Chapter 88*

Aria's POV*

I wanted to puke. I didn't understand why Mrs. Hastings had suggested we do this over lunch. Other than that she probably needed to eat after her morning of meetings with the police and DA. Not that I even understood why we were doing this today. She had promised today wouldn't include any interviews. But when she had called me after her meetings, she had been insistent on starting today. Apparently the cops were really anxious to start working through things.

"So the deal we have with the DA is that they will guarantee you that you won't have charges pressed within the state of Pennsylvania for anything that you admit so long as it did not result in someone's death at your hands." she said it so casually over a cobb salad, the smell of the ham and hard boiled egg was filling the air and churning the queasy feeling in my stomach.

I swallowed a drink of my iced tea, hoping it might help to settle my stomach. Coffee would only make me feel more jittery right now. And I knew I was already shaking from anxiety, the slight sound of the chair moving back and forth.

"That is very specific." I put the statement out there, wondering just how she had managed to justify the wording on what charges I wouldn't be exempt from. Especially without drawing the attention of Tanner that I might have done something and still wasn't talking.

"That's a deal with the District Attorney. They like to have all their bases covered." she paused between bites, spearing another lettuce leaf before continuing. "And in the case of any information shared about an incident that did end in someone's death at your hands, they have assured that so long as you cooperate we can keep it to a plea deal and reduce jail time."

I blinked at that. That was not what I was expecting. Did that mean that the DA thought I had killed someone? That didn't exactly bode well for me, and I was suddenly really thankful for the deal that Mrs. Hastings had managed to work out for me.

"In the state of Pennsylvania?" I clarified, making eye contact with my lawyer. And she nodded in understanding of the subtext. Taking a deep breath, I couldn't help but ask. "Is this the same deal you got for the other girls?"

"Yes, it is the same deal. And the reason it is in the state of Pennsylvania is that the DA does not have any jurisdiction over prosecution of cases in other states. That would be at the discretion of the DA in that other state, and investigation would automatically be under the purview of the FBI."

My stomach twisted with that. Since the FBI was exactly who I was going to be having my interview with, apparently it was the diplomatic thing to call it. Instead of the interrogation that I knew it was really going to be, or maybe that was tied to the fact that I was intending to cooperate. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, even here in her law office, I was uncomfortable talking about this. I didn't like all the crimes that I knew I had committed over the years, mostly because somehow breaking and entering didn't feel like it counted when you were dealing with a stalker that had no sense of personal boundaries.

"Right, so that means I just need to be honest about absolutely everything, including things they have no idea about to ensure that my immunity is intact?" My voice pitched up higher than intended with stress.I was still a little unclear about this. And definitely didn't want to mess this all up by forgetting about something that I hadn't really thought was a big deal.

"To the best of your memory. The DA has made it clear that the priority is catching and stopping Charles DiLaurentis. So as long as you are being helpful and providing all the information you can think of and that is asked of you, there will be some leeway for things you might have forgotten."

I released a heavy sigh, relief pouring into me at the reassurance that this wasn't actually some trick to try and get me in trouble later. I hadn't had the best relationship with the Rosewood Police and so was hesitant to trust them with anything at this point. Still, I wondered if this wasn't still a trap in some way.

"What about other people? Like Mona, or Mrs. Marin, or Ezra? Or even Ali?" I couldn't help asking, worried what would happen to them if I suddenly spilled all the secrets that had all been knotted together.

"You have to make a choice, Aria." she looked me dead in the eye and I wanted to flinch away from the intensity of her expression. It was so familiar to how Spencer looked sometimes, the way that she was focused just on survival. "I can't make a deal to protect everyone in Rosewood. So you have to decide if you want the police to catch Charles. And if you want to protect yourself and your friends. Or if you want to protect others from the consequences of their own actions."

I swallowed hard. That wasn't the kindest way to put it. But I guess you didn't become a successful lawyer like Mrs. Hastings by being kind hearted and putting others first. She watched my face for a moment, before she softened. Turning back to my friend's mom, still intimidating but reminding me that she cared about me.

"I can't make the choice for you, Aria. But as your lawyer, I would recommend full disclosure with the police and FBI. The same thing I'm recommending to Emily, Hanna, and Spencer. And if you all don't go with the plan, there's no guarantee that you'll be completely protected from what the other girls might say."

"Isn't this the prisoner's dilemma?" I questioned, wanting to squirm from the intensity of the conversation, and the decision that was set before me. And I wasn't even in front of a profiler yet.

