Chapter 1- Red Wine Spilled On The Duvet
It had been months since Betty left for her internship in New York. She was enjoying her break from her crazy messed up life back in Riverdale. That was until she broaded the plane back to her life. It wasn't that she didn't want to go back. It was the memories still haunting her constantly. And yes she still hadn't really recovered from the devastation her father caused. Being stalked, brainwashed and emotionally/ mentally abused can do a lot to someone. No her father never abused her physically. But that didn't matter in her eyes. He still abused her.
Many times she kept asking herself why would someone to that loved one. Was there something wrong with her? She knew she told her father that he no longer had power over her. But was that true? Did he still have power?
Over the past couple in months, Jughead visited his best friend in the jail. He hated the arrangement. His best friend, Archie Andrews doesn't belong in jail. He didn't do the crime he was accused for. He knew Archie deep down. He would never hurt a fly. Unless he was provoked.
He sat down at his desk in his room, dancing his fingers over the keyboard tapping each key with force. Betty was supposed to return today. Today marked the date in had circled hanging on the wall. Since the day she left; he kept checking off the days. He didn't want her to go. But he understood why she had to escape. He knew that this town was just too much for her. As he typed into his laptop, a sharp knock disturbed his attention and he turned his head. His father was standing in doorway with a bag of Pop's in his hand.
"I thought you could use some grub. Since you've been typing up a storm in here." Fp commented as he entered the darkened room and handed his son the bag.
Jughead snatches the bag out of his father's hand and ripped open the bag with eagerness in his hands. Fp smirked as he watches his son scruff down two burgers and then let out a belch. "Thanks I was starving." Jughead's voice was muffled by the food in his mouth. He chuckles as his son stuff his face with more fries.
He had been worried for his son for the past couple months. His son drove himself into his writing ever since Betty took off to her internship in New York. He knew what it was like to throw himself into something to avoid the pain. He had done that with Alice when she left him for Hal Cooper. It hurt him more than he could ever say out-loud. Now that Hal Cooper was behind heavy steel bars; he had his advantage. He wanted so badly to wrap his arms around her and pull her close. And now he was doing the same thing his son was doing. Avoiding her as much as he could possibly could. Avoidance has always been his vice.
Moments go by before Jughead clears his throat to break his dad's staring contest with the floor. "Dad?" Nothing broke his concentration. He decides to break away from his laptop and shutting the screen. He gets up from his chair and walks over to his dad. He taps his shoulder tightly to stir his attention back to him.
His shoulder tensed up when someone tapped his shoulder. He broke his concentration with the floor in his son's bedroom and looked by at his son's confused face. "Uh, what were you saying, Jug?" Fp shakes his head to get rid of the confusion.
Jughead smiles back and hands the empty bag back to his dad. "Betty's coming back today. And then we are all heading to Pop's. Archie said he wanted to meet with us." He shrugs his shoulders. "I guess its something important." Fp walks closer to his son and draws him into a hug.
"It's going to be okay, Boy. Hiram won't win. Everyone in town hates his guts. He sent Archie to prison for something he didn't even do." He takes a deep shaky breath before exhaling. "And he almost killed you, Jug." Jughead could hear the rawness in his father's voice. He knew his father was still struggling.
"I know..." He sighs as he pulls out of the embrace and smiles softly. "But I didn't, Dad. And I told you that the Serpents won't die under my watch." Fp tenses up again. He didn't want this for his son. But he couldn't stop him now. He'd already gave him the Serpent king title. It was too late to turn back. The damage was already done.
"I know... it just terrifies me." He says as he looks his on in the eyes. "It's been a long two months. And school is about to start." Jughead smiles at that. Junior year. Junior will hopefully be less hectic.
"I can't believe it's already junior year. And soon I will be off to college." Fp smiled happily as his son said those words. He wasn't sure if he was ready to let his only son and oldest leave for college. Luckily he still had another year left.
He walked back over to his chair and plopped down and turned his head back to his son. "Have fun, Jug." His son smiled back and said." I will." Before the door shut leaving him to think about his next obstacle he had to conquer.
Betty's flight landed a few hours ago. She was nervous to see Archie, V and Jughead. She hadn't seen them since she left. She walked into her familiar hangout with her feet clicking in heels. She had brought herself a new wardrobe while she was in New York. She was pretty sights. But nothing compared to her small town life back in Riverdale. Veronica leaped out of her seat when she spotted her best friend walk through the doorway.
"B!" She squealed as she wrapped her arms around her and held her tight against her body. She broke the embrace and smiled. "Ooh, you got tan, B!" She exclaimed as she looked down at Betty's newly tanned look.
"V! It's been a long summer hasn't it?" Betty questioned as she kissed V's cheek before greeting her boyfriend, who was standing patiently by their usual booth.
Jughead smirked as he pressed his lips into hers and smiled. "How was law, Betts?" He asked seating down next her, slinging his arms around her neck.
Betty pressed her lips with a napkin and looked around the table over at her friends."it was good. It was nice to get away from the chaos. I was the emperor state building. And went shopping of course. Who doesn't go shopping?" Veronica nodded her head and giggled.
