A/N: Wow! I totally loved hearing all your thoughts, and I'm glad you guys are excited for this story. kayweston and I are having a lot of fun writing it! We wanted to post this a bit earlier than planned since we got so much positive feedback. Hope you guys enjoy!xx
kayweston: Thank you guys so, so much for your support! We wouldn't do it without you, and you've no idea how huge are the smiles plastered on our faces when we read your reviews :) So thank you- and we're looking forward to hearing from you – don't hesitate to drop us a line!
Chapter 2: You Must be Haunting Me
Six weeks later…
The sun rises over the ocean, and Alison inhales deeply as she breathes in the wonderful scent of the salty beach air. Her body feels enlightened as she wraps her thin robe around her and lifts her cup of tea to her lips, sipping slowly. This was what she lived for, moments like this. She had arrived a few days ago at her grandparent's beach house in Georgia, and she couldn't be happier.
Her upstairs room had a balcony that overlooked the beach front, and Alison took advantage of it every morning. Even though school was long over, and graduation had come and gone, her body's internal clock still had her waking up at six am every morning, and she was okay with it. It meant she got her alone time.
The blonde sits down at her little table on the balcony and opens her sketch book that she brought with her. Its a chestnut, leatherbound book that she keeps with her at all times. The book itself is filled with countless drawings of people or places or things that she finds interesting. As she sits down and flips through it, she sighs once more. The last few pages are of the dark haired beauty she had encountered weeks ago in the coffee shop. Emily Fields, she had learned, was the girl's full name.
There was no escaping the news reports and investigators all over the town. Her face had been all over the televisions the next day. As Alison did more research, she learned that Emily had been charged with the murder of her girlfriend, Maya St. Germain. The blonde couldn't stop herself from tearing into the investigation. Afterall she had come face to face with the 'murderer' herself, and she can't shake off the fact that she helped her escape. She helped this murderer escape. If Emily really did it, that is.
From what Alison had read and found out, it seemed pretty likely that Emily could be guilty. Witnesses at a bar had seen Emily and Maya get into a really intense drunken fight, like glasses being hurled and violent screaming. The next morning, Maya was found dead in a deserted alley near the bar, presumably hit by a car. When the police showed up to Emily's apartment, she claimed she had no idea where her car was. Investigators later found it disposed near a lake with Maya's blood all over the front end. When they had showed up at Emily's house, she had just recently left the place, making a run for it.
Alison didn't know what to believe. She had seen Emily's genuine protest. She'd seen the absolute defiant look on her face, the look she had when she declared she could never have killed her (Maya, Alison now knows). But it seems now that according to the news and the police, Emily could very well be guilty. And just because she barely hurt Alison didn't mean that she is innocent.
Still, there had been something so overpowering about Emily, something so attractive that Alison couldn't shake. She kept drawing the brunette from her memory, and every sketch left the blonde wanting to know who she really was. There were always one or two features that kept changing every time she drew a portrait, and she just really wanted to sit down and be face to face with Emily and draw her.
That of course isn't a possibility. It doesn't matter though, Alison thinks about the brunette frequently. She wonders where she is, if she is okay, if she needes somebody while she to talk to while hiding out- but these thoughts never get her anywhere. She gradually starts to feel guilty for helping a wanted criminal, and then she sighs, wondering what would happen to her if she was ever found out as being an accomplice.
Anyway. The sketch book is one of her most prized possessions. It is one of the few things that she feels makes her human, makes her feel alive. Her grandma had bought it for her a few summers back, and Alison hadn't really used it until she was stuck in a drawing class at school. It was then that she discovered how relieving it was to draw, to be creative and to unleash the power of her thoughts onto paper. Not even Hanna has seen some of her most private drawings or sketches, and she wants to keep it that way. She loves having her secrets, it makes her feel protected.
Alison continues to sketch the scenery before her until the sun rises higher in the sky.
"What the hell are you doing up so early?"
Alison hears a sleepy, grumpy voice and she looks to her left to see Hanna tiredly standing on the balcony of her parent's beach house. Their families are so close that the Marins had ended up buying the vacation house next to Alison's a few years ago. Being privileged kids definitely has its perks.
"Good morning to you too," Alison smirks at Hanna's messy bedhead.
"It's eight fucking thirty in the morning, what are you doing?" Hanna demands once more.
"Enjoying the morning sunrise," Alison simply replies, her eyes twinkling with bright life as she faces the scenic ocean.
