(WARNING! Aria continues to process the reality of what Elijah has done to her. And has a flashback to it. Again, if you're triggered by rape, proceed with caution.)
Ezra
I heard the hatch open and cowered the way I always did. It was a conditioned response at this point. I'd learned not to expect good things when someone came down here. Because only one person ever came down here. Elijah. Sometimes he would give me a Dixie cup full of water or old crusty bread or something. Literally just enough food and water to keep me from dying of hunger and thirst. Besides that, he was just here to torture and taunt me. Physically and mentally.
But then there had been last night. God, had Aria been a sight for sore eyes. Part of me wished that she hadn't found me, that she still thought Elijah was me. Then she wouldn't know what he'd done to her. But the other part was glad that she knew I was down here. Because it meant that, somehow, there was an end to this in sight. I knew she wouldn't stop trying to figure out a way to help me.
She'd actually been surprisingly composed when she'd figured out the reality of what had happened to her. There had been some tears, of course, but it hadn't lasted long. I expected the mental breakdown would probably come later, though. When she'd had a chance to really process it. I hoped I was out of here by then. I had a feeling she wouldn't tell her friends what she was going through and she would need someone to be there for her while she worked through it. Someone who knew.
This time, though, instead of someone coming down here, something just landed on the floor. Whatever it was, it was wrapped in one of Aria's scarves. So it had come from her. I crawled over and grabbed it. My ankle injury from a couple of weeks ago still hurt. A lot. It was probably at least fractured if not completely broken. I literally couldn't put any pressure on it at all. I went back to the corner I'd been cowering in before unwrapping the scarf.
God, this had been brave. And foolish. If he'd caught her, the jig would have been up. He would have known. But I was sure she knew that and just didn't care. She'd told me that she would figure out some way to help me, and she had done just that. She'd somehow managed to smuggle me some food and water and Gatorade (which at this point was even better than water since it had the added benefit of sugar and electrolytes). And medicated lotion and lip balm. But at the bottom of this life-saving bundle of supplies was something even more important. Hope. In the form of three little sentences scribbled on a piece of scratch paper.
Wes is coming for you when Elijah and I leave. Stay strong. I love you.
Aria
So she'd had another reason to rush out the door to the store earlier besides just trying to get away from Elijah. She'd called my brother. How did she even have his number? Oh, right. He'd stayed at my apartment when I'd gone to Delaware to meet Malcolm. Thank God for that. Maybe everything really did happen for a reason.
I opened the water and took a small sip. I wanted to just chug the whole thing right now, but I knew I had to make the water and Gatorade last at least until tomorrow night. There would be no more coming. Getting this to me had been risky enough. I was almost mad at Aria for even trying. Almost. I couldn't actually be mad. This little bundle of supplies might very well have saved my life. Plus, I knew that she was barely keeping it together and that doing something to help me would ease her mind a little. She would at least know that I had a shot at making it through the next couple of days now. Last night, the way she'd looked at me before she went back up the stairs…it had been the look of someone who didn't know if they would ever see the person they loved again. It had broken my heart.
As quietly as I could, I opened the box of crackers. I could swear Elijah had a dog's hearing. And if he heard me with this stuff down here, well, it was not going to end well for Aria. Never mind for me. Then I took the lid off the peanut butter and ate a few crackers with peanut butter. Again, I had to make this last. And this food was not exactly light on one's stomach. If I ate too much at once, I'd make myself sick.
As the night progressed, things were surprisingly quiet upstairs. Aria had managed to keep Elijah from taking advantage of her again somehow. Thank God. I didn't have the strength to try to break out of here again to help her if he forced her. Hopefully if he did try anything again this weekend, whatever martial arts lessons she'd gotten from Jake might actually prove useful, because I couldn't even stand up on my own anymore. I'd used what little bit of strength I had left last night.
Speaking of useful…she'd given me Carmex and medicated lotion. My chapped and bleeding lips and cracking hands and feet had been killing me. I opened the Carmex and put some on my lips. Son of a bitch. That stung. But the lotion felt amazing. God, I loved her. More than anything. She'd noticed everything. And she'd tried to help even with the small things. To make this at least a little bit easier for me, if she could. What had I ever done to deserve her?
I'd thought time had been at a standstill during the couple of weeks I'd been down here, but I learned the next day that I hadn't even known what time being at a standstill was, let alone what it felt like. Every minute felt like an eternity. Because I knew that once Aria and Elijah left, as soon as she was able, Aria was going to signal Wesley to come for me. And I would get the hell out of here.
