Author's Note: I'm officially losing it.

Day One-Hundred Ninety-Two: Out of the Shadows by Cut One

Spencer raised a knife over her head, almost ready to plunge it into the chest of this new unexpected (and uninvited) guest.

She almost collapsed when she saw who it was. She slammed the knife on the counter beside her.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you know how to knock?"

"Sorry, I didn't realize that you were planning to make me your next victim," he answered cynically.

She sighed, not amused. "Toby, don't you know how to call? Something to let me know that you were coming over so I didn't stab you? And why are you wearing so much black? You look like—"

She stopped herself.

"Yeah," Toby replied awkwardly. "Did you forget? What we had planned tonight?"

She sighed, crossing her arms on her chest and leaning against the counter. "We're so screwed up."

She couldn't quite remember why she even did this in the first place. At first, she was doing it for protection—both for her friends and herself. But then it turned into protection for just herself. Slowly, it became a power struggle. She liked having control and power. She almost liked having the power to push someone over the edge.

For once, she had the power.

"Thanks for the daily reminder," he answered sardonically.

"Since when are you the cynical one?" she inquired curiously.

"Since you look like something's been eating your alive as of late. Someone needs to be the cynical one."

A slight smile appeared on her face.

"Plus, someone needs to put a smile on your face," Toby added.

Just as quickly as it had come, it faded. She felt bad for dragging him into all of this. She already knew he'd do anything for her. Of course, he would.

She had a lot of secrets, but he was the biggest, most sacred one. Nobody could know about him doing all these things. True, she had an image to protect, but he had character to protect.

His secret (and her secret, too) burned like a hole in her heart. There was burning in her lungs and on her lips whenever she just wanted to spill it. Sometimes, it felt painful to conceal it; the secret was always at the tip of her tongue, threatening to spill out any second now.

"So what are we doing tonight?" she inquired as she took her phone and put it in her pocket.

He peered past her, into the hallway of the house, just to assure that nobody was there.

"My parents are working, as usual. Melissa is still in Philly," she answered, like she was reading his thoughts.

"Are you sure no one else is listening?" he asked quietly.

She thought about it for a moment. She walked over to the radio in the kitchen and turned it on the pop station, full volume.

"Talk," she prompted quietly, just loud enough so he could hear over the music, but nobody else would be able to hear it, if there were somebody listening.

"We have to leave now and walk over to the DiLaurentis house. Alison knows."

Alison knew.

That only meant one thing. Their plan had to go into effect. It would have to be tailored, since Spencer was expecting for them to find out during this big sleepover Alison had planned out at Spencer's lake house. And also, she didn't know the DiLaurentis property like she knew her lake house; she could walk around and avoid every single tree with a blindfold.

"Do you have the…you know?" he inquired, too paranoid to say it out loud.

She nodded slightly before taking out a bottle of water. He furrowed his eyebrows. "I know, it's not the best place to keep it, but did you want it to be obvious?"

He shrugged it off. She left the radio on; she'd need her neighbors to think she was home if she wanted an alibi. To make it even better, she turned on the kitchen light.

"Let's go."

They walked outside, hand-in-hand. Such a seemingly-romantic moment was tainted by the fact that they were just about to leave a girl for dead.

"You wait out here," she instructed.

"But Spencer, I—"

"No, Toby," she interrupted sternly. "Wait out here." It was an order, not a request.

She walked up the back stairs quietly. She picked the lock on the door when she saw that Alison's bedroom light was the only one on in the entire house. She walked up the stairs softly and opened peered in the door, which was just so slightly ajar.

"I know who A is, Emily! This is finally going to be over. Tell the other girls to meet me here tonight as soon as possible."

There was a beep as Alison hung up the phone. But nobody was going to find out that.

Alison turned around as the door swung open. She looked a bit surprised in her dark blue eyes, but it didn't read in her body language.

Spencer emerged from the dark shadow of the unlit hallway and into Alison's room.

"I know it's you," Alison said stiffly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Was Alison DiLaurentis scared of her? This was a first.

