Part 2
Without the drive, there was no proof of Noel's involvement. All Spencer had were her memories of what she had seen and those were too hard to put into words.
"God Marco." Spencer gushed while wiping her tears. "I'm so sorry I worried you. I get like this sometimes. The wind from the storm probably blew open the door and I freaked. For a minute, I really thought someone broke into my house." The lies came out easy but Marco's training as a cop didn't allow him to be convinced. But that training also told him when to say when. He knew that Spencer wasn't going to tell him anything now. She and her friends were legendary among the police force. And why wouldn't they be? From the age of 16, trouble and mystery clung to them like shadows. No one had ever been able to get the full story as to why.
After Furey left, Spencer curled up on her couch and tried to shut her mind off. But then her phone started buzzing. She tried to ignore the messages as long as she could but they were incessant.
"Flash drive is gone." She finally tapped out before shutting her phone off and grabbing a bottle of wine. She couldn't deal yet. She just needed to escape for the night. Hell breaking loose could wait until morning.
She first thought the banging was coming from inside her head but then she saw a shadow at her back door. Rising slowly and blinking at the streaming daylight coming through her windows, she slowly made her way towards the door.
"Spence, what the hell?" Emily burst in without preamble. "Why aren't you answering your phone!"
"Are you alright?" Aria questioned as she took in her friend's rumpled appearance.
"What are you all doing here?" Spencer questioned still trying to shake off the alcohol induced sleep she had been in.
"Are you kidding!" Emily continued yelling. "You said the flash drive is gone which means Noel has it and with Hannah missing, Noel might have her." That woke her up instantly.
"What!" Spencer cried. "No. Oh my god." Spencer ran back to the table to grab up her phone."We have to call the police." She said as she turned it back on.
"Wait, are you sure that's the right move." Aria questioned?
'YES!" Spencer shouted as she impatiently waited for her phone to completely boot up. "If Noel has her...he could...he could.."
"He could what?" Aria asked, genuinely curious.
"We have to save her NOW!" Spencer said again, ignoring Aria's question.
"But the cops have never had our best interest. Caleb and Mona are on their way. Maybe they can find a way to track her phone or something." Aria reasoned
"We don't have time to wait! If Noel has Hannah, who knows what he could do to her!" Spencer screamed.
Aria and Emily looked at each other before looking back at their frantic friend. This wasn't Spencer. They were all worried when Hannah was kidnapped not long ago but they still kept it together. And now, they still didn't really know what had happened to Hannah, they were just assuming that Noel may have her. It was Emily's job to freak out and jump to conclusions and think the worst. Aria would reign her in by pointing her in Spencer's direction and Spencer would rationally tell them their best plan of action. But that's not what was happening. Spencer was freaking out more than any of them.
"I checked as many places as I could on the way over here and nothing." Caleb gushed as he came through the door with Mona on his heels. Caleb stopped talking when he felt the tension already in the room. "Did something happen? Did you find out where Hannah is?" Caleb inquired thinking they must have gotten terrible news about Hannah.
"No nothing." Emily said. "But Spencer thinks we should call the police."
"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Caleb asked. "The cops-"
911 what's your emergency?
Everyone stopped talking when they realized Spencer had already dialed.
"I think my friend's been abducted." Spencer spoke.
"What's going on with her?" Toby whispered to Aria.
"I'm not sure." Aria answered honestly. The two watched in amazement as Spencer continued to pace back and forth as the police checked the house, bagged evidence, and asked questions. She had not stopped the whole time they were there. "I mean I know she's worried about Hannah, we all are. But I didn't...I don't know I just don't know why she's this worried." Aria said gesturing towards Spencer's almost manic pacing. "Maybe because of.." She then nodded towards Caleb.
"How so?"
"Spencer and Caleb broke up because of Hannah."
Toby looked at his ex and shook his head. "She doesn't look sad or heartbroken. She looks terrified. She looks like she did after…"
"The dollhouse." Aria finished. "I see it too. I was just hoping I was wrong."
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for this." Mona stood up and showed Hannah the flash drive Noel had hidden in his sock.
"What is that?" Hannah asked.
"You seriously haven't spoken to anyone?" Mona questioned.
"Well, I kinda had my hands full."
