Aria and Emily has been trying to figure out and study the images downloaded from the video that was sent to Caleb. They thought how much things have change without Hannah. Four cups of coffee later Aria though she saw something familiar in the mirror in one of the frames. She could be mistaken but it's impossible.
The petite raven hair looked at Emily now eating probably her third granola bar for the night, she thought a second pair of eyes will not hurt.
"Emily, what can you make out of this reflection?" she asked pointing on the dark figure faintly identifiable from the mirror in the background.
She pulled the printed picture from Aria and took a closer look, "it's a female and it kinda looks like Leslie," her eyebrows frowned, "but that's impossible, Leslie died in the fire a long time ago."
"I don't know Emily, what I learned about from everything that has been happening is no one really stayed dead in Rosewood."
"Let us scan more pictures this reflection", Aria started scattering the pictures. "Should we tell Caleb or Toby?"
"I don't know Aria, unless we are 100% sure that this is Leslie, it's very dangerous to run around giving false information given that the emotions are quite high right now.
"Yeah, so we start digging, we still have two more wells to check out."
"It's getting to real Aria. I mean what if this time around we won't be that lucky anymore?"
Aria took a deep breath, she felt it too but honestly do not want to entertain the thought, "I'd like to believe that experience is on our side that we will beat this one, Spencer will survive this because those kids are too young and the police are circling Caleb like some bad crime drama episodes, no one deserve that."
"We protect each other, that's what we do best." Emily said under her breath.
Caleb and Toby have been impatiently waiting for Aria and Emily at the parking lot the Brew. Caleb riding shotgun trying to drink the coffee that went stale 20 minutes ago. The girls said that they found something but cannot talk on the phone.
It has been an awfully silent ride with Toby, checking another old house that possibly a hideout where the kidnapers took Spencer. His heart sank when they pushed the cover and found an empty well as well. He cannot giveup now, he cannot just give up looking for her.
A familiar car pull up beside them. And somehow a sigh on relieved that the girls made it out safe. It's like no one is actually safe now, he thought to himself.
"We found something," Emily started pulling printed photos from the video files and with red circles made with the mirror in the background.
Caleb and Toby looked at the photos with curious eyes.
"It looks like Leslie, but she died, right?" Caleb asked Toby.
"Actually, it was an awful fire, as far as the report of that case it says all the bodies are accounted for," he is not so sure now, "it really looks like her but I don't know."
"Why is this person like a cockroach, can't she just like leave us alone?" Aria said in frustration, "I'm just going to do it myself."
Everyone suddenly looked at Emily whose phone started vibrating, and suddenly all their phones are vibrating to a new text message.
I told you no monkey business. Alison and Spencer pay for you stubbornness. And a video of Alison from the window played attached to the text.
Emily frantically started calling Ali's phone and it goes straight to voice message. Toby radioed the roving police to check the DiLaurentis house for possible home invasion. Everyone went back to their cars and drove back to Ali's place.
"Ali!" Emily called out, "Alison, where are you?," still no answer. Everyone is calling on Ali and suddenly jumped when they heard a whistle from the kitchen.
Ali is nowhere in sight but just a tea kettle boiling.
"They can't be that far," Toby said and he radioed his police buddies to report the case.
"I'm freaking out, it's Spencer and now Ali, who is next me or Aria?" she took a deep breath, "how many houses have we not checked yet?"
"Two, I guess," Caleb said.
And after a few seconds of silence, an eerie synchronized vibrations of their phone is too obvious to ignore.
It's a clip of Ali being chained to a well and Spencer being hosed down.
Tik tok, home many minutes before Spencer's lungs will be filled with water?
Spencer heard a familiar voice from above, is she dreaming or was it Alison? She cannot make a clear distinction since the person is also screaming and pleading. Someone pushed the opening of the well, she caught a glimpse of Alison with chained hands.
"Alison!" Spencer said.
