"This has to work, or I am totally screwed." Betty whispered to herself as she initiated her plan of escape from this prison of inhumane biblical torture. She sat in an armchair by the window, away from where the rest of the kids including Ethel were playing a game of Gryphons and Gargoyles. She was so invested in their game that it had been nearly an hour since Betty had received a hateful glare from Ethel.
Betty pulled her burgundy cardigan closer around her shoulders. There was a chill in the air and she felt a sense of dread building within her chest as the time to initiate her plan of escape drew closer. She wished Jughead were here with her or that he at least knew where she was and would be waiting for her when she escaped. But Betty knew that she was on her own. The only person that knew she was here was her mother who ran off to the Farm, committed to the idea that her daughter would be safe with the Sisters.
"Betty why don't you come play with us? We are having so much fun you should join! I promise it will help you feel better, and the Sisters say that whoever plays the best will get extra candy!" One of the girls playing G&G said.
Looking over at the game of Gryphons and Gargoyles going on nearby Betty's heart filled with worry. All of these kids were deep in the drug induced hallucination caused by the 'candy' they all so thoroughly enjoyed. She felt responsible for them, being the only person that knew the extent of the mistreatment and experimentation going on within the walls of this old and secretive organization.
"No thanks, I actually have to go to the bathroom, but maybe when I get back." Betty replied.
"What? Is the great Betty Cooper too good to play a simple game with us? This is just Riverdale high all over again. The King says that this is part of how we honor him, and you Betty are as dishonorable as they come. The King told me so himself." Ethel said, sneering at Betty from across the room.
"Well then the King must like you very much. Maybe you can honor him enough for the both of us" Betty said. It was difficult for her to take the sarcasm out of her voice as she said it and Ethel's frown got even deeper somehow.
"I'm not going to help you Betty. Not after how you and your friends have treated me and my friends for our whole lives." Ethel spat back.
"Sounds great Ethel, keep up the good work" Said Betty, standing to leave.
Ethel seemed to quit because she turned back to her game without another glance at Betty as she walked past the zombified kids. She was being sure to keep calm and to head in what at least appeared to be the direction of the bathroom in case anyone happened to wonder where she was going.
She walked as normally and calmly as she could, trying to copy the slow and detached gait of a normal resident of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Since she had arrived, Betty had been doing nothing but doing her best to fit in with the other girls, gather her intel, and get out unscathed. Tonight she would finally be able to escape with enough evidence to figure out how to take down Hiram Lodge. Damn her irrational mother for putting her, however unknowingly, in the one place that she needed to be for the sake of investigation, but also desperately needed to leave before she became one of the fizzle rocks addicted G&G zombies.
Riverdale had been successfully isolated, and in the process Hiram Lodge had managed to isolate Betty and her friends from each other. Nobody knew where she had gone, and despite her best efforts, there had not been any way to get a message out to any of them. Last she heard Jughead was gone, running off with Archie to help keep him safe. She had no idea what had happened to Veronica since the quarantine. She hoped they were all safe, and not trapped in the lion's den like she was.
Thinking mostly of her friends as a distraction, Betty continued down the linoleum tiled hallway of the sisters, and towards and lesser used door leading to the basement. It was locked, but after a moment of digging, Betty pulled the single paper clip she had managed to acquire out of her pocket and stuck it into the lock on the door.
The town's quarantine had lead many people to do crazy things, her mother being of the most notable. Tossing her into this place was the biggest mistake she could have made. Betty knew her mother had good intentions and a weird affinity for a place that's known to torment children. But it still felt cruel to be there for her 'safety' when this was in fact probably one of the least safe places for Riverdale's troubled youth who were unknowingly being turned into Mr. Lodge's lab rats.
Finally, the lock clicked into place and Betty opened the door just wide enough to slip in beyond it, shutting it quietly, and making sure to lock it again behind her. It would not stop sister Woodhouse from coming after her but a few extra seconds could be all she needed to ensure her escape, and she needed to escape.
Betty's mind raced through the volumes of critical information that she had learned while inside the Sisters. There was so much she needed to tell Jughead and Veronica. Together they could use the information to destroy Mr. Lodge's hold over Riverdale. In her mind, this information meant everything, and she ran like her life depended on it. But, what the rest of Riverdale didn't know was that their lives depended on it too. Nobody was aware that their fate and the rest of their town's fate, was in the hands of a young blonde woman running for her life with essential missing pieces of information to help save Riverdale.
Betty could feel the change in the air inside of the damp basement as she slipped quietly behind the service door leading down to the catacombs. She sprinted for the door marked with an 'X' in the basement of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. It was the very same door that was used to break Cheryl out.
"Finally I can get the hell out of here" Betty said as she practically slammed her body against the door coming to a hard stop from her sprint.
No way in hell was she going to let that evil man get away with taking over all of Riverdale, on top of using teenagers as lab rats. It was even colder down here, and she wished she had more than just her sweater from the Sister's to keep her warm on the way home.
Betty grasped the door handle and almost let out a sigh of relief when the old door pulled open easily, but it was not the passageway to freedom that her whole plan had hinged on. A new cinderblock wall had been built right where the doorway was. Apparently, the Sister's had found the escape hatch.
