The moment we've all been waiting for, and a story we've been waiting to hear. How is Spencer alive?


Chapter 15: A Long Story

"No!" They all screamed and took a step forward. No one wanted to get too close and risk the chance that Toby might accidentally aim the gun and hurt someone else.

"Toby, don't!" Emily cried. "If you want to see Spencer again then put that gun down. You don't want to do this."

Toby clenched his eyes as tears continued to fall. His hand shook with the gun aimed inches from his head. Toby always knew this would be the only way for his story to end. He's caused too much damage. He's done a lot of terrible things that he can't take back. He nearly hurt his friends because of his drive for revenge. Emily had been right the whole time. Spencer would be disappointed in him. Toby hiccupped a sob as he looked up at the starry night.

"I'm sorry, Spencer."

He closed his eyes, put his finger on the trigger, and…

"Toby!"

Her voice rang through the night like a saving song. Toby's eyes flew open. He looked over his shoulder as he heard footsteps running towards him from behind. Spencer burst through the trees with Alison. Spencer's eyes focused on the gun Toby was aiming at his head. Her eyes flew wide open.

"Toby don't!"

Spencer's voice trembled as she cried. She cupped her hands over her mouth as she felt Alison's arms hold her in place just in case. Toby's watery blue eyes struggled to make eye contact with her. He was worried this was just his mind playing tricks on him. He's seen her so many times in his thoughts and dreams that seemed so real, but they weren't. He was not ready to take a chance that this was just another one of his many dreams.

"This can't be real," his voice was shaky.

"I know. I know this is hard to believe, but it's real. I'm real," Spencer pleaded. "Toby, please. Just look at me! Look at me. I'm here. I'm alive. Look at me!"

Toby lowered the gun, but he still had it in a dangerous position. He looked at the ground. Spencer took a risk and broke free from Alison's hold. She approached him slowly and carefully. Toby still looked at the ground. He was shaking. His tears kept coming out like a rainstorm. When she was close enough, Spencer cupped his cold cheeks in her warm hands. Toby closed his eyes feeling her skin on his skin. His body relaxed, his breath evened, but he still couldn't get himself to look up. The group witnessing this held their breaths. Toby leaned into her touch.

"Look at me," Spencer whispered.

Toby felt her warm breath cross his lips. He opened his bloodshot eyes and raised his head. His watery blue eyes looked into her soft teary brown eyes. He released a heavy sigh that had been lodged deep in his throat. His tears slowed their roll down his cheeks. Spencer collected his tear drops on her thumbs as she caressed his face. To solidify to him that this is real, she leaned her forehead against his. His heart began to beat again. Warmth returned to his body. He closed his eyes. The gun thudded against the dirt. He cupped Spencer's face in his hands.

"You're alive," he whispered.

Spencer sighed, letting him feel her breath on his chin as she whispered back to him, "I'm alive."


Back in Toby's cabin, the gang gathered. Spencer has a lot of explaining to do, but first aid needed to be administrated for Toby and Caleb. Caleb had a broken nose, bruised fingers, and possibly a concussion from being hit in the head so many times. Toby has a bruised-up jaw and a few broken fingers. Not just that, Toby can't seem to get himself to stop shaking. Once back at the cabin, Spencer wrapped him up in a large blanket and made him something warm to drink. When she handed it to him, Toby just held the mug between his hands and stared off into nothing. Spencer feared she may have broken him beyond repair.

Aria burst through the door carrying bags of stuff. She began ranting…

"Emily, those directions you gave me to find this place were confusing as fuck. You had me drive around for thirty minutes just to end up at a cabin five minutes away from where I live? Do you have any idea how much gas costs these days? Oh, and here are the supplies you asked me to bring after ignoring my calls for the last three hours."

Aria slammed the bags down on the table making a loud thud sound. She removed her gloves then tossed her car keys down.

"So, what I miss?"

"Well," Emily pointed to the couch behind her where Spencer was sitting next to Toby. "You wanted us to keep you updated."

Aria's eyes widened at the sight of Spencer. Her face went pale and for some reason, she wanted to scream. Spencer noticed Aria had arrived. Spencer became tense as she offered a pathetic wave and even more of a pathetic smile. Aria was too stunned to speak. Instead of addressing Spencer, Aria turned back to the grocery bags.

