No Escape

Almost There

"Mom!"

Hanna almost knocked her mom over as she barreled to the only person in her life she still trusted implicitly. Ashley had risked everything for Hanna. Hanna wasn't likely to find another person who would sacrifice so much for her.

They were at the church, where Ashley said she would be for the day, and it was the second place Hanna had checked to see if her mom was ok after the message she received from -A.

Hanna stiffened when she heard her phone ring, but she relaxed when she saw the caller ID.

"Spence-?"

"Where are you?"

"Church. My mom-"

"You have to get out of there! Did you get a message?"

"I did. I don't understand-"

"Hanna, get the fuck out of there. Take everyone with you!"

Without taking the phone from her ear, Hanna grabbed Caleb's hand and her mom's before dragging them out. She had to struggle with her mom, who didn't know what was going on. They were barely out of the door when the room her mom was working in exploded and they the force of the explosion threw all three of them farther out of the church.

"Hanna!"

Caleb was already scrambling for her, checking for injuries, but Hanna's shaking hand was already lifting her phone to her ear, and even through the ringing in her ears, she could hear Spencer's panicked voice trying to reach her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emily sprinted towards the warehouse, the same one that Alison had pulled her out of a couple of years ago and saved her life. Now Alison was inside of it, or so it seemed from the last clue she had been given. The sick scavenger hunt -A was putting her through made Emily want to ground her teeth in anger and frustration, but she had no time to be dwelling on anything, no space in her head to let anything cloud her thoughts.

She flung gripped the handle of the door, and pulled, half expecting it to be locked, but it slid open slowly even as she used all her weight. The door was rusted, but from the scrapes on the floor, recently moved. When she saw the car inside the warehouse, all she could think was how sick it was for -A to actually simulate the scene in Sherlock. They had put Alison in a car?

Heart in her throat, Emily ran towards it, the windshield of the old car too blurry for her to make out what was inside. When she peared through the windows of the doors and saw a familiar face, her heart dropped and sped up at the same time.

She flung the door open and was met by the scared and panicked eyes of her girlfriend. But even as she saw relief flash in Alison's eyes, the fear was quickly overtaking everything. Emily had only seen Alison's eyes that way once and it was a few months ago. She was drugged, Emily thought. It looked like it was wearing off, though. No doubt, the high levels of stress in Alison's system had forced the chemicals in her brain to overdrive so she would fight through the haze of the drug.

"Ali."

Emily was already kneeling, reaching for Alison, but she frowned when Alison flinched away from her.

"Em-"

"Ali, what-?"

"You shouldn't be here!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spencer dropped her phone as the police arrived on scene, and she pointed towards the wreckage that had been the barn. Her sister had been sleeping inside, and it was by pure chance that Spencer had walked out while they were arguing, as they always did, and Melissa had followed her out. They were a good distance away when the barn exploded.