Aria
The car ride home on Sunday night was absolutely brutal. I hadn't even realized that an hour and a half could feel so long. I was completely exhausted because I had slept maybe three hours the whole weekend. I was too scared to close my eyes. Too scared Elijah would rape me in my sleep, since I'd just barely managed to keep him at bay while I was awake. Clearly, he'd wanted to torture Ezra by going at it with me all weekend and I could tell he was upset that I hadn't obliged. I'd told him I'd started my period. He appeared to buy it.
But at the same time, I couldn't have been more wide awake. I was counting down the seconds until Elijah drove away from my house so I could call Wesley. I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight until I knew that Ezra was out of that damn cellar.
Between my fear and exhaustion and anxiety, I was dead silent for most of the car ride home.
"What are you thinking?" Elijah asked when we were about twenty minutes outside of Rosewood.
"You don't want to know," I said, trying to buy myself some time to come up with a lie.
"Try me."
"I'm thinking that it's Sunday night and I still have a lot of homework to do," I said. Man, that was lame. And a lie. I'd done all of my homework before we'd left for the weekend.
"Creative writing homework?" he asked.
Okay, writing. This I could talk about. I could just pull something out of thin air and talk about it.
"Okay, you're gonna like this one when I'm done," I started. "It started out as one thing and then it just turned into something completely different."
Kind of like this weekend had. It had started out as some alone time for me to try to figure out whether I had made the right decision and it had turned into me putting on the performance of my life trying to protect myself and the man I loved, who I had discovered trapped in a cellar. Oh, and figuring out that I had been raped by his identical twin brother. Jesus Christ. I couldn't think about this right now. I couldn't start crying right now, and I knew I would if I let myself think about the reality of what had happened to me, what was still happening to me.
"How'd that happen?" Elijah asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"I had this hero," I started, "but heroes aren't what they used to be anymore, so I got fascinated with a villain." Not bad.
"Does your villain lose in the end?"
God, I hoped so. But I didn't know. Even though Wesley was getting Ezra out of that place, I still had no idea how we were actually going to deal with the man sitting next to me right now, pretending to be the man I loved.
"I'm not sure," I told him. "Sometimes the villains win."
"Sometimes," he agreed.
And the rest of the car ride home was pretty much silent again. I hoped that hadn't tipped him off. I hoped he just chalked it up to me being tired. When he finally pulled up to my house, it was almost ten. I quickly kissed him goodbye and went upstairs without a word. As soon as I was safely in my room and looked out the window to make sure Elijah was gone, I pulled out my phone.
"Hello?" Wesley answered almost immediately.
"Sorry it took so long," I told him. "We're back in Rosewood. I couldn't even pull out my phone to text you without him getting suspicious before."
"I understand," he told me. "I'm on my way to the cabin now. I'll probably lose you in a minute."
"Just get him out of there, Wes."
"I will, Aria," he said. "I promise. He'll be okay. You both will."
"Call me when you've got him," I said. It wasn't a request.
"I will. Look, I'm going to get us a hotel outside of Rosewood. Come meet us there tomorrow after school. You can't miss Elijah's class, unfortunately, but we do need to figure out what to do about him."
"Okay, sounds good," I said. "Now, just concentrate on driving. You're no good to anyone if you get yourself killed in a car accident because you're talking to me on your cell phone while you're driving."
Wesley laughed. "Yes, ma'am. I'll call you as soon as I can after I get him."
"Thanks, Wes," I said. "I'll talk to you soon."
I hung up and changed into my pajamas and then just sat completely still on my bed, waiting for the news that would either thrill or devastate me. Within an hour, either I would hear Ezra's voice and know he was safely out of there or I would hear he was dead.
Ezra
It had been two hours at least since Elijah and Aria had left. I was starting to worry that something had gone wrong with Aria and Wesley's plans. Or worse, that Elijah had caught on to Aria's game and hurt her before she'd had a chance to call Wesley.
But then I heard the cabin door open.
"Ezra!" Wesley called.
"Wes!" I yelled as loud as I could. But it wasn't loud enough. I was too dehydrated.
I grabbed the half-full jar of peanut butter and threw it at the ceiling, hoping to make some noise. When it fell, I threw it again and again until finally I heard the rug getting pulled back and the hatch opening.
