Disclaimer: Don't own it
At least I couldn't get wet.
As the car sank into the water of the lake and began to fill with water, I laid there on the ceiling for a minute as I contemplated what was going on.
When the car first shook and was pushed into the lake, I had expected that I would just be knocked out of the vehicle as it was shoved violently. I mean I was a ghost and couldn't understand why I traveled with the car; I should have just stayed in one spot while the vehicle moved. Come to think of it, technically I shouldn't be able to sit on objects but for some reason I could.
It was almost comical that way I was laying here while I was missing the opportunity to see what was going on outside. If this was a movie and I was a viewer, I would be screaming at the television to get out of the car. In fact, my own mind was screaming at me in the back of my head, which I strangely ignored. It wasn't until the car was completely fill with water that I'd decided that I had enough.
Instead of standing up and walking out of the car, I simply rolled through the car until I was lying on the dirt outside. Water surrounded me and even though I felt like I was breathing, I wasn't since there was no water sucking into my nose. I stood up and ran ashore, surprised on the lack of resistance as I moved through the mud.
It was dark when I broke the surface of the water as the sun had just faded. A few stars were out as well as the moon which was full and bright, making easier for me to see. Looking around, there no one as well as any cars about which left me completely alone out here. The ground had tracks from some sort of heavy vehicle; maybe a large construction vehicle though I couldn't tell what.
It was interesting since I didn't see any vehicle of that type when we had arrived. Then again I didn't have a chance to check out the environment before the car and I got our big splash. I supposed another vehicle could have been following us without me knowing, which was a possibility since I was paying more attention to the driver in front of me, than what was going on behind.
I was now alone at the lake with absolutely nothing in sight. Even in the dark, there was enough light from the night sky to have seen some sort of vehicle and there was none. I couldn't even see the Town of Rosewood from where I was; which in the darkness, would not have been hard to miss. While I had some idea where to start walking, it would be sometime before I could make my way back to Caleb.
There had to be a reason why that car was dumped here tonight. While it was too dark for me to search it, which was easy given my lack of corporeal form, Caleb could help with that especially in regards to rides. I had a pretty good idea where I was in the location of this spot so I think I could find it again.
"Nice night isn't it?" asked a familiar voice from behind me. Startled, I turned suddenly to see that I wasn't as alone as I thought.
It was the man from the church; right down to the dark sunglasses. He stood there and smiled at me, his hands in his pockets. What struck me the most, besides his demeanor, was that I could fully see him even though it was now completely nighttime now. It was if his body was fully illuminated so that I could see him.
"Why do you wear those dark glasses?" I asked, surprised by my question. He seemed even more surprised by the question than I was.
"Well that's unexpected; I usually get asked who or what are you and so on. Never about the glasses," he said in wonderment. Now I was unsure on what to say next; do I dare ask "who are you?"
"You know something? I hate this town," he suddenly stated while I struggled to decide what to ask.
"Why?" I inquired, not sure what to make of what he said. I still didn't know what he was and was most definitely curious. He wasn't human but I was not sure if he was a ghost.
"Because I am tired of having to hang around here; too much death for a dinky town such as this. And don't even get me started about how everything keeps getting complicated. You right now are the biggest issue and we are unsure on what to do," he stated in frustration.
"I don't understand," was all I could say. I was being honest too, I really didn't understand what he meant.
"It was all supposed to end with you. Every dark thing in this place was going to end with what you were supposed to do next. But now you are dead and you were not supposed to be," he practically yelled; as if it were my fault.
"You said that last time; what do you mean by that?" I asked, pushing back forcibly. I refused to be blamed for something that I knew nothing about.
"What I mean is that you weren't supposed to die. How do you not understand that?" the man mocked, causing me to glare at him.
"But what do you mean by that? I did die, and I am not getting how you keep saying that I wasn't," I angrily said, fighting my primal urges to go at him.
"Because you were supposed to have been saved on that day in your house," He stated, this time a little sadly. My mind struggled to contemplate that and I wanted to ask how; but the words couldn't get out. He gave a long sigh before telling me more.