She stared wide eyed at the brick wall where the tunnel entrance was, slamming her fist into it in frustration.
"This can't be happening" She said through clenched teeth.
Now in a panic, Betty began trying to think of a plan B. Her breath started to come in shallower gasps as she realized she had no plan B. This was the only way out any of them had known of. She was more worried than ever about staying here as long as the Sisters were going to use her and all the other girls as Hiram's guinea pigs. There had to be another way, she needed to get help and get out of here before they caught on to the fact that she was still lucid. Betty slammed her palm into the stone wall blocking her tunnel to freedom one last time before turning around to move on.
When she did turn around, Betty was startled when she came face to face with Sister Woodhouse backed by two of the biggest male orderlies she had yet to see. Sister Woodhouse's expression was blank, and she simply stared at Betty with her ice cold and unfeeling eyes.
"We had that sealed for the safety of the patients miss Cooper. We wouldn't want to let you out of here before our work is complete." The nun's face slowly contorted into a sadistic smile as she spoke. "Now Elizabeth, you must be quite terrified to be down here all on your own. Why don't you have some candy and we can take you back upstairs where it is safe and warm. I'm sure the King will want to know why you are down here, trying to leave the safety that we have provided here for people like you. Clearly, he has yet to reach you like he has the other girls." Sister Woodhouse gestured to one of the orderlies who pulled a small paper cup out from behind his back.
"Don't worry Elizabeth; we are going to make you all better. We hoped that bunking you with your friend Ethel would help. She has been a lovely addition to our home and we thought she might help you to adjust to how we do things here. Turns out she was right, and you and your meddlesome ways need to be dealt with more aggressively" Sister Woodhouse said, retrieving the cup.
"What are you doing?" Betty was horrified as the two large orderlies came forward and grabbed her.
"Don't touch me, I just got lost I didn't know how to get back upstairs!" Betty yelled desperately playing innocent.
It didn't work, and the orderlies pinned her roughly back against the wall. She tried to fight, but she was no match for the men who were at least two or three times her size. They held her so tightly that she could almost feel the hand shaped bruises appearing on her upper arms.
"This is insane! You can't do this!" Betty shouted, as Sister Woodhouse took a step towards her with the cup full of drugs in her hand.
The nun rattled the fizzle rocks around in the cup, and said, "Oh dear Elizabeth, looks like you haven't been taking your candy. If you're going to get better, you need to do as you are told. Otherwise, I will personally make sure that nobody will hear you scream. Well, other than the King of course."
Betty sealed her lips shut, as the paper cup full of fizzle rocks was shoved up to her mouth. She was determined not to ingest any of Hiram Lodge's poison, but before she knew it, her mouth was forced open by a large sweaty man's hand, one of the orderlies, and then she tasted the sweet fizz of the drug laced candy. The same sweaty palm covered her mouth and nose so she couldn't breathe.
"Swallow it or suffocate." A man's voice growled into her ear.
Betty swallowed, the hand left her face, and she drew in a ragged breath of air. A sense of defeat was creeping into her mind; this was the worst possible turn of events.
The orderlies began to pull her away from the wall, and as the drugs took over she found herself falling forwards. They must have given her a larger dose because she didn't remember feeling like she was floating and the limpness in her body was a new reaction as well. She sank into the grasp of the orderlies who began dragging her back down the hallway, and deeper into the den of evil.
"The new drugs seem to be working exactly as expected. Take her to see the King" Sister Woodhouse ordered walking behind the orderlies and her new experiment.
They reached an old looking wooden door leading to an ornately decorated chamber that resembled an entranceway to a chapel. Even with the drugs coursing through her body Betty knew that this was definitely not a chapel she wanted to enter.
The larger orderly spoke, "I hope you enjoy your audience with your King, Miss. He will be sure to teach you obedience. It's not safe for young women like you to be running around in the streets with a serial killer, or probably several serial killers. Not to mention the gangs running around town."
Chuckling, the man reached with the arm not holding onto Betty and pulled open one of the large wooden doors. Betty tried to fight but she was no match for both of the orderlies who easily tossed the increasingly incoherent girl ono the stone floor beyond the doorway.
She fell to the ground hard, her limp body was not cooperative as she tried to break her fall and she hit the ground shoulder first. Pain exploded down her arm and across her back as Betty lay there, trying to catch her breath and gather her thoughts that were only getting increasingly muddled by the drugs and the pain.
"Hello Elizabeth, come to share your darkness with your King? I'm quite certain that I could put someone like you to good use." A low and inhuman voice said from somewhere behind her further in the room.
Betty had landed facing the door, lying on her side she struggled to roll onto her back to see who was speaking to her. Finally when she was able to see, Betty looked up horrified to see a creature of nightmares. A large winged beast was perched before her on a raised pedestal. Its eyes glowed yellow, and it loomed over her with a sneer on its grotesque face. It was the actual Gargoyle King. Not Hiram Lodge, but an actual creature, here at the Sister's. He was real, and she was trapped inside his lair and at his mercy until her human captors decided she had suffered enough of his wrath to obey.