Pretty Little Liars one shots

The queen of ashes - Spencer and Mona

Not mine

"I thought you were done chasing down A," Mona lounged back in her chair, far too calm under the circumstances. She was making a point, Spencer realised. There was always a plan with Mona, with A. And it was the chair, her mind had become fogged by grief and rage but it was still sharp enough to realise that Mona's chair was the very twin of the one that Toby had given Spencer (back when he loved her or back when he pretended to love her- one of the two, she didn't know which). The chair was the point, the sharp edge Mona would try to use gut her- well, she wasn't going to let that happen.

"I was looking for Toby," she said, shortly.

"Looking for A," Mona corrected, with a cruel smile. "And now you've found me."

Spencer lurched forwards and shoved hard at the stupid damn chair, thinking only of how much she wanted to the beat the smile off of Mona's face. The chair violently rocked back and for a glorious second it seemed like it would actually topple, leaving Mona bleeding- or at least bruise. But it didn't, at the last possible juncture it righted itself, leaving Mona sitting upright again, not a scratch on her.

Mona cocked her head, arrogance apparent in her eyes. "What can I say? I always bounce back."

"I guess that makes it okay for me to smack you," Spencer spat back.

"Haven't you learned your lesson yet? I thought you were meant to be clever. Well here's a hint: going after me only makes you look crazy." Mona smiled, patronisingly, only the steely look in her eyes betrayed her true intentions.

"Maybe so but there's no-one watching now or have you got one of your minions taping this?" Spencer's eyes searched the room frenetically, not worried per se just fascinated. She'd always wanted to know exactly how the team operated; how they managed to do the things they did. There was nothing important in this room, Spencer realised- meaning that this wasn't the main lair or even one of them. It was just a trap to lure Spencer in; at another time she might have been scared but the mix of adrenaline and fury in her veins was enough to make her reckless.

"Do you want some wine?" Mona asked suddenly, ignoring Spencer's question entirely.

"What?" Spencer knew she probably shouldn't ask, that she probably shouldn't take the bait like that, but she was long past the point of reason.

"I still have the bottle you bought for A; I already opened it though so it's probably gone a little sour." She did a silly fake wincing face, more like something popular Mona would have done when mocking some poor unfortunate high school loser. "Still, that's the natural order of things, isn't it? It starts off so good but by the end there's only bitterness left."

"Stop calling him that!" Spencer shouted, slamming her hands down on the table, ineffectually.

"How about a whiskey instead?" Mona continued, as if Spencer hadn't spoken. She opened a bottle and poured a glass, offering it out to her.

"You think I'm actually going to drink anything you give to me? You may think I'm stupid but I'm not that foolish."

Mona shrugged and downed the drink herself. "Your loss."

"Right, well I'm just going to leave now." She'd had enough now.

Mona stood up for the first time; her movements fluid, putting herself between Spencer and the door. "You look so beautiful in grey," she said, a vicious smile on her lips. She grabbed onto Spencer's wrist- not roughly but not softly either. Spencer knew if she tried to pull away that that grip would be like iron. "But you would look even better in black."

"You still want me for your team?" Spencer spat the word team like it was the worst word in the world, worse even than the name of Toby.

"I want you," Mona answered, vaguely. It was then that she did the strangest thing; she put her free hand to Spencer's chin and pulled her lips to her own. After a moment of shock, Spencer her face away, wrinkling her face in confusion and disgust. Then she did something to surprise herself; she yanked Mona back by the hair causing her stalker to wince (she'd always said that she had wanted to do that) and crashed her mouth against Mona's. She moved against A ferociously, aware of an echo to her dreams about Toby- another A. The thought of it caused her to bite down on Mona's lip, hard enough to draw blood, the salt taste flooding her mouth.

She pulled back after what seemed like an eternity and admired her work. Mona was still smiling though, of course- it wasn't a genuine smile- or was it? There was never any way to tell with Mona, the way she cycled through personalities as easily as putting on a new shade of lip-gloss. Who knew what this was even about? It could have been that this was just some part of a master plan or maybe it was just for Mona's own sick enjoyment- or both.

"As fun as this has been, I actually have to go- debate team practice." Mona casually wiped the blood from her lip as if it were less than nothing, putting on that sweet act she used for school nowadays. "You can see yourself out right?"

She was practically door before Spencer even had chance to react. Although, she wasn't sure what she would have done even if she had time. She felt rooted in all the exhaustion that had built up in the last couple of years, crushed under the weight of it all.

Mona spun around just before she exited. "Do you remember that one quote? Goes like 'he who fights with monsters' or something like that?" When Spencer failed to reply she just shrugged, purposefully ditzy. "Just wondering."

And then she was gone, leaving Spencer with the misery again- until the next time.