A/N: So, I just watched the new episode and I cannot put into words how excited I am to get up to it within this story. It fits perfectly into the way I believed Hanna was going because of the trauma she had been through in my story, and in canon. Anyway, here is the latest chapter, although there is only mostly implied Haleb within this chapter, I promise that the next chapter is very Caleb and Haleb heavy, so just press that beautiful review button and I will try to get it up as soon as possible!
Disclaimer: The characters and the show belongs to Pretty Little Liars, I own nothing other than the storyline of this story.
"I'm trying to outrun my past, but still trying to defeat my limits 'cause you only get one moment in this life to be great and you give it your all despite what it takes, and you never let them kill you, you take everything that they give you and throw it right fucking at them and tell them it doesn't build you, and no it doesn't ever break you and no it can't overtake you. Life's like a bed of roses, you take the thorns and you make do. Sometimes you have to hurt for the cause to be reached but one day you'll be stronger than all that you beat." - Angel Haze
Hanna smiled as she looked down at Henry who had just woke up with a huge smile on his face, she watched as he kicked his legs and removed his blanket, as his arms reached out for his mother. It made her heart soar every single morning; in a world where she felt so unloved, especially by herself, to have this one person who looked at her as though she was the entire world. Henry loved her no matter what, and whilst she was terrified of doing something that would damage him in ways she would never be able to repair, she couldn't imagine her life without him in it. "Oh my god..."
She heard a gasp behind her, breaking it from her thoughts about the little boy as she jumped and turned around to make eye contact with Aria for just a brief second. "What?" She asked, although she knew exactly what her best friend had seen, and it was enough to make her grab for the nearest shirt. "Y-you're back..." Aria confirmed what Hanna had already known, and she quickly gave a shrug of her shoulders as she slipped the extra piece of fabric on that would cover up the injuries she had done so well to hide from most of the people who worried for her.
"Oh, um, it's nothing... it's fine." She tried to shrug it off, her eyes watered but she held them back. She had to keep it together, for herself, for her friends and for Henry. She had been through hell and back, in more ways than anyone other than Spencer and Caleb knew and she didn't want this to be the thing that finally snapped her in half.
"That's definitely not nothing, Hanna! Those... those look like burn marks. Did that happen to you in there?" She almost wanted to roll her eyes because where else would she had gotten them? But she just turned back to take her son from his crib and motioned towards the door, "Spencer's here." She commented, pushing past Aria without another word, when the other woman called her name. Her arms wrapped around her son as though he was a security blanket. He was the only thing that kept her grounded, the only thing in the world she had left that would keep her standing there, still breathing. She had nothing else, nothing good in her life other than the boy she held in her arms.
Whilst she hated him being involved in anything that had to do with Rosewood, A and everything else that made the town so messed up, she still held Henry on her lap, playing with his fingers as he just giggled to himself. His eyes were glued to the television, and she pressed her lips to his head as her friends argued amongst themselves. With a sigh, she turned to Emily who was sitting next to her and just shrugged her shoulders, "So, you saw them arguing, what's so suspicious about that?"
"No, it was the way that they argued... like they were familiar with each other. This definitely wasn't the first time they met." Hanna's eyes flicked to Aria when she spoke, but their eyes connected and she quickly looked down in embarrassment and shame. Hanna had done so well to hide all of her weaknesses, and whilst she would never be able to look Spencer in the eyes again because of everything she knew, Aria was being added to the list. At the thought of Alison's husband being the one to have tortured her, she kept her eyes cast down and held onto Henry a little tighter, causing his little head to tilt up to look at her with a huge grin on his face. She just smiled back down at him, and nudged their noses together, ignoring what was going on around them for just a moment, "... I did and it's awful. He had her strapped down on the bed like an animal."
She gulped, trying not to think of Ali in that way – they had all been through so much, Hanna was certain that each of them were cursed in their way. Finally, she spoke, looking away from her son when she did because the thought of him seeing any form of pain in her eyes, broke her heart. "If it is Elliott, he's capable of doing a lot more than that."
