𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑇𝐼𝐸𝑆 𝑇𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝐵𝐼𝑁𝐷 𝑈𝑆-𝐽𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝐷𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑠

Tʜᴇ ɪɴᴠᴇsᴛɪɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

THE school day finished at 1pm due to Alison's funeral being held. My black dress fell to my mid-thigh, a plunging square neck that showed the tiniest amount of cleavage.

"Ready sweetheart?" My Mother squeezed my cheek lightly, also in her own black dress and my Father in a suit. I hummed in response as we headed out the door.

Church bells chimed, news reporters swarmed the area, everyone had come to put Ali to rest.

"Hi." I smiled softly, wrapping my arms around Aria's neck and swaying us both side to side gently. I linked my arm through hers and headed inside the church alongside her.

"The other girls are here, please sit with us." Aria squeezed my arm lightly, I nodded at her and looked over at the front where the girls were sat, beside Mrs Dilaurentis.

"Oh hi girls, don't you both look absolutely beautiful, come sit, come sit" Mrs D beamed and shuffled over, making room for us to perch down on the bench.

"Popular in life, and death." Spencer said quietly from down the aisle, I gazed at the flowers placed over the casket, the beautiful picture frame of Ali just beside it. It was picture-perfect, just like her.

The crowd of people sat in the church went silent, hushed whispers cascading around. I craned my head over my shoulder to be met with a girl I had never seen before.

"Who is that?" I whispered, Aria mumbled a 'what?' But turned around to follow my eyeline, the other girls followed suit and gasped quietly.

"It's Jenna." Spencer hissed. The brunette girl with dark shades covering her blind eyes, accompanied by a tall man took her seat a few rows behind us.

"Who's Jenna?" I asked quietly, Aria bit her bottom lip and grabbed my arm lightly to turn me back around. "We'll tell you about it tonight okay?" She whispered.

"Let us begin." The priest spoke, quietening the whispers and quiet chatter of everyone in the room.

༄

My arm was linked in Aria's and Spencer's as we all left the church, eyes scanning around taking in the other members of public leaving alongside us.

"I'll never get used to the press being everywhere." I mumbled, frowning as she couldn't even be put to rest in peace and had to have interviewers and police swarming the place.

"Emily." A deep voice spoke behind us, we all turned to face a tall man, dressed in a suit with light brown hair sauntering toward us. "Spencer...Aria, Quinn...and Hanna." He finished off.

I shared a quick-confused look with Spencer before looking back at the man. "Do we know you?" Spencer asked him, squeezing my arm against hers lightly.

The man lifted his blazers inside pocket and took out an ID, "I'm Detective Wilden." He handed the ID to Spencer whom eyed it carefully before showing me.

"I understand you were all close friends with the victim." He added on, "Yeah we were." Aria said shortly. "I'm gonna need to talk to each one of you." He said, my brows furrowed.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." I shrugged, thinning my eyes slightly to try and figure out where this was headed. "And I intend to go over every one of your statements." He had a smug look on his face that riled something up inside of me.

"This is no longer a missing persons investigation, it's a murder."

I glanced down to the floor and sighed heavily, feeling the other girls do the same. My heart was in my throat, I felt sick.

"Rest assured I will find out what happened that summer." Wilden said confidently. I fought the urge to gulp down my fear. He nodded at us before spinning on his heal and walking away.

My eyes followed where the girls were looking, each of them staring at the Jenna girl as she was guided into a black car. I tried to think at why they cared so much about this girl, not necessarily cared but why they were so bothered by her.

"Do you think he knows about--" Aria begun but was interrupted by Hanna, "—No how could he?"

"Knows about what?" I asked, glancing at each of the girls whom looked guilty of something, but what?

Before any of them could answer we were interrupted by each of our phones ringing simultaneously. I undone my purse and pulled it out, eyes widening slightly at my lit up screen.

"Have you guys been getting these messages too?" Hanna hissed, I nodded slowly, eyes transfixed on my phone. "Oh my god." Aria mumbled. "I'm still here bitches—" Spencer begun to read the text off of her phone.

"And I know everything, -A" We said in sync, I snapped my phone shut and looked up at the other girls. Each of our expressions holding the same look, fear and confusion.