Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Chapter 5.
It was pouring rain, and she was already soaked. The wind had taken her umbrella earlier, and she was just trying to walk as fast as she could so she'd be home sooner.
Her mom would make a fuss as always, and get her out of the wet clothes, wrap her in a blanket, and make hot cocoa for her. It was one of the only upsides of rain.
The dress she wore clung to her body as though the two were glued together. She was thankful for that as she didn't deem the dress capable of surviving strong weather like that. It was basically just tied together. She didn't know what she'd been thinking. It had looked good in the mirror, but she hadn't given it a single thought how difficult it would be to make it stay together.
She picked up the pace, although it seemed nearly impossible for her to walk any faster. Her feet were killing her, and she could feel that she had gotten several blisters. Another reason to get home as soon as possible.
"Hey, Aria!" Someone called out to her from behind, and she turned around to face the person; Noel Kahn. "Where's the fire?"
She'd had a crush on Noel in what seemed like forever, and struggled to find a word, any word, to say to him, and therefore she merely pointed up to the sky in an attempt to state the obvious; it was raining.
"Yeah, it's coming down pretty hard, huh?" He chuckled, and she couldn't pinpoint why, but she felt uncomfortable. Not at all like she should when her crush spoke to her. "That's a pretty dress you're wearing."
She looked down at her dress that wasn't really a garment. "Tha-thanks." She managed to get out through her chattering teeth. She was beginning to get very cold. "It's... It's actually not a dress. It's a shawl that I just wrapped around myself a few times, and then tied together."
He seemed a little too interested in her item of clothing, and it should have been a warning, but she didn't pick up on it. "Aren't you afraid it's gonna come off accidently?"
"No?" She shot him a quizzical look. "Why would you say that?"
He took a step back, and looked at her apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Aria."
Before Aria got the chance to wonder why he all of the sudden apologised to her, Alison DiLaurentis rode by on her bicycle. She grabbed Aria's dress, and ripped it off so she stood merely in her underwear. Aria looked up to beg Noel for help, but he'd already disappeared.
Alison appeared to have vanished as well, and Aria breathed out a sigh of relief. However, in that moment Alison reappeared on her bike, and rode towards Aria in great speed. The bike collided with Aria, and Alison gave her a shove so she fell and hit her head on the curb. Everything went black.
"Aria? Aria Montgomery?" She heard a voice in the distance, but everything was still black. Someone shook her, and the voice had gotten nearer. "Aria, are you okay?"
Her eyes fluttered open, and she adjusted them to her surroundings. The sky was grey, and it was pouring down with rain. The back of her head was throbbing, and she felt icky and cold. "I. I d-don't know." She stuttered as she wrapped her arms around herself, and that's when she noticed that besides her underwear she wasn't wearing any clothes.
"Who did this to you?" The good samaritan asked, and Aria finally looked at the person; Spencer Hastings. A girl who was very inaccessible, and only seemed interested in gathering as much academic bling as possible and nothing else, and now she was there being kind to her.
Aria shrugged when she realized that she had no recollection of how this had happened to her. The last thing she remembered was leaving school when the last class of the day was over, and the next thing she knew she was lying on the ground almost naked, and with a pounding head.
She rubbed the back of her head to make it stop aching, and the minute her hand and head made contact, she felt a thick moisture cover her hand. She retrieved her hand, and gasped when she realized that it was covered in blood.
"You're bleeding!" Spencer exclaimed, and gasped when she noticed the blood. She didn't know Aria, had hardly ever spoken to her, but in that moment she instinctively wrapped her arms around the wounded girl. "Who would do something like that to you?"
"I don't know." Aria said, and finally allowed herself to cry. She couldn't explain it, but somehow she felt very secure in Spencer's arms. "I don't remember."
"You must have hit your head pretty hard." Spencer reached out, and touched the back of Aria's head so she could feel how bad it was. It wasn't critical, and she believed that the rain made it seem worse than it was. The water kept the wound fresh. She glanced down on Aria's body to see if the tiny girl had further injuries. Besides a big burn mark that covered her chest and most of her stomach, it didn't appear that anything else than her head had been injured this time. "Do you think it's the same person? The person who stripped you and pushed you, and the person who scolded you. Do you remember how you got that burn?"
Aria thought about it for awhile, trying to recall the time the burn had happened. Nothing! She shook her head. "No."
