Ch. 26 - The New Dollhouse

AN: I know I know, some of you are angry, some are beyond impatient, some of you are like ooooh yeeeeah I forgot about that story and others are like thank god, it's about time. Don't worry, I'm feeling each of those.

The reason I wasn't updating anything was because not too long ago, my parents found out that I have been hiding my self-harm and depression and attempts at suicide. I know, you probably were not expecting that were you? Well it's true.

My family is extremely "close" or so they thought and it just broke my parents heart for them to find and read old and recent messages about how I was feeling about them and even my own life. I needed a break from everything, literally. And they were angry and sad and for days I didn't eat, I didn't look them in the eye, I didn't even leave my room.

It took me one week to eat again, and a few more days before I started to talk. It may not seem like I big deal to all of you but I never intended on hurting them, I never wanted them to find out, especially not the way that they did.

I'm not just writing this to answer you guys why I didn't update in forever, I'm writing it to put it out there that whatever hell you are experiencing, if you're going through something...just keep going, roll with the punches and keep your head above the water, it won't be soon, it won't come easy, but something will change and I like to believe the path to getting better will present itself.

Me? I'm on the brink, one foot in that water ready to drown, another on land, ready to take the road less traveled back to feeling okay. So if any of you, I don't care what color of the rainbow your skin is, who you love or how many amazing years the universe has kept you on this planet, I want you to know that I will be the ear to listen to you and the voice to help you through whatever hell or nightmare you think you can't escape.

I know I'll be even better at giving advice now, bc I finally admitted that I had a problem...I still have a problem, it lingers but I'm working on it. I know I won't be alone anymore. And if you feel like you are, you aren't anymore, you ALL have a friend in me, no matter how cheesy that sounds.

; continue, keep going

So to be totally bipolar and hit you with a change-up: without further ado, please enjoy this chapter. I love you all.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Alison's POV

You ever get that weird tingling feeling right before something bad is about to happen? Do you ever feel the moment right before your nightmare goes from bad to worse and you try to tell yourself 'okay, wake up, wake up now!' but your brain is like "no," so then it throws some popcorn in its nonexistent mouth and spits at you, "this is just starting to get good," so you're stuck in the nightmare until you're suddenly not?

I know that feeling all too well. I got the feeling the moment after I read the last text Charles sent me.

And I was right.

This nightmare just went from bad to worse.

x-x-x-x

No One's POV

Alison barely walked a few more feet before a small white hand towel was placed over her mouth with a strong hand and muffled 'shhh' was hushed into her ear. She threw what panic she had in fighting it off but soon she felt like she was falling asleep. The cloth was most likely doused in...

'What's that thing called?' She thought to no one in particular.

A million and one thoughts rushed through her mind as she tried to compartmentalize what was happening and what she needed to do.

But it all happened so fast, she didn't even know if she had time to press the button hidden in her jacket to let Caleb and the others know where she was.

She was pushed along clumsily and when she thought she would be lights out, she realized that she was in fact still awake and not blacked out, slung over someone's shoulder being taken someplace.

She was in a haze the whole time. Seeing but unaware of what, walking but not being able to feel the ground beneath her and thinking about what was happening, but not being able to make any logical sense of those thoughts.

After a while, Ali thought that maybe the person holding her up was a friend, so she looked over but only seen a black hoodie - of course - and blonde hair, "Hanna?" she tried to say, but all she could manage was a drunken like slur of similar sounds.

It was like her brain sent the words to her mouth, but her lips wouldn't open right and her tongue mixed up all the letters before she gurgled them out.

And it could've been a chuckle, it could've been a yes or no, but she just started to laugh hysterically, "don't worry Hannanana," she hiccupped, "we're comin' to save youuuu," she sang and after a deep burp, she gasped, "geez, what did you give me, it was strong."

Coherent thoughts of where she was slipped away and soon she just thought she was out getting drinks with the girls but as soon as a blurry lighted cabin came into her hazy field of view she tried to stop walking...or floating...she couldn't tell which was which at this point. In her head she thought she was fighting hard, but on the outside, she was flailing like a fish out of water, throwing her arms around so they flopped like boneless masses of muscle and skin.