"You see, Aria and Ezra were supposed to arrive just in time to fight off "A" and take you to the hospital. There, you would have recovered and informed everyone about what you found; thus taking down Alison and her partner once and for all," he informed me.
"So what went wrong?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Aria decided to stop to get Hanna and Emily so they were too late to save you," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders.
"Wait…..I am now dead because Aria decided to get some more people when she could have just called them to meet them at my place?" I asked, almost shrieking.
"More or less," he answered with a nod.
I stared at him in disbelief, trying to wrap my head around what he just told me. I was dead and my future was toast because Aria Montgomery couldn't have the common sense to use technology. I screamed at the top of my lungs, and almost heard my echo reverberate throughout the area. He just stood there and watched me; keeping his face neutral to his credit.
I think at this point, I had an absolute hatred of Aria and her boyfriend; wishing that I had made more of their lives hell when I was still A. I wanted to now haunt her for the rest of eternity, her and Ezra Fitz out of spite. Come to think of it, I wonder if I could do that and considered asking the mysterious stranger whom I had yet to identify.
"So what now? If I am now dead, what's the point of me sticking around?" I inquired in my effort to calm down.
"Well, it is believed that you can still affect the outcome of things here in Rosewood even though you have a handicap of sorts," He stated with a smile that I wanted to punch.
"I am a ghost; what do you want me to do, haunt Alison?" I asked sarcastically.
"No; you are to help your still living friends to bring down the ones who killed you," was the answer I received and I could just stare at him dumbfounded.
"What are you? And why take my memories if you want me to help take down Alison?" I demanded, taking a step towards him.
"For your first question, I am a Reaper. My job is to bring souls to either Heaven or Hell. My kind are normally supposed to come for those whose appointed time is up as mandated by the Angel of Death. However, when it came to you Mona Vanderwaal, there was a complication with the process," the Reaper explained to me.
"What complication?" I asked, now more curious than ever.
"When you die, a Reaper such as myself is there instantly to either send your soul to Heaven or open a portal to Hell and send you downwards.
"Because you weren't supposed to die, your soul lingered for a while and thus you don't have some of your memories right now. Which could come back to you at some point I believe," he stated.
"But why not just send me now?" I wanted to know.
"Because your redemption was tied to your continued life and resolving what was happening behind the scenes in this town. As it is, you are technically bound for Hell because of what you did; although minor compared to Alison. If you had lived, you would have had a bright future including going to Heaven," the Reaper answered.
"So by keeping me here, I have a chance to help and thus be allowed to go to Heaven which should have happened if Aria hadn't screwed me over?" I concluded, looking at him for confirmation.
"Exactly; which would uncomplicated everything," he said as a matter of fact.
"But what about my memories? How can I help if the knowledge that I could pass on is not there?" I inquired.
"They should come back at some point; though I am not sure when. I was tempted to ask but that would involve asking someone in Heaven and we wish to keep this incident in house," the Reaper said as if this was some sort of embarrassment that needed to stay off the radar.
"Terrific; so I have to somehow find out what I knew before I died and help take down A with only Caleb to help me," I said, wondering if there was more.
"Pretty much; I'd help but I am not allowed to discharge what you need to know since I am bound by the rules of creation," the Reaper informed me with an apologetic look.
"Why Caleb though; can you explain to me that?" I requested since I had yet to get the story from him.
"Let's just say that Caleb Rivers is another complicated matter that is tied to the other side. I would highly advise that you hurry to resolve things and be passed on to Heaven because I have it on good authority that Mr. Rivers has run afoul of a very dark creature that is holding a grudge," he cautioned and I nodded, not sure what to think about that.
I was starting to wonder if I should have paid a little bit more attention to Church.
"Since you keep telling me that there are rules, am I bound by any?" I inquired, wanting to know what was stacked against me besides the obvious.
