Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Seven – Ready or Not
Cory's eyes started to flutter open, the sound of machine's steadily beeping filled her ears. For a brief moment she started to panic until she realized where she was, in the hospital.
Pinning her eyes shut she tried to take a deep breath and tell herself that she was okay. It was only then that she felt someone's hand slid out from her own and she froze. The hand was too big to have been one of her friend's.
Her dad would have been there to check on her, but he wasn't exactly the sit by the side of a bed and hold someone's hand type.
When she heard the door to her room start to open she slowly cracked an eye open and looked over that way just in time to see someone's back when they walked out of the room, her other eye opened and they both widened when she realized it was Jason's back.
She opened her mouth to say something but he was already gone.
Looking around she located her nurse's call button and pushed it, moments later one of the nurses came in and said, "Yes?"
"Hi… uh, did you see the guy that was just in here?"
The nurse arched a brow and glanced around the room before shaking her head and pointing out, "It's way after visiting hours…"
"Okay, but I just saw someone leaving my room…"
"I've been at the desk for the past few hours and I haven't seen anyone." She assured her before offering, "Maybe you were dreaming?"
"Yeah, maybe…" Cory breathed, wondering what was happening to her. First she'd imagined seeing Alison at the church and now she'd imagined seeing Jason leaving her hospital room. What was next… dreaming up that Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis were there?
With that thought her eyes widened and she looked around her room, squinting and letting out a pained noise as the nurse switched the lights on and said, "While you're awake, I'm going to check your vitals and then page your dad."
Cory nodded, swallowing hard as she laid her head back against the pillows and wished she could be anywhere else. She hated hospitals, always had but after escaping the ER after the car accident –she figured she was lucky they hadn't restrained her to the bed with a lock on the door.
The next morning, after answering questions from the police for almost two hours they finally left and her dad brought her some takeout for lunch.
Sitting in the chair next to the bed, he watched her silently before she asked him, "When can I go home?"
"Probably later today… if not, then tomorrow for sure. Luckily, other than some superficial cuts and bruises you're okay after the wreck, the worst you got from it was some bruised ribs… but nothing's broken." He assured her, as he pulled in a deep breath and continued, "If you'd just stayed in the ER last night, you'd be at home relaxing in your own bed right now."
She avoided his eyes as she started to take her food out of the bag and slowly drank from her soda.
"It looks like you had a panic attack outside of the church… that's why you blacked out, the stress on your lungs from that and already being in pain from your sore ribs."
"Did they find Ian's body yet?" She asked, her eyes hopeful.
"No…"
"You believe me though right, that he was there? That he hurt me and tried to kill Spencer?"
He was silent for a moment before he admitted, "I know that's what you believe… but there is no evidence to back it up."
"No evidence? I'm injured…" She argued, thinking her bruised up side from the struggle in the church and being thrown against a pew should be evidence enough.
"The problem is… your injuries can easily be explained away from the car accident. And since you didn't stick around the ER, your injuries weren't well documented and there is nothing to compare it to." He said, an apologetic look on his face like he wanted to believe her, but just couldn't.
"I'll leave you alone so you can eat." He said as he stood up and added, "I'll see what we can do about you getting you out of here."
"Thanks dad." She softly said in a weak voice, not having the energy to try and argue that she wasn't lying about what happened with Ian.
"Oh, also… I got a phone call from Veronica Hastings earlier this morning. With Spencer still being a person of interest in Alison's murder investigation… it seems like what happened at the church makes it look like the other four of you could be involved too…" Austin started to explain, but his daughter cut him off.
"No, no, no… Ian killed Alison."
"While the police sort through everything, Veronica wants you all to see a grief counselor. Apparently it will look good for you girls, since it appears to them right now that you all just have some sort of obsession with trying to pin her death on Ian Thomas. I have to admit, I think this could be a good thing for you –for all of you." Austin continued, and Cory scoffed as she shook her head.
She had enough one-on-one and group therapy during her time in rehab.
~(A few days later)~
Cory sat in silence on the couch between Emily and Aria in their grief counselors office, Spencer was sitting on the arm of the couch. All four of them watching the clock on the far wall as time slowly ticked away while they waited on Hanna.
Their therapist, Anne kept trying to get the girls to open up and talk but they refused to do so until the last member of their group showed up.