"No," she gasped, "no no no, not again." She woke herself up long enough to alert her senses and really take in her surroundings. She tried to walk away but her legs felt like cement, growing cement that was taking deeper and deeper roots into the ground as every millisecond passed.

She was somehow uprooted by the woman holding her up, because she was lucid enough to know it was a woman, a woman who smelled like a hint of-

Like a hint of...lavender.

Shit, she thought. And once she passed the threshold into the cabin she pressed the last button on the small device she had concealed and hoped that Caleb was in. It was the last thing she was supposed to do: let Caleb into Charles' system. Then maybe he could see her and come faster, or hold off altogether.

x-x-x-x-x

About a mile away, Caleb received the first signal.

"Guys, we got the first one," Mona relaxed slightly, almost tripping over exposed gnarled roots.

"Okay good, we're only a mile out, so that's good, that means she's close, we should have her wait a few minutes to get closer, once she's in, we don't know what kind of equipment he might have set up, so the closer we get, the better our chances at getting past his firewalls," explained Caleb.

"What do you mean," Emily asked, gripping his arm, "you said this would work."

"And it will Em, but we have no idea what other shit Charles has up his sleeve-"

"So we sent Ali ahead of us, blind!? We just strapped her up with some of your toys and let her walk in there blind, when we don't even know what we are up against, are you kidding me, why did we send her alone, one of us should have been there, we should be closer...I should be with her!"

"Em," Toby coaxed, "relax, you can't panic now, Ali knows what she was doing when she came up with the idea to go alone. Charles had a chance to hurt her and if that's what he really wanted, he would've done it already. Alison is-"

"Oh, and that's supposed to make me feel better? He had a gun pointed at us both, I jumped in front of her, he was going to kill her! But oh, I shouldn't panic because you're an expert on Charles now, is that it?"

They all stopped walking for a minute and when Emily realized this, she shook her head and found a tree to lean on, "this is crazy," she whispered slowly, "this is absolutely crazy, I can't do this, we can't do this, we're in over our heads." Her voice gradually rose until she was standing up straight again.

"Can we really do this?" Not everyone was looking at her: Ezra's hand was gripped around the bark of a tree, Toby's hands were on his hips and his head was down - Emily thought he looked like a kicked dog - and Mona was standing awkwardly with her back to everyone, probably thinking about how to outsmart Charles and the only exception to not facing her was Caleb.

He was always there, since the first day that Ali called him and since they got to leave that damn place.

He was the unsung hero here, he held everyone together, no matter how messy they all were. And they've all been messy. And he never complained.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Emily snapped.

"Because I feel the same way."

"And what way is that? I never said anything about how I feel."

"You don't have to, none of us have to, I know you're scared, and so am I. So are all of us. But we're here, there's no going back, there's nothing to go back to Emily, but you can't start to doubt this now, I won't let you. We've been through too much shit to start thinking that we're incapable do you hear me?" It was like he was scolding a child, in a loving but still very stern way.

"Yeah," she answered very quietly, "I do, but Caleb-"

"But nothing Emily, this will work, it has to work."

"I still don't like it, I have a bad feeling-,"

"Hey," Mona cut in, "no one liked this Emily, no one likes it at all, I know you've been through a hell that we won't understand, but right now you're not the victim, and you're not the only one whose feelings about this whole damn thing matter. You want to make sure Ali gets back to you alright and that our friends and your parents come home, then you need to stop acting like the victim right now."

It came as a shock to everyone to hear Mona speak that way to Emily, "everyone is hurting Em, everyone is worried and scared and I'm sure we all have some sort of doubts brooding inside because of it, so don't act like this is any easier for us than it is for you, we all know what's on the line here."

Emily seemed to soak in the weight of those words and she stood thinking about what was happening, what had happened to her and what she wished would happen in the near future. They were all right, she couldn't possibly be the only one feeling the way that she was, and she couldn't - none of them could - afford to believe anything other than this was going to work.

"We left Wren in the hotel, don't you think we might need him? He knows more than any of us what Charles has been up to."

"Emily, we went over this, he's been left in the dark for months, bringing him would only be a liability, he might say anything he can to protect himself and CeCe, so we lock him up and when all of this is over, Toby's men will go to the hotel to pick him up and put him in jail, there's no need for him now. Everyone we need is right here."