"I know you know it's me," she answered quickly.

Alison flinched. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to keep your mouth shut."

Alison bit the corners of her lips. She had such perfect, pink, cupid-bow lips. "And if I don't?"

"I don't think you want to know, Alison."

Alison frowned in response. Spencer stepped closer. "What are you going to do to me?" There was genuine terror in Alison's eyes.

"I already know you, Alison. Secrets are your thing. Keeping them, however?" Scoff. "You're not very good at that."

"Spencer," Alison began to protest as Spencer pushed her up against her bed. "No, stop. I'll do whatever you want!"

Spencer didn't even answer before shoving the chloroform on her mouth. It wasn't much longer before Alison succumbed to the chloroform not much later. Spencer dragged her out of her room and down the stairs. She was surprisingly light.

Toby looked up from the ground as Spencer walked out, the blonde scraping along behind her.

"Help me, Toby," she pleaded as she dragged the blonde in front of her. He picked up her legs and they walked together for however long until they were rather deep into the woods. Spencer sighed as she dropped her limp body.

"Do you think she's dead?" Toby asked.

She sighed. "If she's not, she will be when we're done with her," she answered. They were standing beside a shallow, narrow stream.

"When do you think they'll find her?" he inquired.

She shrugged noncommittally. "It doesn't really matter; by then, any evidence of the chloroform killing her will be gone," she explained. "Just toss her."

With a grimace, he pushed her into the stream so she laid face-down. The water level was just high enough so Alison was just-barely submerged.

"If the chloroform didn't kill her, this will," she said as she watched Alison sink in her watery grave.

"Let's get out of here," Toby prompted before taking her hand and walking away with her.

Spencer emptied the contents of the water bottle full of chloroform and dropped the bottle. They weaved in and out of the labyrinth of trees. Eventually, they made it back to Spencer's backyard. She was still feeling a bit weary over not having control anymore.

"What if someone found her already?"

He sighed in response. "That's not possible."

She looked over at him skeptically. Though she felt she loved him, some part of her almost didn't trust him. Like she said in the past, he was too good for all of this; his heart wasn't hard enough. This was truly work for the devil incarnate and he wasn't it. She knew Toby had to be fighting just to keep quiet.

"Are you going to be able to keep quiet?" she asked as they entered the house again.

"I've been keeping quiet for months now," Toby replied.

"I know, but…"

She stopped as he put his hands on her arms, rubbing them comfortingly. "I promise, I won't say anything. I wouldn't do that to you."

She breathed a small sigh of relief before turning off the radio. She turned around to kiss him.

"Now, are we ordering pizza or Chinese?" he inquired as he walked over to where he knew the Hastings kept their takeout menus. She smiled in response.

MilaMizz: Yeah, I don't know. I can't do it. I wasn't able to fast last year. I lasted for like 20 hours and after that I just couldn't anymore. I got really, really thirsty. You're not supposed to brush your teeth or shower or use deodorant or any of that on Yom Kippur either, but I do, so...oops. My name means something with the prophecy. Boring. Apparently I'm like a nay-sayer or something or people don't believe me but I'm usually right. Ha ha ha.

sarahschneider2012: I'm not really that religious when it comes to going to synagogue. I do it mostly just to appease my dad. Otherwise, I wouldn't really go. I'm like a Qua-Jew. Like Quakers, I don't really think you need a middle man to reach God. Whatever, I'm getting kind of preachy now. I celebrate Christmas, too (I'm actually the opposite in that my mom's family is catholic and my dad is Jewish). It's actually my favorite holiday because my whole family gets together and I like that. I'm really glad you liked it.

Sarah:Mum just sounds weird to me. idk. Thanks. I didn't think yesterday's was totally awful (even if I said it), I just...I don't know.

Tomorrow's one-shot will be Horror Pop by Marina and the Diamonds and excuse me because according to I think the PLL books and the PLL wiki, Spencer is an Aries, just like me. You'll also have to forgive me because I took some liberties on tomorrow's one-shot. -Kayson