A/N: This will be a collection of Sparia short stories (2-6 chapters) that take place during the show. Most of them will be crazy possibilities for season 4, but I might add ones for season three, season two, or maybe even season one.

Story 1: An Unexpected Foe

Summary: Spencer goes missing in the dead of night, and Aria can't help but wonder why. Was it something she'd known, something she'd done? Toby and Aria team up to find out while Aria also deals with her own relationship issues. Takes place during season 4.

Chapter 1

"What are we doing out here again?"

The woods were damp and chilly at this time of night, and Aria wanted nothing more than to go back to Rosewood High and actually enjoy a school dance. Instead, she was out traipsing in the woods in a shimmering silver gown, hair and makeup all done up. The whole ensemble probably took her two hours—and all so she could spend five minutes indoors where people could actually see the effort she put into her outfit. Now, according to Spencer, they were hot on A's trail—and all because of some stupid phone number a singing bird annoyingly repeated a thousand times.

"Do you ever listen to me? The panic room had directions leading into the forest scratched into the wall," Spencer explained as Aria rolled her eyes. In her opinion, Spencer was taking this way too seriously. After all, how many times had they fallen for tricks like this before? Paranoia was evident now.

"I know, I heard you," Aria sputtered, crinkling up her nose when a hairy spider scuttled up a tree. "But how do we know this isn't a trap?"

"Aria, we're getting closer to solving this whole thing. I can feel it!"

Spencer shined her flashlight over a large clearing and halted in her tracks. Aria, who was too distracted by her whining thoughts, almost toppled over in her studded heels. "What?" she hissed under her clenched teeth, rubbing her cold arms.

"This is it," Spencer whispered, and took the first step into the long grass.

Apprehensive, Aria glanced around before joining Spencer in the area encircled by trees. Above her, the stars shone down on them, but other than the occasional hoot of an owl and rattling leaves caused by a small nocturnal animal, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Spence!" Aria called in a quiet voice. "Maybe this isn't a good idea."

But it was no use. Spencer was already smack-dab in the center, pounding her heeled foot on the ground.

Sighing, Aria looked both ways and studied the shadows again before picking up her hem and sprinting after her. "What are you doing?" she asked, wondering if Spencer was really losing it this time.

"Seeing if there's something hollow underneath this dirt," she replied like it was the most casual thing in the world.

"First a panic room, now an underground lair? Are you crazy, Spence?"

Before Spencer had the chance to answer, there came a loud crack of a branch snapping. Both girls looked up suspiciously and again glanced around the woods, but there was nothing. "It was just a raccoon," Spencer said to reassure both Aria and herself, but then came another audible, bustling sound.

Aria gulped as her body turned cold, and she clutched on to Spencer's arm. "Those aren't paws, Spence," Aria whispered. "Those are feet!"

However, neither person moved. Instead, Spencer held her head up and stayed as still as a deer in headlights, only her eyeballs moving back and forth, her ears waiting to pick up another sound to identify the direction. When another snap reached their eardrums, Aria panicked and started to tug on Spencer's bare arm. "We need to go. Now!"

"Wait," Spencer said calmly while grasping Aria's wrist and prying it off her. "Just wait."

"For what?" Aria exclaimed. "Our death?"

There came the rustle of leaves, and suddenly a dark figure appeared out of the bushes. Even Spencer looked like she was ready to jump out of her skin. Maybe this was a trap.

Grabbing Spencer's arm, Aria prepared herself to dart away. "It's time to go!" she cried, and the pair started running.

But the anonymous figure had its prey cornered, and he or she lunged and was right on their heels.

…

Meanwhile, at the dance, Hanna and Emily stood glumly in a corner as they waited for news from Spencer and Aria. "How long did they say they'd be gone?" Emily asked nervously, her eyebrows crinkling.

"They weren't sure," Hanna replied. Though she didn't want to voice it, her stomach was in knots.

Suddenly, a looming figure became visible in the bobbing crowd, and he appeared to be searching for someone, two drinks in hand. Then his eyes caught the two girls hiding in the dark. "Shoot!" Hanna hissed. "He saw us. What do we say?"

"Tell him she went out for some fresh air," Emily responded, but she highly doubted he would believe that for more than five minutes. Next, the girls straightened their backs and put pleasing smiles on their faces, pretending to have a fun conversation.

"Hey," Jake said as he approached them. "Have you seen Aria?"

Out of nowhere, Toby popped up next to him. "And Spencer?"

"O-oh," Hanna stammered. "They both went out for some fresh air."

Toby didn't look convinced. "I already checked the parking lot," he said coldly. "Her car is gone."