"Imagine that, an intelligent question. Other than Caleb Rivers, you cannot be seen by anyone else who is from Rosewood, unless there are special circumstances. Also, you are stuck here and cannot pass on unless things are resolved fully. So you cannot just take down Alison and that's it; everything has to be revealed and all lies exposed in this town," the Reaper informed me.
"That's it?" I asked, hoping that there was nothing else, what he told me wasn't too bad.
"Well there is one more thing; you cannot kill anyone. If you do, then down you go," I was told with the Reaper emphasizing that point quite firmly.
"How can I kill anyone? I am a ghost that lacks a physical form," I stated, objecting to the thought that I could kill anyone.
Yes, I hit Hanna with my car and did some things that put the girls in danger; but I never actually killed anyone. I also never really caused the deaths of anyone else since it was the girl's own actions that did that. Ian might have been a s***, but it was Spencer and Alison who directly caused his death. My own death could have been avoided if it weren't for the girls and their incompetence.
"You may be a ghost, but you can still affect the physical environment around you that could cause a death if you are not careful. So try and keep your emotions in check since anymore complications would not be good for anyone," he warned.
"I will try; I'll just have to stay away from Alison since I would kill her if I could," I stated honestly. If I ever regretted not smothering someone with a pillow when I had the chance, it was now.
"Please do. Well since you are now well informed, I have to go now," the Reaper said as he turned to go.
"Wait, you're just going to leave me here in the middle of nowhere?" I objected, expecting some sort of help getting back to town.
"What…you want a ride? For the amount of trouble you have caused, you can walk," the Reaper said as he snorted and vanished. I was once again in the darkness of the lake shore.
After screaming that echoed all throughout the area, I sighed and started to walk towards the general direction of town. I suppose there was a general advantage to having to walk all that way as a ghost since I couldn't get tired and have to stop to rest. But that didn't make it any less irritating to have to travel this way.
I should have asked him what I could do as a ghost; maybe teleportation was a part of my skill set.
I had to admit it was beautiful night for a walk, given that I was out in the middle of nowhere and still a ways from town. While in the car, I hadn't realized that we had travel that far and once again should have paid attention to my surroundings. I don't think I was lost, but it was going to take a while to get back to town.
Of course that left me with a predicament; where was I going to go? I suppose it would be best to go back to the cabin and let Caleb in on what I have found out. While I was still wrestling with the decision to inform him on Mike, Lucas, and Jason; I could still lead him back here to check out the car that A tried to dispose of. There had to be a reason why A went to all the trouble to shove the car into the lake.
I would have to enter Rosewood proper to get a general direction of where to go in order to head to Caleb's. I did know for a fact that I was far away and that it would take me hours to get there. Maybe if I got lucky, I could catch a ride on a traveling car once I figured out a way to jump in without just going through it.
I also needed to figure out how to recall my memories if I was to resolve things and move on. According to the Reaper, the memories weren't completely gone and could possibly be recovered so I had to figure out how; maybe with Caleb's help which I sadly needed. The Reaper said that Caleb was the only one in Rosewood who could see me and it appeared that I was stuck with him.
Woe is me.
After hours of walking, or what I felt were hours, I made my way to the outskirts of town. I knew immediately the general area of where I was, and knew which direction to go that would lead me back to where Caleb was staying. Unfortunately, there were no cars heading that way and
I was forced to walk the rest of the way; at least the streets were practically empty and there was nothing of interest to sidetrack me.
It was the middle of the night when the cabin finally came into view and I sighed in relief since my journey was finally done. I considered screaming that I was home, just to be a b*** to my new roomie; but I needed Caleb so that was out. It was time to bury my pride and ask him for help. It wasn't like he could refuse since he needed me as well as I needed him.
As I moved closer to the cabin, I saw that a light was coming from the window that indicated that Caleb was still up. That worked in my favor since it meant that I didn't have to wait until morning to inform him of my day. So as I moved through the door, I figured he was busy on his laptop finding out who Alison's partner was.
What I wasn't expecting was to find a nearly naked Hanna on the couch.
Please R&R and a thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read!