"Yeah, well... we need to get away from him." Hanna glanced at Emily and wondered, for just a moment, if she held some resentment towards her for putting Alison in danger in the way she had. Hanna hadn't been involved in the decision but she was the one who had gotten herself kidnapped, and thus, exposed the fact that Alison had murdered her own sister. Or cousin. Or whatever the hell she was.
"How? She's his patient and his wife."
Finally, she dared to look Spencer's and Aria's way and bit down on her lip, "We go to Welby, we talk to someone in charge and we tell them what's going on." It was the only decision she had reached, they needed to talk to someone who wasn't as corrupt as they suspected Elliott was. "Just give me a moment to get Henry dressed and fed and then we can set off," She mumbled, before she stood up and turned around when Emily spoke to Aria, "What is it?"
Aria had a lost look on her face, as though she as caught up in a memory before she spoke, "I just keep thinking about the night that Alison and Elliott came to my house, when they asked me to marry them... they seemed so in love." Hanna gave the other woman a small, sad smile, "A lot of people can pretend to be something they're not..." The look on Spencer's face was enough for Hanna to quickly turn away and move back towards her own bedroom, mentally preparing herself for the day ahead, as she had to do every single morning. It had gotten worse since she had escaped her second kidnapping; for the past two years, she had to force herself out of bed every single morning, with a list of things to do and reasons why she needed to remove the covers and drag her body from the bed. Henry was always the top of the list, and usually, the only thing on that list. Somehow, getting Alison released from the grasp of her suspected torturer, gave her the drive she needed.
It was just an hour later when she found herself standing outside the door of Spencer's barn, biting down on her lip before she looked back at the car where Aria and Emily were waiting for her. Her eyes closed, and slowly, she reached out her hand to knock on the door. It only took a few seconds for him to come to the door, a smile on his face when he realised who it was. Henry was in her arms, in a world of his own as he held onto her necklace. "I didn't know who else..." She started, as her cheeks turned a slight shade of red when she looked from Caleb to Henry, "We're on our way to Welby, we're going to try and get Alison out before... anything else can happen to her and... I don't want him in a place like that. You don't have to, I know it's probably hard, I'm sorry... I just... my mom is at work and I don't..."
Caleb quickly shook his head and lifted Henry from her arms and then took the bag from her shoulders without a seconds hesitation, "Be careful, Hanna..." He spoke, leaning forward as though he was going to press his lips to hers, before he changed his mind and pressed them against her forehead, frowning when she flinched from the slightest touch. "By the time you come back, this little guy will know everything there is to know about computers."
For a moment, Hanna watched the way Caleb was with Henry, her blue eyes brimming with tears as she watched how comfortable her son already was with the man. Caleb's arms were wrapped around him and Henry rested his head on the man's shoulder, his tiny hand resting on his chest - it was everything Hanna had ever wanted and so much more. Only, Henry wasn't Caleb's, and just the thought was enough to break her heart. "T-thank you," She managed to get out, running her fingers over her son's head before she whispered a goodbye to the two of them, convincing herself not to turn around to look at the family she could have had once upon a time, as she ran back to the car.
Standing in the queue in the coffee shop, Hanna couldn't help but wonder why they were wasting even more time. Time that could be spent getting Alison as far away from Elliott as they possibly could – just the thought of her being in the same danger Hanna had been made her feel sick. Her and Alison had never been the best of friends, not in the end, but she cared and she never wanted to see another person in pain. She distracted herself, pretending to look down at her phone, the thought of being in a crowded place causing the panic to rise in her chest, that she tried to cover up as best she could. "Hanna?" She barely heard Aria calling her name, until her hand as on her shoulder and she jumped, her eyes wide and panicked until she realised where she was. Quickly, she tucked her phone back into her bag and bit down on her lip, "You okay?"
Hanna hated that question more than any other, because she never knew how to answer it. Most of the time she would fake a smile and tell the person that she was absolutely fine, because that was what they wanted to hear. If she were to answer the question truthfully, she dreaded the thought of anyone knowing exactly how she felt – she could go into how much pain she was in, how she hated herself, hated her life, longed to be anywhere else, and anyone else. How the only reason she forced herself out of bed every single morning was because she was a mother, although sometimes she wondered if Henry would be better off without her. What kind of life would he have growing up with a severely depressed, suicidal, traumatised mother? Instead, she settled on the subtle honesty that she hoped would mean Aria would leave the question alone, "Please, don't ask me that."
