This is it, guys. Big things are about to happen. Thanks to RHatch89, nick2951, and Siren of the Dark Seas for the reviews. I appreciate the support!

In this chapter, "A" is finally revealed, and Viola learns just how involved the game really is.

Chapter 8

"You know, you really didn't have to come." My mask shifts to cover my eyes and I reach up to adjust it. "I've always thought masquerades are kind of freaky."

"I think they're cool." Justin reaches over and takes my hand. A shiver shoots up my spine.

We walk into the Old Road Warehouse, which is already stuffed to the brim with people. Since the dance is hosted by the Rosewood Junior Society, most people here are probably teenagers. But since everyone is wearing fancy ballroom dresses and masks, it's kind of hard to tell.

The back doors of the warehouse are open, leading into a large courtyard, and the huge room has been filled with strands of lights. Music is pumping from the DJ stand along one wall.

Justin and I descend the short set of stairs and plunge into the crowd of dancers. He yells above the music, looking around at the hordes of faceless people, "Okay, you were right. This is a little freaky."

"I know!" I shout back to him. A tallish girl in a dress made completely of black feathers and a matching mask brushes past me and I squint, trying to see if I recognize her. Not everyone would have the guts to wear a costume like that.

"Do you see anyone you know?" Justin asks, swaying to the music a little. "I doubt anyone from Brookhaven is here."

"Um…" I turn in a circle, looking around. I spot Hanna dancing with Caleb, and Mona and Spencer talking nearby. That makes me nervous, but I wave and turn back to Justin. "Yeah. A few people."

I shake my head, trying to forget about the "A" drama for just one night. "Come on, let's dance."

We dance for what seems like minutes, but every time I look at the clock, more and more time has passed. After a series of fast pop songs, the DJ changes to something slower. A little too slow to be not awkward, I decide. And anyway, we've been dancing for over an hour. I really should get something to drink.

"Hey, why don't we take a break?" I suggest to Justin, very aware of all the couples slow-dancing around us.

"Good idea," he replies, but his voice sounds strange. "I just have to do one thing first."

I'm expecting him to walk off when he suddenly leans down, puts his hand on the back of my head, and kisses me.

I am too shocked to respond for a moment. I have been aware for the past few weeks that we are much more than friends, but I had never even considered this.

But the one thought that won't leave my mind is that this is much different than kissing Ian.

He pulls away and turns bright red. "I...sorry."

I laugh and put my hand on his shoulder. "Sorry for what?"
He is just starting to lean in again when someone grabs my arm and yanks me away hard. I whirl around. Aria is standing beside me, an urgent look on her face. "Viola, we need to talk to you." I notice Hanna and Emily standing a little ways away.

I know what this is about but I can't help but be irritated. "Uh, I'm a little busy right now."

Justin holds up his hands in surrender. "Hey, it's fine. I'll go get us some punch. Be right back."

As soon as he is out of sight, Hanna and Emily rush over. The three girls pull me to the edge of the room, away from the music and other people. "What's going on?" I ask, fed up. I really should just blow the lid on this stupid secret. I'm not even sure why I am so bent on protecting my sister, aside from fear of my own secret getting out.

"Do you know who that is?" Hanna asks, pointing across the room. I stand as tall as I can in my heels and follow her finger. She's pointing at the girl in the black swan dress, of course.

"No, I don't," I answer. "Why?"

"We saw her talking to Jenna and Lucas just a few minutes ago," Emily explains. "We think she has something to do with 'A.'"

I stare at the black swan for a moment, considering. I obviously know way less about the "A" situation than I think I do. "Wait. Jenna and Lucas are involved?"

They all look at me, and Aria opens her mouth, but before she can speak Hanna says in a hushed voice, "She's leaving. Come on!"

We all turn and watch the anonymous girl head toward the exit. Aria, Hanna, and Emily rush after her, and I stand in a panic for a moment before rushing after them. "Wait!" The black swan reaches the exit and pushes through the door. Aria grabs it just after it closes and pulls hard, but it doesn't budge. "It's locked."

I still don't understand the significance of this person. "Where's Spencer?" I ask, suddenly realizing that the fourth member of this group is gone.

"She and Mona went back to the Lost Woods Resort," Emily says. "She thinks they're going to find something there."

