Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Well this was unexpected.
Seeing Mrs. M again caught me by surprise and I just sat there as she just drove, listening to the radio.
She looked good, I had to admit and it was nice to see her in a normal setting. I hadn't talked to Hanna's mother since before my reveal as the original A; I had avoided her at all costs since then. I felt guilty around her, and it bothered me because I thought I had rid myself of those emotions because I had been wrong.
I also felt guilty because I had used Ashley's little affair with Wilden against her and Hanna. While it was distasteful, my goal was to make the secret come out primarily to get rid of Wilden in disgrace given his connection with Jessica. I wasn't afraid of what would have happened to Mrs M, since she would have been protected by the media; they always sided with the woman instead of the corrupt cop.
"I suppose this is a good time to say that I am sorry given everything that has happened," I said to her, even though I knew she couldn't hear me.
"Out of all the parents, I considered you the best, and the one who would go to any length to protect Hanna. I am glad that Hanna has a mother like you and hope you make it out of this okay," I told her, really hoping that she would be okay.
I was being honest about that; I really did think Ashley Marin was the best mother of all the girls. Veronica was never there for Spencer when she needed it; always out being a lawyer. Pam was a caring woman but I didn't see her go to the lengths Ashley did for her daughter; hell, she would turn Emily to the police in a heartbeat. Ella was an enigma though; I still didn't know how to classify her.
Given what I saw Alison do today, I knew that this was no longer a game. Truthfully, the game ended when people began dying in horrible ways after everything was stolen from me. Cece was now the latest victim and rotting in a hole covered by dirt. I sadly thought of my own corpse and was curious to where it was; shuddering even thinking about it.
I needed to get back to Caleb and kept an eye out to when to leave the car. I knew where the cabin was and once we were close, I would jump out. While it would have been insane for a living person to leave a moving car, I had the advantage of not having to worry about being hurt. Hopefully the route home would take me near where I needed to go.
After several minutes of driving, I got lucky as Ashley entered Rosewood, and was nearing a close enough spot where I could walk the rest of the way. When she was stopped at a stoplight, I moved to the side in order to leave the car. Saying a silent prayer to the older woman, I waved goodbye to her. I guess I couldn't help but be polite, even though gestures like this were pretty useless in the long run.
It was pretty dark out as I walked down the streets of Rosewood, trying to dodge any pedestrians that were in front of me. So far, I hadn't seen any familiar faces as I walked and hoped it stayed that way. The last thing I needed right now was to be distracted by someone I knew; I'd think I would even ignore a clue at this point.
If by chance, I didn't have to go far to find Caleb, and I spotted him coming out of the store with a bag of groceries, he was thankfully alone. As he got in his car, I sprinted towards it and practically jumped in through the trunk head first. I then crawled to the backseat and sat up. Luckily, he hadn't yet started the car since I really didn't want him to crash into anything.
"Hi," I simply said, and Caleb slightly jumped in his seat, obviously caught by surprise.
"Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea the commotion you caused today?" he asked, clearly furious with me given the tone of his voice.
"Yeah, I know; I was a bad girl. Listen I need to tell you something," I said, trying to change the subject.
"I am done listening to you Mona; you lied to me about not causing trouble. Get out," he demanded which caused me to blink a few times.
"Alison killed Cece today," I informed him and I sat there, waiting for his reaction. From the rearview mirror, he looked stunned and he swung his head around to look at me directly.
"What?" he asked me in pure disbelief.
"Alison killed Cece; I watched her do it at Cece's hideout and then bury her on the property," I informed him. Again, he looked stunned and struggled to find words.
"And you saw this?" he asked, regaining his composure.
"Yes; I saw Alison skipping out on school and followed her. She was picked up by Cece, and they drove to a place outside of Rosewood, off the beaten path. Alison went to bury something and when Cece wasn't looking, Alison hit her over the head with a shovel and buried her," I explained to him, using cliff notes.
"But Cece is out of the country," Caleb said and he looked like he was having a hard time buying my story.
"Not anymore; she was staying in a cabin that is definitely off the grid. I can take you there but we need to go now," I said, emphasizing the word now.
"Why now?" he asked me, puzzled by the urgency of it.
"Because Alison and her partner tried to destroy the place where Cece was hiding out. I stopped them, but they may return and finish the job so we need to leave now," I said, pushing him to stop talking and start driving.