"Look, I don't wanna push-" Hanna quickly cut that sentence off before Aria could finish, "And I appreciate that." Her tone as bitter, in the hopes that her best friend would just get the hint and leave it alone. Instead, Aria got a little closer to her, and whispered in her ear, "We were all in the dollhouse, Hanna, I know what you're going through."
At that, she wanted to laugh out loud. The dollhouse had been terrifying, they had been there for longer but it had purely been psychological torture, the kind of torture that left her jumpy, curled up in a closet for her own safety in the fear that someone was going to come after her. But that place, in the middle of the woods, it was a different kind of pain, something she would never be able to describe, not to anyone who had never been through it with her, "It's not the same." She ran her fingers through her hair, and took a deep breath, before she glanced down at her shaking hands with a frown. "Um, can you just order me a latte, I'll be outside." She didn't wait for her friends answer, as she just quickly rushed out of there, not able to stand the crushing feeling of the crowded place any longer. She was terrified all the time, it felt as though someone had rested a large rock on her chest and she just needed to feel the fresh air on her face and most of all, be as far from Aria as she possibly could.
Hanna still didn't know how she managed to conjure up the fake confidence that she emitted at Welby – she could stand there with her arms folded, informing the doctor standing in front of her of the lengths they would go to in order to protect their best friend. He seemed to take them seriously enough, but Hanna was too caught up in her thoughts as they walked down the hallways of the hospital. Her eyes glanced at the rooms they passed, at the people that walked in silence, and the odd screams they could hear in the distance. Somehow, she managed to hide the fact that she was truly thinking about how well she would fit into such a place, how she would have ended up there had it not been for her son. She loved him, she would give him the entire world if she could have but he would never have any idea of the life he had saved her from. It wasn't until her eyes met with Elliott's for the first time that she realised it was him, and it took every last piece of strength within her not to collapse right then. She knew it was him, but she couldn't prove it.
The blonde found herself lost in her own thoughts as she sat at the table; her best friends argued around her and her hands fell into her head. Her fingers gripped at her hair and she closed her eyes, wishing she could be anywhere other than where she was right then. Elliott was the one who had hurt her, she was absolutely certain of that – she had seen the look in his eyes and she wondered how it would feel if she saw her rapist. She had searched for his face for such a long time in the crowd of New York, but she had never been able to see the face of the man who had haunted her nightmares for so long. Would she feel the same way as she had when she had seen that look in his eyes? His eyes held such darkness, but also a smugness she would never be able to forget. Is that how her rapist felt, too? As though he had won and she had lost?
She quickly shook those thoughts off before she broke down in front of the people who had no real idea of how she felt. Spencer's raised voice was enough to make her look up and snap her out of it for just a second, as she shook her head, "Whether or not she did it... she doesn't deserve to be tortured." Her voice was quiet, and a silent tear fell down her face – whether or not she had been a bad girlfriend, whether or not her dress had been a little too short that day, whether or not she had been walking without paying attention to the time or the people around her, she hadn't deserved to be raped. That was the first time she had allowed herself to think about it; she had herself and only herself for everything that had happened that day and the events that followed. But she hadn't deserved it and Alison didn't deserve what Elliott was putting her through right then. No one did.
Spencer's hand moved to hers but she quickly flinched away and turned her head from her friends; Spencer may have known but Aria and Emily didn't, and she didn't want them to find out soon. At least, not in this way and not because of what he had done to her. The others went back to plotting and Hanna dug her nails into her thigh as she waited for it all to be over. They had to save their friend, they had to stop her from going through much more than she already had.
Hanna didn't say another word until she was leaning up against Aria's car outside of Alison's house, staring up at the place, wondering what kind of danger they had just allowed Aria to walk into. They were desperate though, and if whatever their friend could find could expose Elliott for what he was. Spencer was the one to break the silence, "Caleb told me about what happened with you two at the Lost Woods."