"Right!" She exclaimed. "I do miss it there. But not as much as I missed us. Being there for each other." She sighed as her eyes dropped to the table. Archie extended his arms and pulled her in close to him.
"It's not you're fault Ronnie. It was your father's. I spent 5 weeks in jail. And that was rough." He sighed as he looked each of them in the eyes. Betty and Veronica felt the guilt buring into their hearts as they watched his eyes go dark. "After the worst summer ever,I want us to have a great, normal Labor Day Weekend." He said as he takes a sip of his milkshake.
Betty, Veronica and Jughead all nodded their heads and sat in the silence. They all agreed that having a nice and good Labor Day was all they needed before Archie's trial. They hopped into Archie new car; him and his father fixed up before he was arrested.
They drove down the road that to Sweetwater River. snorking, and soaking up the sun before junior year. They wanted to escape their miserys.
Meanwhile Alice was hibernating in the daze of her life. There were many reasons why Betty left Riverdale. One- She wanted to find a new life and not to remember her old one. And another was she harboring a huge dark and twisted secret. That nobody knew besides her and sister, Polly. To be frank Betty doesn't trust her. She was all willing to forgive their dad with no problem. Which set off red flags for her. She wanted to trust her sister. She really did. But something seemed very unusual around her family home. It isn't her family home anymore. More like an old memory, Locked away for safe keeping.
Her suspicions started to rise about a couple months back right before She left for her internship. She was racing into the backyard to tell her mother the news about earning a she arrived, She found her staring at the flower bed and strange Hippy-like clothes on her body. It should have set off red flags all down her spine, But at that time she was still comprehending on how she could've the signs her father was a serial killer. They were all laid out in front her, plain sight and right underneath her nose. She always thought of Her father as the best guy in the world. Like he wouldn't hurt a fly or let alone a human. Now all she thought about was how much of a monster he really was. How many innocent lives were destroyed by his wrongs. All the towns innocence was flushed into the sewer pipes and forgotten. Well if she was honest and truthful, that all disappeared when Jason Blossom was murdered by His own blood, His father, Clifford Blossom.
Now She was about to start her Junior Year. The most important year for college and the ACT's or The SAT's. She was just going to focus on her studies. She was dying to leave this dead town again and this time bring Jughead with her. She missed him so most while she was gone. It was so hard without him taking comfort at night when she had nightmares and now they were every night since she left his side. She didn't want to seem like the needy girlfriend that never leaves their side. But She feels like He's her safety net.
An upside brought Alice into a new light. She had her oldest daughter back and there was nothing she wanted more than that. She spent all these months locking up her walls. She blamed herself for her husband's decisions and faults. She took on the wrath and drowned her thoughts into liquor.
"Mom?" She heard someone calling her as she laid in her room with a bottle of wine in her tightly clenched hand. She ignored the voices in her head. They were shouting let me out. She just couldn't fight her own demons to even listen to her thoughts crying.
She just didn't care. She didn't care anymore. She continued to suck the bottle of its poison until she wasn't Alice Cooper. That didn't even do shit. She didn't even know who she was anymore.
When Betty finally returned, She still had the bottle in her hand. Betty toughens her arms as she snatches the Glass from her mother's death grip. Alice growls as the glass was pried from her fingers and her eyes turn the color of fire. "Get out!" She shouts as she throws pillows off her bed and the bottle of red wine spills on her cream white Duvet sheets.
Crashes echo in Betty's ears as she shuts her mother's door and regrets returning to the empty mess she used to call home. She wants everything to return to back to normal. Her father being her dad again. Her mother being her mom again. Polly being a normal sister and not a crazy Cult product. Her life would be so much easier. She wouldn't have to deal with her mother's drunken blackouts. It would be almost normal again.
She exits the house and sits down on her foreign steps and looks up at the stars. As a tear slid down her cheek, she swipes it away and stares into that star like its her lifeline. She has to make it out. She left for her internship to escape her mother's drinking problem. It started the night she found about Chic wasn't her son and her real son was dead. It only increases when she learns Hal's a serial Killer. Betty knows her mother is just stuck. This isn't her mother. And she hopes to find where her real mother has disappeared to.
The next Morning, Alice awakes to empty house. She travels downstairs and grabs another expensive bottle of Red wine and pops the cork. She devours the first three swallows in less than twenty minutes before she heads back to her marital bed and falls into a deep sorrow as she looks at old wedding photos and makes a scrapbook. She doesn't expect to see Betty at the house. She knew that the damage was done. There was no fixing the destruction. It had been torn by the bottle. She focused her thought into red wine and she was completely fine with that.
Dozens food baskets were set down on her kitchen counter. She plucked the cards and didn't read them. She just threw them in the trash and opens the basket to seen another red liquid bottle in her reach. She pops the cork again and lets the red juice slide down her throat like cough syrup. The burning didn't stop her. It only triggered her thoughts to scream but she didn't care. It wouldn't be long until Alice was no longer a person without the bottle gripped to her hand or pressed to her lips.
Nobody knew what was going on. No one suspected there was anything wrong. Betty wouldn't tell a soul. It stayed buried underneath all the pain she kept locked up inside. Nobody had the key to unlock the tortures of her reality.