Without allowing Mr. DiLaurentis enough time to say a single word, I squeezed past him through Ali's bedroom door and hurried downstairs. Behind me I could hear Ali's raised voice. "I asked you to knock before you come in here!", "Well it's MY room", and so on. Instead of making a sane decision for once, I let myself driven by the craziest urge of going back upstairs and listening to their conversation. My curiosity didn't give me peace, and the fear of losing Ali again was eating me up.

"Is this why you've been distant? Oh Alison, you know I wouldn't judge you for who you choose to be with" I heard her dad through the slightly opened door.

"I'm not ready to talk about this, dad. Can I please be alone for a while?"

I had my escape planned so that Ali's dad wouldn't hear me running out when he left her room. But he wasn't about to leave just yet.

"No, I'm not going anywhere yet. I came to tell you your brother had a relapse and he's been hospitalized. They're hoping to get him out and into rehab in about a week."

"Dad… I'm so sorry, I didn't know. When did this happen? Can we visit him?"

"Yes, I was just there. They said they found him 2 nights ago in a hotel room right outside Philadelphia, his friend who was with him called an ambulance when he thought Jason had overdosed. It's strange though, his friend mentioned something about Jason wanting to do drugs to forget about something that happened to him that day."

"Something what?"

Ali's voice was alarmed.

"I don't know. He didn't say. Are you willing to come stay with me there tonight?"

"Yeah, of course. Why didn't you tell me as soon as you found out?"

"I was scared. I didn't know what might happen."

An unsettling silence followed and I went closer to the stairs to give myself enough time to run.

"Anyway… I'm gonna grab some food and we'll leave in about an hour."

"Okay dad."

I took that as my cue to leave, and within 30 seconds I was out of the house.

Ali finally showed up to school on Monday. I hadn't tried to contact her during the weekend, and neither had she. But when she saw me in the hallway she quickly walked towards me, looking worried.

"I need to talk to you."

"What's up?"

"I can't tell you here. Meet me in the bathroom during first period?"

"Sure."

My first class happened to be History, and Ms. Hennings didn't have a problem letting her students go to the bathroom during class time. So as soon as Ali texted me to meet her, I raised my hand and I was excused.

"Hey" I started in a precautious tone, walking closer to Alison in the girls' bathroom.

"Emily, something really bad is happening," she said, her voice shaking. "Jason had a relapse and he's being stabilized in the hospital now. He was lucky to make it out alive this time, but I went over there and –– " her voice broke. A few moments later, she continued, "I went to visit him, and he was unrecognizable, and not only because of the drugs, but he looked really scared. And he told me… He confessed that on the day he went back to drugs he'd received a postcard with Mom on the front, it was an old picture of her in South America somewhere, waving her hand, and on the back it said something like 'Of the DiLaurentis', only three left. Anyone care to joing Mommy? Perhaps her favourite son, or maybe Little Ali?' This freak is out to get my brother, too. I don't know what to do."

"Where did he get this postcard?"

"He said he found it in the backpack he carries around with him all the time. But it wasn't signed. Not A, not my mom's name. But I think this is the person who killed my mother, and they're not afraid to do something like that again."

I felt utterly speechless and terrified. However, I had to dig up the resources to help Alison.

"We'll have to tell your dad, or the girls about this. We can't get to the bottom of it without them."

"No, that's out of the question. I barely made up the courage to tell you, because the person who's sending these letters isn't joking. I'm scared for you too, Em."

"Well I don't care what this psycho has to say, we're sticking together."

She smiled at the sound of my words.

"We should probably head back to class, huh?" she asked, her voice weak.

"I guess so. Hey I haven't even asked… How are things with your dad since, you know…"

"Oh, he hasn't said much about it. I mean of course he was surprised, but he didn't mention it again."

"Okay" I replied, feeling a little better. "So if he doesn't hate me… Are you allowed to stay over tonight?"

Ali confirmed with a smile and a nod. "I'll stop by my house after school to drop off some stuff before I come over. But I'll see you at the lockers at lunch?"

"See you there" I said, and we parted ways to our respective classes.

"Do you think we'll finally get a night free from weird texts and letters?" asked Alison in an imploring voice, dropping on my bed.

"Sometimes you surprise me how lighthearted you are about the whole thing" I replied, folding clean laundry and stowing it away in drawers.

"Have you noticed though, how we dropped off A's map since these unsigned letters started pouring?"

I shrugged; it was still too early to jump to such conclusions.

"At school today Aria, Spencer and Hanna got a text from A, but nothing for us."

"It almost sounds like you're complaining" I said, "Isn't this new monster enough to handle? In fact, we don't even know if it's a new one, somebody enjoys playing games with us too much."

Alison sighed, and I assumed it was because she was feeling guilty for dragging me into this mess with her.

"Look, Ali, it's not your fault for all of this happening. I want to be here for you. I want to be here for Aria, Hanna and Spencer too. That's why we're friends, we stick together."

She stayed silent for a while, and then spoke in a tentative voice.

"Do you remember when we said we would go to Paris together?"

"Of course. But that was so long ago, I thought of it as more of a fantasy."

"Well it doesn't have to be. Especially now with everything happening, we could run away together. I've always planned an escape for myself, but now I realize I don't want to be alone, and the only person I want to be with is you. So what do you say? It doesn't have to be Paris. We could go on a road trip for however long we want to, and only come back when we feel like it."

"What about money? I have some saved up, but it's mostly for college…"

"Oh come on Em, relax! We won't need that much, we'll live like runaways" she explained and curved the corners of her mouth in a flirty smile.

"When would we go?" I asked, starting to consider the idea, but realizing how insanely dangerous it was.

"We should leave Friday, so that's in 3 days. Think you have enough time to pack?"

"I guess I do…"

"Come here, we need to celebrate." And she reached into her purse and pulled out two mini champagne bottles.

"To us!" she exclaimed and we clinked bottles.

"To us" I repeated, and felt my heart beating wildly in my chest.