"Well, if I were you I'd find out who it was, and then get even." Spencer told her fiercely, and despite them being strangers she really seemed to care about what happened to Aria.
Aria shook her head again. "I don't believe in revenge."
"Aria, someone burned you. Someone stripped your clothes, and shoved you so you now have a gash in your head. This person is going to great lengths to hurt you." Spencer tried to get Aria to see things from her point of view. This person was cruel, and no person deserved to be treated the way Aria appeared to be. "Don't let this person get away with it. Make him, her, it, bitch pay!"
Aria felt the weirdest headrush, and the sudden urge to carry out some sort of revenge. It was brief, and she shook it away. "Two wrongs don't make a right. You should know that, Spencer. You're, like, insanely smart."
Spencer smiled at the compliment, and decided to let the subject of payback slide. She pulled off her jacket, and put it around Aria's smaller body. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
... ... ... ... ...
Revenge sounds good right about now!
She gasped, and woke up covered in sweat. Her entire body was filled with panic, and she couldn't shake away the terror. She'd had a nightmare, she was sure of it. It had felt so real, at least she had an omening feeling that it had been, but it slipped away from her the minute she opened her eyes. She hadn't been able to hold on to her dreams for a long time, and even though she was sure they were of the bad kind she desperately wanted to remember just one. It couldn't be good that she always seemed to forget them, and was left only with a horrible feeling inside.
She glanced around the room, a room that had become annoyingly familiar to her, and it was still in a jumbled mess from when she'd presumably gone all A on poor Wren. She was gonna go out on a limb, and assume that it wouldn't go back to its obsessively clinical state unless she cleaned it. However, in that moment she chose not to. It was best it remained like that as a reminder of what she was able to become. A reminder of what she needed to avoid at whatever the cost.
She could not, would not, absolutely refused to A out. It was dangerous, she was dangerous, and she wouldn't hurt anyone else. It was easier said than done as proven by an excessive amount of episodes in the past, but that was irrelevant at the moment. The only thing that mattered was that she needed to get stronger somehow! She knew she wasn't stronger than A, and as it was currently she hadn't the strength to beat her, but she needed to find a way. Any way would do!
The one person who'd been supportive, and who could possibly have helped her get through this, had been Wren, and it was safe to say that the Wren ship had sailed. She hadn't the faintest idea of the circumstances revolving her attack on him, but she doubted that he'd want anything to do with her anymore. It was sad, especially since he'd been her only friend and ally at Radley.
At the thought of Wren, her eyes wandered through the room again. The mess was there because she'd been weak enough for A to take over, and do things she feared to imagine to Wren. This time she noticed a difference in the room; the window!
Someone had smashed the window, and she had a terrible feeling that that someone had been A, more specifically herself. Someone else, not herself, had covered it with some sort of tape, probably to prevent her from cutting herself on the broken glass. Any shattered pieces of glass that might have been on the floor had been removed, probably by the same someone else who wasn't her.
She wanted to remember what had possessed her to smash the window. What A had been driven by to perform such an act. What purpose did smashing a window serve? She couldn't figure it out. She knew that everything A had done in the past was to torture Alison and her friends, but she couldn't connect those two.
She removed the covers from the bed and stood up, using her hands to lift her body up out of bed. Her left hand was throbbing, and the rest of her body gave into the pain, and she fell back onto the bed. She remained there, lying perfectly still until her hand stopped pounding from the pain. She lifted up her hand to inspect the source of the pain, and found that the someone else who wasn't her seemed to have bandaged her hand. She wasn't a rocket scientist, but she was going to go out on a limb, and assumed that she'd used that hand to smash the window.
She determinedly rose from bed when the realization of her injury had finally settled, and she sauntered past the mess to get to the window as if it somehow would make what had happened yesterday clearer. She inspected the window and the area around it thoroughly, but nothing seemed to jog her memory. The last thing she remembered from the day before was the visit from her friends, but then they left, and the next thing she knew she woke in her bed, and it was morning. The blanks of what happened in between couldn't be filled, no matter how much she tried.
The door creaked open behind her, but she didn't turn around to face her visitor. It was early in the morning, and there was only one person who visited her at the same time every morning; Dr. Sullivan. She also had an exact time to visit her in the afternoon, and at night right before Aria was supposed to go to bed. This day, even more so than the previous days, Aria wasn't in the mood for her visit, but she knew she didn't have a choice in the matter.
