SHE DREAMED OF PARADISE

This was it. Their chance to escape, probably their only one if A realised they had been planning all this time. She ran, faster than she had in a long time; focusing on nothing other than the fact they had to get out of there. There was a fence, but that wasn’t going to stop them until Spencer screamed for them to stop. 

Mona, Aria, Emily, and Hanna had almost been to the fence, prepared to climb it when Spencer screamed out for them to stop. And it was a good thing she did- it was buzzing with electricity. One touch and they would have been dead.

Hanna longed for the plan to work more than anything; especially because she had found herself out of the unflattering orange jumpsuit, and into a heavy, red and silver prom dress that she never would have chosen for herself. A clearly had an eye for fashion, but that didn’t mean Hanna liked it. She wanted out and she was just glad that she had Mona and Spencer because she knew they had a really good chance at beating the idiot that was A. Or Charles, whoever he was. 

Her eyes locked with Hanna’s and her heart skipped a beat, still finding it surreal that they were finally together again after being apart for so many months. Even if it was in this place. Lips quirking up a bit at the blonde her attention turned back to Spencer, who was crowning Charles.

Hanna looked down at her outfit; the orange jumpsuit had been her costume for way too long and the pain Mona had caused by ‘dying’ had landed her in jail. But, she was just too glad that the girl was alive, because a world without Mona had seemed somewhat darker, scarier… 

“G’night.” She put on a brave face and squeezed Hanna’s hand one last time in comfort before letting go, waving and silently watching as they headed back to their rooms. Finally she turned with a sigh and headed back to “her” bedroom, prepared for another night of restless sleep.

Hanna looked behind her at her three best friends and frowned - why would A organise a prom for them? What kind of sick game was it? With a sigh, she wished she could just know what was going on and what was wanted from them. She wondered if this was the endgame that had been planned all along; if this was the end. Another part of her told her that was too morbid though; it was too much of a final ending and it couldn’t be true. 

“Yeah?” Her lips twitched into an almost smile and she laughed for the first time in months, the thought of somebody finally giving Alison what had been coming to her for years pleasing to her. Mona hated the other girl with a passion, never having gotten over being bullied by her. It was why she had done what she did to the girls, as much as she had tried to pretend it had only been because they had stolen Hanna from her at first. “I never meant to hurt her. Or you.”

Hanna wrapped her arms around herself as they walked down the dark corridors, looking around as she frowned and bit down on her bottom lip. When Emily asked that question, she took a deep breath as she dreaded the answer. They only had a minute or so left but Mona’s reply was enough to help her relax for just a moment. 

“Not yet, but I will. And I do know one thing- A’s planning a Prom of some sort.” Mona thought of the invitation for the Prom that had appeared in her room a few days ago, and while she had been confused at the time now it made more sense, what with the other girls being in the Dollhouse.

Mona felt the air woosh out of her lungs from the force of Hanna’s hug and managed to refrain from snapping at the brunette for calling her by her real name, figuring she had said it quietly enough that even A wouldn’t have heard it. “Night.” After the girls left Mona headed to her “bedroom,” going about her nightly routine and then climbing into bed.

The blonde took one last look at the others when she got to her door before she headed inside. She had not expected sleep to come easily, but her exhausted body was quick to fall asleep the moment she moved onto the bed. Curled in a ball on her bed, she dreamt for a short period of time about being home, being in her mothers arms which seemed to be the one place she felt safe, until Mona was waking her up. 

After she had retrieved Hanna from her room she continued on, getting Spencer, Aria, and Emily out of their beds as well. “Now, we don’t have much time,” she said quickly as the five of them walked down the narrow hallway together, the only light guiding them being the lantern in Mona’s hand.

None if made sense, but Hanna supposed that was part of A’s plan. Nothing was meant to make sense, they were in A’s world now completely and utterly and she had no idea how they were supposed to escape from this. She looked up in a panic when a ball rang, before she followed Mona’s queue and stood up, biting down on her lip. 

