Pretty Little Liars #14 (28 page)

“It could have been anyone,” Fuji said. “Nick had other friends. It's possible he lied and said Noel pissed him off, or that he was doing this as a prank.”

Aria shut her eyes and thought of the night she, Noel, and the others had tried to trap Ali at the library. A blond girl had served as a decoy, clearly Nick's helper. What if whoever was aiding in his crazy rampage wasn't Ali at all?

But no. They'd
seen
her.
Talked
to her. Aria was sure of it.

Fuji stuck her hands in her pockets. “Let it go, girls. I know you wanted closure, but you really didn't see Alison in there. Our experts are combing the basement, making sure, but I'm positive we'll find no trace of her. She's dead—and has been for a long, long time. Honestly. It's better to just accept it and move on.” She looked around at all of them. “Just get some rest, okay? You're going to have to answer a lot of questions from reporters soon enough.”

And then she walked out of the room and shut the door. Aria glanced at her best friends. Everyone stared at her blankly. But it wasn't like they could talk about any of this now—not with all their family around. Of course everyone would think they'd hallucinated Ali, too. Maybe they
should let
it go, Aria wondered. Maybe this really
was
the end.

The door swung open again, and Aria turned her head, worried it might be a nosy reporter wanting to ask questions. But Noel stepped through instead. As soon as he saw Aria, his face crumpled. He ran to her bedside. Byron and Ella moved apart to let him get close.

“H-hey,” he said, trembling.

“Hey,” Aria said. All at once, the dream rushed back to her. Sinking underwater and finding Noel nowhere. Never getting to touch him again. She reached out and squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back. And then he leaned forward so that his face was close to hers. At first, Aria thought he was going to kiss her—and she wanted him to.

He moved toward her ear instead. “You saw
her
, didn't you?” he whispered.

Aria's eyes widened. She nodded, then glanced toward the door, where Fuji had disappeared. “But no one believes us.”

“I believe you. I'll
always
believe you.”

He drew back, and Aria stared at him, half in shock, half grateful.

Thank you
, she mouthed, her eyes full of tears.

But she wanted to tell Noel to forget about Ali. She wanted
everyone
to forget about her. Her mind went to a dark, terrible place.
We won't find a trace of her
, Fuji had said. All at once, Aria knew they wouldn't. No fingerprints on the gun she was holding. No blood on the floor. No long, blond hairs on the carpet. Not because Ali hadn't been there.

Because Ali was smarter than all of them.

A nurse poked her head into the room and frowned at all of the guests. “Okay, visitors, everyone out,” she demanded in a no-nonsense voice. “These girls need their rest.”

Noel patted Aria's hand. “I'll be right outside,” he said. Aria nodded, then watched as everyone else trailed out, too. The nurse dimmed their lights, and for a moment, the room was silent. Then Hanna reached for her remote and turned on the TV that hung from the ceiling.
Serial Killer Taken into Custody
, blared a headline on CNN. Of course it was all over the news.

The camera showed the outside of the old farmhouse. A cop shoved Nick into the backseat, his hands pinned behind his back. Ambulances whirled in the background. Aria wondered if she'd been inside one of them, unconscious.

“I hate him,” Spencer said quietly, when a mug shot of Nick popped up.

Aria nodded, saying nothing. He totally deserved this. But he was only half the problem. If only the cops had caught Ali, too.

The police car rolled away on the screen, but the cameras remained on the police activity on the farmhouse for a moment. It was crawling with police officers, forensic teams, and dogs. Aria listened hard over the sounds of sirens for that telltale high-pitched giggle, anything that would prove Ali was still here. But there was nothing. Of course there wasn't.

“What now?” she asked, when the news cut to commercial.

Spencer sighed. “It's hard to know. We lost everything. But now maybe we can do anything.”

Anything
. They stared at one another, absorbing the possibilities.

Hanna looked down at her phone, which was still tucked in her pocket. “I keep expecting this to go off any second.”

“With a text,” Spencer whispered.

Aria stared at her phone, too, but no texts came. They wouldn't, of course. Ali wasn't dumb enough to send one right then.

Aria looked at her friends nervously. “Do you think we'll ever hear from her again?”

Hanna shook her head, a look of determination on her face. “No. It's done.”

“Definitely,” Spencer agreed.

But Aria knew they didn't quite believe it. They might not hear anything from Ali for a while—maybe a long while. But she wasn't gone from their lives forever. She was still out there . . . and they were still alive . . . and that meant her job wasn't done. Knowing her, she'd only stop when she got what she wanted. She'd only stop when they were dead.

It was just a question
of when
.

Alison ran and ran until her muscles ached and her lungs burned. The more she ran, the less she thought, and the less she thought, the less she cared. And by the time she was where she needed to go, she was resolved in her decision. This was the only solution. She'd saved herself.

