Chapter 13

APOV

The next day at school, we listened carefully for anything about Ian. So far, there was nothing. Of course, he wasn't a high school student, and so the chances that he would be talked about were slim. For now anyway.

It may have been noticed that he hadn't returned home last night, but there probably wouldn't be any suspicions for another few days. That gave me a few more days, until the media broke the news and I could then use it as ammunition against my favourite foursome.

It also depended on who he lived with. If he lived alone, it could be days before he was reported missing.

Days which I could use, or my mentor could use, to further burn the body.

Destroy evidence. We were good at that.

I took a minute to slip a brief note in my mentor's locker, telling her to meet me at lunch in the library. Now that our main threat was dealt with, we had to discuss who the next one would be, and how we were going to deal with them.

During my classes before lunch, I took the opportunity to tune in to my classmates and their conversations: listening to see if anything of any interest was being said.

So far, there was nothing.

While my English teacher droned about something, I took out my cell phone and checked the newspapers online, checking to see if there was anything relevant to me. As with my classmates, there was nothing.

Just as I'd suspected. There probably wouldn't be anything for a few more days. For now though, it was necessary to keep checking.

I sent my mentor a quick text to let her know that online, there wasn't anything. Nor was there anything in what my classmates were talking about.

To keep up the charade, I quickly resumed scribbling notes. I wasn't sure how relevant to the class they were, but I had to act normal. Eventually class ended and I hurried to the library, spreading out my books and pretending to be absorbed with my French text.

My mentor appeared, evidently out of nowhere. She settled in to the seat closest to me, and we began to discuss strategy.

Ian gone meant our biggest threat was gone. Now, we had to work out who our the next one was.

She drew up a small grid and wrote two names heading each column up. Jenna and Melissa.

Jenna knew a few things, and was blinded by Ali back in the sixth grade. There was a chance that if Ian's body was found soon, she might come forward with what she knew.

Melissa knew everything. We knew this because of we knew what she had told Ian. This made her the bigger threat, so we would have to be sure to warn her off telling anyone else what she knew. With his death, and a friendly warning, she should stay quiet.

As for Jenna… one of us would have to check in on her and find out what she knew. Evaluate her as a threat against Melissa. And if it happened that she was the bigger threat, we would have to deal with her accordingly.

I started writing brief notes to use in the letter to Melissa. Of course, I wouldn't be writing the full letter or sending it until the news broke. It was always good to be prepared.

Later, I would have to check in on her too. See what she was doing, if she suspected.

I added them to my notes-M and J.

Once I knew what they were thinking, I would be able to go from there.

SPOV

It had been four days after I'd woken in the middle of the night with that strange feeling that something was about to happen. So far, I hadn't noticed anything out of place. That feeling persisted, getting stronger all the time.

It reminded me of something. The time in seventh grade, just before Ali went missing. One night, I'd woken up from my sleep and had a feeling of something happening soon.

That was what I was feeling again, but stronger.

I didn't doubt that whatever it was that would happen, A would somehow be involved. I hated to think of what would happen.

I also had the nagging feeling that there was something I had to do, but I couldn't work out what it was.

I knew I was completely up to date on my homework, so that obviously wasn't what I needed to do.

Finally, I remembered what it was I'd been intending to do-talk to Ian and see if he could tell me something from when he and Ali were secretly together.

I made a quick note of it and headed to my car.

On the way to my car, I could have sworn I saw a flash of blond hair, and a person in disguise who seemed to be staring directly at me.

Mentor POV

A needed to catch up on her sleep, so I went to pay a little visit to Melissa and see what she knew.

As I walked, I made sure my hair was tightly bound under my hood and my glasses obscured my face, as I had done several times before.

A had already told me that Melissa was staying with her parents at the moment. This would be a good chance to also spend a little time focusing on Spencer. I could catch up on both sisters and, while I was at it, observe the relationship between them nowadays.

I knew full well that they'd never fully got on. Spencer had always viewed Melissa as perfect, and while she was forever trying to catch up to Melissa, Melissa was continuing to achieve. It made sense. Pushy mother, wanted both kids to be perfect.

Of course, Melissa wasn't perfect. I didn't know why Spencer spent so much time trying to catch up to her. Surely it would be better if she just focused on her own achievements.

I reached their house and settled into a comfortable area that was well hidden. Months working with A had honed my skills at being able to find and utilize a good hiding place. Curled up and hidden completely, I listened to everything going on.

