So this story kind of got away from me; this is what happens when I start writing with no clear end in sight. It's not one of my best, but I hope you enjoy this final chapter anyway. Forgive the insAnity, and just try to roll with it. Thanks for all the reviews, you guys have been great. I hope to see you all over in some of my other stories. (Believe me, there are a lot of them, and will be many more. So no matter what your pairing or genre preferences, chances are I have done or will do something with them.) Happy holidays, everyone, and don't forget to review!

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It took so long for the sight before her to sink in that it was several long moments before Spencer could even force herself to say the person's name. "Ali," she breathed, intending it as a question but ending up sounding more disbelieving than anything.

The door swung closed behind her, and Alison stepped forward. There was no mistaking it; they hadn't seen her in years, but after she disappeared Spencer had memorized every single detail about her. She'd pored through old yearbooks and photo albums, watched home movies of the girls, and spent entire nights trying to recall the exact pitch of her voice. She needed to know that if she passed Ali on some remote street somewhere, or if she got an anonymous call in the middle of the night, she'd be able to recognize her friend at once.

But now, with her standing right in front of them, Spencer couldn't quite believe it.

"Alison!" Aria exclaimed, and Spencer couldn't tell if her tone was more surprised or angry.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked, sounding faint.

Ali tilted her head to the side, seeming strangely at ease. Then a gust of wind rushed past the window, causing a tree branch to tap against the window. Ali jumped, her hand flying to her heart, and Spencer realized that the other girl was just as terrified as they were.

"We need to get out of here," Ali said, hurrying over to Hanna and starting to untie her.

"Alison," Hanna said, jerking away so she could look the other girl in the eye. "What are you doing? How did you find us?"

"I don't have time to explain right now," Ali said, not meeting Hanna's gaze. "Mona could be back any minute."

"Wait," Aria said sharply. "You know about Mona?"

Ali stepped away from Hanna, who flexed her fingers and enjoyed the feeling of freedom as the ropes fell away. "Yes," Ali said tightly, moving on to untie Aria. "She's the one who's been harassing you guys."

"How could you possibly know that?" Spencer demanded.

"I've been watching you," Ali admitted. "Ever since I ran away. Mona was after me before I left, and I wanted to make sure she didn't go after you guys too."

"But she did," Hanna pointed out. "Why didn't you at least warn us?"

"I couldn't." Ali turned her attention to Spencer, who shifted around so that the other girl could untie her. "You have to trust me, I never meant for any of this to happen."

As soon as Spencer was free she was on her feet. Her head was spinning, but there was one thought that was clearer than all the others: they needed to escape before Mona or Wren showed up. "Let's go," she said, heading for the door. "We can talk about this once we're not in a creepy cabin in the middle of nowhere."

As soon as she opened the door, however, she found herself being shoved back inside. She stumbled back a step, and when she looked up the door was closed again – but someone was standing in front of it. In the second it took for her to recognize them, her heart sank. His name fell from her lips like a secret. "Wren?"

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Emily stood behind Spencer, trying to understand just what exactly was happening. She had barely had time to even start to comprehend the fact that Ali was alive, that Ali was here, and now they were all probably going to die.

"Spencer," Wren said, stepping forward.

Automatically all five girls stepped back. Emily felt her back bump against the wall and panic fluttered in her stomach. Somehow she felt even more trapped now than she had when they were all tied up. Her head was still aching, as much from the impact as from the knowledge that it had been Spencer who'd hit her. Spencer was trying to protect them, she knew that, but somehow it didn't dull the pain.

"What are you doing here?" Spencer asked, and Emily knew her well enough to be able to hear the tremor in her voice.

"I'm here to help you," Wren said, and Emily almost let out a snort of laughter at his audacity. After all he'd done, did he really expect them to believe him? "I was – who's that?"

Emily followed his gaze, to see Alison giving him a hard stare.

"It doesn't matter," Spencer said before the others could speak. "You screwed me over, Wren. You're on Mona's side. Why the hell should we trust you?"

"Because I'm the only person who can help," he said earnestly.

Emily hadn't had much to do with the doctor before, but until now she'd thought of him as a trustworthy kind of person. If he hadn't just kidnapped them all and even turned on Spencer, she might have been inclined to believe him.

