"Archie Andrews, you're under arrest for the murder of Shadow Lake resident, Cassidy Bullick." Sheriff Minetta said forcefully, his two officers grabbing Archie's hands; handcuffing them.

The whole gymnasium exploded into a buzzing of murmurs. Everybody seemed to be just as confused as I was. Archie did not murder this man, and that I was sure of. I looked over at Jughead, and the shocked expression on his face did not help me calm down. I held his arm, and he looked down at me, gaping. I'm sure my reflection mirrored his.

"What?" Archie asked, looking at us. "I didn't kill him!" He said, putting on a confident front, but I could tell he was taken aback.

Veronica looked like she was waiting for Minetta to start laughing and say, "Just kidding guys, it's all a joke!" by the way she was glancing anxiously around the room. He didn't. Ronnie looked at me, her mouth dropped open, then looked at Archie, then looked at me, and then her eyes landed on someone else.

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..." I heard Minetta distantly in my head, but my focus was on what- no, who Veronica was looking at. With his dark black hair, eyes, and suit, he blended in well with the shadows so that no one could spot him. I squinted. Now that I was focused on him, I could see him clear as day. The oh-so infamous Hiram Lodge.

Veronica and I exchanged a look as Archie was being taken away. My grip on Jughead tightened. Archie kept looking at us, his face confused and scared. His eyes seemed to plead with us. I didn't kill him! They said.You know I didn't kill him! What's going on?

I know, Arch. I know you didn't kill him. Me, Jug, Ronnie, we know. We're going to get you out of this. My eyes said back.

I glanced back over at Mr. Lodge. He slightly nodded at Archie, such a small gesture I hardly noticed it. His eyes were dancing and a smirk was tugging at the corners of his lips. He turned around slowly, walking into the shadows, leaving me wondering if he was ever there at all. Maybe I'm just going crazy.

Principal Weatherbee's voice snapped me back to reality. "I need everyone to stay calm and stay seated, we will dismiss you momentarily. The rest of the day has been cancelled." He hurriedly walked away, either not noticing or not caring that no one was staying seated.

"What," I asked to Ronnie, my voice urgent. "was your dad doing here?" I already knew the answer, but I needed confirmation.

Ronnie opened her mouth, but Jughead spoke first. "Wait-" He said. "Hiram Lodge was here? Just now?" His gaze became frantic as he searched around the room, holding onto me as if he could shield me from all the evils of the world.

"I-I saw him." Ronnie stuttered. "He didn't even notice me. I don't think he knew that we saw him." Ronnie clenched her fists.

"Well, Ronnie! He- he was here! He had something to do with Archie's arrest! We have to go tell the police, now!" I started towards the exit.

"No, Betty, we can't do that!" She exclaimed, pulling me back. "They don't know what we know. In fact, for all we know, the police are working for my dad. They wouldn't care."

"We have to do something!" I argued, knowing she was right.

"We should go to the station." Jughead said, anger in his voice. He looked tired, tired of everything in this 'town with pep'. Jason's murder, the Black Hood (my dad!), and now Archie's arrest?

"I agree." I said. Jughead squeezed my hand. Ronnie nodded.

"What the hell just happened?" Came a voice from behind us. I turned around, seeing Toni, Cheryl, Sweetpea, Fangs, and other serpent members. "Did Archie Golden-boy Andrews just get arrested for murder?" Toni crossed her arms.

"We're going to the station right now to see him." Jughead explained quickly, stepping away from me and towards the serpents. "Come if you want."

"Come if you want? Jughead, you're the serpent king now. You have to give us something more than that. What's going on?" Sweetpea demanded.

"It's too much to explain right now. I promise this will all make sense later." He said. The serpents did not look satisfied. "Look." He sighed. "Let's all meet at Pops at 3:00 today. I'll tell you everything there. I don't want everyone to hear." He glanced around.

"Fine." Fangs said, stopping whatever Sweetpea was about to say. Probably not 'fine'. "Go. We'll be at Pops, waiting."

"Good. That's good. Thanks for understanding." He nodded at the serpents. He reached back for me, grabbing my hand, and we all started towards the exit door.

A million thoughts raced through my mind as we opened Veronica's car door. What were we going to say when (or if!) we saw Archie? What if I saw my dad while on the way to Archie's cell? I stepped into the passenger seat. What if Archie wasn't given bail? What else was Hiram behind? Which one of us were next? I shut the door close and we sped through Riverdale.

{-}

After what seemed like hours, Veronica parked at the police station. The weather was matching the overall mood of the day: Rainy. We got out of the car and ran towards the glass doors. Sheriff Minetta was there, almost as if he knew we were coming. I skidded to an abrupt stop.

"Where is my boyfriend, Robert Gisevius?" Veronica demanded, shooting ice daggers from her eyes and referring to the corrupt policeman.

Sheriff Minetta stared at her. "I'm flattered by your reference." He said in a monotone, glaring.

"Don't ignore us, you traitor!" Jughead accused, pointing his finger at him.

Minetta told us that Archie was in questioning at the moment. "Don't worry. You can visit your boyfriend's cell soon." He started to walk away towards the cells.

I acted on impulse. "Wait!" Minetta turned around, looking at me expectantly. I composed myself, trying to frame my question right. "Which prisoners will Archie be near?" I asked, trying to find out whether he would be close to my dad. What if he was? Would I have to see my dad every time I wanted to see Archie? Just thinking about seeing him made me want to punch a wall. I hated him. I never wanted to see or hear from him again, no matter that he was my father. That doesn't make him any less of a murderer.

