Thanks again to ashley62197 for the lovely review :) I hope everyone enjoys this chapter :)
"So when are we going to do this?" Aria asked, referring to unbinding her powers.
Ella hesitated, still worried about the dangers of the life she was giving her daughter. Sure, she knew having powers would help her in case of an attack but she didn't want her to become a target for the Underworld. All she'd wanted when she moved away from San Francisco was to give herself and her family a normal life, although she was starting to think that would never happen.
Deciding that there wasn't another way around the situation, Ella told Aria that, if she was sure, she would say the spell now. Aria nodded and Ella made her way over to the Book of Shadows. She expertly flicked through the old pages of the book, finding the page she was after in seconds and began reading aloud from it.
Aria wasn't sure what she was expecting when it happened but there was no white light above her and she could honestly say that she didn't feel any different after her mother closed the book.
"Did it work?" The young girl asked.
"It should've done. Try moving that candle like we told Paige to." Ella suggested.
Aria felt all eyes in the room on her as she stared at the candle and waved her arm at it. A wave of disappointment washed over her when nothing happened. She tried a couple more times and was starting to get frustrated. Everyone else had made it look so easy. Why couldn't she do it?
"This is hopeless." She sighed. "Are you sure I can do this?" Aria asked Ella.
"I was able to do it when I was pregnant with you, just like my mom had premonitions when she was pregnant with Phoebe. You can do it, Aria." She assured her daughter.
Deciding that she'd give it one more try before giving up and accepting that she wasn't a witch, Aria gestured to the candle once more.
To her surprise, the candle tipped over.
"Did I just do that?" She asked.
Phoebe nodded. "Our powers are tied to our emotions, especially when we first get them." She explained. "Something in you must've triggered it that last time that you weren't feeling as strongly when you tried before."
"Your powers will grow as well." Ella told Paige and Aria. "When I first got mine I could only freeze a room. Over the years I learnt that I could freeze parts of objects or whole streets. After a few years I learnt to blow things up as well.
"Which got very expensive for us when she was trying to get that under control." Phoebe interrupted.
Ella glared at her younger sister, although she had to agree that her power cost them a lot of money when it came to replacing things in the house that she'd blown up. "My point is you need to master the powers you have as soon as you can. If you get too emotional you don't know what you could accidently do."
They spent the next few hours trying to teach Aria and Paige the basics of the craft. They both gained a certain amount of control over their powers and were warned about the consequences of using them for personal gain. Ella showed them how to make a simple stunning potion with the ingredients she had stored in the attic.
Aria felt her cell vibrate in her pocket and picked it up to read the message.
Tick tock. Tick tock. –A
The young girl gasped, worried about what would happen if she didn't tell her mom about Byron's affair. She didn't know how much time 'A' would give her but she couldn't do it here, not now. Just as she was about to put her phone back in her pocket it vibrated again.
"Someone's popular tonight." Phoebe teased her.
Aria forced a smile and read the second message. Emily was asking her if she was still joining them to work on the history project.
"Who is it, sweetie?" Ella asked, the worried look on her daughter's features scaring her somewhat after their encounter with 'A'.
"Oh, it's Emily. I was meant to meet up with her and the girls at Spencer's tonight. We've got that history project due in at the end of the week."
Ella looked at the time on her watch. Seeing that it was just before seven in the evening she agreed to let Aria go.
"Ok but don't be back later that twelve, it's a school night." She told her. "And be careful." Ella warned, worried about letting her daughter out of her sight with her new powers. "If you need us just call for Leo. He'll hear you and we'll be right over."
Aria nodded and sent a quick text to Emily telling her that she was on her way. She grabbed her car keys and drove the short distance to Spencer's house.
As much as she was happy to be seeing her friends, Aria found that the drive was over far too quickly. With everything that had happened over the course of the day she'd had next to no time to process it all.
She pulled up next to Hanna's car on the street in front of Spencer's house and walked up to the front door. They must've heard her arrive as she'd barely had time to knock before Spencer opened the door.
"Aria. It's about time. We've got so much to do." She said, walking back to the island in the kitchen where the other two girls were sat.
"But first we want to hear all about it." Hanna smiled.
"All about what?" Aria asked. How did they know already? Did she look different? Had she preformed some magic without knowing it?
"About Iceland." She replied. Aria visibly relaxed.
"Oh, well there's not really much to tell." Aria said, looking through her bag for her notebook so that they could start the project.
They worked on the project for an hour before slowly each girl gave up and they ended up talking about what they'd done over the past year, sharing memories from school and catching up on each other's lives. It was almost as if the past year had never happened, apart from the fact that there was one person missing from the group.
Half an hour later Aria received a text message. All three girls could see the look of fear on her face as she picked up her cell phone, and Aria saw it mirrored in theirs.
"Anyone we know?" Hanna asked.
"No, it's just my mom." She said, visibly relaxing. All four girls shared a look, as if asking why the others were all so worried about a text message. "Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from 'A', are we?" Aria asked.
The other girls shook their heads, but were prevented from replying by the sound of sirens coming up the street.
The sirens got louder as it got closer and before long they could see flashing blue lights outside the window. Spencer got up to see what was going on from the window and was confronted by a large group of people on her front lawn staring at the DiLaurentis' house.
"What's happening?" Emily asked.
"I can't see from here. Let's go outside and check it out." Spencer replied, grabbing her jacket.
The four girls pushed through the crowd to see a body bag being wheeled out of Alison's old house.
"What happened?" Aria asked a nearby police officer.