"Something about 'A'?" I ask in alarm. Why would Mona lead Spencer on some stupid goose chase? I must be missing something here.

"Maybe," Hanna whispers. "Or something about the night Ali went missing."

"Huh?" I say just as Hanna continues, "They've been gone a while. That's it, I'm calling Spencer." She pulls out an oddly old phone and holds it up. "That's weird."

"What?" Aria asks, glancing over her shoulder.

Hanna looks disturbed. "My phone's set to record every time it's on," she says in confusion, holding it out to show Emily and me. I have never even seen that option on a phone before.

"I'll call her," Aria speaks up, grabbing her own phone and selecting the option for a video call. The phone rings for a few long moments before the screen lights up.

The angle is very strange, but the person the phone is focused on is very clearly my sister, driving a car and wearing a familiar black hoodie. "I had to get you out here alone, so we could talk."

The girls around me gasp as we hear Spencer reply, "Okay. Just slow down, okay? Let's talk."

"You had to earn it," Mona says, her voice just as void of emotion as the night that I caught her in our yard. "The right to be a part of it."

Emily glances up at me, her eyes wide. I squeeze mine shut tightly, trying to breathe. "You didn't see Ali in Brookhaven," Spencer's voice comes through the phone, frantic. "She saw you, didn't she? You just made that story up."

Mona smiles. "We're in this together now. I admire you, Spencer. That's why you get to decide how this ends, tonight. You can join the 'A' team, or you can disappear."

Team? This is beginning to seem like a lot more than just cyber bullying. "You – you almost killed Hanna," Spencer gasps. "She's my friend. I thought she was your friend, too."

It takes me a second to comprehend those words. Then my mind flashes back to the night of the party. The night Hanna got hit by a car.

I may throw up.

"It's easier to forgive an enemy than it is to forgive a friend."

"Oh, my God," Emily mutters, her face ghostly white.

"It's Mona," Aria adds. Hanna is mute, and so am I. I am trying not to hyperventilate.

"How did you do it?" Spencer also sounds like she is trying not to hyperventilate. "How could you be everywhere? You were always one step ahead of us."

"You're not the only genius in this car," Mona snaps, and in a twisted way I'm sort of glad to finally hear her admit it. "You bitches underestimated me."

"You're never going to make it to Lookout Point if you don't slow down."

Aria shuts off her phone, shoving it back into her purse. "They're going to Lookout Point. I know a shortcut. Come on."

Aria and Emily rush toward the exit, and I begin to follow when I realize that Hanna hasn't moved. "Hanna, come on," I plead, grabbing her arm. I am not going to let those girls confront my sister without me there. It strikes me that I would very much like to push her off of Lookout Point.

She told me this was just some stupid cyber bullying thing, that it was only texting. She told me that no one was going to get hurt. And I believed her. I kept her stupid secret for months, assuming that there was no way my own sister could actually do anything bad…that there was no way she could do to someone else what Alison did to her.

I know I should feel betrayed, but I've never felt angrier. "Mona's 'A,'" Hanna whispers, shaking her head.

I spot Justin, heading toward us with a cup of punch in each hand, and feel my heart skip. I want nothing more than to forget about all of this and get back to dancing with my first real boyfriend.

But I can't back out now. "Come on," I say sharply, pulling her along after the others. I glance over my shoulder at Justin, who is watching me practically run off with a frown and furrowed brow. My stomach lurches again.

We pile into Hanna's car and she floors it out of the parking lot. She looks so close to an emotional breakdown that I'm not sure she should be driving, but it seems like they all arrived together, and I don't have a car, so this is our only option.

Aria, sitting beside me in the back seat, puts her hand on my arm. "Are you alright?" she asks between giving directions to Hanna.

I shake my head, clutching my purse so tightly that my knuckles turn white. "My sister has been torturing you guys for months. No, I'm not really okay."

We are all silent for the next few minutes as Hanna winds the car up toward Lookout Point. I have never gotten motion sickness, but my stomach is churning so badly that I'm sure I'm about to throw up. The others all look the same.

Two small figures at the top of the cliff grow larger as we get closer. Spencer rushes past, her dress torn. Mona runs in front of the car after her. Hanna does not slow down.

"Hanna, slow down!" Emily yells.