Melissa's voice carried to me clearly, and it sounded like she was calling Ian. Again, by the sounds of it. Her tone sounded annoyed and slightly upset, as if she'd been calling him every day for weeks. She said that he 'still wasn't picking up'-I assumed she was leaving a voicemail and that he should call her soon.

Oh, it was so tempting to burst her bubble right then.

After I'd heard this, I listened more, tuning Melissa out. From the direction of Spencer's room, I heard typing. Sounded like computer work. Probably another extra-credit essay.

I didn't hear Mr. Hastings, and it occurred to me that he wasn't at home. His car wasn't there either, so he was probably still at work.

Melissa was now talking to her mom about Ian: she was annoyed that he hadn't returned any of her calls. That reminded me that I had his cell phone at home. Next chance I got, I'd have to toss it into a river or nearby ocean. Or just to the bottom of the wishing well.

I was finally happy with the information I'd obtained and raced into the forest, then took the long way around to get back to the streets. Once at home, I quickly dug out Ian's cell phone and left, walking directly to the wishing well.

There, I dropped the cell phone and covered it over with leaves. I recalled the lack of rain all week, and figured the leaves would be dry enough to catch alight if a lit cigarette happened to drop onto one. I dug into my jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and taking a few shallow inhalations before dropping it to the leaves below. As I'd thought, the leaves were dry enough that a small spark flared up almost instantly. To encourage the fire along, I tossed down another few lit matches and cigarettes, trying to conserve the matches. I'd have to get another pack soon, I was using so many.

At last, the flames caught and burnt well for a good fifteen minutes. As I had done the other night, I gathered leaves to cover it all over. I repeated what I'd done that night and finally walked away, after carefully checking to be sure that no evidence had been left.

There was none, so I went to catch up with A and tell her what I'd learnt from visiting the Hastings house.

APOV

By the time I woke up, I had no idea what time it was. My mentor was sitting on my bed, looking at me approvingly. I knew that now she wanted me to be even more vigilant than I already was.

Looking outside, the sky was dark, so I figured I'd slept the whole afternoon away. I felt guilty, as that was a perfect opportunity to visit Melissa or Jenna.

She must have read the thoughts on my face, because she handed me a notepad with M at the top of the page. I scanned it. Evidently, Melissa had been calling Ian repeatedly. Spencer didn't let on to any suspicions.

Next, she caught me up to what she'd been doing. Again, I felt guilty for sleeping while she ran around doing things I should be doing. I was relieved when she told me she'd stopped by the wishing well and checked for evidence, finding none, and that she'd destroyed the cell phone. She'd also spent some time making sure the body got a little more burnt.

I made plans to visit Jenna the next day and listen in. We were still waiting for someone to get a clue so the media could break the news.

I wasn't looking forward to reading all the headlines. New development in DiLaurentis saga. Or whatever they managed to come up with. My mentor wouldn't be either. I didn't doubt that the headlines would irritate her intensely. And I would be the one who heard any of her ranting against it. Not because they upset her, or the people writing the articles were being insensitive, but because none of them knew what really happened. Of course we knew, but we weren't going to just tell people what had happened. Drama was what we were going for, and we wouldn't get that by doing things the easy way.

I checked online and was frustrated by my findings. So far, it hadn't been reported that Ian was missing or anything. It occurred to me that he may have been planning to go away: a holiday perhaps-and so no one would be concerned by his absence. He'd been away from coaching the hockey team for at least two sessions now, which wasn't suspicious. It did, however, suggest any absences were planned and known about.

That was a good thing. It made our job easier. It was also a bad thing: I was getting impatient keeping quiet. That reminded me, A had been almost dormant now. It had been almost five days since we'd dealt to Ian, and I hadn't sent any little notes.

My mentor was now looking thoughtful. She seemed to have picked up on my thoughts. 'I think you should wait until tomorrow to send a note to each of the girls. If you stay quiet too long, they'll get complacent and start to relax. Of course, it wouldn't be entirely a bad thing because they might let their guard down enough to do something stupid, and if you happened to see it… Anyway, just send them a note to make sure they know A is still around. It's been long enough that if any of them did notice Ian's disappearance, you couldn't be in any way implicated' she instructed me.

I ran my fingers over the keypad of my blocked-number cell phone, thinking. Short and simple, letting the girls know A was still here. Miss me? Don't worry girlies, A is still here. I haven't forgotten about you. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. XO, A.