Finally the door opened and Hanna walked in, shopping bags in hand as she apologized, "Sorry I'm late, but have you see the sales downtown lately?"
"You must be Hanna, I'm Anne." She introduced herself to the blonde teenager as she took a seat in the chair next to the couch her friends were on.
"So, what'd I miss?" Hanna questioned.
Shooting her a look Spencer explained, "Nothing, we were waiting on you."
With a feigned smile she breathed, "Damn."
"So, tell me about yourselves… how did you all meet?" Anne asked them, watching the group as she spoke.
Slowly, they began to tell the story of how Alison had befriended them all, handpicked them to join the group.
"It really sounds like you all credit Alison for the friendship."
"Yeah, we all became friends because of her." Emily nodded.
Crossing one leg over the other and readjusting in her chair, Anne pointed out, "But she's gone and the five of you still seem very close."
"We weren't always." Emily said, then held her silence when she realized she was the only one who kept talking.
When their therapist continued to stare at them waiting on an answer, spencer admitted, "We lost touch when Ali went missing."
"My family spent a year in Iceland." Aria chimed in and Cory nodded, "Mine packed up and moved to Ohio."
"The rest of us… just sort of drifted." Hanna quietly said.
"What brought you back together?"
When no one answered, she continued, "You don't all have to agree. There are no right or wrong answers here."
"Her death." Spencer admitted.
With widened eyes, Aria corrected, "She mean's when they found the body."
"When they found Ali's body." Cory chimed in with a sad expression.
"Do you think you were looking for closure?"
"We… were looking for answers." Spencer's voice was barely audible as she spoke, and Hanna sat off to the side, nervously twisting her hair around her finger, wishing it was time to go.
"The answer to who murdered Alison?"
They all looked down.
"The five of you don't have to go through this alone. This is a safe place to talk, nothing you say here goes beyond these walls." Anne assured them.
The room fell silent until Aria looked around to her friends and asked, "Do we… do we want to talk about… that thing?"
Slowly, they all started to come around to the idea that they could finally have someone to talk to about being tormented by A, but the feeling was cut short when Aria's phone started to buzz from her purse followed by Emily's phone chiming from her pocket.
They all looked around wide-eyed, thinking somehow A knew what they were planning and was texting a warning to stop them.
"Well, what is it?" Anne asked, picking up on their sudden change in behavior.
"Um, I think our time is up." Spencer apologized, as they all stood up and cleared out of the room.
Once they were outside Aria sighed with relief, "It wasn't A, it as just my mom."
"Mine too… she wants me to come home." Emily said.
Down the sidewalk from them they saw toby leaned against a car, when he saw the group –mainly Spencer, he smiled and started towards them until all the light left his face and they saw Jenna walking towards him.
"Guys…" Cory breathed, nodding to a newspaper dispenser that had all of their pictures on the cover page with the title, 'What really happened?'
The article stated that Ian's car had been found near the train station and his bank accounts showed a withdraw of ten thousand dollars, before it went on to suggest that the girls had made the entire story up because they knew he'd skipped town and wouldn't be there to defend himself.
When they all received a text in unison, there was no doubt in their minds who it was coming from.
"I spy a liar… -A"
~()~
"What was this SOS about?" Cory asked as she walked into Aria's bedroom and dropped her purse on the desk before pointing out, "If I skip out on too many more dinners my dad's probably going to start insisting I see that damn therapist."
"Sorry… but look." Aria apologized as she stood from her bed and showed her -her cellphone.
As Cory was looking at it, the rest of their friend's filed into the room and Aria explained that as she was leaving Ezra's she got a picture text from A of the desk in his apartment, and once she checked under the rug mat –she saw his spare key was gone.
Cory shivered, thinking how scary it was that A could just come and go from seemingly anywhere.
As they all got sat down Aria explained, "A must have followed me there… and he, she… shim, must have seen me get that key from under the doormat."
"Let me see that." Hanna said and Cory passed the phone to her.
"Okay, all I see are books, photographs, magazines…is that a playboy?" She asked with a laugh.
"What?" Spencer asked as they all leaned in to get a better look at the screen.
"Right there, under that black thing on the cabinet."
"That's a typewriter." Cory laughed shaking her head as Aria nodded, "Han, that's not a playboy that's a play bill."