"Not quite, that relies on lack of communication and preparation ahead of time. This shouldn't be as much of a risk. It just depends on your willingness to work with the police." she responded with a much softer smile for me.

There wasn't really another option. I knew that. As much as the others did. We had talked through it all last night. That this was the only move we had left. Hiding things and not talking to the cops wasn't an option anymore. Not if we wanted any chance at getting Sara back. It had been a complete 180 from Emily, now she was advocating for working with the cops and putting all her eggs in the basket of them catching Charles. I wanted it to work out. But I worried about the consequences of this. Not just for us, but for everyone else that was tangled up with this whole mess. What would the cops do if they knew that Alison hadn't been kidnapped and had run away? Or that Mona had known about it the whole time? And then used that to torture us? Hanna had told us how worried Mona was about what the police would do about her pretending to be dead, and how it became a crime when the investigation cost more than other city projects, and then something about sewers. How much had the investigation into Ali and then Bethany's murder cost? Not to mention that no one had ever managed to catch whoever killed Bethany. With a long inhale, building up my resolve, I came to a decision.

"Do we know what will happen to Alison?" I couldn't help asking again, wanting to know ahead of time just what choice I was making.

"That will depend on how she chooses to go forward, if she cooperates and works with the cops instead of against them, and stops breaking laws, it might not be too bad." she was clearly hesitant in her answer. "It's too hard to speculate what might happen."

I nodded, accepting that answer. It wasn't going to change my mind anyway. And I wondered if I was a bad friend because of this. It felt like I was turning my back on Alison, but I didn't know how to fix that. It was just like when she first got back to town, and she started making decisions all on her own. I had thought we had learned from that, but then she had broken into the police station. And still hadn't really told us why. I didn't believe her when she said she just couldn't resist finding more out about Charles when she saw Lorenzo's access card just sitting there, ready for the taking. Ali wasn't usually the type to act quite that impulsively, it was one of the more terrifying aspects about her actually. She was able to calculate risks and rewards faster than just about anyone else I knew.

"There is also the expectation that you girls will testify if needed by the prosecutor for any trial against Charles DiLaurentis." She added, and my heart sunk even further.

"Only against Charles though, right?" I had to ask, the fear of what all that would entail already ratcheting up.

I hated the thought that I might have to testify against my friends or family. Charles was one thing. But if they made me testify against Ali? Or Ezra? Even Mona would be too much.

"Yes, the only person explicitly included in the deal is Charles, but the police might ask you to testify against any of his accomplices." she explained, and I nodded. "And if you've provided information against them ahead of time, that makes you more likely to be compelled to testify."

I could probably handle that. Assuming they ever managed to catch Charles. The idea that they would be able to catch him wasn't something that I really believed in at this point. And I worried what that would mean when it came to the deal we were making.

"What if they don't catch Charles?" I couldn't help but ask the question. Wishing that Spencer was here with me to think through all the possibilities of this.

"We have to believe that the cops are going to catch him, Aria." she tried to reassure me, reaching out to grasp my hand. "But the deal will stay intact even if they don't find him."

That helped a little, that this wasn't entirely dependent on them catching Charles. I gulped down the rest of my iced tea, swallowing down the nerves that were growing as we moved closer and closer to the meeting with the FBI.

"We still have a few minutes before Agent Reid is set to arrive. Do you want a coffee?" she asked, glancing over at my empty cup.

I considered it for a moment, feeling the nervous jitters bouncing through my body. I weighed the pros and cons of it, seriously overthinking this question, if I was being honest with myself. Before nodding, if nothing else it would give me something to fidget with, which was a habit that was becoming more common. Especially as I was stuck sitting here without being able to grab out my sketchbook to soothe the anxiety and give me something to focus on. She left the room, and out of nervous habit, I checked my phone. There weren't any new messages. I had turned the sound off, not wanting to be interrupted. But now I realized how much I wanted the interruption, the break from the world that I was stuck in. I texted the girls, updating them on the situation.

Aria: At the law office, talk tonight about details.

I was anxious about giving away too much through text, the worry that somehow Charles would be able to tell what we were doing. The idea that he still cared if we talked to the police, or that he might still hold things over Sara's head, especially now that he had her. And even beyond that, knowing that I was the first one who was going to break the floodgates. That if tomorrow the other girls changed their minds, I still would have done this. And I would be alone in that choice. If Charles found out, I knew what happened to girls who didn't listen. It terrified me, the silence from Charles and the feeling of being in limbo.