"Betty Cooper, isn't it?" He asked, a stern look on his face. "Yes, I remember checking in your father a couple days ago. What a tragedy." He looked at me dead-on in the eyes. "I'm sorry, but I can't disclose that kind of information just yet." His dark eyes seemed to twinkle at me, laughing.

"Not allowed to disclose that information? You just said a minute ago that we would see Archie in his cell soon! Why can't you tell us now?" Jughead was on the verge of breaking, I could tell. I looked into his eyes, trying to calm him down. He looked back, his eyes angry at first, but then slowly softening until he regained his composure.

"Exactly. I said soon. Not now. Have a good day now." He smiled coldly at us and walked away, going to make a cup of coffee. We watched him make it. He got it black. Just like his soul. He opened the door to a metal room, and in my field of vision, I saw a streak of red hair from inside. "Archie!" Jughead and Veronica strained to look but Minetta had already closed the door.

Jughead shook his head. "This is ridiculous." He scoffed. "Archie didn't kill Cassidy!"

"I know!" Veronica agreed. "Even if he has been going death-wish Archie lately, he would never actually kill someone. He might want to, but he never would be able to." I nodded my head. She sighed. "Oh, Archiekins." She said. "You're in deep water this time."

We were eventually ushered outside by the police into the rain. I sat down, resting my back on the wall. It was raining really hard, Ronnie's car was parked really far, and I didn't feel like getting wet. Jughead slumped down next to me.

"Hey," He said, his eyes gazing at me lovingly. "It's going to be alright." He put his hand on my shoulder, rubbing it.

"No, no it's not going to be alright!" I told him, shrugging his hand off my shoulder. I don't know why I was taking my anger out on Jughead; he had done nothing. "Everything is... spiraling." I started to rant. "My Dad was just arrested for being a mass murderer, Archie's being arrested, my mom's on the verge because of her long lost son, Polly's at some camp and actually forgives Dad!" The words seemed to have a mind of their own. "Veronica's Dad is trying to keep us all silent! First Archie, who's going to be next? You? Ronnie?" A single teardrop rolled down my left cheek. "I don't want to lose anybody else."

Jughead reached out for my hand and I let him take it. "All I know right now is that I am next to you, hand in hand." The corners of his mouth tilted up into a slight smile, and he wiped the tear on my cheek off with his pointer finger. "We're going to get through this."

"Hey guys, I think we should try to make it to the car now, the rain stopped." Veronica said.

I stood up. "Alright." I said, trying to shake off all of my worries. "It's almost 3:00." I said, checking my phone. I had 3 missed calls from my mom. I decided I would call her when I was in the car. She had probably heard about the Archie Thing and was worried. "We should head over to Pops."

"Good idea." Jughead agreed. The rain started drizzling again, so we quickly dashed for the car and got in. I pulled out my phone again and called my mom back.

"Mom?"

"Oh, thank God. Where are you, Elizabeth?"

"I just got out of the sheriff's station."

"Don't tell me they tried to arrest you too."

"What? No. We were trying to see Archie but they wouldn't let us." There was a pause. "I'm assuming you heard about what happened."

"Yes, and I thought we agreed that you were to come straight home when something like this happened!"

"Something like this happened? Mom, Archie just got arrested! I thought that once dad was-" I stopped. "That once the Black Hood was caught, all this madness was going to stop! I didn't think that the police were going to walk in during the middle of the National Anthem and charge Archie with murder! He's my best friend. You seriously can't expect me to not check to see if he's okay."

I heard my mom sigh on the other line. "I worry so much about you Betty. I worry that you're not going to come home when you walk out that front door. Between all these murders, it's- it's just too much. I know that you want to check on Archie, but I need you to come home. I need you." She sounded desperate.

"Ok, fine, mom. I'll tell Veronica to drive me home, ok? I'm coming." I hung up and put my phone back in my pocket.

"Home so soon?" Veronica asked, making a u-turn.

"Yeah, my mom's freaking out. Sorry I can't make it to Pops, Jug." I looked behind me to see him.

"It's fine. I would offer to come home with you, but you saw the serpents back at the school. And as their king, I have a responsibility now." He straightened his beanie as if it were his crown.

"Yeah, I get it." I looked down and chipped the pink nail polish off my nails.

"Well, I don't think I should go to the serpent meeting for obvious reasons, so I'll drop you off first, Betty." She nodded at me. "Then I'll drop Jughead off at Pops, and..." She trailed off. "Well, I don't really want to go home right now, so I guess I'll just drive around for a bit." Her gaze never faltered but something shifted in the atmosphere.

"Do you want to come to my house?" I offered.

"Yeah, actually. That would be refreshing." She smiled. "So I'll drop Jughead off first then, and then we'll both go to your house."

"Sounds good."

{-}

We reached Pops, and Jughead climbed out of the car saying goodbye and telling us to wish him luck. We did, and he swung open the front door of the chock'lit shoppe. I saw 15 pairs of eyes look at him from the window.

"Hey, thanks for letting me crash." Veronica told me. "I really don't want to face my parents right now. I can't look them in the eye without thinking of all the horrible things they've done and gone unpunished for."

"Of course! Ronnie, you can stay as long as you want. My mom might freak out, but she'll eventually allow it." I laughed, despite the grim situation.

She laughed back, and once we started, we couldn't stop. We sat there laughing like crazy people. Maybe we were. Maybe we were just crazy, broken people who needed someone to confide in and someone to tell us everything was fine. But after all,

we were just kids.