She walked up to the place she'd set up weeks before without Nick knowing, the place that was all her own. She pulled the keys out of a secret pocket sewn into her jeans and unlocked the door, striding down the dark hall and sinking into the freshly made bed without even glancing at the pile of mail she'd left there the last time she'd come in, all addressed to Maxine Preptwill, her new alias. It was always a name she'd found funny, sort of an anagram of Nick Maxwell and also the name she'd used with Noel for their secret communiqués. For a long time she'd thought about what sort of person Maxine would be. A quiet girl who kept to herself. A friendly face around the neighborhood, a standout at the community college she would eventually enroll in with the remaining cash from Nick's trust—she'd tucked away small amounts every time she came here, building up a nest egg. She'd use it to get her teeth fixed, too. Her hair properly cut. Plastic surgery for the burns. She'd become beautiful and irresistible again. She needed to put someone new under her spell.

She lay there for a long time, staring at the ceiling, her mind working over the day's events. She poked at the Nick wound, but she felt nothing. Well, good. It was better to feel nothing. No regrets. No entanglements. She was free.

She thought about turning on the television—she'd jerry-rigged the antenna with aluminum foil so she could at least get the news. But she wasn't sure if she was ready to see the carnage yet.
Man Arrested for Clark Murder. Pretty Little Liars Finally Tell the Truth
. And there would be Nick's mug shot, his hollowed eyes, his dazed expression. He was the smartest guy Ali knew, but he still wouldn't know what had hit him.

Okay, okay, if she really thought about it, it wasn't what she'd wanted. She hated that those bitches were free. And she hated that
she
had been the one to turn Nick in. But she knew what might have come next if she hadn't. As soon as she heard those sirens, she'd started to panic. She'd imagined the cops finding him . . . and then
her
.

Well, she couldn't have that.

And so she'd fled. The cops had found Nick, still unconscious on the ground, Ali long gone. He'd probably told them she'd put him up to everything—which was pretty much the truth. And if Ali didn't have solid proof to stop them, the cops would come looking for her. Luckily, she had the very thing to seal his fate.

That video. Nick never knew she'd taken it. But that was what you needed to do to survive in this world. You needed tricks up your sleeve. You needed to keep secrets and release them at the perfect moment.

Still, when Ali shut her eyes, Nick swam into her thoughts. The first time they'd met at The Preserve during group, Nick throwing a wadded-up piece of paper to get Ali to talk. The first time he'd ever shown her that secret attic at The Preserve that only the cool patients knew about—she'd written the name everyone but Nick knew her as,
Courtney
, in big bubble letters on the wall. The way he'd listened to her when she'd explained the horrible story about the switch. How he'd vowed to help her get revenge.

She thought about Nick's figure looming next to her over the hole in her parents' backyard that night Courtney died. After it was over, he'd grabbed Ali and hugged her hard, repeating over and over that he loved her so much and he was so,
so
proud. That was true love, she figured: Someone who would kill for you, over and over again. Someone who would go to the ends of the earth to wrong all your rights.

But now, something inside her turned to steel.
Only the strong survive
, she incanted. Even if Nick, when on trial, professed again and again that Ali was alive, there was no trace of her: She always made sure of that. Besides, he
had
been the one who'd murdered Tabitha. That video didn't lie.

She rolled over in bed, poking her tongue into the space where her tooth was missing. “Screw him,” she said out loud, testing out her voice. “It's time to move on. I'm Alison. And I'm fabulous.”

And she knew, suddenly, and without a doubt, that whatever she did next, she would do it well. And someday, when those bitches weren't looking, she'd come for them again. But let's face it: She was impatient. She had a feeling it would be sooner rather than later.

She couldn't wait.

Once again, I could not have written this book without the help of the team at Alloy Entertainment, including Lanie Davis, Sara Shandler, Josh Bank, and Les Morgenstein. Kristin Marang and her digital team have been amazing, too—don't know what I'd do without any of you guys. Also huge thanks to Kari Sutherland at Harper for your keen insights. Much love to my family, including Mindy, Shep, Ali, and Kristian, who now knows what a horse says and possibly isn't as afraid of
moo
anymore. Also a hug to Michael, who is beyond funny and patient, and who has many ideas for new book projects and random inventions—your creativity is very appreciated around here. Also, big hugs to all the readers of this series who have hung on this long—I love seeing you at book events and reading your letters. You're the reason I keep writing!

Finally, a huge shout-out to the lovely actresses who play Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna on the ABC Family series
Pretty Little Liars:
Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Troian Bellisario, and Ashley Benson. I thought you guys were perfect for the parts from the very beginning, and it's been amazing watching you grow and change with the show. I owe all of you a ton, and I am your biggest fan.

Photo by Austin Hodges

SARA SHEPARD
is the author of two
New York Times
bestselling series, Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game. She graduated from New York University and has an MFA from Brooklyn College. Sara's Pretty Little Liars novels were inspired by her upbringing in Philadelphia's Main Line.

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