Mona felt the air woosh out of her lungs from the force of Hanna’s hug and managed to refrain from snapping at the brunette for calling her by her real name, figuring she had said it quietly enough that even A wouldn’t have heard it. “Night.” After the girls left Mona headed to her “bedroom,” going about her nightly routine and then climbing into bed.

Hanna’s face visibly paled at the mention of the two names; why would they be there unless they were A or involved with A? Her heart thumped and her hands shook, as she looked around to see the exact same expression on her best friends faces before Spencer questioned the names with a raise of her brow. Hanna took a deep breath and set the tea to the side, not wanting to drink anything right then; she wanted to be back home and for a moment, she had thought she was when she had woken up. 

“Oh, Spencer, don’t be silly,” Mona said. “Who else would come see me? They’re the only ones who know I’m alive. Well, except for Shana, but..” she closed her eyes and put a hand to her chest as if it was too touchy of a subject to talk about. “We all know what happened there.”

Hanna was more terrified than she had been in a while; she had never seen Mona look so broken… it wasn’t even the way she looked. She looked healthier than she had when she was in Radley, but it was her eyes, they told a different story that she wasn’t entirely sure she could handle hearing. Her hand gripped onto Mona’s, having once believed that she would never get a chance to do this again. 

“Now, what’s with the long faces, ladies?” she asked as she passed out the cups of tea to them, noticing that they were still staring at her as if she had flown in from Mars. And she couldn’t help but wonder why A had brought them there. Was A tired of having her as their doll? Would she not live to see the morning?

Hanna flinched and looked down at her lap; why was Mona pretending to be Alison? She didn’t understand, she wasn’t sure she would ever understand. Spencer was suspicious as she shook her head and eyed Mona, but Hanna had so many questions she knew she couldn’t ask because Mona - Ali - wouldn’t be able to give her an answer. 

“Yes, a game!” She pulled Hanna up as well, gripping the blonde’s hand a little harder than necessary- finally being with Hanna again made her feel safer than she had felt in months- and then pulling each of the other three girls up as well, leading them into the DiLaurentis family’s sitting room.

Hanna ignored the questions that Spencer and Aria were firing Mona’s way, she wanted them to shut up because all she could think about right then was that Mona was alive. After everything she had done, and everything they had been through together, they had finally been getting to a good place and she had never thought she would get that chance again. 

She couldn’t help but let out an inaudible gulp when she saw the tears shining in her friend’s pretty blue eyes, and her eyes flitted to the camera in the corner of the room. This was worse than any other torture she had ever received from A- she was with Hanna again, for the first time in months, and yet they couldn’t have a proper reunion. Instead she had to pretend to be the girl whom she had always feared.

Hanna was confused, her nose scrunching up as she frowned and then looked at her three best friends with a small shrug of her shoulders. Ali hadn’t murdered Mona, no one had and that was a relief but what had happened to her that was so awful, she’d pretend to be the person she hated so much? Hanna could feel her entire body shaking as she just watched the dyed blonde move across the room; A had broken Mona, and that was enough to make her dread whatever was going to come next. 

“Of course it’s me, Hanna.” She gave the girl a tantalizing smirk, reaching over to take the other girl’s hand after they had sat down. “I’m Ali and I’m fabulous, remember? I could never just let A off me like that, could I?”

Hanna wasn’t entirely sure which was worse; waking up in jail, or waking up in a dollhouse invented by the person who had been stalking her for way too long. At least in jail she had been semi-safe, now she had no idea what to expect, or what was coming. Still dressed in the unflattering orange, she made her way out of the door and tried to shake off the feeling that this was going to be the end for them; this was hell and for the first time, she wanted to be back behind the metal bars for a crime she didn’t commit. For a crime that she had no idea didn’t even exist until she walked into what looked like Ali’s living room and saw a face she had thought she would never see again. 

“Mona?” She felt her heart swell with happiness when she saw Hanna, the first girl who had ever taken a chance on Mona, looking past the Loser Mona stigma Alison had put on her and befriending her, but her sense of happiness quickly shattered when she remembered that she wasn’t Mona anymore. She was Alison, and if she wanted to avoid having A punish both her and Hanna for her break in character she needed to maintain that facade.