out about going without you, and...Noel used to be terrified of Spencer because of that look so..." Hanna tried. Caleb just shook his head, hiding a smile. Hanna hugged him tightly. I'm being ridiculous. It'll be fine. Tell the girls. Go get Noel. Make him confess. Or get Spencer to sweet talk that cop that likes her in to not arresting us and take him with us to get a confession. Problem solved, home to have dinner with Caleb. Or something. It'll be fine Hanna. It'll be fine.
It was not fine. It was so far from fine. She'd told the girls, they'd been mad. She understood that. But Aria had been calm and had remained the voice of reason, sticking up for Hanna and keeping the conversation on track when it looked like Spencer wanted to strangle her. More than once. They'd gone to the motel and Hanna had taken them right to the door. Aria had actually asked her if she'd remembered to water and feed him….as if he was a pet. Duh. Of course she had. Or…well…he'd been out the entire time so she'd left some water kinda close…food too….and they'd retied his hands so he'd be able to eat and drink...probably. She'd pushed the door open and everything had tunnelled in to that one moment. She'd dimly heard Spencer asking if she'd remembered to tie him up, doing that thing with her voice. Hanna had barely heard her. She'd been too busy staring at the chair. The empty chair. Noel had been gone. The chair was there. The tape was there. The ropes where there. But Noel was gone. And so was the camera. Noel had proof that Hanna had kidnapped him, he could make it look really, really bad for her. If that wasn't enough, the ominous sound of their text alerts had signalled things getting even worse. Hanna really didn't want to look..but the not knowing was even worse.
1465 elm street. 10pm bitches. Let's swap. My thumb drive for your camera.
Hanna looked at the text, then up at the incredibly creepy building in front of her. She really, really did not want to go in there. It was like one of those houses in horror movies, that you screamed at the dumb characters not to go in.
"This is the place" she confirmed grimly, and the group marched down the path to the front door, Hanna was trying very, very hard not to freak out. There hadn't been time to grab Caleb and Hanna was feeling his absence. The other girls being there went some way to comfort her...but it wasn't quite the same. Aria grabbed Hanna's elbow, sliding her arm through and Hanna gave her a small smile. The large, and very heavy looking door was stiff, and it took Hanna a few moments to get it open.
"Is the door locked?"
"I doubt it. Who would want to break in here?" Spencer had replied to Emily, while Hanna had finally managed to shove the door with enough force to get it to open, thanks to some help from Aria. She was the first one inside. She peered around, it was dim and grungy and she could…..she could hear…..her mind flashed back to the barn. The darkness. The sounds. She couldn't see them but she knew they where there.
"Oh my God I hate rats" Hanna managed to stop herself from screaming, but she backed away in to Aria, who grabbed hold of her arm again comfortingly.
"I hate not knowing what this place is" Aria said quietly, while rubbing Hanna's arm.
"And why Noel wants us here" Alison added. Hanna swallowed, and clutched Aria's hand, she then started to take some deep, calming breaths. She couldn't afford to freak out. It was fine. She was with her friends. Safety in numbers. Right? Hanna distantly heard Emily say something, and Aria gently tugged her over to where the other girl was standing. She wasn't paying attention to anything that was being said. She had a feeling. A really, really bad feeling. Something didn't feel right. Something was missing. She didn't like it and she badly wished she hadn't sent Caleb off with Mona. Sure she'd made some progress, but not enough for the creep fest that was this place. Then again, she hadn't exactly had time to grab Caleb before they'd had to leave to get to this place nor had she had time to fill him in. If he doesn't hear from me…he's going to know somethings wrong and he'll come and find us. He'll bring the cops too because he won't take any chances. Not with me. It'll be fine. Damn. I really need to stop saying that…thinking it…whatever. It never ends well.
Hanna tuned back in to the conversation.
"So Jenna could have come here when she first lost her eyesight?" Hanna asked. Before any of the girls could reply, there was a strange noise, then the creepy, tension filled silence was finally broken, much to Hanna's dismay. She saw that dismay etched in to her friends faces too.
"I didn't lose my sight. You took it from me" Jenna. It was Jenna. But Caleb and Mona where supposed to be watching her. She shouldn't be here she should be at Radley. Had something had happened to Caleb? Had Jenna done something to he and Mona to get away from them? Where they here? Hanna started to panic. No. She wouldn't have hurt them. She probably just gave them the slip. It's what she's good at and it's why I told Caleb to help Mona. They're fine. They have to be. He has to be. Time to end this and then we can all go home, and Caleb and I can watch Disney movies and eat ice cream and just…be together.
"I have the thumb drive" Hanna said with a lot more confidence than she felt.
"Give us the camera and we walk away" Spencer added.
"And we'll pretend like none of this happened" Aria finished. They waited. The pause seeming to stretch on and on.