"Ezra?" he called. "Are you down here?"
"Yeah, I'm here," I called back.
Not thirty seconds later, my brother appeared at the bottom of the stairs. The second he saw me, he ran up and knelt in front of me, just the way Aria had when she'd seen me a couple of nights ago.
"Jesus Christ," he said. "Ezra. She wasn't kidding. You look like shit."
I chuckled weakly. "Thanks. It's good to see you too, Wes."
He laughed a little. "Well, at least your sense of humor is still intact. Come on, man. Let's get you out of here. Can you stand?"
"I don't know. I hurt my ankle pretty bad trying to get out the first time he brought Aria here. I fell backwards down the stairs."
"I don't even know what to say. I'm so sorry, Ezra. For you and her."
"Yeah, I think we're both going to have some processing to do when this is over," I agreed.
I grabbed my now-empty water bottle. I needed a refill before we left.
"Leave it," he said. "I've got a gallon of water in the car for you. And some food. Now, let me help you up. Which is your good leg?"
"The right one," I told him.
He went over to my left side and squatted down, wrapping my arm around his shoulders and grabbing me by my waist.
"Okay, just lean on me and let me do all the work."
I obeyed, and soon I was on my feet. Barely. I had no idea how I was going to make it up the stairs.
"Come on," Wesley encouraged. "I've got you. Let's get out of here."
It took about ten minutes, but we made it up the stairs and out of the cellar. I was almost home free.
"Let me rest for a minute," I told him.
"Okay," he agreed, and helped me sit on the bed.
It was all I could do not to just lie down and fall asleep. This was the first soft thing I'd sat on for over two weeks. It felt like sitting on a cloud. I would never, ever take having a bed for granted again.
"Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best idea," I said after a minute or two. "I don't know if I'll ever get up again now."
He chuckled. "How about I get you out of here and to a bed you can actually sleep on?"
"Deal," I said. "Come on, help me up."
I remembered to set the security system. This was, after all, my cabin. I didn't want anyone breaking in until I could stand coming back here.
Then we got in the car and I had to remember to take it slow and not just scarf down the food and guzzle the gallon of water Wesley had waiting for me. I'd make myself sick doing that. After about twenty minutes, Wesley pulled out his cell phone and handed it to me.
"There's someone who's waiting to hear from you," he told me. "Why don't you give her a call?"
"Thanks," I said, pulling up his recent contacts.
"You know, that's one brave girl you've got there. Not many people would have done what she did. What she's still doing. I'd say she's a keeper."
I smiled as I hit dial. "She is."
"Wes," Aria answered on the first ring. "Please tell me he's okay."
"I'm okay, Aria," I said.
"Ezra," she sighed. "Oh, thank God. You're alive."
"Yeah, I'm alive," I told her. "Tired and in pain and trying not to make myself sick with the food and water Wes brought for me, but I'm alive."
"Thank God," she repeated, her voice catching.
I wished I could see her tonight, but I knew it was too dangerous.
"Hey," I said softly. "Thank you. You're the bravest person I know."
"Don't thank me," she sniffled. "Your brother did the heavy lifting."
"He wouldn't have even known to come for me if you hadn't called him," I reminded her. "That was all you. And so was the life-saving food and water that arrived wrapped in a familiar-looking scarf yesterday afternoon."
She chuckled. "I wish I could have done more. God, I wish I could see you right now."
"I know. Me too. Soon," I promised.
"Soon. Hey, can you put me on speaker?"
"Yeah, just a second," I said, smiling as I pressed the button for speakerphone. "Okay, you're on speaker."
"Wes?" she asked.
"Hey, Aria," he said, grinning.
"Thank you again. For everything."
"You are more than welcome," he told her. "I'll text you and tell you where we end up tonight. We'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay. You guys be safe."
"You too," I told her. "I love you."
"I love you too," she said. "Bye."
And then she hung up, and I wanted to cry. All I wanted in this world right now was to see her, and I had to wait until tomorrow.
A few minutes later, Wesley pulled into a 24-hour Walmart parking lot.
"Keep the car locked," he said. "I've got to get you a couple of things. Like, for instance, a change of clothes and some decent soap and shampoo so you can take a shower."
I chuckled. "Yeah, I can imagine I don't smell so great right now."
"You said it, not me," he teased. "I'm going to have to get some car freshener too."