Mrs. Hastings returned a few minutes later, two cups of coffee in her hands. And following behind her, holding the door open for her as she walked in, was the FBI agent I had met Friday night. I recognized him, though now looking at him I fully managed to take him in. He was scrawny, thin as a rail, and very tall. His sandy brown hair was to his shoulders, and made him look much younger than I anticipated from an FBI agent, especially not a profiler. I was also expecting something more formal than slacks and an oversized button down and tie. It was a sharp contrast, especially against Mrs. Hastings in her tailored charcoal suit and designer heels.

"Hello Aria, thank you for meeting with me today. We met at the hospital Friday night, if you remember." he started and sounded as nervous about the interview as I did.

"Yeah, I remember you Agent Reid." I responded, my voice shaky as I tried to sound more confident than I actually am.

"Please have a seat, Agent Reid. Do you want a coffee?" Mrs. Hastings sliding into a weird professional version of hosting.

"That would be great." the agent responded, taking a seat across from me at the large conference table.

Mrs. Hastings popped her head out of the door, not fully leaving the room, as though she didn't trust leaving me alone with him. And I appreciated that, the idea of being left even for a moment without someone to support me, and making sure that this was safe, I couldn't bear that. I could hear her talking to one of her assistants or paralegals, or whatever it was that she had working for her in the office. There were certainly more people in the building today than there had been the previous night.

"How are you doing, Aria?" he asked, starting as we waited for the coffee to come for him. "It looks like you haven't been sleeping well."

I shifted, uncomfortable at the start. Already calling out that I wasn't alright. I wanted to defend myself immediately, but worried that he would see right through it. The nightmares that had started to drop off after the dollhouse had been coming back. But I didn't want to talk about that. Especially not with the profiler.

"I'm fine. Will probably sleep better once you catch Charles." I turned it back around on him, wanting to keep this on topic.

Mrs. Hastings chose that moment to sit back down, taking the seat to my side, and looking at the FBI agent. Letting us present a united front.

"That's why I'm here." he assured with a quick smile. "I heard that you were very anxious to talk to the police right when you got out of the bunker."

I felt my body tense up at that. But I nodded my head, trying to keep calm. "That's right. I want Charles caught."

I reiterated, hoping that he would understand. And that he would believe me. I worried how this whole thing was going to go if we were starting here already. He glanced between me and Mrs. Hastings, and shifted seemingly uncomfortable with the conversation. Which didn't really make sense, considering he was the one steering this.

"Here's the deal, Aria. It's like I said Friday night, I'm here because I want to catch the person who hurt you. And I can't do that unless you're being honest with me." he looked over to Mrs. Hastings again. "The intention of the deal isn't because the District Attorney or I have any intention of bringing charges against you. It was meant to make you more comfortable disclosing everything."

I felt tense as a drawn bowstring, waiting to snap. That all felt like there was a massive but coming, and I wondered if he was about to revoke the deal from the DA. Was that something he could do? It was in writing, I thought. I had trusted Mrs. Hastings enough to believe in the deal.

"So I guess the question is, Aria. Why haven't you been willing to talk to the police since you first got back?" he asked.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for this moment. This was it. My last chance to change my mind, even though looking between Agent Reid and Mrs. Hastings, I knew it wasn't really an option at this point. So I straightened my spine, settling my shoulders to reassure myself.

"Because he threatened to hurt Sara if we did." I answered, honestly.

His eyes tracked over my face, quickly cataloguing any tells I might have. I wondered how many I still had. Lying felt so easy, it was being totally honest that threatened to knock me down. And maybe that was all the tell he needed. He leaned forward, elbows pressing into the table as he maintained eyecontact.

"And now he's taken Sara." he continued the thought for me.

I nodded, feeling the knot of fear blocking my throat, threatening to stop my voice again. But I swallowed it down. "Not talking wasn't enough. He took her anyway, and the police haven't been able to find him. We need you to get her back."

He leaned back in his seat as the door opened and one of the paralegals brought in a cup of coffee for him. She set the coffee down on the table, and the silence in the room stretched on. It was uncomfortable to say the least, not even fully broken by his thanking the paralegal. Once the door shut, I felt like all the air had gone out of the room. As we waited in the moment of quiet.

"What do you think he's going to do to Sara?" he asked, the question blase and I wanted to cry at how casual about all this he was.

My body was rigid, it wasn't the question that I expected from him. But I knew why he was asking. He needed to know how dire the situation was. What the chances of Sara still being alive were. And that had been the question I had been asking myself since I had found out. Since we had reassured Emily that she was probably still alive. That had kept me awake most of the night, and loomed through my nightmares when I did manage to get a little sleep.

"Nothing good." It was so hard to answer any questions from the cops, and especially not this one.

