ALL RIGHTS GO TO MARLENE KING

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death - Robert Fulghum

Chapter 11: Coming to Your Senses

Alison's POV:

I woke up to the bright sun shining up our hotel room, I stretched my arms above my head but I quickly pulled them down when my body reminded me of the pain in my stomach.

I notice that Emily's not lying next to me? Where is she?

"Good morning." Emily says, stepping out of the bathroom.

"Good morning, sleep well?" I ask, lying back down on the bed.

"Um, not really." Uh oh.

"Wh- why?" I stutter, afraid of the answer.

"Who's Cyrus?"

My head snaps up and my blood turns cold. How the hell did she know about Cyrus? What was going to happen to me now? What was going to happen to her? Cyrus might hurt Emily if she knows anything, I can't live with that possibility.

So I do the only thing I know how to do;

Lie.

"Who?" I ask.

"You said his name last night, I think you were asleep." Shit.

"Yeah, I probably had some weird dream, but I don't remember a certain Cyrus." I reply shakily and Emily nods her head, walking away from me.

A week later we are boarding our flight back to Rosewood. I sit next to Emily and Aria while Spencer and Hanna were behind us.

I close my eyes thinking about the past week. This week was supposed to be the best week of my life but instead it turned out to be the worst. Emily kept on trying to push me to tell her something but I kept my lips sealed. Maybe- just maybe, now that we'll be thousands of miles away from Cyrus I could tell her.

Maybe.

The flight attendant announced that we will be taking off any minute now. The remaining passengers were boarding the plane and I glanced over my shoulder, catching a glims of a familiar looking tattoo.

The man put his carry-on under his seat and turned around in my direction. My sight seemed to fail as I whiteness the horrifying creature standing in front of me.

Cyrus.

Cyrus smirked at me before sitting down in his seat. He had the same filthy clothes he had on the day he-

Tears started running down my cheek and Emily looks over at me worriedly.

"Alison, what's wrong?" Emily brushes the remaining tears away from my face.

"This week hasn't exactly been what you planned, right?"

Emily gave me a small smile, "I don't mind, just the fact that I actually got a chance to go to Paris with you, you have no idea how long I've waited to kiss you on top of the Eiffel Tower."

I kissed her lightly before leaning down on her shoulder. I looked over at Cyrus direction and he was starring right back at me, like he was trying to find a good time to attack. I cringe deeper into Emily's side, ducking my head under her arm, hoping for protection.

I hate this feeling. I hate feeling like I need protection.

Emily kisses my head and I forced my eyes shut, forcing myself to fall asleep.

Emily's POV:

Ali feel asleep, her eyebrows scrunching up slightly.

"Have you noticed something.. Off about Alison?" I ask Aria.

Aria tilts her head to the side, getting a better view of a sleeping Ali clinging tightly to me.

"I guess, after the restaurant she seemed upset about something." Aria states before turning her attention back to the magazine in her hands.

I frown and look down at her face. My eyes wandered around the plane and I stop my gaze at a man sitting across from us. He met my stare and quickly looked down. What was his deal?

Suddenly Ali started shaking and mumbling into my shirt. I warp my arms tighter around her but she continues shaking.

"What's wrong?" Aria asks, looking over at Ali who is now slightly thrashing in my arms.

"I- I don't know," I kiss her forehead soothingly, "She was acting like this in the hotel at night, I think she's having a nightmare."

Ali keeps on restlessly moving around in her seat, a few whimpers escaping her mouth.

"What did you do last time?" Aria asks, placing her hand on Ali's arm.

"I just held her but eventually she woke up." I pull Ali tighter into my body.

"STOP, PLEASE STOP!" Ali suddenly yells out and stumbles out of her seat, lying on the ground. Every passenger had silenced down and stared shockingly at Alison.

"Alison?" I ask cautiously, pulling her up from the ground.

She looks confused. Ali's eyes dart across the plane and tears were prickling in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" I ask gently. The girls and the other passengers were starring at us worriedly.

Ali just nods and pulls me into a tight hug, crying softly into my shirt. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly against my chest. The passengers sat down in their seats and we did as well.

Ali clinged to my arm tightly the entire flight but we didn't say a word. What has happened to her?

Alison's POV:

The taxi pulled out in front of my house and the girls left while Emily and I walked silently inside. The house was dark and abandoned;

Just like me.

"Ali, what's really going on? You know you can trust me." Emily says, standing in front of me in the living room.

"I know I can, but-"

"No buts, Ali. Please just tell me whats bothering you, I can help you." Emily interrupted and placed her hand over mine.

"I've been thinking about, uh, us." I say nervously.

"What about us?" Emily answers worriedly, gripping my hand tighter. I really don't deserve her.

"You're to good for me," I look into her beautiful eyes and continue, "You care about everyone but yourself, you've risked your life for me countless times, you protect the people you love, you have a warm heart-"

Emily interrupts me by pulling me into a tight hug.

"You don't deserve me, I'm just bringing you down." I mumble into her shirt.

Emily instantly pulls away from the hug and places her hands on the side of my face, borring into my eyes.

"You are not brining me down, okay?" Emily kisses my forehead gently, "Without you I wouldn't have had the courage to finally admit to myself what I am, without you I would have never met my best friends."