"Okay," Emily sighed heavily, "let's do this."

Everyone's shoulders dropped in relief. They needed Emily to get through this. She was the one to resolve conflict between any of them and they needed her spirit to all make it through.

"Can we just move fast enough that my thoughts can't catch up?"

Toby smiled and started to jog ahead, turning his head to throw at her, "I thought you'd never ask."

x-x-x-x-x

Emily's POV

No sooner was it after I agreed to 'do this' did we receive the second signal from Alison.

We stopped our jogging and all caught our breath.

"Caleb," I asked, "what is it, are we close?"

There was a brief moment where I swore there was something on his face that told me things weren't okay.

"Oh it's nothing, nothing, it just seems like Ali got closer than we thought she would, and sooner too."

"Okay, well what does that mean then," I asked again, trying to keep the worry in my voice masked from detection. I don't know how well I was doing until Caleb decided not to address my worry.

"It just means she found Charles' hideout faster than we expected and that she waited until she was in to activate the last transmitter, instead of right outside."

"Okay, so why do you look like-,"

"That wasn't really part of the plan, Em. I thought she would press the last one when she was within 50 to 100 feet and then wait for us. She activated it when she was inside, which means-,"

"Which means," Mona interjected, cutting Caleb off and sending him a look, "that Charles could've detected the message sent to us and our element of surprise may be gone."

I shook my head, "Caleb what were you going to say, I seen the look Mona just gave you."

"Emily-,"

"Cut the crap!"

"It just might also mean that Ali only pressed the transmitter at the last second because-,"

"Because she had no choice." I finished for him.

He didn't say anything or nod, he didn't have to. The silence spoke volumes.

In a whirlwind of panic, fear, anger and a sinking feeling in my stomach, I grabbed the device in his hand, snatched it really, and took off in the direction we were going. At the pace we held earlier, I know there was no more than a quarter mile left.

I don't how fast I was running, but their shouts and yells of my name faded, trees were no longer trees, just brown blurs in my way, the ground stopped crunching beneath me until I felt like I was floating. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, the pounding in my heart so loud, I was deaf from everything. I checked the blinking light on the monitor, I was getting closer.

Flashes of green and brown and suddenly Ali's voice was there, "I swear I will never leave you Emily, I love you."

It hurt too much to think I could only see Alison in my dreams if this didn't go as planned. To see her there in my mind, tortured by not knowing if any of it was real or mere figments of my imagination.

I kept going, not sure if the others were even following me. More flashes of Ali shooting through my vision, "don't leave me Em, I'm sorry!" she shouted, "I love when you hold me like this" she whispered, "pancakes are ready" she called from somewhere in the distance, "you were supposed to pick up the movies" she complained.

And I had to stop because I was no longer standing up right. I was on the ground again, shaking in a heap of my own sweat and tears and weakened limbs.

There was nothing else I could do but scream. I threw my hands down to my side, clenching the dirt until the cold soil was saturated under my nails, my legs bent, feet firmly slammed into the earth beneath me, my lungs piercing a fire through my chest and my heart cramping with pain.

"AAAAAAHHHH," I screamed and cried, hitting the ground with my hands until I had flung dirt all over me.

I had to get up, I had to find her, save her, save them all. I couldn't lay here feeling sorry for myself.

My body heaved with sobs, trying to catch my breath again enough to think and enough to move.

I had more motivation to get up when I heard beeping emanating from the thing I'd snatched from Caleb. It beeped and when I rolled over and crawled to it, the screen was showing static for a moment and then split into four separate screens and I knew that Caleb and Mona's plan had worked, we were in Charles's security system. My eyes darted from each corner, rapidly scanning and hoping to see Alison somewhere inside, safe.

After a few seconds, a new set of live feeds came on and there she was, and there they were. All of them.

My heart stopped. I swear it did. She was dead. That's what my brain told me, it's what my eyes discerned. But how could I truly believe it? She was just with us. She couldn't be.

But there she was, slumped at the feet of my parents and friends. Their wrists were bound with rope, that same rope tied up to a low hanging pipe, their arms in the air, mouths stuffed with a gag. They were against a wall in a dimly lit room.

