Pretty Little Witches

Disclaimer: we do not own either show.

Chapter 2: A Starts

It had been just another ordinary day.

Cassie had woken up at 6:00, had her breakfast, and left for school with her lunch in her hand, backpack weighing heavily on her shoulders. She drove to school, parked, and went in.

At school she generally avoided everyone now. She kept her head down because, without Ali there anymore, all four of her old friends as well as her were just normal now. They weren't popular, weren't the queens of the school. Well Hanna had somehow gotten popular and was now the It girl, but the girls had drifted apart a while ago. Cassie was sure she had seen Aria who had finally come back home from overseas, but the two didn't talk. Emily was the swimming star still and Spencer was even more into her studies then she had been a year ago. It was weird the five of them not being friend, they were the only witches in Rosewood. Cassie was okay with not being popular though; she'd hated feeling like she was being controlled by Ali.

Once classes were all finished and she'd headed home, Cassie went straight to her bedroom with the intention of doing her homework. That was when her cellphone chimed, telling her she had a new text.

At home, all alone? I guess your mommy trusts you around all her breakables and all those scary kitchen knives, huh? ~ A

The message sent a shock of fear racing through entire body. Of course it couldn't be true, that was ridiculous! The person who had sent this didn't know anything. No one knew about that, not even her mom. Well, her mom knew half of it, but not the part Ali had known.

Cassie remembered what Ali had caught her doing. It was when they were all much younger, and they'd been at a summer camp. Back when they were younger Cassie had always been teased because she was so small and gawky, always bumping into things or tripping. It'd gone on ever since she'd first been at kindergarten, but once she joined Ali's group it was as though all her tormentors became so rapidly furious that they just kept attacking. At first Ali and the other girls tried to help prevent it, but soon enough Ali told her to just ignore them. It was easy for Ali to say, because no one dared be mean to her.

… Cassie was huddled against the wall of the stall, shivering. Camp bathrooms smelled horrible, which almost guaranteed that no one would come in. Even if they did, she was hidden in a stall and no one would have a reason to get in.

It's not like those other girls had teased her as badly as they used to. They'd all been out in canoes when the three in Cassie's canoe (sadly none of them were Spencer, Hanna, Emily, or Aria) decided they were going to shove her in the water. Cassie had been able to swim back, but she could still here their laughter ringing in her ears. The campgrounds were mostly empty, so Cassie snuck into the bathrooms.

Ever since she had been at kindergarten and the teasing started she'd felt this way. It was… it was like being sad, except it closed in on her until she felt like no one cared. Her mother was always working, and her father was dead. It was easy to think she was alone, because she was. At school everyone hated her and at home no one loved her.

Of course her mom noticed, and got her help. By time she turned fourteen Cassie was okay again. It was just… now she pretended she was okay, for her mom's sake.

"Cassie?" a voice called. Cassie froze. It was Ali. "Cassie, are you in here?"

She prayed silently that Ali would walk away if she didn't get an answer. She didn't even dare breathe. She'd noticed lately how the other girls seemed hesitant to disobey Ali, and she didn't want Ali to have something to hold over her head.

Unfortunately Ali wasn't one to give up. Cassie heard stall doors banging open, one by one, until Ali reached hers.

Ali stood there silently, golden hair tied back neatly and curled into a bun. She gaped at the messy floor, and the red streaks that traced Cassie's arms. "Cassie…?"

"Ali, it's not… I scratched my arms on some branches in the woods, that's all."

Ali shook her head disbelievingly, pointing at the small pocketknife Cassie had found in her cabin. "I knew you were messed up, but not like this."

Cassie wanted to scream, or cry. It wasn't her fault! "Ali, please…"

"I should tell the others." Ali said. Her tone made it perfectly clear that she was disgusted.

"You can't!"

"Look at you! You're hurting yourself on purpose! Only really screwed-up people do that." Ali turned and began to storm out.

Cassie leapt from her place on the toilet, running in front of her. She pulled the sleeves of her shirt down over her arms, and brushed dirt, sweat, and tears from her cheeks. Ali watched impatiently, but at least she didn't leave.

"Well?" She asked after a minute, reminding Cassie that she had to say something.

