"Are you sure this is it?" Colton asked.
"Yeah, there's nothing here except for this park, everything else is pretty much abandoned." Bethany said.
"I don't see anyone." Liam added.
"Depends, can you see dead people?" Lana joked.
The four of them started looking around the abandoned park, searching for someone that'll explain why they're there. The place was overall creepy, the toys and swings were dirty and rusty, there were red cups all over the floor, some teenagers must have come and got drunk here.
No cars were parked in the area and no one seemed to be around. It was the reason Jessie asked them to come there. There was no risk of someone seeing them, more importantly seeing her.
"Where is she?!" Bethany got frustrated from waiting. "It's been twenty minutes."
"Impatient much?" A black silhouette figure appeared from behind the bushes.
They all looked at each other with wide eyes trying to make out the face of the female voice.
The figure started moving closer towards them and then her face came to light.
"Melanie?" Lana said shocked yet relieved.
"Surprise." Melanie said.
***
"What are you doing here?" Lana sked.
Their minds were spinning around every possible reason as to why Melanie was there. They were scared, that's for sure. A girl they had shared everything with was standing in front of them at the address they had been lured to.
Was Melanie the person blackmailing them from the start?
"You didn't really think it was gonna be Jessie did you?" Melanie said.
"What do you want? Why did you bring us here?" Liam asked.
"Because I need your help." She said.
"With what?" Bethany asked.
"With putting a stop to Jessie."
***
"I knew Jessie before she even started at the university." Melanie started explaining as they sat down on the benches.
Jessie met Melanie when she was looking to apply at the university. She knew about the sorority and she had a reason why she wanted to get involved. It was all a plan, to get revenge.
"Revenge on who?" Colton asked.
"Carla." She said.
It was all coming together, like they were solving a puzzle that had a missing piece and Melanie was there to give it to them.
It all happened senior year of high school. Jessie had her two best friends with her, Kyle, her boyfriend, and Carla. And it was the best year ever, until the day after graduation.
Jessie's parents were rich, and they had made a savings account for her to use for college after graduation, the amount of money in that account was ridiculous, it was enough to cover the tuition of two students. So like always, in Jessie's life, everything was perfect.
She was gonna use that money for a nice apartment, a nice college, and the rest for having fun. But two people didn't let that happen.
There was a reason why Carla and Kyle were so close to Jessie, they had their eyes on a prize and it wasn't her friendship. They got so close to her that she trusted them with her secret of having a savings account and even trusting them with her most possessed secrets.
A day after the graduation a phone call interrupted Jessie's father, saying that all the money was gone. It wasn't stolen, it wasn't lost, it was cashed out. All of it.
Her parents were furious, they yelled at her but she kept yelling back that it wasn't her. You see, it was hard to believe that it could be someone else because they had made her promise to never tell anyone about the savings account. But she broke that rule and told her best friends.
Jessie knew immediately who did it. But her parents of course didn't believe her. They went to the bank and the lady who had worked with 'Jessie' cashing out all her money identified her as the person who was there a day before.
Jessie was angry, she lost it, kept telling them it wasn't her, and kept accusing Carla of posing as her. After numerous fights, her parents asked Carla to come down to the bank.
Carla showed up that day with black hair. The lady said she wasn't the girl who cashed the money, and she kept insisting that it was Jessie who cashed it out.
Jessie yelled at Carla, still accused her and attacked her, she kept saying she purposely dyed her hair so the lady wouldn't know, but Carla innocently said that the hairdresser had made a mistake. She even played the part of the best friend who tried to stop Jessie from cashing out her money and spending it on useless things.
Her parents kept asking where the money was, and Jessie kept saying she doesn't have it. Her parents thought Jessie had spent it on shopping and useless things like her best friend Carla had said. So they punished her. They never gave Jessie another dime. She had to work to come up with money for her college, her parents never helped her.
The good thing was Jessie's grades weren't that bad considering she was popular, and she got a scholarship here, so all the money she saved for college, was not all gone.
A month after it happened, Jessie got a video from Carla.
"It was of her and Kyle. They had stolen the money together and they were in Paris. Carla and Kyle have been together even before Kyle was Jessie's boyfriend, they were always sneaking behind her back. They were partners in crime, literally. Carla confessed of everything in the video. But by the time Jessie went to show it to her parents, it was too late, the evidence was gone, the video was erased." Melanie said.
