"If you call Toby down here now I will let you live," said Mona.

Mona had her finger on a button that will start the injection. Spencer doesn't want to die, but she doesn't want Toby to die either. She knows what will happen if Toby comes down here without help. Spencer's eyes were wet and her whole body shook. Mona gripped Spencer by the hair.

"Call him!" Mona gritted.

Spencer shook her head. That only promoted Mona to grip her more firmly by the hair. Instead of screeching in pain, she gritted her own teeth.

"Mona we have to hurry," said Garrett. "You wait too long and the police will show up."

"Keep watching the door!" Mona hissed.

"If you want Toby down here why don't you just yell?" said Jenna. "He doesn't know."

"It has to be her," said Mona. "Toby hears Spencer's voice and his whole thought process goes out the window and we can kill him."

That caused Spencer to whimper. Mona is seriously out of her mind. She is willing to kill the man Spencer loves and for what? To ensure that Mona will have Spencer all to herself forever? Spencer began to shift her sadness from the thought of Toby dying to Mona's mindset. What happened to Mona to make her behave this way? Did it ever occur to Spencer to ask? Mona couldn't have pretended to be her friend this whole time. When did things change? When did Mona slip out of her own mind and into this dark place? Mona doesn't need to be stopped she needs help.

Spencer could hear footsteps from above as Toby was scoping out the house. By the sounds of his footsteps, she could tell he was coming near the heavy door to the basement. There were still no other sirens blaring from outside that she could hear.

"He's closing in," said Garrett.

Mona pinched Spencer by the wrist and dug her nails into her skin, drawing blood. Spencer bit down on her lip to not make a sound.

"This is your last warning," Mona hissed. "Call out for him."

"Let me make her scream," said Garrett. "She's been afraid of me longer than she's been afraid of you. Plus, it's me Toby wants to take down."

"I need you by the door ready to shoot when he comes through that door."

"Mona stop," Spencer finally spoke. "You don't have to do this. You don't have to kill him. Please, let's just skip out together and get out of Rosewood. You can have me as your only friend, but you have to let Toby live to do that."

"I tried that once and it didn't work. My mistake the first time around was not killing him when I had the chance," said Mona.

"Do you think killing the man I love will keep us, friends, forever?"

"Relax, honey," said Mona. "When I dope you up, you won't even remember his name."

The footsteps from upstairs are now making their way down. Crap, Spencer thought, He's walking into a trap. Garrett and Jenna took their positions by the door and aimed their guns. Mona slapped Spencer on the cheek in hopes of making her yell, but Spencer stayed strong and silent. The footsteps on the basements steps stopped. Everyone remained silent. Everyone.

Something isn't right.

Then, they all heard it: the sound of police sirens outside the house. Garrett and Jenna lowered their guns in a panic.

"We're done!" said Jenna.

"Not yet!" said Mona. "Put your guns back on the door!"

"Mona it's over." Said Garrett. "This place is surrounded."

Mona left her spot near Spencer to pick up a knife off the coffee table. That's when the door to the basement flew open.

Spencer shouts, "Toby, don't come in here!"

Garrett fires his gun, but it isn't Toby that falls to the floor. It's Caleb. All three of them stare at the man grunting in pain on the floor. Spencer felt sorry for Caleb getting shot and knew Hanna will be devastated.

"Who the hell is this?" shouted Mona.

While they were all distracted over trying to figure out who this mystery person is, Spencer unhooked the needle that was in her arm. Mona had her doped up on something, but it wasn't enough yet to make her lose her mobility completely. Her brain is fuzzy and she can't stand up. She isn't tied up but the drugs Mona had started to inject in her are causing some problems. Even with a foggy brain, she could tell that Toby is out there but is waiting for the right time to enter. Perhaps he is able to keep his head on straight through all of this. But why send Caleb in first?

Spencer uses what little strength she has to slink out of the chair. Mona notices Spencer crawling across the floor from the corner of her eye.

"Hey!" Mona spins around.

This is when Toby comes in with his gun. Garrett turns with his gun to shoot, but Toby's faster. Toby fires two shoots and Garrett's down. Jenna aims her gun at him and Toby aims his.

"Drop it!" He warns.

Jenna's hands were shaking. She immediately regrets playing a role in this, but she loves Garrett and Mona offered her a great deal of money. Correction, she loved Garrett. Garrett was now faced down on the floor in a pool of his own blood.

"You killed him!" Jenna shouted.

Jenna traded her regret for rage. She no longer cares what happens because her love is dead. Why should Spencer get her love?

Toby shouts again, "drop the gun!"

Jenna redirects her aim from Toby to Spencer. Toby had to stop himself from pulling the trigger too soon. All of these girls are eighteen so he can't just shoot them without trying to defuse the situation, but it is Spencer's life on the line here.

"I'm not telling you again," said Toby to Jenna. "Put the gun down now! Nobody else needs to get hurt here."