"It started when I was little, when people used to bully me… I was all alone." Said Cassie faintly. "My mom took me to a doctor, and he said I had psychotic depression."

"What, so you're crazy?"

"No. It means I feel like I'm worthless, and that I'm alone. I get so tired sometimes, and it's like I can't bear to do anything." She sighed. "Sometimes I can't even force myself to get out of bed or eat or anything."

Ali was silent for the longest time, but at last she spoke. "I won't tell."

"You wont?"

"No, but don't let me catch you doing… that. Not again."

Then she left, leaving Cassie on her own.

It had been a few years since that day. Cassie had never hurt herself since, and had truly gotten over her depression. She knew that it could always come back, at any time, but preferred not to dwell on it.

Still, Ali was the only one who had known. Had she told someone after all? Would Ali really do that? It couldn't be Ali. Ali was dead. They had all felt her die when their Circle broke, but could Ali had somehow broken the Circle without dying. If someone knew how it would have been Ali. Did Ali ever leave Rosewood?

-TSC/PLL-

The night had been one of the darkest night the five girls knew. The night they found Ali's body. None of them were really surprised. They had all felt it when Ali had died. Felt the Circle break around them, but lately they had thought maybe just maybe Ali had done that. That somehow she had broken the Circle and left. It would have made them all feel better if that had happened because if it wasn't Ali who was texting them, who knew all their secrets?

-TSC/PLL-

Cassie walked into the church and right ahead of her she saw Aria standing there. Aria was looking next to her and Cassie saw the other three girls there. At that moment Aria turned around to look at Cassie. Aria held out a hand and Cassie walked right up and took it. All five girls looked at each other and then Aria and Cassie sat down next to their former friends.

Looking around at Ali's funeral was kind of sad. Not sad because Ali was dead. All five girls knew that even before the body had been found. They had been able to mourn already and while they might have not done a great job they had moved on and accepted Ali's death. No it was sad because everyone else was sad. Tears in their eyes and crying sad. Everyone, but the five girls that is, had hoped that Ali was still alive somewhere. That she had just run off. With Ali's body being found that hope had died and now everyone was crying.

"Is that Jenna?" All five girls turned around and yes in fact Jenna Marshall was taking a seat. Cassie couldn't breath for a minute. It was the first time since the night of The Jenna Thing that Cassie had seen Jenna. With Jenna gone the girls could almost make themselves believe it didn't happen. They could almost forgot what they had done to her, but here she was now. A glowing reminder of what they did.

Cassie was so shocked she had zoned out of the conversation. She didn't want to be here in a black dress pretending she was sad she just found out Ali was dead. Oh sure she was sad that Ali was dead. She wanted the pain to go away, but this pain was old pain. Over a year old. It didn't hurt as badly anymore as it did a year ago. Cassie didn't know what was going on until she heard Aria's cell phone ring.

"Who is it?" Cassie whispered making sure no one heard her and she could tell the others wanted to know too. Cassie couldn't help but think of the mysterious text she had gotten from someone calling themselves A. Someone who knew a secret of hers that only Ali had ever known. A secret she didn't want anyone else finding out.

"Anyone we know?" Hanna asked.

Aria looked at them. At their scared faces. "Just my mom," Aria said. "Is it not just me and Emily getting texts?"

No one answered as Ali's funeral started. The five girls sat quiet during the service and Cassie realized there was a feeling of peace between them. They had drifted apart because of Ali death. Knowing she was dead and not being able to tell anyone was too much for their friendship. Now that her body was found it seemed as though the five belonged together again. They didn't have Ali hanging over them.

After the service the five walked out of the church together arm in arm truly relieved. That was until a police officer came up to them. "We already gave our statement a year ago," Spencer told the guy, Cassie believed he said his name was Darren Wilden. It was true they had told the police everything a year ago. Okay not everything, they hadn't said they had met as a secret coven of witches to performed spells. They hadn't told the police they had ended up drinking or anything that happened after Spencer said she heard a scream, but most of what had happened they told the cops.

"That was when this was a missing person case. Now it's a murder." Wilden walked away leaving the girls standing there. Suddenly cellphones started to ring. Cassie recognized her cellphone ring in her bag and notice her friends going for theirs.

