Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Emily knew that there was something wrong when she entered the house.
While she knew her mother was still working, the feeling she got from the darkened house made her feel really uneasy.
The dark-skinned teen had just come home from a gathering of the girls at Aria's house; which was also empty since her parents were out. Mike had gone to his Lacrosse game being held in Brookhaven which allowed the girls to be truly alone. Alison had felt that her house had become too compromised by A to safely have a meeting in and Emily as well as Hanna couldn't do it at their house given the recent hostility their mothers were displaying towards Alison. Their mothers had always been somewhat weary of Alison but it seemed more so recently; which Emily could not really understand. While her blonde friend might have her faults, she was still a good person in Emily's opinion and the hate against her was unjustified. They just could not see what Emily saw in Alison and that was a shame.
The meeting accomplished very little in Emily's opinion; though they did manage to convince Alison that they needed to broaden their search for A. It was becoming very obvious that Mona and Spencer could no longer be considered real suspects for their main nemesis given recent events even though they were still under deep suspicion. All their surveillance of the duo had turned up nothing and even the confrontations they had with them had just caused more problems than they solved. Emily was still being frowned at by her mother after what had happened with Spencer in the hallway at school; even though she had been clearly provoked into taking a swing at her former friend. The little arson incident by A on the Hastings property was giving everyone headaches since the suspicion had come out on them by their peers at school as well as the rest of the town. While Alison's parents had provided a good alibi for them that they had nothing to do with it, there were still whispers that they were the ones.
Hanna had suggested that it might be in everyone's best interest to bury the hatchet with Mona and Spencer so that they could focus their attention on A. The blonde had been the first to voice the possibility that the duo might be innocent; Aria was the first to think it but never voiced it out loud at being fearful that she was the only one. Alison had been stubborn though and insisted that they were still the enemy even though they might not be A. In private and away from the other girls, the blonde had ranted to Emily a great deal about the duo; having an absolute hatred of Spencer as well as Mona. The dark-skinned teen had stayed silent all through the rants and id her best to appear to be agreeing with her friend. Truthfully, she did not understand Alison's obsession with the duo and had been tempted to ask; staying silent out of fear of the blonde's wrath. When it came to Alison's spouts of anger, it was best to keep quiet and stay out of the firing line.
This was another reason why the blonde trusted her so much.
"Hello?!" Emily called out as she entered the house and reached for the light switch. The teen was concerned by the darkness of the house since she knew full well that she had left a few lights on.
Against her better judgment, the teen entered the house and shut the door behind her; making sure that the hall light was on. Proceeding slowly into the house a little more, Emily started turning on every light she could in an attempted to illuminate the house just a little more. To say she was nervous was an understatement; she definitely had a feeling that something was wrong and wished she had some sort of weapon on her. Hanna had suggested that they all get some sort of object to better protect themselves with; maybe a Taser or some pepper spray for their purses when they were out. They had all laughed at the blonde for the silly idea but Emily was really starting to think that it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Even in her own house, she felt vulnerable as well as exposed.
Truthfully, she had been feeling this way for a while; ever since Alison first told her about A and what was happening to her. The idea that someone was watching them as well as every move they ever made had creeped her out beyond comparison. Emily began to look over her shoulder a lot more; whether it be at The Brew or even at school; wondering if A was watching. Even at home, the teen would make sure her blinds were closed as well as her door; locking it when she was home alone. Her bat was next to the bed at all times and she never left her window open at night; if she had to crack it, she made sure the lock was well in place. The texts she had been receiving from their nemesis were what really got to her; texts that she never showed Alison or any of the other girls. While those closest suspected her true sexuality for some time but never said anything, the A texts pointed it out clearly to make a point.
Emily knew she was a lesbian; even when she had been dating Ben. For some reason, the teen could never take the next step with him despite the peer pressure from Alison. She could never see herself be intimate with anyone but another woman and had been secretly yearning for it to be Alison for years now. She knew that the blonde was out of reach and would be occasionally resentful towards Alison for subtly teasing her about it; knowing full well of Emily's crush on her. Though the blonde occasionally dated a guy at school, it never appeared to be serious so Emily still had hope that the blonde would turn towards her for companionship. There was a voice in the back of her head, a voice that sounded a lot like Spencer's, which said constantly that Alison was stringing her along. Emily always ignored it and tried to believe that her secret dream would come through.