The text Aria had been asked if she could tell what was missing from the apartment, but Emily thought what was missing wasn't the point, "I don't think what's missing matters. A wants us to know that she can come and go through Ezra's apartment. When is it going to stop? Remember where we were just a few months ago?
"Visiting me in the hospital." Hanna recalled, and Emily nodded, "A just hit Hanna and kept going."
"And A didn't even hesitate before pushing Ian, like it was no big deal." Spencer agreed.
"Because to this person… apparently murder isn't a big deal." Cory sighed, rubbing her eyes and feeling like she may never sleep again.
"I don't want to be sitting next to you guys at another funeral." Emily explained.
The room fell silent and they all exhcmaged looks, knowing what she was hinting at. That they needed to tell someone about A and the constant threats they lived under.
"Telling Anne wouldn't be like telling our parents, she legally has to keep it a secret." Emily pointed out, trying to sell her idea and Aria nodded, "We were so close to telling her yesterday and it felt really good."
"I know we promised Garret we wouldn't show the video to the cops, but I mean, if we want her to believe us…" Aria began to say but Spencer cut in, "A picture's worth a thousand words."
"And you know, she was wearing a gorgeous pair of Khloes." Hanna chimed in, causing Spencer's forehead to line with confusion as she asked, "And this is relevant to this conversation because…?"
"You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes." She reasoned, and Cory couldn't help but laugh.
"I really heard her when she said that we don't have to go through this alone." Emily admitted.
Looking around the room Cory asked, "So do we all agree then? We tell Anne about A?"
Her friends all nodded and Spencer said she'd get them an appointment to talk to Anne the next day, they all left the house with a sense of hope. Even if their therapist wouldn't directly be able to help them, it would feel so good to have someone on their side –someone who actually believed what they were saying.
~(The next day)~
"Thank you for seeing us today." Aria said as they all took their seats on the couch and chairs.
Anne smoothed her shirt out as she sat down and asked, "It sounded like there was something you really wanted to tell me."
"And something we want to show you." Cory nodded to Emily who pulled her computer from her bag and started to open it as Hanna clarified that Anne wasn't allowed to tell anyone what was discussed in the room.
Once they were satisfied that the office was truly a safe place to open up, they instructed Emily to show her the videos, but she argued that she should tell her first and then show her.
When no one wanted to be that person who first spoke up, Aria pulled in a deep breath, "We did drift apart after Alison went missing and it's true that her death brought us back together, but I don't know if we'd be as close as we are now if-"
"This talk is premature." Spencer cut in, nodding to the wall. Where her friend's looked over and saw one of Ezra's framed diploma's on the bookcase behind Anne. It was a sign that A knew they were there and wanted to shut them up.
"We're sorry we wasted your time…" Cory apologized as she stood up and grabbed her purse off the coffee table. Emily shut her computer and loaded it back in her bag, as Hanna made her way over to the bookcase to pick up the diploma and sneak it out of the office.
"What just happened here?" Anne wanted to know, they'd seemed so close to finally opening up and now the room was colder than the Antarctic.
"Um, you know… we just need to figure out what we want to say so that we can communicate more effectively…" Spencer stumbled over words and Emily tried to back her up, "So we'll reschedule."
"Wait, you girls called me… remember?" An extremely confused Anne pointed out to them.
Once they were outside Aria sighed, "Well… if she didn't think we were crazy before, she does now."
"Didn't you see it?" Cory asked, turning to face her.
See what?"
"This!" Hanna exclaimed as she pulled the framed diploma from her purse and handed it to Aria who gasped, "This is what A took from Ezra's."
"A knows were coming here…" Spencer pointed out.
"Somehow she's always one step ahead… no matter what." Cory groaned and Hanna nodded, "I'm starting to think that bitch has superpowers."
~(Later that night)~
Cory looked up when there was a knock on her bedroom door, "Hey dad." She greeted as he walked in and looked around.
"Cory, we need to talk." He somberly said as he sat down in her computer chair and turned to face where she was sitting on her bed.
"What's wrong?" She asked, her heart starting to race with fear.
"I got a phone call from your therapist and she didn't go into much detail about what happened today, but she did recommend that she see each of you individually instead of together as a group." Austin explained.
"Yeah, I figured that was coming." Cory groaned, rolling her eyes as she started to put her earbuds back in, but he stopped her, "Wait, there's more…"
"She thinks that all of you have an unhealthy co-dependent relationship."