"Get me out of here!" Alison screamed and she became aware of Spencer, "Spencer, I'm scared."
"You sick bastard, get us out!" Spencer screamed.
And she heard Alison screamed, "no, no!" and there was silence followed by whimpering.
Spencer looked up and she saw Leslie, with a hose. It's like in a movie. She will be hose down and drown me. "What do you want?" Spencer screamed.
"This is endgame, Spencer, there's nothing left for me, for us. I beat you at every turn, you and your friends. It's weird that we just have to make 180 when you die all will be well."
"Caleb is going to kill you. If you hurt Ali I will kill you."
She increased the water coming out of the hose, "he might or Toby might but it will never bring you and Alison back."
Spencer has not eaten in two days, she is weak and her body hurts so much. The water in the well are about mid leg now, she knows she have to act. She knew that Ali is hurt and she needs to get to a hospital, Leslie is unraveling right now, she just wants her dead above anything else. She knew she can swim pass the water and float her way to the mouth of the well, but she is thinking about how strong is she to push the steel covers. The water is fast rising, and all she could think of is getting out or at least try to get out of the well, die trying if that's what it takes. Spencer thought, she is not a pushover and a maiden in distress, she's a fighter.
She looks at the water now, going above her knees, if she will die from this, she will die fighting.
Emily tried to calm herself while talking to the police, good thing Toby was there to keep her emotions in check. She just cannot believe what's she's hearing that Ali cannot be reported as a missing person since it has barely been an hour since she was gone. An alert can be placed if the person was missing for more than 24 hours or there was any sign of struggle of violence. She cannot comfort herself with this conversation. She sat beside Caleb who probably had coffee coursing over his veins by now.
He was trying to check cctv from the Hastings if it has picked up something fishy at the diLaurentis side.
And his eyes lit up, "Guys!" he called out, "come see this." It was a delivery van for online grocery store and Ali followed a person to the van and someone lounged from behind and shove while towel on her face, a few seconds later Ali was down on the ground and she was hoisted up at the back of the van.
"I called an APV on that, last seen at Lancaster st downtown." Toby said and started gathering his stuff.
"There was this house 57 Lancaster, it was in our list but we never got to it, that and the one in Mahogany Dr about a block from Lancaster, remember we clustered this because they are near to each other, let's go." Aria said.
"I think it's better if you guys stay here Caleb and I got this." Toby said.
"No, I have to go with you, Ali and Spencer are in danger, we can't all just sit here and wait."
"Fine," Toby said in resignation, but the two of you stay in the car just in case we need someone to call back up for us."
The water is fast rising now, Spencer floated herself and kept her composure, she cannot panic at this point, her plan id just to gain enough strength to push the lid and until then just die fighting but she can't die yet, Alison is hurt and she has children, she needs to survive this. Her heart in pounding as water poured and she started floating.
"Caleb, what we had probably is just the element of surprise. I'm hoping for the best, we'll try to check the basement, back entrance is there just please be careful okay?" Toby took his gun from the holster as they get off the car.
They walked in comfortable silence as they approach the gate, "Toby, for what it's worth thank you. I don't have a very good feeling about this, just tell Spencer if ever I love her."
Toby rolled his eyes, "tell her yourself, Rivers." He slowly pushed the backdoor. Nothing moved in the dark. He holstered his flashlight, nothing peculiar, abandoned furniture, broken glasses, nothing but years and years of destitute. They made their way to the kitchen and quietly, Toby pointed the basement door.
The police officer carefully pushed the door and slowly descended to the basement.
"Police, nobody move!"
Aria pulled over to an old house at the corner of Mahogany and Lancaster as directed by Toby.
"Why do you have to park so far from the house?" Emily snorted, "They could be screaming for help and we will not hear it from here."
"Toby said that we cannot risk startling Leslie. Just trust Toby and Caleb, they will find them, okay?"