"Why would you want to help us?" Hanna spat, and Emily had the feeling that her venom came mostly from fear. Emily had yet to reach that stage; her fear was still just fear, with a chance it was about to progress to terror.

"I've always been on your side," Wren said, talking directly to Spencer. "I had to get you to believe that I'd betrayed you because it was the only way to get Mona to believe it."

"And now you're just going to help us escape?" Spencer asked sceptically. She narrowed her eyes and added, "How do I know you're not just going to lead us into another trap?"

The silence that followed was so thick Emily felt for a second that she couldn't breathe. When Wren spoke, his voice was so sincere that it sliced through some of Emily's doubt. "I would never do anything to hurt you, Spencer."

"Do you think we should believe him?" Aria asked softly.

Spencer bit her lip, as confused as any of them. Emily knew why she was hesitant: if Wren was serious and they turned him away, they'd effectively doomed themselves; but if he was lying and they trusted him, he would be the one leading them right to their doom.

She was saved having to answer for the moment, because the door opened again and there stood Mona.

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Hanna could swear that she actually felt her heart stop. Her hand drifted to her chest to check it was still beating, and after a moment it was; it picked up speed quickly until it was beating so fast she thought it might overheat.

"Well, well, well," Mona said, leaning against the door and casually examining her nails. "What do we have here?"

"It's over, Mona," Wren said, and to Hanna's surprise he stepped in front of them, blocking them off from Mona. "I'm not going to let you hurt these girls anymore."

"Oh, I have no intention of hurting them," Mona said, and Hanna tried to read her expression.

There had been a point when Hanna had thought she'd known Mona, had thought that there was nothing they couldn't share with each other. But ever since she'd heard the news that Mona was Red Coat, the person who had been tormenting them for months, ever since that knowledge had sunk into her mind, she'd felt like there was a wall between them.

At first it was to keep her safe, but now she realized it also meant that she was second-guessing herself. The way Mona's mouth quirked up at the edge – was that because she was amused or annoyed? That look in her eyes – was it anger or sadness?

"What are you doing here then?" Hanna found herself asking, but she shrank back as Mona flicked her gaze toward her.

"The better question," Mona said, shifting her attention to Alison, "is what is she doing here?"

"I'm here to save the day," Ali said with a wink, but Hanna thought she could see a lot of uneasiness behind the expression.

"You're here to save the girls," Mona said, frowning slightly. Her eyes cut to Wren and she added, "And you are too, I assume?"

Wren nodded, and Alison didn't even flinch. She kept her eyes on Mona, and Hanna suddenly felt safe. Alison had always been the leader, and even though she'd been gone for so long, Hanna still had the feeling that Ali had their best interests at heart. If anyone could save them, it was her.

"Then what, exactly," Mona said, enunciating each word carefully, "are you saving them from?"

Wren blinked, caught off-guard. "You."

"That's all well and good, but I came here to save them from you."

Hanna glanced from Mona to Wren and back again, totally lost. One of them was bluffing or lying, but she didn't trust herself to even guess which one. She'd thought Mona was her friend, after all, and look how that had turned out. But why would they be lying? What would that get them?

"From me?" Wren echoed indignantly. "You're the one who's been blackmailing me into helping you, sending me all those anonymous notes saying that if I didn't go along with it you were going to go after my family."

"I never sent those notes," Mona said evenly. "But I did receive some, which I took to be from you. Why else would I have turned against my only friend, and her friends?"

Hanna felt a rush of emotion, happiness mixed up with confusion. Mona had just called them friends – so either she was setting her up to knock her down, or she'd been manipulated into acting against them.

"Wait," Spencer said, frowning. "If you both thought you were being blackmailed, but neither of you are taking responsibility for it, then who was behind it?"

"Oh, what the hell," Alison said with a dangerous smile, and as one everyone in the room turned to stare at her. "Come on, are you really that surprised?"

"You?" Hanna choked out. "You were behind this?"

Alison shrugged one shoulder, terrifyingly casual. "I couldn't have my little sheep getting away from me, now, could I?"

"Even when you were missing, even when we thought you were dead…" Aria looked like she was about to cry, but she forced herself to finish. "You were controlling us that whole time?"

"Of course," Alison said, smirking. "What's a leader without her followers?"

Hanna shook her head, trying to tell herself that it wasn't real, but she couldn't even think the words. Alison was behind this; she was A.