"Stop!" I scream, just as Hanna presses hard on the brake. The car slams to a stop inches from my sister. The irony of that situation would probably make me laugh if I wasn't so horrified.

Mona lets out a scream unlike anything I have ever heard in my life, and bolts after Spencer, tackling her to the ground. I cry out and leap out of the car, the older girls following immediately. I grab Emily by the arm, watching helplessly as Spencer is nearly thrown right over the cliff.

But it is my sister who ends up going over, slipping on the rocks and falling out of sight before any of us can blink. The five of us scream simultaneously as the rest of us run to Spencer's side. My vision goes blurry.

What happens next does not really register with my brain. I hear someone on the phone with 911, sirens blaring up the winding road to the side of the cliff, and voices talking around me as for some reason the girls' therapist, Dr. Sullivan, appears on the scene.

Mostly I just hear my own sobbing.

"Viola." I hear the therapist's voice nearby. I snap back to real life and feel like I've just woken up from a dream. An ambulance is just behind me, and I'm standing between Dr. Sullivan and Spencer. The doctor has her hand on my shoulder. "It's alright. You're alright now. It's over."

I am just about to try and ask for my parents when a yell comes echoing up from the bottom of the cliff. "She's alive!"

The words pierce through me like I just got struck by lightning or something. Everyone's heads snap around to stare. The sound of a watch going off breaks through the silence.

…

"She was living in a state of hyper reality. The adrenaline rush that accompanied her feelings of empowerment and her high level of intelligence fueled Mona's ability to be seemingly all-knowing and omnipresent."

Dr. Sullivan's words sound like a dull droning in my ringing ears. I am so tired that I can barely see my sister sitting on the other side of the two-way mirror in front of us, wrapped in a straight jacket and staring catatonically ahead. That's a good thing, because otherwise I would probably have a panic attack.

My parents are on a weekend trip in Philadelphia. Well, they were on a weekend trip. The hospital called them and they are on their way home. I try to imagine what they must be thinking and quickly stop. It's too painful.

"Will she always be like this?" Hanna asks what we're all thinking, her voice wavering.

Dr. Sullivan glances over at her. "With therapy and the right medications, people with these types of personality disorders can get better."

A shudder runs through me. Personality disorder. Hyper reality. Omnipresent. I feel like I am living in an alternate reality. I knew my sister was a special brand of crazy, but not like this. As much as I miss the girl with the dorky glasses, I'd take Pretty Major Bitch over Completely Crazy any day of the week.

Another doctor peeks in the room to get Dr. Sullivan's attention, and they both exit the room. We follow. "Do you need a ride home, Viola?" Spencer asks quietly.

I wrap my arms around myself as we step into the cool outside air. "No. I think I'll just walk. My parents will be home soon."

"You think you'll be okay by yourself?" Emily asks. "You must be pretty shaken up."

I do not think that at all, but I also don't think I can be around everyone anymore. All I want is to go home and cry. "Yeah, I'll be fine." I take a few steps in the other direction, then take a deep breath, stop, and turn around. "Guys."

The four girls turn back to me. "I'm sorry," I blurt out, tears burning in my eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, Viola," Hanna says, reaching out to touch my arm. "You didn't know."

I wonder briefly if I should tell them. I could let them believe that I was as in the dark about "A" as they all were.

But lying is what got us all into this mess in the first place. I'm done with lying. For good. So I sigh and say, "I knew that Mona was 'A.' I've known for a few months."

Their expressions of pity dissolve into ones of shock. "What?" Spencer gasps, just as Aria repeats, "You knew?"

The last thing I want is to be yelled at, so I shrug and say again, "I'm sorry, you guys," and walk off before they can say anything more.

I hear sirens grow closer and several ambulances zoom by me in the opposite direction. I pause for a moment and watch them disappear around the corner, in the direction of the DiLaurentis house, and wonder if I should investigate.

But I'm too tired. My head feels like it is going to split in two, and I can barely breathe, my throat is so tight with held-back tears. I yank off my heels and run the rest of the way home, check my phone and find four missed calls from my parents and six from Justin, then fall onto my bed and burst into tears.

...

Please review and let me know what you think! Next chapter, five months have passed and Viola is still dealing with the aftereffects.