Although the scene was a horror show all together, the closer I looked, the more I noticed. My parents and everyone else, they seemed unharmed. In fact, they looked different somehow. Groomed even. And their clothes...somehow were off.

It looked as though they were life-sized...

Dolls.

The 4-way scene went through its rotations and by the time it went back to them, the others were hovering over me. They were seeing what I was seeing.

"Oh my god, is that-,"

"Is she..."

They flitted around the words.

I had to believe she was alive, if not, I would go in there and not know how much regard I would have for my life.

"I don't know yet, but if Charles wants to live, she better not be." So I stood, my face was hard, I'm tired of this.

"Caleb, get us in. Now. I need to have a word with this sick son of a bitch."

"Okay, just give Mona and I a second. It looks like he managed to automate the two main doors, and even if we override the system, I doubt he won't know when one is opened. He has 16 different video feeds, 4 of which are placed on a swivel outside."

"So how are you planning on getting us in?"

Mona proposed two options, "I pinpointed each of the video feeds from this monitor to a specific location in the cabin. They're being held in the furthest back corner. The cabin isn't that big but with Alison inside now, we have no idea what he knows. He could be expecting us to show up any moment now."

"Mona is right, and that is why," Caleb said, making sure no one stood up or walked any closer, "we are staying low in this tree line until...," and he trailed off.

"Until what?" Emily was getting confused.

"Okay, so other than the camera in the room with the others, I tapped into the wireless video system, recorded enough of what they were seeing and cut off the live feed and replaced it with what I recorded on a loop. It'll buy us enough time to sneak up to the cabin and get inside without being seen."

"Okay, but we have no idea who - or what - else is inside. Especially where Charles is, he could be on the other side of that door with a gun held at all of us."

"Emily relax, we didn't see him anywhere on the cameras, but he has high end equipment, and using the infrared capabilities, well we can see that everyone is in the same room right now. We counted. There's two extra bodies in there."

"Two?" Ezra questioned and I answered for him.

"It has to be CeCe."

"Okay, I'm in, the door will open when we get there, all I have to do is punch in his password, which is now," he pressed a few more keys, "my password. I have complete control now people."

"Are we ready?" Toby was standing, shoulders tense, gun drawn. It wasn't his police issued pistol, that much I could tell. What happened now, was off the books. It wasn't about rules or the law.

"Go."

I don't know who said it, but we moved immediately, like an elite team in the military, crouched low, eyes scanning, our bodies in a tight formation, silent but moving with purpose. The sun was just setting; it would be dark out within an hour.

We reached the door and like a shield, Toby and Ezra took the front. Toby held the gun up at the door, finger hovered over the trigger. Ezra had his drawn at the hip, pointed down.

Mona and Caleb followed suit, small walkie-talkie sized devices in their hand. And then here I was, behind them all, shaking with eagerness and nerves.

Ali wasn't dead. She is not dead. Ali is alive.

I told myself over and over until I heard the hiss of pressure leaving the locks on the door and then the distinct click of it being opened.

It was eerily quiet when we stepped inside, I had no idea what to expect, but what I seen was nothing out of the ordinary.

I think everyone else noticed this too. We all stood at full height and just looked around. It didn't look like a torture chamber inside of a creepy cabin. It looked-

"What the hell is this?" Toby walked ahead down the hall we were in and grabbed a framed picture from the table. He held it up for us to see and it was picture of Toby and Spencer. At their house. I don't know how I knew that, but I did. And somehow I remembered that day. It was the day Toby surprised Spencer. He had bought property out on private land and had told her it was a job he was hired to oversee. She had never seen it until that day.

He texted us all? Aria picked me up. We went inside, guilty that we got to see it before her and then

we waited for her to show up.

We caught her reaction on video, taking the picture of the two of them on their porch and Toby's hand-made rocker, Spencer smiling widely on his lap.

I was drawn back to the present when everyone else stood behind Toby, similar reactions leaving them.

Caleb became angry when he held a picture of him and Hanna camping in their backyard on their anniversary.

Ezra found a picture of Aria leaning over their table at the library to give him a kiss.

There was a photo of Mona and Mike - that was Aria's younger brother - walking together at the mall.

Private photos of all of us. Intimate and voyeuristic in nature, it was disgusting.