"Good morning, Aria. It's nice to see you up so early. Usually I have to wake you." Dr. Sullivan spoke behind her, and Aria felt herself getting annoyed by how evidently the sympathy could be heard in her voice. "It's unfortunate about the window, I know, but accidents happen."
Accidents happen? The last thing she needed was for her condition, and the fact that she was indeed A, to be trivialized and be called mere accidents. That's not what she needed. She needed for it to be taken seriously. She needed them to acknowledge the fact that she was dangerous, and figure out a way to deal with it, to make it stop already.
Aria turned around to face Dr. Sullivan as she continued to speak; "Don't worry, it will be fixed very soon. We can't have you freezing to death, with it being November and all."
Why not? That sounds pretty good to me. Aria smiled stiffly at Dr. Sullivan's words. She had to give her therapist probs for persistently trying to strike a conversation with her, however awkward those attempts were. Aria didn't doubt that Dr. Sullivan wanted to help, it was just that... she didn't want her help.
She had always trusted Dr. Sullivan in the past, but ever since she'd been admitted at Radley she'd realized how few people she could actually trust, and Dr. Sullivan was amongst them. She'd had a suspicion about the therapist for weeks now. At least she thought it was weeks as she seemed to have lost the grasp on time during her stay at Radley. She didn't exactly have a clock in the room.
"Why don't you come over here so we can talk?" Dr. Sullivan requested, and Aria silently obliged. She took a seat on her bed, and Dr. Sullivan sat in one of the chairs that her friends had pushed closer to the bed the day before. "So how are you feeling today?"
Don't tell her anything. She doesn't care. "I'm fine." Aria lied, still smiling stiffly at Dr. Sullivan, but the therapist didn't appear to notice.
"That's good." Dr. Sullivan smiled sympathetically, and Aria cringed. "I bet you must be wondering what happened to your hand?" Aria merely shrugged. "I know it must be scary when your other personality takes over, and you have no recollection of what happened during that time, but I promise you that it will get better. The longer you take your medication, the further those episodes will be apart until the day the pills have fully settled into your system, and then they will stop completely as long as you take your medication."
Aria found it odd that Dr. Sullivan was suddenly speaking so openly about her condition since she'd previously refused. "What happened to not telling me anything about why I'm here? I thought that would be bad for my health this early on. Aren't I still fragile?"
"Yes, very, but your friends mentioned to me that they may have, as they phrased it, let it slip." Dr. Sullivan confirmed, "I would have preferred to have kept it a secret a little while longer, but what's done is done. It does make our sessions easier, but on the grander scale it wasn't the wisest choice to reveal your condition."
"Really, so me going crazy being cooped up in here without any answers was the better option?" Aria questioned, sounding sligtly more angry than she had intended to. "Besides, I don't really see the harm in the fact that my friends were honest with me. That's what friends are for, and it's not like anybody got hurt."
Dr. Sullivan shook her head, disagreeing with Aria. "I beg to differ, Aria. The window in your room is smashed, your hand is injured, and someone has been a wreck the entire night."
"That has nothing to with..." Aria tried to object, but Dr. Sullivan cut her off.
"Yes, it does. Your episode occured right after your friends' visit, and they'd told you everything." Dr. Sullivan revealed, and Aria shook her head rapidly, refusing to believe those words.
"You're making assumptions. You have no idea what happened between my friends and I, and you don't know what exactly they said to me." Aria said angrily, folding her arms across her chest. I told you not to tell her anything!
Dr. Sullivan smiled softly. The loyalty Aria had towards her friends was admirable, but useless if she were to recover. She needed to trust that Dr. Sullivan was there to help her, and knew what was best for her recovery. Her denial wasn't going to do her any good in the end.
"Maybe I don't, but the facts still stand, Aria." Dr. Sullivan said, being a little too persistent in Aria's opinion. "But let's not discuss that anymore. Getting worked up won't do you any good. Why don't you tell me how you felt when you woke up, and realized you'd had another episode?"
None of your damn business! "Absolutely swell." She replied sarcastically, smiling mockingly at her therapist. Dr. Sullivan, however again, didn't seem to notice the feeling behind the smile – either that, or she chose not to comment on it. Probably the ladder.
