Sparia one-shots

Stand Off

"We're in the middle of nowhere, there is no way that we are going to catch A out here." Hanna whined, diminishing all sense of hope from the other girls.

"That's not what Caleb's tracker said." Alison justified as Caleb had managed to trace a text back to a phone for the first time. 

"Something doesn't feel right about this guys, why would A screw up and let us track them now? If this is a trap, I'm throwing Hanna in first." Spencer laughed halfheartedly. The other girls tried to laugh along with her whilst Hanna playfully pouted but they were all bursting with anxiety and paranoia. 

They trudged on through the woods on the outskirts of Ravenswood, they're at least a mile deep and clutching tightly onto one another, desperate to not lose each other in the thick fog and low hanging branches. The wind is whistling loudly, tightening their senses. Aria clutched onto Spencer's sleeve so tightly that her knuckles were white and she winced at the cramp that is beginning to form there. 

In the haze of listening to every little sound Spencer heard Aria's wince and looked down at the shorter girl, scanning her from head to toe, searching for injuries. Once she located the source of her pain she quickly maneuvered the younger girl's hand down into her own rather than having her grasping onto her sleeve, they both sighed happily at the comfort that the small gesture was giving them. 

Hanna nudged Alison and pointed at Spencer and Aria's entwined hands and raised her eyebrows questioningly. "What's happening there?" She whispered nosily. 

"They're scared Han, leave them alone. Not everything has to mean something." Emily breathed out, annoyed that she had broken her focus from the never ending entanglement of branches around them. 

That was when they heard it, the snap of a twig. All five girls stopped in their tracks and turned so their backs were to each others and they are all facing outwards towards the trees surrounding them. They heard it again, closer this time. Whoever is out there is making their presence known and is feeding off of their terror.  

"You might as well come out, we know you're there and we're not scared of you." Alison lied easily. What they weren't expecting was for the figure to do exactly that. 

A tall masculine figure in a black hoodie came out from in between the trees facing Hanna and Spencer. They turned towards him, assessing the body since their face was still concealed by the hood. He was nearly six feet tall and had a regular build, clearly a man but not overly muscular. 

"Who are you?" Spencer yelled A, unable to mask her rage towards him. 

"I think you already know who I am." They recognized his voice immediately but fell into denial for a few seconds but they all knew what was coming. Aria's grip tightened on Spencer's hand. 

His gloved hands came up and removed his hood agonizingly slowly, making a show of it. Once his face was revealed they were forced to face the truth. Ezra is A. 

"Why would you do this to me?" Came the surprisingly calm voice of Aria, not once did it falter nor waver. 

"I only did enough to you that it wasn't obvious that I was trying to let you off easy, my real fight is with them." Ezra stated knowingly, his face was serious, unnerving. 

"What the hell did we do to you?" Alison screeched out towards Ezra, furious at this discovery. 

"You took her away from me, she is all I have." He threw a finger carelessly in Aria's direction. 

Aria dropped Spencer's hand like it was a bomb about to explode but in reality, that's her brain. She stalked forwards angrily. "I am not yours, I am not something for you to fight over, I will kill you for what you have done to my friends, you asshole." She pointed a single finger into his chest repeatedly as she snarled at him. 

"You are mine Aria, and I'm going to make sure of it." He pulled out a gun from his back pocket and aimed it over her shoulder. Aria's eyes glazed over the barrel of the gun to see where he was aiming it. Spencer. She acted before she could even think, her fingers took a tight grip on Ezra's wrist, knocking the gun upwards as a shot fired, now above their heads. The girls stood frozen as Aria and Ezra grappled for the gun, pushing and grasping at each other, then a round of gun shots fired out over and over, five times in total. The two separated as the last gunshot fired and the gun made a small clicking noise that signified that there were no more rounds to be fired. Ezra couldn't hurt them now. 

Becoming unstuck Spencer took a small step forward as Aria and Ezra stood within a breath of each other, their fronts touching. The girls couldn't understand why neither of them were moving but then a small trickle of blood passed between them and onto the crisp leaves on the forest floor. 

The next thing to drop was something that none of the girls had been expecting, a small pen knife. On the handle of the knife were two engraved letters, AM. All six of them stood frozen, it was as if time had stopped completely but out of seemingly nowhere Ezra stumbled back, a clear stain of blood on  his shirt right where his heart is and he inhaled harshly. 

As he stumbled back further, Ezra tripped over a root and fell directly onto his back as he took his last breath, whimpering a pathetic sounding, "I Love You." 

The girls waited with baited breath for Aria to move from her position, they could see her right hand coated in blood. "Aria?" Emily whispered out.

"Spence." Aria whined. The other girls felt a small surge of jealousy at Aria's need for Spencer over them but it was quickly washed away with concern as she wobbled slightly, almost as if she was struggling to stay on her feet, none of them had yet noticed the constant trickle of blood that was running down her arm from her right shoulder. 

Spencer stepped towards Aria and placed her right hand onto her arm in an attempt to turn her around but was instead greeted with a groan as she fell to her knees. A warning light flashed through Spencer's mind in a second and she immediately searched for the wound, it was located in a matter of seconds and in that time the other girls had joined Aria in kneeling on the floor, Spencer was behind her, letting her lean against her in her fight not to let unconsciousness overtake her. 

"Well, shit. Next time it's Hanna's turn to take the bullet." Aria joked as she tried to push herself up but just ended up in Spencer's arms once more. 

They all smiled weakly at her attempt at a joke but couldn't take their eyes off of her just in case this is the last time that they ever get to see their smallest friend ever again. 

"Hey Spence?" She whimpered.

"Yes Ari?" 

"At least this means that I don't have to tell Ezra that I was cheating on him with you." The shock that overtook the girls' faces was almost enough to drown out the sound of sirens and the shouts of cops. 

"Is anybody out there?" An unfamiliar voice yelled. 

Before any of them could answer they were surrounded and to say that the police weren't ready for what they saw was an understatement. One dead body and a bleeding girl being cradles by her best friends as she gets weaker and weaker. 

"I need an ambulance now!"

"He attacked us, it was self-defense but Aria got shot. Please help her." Hanna begged the nearest officer. A stretcher was brought around and Aria was swarmed with Paramedics as she was lifted away towards an ambulance. Spencer had never let go of Aria's hand, refusing to let it go for anything, no matter how uncomfortable the position she was put in was. 

Alison watched on from where they were being questioned to where Spencer was clambering into the ambulance behind her girlfriend and she couldn't help but smile because she knew that with Spencer's help, Aria is going to get through this without a doubt.