A rush of emotions hit me when I walked behind Mona and looked for myself, in the center of the table in a slightly bigger frame was a picture of Alison. It was folded over on one side and she was looking in that direction.

I would never be able to explain, but the feeling in my stomach made me sure that I was on that folded side. I didn't know where the picture was from, it seemed to pull at the back of my head, taunting me to come up with its origin.

"What are these? How the hell did he get these?"

"He's been watching us all this time, when we thought it was over, he was still there."

"Why does he have these?"

It seemed like being in this situation - the stress, the emotions - was causing the neurons in my head to fire rapidly. Filling in the blanks where I couldn't. Then I remembered Alison telling me something before she left earlier, "I think he justifies what he did with what happened to him. He was taken away from us, and who knows who he would've been if he just grew up with his family."

I hadn't told her anything after, she just told me that this was something she had to do. But I recalled what she said, family.

Charles was keeping pictures of us, everyone but me because he thinks -

"He was collecting us, all of you," I corrected, "for his family."

So this was his justification? He missed his family and tried to make one out of everyone in Ali's life. This was twisted and there was no way in hell I would agree with his sick form of logic. I remember seeing a hint of compassion in Alison's eyes when she brought him up, but this didn't deserve any of that.

Something bubbled up inside of me and I had to brace myself up against the wall to stop the room from spinning. It felt like I was in a vacuum, the walls around me were being pulled, stretched, and warped in a way my mind couldn't make sense up and then suddenly I was somewhere else.

I tried to take a breath and when I opened my eyes, I was in a room. A hospital room. I had to struggle to focus, everything was so fuzzy. I squinted through the fog and realized that there was a woman

laying the hospital bed. She was blonde.

I tried to step closer to her through the haze but I couldn't move, I was stuck. I looked harder and "Hanna?"

I turned my head to watch as Aria, Spencer, and…it was me, walk into the room and crowd behind her. Memories started to hit and I was filled with more information than I wanted. This was right after Hanna was almost ran over with a car.

Another feeling of being sucked through a thin vacuum tube and I was again in a new room. This one was dark, it looked like a hospital room, but with no medical equipment. The bed was low, single mattress, one white pillow. It reminded me of something else. Somehow of my dad.

Again, I was frozen in place, forced to look from the outside in. It was like I was up on my toes, peering through a frosted glass window into a house of my own memories. I wish I could've just walked in through the front door and claimed them all, the back and forth killing me.

The splashes of memories teasing me and making me angry. I was losing my grip on this alternate state of mind, succumbing to the way the present was forcing its way into my conscious.

My name was being whispered harshly in my ear, strong fingers wrapped around my arms.

My head was pounding and I wanted more than anything for the pain to stop.

"Emily!" I couldn't even register who was quietly urging me to wake up.

"Em," another shake and I slowly started to feel the ground beneath me again. I was slumped into someone's chest, braced half way up against the wall.

"Emily, wake up, please, we have to move."

Another intense rush of throbbing and I felt like I would rather die than go on and open my eyes.

"Emily, remember when I said we'd go to Paris?" That voice.

I knew that voice. Alison.

"If we play things right, we can go this year. What to do you think?"

Not only was I not even able to respond, but I also couldn't see where the image was from. I didn't even know if it was real, I had to believe it was though. I wanted to, more than anything, claim my memories back, my identity, my life back.

"Em, I need you. Wake up. Wake up Em. Wake up!"

I cried out against my will when I came back to my body. My legs were weak, faced streaked with tears. Those hands, Caleb's. Everyone else looks of worry on their faces.

"I don't know if it's such a good idea to bring her any farther than this," Mona shared her opinion of me as if I couldn't hear her.

"Emily," Caleb stood me up and looked me straight in the eyes, "what's going on?"

I shook my head, ashamed that I wished I had stayed there. Wishing somehow that this was the dream, rather the nightmare, and my life was somewhere hidden in the recesses of my brain, filled

with only the happy memories from my life with the people I loved.

But I could move my feet here. People could see me here. I could be hurt again here.

"I can't tell what's real anymore Caleb. I want to go back there." There was no use in hiding it anymore, a violent sob seeming to crack open my chest. "I don't know if I can do this."

"Hey, yes you can, you can beat this, you are stronger than this Em. You're in control."