"Oh enough with your hopeless romantic bullshit," Hanna groans. "If you're grumpy later today because you're sleep deprived, I will not be taking your shit."
"Shut up," Alison scowls as she scribbles furiously at her drawing.
"I want breakfast," Hanna says loudly, likely to wake up half the neighborhood.
"So have Caleb make it."
"He won't be up for a bit," Hanna groans. "Can we have bacon or something?"
Alison sighs as she shuts her book. Her alone time is clearly over.
"Sure Hanna," she says in a slight biting tone, annoyed that her private time has been interrupted. "Let's eat bacon and all that grease that comes with it."
"Now you're talking," Hanna says, unphased by Alison's bitching. "Meet you in my kitchen in five."
x-x-x
"Oh my god I know her!" Hanna exclaims and Alison almost spits out her cereal, milk dribbling down the side of her mouth as she looks at the other blonde in shock.
The two are watching the morning news and lo and behold, there's a picture of Emily Fields on the screen. It's just a small town reporter discussing old news, but Alison can't believe Hanna didn't say this earlier.
"What the hell, didn't you see this all over the news when it was happening in Rosewood?" Alison asks confused as she wipes her mouth.
"No," Hanna shrugs. "Oh, I was on a college visit I think."
"Hanna," Alison groans as she almost slams her head down on the table in frustration.
"What? I mean, I'm not friends with her anymore or anything," Hanna shrugs. "Our parents used to be friends a long time ago. Like in middle school. She was a year older than us and we lost touch."
"What was she like?" Alison can't help but ask curiously.
"Quiet, mostly," Hanna shrugs. "She was nice. To be honest, I don't really remember much. She was never violent or anything, if that's what you mean."
"She just looks so…so-"
"Hot?" Hanna fills in with a smirk. Alison just shoots her a look. "She was always really cute, but she was the type of girl that didn't know it. I always knew when she grew up that she'd be really cute. I didn't predict she'd be a killer though, jesus christ."
"Maybe she's not," Alison offers but Hanna shrugs.
"You never know. I would never have guessed she was gay but she turned out to be," Hanna says as she shovels some egg in her mouth while staring at the television.
"Okay Hanna, being gay and a killer are two different things," Alison rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, but I'm just saying, sometimes people surprise you."
"I hope she's okay, wherever she is," Alison murmurs as she continues to slowly eat. When Hanna gives her a strange look, Alison merely shrugs. "What? Being on the run can be scary."
"Yeah, okay, weirdo."
x-x-x
"Do it, do it, do it!" Hanna cheers on in typical Hanna Marin fashion while Alison crinkles her nose and stares at the shot in front of her.
"Hanna, please, it's just a shot of rum," Alison grumbles, already a bit tipsy. The loud music of the house party has the beat reverberating through her and she isn't really feeling the party scene tonight (but she'd never admit that).
"Yeahh but it's 151 Rum," Hanna slurs, already drunk. She may have pregamed a bit with Caleb before coming to the party. The dark, handsome boy is holding Hanna up with one arm and grins at Ali.
"Come on Ali, no chaser," he goads her on and Alison sighs.
"Don't be a pussy!" The three of them turn to see Cece Drake standing there with a red cup in hand, and a big smirk on her face.
"I'm not a pussy," Alison growls, her pride getting the best of her.
"Then do it," Cece teases.
"You all suck," Ali glares as she takes the shot and throws her head back, swallowing the vile poison with a look of disgust on her face.
"No chaser," Caleb reminds her and Alison shakes her head, her face still contorted with repulsion.
"No, gross, ew, I fucking hate this stuff," Alison says as she looks for the closest chaser and grabs a lime off the counter and sucks on it. The sour taste isn't much better but she'll take it. She makes a mental note that lime only goes well with tequila.
"Pussyyyyy," Cece teases as she comes up by Alison and purrs in her ear.
"Shut up," Ali swats at her as she tries to dodge the teasing older blonde.
"Ali's just grumpy cause she hasn't gotten any action in a while," Hanna casually tosses out there and Alison throws the lime in her hand at the drunk blonde.
"What about Ian?" Cece asks and Alison rolls her eyes.
"Over it," Alison merely responds.
"Then let's get you a beach hottie," Cece smirks and grabs Alison's arm. The blonde rolls her eyes, it's going to be a long night.
x-x-x
Seven more shots and two beers later, Alison stumbles out onto the beach front as some guy leads her out back. She doesn't really remember his name, but he's definitely attractive...well, at least he is from what Ali can tell in her drunken haze.
