Wesley had finally come to his senses. Apparently, faking your own death isn't a crime, just a necessity to survive. He had accidentally missed out the whole Aria thing, and now he was making up for it by checking up on her. Ezra, having been way too paranoid to leave, left Wesley a message, asking him to check up on her and Emily. The deal, however meant that he couldn't enter the apartment under any circumstances. That was fine, Wesley would apologise for his actions through the door, no big deal.
Now by the time he had began walking up the steps, he had already considered turning around and walking away twice, hailing a cab and starting a new life somewhere hot, with a lot of women. A lot. That way he could do as he pleased, they couldn't arrest him there.
Finally, Wesley managed to climb the steps to apartment three B, going to knock on the door when he heard a smash, followed by an ear piercing scream. It was a scream he recognised, it was Aria's. That's when he panicked, pounding on the door with one hand, whilst the other fumbled into his pocket, tearing out his phone and dialling Ezra's number. The first three times it went straight to answer phone, obviously Ezra was being arrogant. The screaming continued, pleads and yells coming from behind the door. And then, just like that it stopped, and Ezra picked up the phone, snapping at Wesley. Gosh, couldn't a guy go two hours without being stalked.
"WHAT? I have a class!" Ezra said in a harsh tone, turning away from the students. "What do you want?"
"There's screaming, and now its stopped and I don't know what's going on." Wesley rushed, Ezra letting out a scoff to indicate that he thought that his brother was lying. "Something's wrong in there, and I can't open the door."
"I don't have time-" Ezra was cut off as another screech swept through the apartment building, travelling down the phone for Ezra to hear. "What was that?"
"Your freaking girlfriend, you douchebag. Now please hurry up and bring your key so that I can get in and SAVE her." Ezra said nothing, just hung up the phone and sped from the room in a hurry, completely forgetting his class until someone called him. Ezra rolled his eyes, taking a step back into the classroom and excusing himself properly, before he was gone again. "WILL SOMEONE OPEN THIS DOOR!" Wesley yelled, furiously turning the door handle to see if it would miraculously open for him, but obviously it didn't.
By now, Emily had managed to corner Aria, making swings at her any chance that she got. She was getting that knife into her, she didn't care where but Aria wasn't leaving this apartment alive, no chance in hell. Did nobody understand how much she had worked her butt off to get this far in without being caught? Trust her when she tells you, it wasn't easy. All of the framing, planning, manipulating, hitting people with large cars, it all lead to this. There was no way that she was going back. Not in a million years.
And besides, Ezra was paying for this. For taking away her love, ripping her from her grasp before Emily even had the chance to say goodbye. It was insane. Of course, she didn't want to kill her best friend, but it was necessary for revenge, she was sure that Aria would see that soon enough, and forgive her whilst she burnt in hell for her boyfriends sins.
Now, all Aria had to do was dodge the wide knife and pray that Ezra, or someone else would waltz in and help her. Hardly likely, seeing as Emily had locked the door. While Aria was at it, why the fuck was her best friend trying to kill her? Ezra hadn't killed Maya, that was completely absurd, Ezra wouldn't hurt a fly, let along a 16 year old girl. Maybe Emily had taken some of her mothers meds, or was currently sleep walking. Hey, maybe Aria was still asleep and this was another one of her silly prison nightmares.
But the moment Emily managed to grasp Aria by the neck, and throw her against the wall, all screams stopped, and the knife was plunged into her gut. Aria let out a whimper, her eyes instantly falling down to her shirt, the one that her boyfriend had once worn, slowly beginning to turn a crimson colour, the pain kicking in just as Emily leant in to whisper into her ear.
"Say hello to Maya for me." She whispered, a light chuckle slipping through her lips as she yanked out the knife, and Aria let out a scream, too shocked, too frightened, and in too much pain to cry. So instead, she went for the next option, sliding down the wall and holding tightly onto the wound. The smell of blood filled the room, one of Aria's weaknesses. Blood made her sick. Her bestfr- Well, best friend until this moment, leant forward once more, tucking a strand of Aria's hair behind her ear beside Aria's best efforts to pull herself away. She couldn't move though, there was no chance that she was getting out of this. "Aw, you want me to help you?" the wounded girls bottom lip quivered, a sure answer to her question. "Hey, blame Mr Lover. This is your own fault for getting in with a teacher, you know. It always ends badly. Emily noticed how pale Aria had gotten, how much her hands were shaking, and how much she wanted to cry out in pain. But that wasn't happening, not with the loud racket at the door, it swinging open in seconds. She swung around, mentally slapping herself for not pushing something heavy in front of it.
Ezra's eyes searched the apartment, before his eyes finally laid upon his girlfriend, sat against the wall with a pool of blood beside her, growing wider at an increasing wide.
"What're you doing?!" Ezra yelled trying to run for Aria, who just tried to mumble out his name in pleas. Emily let out a dry laugh, stepping in front of Aria protectively. "One more step, Mr Fitz and you won't get chance to say goodbye."
"Why're you doing this?" Wesley popped up from behind Ezra, pulling at Ezra's shoulder to hold him back, only to be pushed away.
"This is what Ezra gets, for killing my girlfriend."
Then it all made sense.
"I didn't kill Maya." Ezra said sternly, glancing at Aria as she writhed in pain. "But /he/ did." He bobbed his head in Wesley's direction, Wesley's face automatically masking guilt. "After we found out that she's –A."
Emily's eyes rolled, a nonchalant laugh being released. "Oh please, that isn't going to work."
"You think that we're lying? Look at it all, Emily. It was her, always has been her. –A started pestering you the moment Maya arrived, and if you looked into her past, you'd find that her and Alison, closer than you think." She didn't look one bit convinced. With a roll of his eyes, Ezra began rummaging through his drawers, revealing a black book and handed it to her quickly. It was all Emily needed, and she let out a gasp, the knife clashing onto the floor in an instant.
Ezra took this as his opportunity pushing Emily out of the way and sending her flying onto the ground, kicking the knife in the opposite direction before he jumped at his now unmoving girlfriend, the full extent of her injury kicking in.
"Aria, Aria look at me." Ezra repeated over and over again, his hands soon becoming soaked in blood as he raised them to her face, her eyes drifting open for almost a second. "You're fine, see. You're going to be fine." It wasn't convincing, but it'd do. It'd help Ezra as much as her. Aria shook her head the best that she could, not even being able to keep her eyes open at this point. She felt so tired, the pain wasn't felt.
"I.." Aria began, moving a shaky hand from her stomach to his face. It was painted red, but she managed to run a hand along his cheek, Ezra immediately leaning into her touch. "I love you..."
"You're going to be fine, I promise."
"I'm not, Ezra. This is the big finish. This is it."Ezra furiously shook his head, blocking out Emily's continuous apologies and Wes yelling down the phone.
"I just got you back." He whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks. "You can't leave me again."
Aria let out what she thought was a life, eyes briefly opening again. "Haven't you ever seen Romeo and Juliet, that's us. Star-crossed lovers. This is it for us."
"Please don't leave me." His voice came out as a whimper this time, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"I'm right here." Was the last thing Aria managed to get out.
And then everything grew silent, the only thing being heard was Emily's sobs.
