***Chapter 50***
**Aria's POV**
Coffee didn't seem like enough as I approached Ali's house just before 2pm. There was a large latte in my hands from the brew, with an extra shot to try and get through the conversation ahead. But despite its heat, it hardly felt like the emotional support that I needed right now. I flexed my right hand before knocking, feeling the tightness of my knuckles from the short beatdown I had delivered to the punching bag, maybe just wraps had been a bad idea. I shook the thought away, knowing that it was just a cheap way to try and trick myself out of confronting what were undoubtedly going to be hard topics coming up. I rapped my knuckles against the door, almost hoping no one would hear and I could avoid this a little longer.
My luck did not pan out as the door swung open and Spencer stood there, her own thermos of coffee cradled to her chest in her left hand. At least I wasn't the only one trying that tactic to get through the day. As I looked over her, I realized that the dark circles under her eyes were more pronounced than usual, and her typically slim face was nearly gaunt. It was the same look that I had seen when she was taking pills. She was still making eye contact at least, eyes locking onto me easily rather than darting away. I could tell she wasn't sleeping though.
"Hey, glad you made it. Emily is apparently running late." She informed as she stepped away from the door, leaving me to close it.
"What did therapy last an extra couple hours?" I joked, trying to break the tension in the air.
"No apparently Sarah wanted to do lunch, so that took a bit longer." Spencer responded with a dismissive shrug.
I followed her into the house that I had only left this morning, my sense of deja vu increasing. This really was like we were younger. The feeling went away when I stepped into the living room and noticed Hanna pacing behind the couch. She didn't use to be so active when nervous. For a moment, I remembered the old habit Hanna used to have of curling up on the couch when she was stressed, chewing on something, whether it was chips or her nails. But as she turned I clicked back to the moment, there was a designer bag hanging off her arm and her heels made a clacking noise against the hard floor as she paced.
"Any idea how long Emily is gonna be?" I asked, taking a seat at the end of the couch. "And are Ali and Jason here?"
"Emily said she was just dropping Sarah off now." Ali announced as she moved into the room, taking her seat in the high-backed armchair. "So should only be a few minutes."
"How's your neck, Aria?" Spencer asked from her place standing next to the doorway, not settling down yet.
Instinctively my hand went back to brush against the gauze that covered the stitches still. I apparently needed to keep it covered until tomorrow before I could start to wash it. But the area was still a little tender even with the layer of protection.
"Probably better than yours." I dismissed with a smile.
"What happened to your neck?" Ali questioned, looking between Spencer and me. Her voice took on that old commanding tone that she used to use all the time. Fully expecting an answer.
"We'll get there." Spencer assured.
I watched Ali raise an eyebrow that it was connected to the events of the previous day. But in all reality, we probably needed to make sure everyone was on the same page with everything that had happened since the dollhouse. My stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought. We could get through this. The doorbell rang, pulling me from my worrying and while Spencer began moving towards the entryway, I heard steps coming down the stairs and getting to the door faster. Spencer, Emily, then Jason came into the room. Emily looked tense, lips pinched tight like she didn't want to be here. I couldn't exactly blame her.
"So we're all here then." Hanna commented, stopping in her constant pacing to turn to the new arrivals.
"Are we sure this a good idea?" Emily responded, eyeing Jason as she moved to take a seat on the opposite end of the couch from me.
Jason seemed to let the comment roll off as he moved around the room, crossing behind the couch to rest against the arm to my left. Warmth and comfort radiated off of him, along with his light musky scent that had been surrounding me nearly constantly in the last two days. I could feel my muscles relax slightly as I adjusted to put my back to him and lean slightly back. It was reassuring knowing that he was solidly behind me, both literally and figuratively right now.
"Charles hasn't had an issue with us sharing info with Ali and Jason so far." Spencer began, moving over to sit on the opposite couch from me. "Besides right now we're all scattered and don't know what's happening. We need any advantage we can get."