"Oh my God." Lana said amazed by the story.
"How come the lady didn't realize she wasn't Jessie?" Colton asked.
"Jessie and Carla looked a lot like each other, everyone mistakened them as the other. They talked like each other, walked, dressed, acted, like each other." Melanie said.
"What about the password?" Liam asked. "How did they figure that out?"
"It was the beginning of the year when Jessie told them about the account, they had already been close to her before that, they knew everything about her, so it wasn't that hard, they had all year to narrow it down to what could the password be." She explained. "Jessie never had the chance to prove herself innocent, Carla won. She was never her friend, she was dating her boyfriend behind her back for three years. And Kyle never really loved her, he just needed to be in the picture to get advantage of Jessie's money, they both did. Finding out about the account was a bonus. If there was any chance of the lady identifying Carla as the person who cashed out the money, she took care of it."
"Her hair." Bethany said. "That's why she dyed her hair, so the lady wouldn't identify her. It wasn't a hairdresser's mistake."
"You think?!" Melanie said sarcastically.
"Wait there are still a lot of unanswered questions here, how do you know all this? Where is Jessie now? What revenge is she planning?" Lana said.
"You really do have a lot of questions." She said.
"I met Jessie when she was here looking around and deciding whether she wanted to accept the scholarship or not. I liked her, she was unique, and open minded. She knew about the sorority house and she gave me a deal. It all started a few days before college started." Melanie started explaining again.
Revenge. It makes you do things you never thought you'd do.
It had started a year ago, she accepted the scholarship and started school. She put on a whole new image, she let go of the popular Jessie and created the opposite of it. A nerdy one. She wanted to be someone no one noticed, cared about, or wanted to be friends with. And she succeeded.
"She studied you all."
"What do you mean?" Colton asked.
"She didn't just stumble upon your house. She knew everything about you. You were exactly the kind of people she wanted to involve, the hacker." She said gesturing to Lana. "The lawyer." She said about Liam. "The journalist with a conscience." She looked at Bethany. "And the actor." She gestured to Colton. "Adam was just a plus, he needed to go."
"Why?" Lana asked. "Why do all this?"
"To make sure you'll figure out her plan before the police do." Melanie said.
"That doesn't make any sense." Bethany said.
"It does in Jessie's head."
Jessie had money. A lot of it. She maybe wore a pair of glasses in class, dressed nerdy and studied all the time, but outside of school, those manipulative skills never went away. A month before coming here, she finally got some proof of Carla's scheme. Her and Kyle had broken up, and a little bad blood between partners can screw up even a master plan like theirs. Jessie met with Kyle and recorded him confessing to everything, she threatened them both, and got her money back. But never told her parents, and never trusted a bank again.
"I wouldn't." Lana said.
Melanie continued.
After getting her money back, she slowly started shaping out the plan, she visited the school, looked for the best group of friends, and found one. Only there was someone who needed to go. Adam Larson.
She put on her best pitiful face and went to the house. Convinced them she needed a place to stay and they let her move in. She studied them more closely, got to know their personalities, weaknesses, strengths, close friends, relationships, friendships. Everything there was to know about them.
They were nice to her, always made her feel like welcomed and liked, they tried to befriend her many times, but she always pushed them away.
Jessie wasn't looking to make friends, she didn't wanna get involved with them, and gladly she had the best excuse to be left alone. She was a nerd, as everyone said she was, so she always hung out in her room alone and studied. Or so they thought.
And finally, at the beginning of the second year, the plan was put to motion. The first victim was Jake. She knew he was Lana's boyfriend, and made a deal with Melanie to be the only girl Jake gets to be with when he visited the sorority.
"How did she know Jake even went there?" Lana asked with clenched teeth.
"She made him. She talked to him a few days before the first time Jake went there, he didn't know who she was, she just said she worked there, and manipulated her way into convincing him to come. And as she expected, he showed up." Melanie said.
"She lured him there." Bethany said disgusted.