She bit down on her lip and glanced at her best friend, trying to see if there was any sadness in her eyes, but instead, there was a slight sense of hope. Whatever feelings Spencer had once had for her ex-boyfriend, Hanna had seen that disappear the moment Hanna had told her the truth of their break up. Their friendship meant so much to them, much more than any kind of feelings they could have had towards someone who could ruin the kind of friendship they had. She gulped and shifted uncomfortably, "It was a mistake," She whispered, running her fingers through her hair.
Spencer gave her a small smile, "Was it?" She asked, as her brow raised and Hanna just shrugged her shoulders, not sure how she could reply. She had never thought of Caleb as a mistake, she could remember telling them that Caleb was the most un-mistake thing in her life but now... she wasn't so sure. Perhaps he wasn't the mistake, but she was, and everything she was going through was. He would regret it, and she knew that because there was so much more than what he could see on the surface. He would have to be there to comfort her when she woke up screaming from the latest nightmare, he would have to put up with her forgetting where she was sometimes, at her flinching from his touch. He'd have to cope with the panic attacks, with the therapy sessions she sometimes refused to attend, at the worry that she wasn't a good enough mother to the son who could grow up to be just like his father.
"You need to stop lying to yourself, Hanna... he wants to be there for you, he wants to try... and I think you do as well. You just..." She was stopped by Elliott pulling up, and both of them quickly walked over to his car, even though everything in Hanna told her to run as fast and as far as she possibly could from this man. Her body hid slightly behind Spencer's, and she folded her arms in an attempt to protect herself. His eyes were cold, there was the slight smirk on his face that terrified her, leaving her paralysed as she just watched the exchange between Spencer and Elliott. When he looked at her, she looked away, not wanting to look into the eyes of the person who had tortured her. She could remember him screaming at her, she could remember the accusations, the freezing water, the weapon of choice. She could remember it all and she could feel her legs shaking beneath her. He had hurt her, it was the first time she had gotten to look into the eyes of someone who had physically hurt her and it scared her beyond anything she could put into words. He spoke of a promise, but she knew it was an unveiled threat before he walked into the house he didn't belong in. She couldn't believe Alison had fallen in love with him, that the woman hadn't seen him for what he truly was.
When they were sat at Spencer's house half an hour later, Hanna just kept her eyes on the laptop screen in front of her, "I never should have agreed to marry them." Aria spoke, and Hanna just shrugged her shoulders in response, "Ali never should have agreed to marry him. I mean, they only dated for one week."
"We know nothing about him."
"Yeah, well, apparently neither did she." The blonde mumbled, her eyes glancing out of the window, towards Spencer's barn. She had checked in on Caleb and her son when they had arrived, only to stop short when neither of them noticed she had walked in. They had been laying on the bed, Henry was fast asleep with his head resting on Caleb's chest and his little hand gripped around his shirt and Caleb's eyes were closed, with his arm wrapped protectively around the little boy. He had the book Hanna had put in Henry's baby bag in one hand, slowly dropping off the bed and it was everything Hanna had hoped for once, and so much more. It was the sight she should have been able to have, Caleb should have had the chance to be a father, they should have had the chance to be a family and Henry should have had the chance to think someone so good, so amazing was his father. How was she ever going to tell him who his biological father was?
"Even if we find his family, I doubt they'll talk to us." She decided to pipe up, not sure where chasing up this particular lead was going to get them. Going to Amish county was the last thing she wanted to do, but of course, when she looked at Spencer, she realised just how far from Rosewood she wanted to go. And if it was just an hour away chasing up another dead end, then she would just have to take that opportunity. "I'll drive." She announced, taking the keys from Aria when she stood up, glancing at Spencer one more time, "Can you... check on those two in about half an hour? They were napping but... I don't know if Caleb knows how to heat up a bottle to the correct temperature and I put some baby food in there as well but..." Spencer let out a laugh and waved her best friend off, not taking her eyes from the screen in front of her, "Half an hour, got it."
Of course, leaving Rosewood meant being alone with Aria for an extended period of time and she could still see the concern that laid in those dark eyes. She just listened when she spoke about Ezra, how she had missed having him in his life, and Hanna's thoughts went straight to Caleb. She had missed him more than she thought possible, she had held those kind of thoughts back for two years because it caused too much pain when she thought of everything she had lost. "Aria..." The conversation had changed, the brunette had asked her about Caleb and Hanna was sure that was the second to last thing she wanted to talk about right then. "Stop, please... just stop."
