Disclaimer: Do not own Pretty Little Liars
Warnings for child neglect, murder, stalking and bullying
The lover's vengeance
Aria woke up from her nap against the window of her car, when she heard the music from the car's radio begin to play.
It was the Beatles song, "The night before."
Aria scoffed as she heard the song, leaning back against the leatherbound backseat of the car, as her father drove them back to the family's old house. The Montgomery house.
Aria Montgomery and her family had lived in Rosewood for years. Almost Aria's whole life. However, they had lived for the past year in Iceland.
Aria wasn't stupid, she knew that her parents had taken her to Iceland for Aria's own benefit, even if Aria didn't appreciate it in the least.
A year ago, someone had disappeared from this town, the town of Rosewood.
Alison DiLaurentis.
It hurt Aria to listen to this song. It reminded her of Alison. Not because this song was asking questions, like, if someone in the song had been telling lies or anything like that, no. It was because the Beatles were a band that Aria and Alison had listened to a lot, during their relationship.
Aria stared at the back of her mother's seat.
None of her family had known that Aria and Alison had been together.
No one had known, except for Aria and Alison themselves.
Aria had been Alison's secret and Alison had been Aria's secret. And that was how they had liked it to be.
Not even their closest friends, Spencer, Emily and Hanna knew.
Behind the Montgomery family's car, was the truck, transporting the rest of the belongings they had taken with them to Iceland.
Needless to say, they hadn't been able to take any of that on the plane to Iceland. You were required to take only two bags aboard the plane.
So, the Montgomery family had taken a boat all the way to Iceland and back.
Aria had tried so hard not to think of her lover during the trip, but she hadn't been able to help it.
Even when she'd been at her most content, she would find her mind slipping back to thinking of Alison.
When the Montgomerys reached their house and began unpacking everything, Aria went through the day, feeling tired, angry and pained.
She heard what the news was calling today. "The anniversary of the disappearance of Alison DiLaurentis."
It pissed Aria off, something fierce.
Like the news was happy about it, even though she knew that that wasn't the case.
That night, when Alison disappeared, all four Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna, had been asleep in Spencer's family's barn. Alison had been there, yes, but when Aria and the others had awoken? Alison was gone.
Aria had gone to the open doors of the barn, when she had seen a figure in the shadows and had hopefully called out, "Ali?"
But it hadn't been Alison.
It had been Spencer.
Spencer had then said something that had made Aria's heart stop. Spencer had said that Alison was gone.
Aria asked, "What do you mean 'gone?'"
Spencer continued, appearing slightly out of it, "I looked everywhere for her. I thought I heard her scream."
Aria had felt cold the moment Spencer had said that.
Of course, Aria, Emily and Hanna looked for Alison after that. So did Spencer.
But none of them had found her.
Aria had contemplated on if Alison had left. As much as it angered her, that Alison might leave her, she hoped that that was what had happened, rather than the alternative.
Because Aria, she knew that Alison could piss people off. She knew that Alison was a defiant young girl that showed fear to no one. Not to men, not to women. Called out the stupidity of the adults in this town. There were plenty of people that might want to hurt her, just because she was willing to challenge the status quo.
Aria had entertained this possibility for the whole year. At least a few minutes of every day this past year.
What if someone murdered Alison?
Aria was horrified at the thought of Alison being dead, but was there another explanation? And if Aria's suspicion was right? Then who could have done it?
She doubted any of the teenagers that Alison had a tendency of tormenting would have had the spine to hurt Alison in any way. Which left the adults, most likely.
But Aria realized she was getting ahead of herself. She didn't even know for sure if Alison was dead or not.
Aria drove off to a bar for something to eat and drink. She needed to take her mind off of Alison.
She didn't care about Byron and him hoping she'd keep his secret. She didn't care about him anymore. She just wanted her mind to be taken off of Alison.
She ordered her food and a drink.
There was a man sitting at the bar, as well. He looked to be in his early twenties, at the oldest.
Aria supposed he was as good as any option to have some fun with and forget everything, if only for a while.
She let him fuck her against the sink counter in the bathroom.
Good thing she carried around condoms and took birth control.
It felt good, sure, but nothing compared with how sex with Alison felt.
She'd never cheat on Alison-but when you weren't sure if your lover was dead or not, did that still make it cheating?
It was why she'd had relationships near the end of her time in Iceland. Why she got condoms, to make sure that she wouldn't get pregnant.
The relationships certainly didn't mean anything, not to her.
It was like some physical need. Like exercise. It felt good, but that was it. It was almost mechanical.
It was nothing like being with Alison.