"I imagine you felt scared." Dr. Sullivan said as she smiled sympathetically at Aria, purposefully ignoring her hostility. "Don't worry, that's completely normal, but it's something that you'll have to come to terms with. You have to accept that the other personality's memories and actions are something you won't be able to access. It's a terrifying concept, I know, but the best thing to do is to be zen about it. It will only make things worse to go over and over it in your head, trying to grasp onto impossible things. It could make you go crazy with worry, and that's the last thing I want for you."
Aria smiled stiffly again, and carried on with the sarcasm – a characteristic that went hand in hand with being upset. "Congratulations." You pretend to care about me, but I know that you don't.
"You don't seem willing to cooperate today." Dr. Sullivan acknowledged, "Perhaps it's just the resedue from last night, and you'll be more eager to talk this afternoon. It's important that we stick to our sessions, despite how little you may want to."
Don't bet on it. I don't trust you. "How perceptive of you." Aria replied, failing to disguise her annoyance. All she wanted was for Dr. Sullivan to leave.
"Well, then we'll try this again later." Dr. Sullivan said, and stood up from the chair. She got ready to leave, but before she did gave Aria her morning pill. "I'll be back this afternoon with your next pill."
You don't say? Aria stared down at the pill, and she heard the door open and close as sign that her wishes had finally come true, and Dr. Sullivan had left her room. Great, she didn't feel like having company while she had a staring contest with her medicin.
She didn't trust Dr. Sullivan. She hadn't during her time at Radley, it had simply vanished on that first day. She didn't believe that Dr. Sullivan was interested in helping her on a personal level, but as a therapist she'd surely have to follow some sort of protocol, and actually do the doctoring thing even if it was of no interest.
Aria was tempted to throw the pill out like she'd done with all her other pills these past weeks. Or week? Regardless, the temptation was still there. She battled with the decision of whether she should throw out the pill or not, but then she remembered the promise she'd made her friends, and for the first time since she'd gotten to Radley she actually swallowed her pill.
Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Her mind was unclear as a fog, and her vision was blurry and unfocused. She tried to settle her eyes onto something, a clear point, to make everything stop spinning. Things were moving and vibrating beneath her, and the room was filled with darkness.
Despite her groggy state, it quickly became apparent that she wasn't alone. A masked figure was dragging her along the floor, but she couldn't scream. She couldn't pinpoint the exact reason, but she was nowhere near her usual self. Everything was so hazy, and she had no capacity for fear.
Under normal circumstances she would have been afraid, but she couldn't connect her body with her mind and feelings. She should scream. She should alert someone of what was going on. A masked person had grabbed her, and was prepared to do things to her she couldn't even imagine, and yet she couldn't muster a scream. She was powerless.
When they reached the masked figure's intended point, they were joined by another masked person. The person who'd dragged her in there was smaller than the one they were met by. She was handed over to the bigger person who lifted her up, and violently tossed her into a large wooden box.
The masked figures both leaned over the box, and stared at her while she tried to gain control over her body so she could escape. They smirked evilly at her, amused by her attempts to get out of the box. She was clearly unaware that they had drugged her.
She gained a smidge of control over her body, and she used it to lift up hands towards the shorter one of her abducters. She wanted to grab the person, and pull him/her/it into the box instead, and then make her escape, but it didn't turn out as planned.
The smaller person grabbed her hands, and forcibly held them together while the other one pulled some tape of sorts around them so she would be unable to use them. She tried to sit up. She wanted to bite them, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything.
The taller one of the figures also put tape over her mouth so she wouldn't be able to scream for help either, but for what reason? So far she hadn't been able to speak at all. She hadn't been able to shout for help, despite how much she had wanted to.
The person who'd pulled her in there leaned down, and whispered threateningly; "You're the one, and you will pay!" The voice belonged to someone of the female gender, but her words made no sense...
Before she had the chance to digest the words fully, the other figure dug her or his fingers into the side of her neck. She barely registered the pain before everything blacked out...
Her eyes fluttered open. Everything was black. Where was she? She appeared to be in some sort of box, and despite it's large size she all of the sudden felt very claustrophobic. She started hyperventilating, and she lifted up her hands to push off the top, and saw that they had been taped together as well as her mouth. This had to be A's doing.
She turned to the side, hoping to find some way to get out of there, but what she saw was something she was unprepared for. Garrett Reynolds, lying beside her with his eyes wide open. Dead!
She screamed, but only muffled sounds came out...