Emily ran her hand worried back through her hair as she leaned back against the arm next to her. "I just don't like putting Sarah in danger. She doesn't deserve this."
"What's going on that Sarah is in danger?" Jason questioned, clearly having been left out of that part before.
"We were going to talk to Dr. Sullivan about what happened in the dollhouse. But then got a message threatening Sarah if we talked." Hanna explained briskly, taking a seat opposite Spencer.
"That ship might have sailed already." Ali replied, sneaking a glance over at Emily. "I told Tanner about Charles yesterday."
"What!?" Emily cried out. "Ali, why would you do that?"
"Jason was in trouble!" Ali shot back, her pitch rising to match Emily's. "Besides, you had only said that we weren't telling the cops anything yet. Not that Sarah was in danger."
"Guys, stop. This isn't helping anything." I cut in, desperately wanting them to stop arguing. This was giving me a headache already. Which was at least different than the anxiety that had been swirling in me.
"Aria's right." Spencer continued. "We should start at the beginning. Or at least the last few days. Ali where did you go?"
Ali took a breath while we all settled down, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes for a slow blink before starting. "Two nights ago my dad came home super late from work and covered in dirt. He made me pack a bag and get in the car, but wouldn't explain where we were going. But there was a birthday card in the car, from Charles threatening that he was coming home."
"So yesterday was Charles' birthday?" Hanna clarified, receiving a nod from Ali and me. Her eyebrow quirked when she saw that I was nodding, but let it pass for the moment.
"That's what the card said. My dad ended up taking us to a hotel a couple towns over, refusing to talk about Charles at all. He also took away my phone, so I couldn't reach any of you. But last night I put sleeping pills in his coffee and once he was out took his phone and keys to try and get back to town. None of you were answering, but Mona came to get me."
"And then you called Tanner and told her about Charles?" Spencer clarified.
"Yeah, I told Tanner that the person who had kidnapped you all was my brother Charles and that he was probably going to get in touch with Jason, and that Jason was in danger. Then Mona dropped me off at the police station and I got an interview with Tanner about everything that we hadn't told her." Ali finished, looking expectantly at the rest of us.
"I got a card and a balloon yesterday." Jason started, voice sounding from above me as his hand came down and rubbed at my shoulder. "It was left on the porch railing and I'm surprised that Lorenzo didn't see it when he stopped by yesterday." he shot a meaningful stare over at Ali. "It gave me a time and location, along with instructions to 'bring the girl' or not to come."
I could feel four sets of eyes on me, while Jason gently squeezed my shoulder in support. With a shaky breath, I knew that it was my turn. "When I got back from my doctor's appointment yesterday there was a package on my porch. The return address was from Ali. When I opened it there was a note saying to go to Jason and he would bring me along. Under that were a bunch of pictures of my family. Taken recently. Including from inside my mom's apartment. The time was coming up, so I came straight here so Jason could take me along."
"Why you?" Ali asked, voice almost accusatory. It was that sharp tone she took when she didn't exactly get her way. The unspoken question was clearly why me and not her.
"I'm small." I answered with a shrug. "He probably wanted one of us to go along so he could track Jason's movements and I'm not the most intimidating."
"Don't know that I'd agree with that." Hanna responding quietly. "Not after New York."
I flinched at the reminder. My shoulders pulling up and my hands tightened. I could feel the aching pain from hitting the punching bag earlier and it made me sick to my stomach. For a little while, I had forgotten about Shana. I could feel my gut churning, the anti-nausea meds working double today as I tried to breathe through the urge to throw up.
"What did you mean about tracking my movements?" Jason asked, clearly distracting from the mini breakdown I was dealing with on the couch. His hand moved soothing in broad circles across my upper back, slowly trying to get the muscles to ease again.
"We didn't get a chance to tell you yet. Two nights ago we visited Leslie's lab." Spencer began, exasperation heavy in her voice that this hadn't been conveyed already. "Charles put trackers in all of us."