"Gee, thanks," I shot back.
Wesley chuckled.
"Hey, seriously, thank you," I said. "For dropping everything to come help me and Aria."
"What's family for?" he replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'll be back soon. I know it's hard, but try not to fall asleep yet, okay?"
"I'll try," I told him, but I knew it was going to be difficult. I was so tired.
I knew why though. I was still out in the open and neither of us would really feel safe until we were locked in a hotel room somewhere. If I fell asleep, I was even more vulnerable.
Tired as I was, though, I wasn't sure how well I would really sleep tonight. I wasn't sure how I would ever sleep well again. I wasn't deluding myself. What I had been through was a traumatic experience to say the least. I'd been physically hurt, practically starved to death, deprived of any source of natural light, and forced to listen to the girl I loved being taken advantage of by my morally depraved twin brother. It would take me a lot of time, and probably therapy, to come to terms with this and move on from it.
Wesley came back about half an hour later with an entire shopping cart full of stuff. I didn't even look to see what all it was; I was too tired to care. Right now, I just wanted a shower and a bed. And the one thing I couldn't have tonight. What I really wanted right now, more than anything, was Aria. But I would have to wait until tomorrow. After she got out of school, because she couldn't skip school without raising way too many red flags.
Aria
Exhausted as I was, I couldn't sleep. I was too wound up. And too afraid of what I would see if I closed my eyes. I'd dealt with horrific things before, but nothing compared to this. This hadn't just been hurting me physically.
As a matter of fact, part of what was messing me up so much was that Elijah hadn't actually hurt me physically. He'd just taken advantage of my feelings for his brother and used that knowledge to get me to go to bed with him willingly. It was rape. I knew that. But everyone always said rape wasn't the victim's fault. And I felt like this was my fault. If I had put the pieces together sooner, realized that there was something very wrong, it wouldn't have happened. And maybe I could have found Ezra sooner.
Ezra. That was the other reason I couldn't sleep. I'd heard his voice and I knew he was out of there. But until I actually laid eyes on him and saw for myself that he was okay, I wouldn't really be satisfied. I wanted so badly to skip school tomorrow, but I knew Wesley was right. I had to go. I had to act like nothing had changed, even though everything had changed.
The next day at school, I was pretty much a zombie. Completely useless. Literally, I could barely keep my eyes open. But at the same time I was wide awake, because I was counting down the seconds until I got to head to the hotel Wesley and Ezra were holed up in. I'd brought a change of clothes and something to sleep in with me, just in case. I didn't know how long this was going to take. And frankly, I knew I wouldn't want to leave.
"Aria, what is with you today?" Spencer asked at lunch.
"Sorry," I said. "Just didn't get a lot of sleep this weekend."
"And that's why you keep looking at the clock every five minutes?"
Damn it. My friends knew me too well. I should have known they'd be able to tell something was up. I wanted to tell them everything, and I would tell them, when it was safe. Until we dealt with Elijah, the less people that knew, the better.
"Yeah, I just really want to go home and crash," I told them.
"What were you doing this weekend in Syracuse?" Hanna asked. "Actually, I take that back. I'm not sure I want to know."
"Hanna!" I scolded. "I have a boyfriend."
I was purposely vague on the name of said boyfriend. I hadn't told them I'd broken up with Jake. I would, but after everything was over. Because it was all tied together.
"Aria, if you need to leave, we can cover for you for the rest of the day," Emily said.
God, that was tempting. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't do anything differently. Even the slightest change in my behavior might tip Elijah off. And that was a risk I couldn't take.
"Thanks, Em, but I'll be fine," I said. "I only have 3 more classes anyway. And one of them's Ezra's class."
"And the truth comes out," Spencer teased. "Now we know the real reason you want to stay."
"Yeah, you caught me," I said, trying to sound guilty.
My friends all giggled, blissfully ignorant. They had no idea.
Elijah's class was torture. And the lesson he started was disturbing as hell. Hamlet. This talk of murdering brothers did not sit well with me. At all. I forced myself to pay attention, and finally, the bell rang. I was free.
"Aria, can I see you for a second?" Elijah asked as I was walking out.
Crap.
"Yeah, sure," I said, forcing a smile.
Elijah waited until everyone was gone and shut the door.
"I just wanted to make sure you're okay," he said. "You were so quiet on the way home last night. I'm so sorry if this weekend was too much pressure for you."