But as such as life, there were bound to be complications. Before Caleb could say anything, Hanna climbed into the car in the seat in front of me and smiled as she put on her seatbelt. My intention was to have just me and Caleb go out there alone, not bring Hanna along for the ride and risk uncomfortable questions. I sighed in frustration as I knew that we would have to delay until Caleb took Hanna home.
"Let's go," Caleb said as he started the car. Both I and Hanna looked at him in surprise, not sure what to think.
"Where are we going?" Hanna asked, more than curious.
"What are you doing? You can't take her with us," I said, my voice beginning to rise.
"I just got a call from a buddy who said that he spotted Cece Drake and followed her to a cabin outside of town where she is hiding out," he lied and appeared to be ignoring me as I glared at him.
"What? We need to go there now," said Hanna and Caleb nodded as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"I know I meant now but even you must see that this is risky!" I practically yelled at him. In response, he turned on the back radio and annoying music blared at me.
"So what buddy saw Cece?" Hanna asked as she looked at him.
"A friend from Ravenswood; he said he had remembered her from the newspaper, and knew that I would want to know that she was in the area," he said and I had to admit that he was a good liar when he needed to be. It also helped that he wasn't looking into Hanna's eyes since she might have seen right through his story.
Hanna stayed silent as I guided Caleb to our destination. He smartly kept quiet and followed my instructions as we left Rosewood. I made sure to look behind us every now and then to make sure we weren't followed. Caleb also made sure to have Hanna turn off her phone after calling her mother so that we couldn't be tracked.
It took a while but we managed to reach our destination; thankfully the cabin was still intact.
"Cece is staying here?" Hanna asked as we got out of the car. Caleb kept his headlights on for light. He then popped the trunk and grabbed a few flashlights, handing one to Hanna.
"According to my source," Caleb answered, giving me a look.
"Well it looks like no one is home unless Cece is sleeping; we should go check it out," Hanna said and started to walk up to the building.
"We need to dig up Cece's body and get her cell phone; Alison never took it off of her and it will have information that we need," I said, stopping him and motioning to where Cece was buried.
"What is it?" Hanna asked, seeing that Caleb had stopped and was looking at me. Taking one last glance towards me, he turned to her and then went back to his car.
"I'll check out the area outside, you go see what is happening inside," He said, giving the blond a crowbar for protection.
"Okay," Hanna said, taking the metal tool from him, heading to the cabin while Caleb followed me to the spot where Cece was.
"So Alison just killed her and buried her in a hole?" Caleb asked me once Hanna was out of earshot.
"Yeah; it was a little disturbing how she just killed and buried her. There was no emotion on her face when she did it and it was really creepy; even to a ghost like me," I stated to him as I internally shuddering at the memory.
"That girl is just twisted," Caleb stated and I nodded in agreement. About a minute later, we reached the spot with a pile of dirt marking the spot.
"The shovel is over there," I said, pointing at the metal tool on the ground and Caleb found it with his flashlight.
"And you are sure that Alison didn't just take it?" Caleb inquired and I could tell he wasn't looking forward to having to dig up what was underneath the dirt.
"Yes; and we need to hurry. Like I said before A might come back," I stated, once again explaining the urgency of the matter. Before he could say anything, we were surprised by Hanna who had hidden herself in the darkness.
"Who are you talking to?" Hanna asked, and I could sense the intensity in her voice as she shone the light upon Caleb. Caleb just stood there dumbfounded and even I wasn't sure what to think.
"Umm…..just to myself," Caleb said, trying to lie his way out of this.
"Save it; something is up and I know it. You were doing this last night and don't say you weren't because I heard you. What is going on Caleb? You have been acting weird since the funeral," Hanna said and she just stood there and stared at him; even freaking me out a little. It was about a minute before he responded and I hoped that he wasn't going to what I thought he was going to do.
"Remember what I told you about Miranda?" Caleb asked her and she nodded; I was still unsure who this Miranda was though.
"Is she back? Because I am not comfortable if your ex is back from the grave again," Hanna said, and I looked over at him confused since as far as I knew, Hanna had been his first and only girlfriend.
"What are you doing? She is going to think you are nuts!" I screeched at him, becoming angrier when he ignored me.
"Mona is here?" Hanna asked softly, and I gaped at her in surprise since it appeared that she had believed his words.