"There's footage on here that proves Noel was working with Charlotte. He was part of the dollhouse."
"What!"
"I was worried he'd destroyed it but you knocked him out before he had the chance to."
"Look Hannah, you don't need the test results." Mona held the small drive back up. "This is more than enough to put Noel behind bars."
Hannah shook her head. "Busting Noel for the dollhouse is like busting the mob for tax evasion. It's settling!"
"But Hannah, you can't get any worse than the Dollhouse."
"I've got scars on my back that say different!" Hannah yelled, causing Mona to flinch. "I want Noel to be held accountable for everything he did."
"What did you want to talk about, Toby?" Spencer asked after she led them to a quiet room away from their friends and the cops when he had asked to talk to her alone.
"What's going on with you, Spence?"
"You know the usual, my friend was kidnapped by a psychopath." Her attempt at humor was ruined when her voice cracked on the last word. Toby stepped closer as her shoulders started to shake. He took her into his arms.
"What is it, Spence?" Toby asked again quietly. "I know you're worried about Hannah but I know you." He continued. "I know something else is going on too. Is it because of Caleb?"
Spencer would give anything for it only to be about Caleb. While the betrayal stung, she processed it and moved on because she loved Hannah too much to let some guy come between them. And truth be told, she loved Caleb enough too that she also cared about his happiness and if it wasn't with her, she was fine with that. But more tears leaked at the thought of Caleb and Hannah because she knew how badly this secret would affect them. "I'm sorry about Cal-."
"It's not that." Spencer cut him off. She pulled away and looked into Toby's eyes, the need to tell someone was overwhelming at that point and she knew it was because Toby always had a way of making her feel safe and understood.
"You heard Emily tell Marco that we saw on the flash drive that Noel was at the dollhouse." Toby nodded. "You know I hate talking about that place but remember when I told you about the time I woke up covered in blood." Toby couldn't help the way his jaw clenched in anger at the mere thought of her having to go through that. "The footage showed that it was Noel who poured it on me when I was unconscious. Emily doesn't know this but when I took the drive home I looked at more of the footage." Spencer suddenly jumped up feeling the need to pace again. "I just couldn't understand where the blood went. I was covered and the next day, poof, it was gone. I just kept thinking about it and finally I had to look. I had to know where it went and what happened." She was rambling, her words were coming out just as fast as her legs were moving as she paced, but Toby knew she needed to do this in order to get it all out. "So I plugged it back into the laptop and I clicked back on that same file and I just moved it forward, you know, because I remember yelling at the camera and I remember banging on the door and then just kind of curling up in a corner but that was it." Suddenly she stilled. The transition was jarring and Toby sat up straighter ready to catch her if she needed him to. Her eyes became distant, he wasn't even sure she was breathing. She was completely lost in some memory. Just as he was about to stand up and go to her, she spoke in a faraway tone. "It had to have been some kind of gas." She said suddenly. "I saw myself sitting there...curled up and crying...but then suddenly I just fell over...back asleep. It was way too sudden. There had to have been some sort of gas. It wouldn't be the first time they used it on us. The police van. After being locked outside for days. Just this time it was invisible." She spoke more to herself almost as if she forgot he was in the room with her. "It had to have been some kind of gas because I didn't hear him come in. I didn't feel him undress me. I didn't feel him...on top...of me." Toby's eyes widened after she said that. His mouth fell open in shock. NO! He screamed in his head. "I didn't feel him at all." She continued before her body began to tremble. Toby jumped up and pulled her into his arms. At first she flinched confirming his earlier thought that she was so lost in the memory that she forgot he was there. But then she clutched at him as sobs burst from her chest. "I had no idea….we had no idea." She cried.
"Have you told them?" Toby asked his voice thick with restrained tears.
Spencer shook her head. "They don 't know." She continued. "I don't know how to tell them or if I should tell them. I almost hope that Noel's already destroyed the flash drive that way nobody else can see it. But on the other hand, it's our only proof. Noel's dad will get him off if all they have is our word to go by." Toby pulled her closer to him and focused on controlling his tears. He hated seeing her like this. She'd come so far. God he hated this wretched town. If she had stayed away she never would have learned how much she was violated. He was finally getting out and he wanted nothing more at that moment then to grab her and pack her in the truck with him and get them as far from Rosewood as possible.