"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to help." She knew that, she knew that everyone just wanted to help her but none of them could have any real clue about what she was going through and how she felt. "Well you're not, I just want to forget the hell that I went through, not relive it. I don't want to talk about what happened, I don't want to even think about, so please... just drop it." Quickly, she put her seatbelt on, starting the engine as she took a deep breath, "If I do, I'll never stop crying."
The silence that followed was a relief, Hanna just wanted to get the entire day over and done with – she wanted to hold her son. She pushed back the thoughts of how what she really had wanted was to be on that bed with Caleb and Henry, she wanted his arm to be wrapped around her, she wanted his lips to press against her head, she wanted to be snuggled with her son and the person she loved but she couldn't. Her reality was different and it broke her heart to even think about as her grip tightened on the wheel. She couldn't wait for the day to be over, so she could forget all about internal conflict that ran through her.
Hanna didn't say another word until they were walking away from another dead end, as she had suspected she would. At least she was facing disappointment away from Rosewood this time, "Well, that was a waste of time." She voiced what she was thinking as they walked through a wooded area back to the car so she could get back to her son. She just shrugged when Aria snapped, digging her hands into her pockets as she bit down on her lip, "How was I supposed to know they wouldn't give us any information?"
"The day is almost over and we're no closer to figuring out how to help Ali." She turned when she heard the sound of leaves crunching behind them, her heart thumping and her breathing shallow until she saw it was just a little Amish girl. She was always so tense, and she wondered if there would ever be a time she would be able to walk down the street in complete comfort, knowing that she would be able to make it with no danger of anything more happening to her – honestly, she thought, at this point, could there be anything else? Aria spoke again, pointing towards a large building, and Hanna was broken from her thoughts as she sighed and followed the other woman in. She really wanted to leave, there was no point in them hanging around any further, no one was going to tell them anything about Elliott and what kind of person he was. She paused for just a moment, her eyes following the same little girl who had been following them just seconds before, and she had no idea why, but she moved to follow her instead of Aria. There was that smile on her face that she always used when she was speaking to kids, and a tone of voice Spencer had once referred to as motherly, "Hi, what's your name?"
She looked scared, "I'm not supposed to talk to the English." Her voice was low, and Hanna looked around, nerves apparent on her face. She wanted to find out some information but not at the expense of scaring a child, especially not when she was a mother herself. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't want to get you into trouble." Hanna smiled, and just as she went to turn away, the girl spoke again - "You're pretty."
She stopped, and turned back to her, "Thanks, so are you..." She opened her mouth once again to say something else, before Aria walked in and she finally got the name of the little girl she had been speaking to. It turned out Aria had only succeeded in finding out another dead end – they were never going to find out the information they needed to go to the police, or to do something about the person who had tortured her. She was so certain it was him, there was no one else it could possibly be; she had seen the look in his eyes, she had looked into the eyes of the person who had hurt her and she could see it happening in the back of her own mind.
She wanted to run away as far from Amish county as she possibly could, she wanted to go back to Rosewood, take her son and run away. Not to New York, not to anywhere that A would know she would go but somewhere entirely different. As far away from Alison, Charlotte, Elliott, the man who haunted her nightmares every single night who she would still never have a name for. Despite what had happened to her in the middle of the woods, it was a relief to know the name of the person who had done it, she just needed to prove it. There was a curious look on the little girls face, and it was the only thing stopping Hanna from running right then, "Are you okay?" She asked, her heart stopping when she got an answer she didn't expect.
"You look like my dolls," Dolls, it brought back memories of the dollhouse, of the way Charlotte referred to them, the way she looked at them. They had been her dolls and nothing more, that was all she had been to them and the more the girl spoke, she more she realised that even though Elliott and Alison had gotten Charlotte released – with a little help from her and her friends – that woman was not okay at all. If she hadn't died, Hanna had no idea what would have happened.
Her fingers moved over the dolls, Aria's face had paled, her eyes were wide and Hanna could feel her own heart thumping uncomfortably against her chest. There were tears welling in her own eyes, but she kept them back, "Did Elliott and Charlotte come here a lot?"
