chapter twenty one — monsters in the end
[ season one, episode twenty one ]
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"Do you think somebody rubbed that sweater on your bracelet?" Aria asked Spencer as the five of them sat at a table in The Apple Rose Grille. "Somebody? Try Ian, he's doing everything he can to make you look guilty instead of him." Adalind scoffed. "Your parents should hire you a 24-hour bodyguard." Emily said. "What about Jenna? What if she paid Caleb to get that bracelet—" Aria asked but Emily cut off her sentence.

"Wait, when was Caleb in Spencer's house?" she asked, confused. "He doesn't need an invitation, Em, he broke into a vending machine with a spork." Aria said as Adalind glanced at Hanna, making her frown. She felt bad that they were talking about him in front of her like this, despite what happened. "Guys, I think somebody's watching us." Spencer said, staring in front of her, outside the restaurant.

The girls turned around, seeing the status of the Founders. "Those? They're for The Founders Festival." Emily said. "Man, if those are what the Rosewood founding family looked like, how did they ever get anyone to move here?" Adalind asked. "And why were they allowed to reproduce?" Spencer added. "Guys, if Caleb was–" Emily started, "Could we stop using the C word?" Hanna asked, looking at her friends.

"We know this is hard for you, okay, but we have to talk about Ca... him." Aria said, correcting herself last minute. "If we wanna help Spencer we have to know what Caleb knows." Emily said. "Guys, there is definitely somebody watching out there." Spencer said, making Adalind turn to the status of the Founders, before facing Spencer again. "Maybe if Emily and I cornered Caleb, not in school, but somewhere that's Jenna-free–" Aria started.

"If Caleb's gonna talk to anyone, it's gonna be me." Hanna interrupted her. "Are you gonna be okay doing it?" Adalind asked. "To help Spencer, sure." Hanna responded. "Thanks, Han." Spencer said, before they all started getting up, ready to leave, but Spencer stayed sitting for a second, staring outside but eventually got up, walking towards the window, looking out at the closer angel. "Spence?" Adalind asked, making Spencer turn to her, away from the window. "Are you coming?" she asked. "Yeah." she responded before joining the others. 

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Adalind stood at her locker when Caleb approached her. "Got a second?" he asked, making her glance at him as she took a book out of her locker. "Umm," she said, glancing around before back at him. "Sure." she said. "Look, I don't know what Hanna's told you–" he started but she cut him off. "Everything. She's my best friend." Adalind snapped before sighing softly.

"Then maybe you can help me," he said. "She's having a hard time hearing how sorry I am, she won't take my calls, she looks the other way whenever I see her—" he started. "Wonder why." she sassed, making him sigh. "Caleb, you need to have this conversation with Hanna, okay?" she said before closing her locker and walking away.

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"A key? A key for what?" Spencer asked. They were at Emily's place. "That's what I said." Hanna responded. "Was it a key to Ali's house? Her locker at the tennis club?" Emily fired off questions. "Why would Jenna want that?" Adalind asked. "What was she gonna do? Sniff Ali's old sweat socks?" Aria added. "If Jenna's 'A'. She's looking for any information on us she can get." Spencer said.

"You know, I cannot believe that we through my closet and my nightstand, what a jerk." Hanna complained. "He's a total creep." Spencer said. "He's an animal." Emily added. "Easy, guys," Aria said, making them look at her. "He looked through your stuff, he didn't invade Poland." Aria said. "Why are you sticking up for him? He broke her trust." Adalind asked. "He went behind her back," Emily added. "He stuck his hands in her panty drawer." Spencer butted in, making them look at her,

"Too far Spence." Adalind said. "I'm sorry." Spencer apologised. "Okay, all I'm saying is that somebody can look through someone else's stuff that they know they're not supposed to be looking through." Aria rambled, causing Adalind to raise her brow at her cousin. "Wanna elaborate on that?" she asked. "I saw Ezra's website page." Aria admitted. "Look, I-I knocked his desk and his laptop screen came up." she added.

"So big deal, what's the juiciest thing on his status update? Ezra Fitz has joined the Mark Twain fan page." Spencer joked as she crossed her arms. "How about he has a double life?" Aria asked, confusing them. "I thought you were his double life?" Adalind asked. "Fine. Triple life." she said with a sigh. "There was this picture of him cozying up to some girl wearing an engagement ring in italy." Aria explained.

"What's her name?" Hanna asked. "Jackie." Aria answered. "How do you know she wasn't his cousin?" Email asked. "Cause in picture number three they were licking each other's gelato." Aria responded. "Oh," Emily muttered softly. "I mean, guys, seriously, what do I do?" Aria asked. 

"Be honest with him. Explain what happened and see what he says." Emily advised. "Yeah, and remember, people can look guilty of something even if they're completely innocent." Spencer added. Hanna scoffed. "Okay, you know what? Screw that. Make a fake profile, friend Jackie, " comb through that skank's page and nail his ass to the wall." Hanna snapped, making the girls shared wide-eyed looks. "Or we can do what Emily says." Hanna muttered.