When she returned to school, the first person she met was Emily. It had been a long time since she'd even spoken to any of the girls.
Aria scoped out the school, learned that all three Emily, Spencer and Hanna had stopped being friends, Hanna was now friends with Mona and the man that Aria had sex with at the bar? Apparently was to be her new teacher.
Then in class, it happened.
Aria received a text.
It was an individual calling themselves "A."
And the message goaded Aria about her having sex with her new teacher.
Aria almost thought time had frozen still.
"A?" And it was a text mocking her?
Aria's first hopeful thought in almost a year, was, (Alison?)
Because it made sense, right? Alison was the type that would mock Aria over something like that. Mock all the girls over something like that.
Aria had kept herself from smiling, despite how much she wanted to.
She didn't know where Alison had gone, but she was alive!
Aria would hug Alison, kiss her, never let her go. Yes, she'd scream at Alison for leaving. But she would also hug Alison and would never let the blonde go.
She at first tried to pull herself out of Ezra's class, but he made it clear that would make things complicated.
Aria tried to make it an emotion issue, which it wasn't. Just awkward.
Also, if Alison was back, that just made it all the more awkward.
Aria couldn't say that she wasn't slightly relieved that the text she received hadn't indicated any real jealousy.
Alison wasn't angry about Aria kissing and having sex with her teacher, Ezra Fitz.
When Aria met up with Emily on the front porch of the Montgomery house, they spoke together as they sat next to each other on the swing seat that was placed on the Montgomery's porch.
As it turned out? Emily had gotten a message from Alison too.
A message about something personal from someone calling themselves "A."
Aria couldn't help but feel slightly jealous that Emily had gotten a message too, but tried not to think too much about it.
Aria knew that Emily had feelings for Alison. Alison had told Aria this, and had laughed, that far too innocent smile on her face, as she assured Aria that Aria had nothing to worry about. That Aria was Alison's "only girl."
Besides, Aria had slept with a few people after Alison left, so, she didn't exactly have the right to be jealous, did she?
Then came the true blow of pain.
The police found something. Behind the DiLaurentis house where the new girl, Maya St. Germaine and her family lived.
The paramedics dug something up and put it in a black bag and carted it away.
A body.
Aria watched the scene from a distance, as did Spencer and later Hanna, who showed up.
Aria pretended that all she cared about was the "Jenna thing," getting out. Aria tried to pretend that her blood wasn't turning to ice at the sight of that black body bag.
(She can't be dead,) something whispered in the back of Aria's head as she fought tears, (She can't be dead!)
The body was later identified as the body of Alison DiLaurentis.
All of Aria's hope came crashing down violently.
Her lover was dead. Alison DiLaurentis, the girl that Aria had loved with all her heart, was dead.
But…then who was sending the texts? A ghost?
When Aria and the other three girls attended the funeral, Aria ran into Ezra Fitz. Aria gave him some bullshit excuse to make out with him, wanting to kill her pain, thinking Alison decomposing under the soil just behind the DiLaurentis house.
Alison's body had been there, that whole time, and Aria had never known.
Then when the ceremony happened, Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna seated together, Aria and Emily realized that Spencer and Hanna had received texts from this "A," as well.
Aria then received further outrage.
Jenna Marshall was back in town, along with her lapdog, Toby Cavanaugh.
It was like adding insult to injury.
Aria clenched her teeth as she faced forward as the ceremony began.
Aria stared at Alison's picture the whole time, a hole beginning to dig into her chest as she took in that happy smile on Alison's face in the picture.
Aria and Alison had of course, both been young when they first had gotten together. They had met when they were eleven and had realized they had deeper feelings for each other when they were thirteen.
And the relationship had only deepened.
Then, when Alison went missing when she was fourteen years old?
The hole in Aria's heart had begun to form. It was now a massive crater.
Aria and the other girls stepped out of the church, some nosy, irritating cop named "Wilden," confronted them.
Then when the cop left, all four girls received a group text, saying, "I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything."
The threat was clear enough. But what was also clear to Aria? This was not Alison texting her and the girls.
Now? Now, came the rage.
Aria knew that whoever this was? They'd suffer for this.
Aria had never thought of herself as a particularly angry person. Sure, there was that time in her father's office, when Alison had "found" those earrings and had gotten Aria to think that her father was seeing his student, Meredith again.
Aria had long since acknowledged that Alison probably had planted those earrings there herself and had gotten Aria worked up. Why? Aria supposed because Alison wanted to make Aria more like herself.
But in any case, Aria wasn't angry about that. She had figured it out a while ago.
