**Chapter 4**

***Aria's POV***

He came before the generator shut off. Since I wasn't really asleep this time I had to play sleep while he took my clothes off of me. I wanted to fight back, knowing that tonight we were escaping but that if I did he might suffocate me again and I wouldn't be able to run away with the girls when the generator shut off. Instead I lay there docilely while he fucked me. Tears ran down my cheek like they always did and he gently brushed them away. But tonight I had hope that I would see my family again. He stayed only a few minutes after finishing, whispering "My perfect little doll, all mine." Over and over again. He got up and left my clothing on the floor, probably for when Ali arrived that I would have something to wear and she wouldn't know what he had been doing to me.

I waited for a few minutes after he left to put my clothing back on before lying back down in bed. My body was so tired, it had been two days since he had fed me. I listened for the sound of the generator to shut down and when it did I was up and out of my room as fast as I could, finding the others in the hallway.

Spencer began listing off a bunch of objects as we moved down the hall saying that they were an anagram for Charles DiLaurentis.

"Some of those toys were Ali's and some were his."

"Like they grew up together." I said, voicing my realization from earlier that Charles might be Ali and Jason's brother.

"And if I'm right, then everything that is important to Charles is in this vault. And if we can get in there we can bargain our way out." Spencer reasoned.

It sounded like a plan, but there was still the problem that we couldn't reach the vault in time before the generator's started up again. We would be caught out of bed and the punishment would start again. I winced as I shifted where I was standing, I was still sore from the nightly visits. The idea that we might be punished again and that they would be worse filled me with a sense of dread. Emily voiced my concern that we couldn't make it to the vault in time.

"Yeah, but if I'm right this is as far as we need to go." She opened the door behind her into Ali's room. "I counted the steps from the vault to the ballroom."

"Of course you did." I commented, amazed that Spencer was able to keep track of stuff like that even when we were running for our lives.

"It's 84 and that's just one hallway over. Coming back this way it's 81 steps. I think the vault is on the other side of this wall."

"Yeah, but how does that help us. We can't just bust through there." Emily pointed out the obvious problem, motioning to the wall.

"Charles disappeared like Houdini when Mona came into the room, so there's got to be like a secret door or passageway or something." Spencer said, knocking at the wall behind the bed.

"Wait do you guys hear that?" Hanna questioned. "I think the generator's coming back on."

My eyes widened in panic. I couldn't take any more punishments. We had to escape tonight. Because if we didn't, I wasn't so sure that Charles wouldn't kill me the next night. I remembered the night that he had choked me to unconsciousness and it terrified me. Suddenly the sirens turned back on and the lights flashed. I covered my ears before looking at the others.

"He knows we're out."

"Just help me move it." Spencer said desperately, covering her ears as well.

We raced to the bed, attempting to shift it out of the way so that we could escape. But even with all four of us pushing we couldn't budge the door. My adrenaline had spiked but it wasn't enough to make up for the weeks of starvation and I was sure the others were suffering from the same malnutrition that I was. Emily raced over to the other wall, seeing something and trying to move the cabinet that was against the wall.

"There's something behind it. Come on, it could be like a passageway or something."

We raced over and moved the cabinet to the side, finding a grate with light shining through into the room. She quickly pulled the grate off and I looked towards the door, expecting to see Charles there at any moment. The siren stopped as soon as she pulled it away. She and Spencer began crawling through the tunnel and I was hot on their heels wanting to find someplace safe where he couldn't get me.

When we got out to the other side we saw all the Ali memorabilia that A treasured. It seemed so disconnected from the monster that had come for me every night. "A does have a soul." Emily commented.

We looked around at the items in the vault when Spencer turned on an old home movie where there were two young boys with Mrs. DiLaurentis and a baby. We watched it before Spencer looked at the camera and declared "Game on, Charles." Then she moved to the projector holding the reel in place so that the heat from the light burnt the picture and lit the film on fire. She grabbed it off of the projector holding it out in front of her so that Charles could see his treasure burning.

"We want Mona back." She declared before looking back at us.

"Let's torch this place." I announced, nodding at Spencer.

A sick joy filled me as we began to light his treasures on fire, I wanted to take everything away from him. He had already taken so much from me that I wanted him to suffer for it. We waited a moment to see if he would come to the vault but when he delayed we went wild burning everything of any value to him. The fire began to spread and a new fear spread through me.

"Guys, what if A's not watching this. What if we're the only ones here."

The fire spread to the carpet filling the room with the bright light. Realizing that if the fire spread completely it would kill us, we grabbed a curtain to try and quell the fire now raging in the vault. The curtain pulled free and there he was. He was behind a plate of glass and wearing a mask but I would recognize that mask anywhere. My body began to shake when I saw him standing there, old injuries flaring up and reminding me that I still hadn't healed. I backed away from the glass, unable to look at him the fear was too great. We started grabbing everything and throwing it into the fire then looked back to find that he was gone.

Sprinklers and bells started up, the water spraying down around us in an attempt to put out the fire. We left the vault running through the hallway, trying to find Mona. We ran through until we found a door that I had never been through before. Walking in was shocking, there was a deep hole in the ground like a dried up well. Shouting back from inside was Mona. We grabbed a rope and lowered it down so that she could climb out before the fire spread to us. There was a ladder which lead upwards where there was shouting. I swear I heard Ezra calling my name. Relief filled me as we climbed upwards, the door at the top flying open and there were Ezra, Caleb and Ali.

I threw myself at Ezra, pulling him tightly to me and never wanting to let go. I shook in his arms, feeling my strength begin to fade. He pulled me tighter to him when my legs gave out, holding me up. I didn't care that he was crushing my bruises or that pain was burning through my throat from smoke inhalation. This was safety. This was what I needed.

"I thought I'd lost you." Ezra breathed out, pulling back slightly to look at me,

There was noise all around and lights, but I didn't have the energy to focus on any of that. They said something about another girl, but I collapsed before they brought her up. Ezra stayed with me until the ambulance but they didn't let him ride with me. I was almost glad, I needed a chance to break down without him trying to find out what had happened. I wasn't sure if I could tell anyone all of what happened. The EMT's put an IV in my arm, though they had to stick me several times I was so dehydrated. I cried the whole way to the hospital.

**End Chapter**