An hour passed and still he held her. He would have continued holding her if his phone didn't start going off. It was Yvonne.
"I'm alright, Toby, really. Go." Spencer whispered having seen the caller ID. "Don't worry about me."
"Impossible."
"I mean it Toby." Spencer said pulling away and looking Toby in the eyes so he would know she was being honest. "You have a chance to finally be free of all of this. Leave this town. Start a new life and please please be happy. I can get through this if I know you are at least somewhere safe and happy."
"Spence.."
"Please Tobes. Just go." He almost couldn't do it. This was his Spencer. In pain, broken, but still so selfless. He would never stop being amazed by her. His phone rang and Toby sighed. He then stood and accepted that Yvonne was his future.
"I don't care how far away I am, if you need me, you call me." He told her this time looking her square in the eyes so she'd know how much he meant those words.
"Goodbye, Toby." He leaned down without thinking ready to kiss her goodbye like he'd done so many times before. It was instinctual. But just as their lips were about to touch loud shouting from downstairs snapped them back to reality and back apart.
"Hannah!" Spencer cried when she walked back into her kitchen and saw the blond standing there. "Did he hurt you?" Spencer asked as she walked towards her ready to embrace her.
"I'm fine. Spence. I wasn't with Noel."
"What?"
Hannah then told the tale she and Mona had come up with about looking for a witness to Noel pushing someone down the stairs years ago. The story satisfied the police and it didn't take long for them to pack up and leave. Marco was the only one who stayed behind.
"Since we opened up an investigation, I'm going to have you sign a written statement." Marco told Hannah.
"Sure." She agreed.
"You should have called us Hannah!" Spencer yelled, Hannah could see unshed tears in her friend's eyes making her feel more guilty for lying but also surprised that Spencer was still so upset.
"I know and I'm so sorry."
"Hey, what's going on?" A newly arrived Caleb asked. Spencer turned away suddenly and briskly left the room. The group assumed it was because of Caleb's arrival and the tension of their recent past. Marco followed after Spencer to see if she was alright.
"I'm fine, Marco."
"You don't seem fine."
"I know and look I"m sorry
"What did I tell you about apologizing for nothing.
"No really. This is actually something. I'm sorry that I lied to you last night. I should have told you about Noel. I was just scared."
"That's still nothing to apologize for. I did my homework on you after we met. I read about Charlotte and the bunker. Now to find out that Noel was helping her keep you down there."
She couldn't stop them. At Marco's words, more images from the flash drive erupted in her mind causing the tears she had been trying to hold back to finally fall. "I can only imagine how hard that must have been, and I can see you're still not over it." Marco soothed while stepping closer to give her arm a comforting squeeze.
Spencer shook her head and backed up a little not quite ready for the innocent contact. 'It's just that...I mean I had come a long way but then I found out." Spencer shook her head again. She then wiped her eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to pull herself back together. "Can I ask you a hypothetical question?"
"It's my least favorite kind of question but sure go ahead."
"If you find Noel and arrest him, would us just saying we saw footage of him at the dollhouse be enough to put him in jail."
"Honestly no. Without the flash drive our best hope is for him to confess."
"Why would he do that?"
"Well Noel knows you had the drive. We can lead him to believe you made a copy before he got it back." Spencer nodded. Desperately wanting to believe it could all end that simply. "Speaking of that Spencer, I'm going to need you to tell me everything you saw on that drive. The more detail the better."
And there it was. She knew she had a few choices. She could say she just saw him in the dollhouse pouring blood but how much time would that get him? If she told the whole truth about everything she saw and he still didn't confess, then the pain and misery that followed would be in vain.
She had no idea what to do.
Spencer told Marco that she would come by the station later on in the week if they still hadn't found Noel to give her statement about the flash drive. The next day she still had no idea what she was going to say but a text from Hannah would change everything. The text said.
Spencer's house. NOW. Screwed up big.
"I'm sorry." Hannah confessed. "I thought if I could do this on my own then I could prove to you guys that Noel was A.D."
"I can't help but notice you keep talking in the past tense." Aria mentioned.
"I was wrong." Hannah explained. "I got the test results back and Noel isn't Mary's second child."