"They used to come all the time. She loved playing dolly with me. I saw them kissing once but I'm not supposed to tell." So that was what Elliott had invested in Charlotte, that was why he was after them. She had more questions than answers, which always seemed to be the theme – she never got the information she wanted and needed to be able to move on. Even when Charlotte had been arrested five years before, even when she had explained everything to them, Hanna still struggled to understand what she had to do with all the pain the DiLaurentis family had inflicted on her. "Do you know when she's coming back?" The girl asked, with hope in her voice, and Hanna was glad when the calling of her name made her jump and pack all of her dolls back in the box they had been hidden in, her eyes wide with fear.
And then she was gone.
"How much better did Charlotte really get if she was still naming dolls after us?" Aria voiced what Hanna had been thinking, and she just shrugged her shoulders with a frown on her face, "I'm guessing not much." She mumbled, but how much better could someone who had been through as much as that woman had, ever get better? She was just relieved when they were told to leave, they had an answer at least, not the one they had come for but they at least discovered something they hadn't known before they got there. So, it wasn't as much of a waste of time as she had originally believed it to be. But her son was waiting for her, and she had another night of terrifying dreams to get through, stuck in the middle of never being able to move on from everything that had happened to her.
Aria spoke about the information they had just discovered, but Hanna was distracted. She stopped walking, breathing became harder, tears threatened to fall down her face, there was a weight crushing on her chest and she could hear her screams in the distance. It was happening right in front of her, her traumatic experiences were getting mixed up, as though her mind couldn't differentiate between the two unresolved experiences but she could see the weapon. She could see what had triggered her, she could feel it against her skin, she could hear herself screaming and begging for him to stop.
Her back slammed against the wall, her body was frozen, there was a knife against her throat and then it was gone. "Please, please stop..." She begged, sobbing before the cattle prod was brought down against her skin and she let out a scream as the pain radiated through her body. He was in front of her, his hand was against her thigh, his mouth covered hers, she could feel his rough stubble but then the masked man stood in front of her and the lips were gone. She screamed once again, until her knees collapsed beneath her and he stood over her; she could see the metal glinting in the moonlight that shone through the cracks and she shook her head, "Please, please don't..."
"Hanna? What is it?"
She couldn't breathe; one minute the person in front of her was masked with the metal prod in his hand, the freezing cold water hit her half naked body and she was begging for him to stop and the next, he had been replaced by the man who had pulled her into the alley that fateful night in New York. His lips pressed to hers, his knife was replaced with the cattle prod she could feel against her skin, both men merging into one as she begged, screamed, cried and then froze.
"Hanna?" She could hear the panic in Aria's voice as the tears fell down her own pale cheeks, gulping back the sobs that truly wanted to follow. "T-that's what he used on me..." She finally whispered, her whole body shaking when the merged memories overtook every morsel in her body. "A cattle prod? Oh my god... H-Hanna?" She took a deep breath in a bid to calm herself down before she said something she was going to regret; too many people knew already. She couldn't go through the events of Henry's conception one more time with another person who would look at her with such complete pity, and then the guilt in the back of their eyes, that was what hurt the most. Hanna couldn't stand to see the look on another person face. "I'm so sorry..."
But Hanna shook it off quickly, she stopped the tears that were falling down her face and she looked away from the object that had held so many memories. Painful ones that she never wanted to feel again. "It's fine, I'm fine... Ali's the one who needs help now." Focusing on someone else was the only thing getting her through the day, and she needed her friends to be watching the other blonde's pain and not her own. It was too much to think about, she didn't need their eyes on her in addition to the careful eyes Caleb and Spencer kept on her.
"No, he's not going to get away with this. Elliott will pay for what he did to you." Hanna wondered if he actually would; he hadn't even hurt her in the worst way possible, and the man who had done that to her was never going to pay for what he did to her. Instead, she just gave a small nod of her head and walked off, fighting off the tears that she wouldn't allow to fall again until she was safely alone, and away from prying eyes.