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The next day, Hanna, Aria and Adalind were in Adalind's room. They were actually doing Hanna's idea, making Aria a fake profile to look at Jackie's page. "Okay, so even though we can't see her profile, Jackie and Mr. Fitz–" Hanna started but Aria cut her off. "Ezra." Aria corrected her softly, making Hanna roll her eyes. "...Went to the same college. So I looked up alumni and punched in random names until I found a girl who already didn't have a page." Hanna explained.

"Tonya Freeman?" Aria asked, reading her fake profile name. "Yep." Hanna responded as Adalind sighed. "Who even is that?" she asked. "Who cares?" Hanna asked. "This is starting to feel so wrong." Aria complained. " Hey, it's so not." Hanna said. "Look, I don't want what happened to me to happen to you. Fool me once, shame on you and fool my best friend  you're dead frickin' meat." Hanna ranted.

Adalind hummed. "That's tender." She said sarcastically, "But what about a profile picture?" Aria asked. "Oh, we're not putting one up." Hanna said and Aria gave her a look. "Okay, if the profile is faceless, Jackie will assume it was someone she used to be friends with, feel guilty she forgot they exist and accept the friend's request." Hanna explained.

"Well, Jackie is about to reunited with one of her old pals." Hanna said as she hovered the mouse over the 'send a friend request' button. "You do the honors, Tonya." Adalind said to her cousin, but Aria hesitated. "Aria, do you want to know the truth or not?" Hanna asked and eventually Aria shrugged and pressed the 'send a friend request' button.

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Adalind walked around The Founders Festival on the phone to Jason, who she had been texting and calling more often. "Do you have a booth or are you just wandering around?" Jason asked over the phone. "Wandering around, but I did promise Hanna that I'd help her and Mona if they needed it." Adalind answered before she stopped, seeing Caleb walking towards her, bag over his shoulder. "Look, I've gotta go, but I'll call you back later, okay?" Adalind asked. "Sure, talk later." Jason said before hanging up as Caleb reached Adalind.

"Leaving?" she asked. "I have a friend in Arizona I can stay with. I thought it was better than causing trouble here," he said. "Have you tried talking to Han?" she asked. As much as she should hate him, she knew he knew that he made a mistake. "Tried," he answered before walking off, making her sigh before her phone went off, making her look at it.

Emily Fields

I think I found the key. Call me

With that she called Emily and set off to find Hanna.

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Adalind had finally found Hanna, after calling her multiple times. "Hanna!" she called out, making her turn to see Adalind running over to her. "Why aren't you answering your phone?" she asked. "I left it at the booth." Hanna responded. "So you didn't get Em's text." Adalind said as she moved a piece of hair out of her face as Hanna shook her head 'No'. "She found the key that Jenna was looking for and she wants us to meet her at that storage facility near Hollis." Adalind explained. "And I told Aria we'd pick her up, so we've gotta go." she added.

"Where's Spencer?" Hanna asked. "I don't know, I can't reach her, I think she's with Melissa and Ian." She responded as the two set off, walking back to Adalind's car as she tried calling Spencer again. "Why isn't she answering?" she muttered to herself as she rang her again when Hanna stopped, staring at something, making Adalind stop as well and follow her eye line. Caleb was in line for the bus.

"He's going to Arizona." Adalind said, making Hanna look at her, "Bumped into him before I got Emily's text." she explained. "Who cares?" Hanna responded. "Why don't you go over and say something?" she suggested. "I can't."Hanna said as she shook her head. "Now come on, Emily's waiting for us." she added before they began walking again.

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After picking up Aria the girls met Emily at the storage facility. Hanna unlocked the locking using the key Emily had found before lifting up the door to the storage room. It was dark, making Adalind look around and find a light switch near the door. "Guys, look." Aria said, pointing to an old lunch box sitting in the back of the room. "What is that?" Hanna asked, confused as she and the girls entered the room and she picked it up.

"That's Ali's old lunchbox from when she was a kid." Emily said, confused as Hanna opened it up. Inside it was a flash drive and Hanna took it out the lunchbox. "What is that?" Aria asked. "I don't know but we're taking it." Hanna decided. "Hanna, wait." Adalind said, not knowing if taking it was a good idea. "Wait for what? For someone else to take it?" Hanna asked as she put the lunchbox back down and walked out of the storage room, the others following her.

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"Someone's been spying on us for years." Emily said as they watched a video of the girls in Emily's bedroom. "And Ali didn't take the video, she's in it." Aria commented. "She's in a lot of them." Adalind remarked. "Oh, my god, that's July 4th." Spencer said in realization. "She always said it was Toby peeping on us." Hanna said. "No, there's no way that this is Toby." Spencer defended him. "Well, then, who is it?" Hanna asked.

"How about why? Why did Ali have these videos?" Adalind asked as she picked at her cuticles. "Did the person who took this know she had them?" Emily asked. "Is this why she was killed?" Spencer asked the question they were all thinking.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter <3 | countdown till season 2: one chapter !!