AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s Mona’s ghost, a voice inside Hanna’s head screamed. Or Ali’s ghost. Or Ian.
The trees parted. Hanna let out a strangled yell and squeezed her eyes shut. But when she opened them a few seconds later, the path was still empty. Hanna blinked, looking around. And then she saw what had been making all that fuss—a little gray bunny, twitching near a patch of dried-up clover.
“You scared me,” Hanna scolded the bunny. She creakily stood back up, her pulse slowing down. Her nose burned with the smell of her own vomit. A woman in a pink Windbreaker jogged by, still smelling like the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume she’d probably worn to work. Then a guy with a big black-and-white Great Dane passed. The world was full of people again.
As the bunny disappeared into the bushes, Hanna’s head started to clear. She took a few deep, cleansing breaths, her perspective restored. This was all just a ruse to mess with her head—by Ian, or whatever dumb kid was pretending to be the new A. Mona couldn’t control the universe from beyond the grave. Besides, Kate had hinted at her devastating relationship with Herpes Boy. Kate wouldn’t have admitted something like that if she was plotting to destroy Hanna forever.
Hanna jogged the half mile back to the Y’s parking lot, suddenly feeling much better. Her BlackBerry was nestled on the Prius’s passenger seat, and there were no new messages in her inbox. As she drove home, Hanna wanted to open up a reply text to A’s last note and write, Nice try, faux A. You almost got me. She felt guilty, too, for icily ignoring all Kate’s texts today and avoiding her in the halls. Maybe there was a way she could make it up to her. Maybe tomorrow they could drop by Jamba Juice before prepping for the benefit, and Hanna could treat Kate to a sugar-free Mango Mantra.
When she got home, the house was dark and quiet. “Hello?” Hanna called out, dropping her wet running shoes in the laundry room and unwinding the elastic from her hair. She wondered where everyone was. “Kate?”
As Hanna made her way upstairs, she heard a small, muffled voice. Kate’s bedroom door was closed, and music Hanna didn’t recognize filtered out. “Kate?” Hanna called quietly.
No answer. Hanna raised her fist to knock, when Kate let out a screechy cackle. “It’ll work,” Kate said. “I promise.”
Hanna frowned. It sounded like Kate was talking on the phone. She pressed her ear to Kate’s door, curious. “No, I promise,” Kate urged in a low voice. “Trust me. And it’s almost time—I can’t wait!”
Then Kate let out a low, nasty snicker. Hanna shot away from the door like it was on fire, covering her mouth. Kate’s snicker evolved into a full-on laugh.
Hanna backed down the hall, horrified. It was the kind of laugh she couldn’t help but recognize—she and Mona used to snicker like that when they were in the midst of planning something huge. They’d made that snickering noise when Hanna plotted to fake-friend Naomi because she’d stolen Mona’s date to the Sweetheart Dance. And they’d snickered like that when Mona created a fake MySpace page for Aiden Stewart, a cute guy from the Quaker school, and used it to torment Rebecca Lowry because Rebecca had nominated herself for Snow Queen, an honor that was rightfully supposed to go to Hanna. This isn’t going to be pretty, the snicker always implied, but this is what the bitch deserves. And we’re sure as hell going to find it f**king hilarious.
All of Hanna’s worries rushed back in as thunderously as a mudslide cascading down a mountain. It sounded like Kate was planning something huge too, and Hanna had a pretty good idea what it might be.
25
INTO THE BATHROOM…BUT OUT OF THE CLOSET
As soon as Emily and Isaac pulled into the Hastings family’s round driveway Saturday evening, a valet rushed to the car door and asked for their IDs. “We want to get a record of everyone who’s here,” the guy said. Emily noticed there was a gun on his belt.
Isaac glanced at the gun, then at Emily. He touched her hand. “Don’t worry. Ian’s probably halfway around the world today.”
Emily tried to hide her wince. Ian had been missing for a full day now. Emily had told Isaac she was one of Ali’s best friends and had attended the trial yesterday, leaving out, of course, that she had been receiving threatening notes from New A—who Emily was convinced was Ian. Unfortunately, Emily had a pretty good idea that Ian wasn’t halfway around the world by now, but still here in Rosewood, digging for some big secret he thought the cops were hiding.
Part of Emily was furious at Spencer for not telling them about Ian’s eerie visit sooner. At the same time, Emily understood why Spencer hadn’t told. Spencer had shown them the note that Ian had sent after his visit, the one that said Spencer would suffer if she said a word about it to anyone. Besides, it wasn’t like Emily had said much about her own A note, the one that threatened to tell Isaac if Emily told about A. It seemed Ian was as cunning as Mona had been, knowing precisely how to keep all of them quiet.
Still, right after Spencer admitted the truth, the girls had tried to grab a cop to tell him what had happened, but the entire Rosewood PD was already off on an Ian manhunt. Spencer’s parents had debated whether holding tonight’s fund-raiser was even appropriate, but they’d decided to just be very, very cautious. Spencer had called Emily and her old friends last night and begged them to please come so they could all be together for moral support.
Emily tugged at the bottom hem of the dress she’d borrowed from Carolyn and stepped out of the Volvo. Spencer’s house was all lit up like a birthday cake. Wilden’s police car was parked front and center, and a few more valets were directing traffic. As Isaac took her hand, Emily noticed Seth Cardiff, her ex-boyfriend Ben’s best friend, getting out of a car behind them. She tensed her shoulders and grabbed Isaac’s arm.