"Meaning…"
"Meaning that, for the time being… you all have to spend some time apart. Don't worry, she said it's not that uncommon for a close group of friends to disconnect from the outside world after a traumatic event."
"Don't worry… dad, you're telling me that I'm not allowed to see my best friends… how can I not worry about that?" She gasped, feeling like her large bedroom was slowly closing in on her.
"We're not saying it's going to be forever, but for right now –we all think this is the best option." Austin said, as he sat down on the bed beside her and tried to lay a comforting hand on her arm, but she jerked away from his touch.
"You don't know anything. These are my best friend's dad, they're the only friends I have!" She stammered out, her voice cracking as she spoke and shook her head back and forth.
"Try to look on the bright side…" He breathed, looking around her room, "You've been spending so much time with them that you're barely staying here a few nights a week, now you'll have some time to paint your new room and maybe pick up a few afterschool hobbies or at the very least focus on your homework because your grades aren't what they used to be."
Scooting back against the wall she wrapped her arms around herself, closing off from her dad and the room.
"Honey…" He started to say but she cut him off, almost on the verge of tears as she said, "I just really need to be alone right now."
Her dad nodded and started to leave her room before he paused in the doorway and offered, "Maybe it's time to think about making some new friends…"
"I don't want new friends, I need my friends." She grumbled, not looking up to him.
It was much later that night that Cory was lying in bed, tossing and turning as she tried unsuccessfully to fall asleep when her phone went off with an SOS text from Spencer, followed by one saying to meet in the old abandoned greenhouse.
Throwing her blankets off, Cory grabbed an over-sized, one shoulder sweater from her dresser and pulled it on over the white shirt and gray plaid shorts she'd been sleeping in. Quickly locating her favorite pair of warm, knitted boots she slid them on and quietly walked out into the hallway, making sure her dad's door was shut.
She jogged to the greenhouse and got there right as Hanna and Aria did, Spencer and Emily were already there and Spencer quickly filled them in on how she'd found her sisters phone and discovered a text she was sure was from Ian.
"We don't know for sure that it's him…" Cory argued, shivering and wishing she'd taken the time to pull on a pair of sweatpants too or something warmer.
"Yeah, it could just be some kook trying to mess with Melissa." Hanna argued, nodding.
"Maybe, but it doesn't seem random; 'It's not safe yet, I can't tell you'," Spencer repeated the message for them again.
"Can't tell you what?" Emily breathed.
"Where he is!" Spencer loudly exclaimed.
"Guys this is crazy, Ian is dead." Aria confidently stated.
"All this time we thought maybe A had taken his body for something… but what if that wasn't the case and he really managed to get away on his own?" Cory whispered to them, all of their faces cast in an eerie green glow from the moonlight pouring in through leaf and dust covered glass ceiling tiles.
"There's only one way to know for sure… send a reply." Hanna suggested in one of those rare moments where she got a brilliant idea.
"How do I know this is you?" Spencer said out loud as she typed the message.
Immediately a new text came through; 'Ask me anything.'
"What's something that only Ian would be able answer?" Hanna spoke quickly.
"hold on… I know." Spencer said, as she continued to type and text, "What are we naming our baby?"
"What is the name?" Emily questioned.
"Taylor."
A few seconds later the phone chimed again with the correct answer. They all gasped in a mutual shared state of shock, somehow Ian had managed to survive the bell tower fall.
"He's… alive…" Cory whispered under her breath.
They all stared at each other when a gust of wind blew and rattled some loose paneling on the side of the abandoned building.
"That was just the wind right…" Emily whispered, stepping closer to the group.
"Yeah… yeah, I think so." Spencer tried to comfort her, but she felt just as scared as the rest of them.
"Either way, we need to go." Aria urged as she nodded for everyone to follow her towards the exit.
"Yeah, I have to get this phone home before Melissa realizes that it's gone." Spencer reminded them.
"So you put it back and then what? We call the cops?" Emily asked, panic in her voice and lacing every syllable.
"Oh, because that always works out so well for us!" Hanna hissed at her, rolling her eyes with attitude.
As the wind picked up outside and tree's rained debris over the greenhouse, Cory spoke up, "Guys, I'm with Aria… we need to go."
Once they were back outside and on the road leading to Spencer's house she suggested they pick the conversation back up in the morning.
"I'm cold, damp and scared. We can talk at school." Hanna offered, but it was clear that idea wasn't going to work."