"It was February 15 when Jake first came, he found out it was Jessie, and almost left, but Jessie always had a way to make someone stay." She continued. "Then he came back a few days later, this time, without Jessie's invitation. But she knew he'll be back. That way, she was sure that she had him under her spell."
Lana's eyes slightly teared up. It wasn't Jake's fault what he did. Sure, he went there by his own will, but Jessie was as much to blame as him. She lured him there, and they all knew it wasn't easy escaping Jessie's ways. They had learned that by now.
"What happened next?" Liam asked.
"The second victim." Melanie continued on.
After Jessie had been with Jake for the second time, it was time to set another trap.
Adam.
One night when no one except the two of them were at the house, Jessie accidently interrupted Adam's study. He started talking to her and she made herself out to be shy and blushing. Adam started to pay attention to her, and Jessie knew she had him as well.
She invited him to her room and Adam gladly accepted. They talked for hours, until Jessie offered him a drink. After a few glasses, they started making out and then drifted to sleep.
In the morning, Adam woke up and saw Jessie tied up and crying on the floor while he was on the bed. He couldn't remember anything from the past night. He untied her and she started screaming and yelling and saying he raped her. He apologized and said he didn't do anything, he didn't remember anything. But anyone who saw Jessie would have believed her over Adam.
"Jessie drugged Adam so that he'll pass out, then undressed herself and tied herself up on the floor and waited for him to wake up, then made him believe he raped her. Jessie never had intentions to let anyone know of this story, well except when it was time, but she threatened to go to the police and of course Adam didn't want that, so she kept quiet on one condition that Adam had to pay for her school." Melanie added.
"Oh my God." Bethany exclaimed. "I thought Jessie had a scholarship."
"She did, but all this revenge planning took all her time, and she didn't have any time to actually study so they took her scholarship away, she had to find a way to stay in this school. And Adam was the way. He was rich."
A month later, Jessie faked a pregnancy test, and blackmailed Adam into moving out.
"That's why Adam moved out without saying anything." Lana stated, realizing just now.
A day after telling him, she contacted Carla and begged her to come help. She said she was in trouble and she was the only one she could trust. She cried and tricked her into thinking that she owed Jessie, that she had to help her after taking all her money away from her. Carla agreed to come help, and a month later she showed up.
"Before Carla came, Jessie started writing the diary, she wrote what she wanted you to know. And planted it in a place Keegan would never tell his guys to look at." Melanie said.
"Cause he was working with her." Colton said nodding his head.
"Exactly, and she also knew you would find out he was working with them, she sent Carla and Keegan to go to that place." She said.
"Why would Keegan agree to do this? Knowing he'd get caught and go to jail?" Lana asked.
"Because he knew it was temporary, and he got something out of it. Jessie promised to get him out, and then gave him a fresh start to go back home."
"Keegan said he was going to New York. That's where Jessie is isn't it?" Liam asked although he knew the answer to that.
Melanie said nothing, she slowly gave him a nod and a half smile.
Carla came to town, and Jessie told her that there was someone trying to hurt her, that someone raped her, got her pregnant, and was stalking her. She said she needed to get away, and the only way to do that was to fake her own death. And Carla was surprisingly okay with that.
"What about the body? We burried someone in that coffin." Lana said.
"April 27. Jessie sent Carla away for something very important I didn't even care to ask. But I know she sent her away so that we could do what we did." And suddenly Melanie's eyes watered and she swallowed hard.
Whatever she was going to say must have had a pretty huge impact on her, you could see how affected she was by the incident.
"There had been news, for a while that a girl was kidnapped for 3 months, they had finally found her a week before and Jessie was keeping tabs on her. So she knew that the girl had died that night, we snuck into the hospital, and stole her body before they could perform autopsy." She wiped away an escaped tear. "That was the worst night of my life. I still have nightmares about it." Her voice broke.
"Then why did you do it?" Liam asked.
"Because she threatened me, she threatened to expose me and the sorority and I couldn't have that!" She snapped. "Even though I was the only one she trusted, Jessie would do anything to keep herself safe first, she would do anything to anyone who got in her way."
"Talk about real life Ali Dilaurentis." Bethany murmured.
"Anyway, after making sure I would keep my mouth shut, we took the body to the woods. We dyed her hair auburn red to match Jessie's and then burned her body, making sure the place of the birthmark wouldn't get burnt, because she knew Liam would figure it out."