"You killed my boyfriend I don't care who dies anymore!" Jenna shouted.

Toby changes his tone, "Spence, can you move at all?"

"Barely," she replies weakly.

"Help is on the way, hang on."

Toby opens his mouth to tell Jenna once more to put her gun down, but before he could get the words out Mona came up behind Jenna and knocks her out with a good smack to the back of the head. Toby's mouth gaped open. Spencer stares up at Mona in confusion.

"Thanks," Toby tells her.

At first, Spencer wondered if Mona had triple crossed them all. Then she remembers that Mona wants Spencer alive. It's Toby she wants out of the picture. Toby puts his gun away and starts his way over to Spencer. Mona takes the gun out of Jenna's hand and aims it at Toby. Toby froze. Just like in Spencer's dream. Only, she never expected Mona to be the one holding the gun.

"Don't thank me yet," says Mona.

Toby's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion, "what are you doing?"

"Mona," Spencer croaks. "I need you to think just for a second what you're doing. You have a gun pointed at a person, a person that you don't even know. If you pull that trigger and hurt him there is no turning back. If you pull that trigger and kill the man that I love there is no hope for reconciliation."

Mona did not lower the gun or take her focus off her aim on Toby's chest. Caleb has already been shot once and Garrett is dead. Toby's right. Nobody else here needs to get hurt. Spencer grunts as she pushes herself to stand near Toby.

"Mona," she tries again. "I know you are a good person. I know that you must've gone through something terrible and I am sorry I wasn't there for you as much as I should've been."

Mona's face flinches and her voice quivers as she speaks, "never there for me? You were the only one I had. I just don't like to share,"

"Then if you truly believe that I was your friend then you know that I am still your friend now. If you're my friend too you wouldn't do anything to hurt me, right?"

Mona's eyes began to water, "I never meant for things to turn out this way."

"I know you didn't."

Spencer steps so she is between Toby and the gun Mona's aiming at him. She felt it as Toby raises his hand to her back in an attempt to offer support. The three of them heard the front door to the house open as more forces started to arrive. They would be down here in seconds ready to shoot, but Spencer wasn't willing to let that happen. Despite all the bad that Mona has caused her, there was a time when she believed Mona was her friend. She was her friend. Spencer knows that. This is just Mona having an episode from an illness that no one knows she suffers from. Letting the police kill Mona would not solve the problem. It would only create more problems.

"Mona," Spencer spoke calmly. "It's not too late to do the right thing."

Four men dressed in police gear with guns came storming into the room. Toby holds up his hand as a way to tell them to stand down. The police looked at the three people lying on the floor. One man is covered in blood, a girl knocked out, and another young man on the floor who has been shot, but appears to be conscious.

"PUT DOWN THE GUN!" Shouts an officer.

"NOW!" Shouts another officer. "Or we take you down!"

"Wait, don't shoot!" Spencer says to the cops. "Just let me handle this."

"Guys, give her a minute," said Toby.

"Mona," Spencer could see Mona starting to panic. Tears ran down Mona's cheeks as her body shook with trembles.

"Mona, don't look at them, look at me," said Spencer. "We can get you out of here safe and we can get you the help you need. I promise to be a better friend and listen to you just like you listened to my problems all those years. If you want our friendship to continue, you have to put the gun down and put your hands up."

"No, it's too late," said Mona. "There's nothing they can do for me. There's nothing that anyone can do. No one can stop me. There's only one way out of this."

Mona turns the gun in her hand and aims it at herself.

"Mona, no!" Spencer shouts.

Toby holds onto Spencer so she won't stumble and keep her out of the line of fire. The surrounding officers were ready to shoot Mona in the arm or leg to prevent her from taking her own life. Before anyone could take any shoot, Caleb stands up behind Mona and rips the gun out of her hand. Caleb empty's the gun and then tosses it to the side before restraining Mona. Everyone takes a breath.

Spencer finally collapses into Toby and he wraps her up in a hug. A couple of paramedics came into the room to tend to the victims on the floor. Aria, Hanna, Alison, and Emily followed in pursuit. When the girls finally reach the room they take a second to examine the scene in the room.

"Oh my god," said Emily.

"What the hell happened here?" said Alison.

"It's a long story," Spencer answered.

"Spencer," Aria went in to hug Spencer. Spencer hugs her back weakly. "I'm glad to see you okay."

"I'm not okay," said Spencer. "But I will be, I think."

Each of the girls takes a turn hugging Spencer. Hanna's hug was cut short when she notices something.

"Mona?" said Hanna.

Everyone in the room looked puzzled. Hanna walks across the room to where Mona is standing with Caleb still keeping her under control. Mona didn't react at first, but then her eyes lit up.

"Hanna," she said.

Hanna enveloped Mona in a tight embrace.

"Okay," said Alison. "Once again I ask, what the hell is happening here?"


What the hell just happened here? Just a couple more chapters left of this story to come. Like what you have read so far? Tell about it in a review.