They all took it out at the same time and looked. Cassie almost froze looking at the text message. "Oh my god," Spencer said and then read. "I'm still here bitches..." everyone joined Spencer for the last part "And I know everything. A." The girls all looked at each other. They had all gotten the same message and now they all knew they were all getting messages from A.

"We need to talk," Aria said and the other agreed.

"Come on. This way," Emily said and they all started waking somewhere they could talk in privet. They didn't want anyone over hearing them. When they were far enough away from everyone they looked at each other. No one knew what to say.

"So, you guys are getting messages from A too," Hanna finally said and everyone nodded.

"This person knows stuff that only Ali knew," Cassie said remembering her first message.

"So what did yours say?" Spencer asked but no one answered. Slowly everyone mumbled 'it's personal.' The four looked at Spencer, but she repeated the sentence. "Stuff that only Ali knew." Spencer repeated what Cassie had said. "Ali knew everything."

"What do we do?" Aria asked, but no one had an answer.

Cassie opened her bag. She had gotten into carrying around her backpack or for events like this a large pocketbook. She always kept this close to her never leaving it alone in her house for obvious reasons. "Maybe this will help." When Cassie had taken out the notebook everyone knew what it was right away. Sure it looked like a normal notebook that some girls had put sticker on. Even in the front in marker they had written Ali's Girls on it. They had wanted to put witches, but decided that if any of their parents saw it it would be too obvious what it was if they put witches. This way it just looked like a shared journal or something. What Cassie held in her hand though was the girls homemade Book of Shadows.

"You kept it all this time," Hanna said taking hold of the book, but not opening it. She passed it to Emily who then passed it to Aria. Aria stared at the cover for a bit before passing it to Spencer.

"Yeah, it kind of just ended up with me. I didn't want to throw it away." Cassie had also added some stuff to the back of the book. While she was not practicing magic as much has she had when Ali had been alive it was hard just to quit. How could you just quit something so amazing? So whenever she had some free time and was bored, which actually happened a lot, Cassie would practice magic. Try to find new spells and potions.

Spencer flipped open to the first page. They all knew what spell she was looking at and none of them actually needed to see the spell to be able to say it. The first spell they had put in this book was the bounding spell. They had even put all there names at the bottom and put the date they had bounded their Circle. "When evil assails us,' Spencer said.

"when fear weakens us," Aria continued and then stopped.

"When descent threatens us," Emily said.

"In the Circle we will find our power," Hanna said.

"We come to this place alone," Cassie said and then they all finished it together "but we leave bound as one." It was when they finished they realized they were actually standing in a circle with each other. They paused not knowing what to say next. Not even knowing why they had said that part of that spell.

"Evil is assailing us now," Spencer said. 'Fear is weakening us. If there was ever a time to be a Circle it's now."

"We might not be bound," Aria said "but we are all witches. We were all once a Circle. Even without our sixth member we kind of still are."

"What are we saying here?" Cassie asked trying not to smile. She believed she was getting her old friends back.

"We stay together," Aria answered. "We find our strength to face A and whatever this person has planned in the Circle. In each other."

"We use magic to find out who A is and stop A," Spencer said.

"We keep our secrets a secret," Emily added.

"The personal stuff only Ali knew" Hana said.

"Along with the bigger stuff," Cassie added. "We make sure no one finds out about The Jenna Thing or about any witchy stuff."

"We can do this together." Spencer said holding the book of shadows out in the middle of the Circle. "Do you all agree?" Cassie put her hand on the book and slowly everyone followed. "Together A can't hurt us. Together we are stronger."

It almost felt like the night they bound the Circle again. This time though they weren't actually bound together. They still had their solo magic. This time they were one member short of a full Circle, but they had something to fight for this time. They had someone to fight against. Once again it felt like they belonged together and this time they weren't going to let anything split them apart.

AN: Okay here is our 2nd chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed it and remembered both me and my co writer for this fic are members of the Secret Circle Project. The project has uploaded our 11th episode and we're now on our midseason finale. Go check it out and please always remember to REVIEW