"Aria, I need you to talk to me." he encouraged, once more leaning towards me. I knew what the body language meant, he was showing me he was engaged. And it didn't make it any better. "I can't find Charles without your help. But I need you to share everything. Even the things you're just afraid of."

I felt tears burning in my eyes and reached for my coffee blindly as my vision was too blurred. But the drink covered the lower half of my face for a moment as my mouth quivered to hold back the sobs that wanted to break free. And the moment of hiding helped me push the emotions back down, ignoring what wanted to surge up.

"He's going to hurt her. Probably starve her. Maybe throw her in the hole." I threw out possibilities, some I knew too well and others I had never experienced first hand. "Or she's already dead. And he killed her out of anger."

I swallowed hard, feeling the tightness of my throat once more. Talking felt like it was going to leave my throat raw from forcing the words out. The desperate need to shut my mouth, be silent, rose back up in me. And I felt my body shaking against the comfortable office chair, the rattling sound increasing. The fear of that night was back, along with the aching pains in my body from too much abuse. I remembered the blackness of unconsciousness creeping over me, and I worried he would do the same if not worse to Sara.

"Is that what he did to you?" his voice had softened, it wasn't demanding answers, instead he was almost respectful of the space we were in. The space I was trapped.

"Some of it." I answered with a shrug, dismissing the things that he had done to me, it was easier to admit without the emotions. Simpler to separate those things away.. "He never put me in the hole. But it was where we found Mona when we escaped."

The way that she had looked trapped down in that little hole, something straight from Silence of the Lambs. I had never seen Mona look so broken, not even when he had forced her to pretend to be Alison to the point that we thought she had fallen for it.

"The marks on your neck, was that from him trying to strangle you?" he asked.

I heard the way that Mrs. Hastings stilled in surprise from the question. We had told her what had happened in the real world. But the nightmare world of the dollhouse was something else. Things that we couldn't speak of, not even in the light of day. And the fact that I knew I was safe right now meant nothing.

"I didn't do what I was told." I felt my lips twist in an unnatural attempt at a smile, closer to a grimace with the way that I felt my chin trembling. "I should have known better, we were separated in the first place because we hadn't behaved."

I couldn't look at either of them as I spoke, instead focusing on my coffee. Hoping that they would interrupt me, have another question. But it was quiet. And I knew that I had to keep going.

"We tried to escape, managed to get up above ground. But we came up in a yard, surrounded by an electric fence. And he left us out there, for several days. Until we were too scared to disobey again. Too hungry and thirsty to fight back." My voice sounded distant, even to my own ears. Like it was coming from someone else. "So you would think that I would have learned my lesson. That bad girls get punished. But I didn't. I still wanted to fight back. So when he gave me a bottle of hair dye, and told me to color my hair with pink highlights, I threw the bottle away."

I felt so stupid. I should have just done what he wanted. I knew that. Had known it then. But it wasn't enough. Him hurting me wasn't enough for me to comply. And I had needed to fight back. Needed to feel that spark of life once more. It hard surged so bright. Until he had strangled that spark.

"He strangled me as he raped me that night. He had choked me before, but had always let go when I struggled. But that night he didn't stop. I thought he was going to kill me." I could feel the cool trails of tears on my face, but it didn't seem to actually matter. "I woke up the next morning, and my throat felt like it had been crushed."

My eyes focused back on the profiler, he had a notebook in front of him. But he wasn't taking notes, instead his attention was fixed on me. And I worried that I would have to do this again. Once would be hard enough.

"What can you tell me about Charles, Aria?" he questioned, it was a clinical phrasing, but somehow it didn't feel dismissive of the emotions I had just been through.

"I don't know. I never saw his face. He always wore a mask." I didn't know how I could help. Spencer was the one who could do those things, figure out all about him. "I could probably identify him by his hands, but I don't know that you do those kinds of line ups."

He smiled at my terrible joke, and I felt something settle in me. One more step closer to comfort and safety. At least he didn't think my sarcasm was a problem.

"I don't just mean physical, Aria." he assured. "More what you know about the things he's done. To you and your friends. How would you characterize him?"

I felt my forehead scrunch as I thought. That was the million dollar question. Who was Charles DiLaurentis? How could the FBI come up with a profile to track him down? Stop him from hurting us again?

"Evil. Superhuman. Violent." I spitballed, tossing out the words that felt the most accurate.

"Violent how?" he caught on the last one, brows furrowing as he tried to work out what I meant. "Just in the dollhouse?"

