Chapter One

Soft knocking filled the room of his apartment.

Ezra looked up from the book in his hand, towards the door. He glanced at his watch as he stood up. 12:30. The only person he could think to be at his door at this time was Aria. He smiled, thinking about the night they had. They had finally gone public. While it was without her parents' approval and not in the way they had planned, it was a great feeling none of the less. He tossed the book onto the coffee table and walked to the door.

The smile immediately disappeared from his face after he opened it though. Standing in front of him was his girlfriend, smudged makeup from the tears streaming down her face, looking even smaller than her normal 5'2 frame due to her arms wrapped tightly around her torso. She was still wearing the dress she had worn to the ball.

"Aria?" He whispered. "What's wrong?"

"She's dead." Aria managed to squeak out. "She's dead."

A sob then broke from her lips.

Ezra's heart broke at the sight of his girlfriend breaking down in front of him. He felt like he was seeing her cry far too often as of late. Confusion swept over him from her statement.

He gently wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "Who's dead? What happened, baby?"

Aria wrapped her arms tightly around Ezra's waist, pushing her face into his chest as she continued to cry. Ezra pulled her into the apartment and closed the door, then brought them over to the couch. He sat down and pulled her into his lap.

Ezra brought Aria's face away from his chest to look at her. He gently wiped the tears from her cheeks and blew lightly on her face, trying to calm her down. Aria gulped down his air like it was her last few breaths.

Once she calmed down a bit, Ezra tried again.

"Who's dead, Aria?" he said softly.

She took a deep breath. "Maya. Emily's girlfriend."

He processed this for a moment. He remembered Maya from the few weeks she was at Rosewood while he taught there. "What? How did she die?"

Aria shook her head. "We don't know. We were heading over to Hanna's house to spend the night with her after what happened, but we saw the police and everyone surrounding Emily's house. She thought something had happened to her mom, but the police had found a body in her backyard, and they think it's Maya." She looked down, another tear rolling down her face. "Maybe it was Mona who killed her, or maybe this still isn't over." She mumbled to herself.

Ezra blinked a couple of times, confused. "Wait, after what happened? And what does Mona have to do with any of this?"

Aria pulled in a shaky breath, looking up towards the ceiling before continuing.

"Mona was arrested tonight. She's being taken over to a mental institution or something for torturing my friends and me for the past 9 months."

"What? What do you mean torturing you? Why didn't you say anything to me?"

Aria let out a huff and looked at him. "I couldn't tell you! You could have gotten hurt, even more then you already have!"

"I am… incredibly confused. What in the world are you talking about? What has been going on, and why haven't you told me about it?" Ezra begged her to explain more, his voice rising a bit.

"Stop yelling at me!" Aria cried. "I can't think straight! I've barely been able to wrap my head around this myself!"

Ezra took a deep breath and lowered his voice back down.

"I'm sorry. I'm just entirely confused." He whispered, running his fingers over her cheeks.

"I know." Aria sighed. "I'll tell you, I just don't know where to begin."

"The beginning is always a great place." Ezra said, the corner of his mouth lifting a bit.

"Ha. That it is." Aria breathed, smiling back at him. She thought for a minute.

"Okay. Well, for the past 9 months, my friends and I have been getting anonymous texts and messages from someone." She started.

"Your friends, meaning Spencer, Hanna, and Emily?" Ezra clarified.

"Yes. Do you remember early in our relationship when you were still at Rosewood, when I left my phone in your apartment? You had read a text on it saying that whoever sent it knew about our relationship."

"Yeah, we broke up afterwards." Ezra cursed himself momentarily for being so stupid. He couldn't imagine what his life would be like without Aria in it anymore.

"Right. The text was signed by "-A". Do you remember that?" Aria asked, looking at him curiously.

"Mhm. Later at the dance, you told me you didn't know who –A was… that it was someone who was messing with you, but you let it drop afterwards." He recalled this for the first time since the incident. He had never questioned her further on the subject.

"Well, I was telling the truth. –A has basically been controlling my life."

Aria then proceeded to tell Ezra everything about –A, from the very first message she received sitting in his classroom on the first day of school. She also told him everything they had found out about Ali's murder – how it wasn't Ian and about the bell tower, his suicide being set up, and about Garrett and Jenna. She explained how they found out Ali had been stalked by –A before she was killed, about Vivian and Ali's discoveries, about the tapes Caleb was helping them find, and everything –A had been making her and her friends do.

"Tonight, Spencer was with Mona and found out she was –A. Mona was threatening her, saying she needed to 'join the –A team or disappear'. We got to them before Mona could do anything, and while she and Spencer were fighting, she fell off a cliff but survived."

Aria took a deep breath though. "But I can't stop thinking about how she said the '-A team'. That means there's more than one person apart of this, and even though Mona's gone, it might not be over."

More tears leaked down her cheeks.

Ezra, who had been unmoving in shock for the past two hours, finally moved and reached for her.

"Hey…" He wrapped his arms tightly around her, pressing his lips against her forehead. "I won't let anyone hurt you. I'll keep you safe."

Aria looked up at him and gave him a watery smile.

"I love you for saying that," She whispered. "But if this isn't over… I don't think anyone has the power to stop it."