Her other fear was that her parents would not understand; which was another reason why she could not bring herself to come out.
Emily slowly made her way up the stairs, making sure she was as observant as possible since there could be an intruder. She couldn't hear anything and the silence was slightly eerie; also a sign that maybe she was truly alone now. Given recent events though, she could not afford to let her guard down and clutched her handbag like it was a weapon; though it clearly was not. Once she was at the top of the stairs, the teen made her way towards her bedroom; noticing that the door was wide open when she knew that she had closed it once she had left the house. Her mother had been at work all day and would not need to enter the room while her father was still in Texas for his work in the army; thus neither of them had done it. With a little more quickness in her step, the young woman entered her room and found it was empty; as well as a complete mess.
Someone had trashed her room and her stuff was scattered about all over the floor. The books that had been on her bookshelf had been knocked off and gone through as if someone had thought there was something hidden in the pages. Her clothes had all been taken out of their drawers and placed onto the bed as if they had been searched as well; her undergarments were also scattered about the floor and Emily really hoped that Alison was right on A being female given that she would have felt more violated if this had been done by a guy. Emily's closet was a disaster with everything having been taken out which resulted in a large pile on the side of the space. The one plus was that despite the violation of her personal space and the mess caused by the intruder, there didn't seem to be anything broken. While a few of her pictures with her and various important people in her life had been taken out of their frames and the glass broken, the photos were not ruined in any way. In the end, Emily supposed that she had been lucky since it could have been a lot worse.
After check the rest of the house and making sure all the doors and windows were locked, Emily made her way back to her room. Placing her handbag onto the bed, the teen began cleaning up and wanted to be finished by the time her mother got home from work. The last thing she wanted was to answer a lot of unnecessary questions since she knew full well that her mother would call the police immediately if she knew that the house had been broken into. Pam Fields was already on edge because of recent events surrounding Alison's family and the Hastings; with the Vanderwaals thrown in for good measure. Emily knew that the woman was afraid that her daughter would somehow get dragged into the drama further and that was slightly understandable; though Emily herself thought her mother was overreacting. When it came to her friends, the teen knew that they had to stick together.
The question now was who had searched the room in the first place and what were they looking for. Emily's first thought was that it had been A and that she was looking for something important inside the room; though the dark-skinned teen had no idea what. The more she thought about it, Emily no longer believed that it had been their unknown nemesis since A would have no need to search her room given the incredible amount of knowledge she already had on the entire group. There was also the fact that she had yet to receive a single taunting text from A which was always the case when something like this happened; Emily even checked her phone to make sure and found nothing but a text from Hanna about tomorrow's dinner plans. It was well known that Alison and the girls had many enemies so there was a good chance that it had been one of them. In fact, even if they weren't A, this could have been done by Spencer and Mona as an act of revenge given what had just happened recently.
While she was cleaning, Emily reached for one of her old stuffed animals; caressing it as the memories of her father giving it to her before he had been deployed the first time. She was about to put it away when she felt something hard underneath the fur; something that had never been there before. Putting the animal on the bed, she looked over to make sure her blinds were closed and went back to cleaning; eyeing the stuffed pig when doing so. Having a feeling that whoever had trashed her room was looking for what may be inside the object, the dark-skinned teen made a point to hurry as much as she could. Time was of the essence and she wanted to be done before her mother came home. It took another hour and she was starting to sweat a little by the time she was done; though not a complete cleanup job, it was enough for appearances sake. If her mother asked any questions, the teen would lie and say that she was simply doing some interior adjustments to her room.
Sitting on the bed and looking around her out of paranoia, Emily reached for the zipper on the stuffed pig and opened it up. Putting her hand inside, the teen felt something plastic buried inside the fur inside and carefully pulled it out; finding it to be a thumb drive. Looking at it closely, she noticed that it was a pink one and similar to the ones that Alison carried around on occasion when they were at school. Contrary to popular opinion, the blonde did do her written assignments at home and sometimes bring them to school in order to print them there since she had a thing about proving to her teachers that she did the work. Looking over at her own computer and more than curious on why the thumb drive had been stuffed inside the pink pig, Emily turned it on and stuck the drive into the USB slot. While her own knowledge of computers was extremely limited, Emily did know the basics and knew how to access the object.