"What?" Jason froze, hand stilled on my back and voice incredulous. I subconsciously leaned back into him, wanting the comfort to continue. After a moment, he resumed his movements. "How did he put trackers in you?"
"In the dollhouse, he gassed us and put them in while we were asleep." Spencer explained briskly, almost as though she was saying to keep up.
"Alright, then how did you all know where I was going? I don't think I have a tracker." Jason redirected, trying to make light. But I could see Hanna tilt her head sheepishly.
"You sorta do. Well your car does." she answered. "We figured you were going to meet Charles at some point, so I put a GPS tracker on your car."
"If we had known Aria was going with, we could have just gotten the address from her." Emily continued, joining the conversation after a long silence. She eyed me slightly, it wasn't the kindest start to the conversation. But I figured she was more upset with Ali than with me at the moment. "Why was your phone off?"
"I turned it off at the doctors and didn't turn it back on." I explained, hoping that would be good enough. "I actually forgot until this morning."
"Well that explains the radio silence." Spencer commented. "So once we had the tracker on Jason's car, Hanna and I focused on taking out our chips. But I wanted Toby for backup, and he ended up taking the burner that had the tracker on it."
"Except I could download the data to another phone, so we could actually follow too." Hanna sounded so proud. "We'd already taken out the chips, might as well take advantage of it."
"So Aria is the only one with a tracker left?" Ali asked, fixing her gaze on me.
I shook my head. "No, I had the doctor take it out at the hospital last night. So the police have it now. Which is why I got a bonus interview last night after giving my statement."
"Alright, so I got a note and took Aria along with me to the arcade. While Toby and probably Lorenzo followed along tracking my car, and you three did the same?" Jason laid out. "Then when Aria and I went into the arcade and met Charles, Toby got there and interrupted so Charles ran."
He carefully avoided discussing the conversation, if you could call it that, with Charles or the impromptu game of Tug-of-Aria that the brothers had played. I rolled my shoulders, remembering the wrenching sensation that had accompanied that. They were still a little stiff. I wanted to rub at my wrists, knowing that beneath my long sleeves, there were hand shaped bruises wrapped around where they had both grabbed me and pulled.
"Then Charles set off all the games including a ball shooter aimed at us." I watched as the girls winced at the description from Jason. Charles had never exactly played gently, given the actual body parts that had been parcelled out as presents, but the ball shooter had been pretty rough.
"So Ali, what all exactly did you tell Tanner?" Emily turned the conversation back onto Ali, waiting to hear how bad it was.
"That you had found a name in the bunker and asked me about Charles DiLaurentis. But that we thought he was dead, including the grave at Aunt Carols. But that my dad had gotten a card threatening that Charles was coming home and had apparently gone and dug up where the grave was. So he took me out of town. No mention of the file from the data center."
"Aria?" Spencer prompted me.
"Tanner asked me why I kept referring to him as A instead of Charles. I told her I wasn't sure and didn't want to think it was your brother." I looked at Ali while giving Jason's hand a squeeze. "Other than that just what my day had been and where the packages were."
Spencer quirked an eyebrow when I said packages and I almost cursed at the fact that I had slipped up about the inner box. I had managed to avoid talking about it, and Jason hadn't questioned me about it at all.
"So what are we going to tell the cops now?" I asked, trying to divert away from what I had almost shared. "Tanner said she would want to talk to me again."
All eyes turned to Emily, she had been the most vocal about not talking to the cops as she'd gotten so close to Sarah. "Am I the only one worried about Sarah?" her shoulders had raised towards her ears defensively.
"It's not that we're not worried. But the cops aren't going to take silence forever." Spencer tried to soothe Emily.
"Pretty sure my dad is also telling Tanner everything." Ali chimed in, pulling Emily's attention.
"Wait what?" Spencer turned to stare at Ali. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
Ali shifted in her chair, settling comfortably in her most imperious manner. It gave me a solid flashback to before, her shifting to hold court. "That's where he is now. Why we could meet up here. He's talking to Tanner and dodging me."