"No, it wasn't," I told him. "I was just tired. And I was up late last night finishing my homework, which I blame you for."
He chuckled. "Yeah, sorry. I'm the one who told you to make sure you're getting enough sleep and then I prevented you from doing your homework for the whole weekend."
I forced a chuckle too. "Well, I'm not going to make the same mistake tonight. I'm going to go get my work done and go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight."
"Okay," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," I said, and had to stop myself from sprinting out the door.
I got in my car and pulled up the text message from Wesley that contained the address of the hotel they were at, then plugged that into my GPS app. I may or may not have broken a couple of traffic laws getting there. But twenty minutes later, I was parked in the back of the parking lot and walking up to their room. I knocked, and Wesley answered almost immediately.
"Hey, there she is," he said with a smile.
I chuckled and gave him a hug. "Hey, Wes."
"Come on in," he said as he shut the door. "I know I'm not the one you really want to see."
"Sorry."
"It's all good. I've resigned myself to being chopped liver tonight."
We both laughed, and I heard a third laugh too. I looked over and Ezra was lying on one of the two beds in the room looking exhausted and still way too thin, but with a huge grin on his face. I walked up to the bed and hesitated for all of half a second before hugging him as tight as I could. I was a little afraid I was hurting him, but he didn't seem to mind. He held me tight and kissed my head, letting me be the first to let go.
"Thank God you're okay," I said when I finally pulled back to look at him. "Don't scare me like that again."
He smiled and touched my face. "I didn't want to scare you. But it's not like I really had a choice in the matter."
I just froze. I couldn't believe I'd said that.
"Hey, it's okay," he said. "We're both here now. And we're going to get through this together."
I smiled, and he scooted over in the bed to make room for me. I immediately sat down, and he pulled me as close as humanly possible. I giggled.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you missed me," I teased.
"And you'd be right," he said.
That was it. I needed a kiss. Now. I sat back up and pulled him in. It started out soft and sweet, but quickly turned into something I was sure his brother was getting uncomfortable watching. Unwillingly, I broke it and just leaned back against him. He squeezed me and kissed the top of my head.
"Jeez, you two, get a room," Wesley teased.
Ezra and I chuckled.
"Well, seeing as I'm the one who can't walk, if someone needs to get another room, it would be you," Ezra shot back.
"Can't walk?" I asked, giving Ezra a pointed look.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure his ankle is at least fractured if not completely broken, but this knucklehead refuses to go to a hospital," Wesley said.
"Ezra!" I scolded.
"I'll go once we deal with Elijah," he said. "Remember him? The guy who locked me in a cellar for over two weeks and manipulated his way into your life posing as me?"
"Not just my life," I said. "All of your students' lives too. My friends' lives. He tried to get into Spencer's head by giving her a bad grade and he's got Emily co-directing the spring play with him."
"I'm pretty sure you got it the worst, though," Ezra said, squeezing me tight and kissing my head again.
"Okay, let's not go there right now," I said. This was still happening, and I couldn't start processing that right now. "How are we going to stop him? Especially when Ezra can't walk."
"I'll get myself up to my apartment if I have to crawl," Ezra said. "It's going to have to happen there."
"No one is crawling anywhere," Wesley said. "I'll make you a splint or something so I can help you hobble up the stairs."
"And once you're there?" I asked. "What then? You ask him nicely to pretty please let you have your life back? Because, call me crazy, but I don't see that going so well for any of us."
"You are not going to be anywhere near there when this happens," Ezra tried.
"Nice try, babe," I scoffed. "You're going to need me to get you in. You don't have a key anymore."
"Damn it," he sighed. "You're right."
"Aria has a point, though," Wesley said. "What exactly are we going to do when we get there? He's not going to take it well when he finds out that the jig is up."
"And given what little I've gathered, making Elijah angry is like kicking a beehive," I added. "Ezra? You're the one whose life he's stolen. What do you want to do?"
"What I want to do and what we should do are two very different things," he sighed.
I was right there with him. I wanted to castrate this pathetic excuse for a human being and then feed him the part of himself that I'd just cut off as an appetizer before going Hannibal Lecter on him and feeding him his sick and twisted brain as a main course, but that unfortunately would land me in jail. And the fact that I drew the line somewhere was what made me different from him. I needed that knowledge.