She screamed loudly, and woke up from her sleep. She sat up in her bed as she tried to regain control over her breathing. It was the same story; horrible dream of something real, forgotten once her eyes were open, but the feeling of complete terror remained.
"Aria? Are you okay?" She heard a voice say, alerting her to the fact that she wasn't alone. She looked up, and saw Alison come rushing to her side. She sat down on the bed next to Aria, and put a protective arm around her smaller friend. "That was a pretty terrifying scream. What's wrong?"
Aria simply gaped at her blonde friend. She knew Alison was also a patient at Radley, but they hadn't seen each other in there. Aria was locked up in her room at all times, if you didn't count her escapades with Wren that had now ended. Who even knew what the conditions of Alison's treatment were? And how come she was suddenly in Aria's room all concerned?
"I... I don't know. I don't remember." Aria was shocked to see Alison in her room, and more importantly she was still very shaken up by her forgotten nightmare. She hated always waking up like that. "I... I think it might have been a bad dream, but I can't... I don't remember anything."
Alison hugged Aria tightly as the tiny girl started to cry. Alison had a lot to make up for, especially when it came to Aria. She had been terrible, and plain evil towards her fragile friend, and it was entirely her fault every traumatic thing Aria had been through. Every single tear the artistic girl cried was because of her. How could one even begin to mend that?
"I'm scared, Ali. I'm always scared!" Aria cried while she was still being held tightly by her friend, "I wake up terrified all the time, and it doesn't help that one of the side effects of my medication is an increased sleeping pattern. I haven't taken my pills regularly, but whenever I do I feel extremely tired, and I'm scared to go to sleep. Something bad always happens in my sleep, and I'm afraid it could be real. I can't do this anymore."
"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?" Alison said, and Aria shot her a confused look. "I mean, when you're asleep your entire body is relaxed, and your senses and mind run freely which means you have no control to fight anything, and therefore it would be rather easy for A to take control over your thoughts and dreams, and thereby replaying the memories she has control over in your head."
"That explanation was so Spencer of you." Alison smiled sympathetically as Aria spoke, and the smaller girl felt no annoyance towards the gesture as she previously had with other people. Sympathy from Alison DiLaurentis was a foreign occurrence that Aria did not yet know how to react to. "I don't want to be the kind of person who feels sorry for myself, but I'm not safe from A when I'm awake, and now I'm not safe when I'm asleep either. Apparently she also steals my traumatic memories."
"Is that so bad?" Alison thoughtfully questioned, but Aria didn't agree with the sentiment. "I know there are a lot of things that have happened to me these past few years that I'd like to forget. Forgetting the trauma of what I've been through doesn't seem that bad."
It baffled Aria that anything related to A could seem appealing to Alison, considering all the things A had done to hurt her in the past. Scratch that; what I've done! Every forgotten memory was a dangerous weapon for the other part of her.
"You're forgetting one thing, Ali," Aria pointed out, "These memories I have no opportunity of grasping are memories that are part of A's vendetta to hurt you and the girls. The things I've forgotten aren't just random. They are directly related to you in A's mind, and we both know how dangerous she can be when she's got blood on her teeth."
Alison chuckled softly. "I guess you've got a point there."
A silence filled the room, during which time Alison still had a protective arm around Aria, and the petite girl's mind started racing – an incident that had to be occuring for the billionth time while she'd been in there.
Wasn't it odd that Alison had suddenly emerged from whatever room she'd been in at Radley, and then coincidentally finding her way into Aria's? How did she even know where to find her? And why hadn't anyone stopped her from going in there?
The staff at Radley, or rather Dr. Sullivan, had made it a point to express how fragile Aria was, and the urgency that she had to remain locked up in her room for the fear that she might hurt someone. Her confinement was supposed to prevent such a contingency.
So how was it that the person Aria suspected that they were keeping her away from could easily just waltz into her room? And more importantly; how could she do it without anyone noticing? Had the staff at Radley decided to just take a simultaneous nap? It confused her.
"Ali, don't take this the wrong way, but what are you doing here? How did you get in here?" Aria decided to ask, knowing that it was a long shot. She couldn't remember a time when Alison had been straight with her friends, but maybe, considering the trauma she'd been through, this time could be a first.