"So if he's talking to Tanner, does that mean we can?" Hanna redirected, helping to steer us back on topic instead of letting Ali derail us.
"No!" Emily immediately interjected, she took a quick breath before starting over. "We can't endanger Sarah like that. Ali's dad isn't us. And that threat was pretty clear."
"So we wait and see his reaction to what Mr. DiLaurentis shares, but don't share anything with the cops ourselves for the time being." Spencer reasoned, soothing Emily.
Emily nodded her head after a moment, seeming to accept that plan. She was still fidgeting with her phone though, likely wanting to call Sarah and check that she was safe despite Ali's dad talking to Tanner about everything he knew.
"I don't buy the not intimidating thing, Aria." Alison turned her gaze on me, it was uncomfortably familiar. It had been the same look she gave anytime she was upset with me, gaze firmly fixed on me and watching for any sign of weakness. "Why did Charles make you go with Jason?"
"I told you, probably to track Jason's movements." I reiterated, hoping that she would accept that.
She rolled her eyes with a huff before shooting her gaze over to Hanna. "Charles could have put a tracker on Jason's car just as easily as Hanna."
"Charles hasn't needed to rely on our chips in the past." Hanna tentatively agreed, she looked a little sorry about siding with Ali, but that didn't stop her from speaking up. "We all know you've been hiding things, Aria. Why won't you just tell us what's going on?"
All the muscles in my back were tensed completely, the mild headache was gone and the anxiety was back in full force. I gripped my coffee cup tighter. The fear was coming back. The soothing circles that Jason was trying to rub across my back was suddenly too much and I could feel my shoulders pull back in an attempt to stop the overwhelming sensation. "I don't know what you want me to tell you."
The weight of their eyes on me was too heavy, my lungs freezing up under the pressure. That awful knot in my throat was back, tight and painful. I needed to tell them. Needed to get them off my case on this. I couldn't be at odds with the girls, my family, and the cops. That was too much.
"Tell us the truth, Aria." Ali pushed.
My eyes moved to Spencer and I could see the reassurance in her gaze, not pushing me like the others for once. Jason's hand moved to squeeze my shoulder in support. At least I had them on my side for the moment. I took a breath, forcing my lungs to work.
"I think Charles made me go with Jason so he could try and take me back again." I closed my eyes as I spoke, the words heavy in the air.
"We know he wants all of us back, Aria. Why did he make you go?" Emily pushed, her tone gentle. It hurt to hear her practically pleading with me to tell them.
"The note said he wanted me to be his birthday present." I answered, unable to say the words. I could feel the shame burning through me. The comforting touch from Jason hurt in that moment too hot against my skin. I didn't want to be here. Didn't want to talk about this. But with the weight of all their gazes on me, I knew I couldn't keep hiding this from them. Couldn't keep this a secret. Charles would take that away eventually, in a worse way than my admitting it ever would. Still, it felt like if I never said the words I could pretend it wasn't real. Wouldn't have to see the pity or disgust in their faces. They expected me to be stronger than I was. And I didn't want to have to admit to them that I was shattered, all the strength that I had with them had been taken away when I was locked alone. The fight smothered as he choked me.
"Aria?" Spencer asked, drawing me out of the spiral as I opened my eyes to look at her. She didn't look disgusted with me at least. I took a deep breath, hoping that we could still be team Sparia once she knew.
"While we were in the bunker and separated, Charles would come into my room while I was asleep." I only looked at Spencer as I spoke, she looked understanding, no hint of confusion or pressure for me to talk. "Sometimes he drugged my food so I would fall asleep, sometimes not. But every night it was always for the same thing." My lungs were shaking with the difficulty of speaking and I could feel the shivers wracking my body. I just needed to get this out. "He would tie me up and hit me. If I fought back he choked me. So I had to lay there while he raped me."
**End Chapter**
So 50 actual chapters written and finally reached Aria telling the other girls. Let me know what ya think.