Startled out of their words, Emily and Hanna just stared dumbly at the two. To make things worse, Caleb caught sight of them and strutted over, slightly angry. "I've been looking all over for you," he said to Hanna with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

Hanna opened her mouth to make up something when Emily grasped her wrist with her clammy hand. "It's Aria," she said, indicating to her phone, which was lighting up. "Hello?"

"Emily!" Aria cried on the other end, and she sounded like she was out of breath. Immediately alarm set over Toby's face, the only person close enough besides Hanna to hear the conversation.

"Aria, where are you?" Emily asked. She didn't like where this was going.

"The panic room led us here," Aria panted. "We went to the woods, but—" Her voice was cut off by a scream and the line went dead, and instantaneously Emily's hopeful face had paled considerably.

"What happened?" Hanna asked. She felt tears stinging at the back of her eyes.

"Aria answered the phone, b-but," Emily could barely explain it, she felt so numb. "The line went dead, and there was a scream, and—"

"We have to go find them!" Hanna interrupted. Of course, Caleb and Toby picked up on the urgency, but Jake was just plain confused. "What's going on?"

The last thing Hanna and Emily wanted to do was explain A to someone they weren't completely sure they trusted. "J-just, stay here!" Hanna commanded, but Jake took an intimidating step forward.

"What, is Aria hurt?" Worry creased his forehead.

Ready to shoot out some excuse ("girl problems" was always a good one), the group that was once just Hanna and Emily was joined by yet another member. "Is someone hurt?"

It was Ezra—er, Mr. Fitz. He must have been passing by as a chaperone when he overheard Jake's comment. Scratch A: the last thing they needed was an ex-boyfriend-and-current-teacher thrown in the mix. How would you explain that one to the police?

However, Emily got to it first. "Aria and Spencer are out in the woods next to the park searching for something. Aria called and she sounded like she was in trouble, but the call ended with a scream," she blurted out, receiving a warning punch to the arm from Hanna.

Ezra's face lost all of its color. "A scream?"

"Yes. We're leaving now."

"If there are students in danger, I should come with you." Ezra added quickly, "As protection."

Emily didn't have the time to refuse. All she could think about were Aria and Spencer…and A. "All right," she said rapidly. "Let's go then."

…

"Spencer!" Aria cried out in the dark as she continued to dart her way past trees. She had fallen once and Spencer had forged ahead, zooming away in the other direction as to throw off whoever the person in the black hoodie was—A's pawn, probably. She could hear other footsteps other than her own, but she refused to look over her shoulder.

"Aria!" came Spencer's voice, and all the air in Aria's burning lungs was squeezed out in relief.

Carefully, Aria pulled out her phone and dialed Emily's number, tears wanting to spill out of her eyes when she heard her friend's sweet voice. "Emily!"

"Aria, where are you?" She could make out the thudding bass of the DJ in the background.

"The panic room led us here," Aria began to explain, begging that this wouldn't be her last day on Earth. There were so many things she still had to settle with her mom, her brother—even Ezra. "We went to the woods, but—"

Aria let out a horrified scream as she came tumbling to the ground, her ankle having given out from under her. Her cell phone had skidded across the leaves, ending her call. The scratchy leaves and torn branches dug into her palms as she struggled to stand up, but she realized she couldn't. "Spencer!" she cried, spots appearing in front of her eyes—the ultimate sign of a panic attack.

"Don't be afraid," came a strangely familiar voice, and Aria whipped her head around. But there was no one there.

Apparently it was a bad idea to turn around, because the next thing Aria remembered besides the blood pounding in her ears and her raspy voice breathing heavily was the cold sensation of a wet rag over her mouth being held by a black glove. In her last moments of consciousness, she was able to make out a person in a red coat stepping out from behind a tree, her shoulders covered in blonde curls. "Don't worry," soothed the woman as her face came closer. The images in front of her warped and blurred. "I won't hurt you."

A gasp trapped itself in her throat as the face became clear. It was Alison.

…

The drive to the forest was, in one word, tense. Hanna had flung herself into the driver's seat and hurried everyone into filing into the car. Emily was next to her, looking like she was about to be sick.

Behind her were Caleb and Toby, and in the backseat were Jake and Ezra—probably a bad idea, but they were rushed.

"You shouldn't be driving, Hanna," Caleb said calmly as she swerved around a corner. "You're upset."

"No!" Hanna snapped. "Driving relaxes me." Following the silence, Ezra cleared his throat.

Staring in the rearview mirror, Emily saw Ezra look down at a clueless Jake with a scorching glare in his eyes. When Jake had the suspicion that someone was looking at him, he glanced at Ezra next to him, who quickly averted his eyes to the passing scenery. Yes, there was some obvious tension in the backseat.