Alison smiled mischievously, something that usually meant that she was up to no good. "I was in the common area with the other patients, and one of them had an episode of sorts so I viewed that as an opportunity to bail without being caught, and see how you were doing." Alison explained, smiling sadly as she continued; "They're trying to keep us apart for some stupid reason."
"Yeah, it sucks." Aria agreed, returning the smile.
"It totally sucks, and I know that you have your thing that they have to get control over, and that thing could be a danger to me, but secluding us from each other is making things worse. Dangerous or not, in times like these friends should stand by each other, and they are making it nearly impossible." Alison started ranting, and Aria shot her a saying look to get her to focus on her reasoning for being in there. It hadn't fully been determined. "Right, so I got in here, and you were sleeping. Apparently they like making drowziness a side effect of medication, but as I was saying; you were asleep, and I saw that your room was a mess – I'm guessing an episode – so I decided to clean it while I waited for you to wake up."
Aria glanced around the room for the first time since Alison had been in there, and saw that the furniture were now in their rightful places. Everything was back to normal, except of course for the window. That would take a lot more effort to fix.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay after yesterday. I was concerned, and then you woke up screaming, and I've never been so terrified." Tears were forming in Alison's eyes. "That scream... it sounded like someone was torturing you."
I just wanted to make sure you were okay after yesterday. The words echoed in Aria mind, and realization started to dawn on her, although she desperately prayed for it not to be true. She felt scared for what she might have done, or tried to do, to Alison. At least Alison was there as tangible proof that she hadn't been succesful in harming her.
"What... What ha-happened yesterday?" Aria managed to ask through her stutters as tears welled up in her eyes. She tried to blink them away, but their persistency won, and the tears began travelling down her cheeks.
"You came into my room with a big piece of broken glass in your hand, and you tried to stab me with it." Alison revealed while pulling Aria in for a comforting hug. The smaller girl tried to squirm herself out of Alison's grip, but the blonde held onto her tightly. "You were speaking incoherently with this demonic voice. I knew you weren't yourself."
"I tried to stab you?" Aria, still trying to wriggle her way out of Alison's embrace, whispered with shock in her voice.
Alison ignored Aria's attempt to make A's actions yesterday her own fault, and continued specifying her reasons for being there. "Because you weren't you, and because of what you said when you weren't being you, I wanted to find you and apologize!"
"Apologize?" Aria repeated, finding the word odd to be willingly spoken by Alison DiLaurentis. When did the girl ever apologize out of her own free will?
"Yes," Alison confirmed, giggling slightly at Aria's surprise, "I've done so many things in the past that I'm ashamed of, especially towards you. I was cruel, apathetic, and just a horrible, horrible person. I'm so sorry for all of the things I've done to you, and I will try to make amends. If you forgive me, and I doubt that you will, I will be the best friend you've ever had."
Aria moved out of Alison's grip, and stood up from the bed, She walked over to the window, the only physical evidence of the night before. She kept her back towards Alison while she spoke; "What exactly did you do to me?"
"How much time have you got?" Alison attempted to joke to lighten the mood, but Aria didn't respond. "Fine, I'll be specific, but you're gonna hate me so much afterwards."
Alison went on to explain every cruel thing she'd done to Aria in the past. She mentioned the time she'd tied her to a tree, and the things she'd made people do to her after that. She mentioned the time she had Noel distract her while she ripped off her clothes, and ran into her with the bike so she fell and hit her head. She mentioned the time she scolded her pretty badly. She mentioned every little detail of everything she'd done to deliberately hurt Aria.
When Alison was done things started clicking in Aria's head. She still didn't remember these events, but she now knew what happened before those times she'd found herself in uneasy situations with memory loss. She knew what she'd been through, what memories A had absorbed, but she didn't remember any of it. Alison could be lying, it wouldn't be the first time, but Aria was satisfied with the explanation, viewing it to be true. It was the closest thing she'd ever get to those memories.
She just didn't understand how someone could be so mean, but then she remembered her decision to forgive Alison no matter what A might be holding against her. It didn't matter what kind of grudge A held towards her friend, it didn't matter what Alison had done to ignite it. What mattered was that Aria was able to do something A would never be able to do; forgive Alison.
She turned around to face her friend, and saw that the blonde had gotten up from the bed as well, and was watching her with a face filled with agony and anticipation.
"I forgive you." Aria said after a long pause, and those words seemed to shock her friend. Alison had probably expected A to resurface, and try to kill her again. Aria was surprised herself, although she was sick of inconveniently becoming A. "I just don't get it. If you've done these terrible things to me, why did you ever wanna be my friend?"