"Leave it on the table" the answer finally came and Hanna breathed a sigh of relief, before turning to place it as instructed. Ordinarily she wouldn't have liked giving up evidence that they needed. But Caleb had made a copy. A copy that he had with him. She wouldn't be surprised if Mona had made a copy of his copy, just to be safe. Or three...why stop at one.
Hanna came out of her thoughts as she heard voices….no not voices…just one voice. A very familiar voice. Her voice.
Wake up bitch.
"What is that?" Alison asked with trepidation
"That's me…..trying to get answers from Noel" Hanna explained to the girls. Emily sighed.
"The camera's upstairs" the unspoken 'of course' tacked on the end. Hanna could feel the dread building and she desperately tried to shove it down.
"Let's go" Hanna said. She wanted to get out of there, and she wanted to get out of there now. She wasn't going to spend any more time in this place than she had to. The girls trooped up the stairs, they didn't even make it halfway up before the front door slammed shut. They spun as one to face it. Hanna glanced at the table…the thumb drive was gone. She swallowed, and looked at the others. There was an unspoken agreement, and Hanna continued up the stairs. The others close behind.
Fine. We'll do it my way.
This is your chance to tell me the truth.
Fine. We'll do it my way.
Just admit it. Admit you're AD!
They followed the sounds of Hanna's voice down a dimly lit hallway, and in to a room on the left. What the hell? Hanna thought looking around. Baby dolls where everywhere, along with plastic cribs and every baby care thing you could need.
"Was there a blind baby epidemic I didn't know about?" Alison asked, cutting the tension. Hanna ignored her, and she ignored the other girls. She'd spotted the camera towards the back of the room and she'd hurried towards it. She picked it up, turning it to face her and she watched the video playing back on the little LCD screen. If only we'd gotten that confession. We wouldn't be here now. We wouldn't be dealing with this. I was stupid. I shouldn't have left Noel alone….no I can't regret what happened between me and Caleb. I won't…this was my fault. If I hadn't kidnapped Noel this wouldn't be happening. I should have listened to Caleb and gone home. Gone with the girls to the police. I've just made a bigger and bigger mess by trying to do things by myself. I ruined everything. It's all my fault.
Hanna abruptly snapped the screen shut, cutting off the playback. "Let's get out of here" she said in to the silence. Leading the way to the door, the others falling in with her. Of course Spencer had to lead them in to the worlds creepiest room, full of jars of….things. She didn't look too closely at them to see what kind of...things they where. She didn't want to. It gave her the creeps. She didn't know why Spencer had lead them all in here, when they could have been halfway to freedom right then. The longer she spent in this building the worse her bad feeling got. She wanted outside. She wanted the fresh air and she wanted the open space around her. She concentrated on her breathing while the others talked around her and when Alison turned to leave, Hanna quickly followed her, the other girl grabbing her hand as she went. The exit was in sight, it was right there, they where nearly out…nearly…..
"Oh no. I left my phone upstairs" Emily brought everyone to a halt.
"Seriously" Alison said, mirroring Hanna's reaction.
"I don't want to go back up there by myself" Emily complained. Hanna looked around. They where all standing there, no-one volunteering to go with her. Emily wouldn't leave without her damn phone and if no-one agreed to go with her, they'd be stuck standing here all night. I just want to go home. To Caleb. Hanna thought, and with a sigh, she handed the camera to Alison. Alison squeezed her hand before letting go.
"Come on" Hanna said heading back towards the stairs, Emily hot on her heels. I can't believe I'm doing this. Why am I doing this? Oh right. Because Emily's my friend, and the girl who was locked in a barn and tortured by this freak show is the only one with enough balls to go back upstairs to get her damn phone.
Hanna froze, her thoughts cutting off. She and Emily had just turned to go down the hallway when she'd heard…or she thought she'd heard….it sounded like…
"Did you hear that?" Emily asked. Hanna didn't reply. She'd really hoped she was hearing things. Really, really hoped. She shared a look with Emily, the two both deciding that they where hearing things because it was the only option that wouldn't end with them running out screaming. We're adults. We're too old to be scared of ghosts and monsters. Of course..there is an actual monster or two in this building but...we did as they asked. The building was old. It made weird noises. Let's get the phone and go. They mentally agreed. They took another step in to the hallway, and another….another…..there. They heard it again and froze. The creak of someone standing on a floorboard that did not want to be stood upon. Hanna closed her eyes tightly, swallowing convulsively. She reached for Emily's hand and the other girl gripped hers. Hard. She was barely breathing.
"Did you really think we'd let you leave?" That voice? No. No please no. She and Emily spun towards the voice and Hanna lost all the air in her lungs. Noel.
"You know too much" he said, taking another menacing step forward. Hanna tried really, really hard to stay calm. She really did. But she felt the memories crowding in on her, the terror crawling up the back of her throat and choking her. She could hear her own screams cutting through her thoughts. Caleb….Caleb…I really need you right now.