The gates of Radley were dark and gnarled, just like the place itself. Emily lead the way as Spencer and Aria followed tentatively behind her, Radley Sanitarium was not a place that was enjoyable for them. "Spencer, if you don't want to this, you don't have to. Aria and I have the script down pat, just ask Mona what we need and get the hell out." Her chocolate orbs of eyes bored into Spencer's soul, softening at the edges, her sensitive soul was definitely showing through.
"I'm doing this, we need answers and Mona's the only way we're going to get them. Radley just happens to be the setting that she's in." She delivered her words stoically, not a tad of sadness or even emotion behind her steely response. Emily saw right through her wall of strength, she noticed the tiny cracks in Spencer's facade, the tiny wrinkles around the center of her eyebrows. She squeezed Spencer's skinny arm tenderly, stroking the fabric of her forest, green jacket. The dark haired, slowly trembling girl felt warm feeling raise from her chest to her arms, calming her down immediately.
"You got this Spence, we're both here as your good cop and bad cop bodyguards. I'm obviously the good cop, sorry Em." Aria, her chestnut hair was windswept into a bun atop her tiny head. They tried their best to look somber as they waltzed through the polarizing white entry hall. Nurses in 1950's style white and red uniforms marched through the corridors, patients let out mangled and pained screams from the recreation room. Emily cringed as she saw thrashing, wheelchair bound people being taken into locked rooms against their wills. An attractive, African American man in a crisp, cream shirt approached the girls, his eyes glued to Spencer.
"Eddie, oh god, it's so good to see you." She called out, relief rippling through her veins. They embraced for a short second, but Eddie's face remained blank, almost sad. "How's everything been here, especially the Mona situation?" Emily slightly scoffed, Spencer was never one for even a second of small talk. He clenched his fists together, and Eddie looked over his shoulder, observing his surroundings.
"Can we talk about this in the staff lounge, away from the prying eyes of you know who?" He gave her a knowing glance and discreetly walked into the next room, what the girls assumed was the staff lounge, as all of them began to go inside, Spencer stopped them with her hands in the air.
"We need to cover as much as we can. I talk to Eddie, while you guys tackle the human Rubix cube that is Mona Vanderwaal." Shooting Emily a pointed look, she knew what had to be done, splitting up was the right thing to do.
"Let's go then, this place gives me the shivers, and not in a cute Ezra way." With that, Aria and Emily were off and Spencer went into the lounge, nearly salivating for answers. The room was incredibly bland, which wasn't a shock, there was a corner mahogany table with a microwave and coffee machine, and colonies of tiny olive colored tables. She pulled out a chair as she sat directly across from Eddie, folding her hands neatly in her lap.
"How has Mona been lately? Any outbursts or things I should know about?" Spencer probed him, knowing that other than visiting her, this was their only option for answers about the current A situation.
"You know this is breaching patient confidentiality, I'm not like your little British friend, . I have to tell you though, I think it's another facade from Mona, one day she's excitedly and sanely describing a book. The next, she's screaming about a Cradle Robber and Pigskin." Although she was the true queen at solving riddles and puzzles, the first example Eddy said confused her, but when he said the words Pigskin, her heart broke. That was Ali's horrible nickname for Paige, just hearing Mona say it would crush Emily. In Spencer's own mind, Paige had never really deserved Em, she had tried to drown her, and anyone who wanted to be with Emily shouldn't lay a finger on her.
"Did she go into any detail? Any specifics?" She wondered aloud.
"Not really. Just the usual muttering which leads to screaming, of course. She likes to play our version of Scrabble, she's a great mind. Thats what's scary about Mona." Eddie shook his head, almost in a state of disbelief.
"Eddie, you have no idea how grateful I am for you being here right now. I also never got to thank you for everything you did for me at Radley, if it wasn't for you, I don't know how I would've made it through." A sincere smile painted Spencer's face as she squeezed one of his dark knuckles. As she made her way out of the increasingly painful chair, Eddie stopped her.
"I was in love with someone once. She was a nurse here, absolutely beautiful and possibly the perkiest person I'd ever met." He paused, a flicker of unmistakable affection in his eyes.
"Something happened to her though… She ended up in this dungeon of a place, it was an obvious misdiagnosis, but I visited her every day, no matter what. The roof, that night…" Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, his face was strained and serious. Spencer had a virtual light bulb go off in her head, he was talking about… about Marion Cavanaugh. The mother of her first love, the unsolvable puzzle that was the way she died…
"Eddie, is she Marion Cavanaugh? The girl who was on the roof with the fragile patient?" She was like a rabid animal who hadn't slept in days, needing facts desperately. This question obviously set Eddie off, he pushed the table away from him, and crossed his arms.