Emily is growing agitated by the minute inside the car, and she lowered down the window. Something caught her eye in the sidewalk. Emily got out of the car to check a scarf like object in the sidewalk. "Aria, come quick." Emily said while holding the scarf from the sidewalk, this is Ali's.
"How sure are you?"
"I made this for her last Christmas," Emily looked around. I don't think Ali and Spencer are in there, it's a rouse, they are in that house.
"Okay, I'll text Caleb." She took her phone from her pocket. "Wait, where are you going?"
"Save Ali and get Spencer back," said Emily as she strut her way into the abandoned mansion.
"No one is here." Toby said as in puts his gun back to his holster.
"This is asshole is playing cat and mouse." Caleb said almost resigned to the fact that he failed again.
"I can't call the girls, I have no signal here." Toby said
"Me too," said Caleb as he checks his phone. "What do we do now?"
"Honestly, I'm tapped out, let's go back to the drawing board and see if there's a detail we might have missed out.
"it's not just Spencer but Ali too, next day will it be Emily or Aria and I'm quite thankful that Hannah is halfway around the globe because she's also a target."
"Let's get out of here." Toby said.
Emily and Aria entered the abandoned house. There's mouse and critters everywhere and it makes Aria's skin crawl with grossness. She tried to compose herself.
"Has Caleb or Toby called yet?" Emily asked.
"No, I called them but it goes straight to voice mail."
Something moved. Which mad Aria dropped her phone, "what was that?"
"Maybe a big mouse"
"My phone is broken."
"I'll check on it, stay here" Emily said.
"No, I've seen enough horror movies to know that we are not supposed to split up."
"Wait here for Caleb and Toby." Emily walked in the room and reached the door towards the basement.
Aria is feeling uneasy. She looked back, she could have swear that someone moved. Like someone has been watching her. It must be her mind playing tricks on her. She is growing impatient, where the hell is Caleb and Toby? She accidentally touches one of the bannisters, she is immediately gross out by the amount of dust on her hand, this house needs a vacuum she thought. She just like that someone pushed her inside the coat racks and locked her inside.
"Get me out of here! You freaking psycho get me out of here! Emily, Emily help me."
As Emily descended to the stairs, she could hear screaming from afar and lo and behold she saw the well and beside it was Alison with clothes blood stained.
She ran towards her, "Ali, Ali are you okay?" She gently opened her eyes and drew her attention to a stab wound on the left side of her abdomen. "You're bleeding, Spence! Spence is that you?"
"Help me push this cover, I'm drowning here"
Emily started pushing the steel cover when someone pushed a needle on her neck. She looked back and tried to pushed the steel away because she's aware what's going to happened next but it seems like all the energy from her body is gone. She limped and dropped on her knees beside Alison. She can hear the soft whimpers of Ali and the frightened screams of Spencer. All she hears is the water rushing. I'm so sorry Ali she thought, I'm so sorry Spencer, I can't protect you, I failed.
The door opened and someone pulled Aria by the hair. She is dragged towards the basement and she screamed and fights but she is effortlessly dragged down the stairs. She saw Emily and blood soaked Ali and can hear Spencer screaming inside the well. But also is a surprise, she saw another familiar face with Leslie.
"Jackie? Why are you doing this?" Aria asked trying to rationalize things.
"Leslie can't do it all by herself, someone needs to bankroll everything, maybe if you were a little nicer to me this wouldn't have happened."
"You are out of your mind!", Aria screamed, "You need professional help, you can't just go around hurting people."
"Too late for that, you and all of your doll friends took everything away from me and from Jackie too." Leslie said.
"You tried to kill Spencer and kidnap her baby, and now hurt Ali and Em," Aria tried to reason.
"I want to burn her face with acid," Jackie said to Leslie while smirking.
"I'd love to watch that." And Leslie handed a small bottle to Jackie.
Aria can hear Spencer and at the same time noticed that the water from the well started pouring out, she doesn't have much time.
Jackie pulled her hair and they were all startled with a scream.