"Guys," Mona interrupted again, "I hate to break it to you, but Charles has back-ups beyond his back-ups, his antivirus software is eating away at ours, we have a few minutes before all hell breaks loose and he'll know we're here."

I swallowed hard, and looked between Mona and Caleb, Toby and Ezra. Finding our family was bigger than solving my issues, I don't know why I kept losing sight of that.

"I'm okay," I knew it was a lie but I forced it through gritted teeth, "I'm fine."

"I don't want to make this a habit," apologized Mona, "but we have a minute until Charles' alarms set off."

With one final nod, Caleb let go of me and rushed to Mona's side. "Reverse the code in the security cameras and reroute imaging to my tablet showing the infrared view for all rooms. Then I want you to triangulate the signal and show me where it's coming from."

"Why? There aren't many doors inside this cabin Caleb."

"I know that but if I can do this, and deactivate the air lock pressure systems he has in each of the doors, I can open the door to the room he's in and we can sneak in unseen."

"Okay," Ezra leaned over their shoulders, "and how is that going to work?"

"Won't he hear and see us coming?"

Caleb smiled and checked his watch, "not if Mona does as I say. I can shut of the lights and disarm the door the same way I did the first one and using infrared imaging from the cameras he has inside that room, we can walk into it pitch black and be the only ones able to see. We already know that the girls and Em's parents are bound and up against a wall, the other two red blips are Charles and CeCe."

"What are we going to do then?"

"Anything necessary," Toby said, fingers flexing over the handle of the gun. I swallowed hard, I knew that this was what had to be done. It was us or them. I had been shot by Charles', I couldn't say it bothered me if he received the same – or worse – in return.

"Whatever it is, I say we do it now, we're running out of time."

I took a deep breath, the lights would be off but what would happen when they came back on after Charles's antivirus ate its way through the computer tech stuff Caleb and Mona were talking about?

I didn't have time to think because everyone started to move in a V-formation. Toby yielding his gun at the apex, Caleb and Mona and his sides and Ezra was with me, somewhat keeping me protectively just behind is left shoulder.

"Caleb, 45 seconds."

"Give me a sec, it's around the corner."

"I'm giving you 45 seconds."

"Mona," he growled and directed Toby to lead us further into the cabin.

"30 seconds."

"Almost done."

My heart was racing; I could feel the sweat pooling at the back of my neck but I was freezing. Knots were twisting inside my stomach and I tried to focus on walking in a straight line.

"Fifteen."

I could hear him taping furiously against the screen, the muscles in his shoulder taut and straining in front of me.

I don't remember holding my breath, but I could feel my lungs burning, forcibly releasing a breath I was holding in so tightly.

"Caleb," Mona's voice warned.

"Shutup, give me a second. Toby are you ready?"

We stopped in front of a door and Caleb stopped typing.

"5 seconds Caleb."

"It'll open right now."

"Three. Two."

The hissing from the door in front of me coincided with the sudden darkness, until we were faced with the pitch black hole in the wall, the only light was dim and red tinted, coming from Caleb's tablet.

Ezra held my arm just below my elbow, keeping me shielding from whatever would be waiting for us on the other side. I tried to make it stop but my eyelids fluttered and remembered that Ezra was once my teacher. He helped me pass, he helped me with what was it? An exam? A resume? An application? I was falling into that void and I had to shove it aside.

"Emily, wake up, I need you." She willed me to be stronger.

We crossed the threshold and in the dim light I could hear Caleb guiding Toby, something was wrong. There should've been a gunshot already, something should've happened by now, anything.

And then it did. The lights came on and an evil, blood curdling laugh sounded from every corner of the room.

The very empty room.

"Well hello everyone, welcome home, to the new dollhouse. We've been expecting you."

The metal door behind us creaked, slammed shut and the air locks engaged.

x-x-x-x-x

AN: comments, thoughts? I know I've been M.I.A. for a while now, I'm sorry, but I really miss hearing from you all.

I know this update is shorter than usual, but that's because this "chapter" is divided into two parts. I hope to update pt.2 soon, no dates on that yet. Anyways, be nice to each other and also Happy Halloween! :)

(also please let me know if there were formatting issues while reading this from mobile bc i had to upload this differently than my normal method)

-Lina