Killer. (Book Six)

Thirty: Hell On Earth.

Aria clambered down the spiral staircase from her loft bedroom in her new house, twice stumbling and clutching the wrought-iron railing for support. She burst out of the front door, sprinted to the Subaru, and turned the ignition. Nothing happened. She gritted her teeth and tried it again. No engine. "Please don't do this," Aria begged the car, banging her head on the steering wheel. The horn honked weakly.

Defeated, she climbed out of the car and looked right and left. She'd left her bike at Ella's, which meant she had to walk to Spencer's barn. The quickest way was through the thick, coffin-black woods. But Aria hadn't gone in there at night by herself...well, ever.

A crescent-shaped moon hung in the sky. The night was very still and quiet, without a hint of wind. Aria could see the golden porch light of Spencer's barn through the trees. Before she started through the woods, she pulled Ali's flag out of her jacket pocket. The flag was where she'd known it would be, nestled deep in the shoe box. She'd grabbed it without looking at it, frantic to get back to Spencer and the others.

The fabric was still shiny and thick, almost perfectly preserved. It even smelled a little bit like Ali's vanilla hand soap. Aria beamed the flashlight she'd grabbed from the kitchen, examining the designs Ali had drawn. There was the Chanel logo and the Louis Vuitton design, same as the drawings on Hanna's lag. There was also a cluster of stars and comets and a doodle of a wishing well. But there wasn't an anime frog anywhere. Nor was there a cartoon girl playing field hockey. So had Hanna remembered incorrectly...or had Ali?

Aria spread the piece out to its very corners. Off to the left, Ali had drawn a strange symbol she hadn't noticed before. It looked like a No Parking sign, the kind that had a letter P with a big red line through the center. Only instead of P, Ali had written another initial instead. Aria brought the flag close to her face. At first glance, the letter looked like an I. But as she looked closer, she realized it wasn't. It was a J.

For...Jason?

Heart hammering, Aria shoved the flag back into her pocket and ran into the woods. The snow had melted, and the ground was slick. Aria sprinted over wet leaves and soggy puddles, splashing mud everywhere. When she came to the bottom of a ravine, her boots went out from under her. She hit the ground with a thwack, landing hard on her hip. The pain was white and hot, and Aria let out a muffled shriek.

A few quiet seconds passed. The only sound she heard was her own breathing. Slowly, she got up, wiped mud off the side of her face, and looked around.

Across the clearing was a familiar, twisted tree. Aria frowned, realizing. This was where they'd found Ian's body last week—she was sure of it. Something glinted from underneath a patch of logs and dry leaves. Aria carefully walked over to it and crouched down. It was a platinum class ring, half-caked in mud. She pulled her shirtsleeve over her hand and wiped the ring clean. A blue stone glinted. Around the base of the stone were the words Rosewood Day. She shut her eyes, remembering Ian's body lying among the leaves just one week ago. Her gaze had gone straight to the class ring around his bloated finger. That ring had a blue stone in it too.

She shined the flashlight on the name inscribed on the inside of the band. Ian Thomas. Had this fallen off Ian when he escaped? How someone pried it off him? She looked again at the pile of wet leaves. The ring had been sitting on top of them, barely hidden. How could the cops not have found it?

A twig snapped. Aria whipped her head up. The noise sounded close. More twigs broke. Leaves crunched. Then a figure slithered through the trees. Aria crouched down. The figure took a few steps and stopped. It was too dark to see who was there. Something made a sloshing noise, like liquid hitting the sides of a container. Aria's eyes watered an odd smell filling her nose. It was the odor of a gas station, one of her most-hated smells in the world.

When she saw the figure bend down and heard the liquid glugging out of the container and splattering on the muddy ground, Aria realized what was happening. She stood up fast, a scream frozen in her throat. Slowly, the person reached into his pocket and pulled into his pocket and pulled out an object. Aria heard a flick.

"No," she whispered.

Time slowed down. The air felt thick and still. Then the forest turned orange. Everything lit up. Aria screamed and sprinted back up the ravine. She careened into trees and stepped in a small ditch, twisting her ankle. For the first few seconds, all she heard was the hideous crackle of the fire building and building, eating everything in its path. But as she rounded a corner, she heard another sound. It was small and pitiful and desperate. A tiny whimper.

Aria stopped. The flames were at the ravine, where she'd been moments ago. To the right was a huddled figure. This person seemed smaller and weaker-looking than the figure that had traipsed through the woods moments before, lighting everything on fire. The person's leg was caught underneath a heavy tree branch that had fallen, and tiny, fingerlike flames were climbing up the branch, closer and closer to the person's foot.

"Help!" whoever it was screamed. "Please!"

Aria sprinted up. The person's face was covered by a huge hood. She assessed the log. It was big and bulky, and she hoped she could move it.

"You're going to be okay," she shouted, her face beginning to warm from the flames. Mustering her strength, Aria shoved the log down the hill. It rolled into a pool of gas and exploded. The person shrieked and collapsed against the tree. There was another deafening crack behind them, and Aria turned and screamed. The woods were a wall of orange. The fire was climbing the trees now, felling more branches. In seconds, they would be surrounded.

The person was still pressed against the tree trunk, staring at Aria with a shell-shocked look on his or her sooty face. "Come on," Aria wailed, starting to run. "We have to get out of here before we're dead!"