"We can't," Aria reminded her, "we're supposed to be having, separate time…"
"So what are we supposed to do? Just not talk to each other?" she groaned.
"We just need to play it cool… we can all get prepaid phones to keep in touch if we have to." Cory offered as they neared the DiLaurentis house.
Hearing some loud thudding, they all gasped and ducked out of sight.
"Oh my god… it's Jason." Cory whispered to her friends, as they stayed out of sight from Alison's older brother.
"Did he move back in?" Aria whispered back, as they watched him throw another box of things into the trashcan.
"What is all of that?" Spencer quietly asked
Emily squinted her eyes and said, "That's all the stuff people left on the curb when Ali went missing… those tributes. Maya said her family kept all of those when they moved in because they didn't have the heart to throw anything away."
"Well apparently, Jason's moved on." Spencer shrugged.
"Why would he move back into that house?" Hanna asked as they watching him pick some things up from the ground that had spilled over the top of the trashcan.
Cory remained silent while her friend's talked amongst themselves. Maybe she hadn't imagined Jason coming to visit her in the hospital.
For close to a year she'd played over in her head what she'd say if she saw him again, how she'd act and wondered how she'd feel. Somewhere along the way during her time of living in Ohio and dating a few guys there, she'd convinced herself that she was entirely over Jason. But now she wasn't even sure how to feel as she watched him.
A part of her wanted to go over and say hi to him and another part of her wanted to take off running in the opposite direction –she hadn't even called him when they'd learned Alison was dead. The polite thing would have been to check on him, offer her condolences but she was too afraid to call, scared she wouldn't know what to say or wouldn't be able to find the right words.
"Maybe we should ask him what he's doing back?" She finally was able to locate her words and form a sentence.
"What? Just walked up to him and ask why he's suddenly back in the same house where his dead sister's body was found buried in the back yard?" Hanna asked looking over at her.
"Maybe in a more eloquent way… but yes."
"Cory, I know you have history with him… but come on, he's back in town throwing away Alison's memorial items in the middle of the night. It doesn't get much creepier than that." Emily suggested as she stared at her best friend, Alison's brother had always given her the creeps and nothing about that had changed.
"I mean if you guys don't feel comfortable enough, I could ask." She offered with a small shrug.
"No, no way. You're not going over there." Spencer said as she stood in front of her to block her view of Jason.
"But-"
"She's right, you're the last person that should go over there." Emily agreed.
"come on." She sighed, rolling her eyes and then looked to Aria for support, but her friend shifted on the gravel under her feet and said, "We're not doing anything tonight. It's late and we all need to get home. We'll figure out some way to talk tomorrow."
Emily nodded, "Whatever Jason is doing back, in that house is probably the least of our problems considering Ian's alive."
Cory nodded and Hanna looped her arm with Cory's as she said, "Let's just get home."
Once Spencer went to her house and the others split up to go their separate ways, Cory found herself turning around and walking back towards the DiLaurentis house; without a clue of what she'd say once she got there.
A cold night wind blew and pierced right through the sweater she'd pulled on. She'd considered that this was probably wasn't the best idea considering it was just after midnight and the last thing she should be doing was walking around by herself outside.
Just as she reached the house she saw Jason throwing another box of stuff into the trashcan and she realized she wasn't sure she was ready to talk to him after all. But before she could turn and dart out of eyesight, something rolled from the overflowing trashcan down the driveway until it stopped once it collided with her knit boots.
Swallowing hard, Cory looked up to see Jason watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. Ready to face him again or not, she'd been spotted and there was no sneaking away or ducking out of sight now.
A/N- Jason's finally back! I guess it was a little evil to just there it there, huh? ^_-
I really hope you guys all liked the chapter and are still enjoying the story. This is quickly becoming my favorite one to write for now.
Don't forget the link to my Tumblr is up on my profile and since I've just learned my way around Photoshop, I'll be posting gif edits and other things for this story and my others!
I owe a huge thank you to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Lucy Greenhill, xxxRena, Momsen-xxxx, RHatch89, Liam1094, Heartless-Princess, Bell loves cookies, love2beh8ers, Tina, Nicole, Lucie25, Shannon2015, SmellYouScentForMiles, and the 2 guests who all reviewed the last chapter! Honestly, I cannot even begin to say how much your support means. Thank you!