I saved it under my drafts and tried to decide what to do next. Usually, I wasn't this indecisive, but I wasn't completely sure of what I should do. Did I fire off another round of texts, or go and listen in on someone?

Maybe I'd be better off spying on the girls, trying to anticipate where they would be going and what they would be doing.

I got up and began pacing back and forwards, trying to clear my head and think logically. So far, much of my A work had been based on logic. Now, when I really needed to think logically, I was finding I couldn't. My mentor wasn't much help either: she was staring into space. Her eyes were glazed over and I could tell she was scheming something. Or at least debating the merits of one scheme against another.

The pressure was starting to get to me. I needed a way to get A to be able to ease off on things. Maybe if I took a break from spying on people, planning, listening in on conversations, I'd be able to return to it renewed and able to focus better. I would have to broach the subject with my mentor and hope she agreed to it. If she didn't, I could use the threat of not being A. Except, of course, I liked my life. I quite liked being alive. I wanted to live to see twenty-five, at least.

I was fairly sure she would agree to it.

A week of just going to and from school, just doing homework, getting eight hours per night of sleep. That was all I wanted. Seven days. I could even send the girls a note saying I was going to take a little holiday and see what happened. See who tried to work out who was away from school and therefore could be A. That would help us greatly: we could get an idea of who was suspicious and who they suspected.

We knew so far that Spencer was probably trying to figure out the real identity of A. Emily probably wanted to, just so she could know if her beloved Alison was alive or not. Aria and Hanna also probably wanted to know who A was, possibly so they could try to get revenge for the little things that had happened to them.

I brought up the idea of taking a break from being A for a while with my mentor. Luckily for me, she agreed. Ever since I became A, she tended to agree with me a lot more, or give me what I wanted. So, if it was a break I wanted, I got it.

My mentor agreed to monitor the girls occasionally: since A was only going to be 'away' for a week, it'd only be necessary to check in on each of the girls twice. Nothing excessive. Besides, it wasn't as if they could get a lot done in trying to figure out what had happened that night at the end of seventh grade. If they weren't being guided or told what to do, they probably wouldn't know what to do.

The only problem was that I wouldn't be able to take a break until the news of Ian's death broke. For my sake, I hoped that would be soon.

Perhaps it would be better if I took some time off until the news hit, and then resumed my break later.

For now, I powered down my blocked-number Blackberry and tucked it inside a desk drawer.

My mentor had promised to try to find out if Ian had been planning a holiday, and I felt grateful to her for everything.

For allowing me to try to assuage her anger. For letting me come up with a plan. For giving me a second chance.

For letting me live.

Mentor POV

I gave A the time off she'd requested. I was impressed that she'd gone for so long before she asked. Then again, she could have wanted to show that she was trustworthy before she went taking time off from her duties.

Now, I had to find out what Ian's plans had been. It appeared that he didn't have an official job at the moment, which meant he could take off for a holiday any time he wanted to.

I left A to her own devices, which happened to be downloading music on iTunes. I knew her well enough to know that downloading music was her go-to when she wanted to relax and be lazy. For the first time in months, both of us were allowing that relaxation.

Facebook might show something of Ian's plans. I logged in, going directly to his profile and scanning the wall posts. It wasn't long before I got what I wanted.

A week ago, he'd posted about his upcoming two week holiday to Spain. Why he was going there, I didn't know. Nor did I care: all I cared about was the fact that A and I had wrecked his plans for a fun little trip to Spain. He certainly wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Or ever again, really.

I printed the page and put it aside, ready to show A when she wanted to see it.

She appeared after a few minutes, evidently sensing that something interesting had happened. Or, at least that I'd found something interesting.

I handed her the printout and she scanned it so quickly, I found it hard to believe she'd read a word. When she looked up, she was smiling.

Sometimes, I felt like I could read her mind. This was one of those times. The thought going through her mind at the moment was perfect.

We'd have to wait a week longer, because that was when Ian was supposed to get back from his holidays. As far as anyone else was concerned, anyway. We knew how it would all play out. He wouldn't arrive, people wouldn't be concerned at first. Once more time passed and he still wasn't around, that was when people would begin asking questions.

More time would pass. Eventually the people closest would call the police. The police would search for a while. They might eventually decide to launch a homicide enquiry.

And both of us had front-row seats.

A/N: still don't own anything. Would like reviews. Intending to update soon.