While the large group drove to their destination, Aria opened her eyes to the bright streetlights of the park parking lot. In front of her was the wooden table her and Ezra used to sit at whenever they decided to do homework—or actual work, in Ezra's case—and there was Spencer's car in its lonesome.

Spencer.

Darting up from the tree trunk she'd been propped up against, Aria whipped her head side to side. The fluorescent light threw creepy shadows on the pavement, but there was no reflection of skin.

There was no Spencer.

Reaching for her phone which thankfully hadn't been smashed, Aria tapped out Emily's number on the cracked screen and tried to calm herself down; she could already feel herself hyperventilating.

In the car, the quiet was broken by Emily's ringtone. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was, and she rapidly answered. "Aria?" she cried out in disbelief.

"Emily!" As soon as she heard Aria's sobs through the speakers, Hanna begged for Emily to put it on speakerphone.

"Hold on," Emily said. "I'm putting you on speaker."

"Aria, are you okay?" Hanna asked as though she was a speaker for 911.

"I-I think so. My ankle hurts," she sniffled, and released a pent-up cry. "I d-don't remember anything."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Emily asked, concerned.

"Um," Aria mumbled. "I was in the woods, and I fell, and then someone put something cold under my nose… There was Alison in a red coat…"

"Wait, Alison?" Caleb spoke up. "As in dead Alison?"

Again, Aria sniffled. "Yes." A whimper, then she added, "Mona was right. She looked just like Ali."

"No, Aria," Emily opposed. "Alison is dead, okay? We went to her funeral. Twice."

Rounding the corner, the park came into view. Aria was easy to make out, slumped against a tree in her shimmering dress. Before Hanna even had a chance to park the car and turn off the engine, Emily had bolted out and encased her crying friend in a hug.

"It was Ali," Aria sobbed into Emily's shoulder. Her eyes were so clouded by tears, but she could make out Jake running over and squatting next to her. Wiping her nose, she pulled away from Emily's embrace. "Spencer's gone."

"What?" Toby yelled, alarmed.

"We were running and she was ahead of me," Aria explained, but she spoke up again when she saw Toby dart into the woods. "It's no use, Toby! She's gone!"

"But gone where?" she heard him call back, his feet passing through crinkling leaves. "I'll search this whole forest if I have to."

But Aria doubted Spencer was in the forest. A was too clever for that.

While Hanna cleaned up her face, Aria smiled appreciatively at Jake, who was checking out her swollen ankle. However, as her eyes cleared up, she saw someone watching reluctantly, leaning on the car at a distance. "Ezra?" she called out uncertainly, and she didn't notice Jake look up at her, studying her face. Unfortunately, he came up with a deep kind of emotion that she lacked for him.

Ezra took that as his cue to approach. "Aria, are you okay?"

Aria nodded her head, a wide grin spreading on her lip, which was cut from her fall. "I'll be fine. I—"

"Here, let's see if you can stand up," Jake interrupted the conversation.

Slowly, Aria put one arm around Jake's shoulder and allowed him to aid her in standing up. Her round, hazel eyes met his brown ones as soon as she was upright. Their heads were so close, but Aria made no move of affection. Instead, she just smiled thankfully at him and attempted to walk onto the pavement.

But luck wasn't in for her. Just because her ankle was wrapped didn't mean it was better. She came tumbling down—and right into Ezra's arms.

"Sorry," she breathed out after she fell onto his chest.

"It's fine," Ezra whispered, and Aria blushed and avoided his gaze. Then he pointed at the park table. "Let's go sit over there, okay?"

Aria tried to stop the giddy feelings that overwhelmed her when Ezra wrapped a sturdy arm around her waist. Daringly he intertwined his fingers with hers, and she looked down at her small, dainty hand in his large, writer's one.

But the moment ended too soon, and he sat across from her after she took a spot on the seat. Jake came over and offered her his jacket before cautiously sitting next to her.

From what she could see, Emily and Toby were in the woods and Caleb and Hanna were in some heated discussion near the edge of the forest. That's when Aria realized that she was surrounded by people who had no clue about this new A, and that they were probably dying to know what happened. The air became awkward.

Emily came rushing out of the woods and to Aria's side, skeptical. "Are you sure what you saw?"

"Yes," Aria stressed, pulling Jake's jacket closer around her shivering body. "It was Alison."

Emily gave her a look that said, "You're crazy."

"Remember the lake house, Em?" Aria spat. "It's not like I'm the only one."

Then Toby came running out of the forest, a scrap of Spencer's dress in his hands. He looked weak and broken, and he had been crying by the looks of his wet eyes and nose. "She's gone," he finally admitted, and Aria's hopeful face fell.

A cold, slimy feeling passed through her, though, when she caught sight of the fabric in Toby's hand. Because on it was a stain.

The scrap was stained with Spencer's blood.