"Without you I would have never found the love of my life," I interrupt her by pressing my lips to hers.

"You're what's keeping me alive." I murmur into her lips.

Emily's POV:

"Do you want to stay over tonight? I don't want to be alone." Ali says, walking out from the bathroom.

"Sure, but I don't have any-" Ali throws a pair of boy shorts and a tank top towards me, the same ones I was wearing when I slept over at her house and we kissed.

I smile at her and quickly change. I crawl into bed next to her and Ali instantly curls up towards me. I wrap my arm around her shoulder and she shuts her ocean blue eyes.

After about two hours of not being able to sleep, I get out of bed to get a glass of water. When I get back into bed Ali must have kicked the sheets off in sleep. I placed the sheets gently over her body and I notice something on her thigh.

A scar.

Panic waved over me as I inspected the scar with my eyes. When did she get this? How did she get this? Is this why she's been acting so strange lately?

My blood froze when I realized something. It was a stab wound.

Ali stirred and woke up.

"Hey." I was to in shock to reply but Ali noticed my stare and quickly pulled the covers over her thighs.

"What happened?" I whisper.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about." Ali stuttered out.

"Please tell me who did this to you." I demand. I'll kill anyone who hurt her, no one hurts Alison.

Ali looks up from her bed and stares me in the eye.

Alison's POV:

I'm tired. I'm to tired to think.

Cyrus can't find me right? I can't keep lying to Emily, it's ruining our relationship. I stay silent for a couple of minutes and Emily gets out of bed and walks down the stairs.

"Emily wait!" I shout and follow her down to the living room.

I suck in a deep breath, if anything happens to Emily or the other girls because of this, I'll kill Cyrus myself.

"Please just tell me." Emily pleads.

"The night at the restaurant." I whisper out, waiting to see her reaction.

"Yeah, you were planning something." Emily says.

"No, I wasn't." Confusion crosses over her face, but it quickly turns to anger when she realizes I've been lying all this time.

"You lied." Emily states coldly.

"Only becau-"

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR LYING!" Emily booms and quickly walks over to where I'm standing. Her eyes are filled with fury and it terrifies me.

"I'm not ly-" I stutter out, tears glistering in my eyes.

"STOP IT ALISON OR I SWEAR TO GOD!" Emily yells, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Emily please-" I go to pull her in for a hug but the second I touch her she pushes me roughly back, causing me to fall down to the ground.

My back hurt but I was to much in shock to do anything, Emily looks completely in shock as well but she bends down trying to get me to stand up.

"Ali-" Emily's soft voice is quickly cut off and I see the same basement I was in with Cyrus. Emily's hands slowly turn into his large ones and her angelic face morphs into his sick grin.

Cyrus grabs me by the elbows, forcing me to stand up.

"NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!" I scream, trying to kick him in the shins but he just grabs me tighter, probably leaving a bruise.

Cyrus just smiles at me but eventually I kick him in the stomach, sending him flying back in shock. I take this time to escape and I quickly stumble up the stairs.

When I'm almost at the top I feel arms grasp around my waist, pulling me down with him. My vision suddenly fades away and all I see is darkness, I feel his arms gripping me tightly and it's making me sick.

I feel Cyrus holding me tightly to his chest, crushing every bone in my body. I feel him breathing down the back of my neck, it's a sickening feeling.

"CYRUS PLEASE STOP!" I manage to yell out in between the excruciating pain.

Cyrus surprisingly lets me go and I sprint somewhere, my vision slowly coming back but it's painfully blurry, making my head explode. I trip on the carpet and I fall down to the floor. The cold wood touches my cheek and I close my eyes.

Emily's POV:

"CYRUS PLEASE STOP!" My mind stops working. This is the second time she's said his name, who is he? What did he do to her? Does she think I'm Cyrus?

I quickly let go of her when I realize that I might be hurting her. Ali instantly sprints away from my embrace but she trips on the carpet. I run over towards her, but she doesn't move.

"ALISON!" I yell, trying to get her to wake up. I pick her limp body in my arms and carry her up stairs and lay her down on her bed.

I sit still for about 15 minutes, trying to process everything that had just happened. My mind was driving me crazy with all these questions.

Who is Cyrus? Is she going to be okay? Why did she lie? What happened that night? Was this another weird panic attack?

I reach over for my phone and dial Spencer's number.

"Hey, Emily." Spencer says cheerfully.

"You guys have got to come over here right now, something bad happened to Ali." I spit out, fighting back tears.

"What happened?" Spencer asks worriedly.

"Just hurry!" I yell before hanging up.

Alison's POV:

Voices fill my mind and it made my brain feel dizzy. I finally manage to connect the voices to the people and I recognize Spencer's, Aria's, Hanna's,

Emily's.

I open my eyes and see that they are all talking about something rapidly, their backs turned around so they can't see me. I try to stand up but I fail and I fall down on the ground, again.

The girls spin around and Emily picks me up, placing me on the bed.

Silence filled the room and I noticed the girls faces. They were confused, scared, angry, tired. All because of me.

"Who's Cyrus?" Emily asks. I can tell that she doesn't have the energy to argue anymore and honestly, I don't have the energy to lie anymore.

"He's the one who broke me." I whisper out.