"Let's go there," he says drunkenly as he points to a spot on the beach behind the house.
"Noo," Alison protests with a small hiccup. "The ocean. I wanna go to the ocean."
"Let's go swimming," the boy says with big grin and Alison's head is spinning as she nods feverently.
"Okay," she says enthusiastically as he grabs her hand and pulls her down towards the shore.
"But you can't go swimming with your clothes on," he points out and she instantly begins to take off her dress. "Damn girl. Forget swimming."
She looks at him and her world begins to spin, and she's definitely not going to remember this in the morning.
"What?" she asks helplessly as his hands land on her body as she sways, trying to maintain balance.
"Come here," he says with a sloppy smile and that's the last thing she remembers before her memory blacks out.
x-x-x
Alison blinks once, and then twice, and then her eyes flutter helplessly as streaks of sunlight hit her and cause her to groan. She doesn't have a hangover, surprisingly, but her body feels sore and sluggish.
The blonde is on the couch in her beach house, so that's a good sign. As she sits up, she sees Cece drinking coffee at the kitchen counter while reading the paper.
"Morning sunshine," Cece drawls sarcastically, her eyes perusing the paper lazily.
"What happened last night?" Ali asks slowly, her mind trying to sort through the events. She remembers shots, she remembers dancing, she remembers following some random boy out the back door…
"Did I sleep with someone?" Ali suddenly asks, panicked, because she has no idea- there's a big blank spot after she went out back.
"Not that I know of," Cece shrugs. "I found you curled up on a blanket on the side of the house, completely passed out."
"What?!" Ali asks, really concerned for her own well being.
"Relax, you looked fine, like your dress was in tact and everything was fine," Cece comments as she finishes off her cup of coffee and stands up. "I'm gonna go shower, I'll be down later."
The blonde on the couch tries to remember desperately for the life of her what happened. As she gets up and goes to her room, she forces herself to think of the details. She wants to piece together what happened during the blackout part of her memory. Sighing, she trys in vein over and over again with no success. But when she hops in the shower and relaxes her mind, bits and pieces come back to her.
"Come here," he says with a sloppy smile. Alison doesn't like the way his hands grope at her bare skin hungrily. Her head turns away as his leans in, and she suddenly feels very vulnerable, the alcohol rushing through her system making her dizzy.
He tries to drag her half naked body towards a dark part of the beach and she weakly protests, her dress lying on the sand and his gross hands grabbing at her in all the wrong places.
Suddenly, the next thing Alison knows, there are strong arms around her, holding her up, and she feels safe because these hands are soft, and there's a gentle touch to them.
And then Alison remembers clumsily falling into this stranger's lap, on the quiet side of the party house. She has her dress back on, and there's a cup of water in her hand.
Her eyes flitter up, and she sees a dark haired beautiful girl-
Alison nearly drops the soap in the shower as she tries to remember the girl's face.
Alison feels her body shift in the stranger's lap as the cup is held to her lips and tilted so that she drinks. Her hands clumsily grasp at the stranger's arm, holding onto the girl. Her fingers keep moving and she's aware of how soft the skin beneath her fingertips is.
"Thank you," Alison mumbles and hiccups, nuzzling her head against the warm body (and why was she nuzzling her head against someone she can't remember? did her subconscious remember?)
The face that looks down at her- it couldn't be. Emily?
Alison can't bring herself to remember the person, she can't remember her thoughts from the moment, she just remembers cuddling into some dark haired girl. Oh god, what if she was so deranged that she was beginning to imagine Emily Fields everywhere she went? Could she really be so obsessed with the thought of this random girl that she was beginning to put her face onto every dark haired, tan skinned girl?
It's always warm down south, she remembers herself saying to the haunting intruder that night. Is it possible that…that she listened…?
No. Emily is not the only person on the planet with dark hair (and a kind heart, her subconscious adds). She couldn't have been here. Could she?
Her world starts spinning from all the anxiety, all the rapid thoughts, and she soon has to step out of the shower and do something, anything to stop thinking so much. Mindlessly, she turns the radio on and starts humming the song that's been literally everywhere the whole summer.