"So you're saying, he's not A.D?" Aria questioned.
"I'm not really saying that either."
"What are you saying, Hannah?" Allison bitched.
"I'm saying I have Noel tied up to a chair in an old motel room and we need to deal with that."
"No." Spencer said shortly. It was the first word she spoke since everyone had gotten there. "Call the cops. I don't want us going anywhere near him." She continued.
"Are you joking?" Hannah questioned.
"We can't do that!" Emily chimed.
"Yeah, Spence, seriously what's with the trust in the cops all of a sudden." Aria contributed. "Why do you keep wanting to call them?"
"No, I'm not joking." Spencer said through clenched teeth. "Yes we can do that." She added looking at Emily before looking at Hannah. "If the cops have the flash drive they'll understand why you kidnapped him."
"Cops "understanding." Hannah laughed. "Now I know you've lost it or maybe you want me to go to jail."
"Hannah." Emily warned.
"No. I'm being serious. Why else would you, Spencer, suggest something so stupid? Is this about Caleb."
"Hannah!" Aria and Emily said in unison.
"Caleb?" Spencer's face twisted in confusion. "No! This is about Noel and what he did to us. I can't look at him or be in the same room with him."
"We have to handle this Spenc-" Allison began.
"No "we" don't. We can let the cops do their job for once." Spencer spat.
"Part of their job would be to arrest me!" Hannah yelled. "So I'm really starting to think you want me gone so you and Caleb-"
"This is not about fucking Caleb! This is about Noel! I can't see him!
"Why not?"
"Because if I see him I'll kill him!"
"Spencer, I know seeing him with you in the dollhouse was hard." Emily soothed.
"Oh you don't know the half of it, Em."
"Spencer, we can't call the cops." Allison reasoned. "Hannah's right. They'll still charge her with kidnapping. We have to deal with this."
"I cannot see him." Spencer shouted while banging the table for emphasis.
"Why not!" Hannah yelled back in frustration.
"Because he raped me!" Spencer screamed before her hands flew to her mouth as if she could stuff the words she just uttered back in.
The silence that followed was palpable.
"Remember when I told you about the blood and how the next day it was gone." Spencer began, her voice clogged with tears making it sound more raspy than usual. "I couldn't understand how. I couldn't get the how out of my head so I looked back at the video. I was unconcious and they changed the carpet and the whole fucking door. But before that, while I was unconscious. Noel he...I saw him. He took off my clothes. Took off his pants and just...used me." Spencer croaked, the tears cascading down her cheeks. "Oh god why did I have to look!" Spencer cried before curling up in a ball and rocking herself on her couch.
The other liars continued to be frozen in shocked silence before Emily made the first move. She sank down next to Spencer and took her into her arms. The rest of their best friends quickly followed suit. They remained that way for almost an hour before Spencer finally untangled herself and stood up to use the restroom. When she came back, she knew the others had questions. Well one question in particular. Aria was the one to voice it.
"Did you look in any of our folders? Do you know if...if...if he…" Aria stopped not needing to continue. The look on Spencer's face said it all.
"Who else?" Emily whispered.
"Do you really want to know, Em? Because once you do, you can't unknow. Believe me."
"No no no." Hannah suddenly jumped up. "They examined us...after we got out. They would have known. Come on especially you Emily. Didn't they examine you?" Hannah asked.
Spencer let out a humorless laugh." Are you seriously talking about virginity tests? That's a myth! So no, I didn't have a pelvic exam. They did ask but I knew it wouldn't matter but more than that I had no idea that Noel Khan had fucking raped me or that he had been there at all." Spencer ranted more annoyed with herself that she couldn't seem to control these surges of anger she kept experiencing since she found out.
"I wasn't examined." Emily said quietly.
"Me neither." Aria added feeling queasy with the whole conversation.
"Guys look. This is a lot to take in. And I know I'm the last person who should be offering advice since I wasn't there but we still have to decide what to do about Noel now." Allison reasoned. "And Spencer's right about not being able to take it away once you know something. You all need to think long and hard about whether or not you want to know what's on that flash drive."
"If we just give it to the police, won't they have to tell us?" Aria asked.
"Or we can leave the police out of this." Hannah said coldly. "He's tied up. We can go and get justice right now."