"But you four," she said, pointing at each of the girls in turn, "are starting to get on my nerves. It was fun while it lasted, but I think it's time to cut my losses and move on."

Without giving the others time to respond or even think, she slipped out the door, winked at them, and then slammed the door behind her.

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Utter silence followed. Aria felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest. They'd gone through so much since Ali went missing, and now it turned out that Alison herself was behind it all? It was unthinkable, and yet it made a horrible kind of sense. Alison had wanted to keep them all in line, but one by one they'd started to realize just how cruel she really was; and when they questioned her authority, she took it into her own hands and found a way to break them down even further, maybe hoping that when she came back they'd all fall back into line. Or maybe this was her plan all along, her way of paying them back for questioning her.

Before any of them spoke, there was a noise that it took Aria a second to place. When it did click, she almost dropped to her knees in fear. Alison had set the cabin on fire. She shared a panicked look with her friends, and then noticed the way that both Mona and Wren were looking scared too. This wasn't part of their plan, which meant that Ali really had been behind the whole thing.

"We need to get out of here," Mona announced, striding to the door. Unsurprisingly, she found it locked.

Smoke began to fill the room, bringing with it a sense of desperate panic. If they didn't find a way out, Alison was going to kill them all.

"Neither of you two have keys?" Aria asked incredulously, looking at Mona and Wren.

"We do!" Wren said excitedly, but within a minute it became clear that the door was blocked from the outside. He threw the key on the floor in frustration, and Mona sank back against the wall, breathing heavily.

"Come on," Spencer said, trying to rally them even as they heard flames starting to creep up the walls. "There has to be a way out."

Although she wasn't really expecting to find anything, Aria joined in as the others started to search the room. Her fear was growing with every passing second, and by the time five minutes had passed she could hardly breathe. The smoke didn't help, and she knew it wouldn't be long before it would be too late.

"I have it!" Mona shouted, and the others all rushed over to her. "Here," she said, pointing at the corner with one hand and using the other to cover her mouth. "This part of the wall is weaker. If we work together we might be able to get it loose."

Without wasting a second everyone in the room jumped into action. They took turns kicking, hitting, and pulling the wall, and after what felt like a lifetime it finally began to give. Aria almost cried in relief as the piece of timber came free, falling to the floor with a dull thud.

Mona led the way through the gap it had created, which was just large enough for all of them – although it was more of a struggle for Wren and Spencer, who were somewhat taller. Aria stumbled through the gap and fell onto her knees on the grass, trying to catch her breath. The fire hadn't reached this side yet, but they could hear some of the roof near the front starting to give. Not much longer and it would have fallen in on them.

Aria had barely even begun to catch her breath when she felt hands hauling her to her feet, and she leaned into Spencer as the taller girl led her away from the cabin. The others followed, equally weary and terrified, and all painfully aware that Ali was still out there.

Spencer led her to the car she'd used to drive them here, and she and the other girls piled in. Mona and Wren hesitated for a second, and then Spencer gestured for them to get in too. It was a tight squeeze but somehow they all managed to fit.

The cabin dropped out of sight as soon as they hit the road, and Aria breathed a sigh of relief. This whole night had been insane, and she felt weak with relief at the fact that it was over – even if one of her best friends had just tried to kill her. They drove in silence for a while, knowing that even though they were safe for now, they were going to have to keep their eyes out in case Ali tried something again – which, knowing her, was incredibly likely.

As they were approaching the outskirts of Rosewood, Spencer started laughing. Aria glanced at Hanna and Emily, wondering if Spencer had lost her mind.

"Spence?" Emily asked tentatively, clearly wondering the same thing.

"S-sorry," Spencer said as her laughter died away, but there was still a trace of amusement in her voice. "It's just… doesn't anyone else think this is weird?"

"What?" Hanna asked, sadly running her finger along the shoulder of her cardigan, which was covered in soot and dust.

"We got kidnapped and almost killed by two people who didn't want us to die," Spencer said, still holding off laughter, "got rescued by someone who's supposed to be dead but actually wanted to kill us, and now we're, what, just not going to mention it?"

After that sunk in, everyone started laughing. Whether it was the pressure or the fear or the relief, Aria didn't know, but she didn't care. God, it felt good to be able to laugh, even though their mirth was sure to be temporary.

"Sounds about right," she said, gazing out the window as the town sign came into view. "Welcome to Rosewood."

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