"Honestly?" Alison sighed, knowing what she said next could cause a blow up. Their friends had told her how sensitive Aria was regarding the whole Aria/A; different personas, same body issue. "I admired your strength. I threw so much crap your way, and it never seemed to faze you. I stopped seeing you as a target, and started seeing you as someone I wanted to be my friend."
Their friends had been right; Aria began getting worked up. "But I wasn't strong. A had stolen those memories, and kept them as her own." By then Aria was crying hysterically, and Alison rushed to her side, once again wrapping her arms around her. "She's the strong one. I'm weak. I let her do these things. I let her hurt my friends, and I don't even try to stop her."
"Hey, you listen to me, Aria; you could never hurt anyone, and if there was anything you could do to stop A, you would." Alison told her friend reassuringly as they pulled apart. "You are not weak, and I don't want you, not even for a second, to believe that A could ever beat you. You are not alone in this; I'm right there by your side."
"I'm so, so sorry." Aria whimpered with new tears forming in the corner of her eyes.
"If this was in any way your fault, if I thought that for even the briefest moment, if I blamed your for any of this at all; do you think I'd be in here right now, trying to comfort you." Alison spoke sternly, clearly attempting to give Aria some tough love. "If I blamed you for everything that A has put us through, do you think I'd have given you the time of day? Don't you think I'd be somewhere, anywhere but here, plotting my revenge?"
"Yes, but..."
"No buts. That's that." Alison finished the discussion, and pulled Aria in for another friendly embrace. "I love you, and we will beat A together. You'll never be alone. I will try to sneak in here as much as possible."
"Okay..." Aria whispered, finally accepting Alison's encouraging words, and for the first time since the visit actually returning the hug. "I'm sorry that A tried to stab you."
Alison giggled. "It happens."
Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Things were making sense. Aria understood how her hand had gotten injured, how her window had been smashed. It was nice, but at the same time she didn't like it. She didn't like that A could take over, and do things like that, but oddly enough Alison had made it seem easier. She didn't feel alone anymore.
Some of the blanks had been filled in, and although those blanks were traumatic as expected, Aria was glad. Sure, she didn't remember, but she knew what had happened. Maybe knowing these things would make it easier to fight A? She doubted it, but knowing that she had Alison made her hopeful. It meant a lot, especially since she technically was A.
She was still scared. That feeling probably wouldn't go away for awhile, but it was nice to have someone to fill the void after she'd scared Wren away. She couldn't believe she'd done that. Wren had been so kind, supportive, and just amazing. He'd been a friend, and Aria had allowed A to take over, and had unwillingly attacked him. She would probably never see him again, but was the pride she had to pay for not cooperating in her treatment until that day.
Alison had snuck out earlier after they'd talked some more. It was nothing of importance, but Aria had a suspicion that the blonde had tried to distract her from thinking about A, and it had worked for bit. Now she was back at square one.
It was night time, and Dr. Sullivan had just been in there to give her the last pill of the day, and Aria had taken it like she'd taken the other ones that day. If she trusted Dr. Sullivan, and if she wanted to take to her at all, she would probably have asked her if there was any way to ever get rid of A. Maybe the medication could kill A? If any of the previous conversations she'd had with Dr. Sullivan was anything to go by the answer was a big, fat no!
It was dark outside, and Aria saw no point in trying to stay awake any longer. She was feeling drowzy after the pill she'd just taken, and although she didn't want to go to sleep in the fear of another A nightmare, she couldn't stay up much longer.
She was trying to fight it, to stay awake, but her eyelids became heavier and heavier. She suppressed a yawn, and decided there was no use in trying to prolong it. It wasn't like she was going to remember the A nightmare, all that would remain was the fear.
She reluctantly stepped over to the bed, her back towards the door. The same door that in that moment creaked open, startling her in the process. She whipped around to face the person who'd entered; Wren?
"Wren!?" She gasped, completely taken aback with surprise. He was the last person in the world she expected to walk through the door (a door that was supposed to be locked, mind you). "What are you doing in here? I thought you never wanted to see me again."
"What would give you that idea?" Wren asked as he stepped properly into the room. He offered her one of his cute smiles that she didn't feel like she deserved. Why was he being nice to her?