Later that night, after they had explained the newly found information to the other girls, and Hanna had text Caleb telling him she would be by to pick up her son as soon as possible, wishing she could just get away from all the usual drama and be where she belonged. Leaving him with someone who was a stranger to him was the last thing she had wanted, but she tried to tell herself that she had to protect him and protecting him meant leaving him for just a little while until she could figure it all out. "She's right, it's all just speculation at this point." She put her phone down, in an attempt to take part in the conversation that was stressing her out increasingly more with every passing second.
"We have enough to get them to look into Elliott! They'll figure out the rest!" Emily argued, and Hanna just watched them all ping pong the same argument they seemed to have over and over again. Should they or shouldn't they tell the police? Did they even trust the police? Sure, Toby was good at his job now, but that didn't mean Rosewood PD had improved over the past five years; these were the same people who had thrown Hanna in jail with an accusation of murdering her friend. Hanna put her head in her hands and sighed, their voices were raised, her stress levels were rising along with theirs and she wondered if this awful day was ever going to be over. Finally, she stood up, "I'm starting to think it's a bad idea to go to the cops," She quickly said, before she could talk herself out of the words that she was sure her friends didn't want to her. When they questioned her, she just sighed, "Because if we do, we have to tell them that Mary and Elliott are after Alison because she killed Charlotte."
A resounding sigh of realisation filled the room when they all suddenly realised the impact going to to the police would have. Alison had murdered her own sister, or cousin, or whatever the hell she was. Further discussion on the matter had stopped when Emily thrust her phone in front of them and she bit down on her lip, her eyes watching the pin drop that appeared on the screen. The man who had tortured them wanted to lure them into a trap, she was so sure of her it, her palms were sweating, there was an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach that made her want to run to the bathroom to throw up. Before her mind could run away with her, a familiar looking text appeared and she realised it wasn't the man who had hurt her at all – SOS was their signal, it was how they all knew that they were needed by the person who had sent it. It was the kind of text they had sent as teenagers when they needed their best friends, which meant the person they were actually going to be following was Alison.
The danger Hanna had imagined herself in was just in her head, but the danger Alison was in was very, very real and she knew that no matter what she wanted right then, they had to do something. She wanted to wrap her arms around Henry and tell him that everything was going to be okay, she wanted Caleb to hold her even in just a brief hug, she wanted to curl up on her own bed all alone and sob for everything she had lost and all the pain she had gained. "She wants us to know that he's taking her somewhere." She heard the breathy sound of Emily's fear filled voice next to her and she nodded her head. She wasn't going to be seeing her son anytime soon, but at least she could do something good.
There were not enough words in the world that could express the regret Hanna would feel later that night at the choice she had made in driving. Being behind the wheel meant she didn't have to talk, she could feign concentration on the road and it would distract her from all the awful thoughts that swam through her mind. Her friends panicked voices surrounded her, but she kept her eyes on the road in front of her, ignoring the way her hands shook. She only listened to the directions they were giving her, her eyes sought out the car or the people they were looking for. It could all be over in a few minutes, because surely exposing the evil would mean he had no power over them.
"They're only half a mile ahead of us." That was the last thing Hanna had heart until she could see someone in the close distance, and then the familiar man who had hurt her appeared in the brightness of the car headlights. It was just a second of hesitation with her foot on the accelerator, just that moment of hesitation that would turn her from a victim to a murderer in just a few seconds. Her foot hit the brake, but it was too late, she could hear the thud of his body hitting the car and then her head hit the wheel before she was thrown back and her eyes met with the wide eyes of the man who had gone through the window of Lucas' car. "Oh my god," She heard from next her, the heavy breathing of her friends serving no distraction as she just stared ahead – blood dripped down her face and she wasn't sure if it was her own or if it was the blood of the man she had murdered.
"He's... he's dead." And Hanna was looking into the eyes of the man who had tortured her and she didn't feel an ounce of sadness that she had taken him from this world. There was guilt, there was shock and there was fear that she was going to go to jail and lose her son because she had committed a crime that would never be forgiven no matter what he had done to her. Even the dead man on the car right then had no clue of the psychological trauma he had intensified within her when he had taken her to that dark, cold place and screamed at her for information she didn't know. He was dead and she was alive, and Hanna had no idea how she felt about the fact she had just taken a life.