"I know exactly what you mean," I said. "I'd love to castrate the son of a bitch. I think we'd all like to make him die a slow and painful death, but unfortunately murder is still illegal. Even when the person deserves it."
"So what?" Wesley asked. "We get him committed? He'll sweet-talk his way out of an insane asylum in a heartbeat."
"Can we have him arrested?" I asked. "Is there enough evidence at the cabin? Is Ezra's condition enough evidence? Can they take fingerprints from his classroom and compare them to the ones he has on file as an educator?"
"That's not the worst idea in the world, but how do we keep him in one place long enough for that?" Ezra asked. "He'll just slip away and be impossible to find again until he comes back and tries something even worse to hurt us."
"I just said murder was illegal. Hurting him or temporarily weakening him isn't," I pointed out. "You can claim self-defense."
"And if he does something to hurt us first?" Wesley said.
"There's one of him. There's three…well, two and a half of us," I told him. "We can get the drop on him."
"I like how you're suddenly half a person, Ezra," he teased. "I'm starting to get a little worried. First your girlfriend says she wants to castrate someone and now you're only half a person. I think you might be dating a budding serial killer."
"Oh, you didn't hear what I kept to myself about what I'd like to do to him. Then you'd be really worried," I shot back.
We all laughed, and Ezra kissed my temple.
"I'm pretty sure what you kept to yourself isn't nearly as gruesome as what I've fantasized about doing to Elijah over the past couple weeks while I got to watch and listen to everything he did to you," he said tensely. "I wanted to rip him apart limb from limb with my bare hands."
"Because you totally would have had the strength for that," Wesley said. "You couldn't even stand up on your own."
"Yeah, I got exactly one good punch in," he chuckled.
"At least you got that," I said. "I had to act like I still thought he was you. I still do until this is over."
Ezra turned me around so I was facing him and kissed my forehead before he crushed me tightly against his chest. It took everything I had not to start crying. I just let myself melt against him, taking comfort in the shelter of his arms and trying not to think about what I would have to do when I got back to Rosewood.
"Aria, if you can't handle this, tell me," he said a minute later, pushing me back so he could look me in the eyes. "We'll figure out some other way."
Honestly? I couldn't handle it. I hadn't been able to handle it this past weekend. I'd wanted to just go hide in the damn cellar with Ezra. And right now, I wanted to just hide out here in this hotel room and not leave until Elijah was gone for good. But the reality of the situation was, there was no other way. If we were going to take him down, I had to keep playing my part.
"Ezra, you and I both know there is no other way," I said, a few of the tears I'd been fighting back coming to the corners of my eyes. "He can't suspect anything until it's too late for him to do anything about it. Part of that is me playing my part."
"And here most teenage girls are just sitting there wondering if the guy they like is going to ask them to prom," Wesley chuckled.
"Oh, what I wouldn't give to have normal teenage girl problems," I said, turning back around to look at Wesley. "But I haven't been that lucky since sophomore year."
"I could make a really inappropriate joke right now involving a certain Police song about a student and teacher, but I'll refrain," he teased.
"After you pretty much already said it," I said, rolling my eyes.
"That's my brother for you," Ezra chuckled, kissing my hair.
"He probably can't even come up with anything," I teased. "Which is why he didn't actually make a joke."
"Nah, I'll just pull out my iPod and play the song. I'm pretty sure it tells the exact story of the first half of your junior year," Wesley shot back.
"…And he went there," I said, and I felt myself blush.
"You're lucky I can't stand up right now, Wes, or I'd kick your ass," Ezra said.
"Babe, how about we focus the anger where it belongs?" I suggested. "At your other brother."
"Listen to your girl, Ezra," Wesley said, laughing.
"Okay, seriously, guys, let's focus," I said. "How are we going to do this? When are we going to do this?"
"Can I just point out that the person taking charge of this situation isn't even a legal adult yet?" Wesley shook his head. "Puts me to shame."
"She puts us all to shame," Ezra said, and I didn't have to look at him to know he'd be glowing with pride. "And she's right. We can't just do this flying by the seat of our pants. We need a plan."
It took us until at least nine to nail down a plan. Basically, I was going to go over to the apartment the next day and suggest ordering a pizza for dinner. Wesley and Ezra were going to be waiting in the hallway out of sight of the surveillance cameras and when the pizza delivery guy came, they'd tip him generously and take the pizza from him. Then they'd knock on the door instead, and they'd come in. A better scenario would be if Elijah was in the shower while this was happening so I could just quietly let them in, but we couldn't bank on what he was going to do. So they'd be equipped with a baseball bat or something to hit him over the head if they had to.