"I'm flattered." Liam said sarcastically.
Then, they dumped her body in the pool. And let the show begin. Carla never knew Melanie was helping Jessie, she thought she was helping her the whole time.
"The next day it was written in the papers that the girl's body was gone, the police thought the kidnapper had stolen it again, they never once thought about connecting it to Jessie's case. So we knew we were safe. They assumed the kidnapper had killed her in the hospital and then stole the body." Melanie said.
"Sherry White." Bethany said.
"What?" Colton asked.
"The girl's name was Sherry White, I read it in the paper, months ago, I saw her picture, how could you do that? Do you know how her parents must feel? They're out there looking for their daughter's body while she's already underground, burried by someone else's name." She said.
"Bethany calm down. She had no choice." Lana warned her best friend.
"I'm sorry." Bethany sniffled, emotionless.
"Then it was time to convince Carla she was pregnant, I went and paid the receptionist there and the doctor to fake a paternity test to determine Adam is the father and she asked Carla to get the results. She also knew one of you would go to get it pretending to be Adam. I also told the lady to say a Miss Donovan picked it up."
"So you were basically playing us, watching our every move and reporting it back. Making sure we'd piece the puzzle while you acted clueless. Everything that happened, every single thing was a part of the plan wasn't it?!" Liam said.
"I'm sorry, I really didn't have a choice. After days, Jessie became sick. She was vomiting and having cravings, and then it all became clear. Jessie really was pregnant."
"What?!" The four exclaimed.
"How is that possible?" Colton said.
"Well, it's pretty simple." Melanie joked and Colton rolled his eyes.
"Wait, if she's pregnant now, and she never actually slept with Adam. It means... Jake is the father isn't he?" Lana said more as a statement and less as a question.
"I'm sorry, this is why I need your help guys. We need to end this, it's getting too far." She said determined.
"Is this why you broke up with Tony?" Liam asked.
"He won't be safe with me, I really do care about him and Jessie could use him against me, she could hurt him to get to me, that's why I told her I didn't care about him, and I broke it off with him after that. We need to end this, put a stop to Jessie, before she ends us, before the final act."
"What's the final act?" Lana asked. "What revenge is she planning on Carla? Why go through all this?"
Melanie sighed for a second then took a deep breath before continuing.
"She's planning on pinning everything on her."
Jessie's plan was simple. Play the victim, blame Carla. She was going to say it was Carla who stole Sherry's body, made it look like Jessie's and faked her death, that she made Adam think he raped her, blackmailed Jessie into telling Adam about the pregnancy and to ask him to move out. That she forced her to join the sorority and sleep with Jake to make a connection to her roommates. Lana.
She wanted the police to know that Carla did all this, kidnapped Jessie, and wanted to pin the murder on her roommates.
Everything Jessie had done, she wanted Carla to take the blame for it, just like she took the blame for everything Carla did.
"I need to get back." Melanie said checking her phone. "If I don't answer her 2 am text, she'll call and if I don't answer she'll know something's up. She can't know I told you anything. Don't act suspicious. She may be in New York but she has eyes and ears here. She could send Carla to look after you."
"How thoughtful." Bethany joked.
"I'm not kidding."
"She just calls you on your phone?" Liam asked.
"No of course not, I have a burner phone at home. We're not stupid didn't you hear the story?" Melanie answered.
"So it was you all this time, sending those texts from LJ, the notes, the sketch, the article on Beth's laptop? The script, the file? All you?" Lana asked.
"No, those really were all Jessie, sending a message to you, to be careful." She said.
"I'm officially creeped out now." Colton said looking around.
"She can't know I was out of the house, she can't know I saw you, spoke to you, or that I told you anything. Okay?"
"Got it." Liam said as they all nodded.
"By the way, you guys can trust Adam and Jake." She nodded at them with confirmation.
Melanie then stood up. "Wait five minutes then leave." She walked towards her car that was on the other side of the bushes, but before disappearing into the darkness again she turned around.
"Are we clear on the plan?" She asked.
"Clear as water." Lana said.
***********
A/N : ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO GUYS!
Thanks to everyone who read this far, love and appreciate you all. ❤