I felt my head shaking, knowing that wasn't right. And suddenly I remembered one of the first texts that we had gotten from A after Charles took over. When Mona was locked away in Radley still. The one where he said that Mona played with dolls and he played with body parts.

"Long before that. As soon as Charles took over as A, that's when it started. He's the one who dug up Bethany Young's grave and then he started sending us parts of her body piece meal." I shuddered at the thought of it all, the necklace made of teeth, the finger bones that were sewn into Spencer's corset.

"What happened to the body parts he sent to you?" Reid asked, and I heard Mrs. Hastings shifting uncomfortably.

"Emily got a necklace made up of teeth, and we accidentally dropped it in a school toilet." my nose wrinkled uncomfortably at the memory. Not to mention the sensation of unexpectedly touching human teeth without realizing at first what I was touching. "Spencer tried to grab it out, but the automatic sensor went off and it went down the drain."

"What other body parts did you get?"

I turned to face Mrs. Hastings. "Do you remember that bridal show we did? Spencer's dress had a corset, it apparently was really uncomfortable. And when she pulled it off, we saw there were finger bones sewn inside instead of boning."

She was working so hard to keep her face expression free. But her jaw tensed ever so slightly, like she was gritting her teeth to hold back her reaction.

"What did you do with that?" Agent Reid redirected my attention back to him.

"We left it at the bridal show. Just took the note that he left for us and tossed it on a makeup table." I had never learned what happened to Bethany's finger bones after that.

"You didn't think to turn it into the police?"

"That was the night that we went to Philly to find Alison. She had called a little before and so we had to leave to find her." it had made sense at the time. The situation of finally finding Ali again was too urgent for us to give that chance up.

"And you found Alison in Philadelphia? There was a photo of you meeting her outside of the Hastings barn the week before."

"No, we didn't meet Ali in Philly. But we did know that she was alive at that point." I tried to explain it, it had been a confusing month. "We saw Ali alive after we went to Ravenswood. And she told us it wasn't safe for her to come back home yet. That someone was after her. But when we went to Philly to meet Ali, she wasn't there. Noel Kahn was."

Every instinct in my body was telling me to shut up. This would throw a wrench in everything that we had told the police once Ali was back in town. The carefully constructed narrative that had barely managed to hold up to any level of scrutiny would come tumbling down.

"Who did she think was after her?"

"A." I wasn't sure what was safe to share about Shana. What level we could go to without spilling the beans about her death. And I didn't know how to handle this.

I glanced over to Mrs. Hastings, hoping for some guidance moving forward. My stomach started twisting and churning, the familiar guilt of what I had done to her rising back up. The other girls had told me they would let me take the lead on how we handled this. That they would keep going with just what I said. It put more pressure on me for sure, but I was also the one the most at risk.

"How did Noel Kahn get involved in all this?"

"I'm not 100% sure, to be honest. I think it was something like mutually assured destruction with Alison. They knew things about the other that they didn't want getting out. So she trusted him to bring us to where she was."

"And where was that?"

"It was an apartment, somewhere in New York. I'm not really sure exactly where it was." and that was at least the truth though I wanted to steer away from this conversation as much as possible. I tried to think of a way that I could redirect it.

"And that was the night Ezra Fitz was mugged and shot in New York, right?" he clarified, and I tried not to react.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." I didn't want to sound too confident on the timeline.

"And what was your relationship with Ezra Fitz? I understand you dated for a little while?" I honestly expected him to check notes at some point in this whole thing, but he just took a drink of his coffee. It was the type of memory and working through things that I had only seen from Spencer and Mona in the past.

I took a deep drink of my coffee, pausing the conversation for a moment to gather myself. "We dated off and on for the last couple years." It felt like I was getting Ezra in trouble, but the threat of the cops charging me, or worse not being able to find Charles if I wasn't honest was too much for me to hold back.

"When did you break up? For the last time?" he asked.

"February, I guess." It was hard to track on, but I didn't consider us as back together after the dollhouse. And before things had been going well with Andrew. Until he got accused of being Charles and decided how much he still hated us. Me.

"And when did you start dating Jason?"

I blinked in surprise. Not understanding the relevance of the question. I just stared at the FBI agent for a moment. Waiting for it to make sense. How could this possibly be important?

"I'm sorry, Aria. I know this might not seem connected, but I promise I need to know these answers for a reason." he reassured, sounding like he cared about my feelings.

"Friday night."

End Chapter*

So disclaimer, I'm not a lawyer. Again I try to do research, but I'm by no means an expert. So please forgive any inaccuracies from the legal perspective.

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think.