She blinked, confused. "I attacked you, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but that wasn't you." He told her reassuringly, shooting her another smile. "I didn't mean to stay away for so long or make you feel like I never wanted to see you again. I was merely trying to give you some space to recover from what I'm sure must have been a great shock."
She nodded, and returned his smile. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too." He reached out, and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Now, the reason I came tonight was to tell you something important. I've been pulling some strings because I know how much it has been hurting you to be cooped up in here. It took quite the effort, and despite the debacle with Alison DiLaurentis yesterday, they have agreed to allow you to visit the common area once a day. Of course there is a catch; you won't be allowed out there while there are other patients. I tried to argue, but after the thing with Alison they insisted."
She had attacked him, and he went and did that for her? Sure, she wasn't allowed to be out there with the other patients, but she could now be out in the common area once a day without breaking any rules. She didn't have to stare at the stupid walls in her room day in and day out.
She felt overjoyed, an unfamiliar feeling during her stay at Radley. She was extremely grateful to Wren for going through so much trouble for her, and she was overcome with incredibly strong feelings. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and stood up on her toes, and kissed him on the lips.
"I'm so sorry." She spoke softly, feeling rather bashful that she'd crossed the line. It had been pleasant, and she had wanted to do it, but... "I shouldn't have done that. It was very inappropriate of me."
He looked into her eyes, silently for awhile. She couldn't have read him if she tried, but then he smiled. "Then I'm just as inappropriate because I want it to happen again."
He leaned in, and closed the gap between them by pressing his lips onto hers. Sparks flew through her entire body as she wrapped her arms around his neck once more, and deepened the kiss...
Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Disclaimer; Have not bought the rights to Pretty Little Liars during this shameful delay, but I must say season 5 is awesome!
Dedication; There were some strong candidates as I've gotten a lot of kind words, but this chapter is dedicated to one perceptive person who asked some good questions. Feyhazelle, I dedicate this chapter to you. You asked some valid questions, and I appreciate that. I'm also thankful for your kind words, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite the long wait. I hope you're still reading and liking this story. Feel free to ask as many questions as you'd like. Thank you so much for your review :).
Firstly; I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry for the long delay. Didn't I start my last author's note like that? Anyways... The dumb excuses are as followed; I had a little bit of writer's block. It's summer vacation, and I've been away for a few weeks. I've been completely distracted by the new season of PLL (that you have to disregard everything that's happened in so far when it comes to this story. Only the first four seasons are valid). So yeah, those were the excuses, but I promise (woah, flashback again) that next chapter will be here much sooner. It won't be as long as this chapter, at least I don't think it will. Only time will tell, I guess. Also, if I break my promise you may kick me.
Secondly, but most importantly; thank you, kind readers, for your reviews. They mean so much to me. I hope you're still with me, reading this fic after the long delay. It's been over a month, and that's just too long even for my standards. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep them going, please :).
Also, a certain quote is very significant. "You're the one, and you will pay!" - that's the one, but what does it mean? Like I said; it's very important, and you'll get why later. Guesses are always welcome, you might even get a cookie. Then there is Alison... Do we trust her? I know she doesn't appear to have changed that much on the show, but again that doesn't necessarily count for this story. I hope you will like my take on Alison in this fic because trauma like that usually changes a person, and that gives me a lot of possibilities when it comes to her.
WREN AND ARIA? What? I've already said there will be some Ezria, but now I've put... what's the name of Wren and Aria's ship? Well, I've put that on the table. Please, don't hate me for it. I know she belongs with Ezra, believe me. I totally agree, but this particular ship will also have some significance for the story. Also, how healthy can it be? Wren works at Radley, and Aria is a patient who's just started her treatment (literally in this chapter, unbeknownst to Dr. Sullivan). I've had my own mental breakdown, actually took a few years off from fanfiction a couple of years back because of that, so I should know that you shouldn't make any life altering decisions when you've just started your treatment. Now, starting something romantic with someone you probably shouldn't, and doing something life threatening isn't exactly the same, but I was making a point. Anyway... Wren and Aria. What are your thoughts?
Lastly; thank you so, so much for reading this story. Sorry for my long author's notes, but I'm very passionate about this story so they just flow out of me. I would appreciate it if you'd review this chapter. Do you have any theories, thoughts, anything really. Don't be shy, please review :).
Laters,
AK-tutti :)