"So am I wrong - for thinking that we could be something for real, mm-mhm-mmm," she sings softly as she puts her sky-blue dress on, tying her hair into a quick bun, and she decides she probably should grab a bite, though her stomach feels as if it's tied in a giant knot with a cord. There were certain secrets that she wanted to take with her to the grave, and helping a murderer escape is one of them.
The blonde wanders down stairs, and across the small yard separating her and Hanna's beach house. As she enters the kitchen through the side door, she sees the blonde bending over looking in the fridge.
"Whatcha lookin for?" Ali asks with a smirk and Hanna yelps as she jumps backwards and accidentally hits her head on the top of the fridge.
"Jeeesus Ali," Hanna grumbles as she rubs her head with a frown, pulling out a bottle of Smart Water. "Not so loud."
The television plays the news softly in the background. Alison sits down at the kitchen island and looks at the TV aimlessly.
"Someone's hungover huh?" Ali teases as she grabs a strawberry yogurt that Hanna has left out on the counter to eat. The barely awake blonde snatches it away from her, causing Ali to roll her eyes and go to the fridge to grab her own. In fact, the Marin's fridge offers nothing except yogurt and bread, but Alison is okay with that-
"… is wanted for a suspected murder and has last been seen near the South Carolina-Georgia border. Anyone who saw her should inform the authorities immediately."
Alison turns to the TV in surprise and sees Hanna watching too. And she sees the face that's haunting her in all her dreams, in all her daily thoughts. She freezes on the broadcaster's words and it's like someone's put something very heavy on her chest.
The slightest sound of the wind closing a window causes Alison to jump and her spoon in hand clatters to the ground.
"Goddamnit," Alison swears as she grabs her utensil off the ground.
"Relax will you?" Hanna shakes her head, taking a bite of her yogurt.
Alison can't help but feebly smile lightly at her friend's bluntness, but her mind soon wanders elsewhere. Is Emily safe? Does she have anywhere to sleep? What if she really was here?
"Um? Hello, Earth to Alison," Hanna snaps her fingers right in front of her eyes and she focuses for a moment.
"Han…" Ali's eyes are narrowed in concentration, as if she's unsure of her words. She wonders whether it'd be the right thing to tell someone about Emily. What if she was nearby…oh god what if she came to silence Alison?
"Ali? Why do you look so freaked out?"
"That girl…Emily Fields…she might've been here last night."
Hanna's jaw drops and drops a delicious cup of yogurt lands all over the ground in shock.
"She what?!"
x-x-x
"What do you mean you saw her?" the skittish blonde asks Alison, her eyes wide with pure disbelief. They're seated on the beige sofa in Hanna's living room, door and windows closed, and they made sure no one could simply walk in without their permission.
"I said it's possible I saw her, not that I definitely did," Alison explains calmly for the third time.
"But… how? When?" Hanna can't for the life of her figure out why this Emily was in their conversation yesterday and now suddenly pops up fiftyfeet from their beach houses.
"Hey where did you go last night?" Alison asks curiously, diverting from the question.
"At the party? Um… Caleb wasn't feeling the party so we decided to call it a night pretty early. We didn't see you anywhere so I told CeCe to take care of you and we left to come back to the house," she explains, wiggling her eyebrows meaningfully.
Sighing, Alison gives her a tiny smile and takes a deep breath (an activity she's never really given much thought to, but now it's become more deliberate, as if breathing was getting harder with every minute).
"I think I imagined I saw her, that girl from the news. I was too drunk to even tell if it was a vision or not," she finally manages to say, weighing her words.
"Ali, you were completely freaked out two spilled froyos ago, what happened? Tell me," Hanna replies referring to the fact that Ali had dropped her own yogurt in an attempt to help Hanna clean up. She can also see that Hanna is not really convinced by her little excuse. There is genuine concern in Hanna's eyes, so she sighs.
"Really, Han. It could've been anyone," she tries to sound convincing so she wears her studied expression and offers a tight-lipped smile. "I just freaked out because I can't really clearly remember a thing from last night," she adds, seeing that Hanna's face slowly stops showing disbelief.
"Now, let's go swimming, shall we?" she stands, patting Hanna on the back and heads out of the room to find her bikini.
Alison, after heavy internal debate, decides she'll keep her secret to herself. Because afterall, getting drunk and imagining she saw Emily isn't healthy nor a reason to confess that she helped the girl run away. So why does she keep hoping that her visions from last night aren't a part of her imagination?
x-x-x
A/N: Thoughts?! Also, how often do you think we should update? Always curious to know that one. xx