"Are you suggesting that we get rid of Noel...like permentanly as in murder?" Emily questioned.
"He deserves it for what he did to Spencer, possibly to more of us, and he could be A.D. Let's just end this." Hannah argued.
No one offered a counter argument. In their heart of hearts, none of them thought of themselves as killers but their body count was adding up. It had always been self-defense or an accident. This would be different. Of course they didn't know it but the reason why no one was speaking was because they were each running scenarios in their heads about the way, how, and what ifs of killing Noel Khan. It ended up being a moot point when Hannah broke the silence.
"Oh shit!" Hannah cursed. "He's gone!"
"What do you mean he's gone?" Spencer said.
"I just got a text." She explained before holding her phone up showing a selfie of Noel at the motel free of restraints. Underneath his picture were words. They said.
1465 Elm Street.
10 P.M. Bitches.
Let's swap.
My thumb drive for your camera.
When they got to the abandoned blind school they were shocked to hear Jenna's voice ordering them to put the flash drive on the table. Caleb and Mona were supposed to be watching her. Then they heard the sound of Hannah's voice on the video tape from when she had Noel in the motel room. They made their way upstairs in search of the video tape. They found it quickly but when they tried to leave out of the front door, it wouldn't open. With no cell service, they searched the creepy building for another way out.
As they made their way down a badly lit hallway a voice spoke chilling them all to the bone.
"Did you really think we'd let you leave?" Noel appeared behind them. "You know too much."
The five of them ran into a nearby room but were horrified to see there was no way out. Before they could turn around and try someplace else to hide, Noel again appeared in the doorway, blocking their path.
"You bitches never understood me." Noel sneered. "I always get what I want!" He yelled. The five women instinctively grabbed hold of each other and backed away from the door and Noel. "You were the first, Emily." He smirked. "Charlotte let me have you after we brought you back in from the cold. I needed something to do while the rest of you were getting chips put in your heads." He laughed.
Spencer and Emily grabbed Allison back when she tried to lunge at Noel. "I'll fucking kill you." She spat to which Noel laughed again before taking a step into the room with a large ax he had propped up on the wall outside the door.
"Then Aria." He continued in the same mocking tone as he locked eyes with Aria. "Charlotte told me to 'have fun' when she gave me the scissors to chop off your hair. And you certainly were a lot of fun, Aria. Way more fun than that short time we dated."
Aria felt her legs weaken at Noel's words. She hadn't wanted to believe he'd gotten to her too. Hannah caught her just before she hit the ground.
"Shut the fuck up! You sick bastard!" Hannah screamed as she held a crying Aria to her chest.
"Oh I'm getting to you, Hannah." Hannah wanted to cover her ears but she couldn't let Aria go. When she felt Aria's phone inside her jacket an idea bloomed. They no longer had the thumb drive but Noel wasn't going to get away with this. Discreetly, she managed to turn on Aria's camera so it could record Noel's confession. "You were so happy to finally get water, you probably wouldn't have even cared if you knew it was drugged. I remember watching Charlotte having so much fun playing with you as her doll. Dressing you up, she even put on make-up for you so you'd be nice and ready for our "date." I guess I should be hurt that you don't remember it at all." He said in mock seriousness then he shrugged. "But I'm not." He continued before turning his gaze on Spencer.
"I think I had the most fun with you, Hastings." Spencer closed her eyes as the images from the flash drive invaded her head. "You know how much I love Halloween. The blood was my idea. Charlotte said I could as long as I made sure to clean up afterwards. Normally I hate cleaning up but you made it worth it."
Hannah was sick to her stomach but she wanted Noel to confess as much as he could to nail him with later. "What about Mona?" Hannah asked. "She was there the longest. How many times did you play out your sick fantasies with her?"
"Mona?" Noel asked before stepping closer to them. He then yelled making all of them jump. "Never! I would never do that to Mona. I have way too much respect for her, unlike you bitches. Besides, Charlotte said she was off limits. See the plan was to eventually get Mona back on the A team. We knew she'd be mad at first, you know, because of some of the torture. But we were confident she would eventually come around. It was her game to begin with after all. But all games eventually must end."
He then raised the ax and charged.
end part 2