"Freeze!, drop your weapon, this is the police!" Toby screamed at the top of his lungs with guns pointing out to Leslie.
"Shoot me, Spencer is probably dead, give me your weapon or Jackie will pour acid in Aria's face!"
Toby is conflicted.
"Caleb, you worthless as ever, buddying up with Mrs ex and still too late for the party. Slide over the gun Toby."
"Let Spencer go." Caleb asked.
"No."
Caleb started to panic with the amount of water coming out of the well, he need to act fast. Just as Toby slid the gun on the floor, he charged fast into Leslie, knocking her over. Caleb pushed the heavy steel cover and Spencer is nowhere to be found. His heart is pounding but something grabbed his hand. He pulled Spencer, weak and in distraught in his arms.
"I'm here now, Spencer" her gripped tightly wrapped around his arms. She's weak coughing but she knows it's over now.
While all the commotion is happening, Jackie tried to pour the acid in Aria's face when Toby got a hold of his gun and fired at Jackie.
Jackie turned her head all confused at the shot on her arm which resulted to her accidentally pouring the acid on her face. She knew the gravity of the accident and she tried to wash her face in the well while screaming that her face is ruined.
"Are you okay?" Toby asked Aria.
"Those bitches go these coming to them; this is not out first rodeo." Aria cockily smiled.
Toby radioed for backup while Caleb and Spencer checked on Emily and Ali.
Spencer's body is filled with bruises and hearing the sirens gave a relief that washed over her body. It's over now.
"Spence, remember the couple that solves crimes together," Caleb smiled at his inappropriate cheesiness.
Spencer woke up in the hospital bed, her body still sore and her lips she knew is badly swollen.
Caleb sleeping soundly in the couch nearby, Spencer let him have a couple more hours of rest. The past few days might be as tiring for him as it is for her. She grabbed her husband phone on the bedside table and scrolled for a familiar number.
It rang, twice and a familiar voice picked up.
"Hey, Emily how is Ali, how are you guys holding up? Spencer asked.
"She's okay, thankfully no organs were hit just superficial bleeding, Ali went to have a minor surgery to get it stitched back, we're okay Spence don't worry."
"Thank you for everything Em, how about Aria?"
"She's here cuddled up with Jason in the couch" Emily smiled as she described the couple, "it's one big happy family in our hospital suite."
"I can never thank you enough for rescuing me, not just now but for countless times you were there for me." Spencer said in between tears. She remembered all the things that they went through together the past couple of years, finally it's over now. "Go back to sleep, it kinda sucks hospitals doesn't have room service, right? Bye Em talk to you soon."
Spencer placed the phone back to the bedside table and took the Iv stand. She took some clean pajama and shirt from the closet and tried to shower. She remembered the dark well, the water and drowning as warm water slash on her body. She starts to panic and she wanted to scream but she took a deep breath and calmed herself. She slowly counted backwards, and her felt her heartbeat beating normally again. She wanted to go home, sleep on the big bed with Caleb and their children.
She saw her bruised face while brushing her teeth, she told herself, she wears this as a survivor patch. Being strong is not about physically but being strong mentally and keeping your mind composed during difficult times. As she wheeled her IV stand back to the bed, she heard a familiar voice.
"Hey! I almost passed out when I look over your bed and you're not there," said the brown eyed beautiful man from the couch, "how are you feeling?"
"Do I get a hug first?" Spencer is just relieved that his is all over and she's back to his arms.
"I was so scared I lost you." Caleb said while he kissed her forehead, " the kids misses you, you know?"
"you and the kids are the only thing that kept me sane," she took a sign "Here's a thought, I'm so over Rosewood, let's go somewhere far, far away from here."
"Okay we talk about it after you eat okay? You have been sleeping the past two days." Caleb smiled at his wife, "do you want me to get you anything special?
"Burnt toast?" as she smiled.
"That's the only way I make it," he answered smiling like a weird inside joke.