"So, I got medical supplies, band aids, pain meds, some food in case anyone gets hungry." Aria pressed a finger to her bottom lip and said, "Now, I'm wondering if I should have brough some alcohol because I think I speak for everyone right now when I say, I need a drink."

It was a comment like that that broke the spell of silence between all of them. Hanna broke first and started giggling. She apologized and tried to hide it behind her hands. Emily smirked, then, soon, she was laughing along with Hanna. Aria and Alison joined them. Spencer was skeptical but was glad to see some of the tension had lifted. Toby seemed to be the only one still frozen in his own thoughts. Aria's laugh subsided as she walked over to Spencer with her arms open.

"Come here, already!"

Spencer was surprised but stood up to accept Aria's hug. She and Aria didn't have the tightest bond before, so it surprised Spencer how thrilled Aria was to see her. Hanna stood behind Aria ready to hug her next.

"You died," a grungy voice spoke up.

Everyone in the room looked at Toby. He finally looked up at Spencer. Spencer's eyes fell as she sank down in her seat next to him. She reached for Toby's hand, but he pulled away.

"You died," he repeated. His eyes were empty. Still red from crying. It seemed he had cried out all his tears. "I saw you die. I felt you slip away."

"I know," Spencer whispered.

"Then how," his voice trembled like he was going to cry again, but his eyes stayed dry.

"Yes, how is this possible," Caleb chimed in. His eyebrows sunk low on his forehead. His scowl was hard to conceal.

"Why is Caleb even here right now?" Alison snapped.

"Because that crazy man kidnapped my fiancé!" He shouted.

"I wasn't hurt," Hanna said.

"I can explain everything," Spencer said.

"Don't," Alison warned. "Don't say another word in front of Caleb. He'll just run off and tell Tanner you're alive and expose us all. We'll all be dead."

"No, he won't!" Hanna argued.

"He turned her in before!" Emily stood up to back Alison up.

"He didn't know what he was doing before remember!" Hanna shouted. "Mona's been screwing with these boys' minds for months!"

"Caleb wasn't the one being drugged, Toby was!" said Alison.

"Enough!" Spencer jumped up. She addressed everyone in the room. Toby included. "This is exactly what Mona's been trying to do. When she faked my death, she needed something big to drive a wedge between all of you. I wasn't the only one apart of her experiment. You all were! We were all just pawns in her game." Spencer looked at Toby to make sure he was listening. "Even Tanner's a pawn."

"So, what happened?" Aria asked, calmly. "How was Mona able to make your death so convincing? Tanner had you sent to where they execute all witches. Wasn't Noel the one that injected you with the poison?"

"Mona was working with Noel and his brother," said Spencer. "She had them use a type of drug that paralyzes your body, so I wasn't able to move or speak. Then, she found a way to stop my heart long enough to convince Toby I died."

"I wanted to stay with you longer," Toby recalled. "But she told me… she told me your body needed to be taken care of right away or Tanner would have it sent to a lab."

"When my heart stopped, I thought for sure I was dead," Spencer said. "I saw the light. I blacked out. I'm not positive how much time had passed, but when I woke up again, I was tucked warmly in a bed. I had clean clothes on, and my hair was brushed like Mona had been taking care of me. Like…"

"Like a doll," said Alison.

"She told me it would take a couple weeks for me to get my strength back," said Spencer. "She kept me fed, hydrated, and even stayed in the room to chat with me. I don't know why I didn't think anything of it at first. I thought by the time I had my strength back I was free to go back to all of you."

She looked between Alison and Toby. Spencer's eyes began to fill with tears as she recalled her memories of the last year.

"I wanted to come home. When I started to feel better, Mona told me that it still wasn't safe for me to return. Those hunters would be looking for me at every corner of the town ready to send me right back to that execution chamber. I knew a month had already passed at this point, so I figured you guys would've had my funeral already."

"When did you figure out what Mona was really up to?" Hanna asked. "Are you sure she's the one pulling all the strings. She helped us find you right before Tanner had you arrested."

"That was her way of earning your trust," Spencer said. "And mine too. I guess I got so used to trusting all of you, I forgot to have my guard up with the real enemies. It was around month three when I started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. First, Mona was the one who had me injected with a small dose of a new drug she was trying to create."