"Yeah; she is right there," Caleb said, motioning with his head in my direction. I was the one now confused since Hanna never believed in the supernatural.
"How do I know it is her? How do I know that this isn't your original dead fiancé?" Hanna demanded, her intensity spiking again.
"Wait…..what?" I asked and once again I knew I had no idea what was going on. I was really regretting not keeping tabs on Caleb when he had left for Ravenswood.
"It's a long story," Caleb said to me and I just gave him a look while Hanna tapped her foot impatiently. Realizing that I needed to prove it was me since Hanna now believed in ghosts, I decided to prove it by revealing something that only the two of us would know.
Of course that was more easily said than done. When it came to secrets, Hanna and I shared a few together but I wasn't sure how many had been revealed to the others during the break in our friendship; especially to Caleb since it was more than apparent that they would be together forever. Deciding that one of the more personal secrets was the way to go, I knew there was once that Hanna couldn't possibly have told anyone which I knew about; especially since I had been there when it happened.
"Repeat to Hana these words: Hello Kitty Bra Disney Store," I told Caleb and his look of confusion was actually pretty funny.
"Hello Kitty Bra Disney Store?" he asked out loud, clearly perplexed and looking more at me than at Hanna.
"Mona?" Hanna asked softly, and my heart nearly broke at the tone of her voice since it was obvious that she now believed Caleb. She was looking at my direction and I could see the mixture of emotions on her face.
"Hi Hanna," I greeted even though I knew she couldn't see or hear me; no matter how much I wanted her to.
"What's this about a Hello Kitty Bra?" Caleb asked, still confused, not getting that we were now past that point in the conversation.
"That doesn't matter; has she been here all along?" Hanna asked though more of a demand than anything else. It was apparent to me that she wanted to be brought up to speed.
"No; only for a few days and it's a bit complicated," Caleb told her and Hanna narrowed her eyes at him.
"What do you mean complicated? Why hasn't she told you what we need to know?" Hanna inquired, now the one who was confused. Over the course of the next ten minutes, Caleb told Hanna everything that I had told him; though I left the bit about Jason, Mike, and Lucas to myself.
"So she's stuck here?" Hanna asked and I got a look of sympathy from the blond. It was appreciated and I felt a flutter of warmth in my heart.
"Until everything is resolved; yeah," Caleb answered and I appreciated the tone of sympathy in his voice.
"Well it sucks that she doesn't remember anything, her clues are way too confusing," Hanna stated and I just smiled sheepishly at the blond.
"I am not exactly happy about it either," I said to her and I wished that I didn't have to go through Caleb in order to talk to her.
"So it was Mona who led us here?" Hanna then asked, bringing us back to the present.
"Yeah; she says that Alison killed Cece today and buried her over here," Caleb informed her and Hanna's eyes widened.
"Wait…..Alison killed Cece? Right here?" she asked, her mouth agape, quite stunned.
"Yeah; Mona says that Alison hit her over the head with a shovel. I am going to dig her up and get her cell phone," Caleb informed and Hanna could only nod her head; still taking in what me and Caleb had just revealed.
"Wow that's creepy," Hanna said and I could seek her shake as if something cold had hit her.
"Tell me about it," Caleb said dryly and I just rolled my eyes.
"How are you?" Hanna asked me as she looked at the spot where I was standing. It was nice that she was asking me directly instead of going through Caleb to do it. He started digging while Hanna used the light to help him.
"All over the place," I said truthfully. I was thankful that she didn't ask if I was all right since that would have just annoyed me.
It took a couple of minutes, but Caleb managed to uncover Cece and he gently dragged her body out of the hole. Hanna gasped and Caleb grimaced at the sight of the now dead blond; I shared their feelings since I was also still stunned even though I had witnessed it. The sight of the bloody wound on the corpse's head was revolting, though Caleb was surprisingly unaffected unlike Hanna who had to turn her head away.
"Did you find it?" I asked and he nodded as he pulled Cece's cell out of the pocket that was in the front of her black hoodie sweat-shirt.
"Let's check out that cabin now," Hanna said and as the three of us turned to head that way, the sight of an arriving car caught us by surprise. At first I was afraid that Alison and her partner had come back, but eyes widened when I saw who it really was.
"You have got to be kidding me," I said dryly as I watched the rest of the girls and their mates pile out of Ezra's car.
Please R&R and once again, a thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read