Pretty Little Liars: Paying the Cost

Chapter 2 of my Pretty Little Liars story, enjoy.

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Boris Yeltsin: Thanks, well, here we go.
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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pretty Little Liars or its characters.

Season 1: Episode 2

They stared in shock at the news report of the murdered girl. What truly shook them, what led Ali to understand Jason's shocked reaction when she entered the door, was the picture of the murdered girl.

"Holy shit…" Ali whispered. "She, she looks like me."

Jason nodded. "Yeah, it's uncanny. It's why I was so freaked out when I saw you come in."

Before either of them could say anything more to each other the phone rang, startling them. Jason quickly hurried over to answer it and sighed when he checked the caller ID but still answered it.

"Mom-" He began.

But he was cut off and Alison could hear her, even from this distance.

"Jason, you saw the news, this is-!" Mrs. DiLaurentis cried out desperately.

Jason spoke quickly. "Mom, calm down, that girl-"

"Calm down, Alison is…"

"Right here, mom." Alison cut in, taking the phone from Jason. "So just calm down, okay."

Mrs. DiLaurentis gasped. "Alison? But, the news, that girl?"

"It isn't me." Alison said calmly. "I don't know who it is but it looks like she was found…"

"Yeah, it was all over the news." Mrs. DiLaurentis replied calmly. "But don't you see how dangerous this is, you shouldn't-"

"Mom don't start, I'm staying here, if you try that I'm hanging up now."

To her credit Mrs. DiLaurentis didn't push things, but she was clearly unhappy with Alison's refusal to listen to her. At that moment there was a knock at the door and Jason went to answer it, to find a tall broad shouldered man with light skin, brown neat hair and blue eyes, dressed in a typical detective suit. Jason recognized him well enough.

"Darren Wilden." He remarked with a raised eyebrow.

Wilden shook his head. "That's Detective Wilden, Jason, I'm on duty. I'm here to offer my…"

"Condolences?" Jason remarked, shaking his head. "Save them for the family of that poor dead girl. Alison is right over there."

He directed attention to Alison causing Wilden to stare in shock, no doubt thinking she was dead due to how closely the dead girl resembled Alison. That left a major question, who had killed the girl and why?

XXXXX

As she expected the following day, back at school, Alison was the centre of stares. No doubt all of them thought she was dead, so seeing her alive was a shock to the system. She rolled her eyes as she overheard Mona.

"See girls, Alison is fine, maybe now you can stop panicking about her and worry about that poor dead girl."

Alison glanced over and saw she was talking to her former friends. She had to admit that she was at least sensitive enough to express sympathy for the girl who was killed. But she kept herself focused on other stuff, she had no desire to get into any sort of debate, not with Mona or anyone else right now. She approached her locker and found two faces she had got to know yesterday at theirs, right next to hers.

"Hey Ryan, Tony." She greeted them.

Both boys grinned and returned her greeting. "Hi Alison."

Getting her books from her lockers, Alison looked over to the boys. "So, anything happening, besides, well…"

"Ah um…" Ryan began, understanding right away what she was trying to avoid. "Well, I've been given a new assignment for my photography class."

Alison smiled, glad there was a distraction that they could focus on as they walked to their first class, all of them hoping that there would be at least some answers to the questions plaguing them, to at least ease some of the fear that was gnawing at them.

XXXXX

"I still can't believe this, that poor girl." Hanna said sadly.

School was over for the day and she was standing in an otherwise empty classroom with her boyfriend, Sean Ackard. A tall strong young man with neat blonde hair, blue eyes and tan skin.

He nodded, a forlorn expression on his face. "It's...it's scary, terrible even. I don't understand what makes a person do something like that. I mean...it was a murder, right?"
Hanna shrugged. "That's what the police are saying."

She sighed and shook her head.

"Sorry. I just, I can't talk or think about this anymore, can we discuss something else." She said at last.

Sean shook his head but said nothing else and Hanna cursed herself for killing the mood by talking about the poor dead girl. She knew any chance she had of finally pushing her relationship with Sean further had been ruined by that.

XXXXX

Emily smiled to herself as she stepped out of the locker room, clad in her Rosewood swim uniform. It was a swim practice but to her amazement and delight she saw two familiar faces sitting on the seats to watch, Alison and Maya.

'They, they came to watch me, wow…' She thought in amazement.

She turned at that and stopped, confused by the look on Ben's face as he stood, watching her. But he then turned away and made his way over to the edge of the pool, ready to dive in. Emily shook her head and shrugged it off, turning back to smile and wave to Maya and Alison who both waved back. Emily continued to smile as she approached the edge of the pool. She dove into the water and enjoyed the feel of the water instantly as she was immersed in it and began swimming, determined to beat her best time.

It was after practice and Emily had finished drying off and changing, she smiled at how well practice had gone and she had of course enjoyed being cheered on by Maya and Ali, perhaps a little more than she thought she would.

'Weird, why am I thinking about that right now…?' She reflected. 'C'mon Em, focus. You beat your best time.'

Still smiling at that she turned around and started.

"Ben." She hissed.

Ben smirked as he stepped up to her. "Took you long enough Em. I was waiting for you to notice me."

She shook her head. "Seriously dude, this is the girls locker room, you realize how weird that is."

"Ah, it's just us...all alone." He said with his smirk widening.

He drew close and shocked her by reaching out, actually pulling her close, clearly trying to make out and his hands were wandering. She quickly pushed him back.

"Ben, what the hell?"

"What, Em?" He burst out. "You-"

Emily shook her head. "We've spoke about this, you know we can't, I'm not...I'm not ready."

Ben let out a grunt of frustration and stalked out, leaving Emily uneasy as she watched him go.

XXXXX

Finally returning home after the long day, Alison sighed and shook her head.

'Thank God, it's finally over...what a crazy day after all that, what else could happen?' She wondered to herself.

Well, she soon got her answer as she entered the kitchen to find Jason standing there, looking tense, anxious.

"Jason?"

"Ali, I...I've got some news, about what you just narrowly avoided it seems." He explained. "The girl that died, her name was Bethany Young and, and she...the way she was killed confirmed it. She's the fourth victim of the Rosewood Serial Killer."

Alison froze, hearing this. It meant this was all worse than she thought.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.