"The one that made you angry," Alison said.

Spencer nodded, "Mona started letting me explore around her house. She had a secret door to her basement that she always kept locked. The thing was, Mona had a habit of leaving for several days at a time, so I knew I would get a chance to snoop downstairs. Whether she meant for me to find her lair, I don't know, but I did. She had fridges, freezes, and shelves full of trial drugs that she had created. The same kind of drugs that the academy reported a mad scientist used almost twenty years ago on cancer patients."

Emily's eyes went wide, "was Mona trying to keep those experiments alive?"

"I couldn't understand why she would do all of this," said Spencer. "I thought she just wanted to show off how smart she was by tricking everyone. Then, I found out that Mona's father is the scientist that created the drug that started this whole confusion about witches being evil."

"The scientist that was pretending to help cancer patients but was really using them for his own twisted experiment," Caleb said. "That information was on the files I found in the lab. He created the drugs with the intent to intensify human emotions. He created drugs to make people love, hate, sad, happy, etc."

"The hate drug is so strong, it can make even the person with the purest heart go on a rampage," Spencer said. She didn't mean to, but she looked directly at Toby.

Toby's eyes fell to the floor as he said, "you think that's what Mona was doing to me?"

Spencer's voice trembled, "she wanted me to think that was what I had done to you."

Toby looked up to meet her eyes. He stared at her long and hard. Spencer shivered under his glassy cold gaze. He opened his mouth and said…

"She was right."

Those three words broke Spencer's heart. The worst part is she knows he is right. This is her fault. It's her fault for trusting Mona. It's her fault for staying away for so long. It's her fault for letting her friends go on thinking she was dead. Letting Toby think he had lost her. Her death was so hard for him to cope with that he resorted to killing people. Whether or not Mona gave him a drug that made him act in that way, Spencer played a role in it. Mona was able to trick Toby into consuming the drug because he was already falling into the deep end.

"I'm sorry," Spencer blubbered. "Mona started locking me away. By the time I got free, I was already too late. Noel was dead and…"

"I killed him because I thought he killed you!" Toby said. He wasn't yelling, but he was on the verge of it. "I made a promise to get back at everyone who had ever hurt you! I couldn't sleep, or eat, or think of anything else but to see to it that your death was not in vain. I thought I was doing all of it for you."

"I never wanted you to go down that road," she admitted. "I understand why you did all those things. I know it's my faut. Look, if you want, I will go to Tanner and tell her that I killed Noel and his brother."

"What?" Alison protested.

"Spencer, you can't do that!" Aria added.

"They will kill you," said Alison, getting teary eyed.

"No," Toby said, sternly. "That's not what I want. I want to finish what I started a year ago."

Spencer's tears paused, she sniffled, and asked, "what do you mean by that?"

"Dude, you're not still thinking about killing Tanner, are you?" Caleb asked.

Toby shook his head, "no. No more killings. No more deaths. This needs to end. Whatever Mona is doing needs to end. We need to expose her. To Tanner. To everyone. We need to make sure that people like her will never attempt to do these experiments on people ever again."

"Agreed," Spencer said. "Mona has to be stopped."

Head nods all around.

"We all need to get some sleep, refresh, and come back together tomorrow to think of a plan," said Emily.

"It's too dangerous for all of us to return to our separate homes," Aria said.

"We can all just stay here tonight," said Toby. "I've got enough blankets and pillows to go around. There are two bedrooms. Hanna, Caleb, and Aria can take the one on the right. Spencer, Emily, and Alison you guys can sleep in the one on the left. Someone might have to sleep on the floor."

"What about you?" Spencer asked.

He looked at her and shrugged, "I'll lay on the couch."

"I'll stay out with you," she whispered.

"No," he shook his head. "I think it would be best if you just shared a room with Emily and your sister. I need some time to wrap my head around all of this."

Spencer wanted to argue. Instead, she sadly nodded.


Spencer is alive and everyone knows it! Everyone has their own reactions to Spencer being back. Someone in particular appears to be taking it a lot harder than one might expect. Can Spencer clear the air with Toby? How will they stop Mona? What will happen next?