Who cared, anyway? Meredith had no place in her family's lives.
But Aria was rarely that angry. But now?
Aria swore to find whoever had sent this text. And find whoever had murdered Alison. And kill the person.
That night, Aria and the other girls ate at the grill, talking. Aria tried to listen to any information she could from the girls, to see if they knew anything about who might have wanted to hurt Alison, or rather, who had likely had hurt Alison.
But it sounded like the three of them knew even less than Aria did.
When Jenna arrived, Aria and the other girls got up and left the grill, going their separate ways.
Then, later on that week, Aria made a discovery.
She saw Mona Vanderwaal, Hanna's new friend, sneaking away to the bathroom, texting.
Suspicious, Aria followed her, and stayed outside of the stall, while Mona was texting.
She stayed behind the stall door of the third stall, when Mona emerged from the middle bathroom stall, and took a peek at Mona's phone.
As soon as she did, rage filled her heart.
Mona's phone had a message that she'd sent. A message sent from "A." Apparently, Mona was "A."
That day at school, Aria asked Hanna if she could use Hanna's phone for a bit, since her own was "acting funny," and Hanna allowed it. Aria then saved away Mona's number into her own phone.
Later on, that night, Aria bought a couple of burner phones with cash, then grabbed an old black hoodie that she'd used to sport around, put it on, grabbed some black cloth, fixed it around her face, put on a pair of black gloves, put on black pants, black shoes that she grabbed from Mike's closet that were too big on her, and snuck into Mona's house.
It was nighttime and Mona was ready for bed.
Aria stayed near the window, as Mona fell asleep.
As soon as Aria was close enough to the window, and saw that Mona was asleep, she snuck through the window, and searched Mona's room.
She found surprisingly a lot.
Things that Mona had on Alison, on Aria, on all of the girls.
Aria took all of the things that she could find in Mona's room that was tied to Alison, Aria and the other girls, stuffed them in the backpack she had, and ran with them back to her place, not waking Mona up.
She then saved Mona's number into one of the burner phones, then deleted Mona's number from her main phone.
Then she investigated everything she had taken from Mona's house.
She learned quite a lot. Notes, belongings.
One thing that Aria found, that made her very concerned, was a letter. One written by Emily Fields.
A note that essentially was yelling at Alison. Was accusing Alison of being awful. This note from Emily, was heartfelt, yes. But also? Extremely angry.
Aria was disturbed by this, suddenly wondering if she should assume that there was a possibility that she should put Emily, and maybe Spencer and Hanna too, onto her list of suspects of who might have murdered Alison.
Aria researched everything long into morning, then stuffed it all into her backpack, and left for school.
She was exhausted, as to be expected, but thankfully, though Mona appeared nervous that day, obviously having found her things taken, made no move to show that she was afraid.
Well, Aria would change that, and soon.
She picked up her burner phone, and texted to Mona, "Surprise, bitch. You thought you were in control, here? I've got news for you. You will do what I say, or what I took from your room, is going to the police, pronto."
And below that message, she added, "The Real A."
Aria smirked as she watched Mona, from a distance, stiffen up and appear frightened as she realized the deep shit she was in.
Aria snickered.
She had no idea if Mona was the one that had killed Alison or not. But if she was? Then Aria would make her pay.
If she wasn't, then Aria would use Mona to find out who had actually killed Alison.
Either way? Aria was "A" now.
And it didn't matter who it was that had taken Alison from her. Mona, Hanna, Emily, Spencer, her own father or mother or brother.
Whoever it was?
Aria would torment and blackmail, until she found the truth.
She would put herself through some problems as well, and make sure that Spencer, Hanna and Emily saw, too, so that suspicion was thrown off of her.
But in the end, she would find who murdered Alison. And she would kill them.
Author's note
I thought about this a while, before writing this. When I first started watching Pretty Little Liars, I came up with a theory about A. And please keep in mind, it was really early in the series when I came up with this theory. It was before mid-season two when I came up with the theory. That A was a mystery lover of Alison. And was trying to avenge Alison's death. That theory, obviously, went out the window as soon as Mona was revealed to be A-but I thought it might still be the case, when another A showed up in season three. And I started thinking about the odd dynamic between Alison and Aria. And I came up with the idea of Aria being A to avenge Alison.
And yeah, that theory obviously isn't what happened. But still, I thought it would be interesting to write it and henceforth, this fic was born.
Might just be a one-shot. I might expand on it. Not sure, yet.
Basically I took one of the oldest ideas in the fandom, that "Aria is A" and gave her a different motivation.