The thumb drive contained video files and Emily clicked on one of them out of curiosity; which she soon learned to regret. The first video started off with Ian Thomas, which was a surprise since she hadn't seen him since he had been dating Melissa all those years ago. She knew he was dead and to see him now on the video was a complete surprise. The scene was in a hotel room, one she did not recognize, and he appeared to be setting up a camera; which was aimed at the bed for some reason. Once it was properly set up, he got undressed and the teen blushed ever so slightly and had been prepared to shut the video down. It was now more than apparent that the video might be a homemade sex film and that disgusted her more than ever. She was never into porn in any way and Emily became even more confused on why it was in her stuffed animal; also why someone would want the videos in the first place. Ian was long dead and most of the town had already considered him a creep anyways.
That was when she saw who entered the room from the bathroom; dressed in a familiar evening attire.
All Emily could do was watch the recording as she watched Alison make out with Ian for a few minutes until noticing that there was a camera on. The blonde then started arguing with the older man until he turned to shut it off; thus ending the first video. After a minute for her brain to register what she just saw, the dark-skinned teen clicked on a second video to see if the love of her life was on it as well. Once again, Alison was having a conversation with Ian which involved them discussing keeping their relationship a secret. What was even more disturbing was that Alison seemed to be pressuring Ian into hitting on Spencer so that she could use it to gain power over her former friend. The idea that Alison could be so manipulative was something that Emily could not grasp and she shut down the video before anything more could be seen. Taking the thumb drive out of the computer, she stuffed it back inside the pig and threw it into the closet; nearly in tears in the process.
Sitting back on the bed, the teen moved her body into a fetal position as the revelations she just learned seeped into her mind. To say Emily was going through a conflict of emotions was an understatement to say the least. She was presently feeling everything from betrayal to disgust; though she should not have been surprised in the first place. In her heart and mind, Emily always knew that the blonde was a manipulative girl; though she believed and even hoped that it was just all for show. Seeing the videos, well two of them anyways, put the love of her life in a new light and it was all she could to not throw up right then and now; her stomach wrenching as if someone had kicked her hard with a steel boot. Even though she was supposed to meet Alison tomorrow for lunch, the teen could not bring herself to face the blonde and decided that she needed to do something else instead. She even ignored the texts messages coming from Alison and turned off her phone for the night; not caring if the blonde would get angry.
Both mentally and emotionally exhausted; the teen feel asleep on her bed with her clothes still on.
Despite all the drama of the night, Emily actually slept pretty well though she was still pretty frazzled. It was still early in the morning and school was out for the day; because of a local state holiday. With her mother still in bed, the teen decided that she just could not face her or Alison; thus Emily decided that she needed a little relief from the people in her life right now. Before becoming attached to the hip with the blonde, Emily liked to practice at the school pool and it had been a while since she last paid a visit. Grabbing her swim team attire, Emily left a note for her mother and grabbed the keys to the car; being quiet the entire time. She left her phone at home since she was in no mood to talk to Alison; telling her mother that her phone was dead and where she would be if Pam needed to talk to her. There was very little traffic on the way to school and the teen pulled into the parking lot; finding only a few vehicles there. With her duffle bag in hand, she walked into the locker room and changed into her swimsuit.
Though she had been tempted to take a short shower since she had yet to do so back at her house, Emily went straight to the pool so that she could get into the water. As she walked into the where the pool was, she caught the sight of a familiar face doing laps; slightly surprised to see it was Paige McCullers. At one time, the swimmer was considered a rival to Emily with them both up for Captain of the swim team. Ever since Alison had roped them into the A Drama, the dark-skinned teen had been too distracted and Paige was now considered the only viable candidate for the post; which Emily wasn't really resentful for. Though Alison hated Paige for some reason, Emily never really had a problem with her and was happy that she was getting the spot; though she at one time longed for it as well. For some reason, Emily became suddenly angry at her blonde friend and even felt that she was holding her back. Maybe the teen needed to spend some time away from the blonde so that she could consider what to do about their relationship.
As Paige noticed her, Emily made her way towards the team member to start something new.
Please Read and Review; also a huge thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read!