Hold Me Down

Chapter 8

Emily finds herself parked in front of her own house, her heart hammering in her chest and her head in a thick fog of panic. Her cell phone sits heavily in her lap, taunting her with the gut wrenching reminder of her recent despicable behavior. She doesn't remember driving home. The last thing she recalls is the feeling of Alison's soft blue eyes boring into her from the window as she stood frozen on the DiLaurentis lawn, but somehow she's here, parked in her driveway and gripped with a crippling sense of anxiety.

With trembling fingers she picks up her phone and forces herself to read the message again.

"Who's the bully now? Confess your sins to your friends or I will."

She notices the audio file attached to the message and feels her chest tighten. She had been so overwhelmed by the sight of the text that she had nearly forgotten about the audio file. Taking a deep breath, she presses play and braces herself for the horrors that await her. Suddenly the sound of voices fills the car and Emily feels paralyzed.

"They thought this was bad? Wait till they see what I do to you tonight,"

"Em."

"Poor little Alison. Always the victim.

"Why didn't you tell them how much you like it? Hm? How hard you come when I fuck you?"

"Poor, poor, battered Alison,"

"How do you do it, Ali, hm?

"How do you trick everyone into falling for your act?"

"I wasn't trying to... Agh! Emily!"

"You're no victim, Ali. You're a lying, manipulative bitch and you deserve everything you get,"

"Oh God!"

"Emily, hold on...p-please, slow...ow...slow down."

"Em, stop please, you're hurting me,"

"Emily, stop! Stop it! Get off of me! Stop!"

The phone slips from Emily's shaky hands and falls back into her lap. Her own voice sounds foreign to her, so full of anger and hate. She doesn't remember saying those things, those horribly vile things, to Alison. But it's the sound of Alison's voice, desperate and full of fear, pleading with her to stop that breaks Emily's heart. She's never heard Alison sound like that before and it terrifies her to know she's the one who reduced the blonde to begging.

Despite the painful cracking in her heart, Emily presses play again and forces herself to once again listen to what she did. She closes her eyes and starts to sob as the sound of Alison's pleas replay in her head.

Some time later the ringing of her phone in her lap snaps Emily out of her daze. Her stomach twists with fear as she grabs the device and turns it over to see who's calling. She expels the breath she had been holding upon seeing Hanna's name flash across the screen, but her relief is short lived when she remembers what A is forcing her to do. She presses ignore to send the call to voicemail and stumbles out of the car. Her legs feel weak and her mind hazy but she feels too exposed sitting out in her car, she needs to get inside.

Things had been relatively quiet on the A front since they got out of the Dollhouse and Emily had foolishly assumed Charles was laying low because they were onto him, but he had managed to bug Alison's room and plant a mic to record them. Emily feels sick at the thought of Alison's deranged brother listening to their most intimate encounters.

She can't help but wonder what else Charles might have planted in Alison's room. Was there video too? Was that going to be the next text she got from A? She doesn't think she'd survive having to watch that. She cringes at the gross violation of privacy that somehow still manages to shock her after all this time. She needs to call Alison and warn her that her room is compromised, but she can't even begin to imagine how badly that conversation would go. Alison is unlikely to even take her call, and maybe informing Alison that such a recording exists would do more harm than good at the moment. The blonde already had so much to deal with, she doesn't need this on her plate as well. She'll tell Alison eventually, she decides, but right now she can't think of anything other than A's brazen threat.