"The new residents found the DiLaurentis girl's body." He told them.
Suddenly the doors of the nearby police cars and ambulance, as well as of some cars that had parked to observe the scene, slammed shut. There was a loud crash as the glass broke from the impact of each door. The attention of bystanders that had previously been directed towards the body being loaded in to the ambulance turned to one of the police cars who's siren had started sounding again.
A couple of police officers went to check out the vehicle but there was no one nearby that they thought could've set the sirens off.
Aria was starting to panic. Not only had she just found out that one of her best friend's was dead but her newly found powers had already caused a small disaster. She was snapped out of her train of thought by the police officer.
"Did you know her?" He asked.
"Yeah, she was one of our best friends." Emily told him.
"I'm sorry." The man said sincerely. Just then a reporter came up to him.
"Inspector Morris, what can you tell us about the case?" She asked, holding a microphone up for him to talk in to.
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to tell you anything at the moment, except that the body found is presumed to be that of the missing teen Alison DiLaurentis, who used to live in this house." He said.
While he was talking, Aria and her friends had slowly backed away from the inspector. Aria had taken out her phone and was calling Ella to pick her up, not wanting to be around people when she was feeling this upset and had no control over her powers.
Ella told Aria that Leo would orb there to drive her home, given that Aria admitted she felt in no state to drive, and suggested that she wait by Spencer's house for him to find her.
Aria excused herself from the group, saying that she'd spotted her aunt who would drive her back, and left to wait for Leo. She walked towards her car and got there just in time to see Leo orb in to the driver's seat. She unlocked the car and let herself in the other side.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" He asked her gently.
"I don't know. I don't think I've really had time to process it. We all thought she was still alive somewhere and now it's just..." She trailed off.
"I know. Let's just get you home, ok?" Leo suggested. Aria nodded and they drove back in silence.
Once they got home Ella rushed to the door to embrace her daughter. It was only then that Aria started to feel the tears flowing down her cheeks as she allowed herself to cry for her friend.
Byron was sat on the couch and had turned the television on to the local news station.
"...not at liberty to tell you anything at the moment, except that the body found is presumed to be that of the missing teen Alison DiLaurentis..." The inspector was saying.
Ella, Phoebe and Leo all looked up at once as they heard the voice over the speakers.
"Is that...?" Phoebe asked.
"Darryl." Ella finished for her.
"You never told me he moved here."
"I didn't know."
"Sorry, who?" Byron asked.
"He was a friend back in San Francisco." Ella told him. "I haven't heard from him in years."
"Mom, I need to talk to you." Aria interrupted. "It's private." She added, glancing at her family.
"Of course, do you want to go upstairs?" Ella asked. Aria nodded, wiping her tears from her face with the sleeve of her jumper. Once they reached Aria's room the two women sat on her bed.
"I think I used my powers by accident." She admitted.
"When?"
"Right after I found out about Alison. I sort of smashed some car doors shut."
"Oh, honey I'm not surprised. Our powers are controlled by our emotions. There's no way they could link it back to you. No one got hurt, did they?"
"No, everyone was fine. It's just scary to know I can do that without even realising."
"It's a big adjustment but we'll help you through it." Ella smiled kindly.
"Also I don't think we're the only people who got texts from 'A'. The other girls did too."
"You told them?"
"Only about me. I didn't mention you getting texts because I didn't want to drag you in to it with the whole magic thing. There's too much at stake."
"I agree. Thank you for that, although if it gets much worse we'll have to talk to Darryl about it."
"What are you going to tell him?" Aria asked, concerned about what would happen if he asked what the texts were about.
"He already knows I'm a witch. Once he finds out you're my daughter he'll probably connect the dots for himself. He may not have wanted to know much about it but he's not stupid."
Aria looked confused, if not slightly shocked, about this information but figured now would not be the best time to question it. Instead she leaned in to Ella, who wrapped a protective arm around her daughter. They sat in silence for a while, each of them trying to process what had happened.
With the texts she'd received from 'A' still ringing loudly in her mind, Aria tried to figure out a way of breaking the news to her mom. Ella was bound to figure out that 'A' had something else on her sooner or later, and that would mean her finding out about Meredith or Ezra. She would have to say something eventually, but she knew that now wasn't the right time; not after everything they'd been through that day.
Instead, Aria tried to focus on understanding everything that had happened in the past twenty four hours. It hurt her head slightly to think of how much had changed, from finding out her family were powerful witches to receiving her powers to the police finding Alison's body. She couldn't begin to comprehend how different her life would be now.
After a while, Aria spoke up.
"I still can't believe she's gone." She said quietly. "I mean, this is Alison. For all we knew she could've run away somewhere and be living a life of luxury."
"I wouldn't have put it past her. She always had a way of making people do what she wanted."
"That's how I tried to picture her. Since she disappeared I didn't let myself think she was..." She trailed off, not wanting to say the word so soon after finding out what had happened.
"I know, but sometimes it's harder not knowing. At least now you can have some closure." Ella replied. "And maybe someday you'll be able to talk to her again."
"You mean like you did this morning with grandma?" Aria asked.
Ella nodded. "It's not always easy and can take time but it's a possibility in the future. After your Aunt Prue died I couldn't summon her spirit for years."
"Can I meet her some day? And your mom and Grams?"
"Of course you can, sweetheart. When we next get the house to ourselves we'll go up to the attic and try and summon them together." She smiled, hoping the thought of speaking to her family would cheer her up and take her mind off of the tragedy that had occurred that evening.