"God, I wish you didn't have to go," Ezra said as I went to get up so I could leave.
"Well, if I don't go back to Rosewood, it might make certain people suspicious," I told him.
He sighed and was quiet for a minute.
"Then let them be suspicious," Wesley said just as Ezra was opening his mouth to say something. "You two need some time alone. The irony of what Ezra said when you first got here is I actually did book a different room for tonight. Down the hall."
"Well, you don't have to twist my arm," I said. "The Hanna excuse is getting a little worn out though. Wonder how many more times my dad will buy it."
"Hanna? What's going on with Hanna?" Ezra asked.
"Oh, right. You don't know. She and Caleb broke up and she's pretty much been a hot mess," I told him.
"Wow. Yeah, I can imagine," he said. "So what else have I missed while I was down there?"
"Besides me breaking up with Jake, not much," I told him. "But you probably already figured that out."
"I had a feeling. Though, for you, I'd happily be the other guy. I'll take you any way I can get you."
I laughed and got back into bed next to him. "Well, lucky for you, I'm a one guy at a time kind of girl."
"And that's my cue," Wesley laughed as he headed towards the door. "I'll see you two lovebirds tomorrow."
Ezra and I chuckled as he shut the door behind him.
As soon as we were alone, Ezra pulled me back in close and kissed me, basically picking up where we had left off when I first got here. It was probably five minutes later when I broke the kiss, gasping for breath.
"Wait," I panted. "I actually do have to come up with an alibi."
I called my dad and he didn't even question me staying with Hanna. He was probably starting to think she needed a therapist. Hanna wanted to know what was going on when I told her she was my alibi, but accepted it when I told her I'd tell her soon. If all went well, I could tell my friends everything tomorrow. Hopefully.
Then I turned back to Ezra and kissed him again, and before I knew it, we were lying down on the bed and he was above me. I was sure this was horrible for his bad leg, but he didn't seem to mind.
Out of nowhere, I had a flashback. The first time Elijah had taken me to the cabin. How wrong it had felt. And I froze. It wasn't that this felt wrong. If anything, it was the stark contrast between how right this was and how wrong that had been. Maybe combined with the knowledge that I hadn't put two and two together and realized that sick freak wasn't really the man I loved.
Ezra stopped immediately and rolled back over to his side of the bed. I hadn't even had to say anything. He just knew.
I felt like...like this was my fault. Like I was broken and might never work right again. Maybe I would never be able to do this again. And the tears I'd managed to keep at bay for three days fell.
"Hey," he whispered, rolling over to look at me. "It's okay. I shouldn't have let it go that far. I'm so sorry. I'm an idiot."
I turned to look at him, and all I saw was concern written all over his face. And love. More love than I could even comprehend. He wasn't going anywhere.
"I'm the idiot," I said. "How did I not see it? There were so many little things that were different, but I just kept thinking it was all in my head instead of trusting my instincts."
"And that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted you to second-guess yourself. He wanted you to question what you knew in your gut was wrong."
"So I played right into his hands," I sniffled. "I did exactly what he wanted me to do. And I helped him torture you. You're the one person in this world that I never wanted to hurt. How can you even look at me right now?"
"Because I love you," he said, kissing my forehead. "Look, this is no one's fault but his. I don't blame you, and it kills me that you're blaming yourself. I understand why, and I know it's going to take you time to process all of this and come to terms with it. But as long as you want me here, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to let you go through any of this alone."
And that made me start crying again. Because I didn't know if any amount of time was going to be enough. I might never be the same again. I felt just...broken.
"And what if he broke me?" I said through my tears.
He smiled and pulled me into his arms, then kissed my hair and rested his head on mine.
"Well," he said, "you'll find that I'm quite good at fixing things. Sometimes it takes a while, but eventually I manage."
I smiled. God, I loved Ezra. I had no idea what I'd done to deserve his love, but I didn't know what I would do without it. Especially now. I seriously wished I never had to leave this hotel room again. That I could just stay here, where I felt safe and loved.
But tomorrow, I'd have to leave. And play my part to perfection with the person who looked exactly like him but couldn't have been more different. And, God willing, put an end to this insanity.