"Look, I'm sorry," she tried to backtrack but there was no stopping Eddie from leaving, the door slammed intensely as he was on his way out. Spencer speedily texted Emily and Aria, her fingers stabbing the buttons like mad, "SOS."
Back in the winding corridors of Radley, Aria and Emily fiercely marched down to Mona's room number, 203. Aria stomped down, clearly leading the way as Emily hung in the back. "How do you know where we are? Are you an eternal tour guide?" She asked the shorter girl, her black and white checkered shirt shifting in the air. Aria looked like she had just smelled the most putrid scent, and looked back at Emily.
"You could say I have a photographic memory from our dark Spencer visits." While Emily tried to craft a response, they were at Mona's dreaded room. The door was sealed tightly at the edges, and a privacy sign was taped to the window in the doorway. "We're going for it Em, if you can't, I'll go in first." She clenched Emily's hand, giving her a smile of courage.
Nodding, Emily replied, "no, we're doing this together." They cracked the door open and Mona was prostrate on her hospital bed, her eyes wild and face gleaming with sweat. This was the first time they'd seen Mona in months and it had definitely taken a toll on her. The room washed out her once queen bee style features, her nails were bloody and bitten down to the beds. Her dark, formerly well coiffed hair was an unbrushed mess, not a stitch of makeup was on her face. "Hello Mona." Emily deadpanned, staring at Mona like she causing forest fires in her mind.
"Hello miss mermaid, I see Suzy is with you." Mona was polite and cold, like always. "What brings you here to visit, Hanna hasn't visited in ages. How is she by the way, still keeping those carbs down? I know how she gets when Caleb leaves, he is always leaving, I wonder why." Rage swallowed the normally calm Emily's soul, no one hurt her Hanna, especially Mona.
"Don't act like you don't know why. We know what's actually going on and whoever you've hired-" Before she could finish her rant, Aria cut in.
"Who's your A now, Mona? Who's your little minion now, Noel or better yet, Lucas?" Aria accused, taking no prisoners. "We know you never stopped being the puppet master, but now you have to cut the strings."
Smirking, Mona replied, "honey, a good puppet master makes sure that no one ever see's the strings, that would make them realize it's not real. To make the audience trust them, to believe in what may seem impossible, puppets need to have strings, or else there wouldn't be any fun." Chilled to the bone, she took a step away from the rickety Radley bed.
Leaning into Aria's double pierced ear, Emily fearfully whispered, "we need to go, I just got an SOS from Spence, about Eddie." The other girl nodded and backed away slowly.
" Make sure to tell Mr. Fitz I say hi, and Emily, I have a message for you." Mona mumbled under her breath, " Say hello to Girl Crush, for my sake." She looked around her, but no one was in the room but Emily and Mona, Aria was too afraid to step into the room again. Does she mean Spencer? Emily thought to herself, but then immediately regretted it. She didn't even have a crush on Spencer, and she had been done with the straight girl crushes ever since Ali. Why was she blushing then?
"I hope I never have to be here again, bye Mona." Emily stormed out of the tiny room, right into a panicked Aria in the hall.
"What was that about, Em? I'm sorry but I couldn't stand it there for another second." Suddenly Spencer was at their side, her mouth running a mile a minute.
"Eddie and Marion, they were together, he knows who she was on the roof with, I know it." She grabbed Emily's forearm, feeling the her pulse race.
"Toby's mom? Oh my god, how did you find this all out?" Emily asked, her excitement was rising, Toby despite all his wrongdoings, he was one of her best friends and no matter what, what happened to his mom mattered to her..
"Can we talk about this more tomorrow? Maybe tonight, this is too much in one day." Aria's bottom lip quivered, she was obviously going to crawl out of her skin if she was there any longer.
That night, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer were sitting around on the navy kitchen island, discussing the events of the day. "Eddie and Mrs.C huh? Was everyone in Radley taking bang, bang pills?" Spencer broke into a giggle, Hanna's vocabulary always stunned her.
Like a rude spring awakening, all the girl's phones rung in synchronization, Emily and Spencer knew that ring the instant they heard it: A. Hanna, voice cracking read it aloud..
"Little Miss Mona, sat in Radley, playing Scrabble all day, when along came four liars, who sat down beside her, and Little Miss Mona was dead…"
Someone was skulking through the halls of Radley, Eddie Lamb knew an intruder when he heard one. The night shift had always been relatively quiet these days, as long as wasn't allowing outsiders in. Following the source of the noise, he spotted someone, hard to identify as a male or female, in a black hoodie. He grabbed at their shoulders, attempting to stop them from hurting any patients. As he did this, the figure dove for his leg, injecting his thigh painfully with a syringe. His leg was on fire as his vision became blurry, but he caught a glimpse of his attacker before going out cold, oh he knew this person alright, if only he could've told Spencer the truth when he had the chance...