It only took two days of bed rest for Betty to start truly understanding the phrase "stir crazy".

It's not that she'd never felt stir crazy before - she'd had ADHD as a child, after all, and even in her teen years she was still taking Adderall; but back then she'd had methods of keeping herself occupied and her mind stimulated so that she wasn't practically bouncing off the walls.

Being told she had to do nothing for the rest of the week… well, it was proving to be a little challenging.

A few hours after Betty returned home, Veronica texted her a simple: are you okay? It took Betty by surprise, but she came to the conclusion that Cheryl had told Veronica that Betty was in hospital. Betty's heart fluttered with nervous anticipation as she responded: I'm okay, thanks for asking 3 I'm on bed rest until Sunday, and our parents know about the baby. How are you doing? Can I call you?

Betty was hurt by Veronica's lack of response. It would have stung less if her best friend had merely replied with 'K'. But despite the silence, Betty tried to remain optimistic; at least Veronica had messaged her at all.

The first day back home, honestly, was bliss. She used her doctor-ordered excuse to stay in her room and ignore most of the world. She could lay down, guilt-free, and catch up on all the Netflix series she'd missed thanks to the hectic mess of Senior Year - and she was so exhausted that she felt herself genuinely relaxing.

Polly visited her; it was the first time since the house was sold to the Jones family that Polly had been inside the old Cooper home, and she noted the stark differences between FP's and their Mom's decorative styles. As the sisters laid on Betty's bed, Betty felt déjà-vu as she recalled being in a similar position a few years earlier - only with Polly being the pregnant sister instead.

"I know everything is scary right now, Betty." Polly had said. "Trust me, I get it. But that means I also know you'll get through this."

Betty was relieved to have her big sister to rely on to answer pregnancy related questions. And Polly had plenty of advice for her; some of it made Betty internally cringe, such as the tips she'd received from women at The Farm, but Betty tried not to let it show on her face. She was happy to hear, for example, that rubbing cocoa-butter on her abdomen would prevent stretch marks, and putting cabbage leaves in her bra could help her with post-birth breastfeeding pains (she of course did her own research after Polly left to make sure it wasn't all cult-mysticism).

During her visit, Polly gave Betty some shocking news about the twins that gave Betty a lot to consider…

"What do you mean the twins don't have birth certificates?!" Betty gasped in horror.

Polly nodded, a frown forming on her face. "Well, with home births usually the Midwife will register the birth, or the parents will if there was no assistance… but I gave birth at the Farm with Evelyn's help. Edgar convinced me that it would be better if I didn't register the twins, because that way child protective services wouldn't try and take them off me, being a runaway teen mom and all…"

"And it would make it easier for him to 'adopt' them if the twins didn't legally exist, no doubt." Betty said sarcastically.

Polly contemplated Betty's words. "Possibly… he did always insist that he would sort out their birth certificates for me. But he was going to list himself as their father and Evelyn as their mother… and I was fine with that. I was even fine when he convinced me to give Dagwood to Penelope to keep her from interfering legally… "

Polly went pale for a moment and her words trailed off. Betty wondered if she was coming to some kind of startling realisation about her time at the farm.

"The twins are okay now, Pol… they're safe with you, and with Cheryl, and Edgar never did get to adopt them." Betty said, the relief that this was the case taking over her senses.

"You know…" Polly said as she looked down at the bed. "I really thought I was doing the right thing by my kids." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Betty rubbed her sister's shoulder. "Of course you were… There's no rule book telling you what the right thing to do is." Betty decided not to bring up the numerous parenting books and journal articles on cults that were available on the internet; truthfully, worrying that you were doing the right thing by your child was something Betty could relate to.

"Dagwood sometimes calls himself Jason, did you know that?" Polly said, interrupting Betty's train of thought.

Betty frowned. "I have heard him say that once or twice… I thought he was just confused because he also talked about Jason being his father."

Polly shook her head. "It's because while Penelope had him she was calling him that exclusively…" her eyes hardened. "And I recently found out that Penelope was living inside the walls at Thistlehouse, and talking to Dagwood, calling him Jason and telling him all sorts of 'wonderful' stories about the Blossom's incestuously murderous history. He asked me a few days ago when "Grandmother" would come back to visit him."

"I'm sorry, she what?!" Betty sat up straighter. She winced as she felt a twinge in her ribs.

Polly's cheeks flushed. "Yep. Cheryl neglected to mention it to anyone. Oh, and get this - Penelope is not 'missing', as we all thought. She's working at the Maple Club!"

Betty's mouth dropped open in shock. "How could Cheryl have kept that to herself?"

"Not just Cheryl. Toni and Veronica, too."

Betty couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That psychopath was living inside the walls, had access to the twins, and they never mentioned it to you?! She's living freely in Riverdale when she should be locked up!"

"Well, actually. Toni has a tracking device on her to stop her from leaving the Maple Club."

"Oh well that makes it all better." Betty's nostrils flared.

"My kids were also living with Jason's dead body." Polly said flatly. "I don't think they fully comprehend what that means, but they remember him being in a wheelchair at the dining room table."

Betty had no idea how to feel about that. "That is… so unhinged." Betty needed a moment to process what Polly was saying. "We did give Jason a send off in Sweetwater River earlier this year… but I had no idea they were keeping Jason's body in the house with the twins!"

"Yes, well." Polly took a deep breath before she continued. "I will forever be grateful to Cheryl for what she's done for my children, and I'll never be able to repay her. But finding all this out… it's just made me realise that I need to pull myself together and be the stable parent my kids need. I'm going to start by trying to appeal to the courts to give the twins birth certificates. If I don't they won't even have social security numbers. And having kids that don't legally exist… it would make it very hard to track them down if someone took them when there's no paper trail."

Betty considered the fact that the recent abduction of several teenagers may have been the trigger for Polly to make that connection.

As it was, Polly had fear in her eyes as she continued: "I can't have Penelope Blossom getting anywhere near my children again."

Betty nodded. "We can tell Sheriff Keller where she is right now if you want." Betty reached out to pick her phone up off the nightstand, but Polly stopped her.

"No." She shook her head.

"Are you kidding me? Do you know what that woman has done? Polly she killed…" our dad, Betty wanted to say, but the words wouldn't come out. "She's an actual serial killer, Polly. We can't just let her roam free!"

"She isn't free." Polly said firmly. "She is locked up. It might not be a jail cell… but she's not going anywhere, Betty. After a very lengthy, heated discussion with Cheryl and Toni last night I have eventually come to terms with their choices, and honestly - if we turn Penelope in we would be turning in Cheryl, Toni, and Veronica. Is that what you want?"

Betty's heart was racing with fear and anger. "No… yes? No. I don't know. I just… this is insanity, Pol."

Polly smirked, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I know insanity, Betty. This is just… no, you're right. That is pretty crazy." Polly let out a humourless laugh. "You know what's ironic? I didn't even pick Juniper and Dagwood as the twins' names. Edgar told me he had a dream that foretold the coming of great twins who would one day lead the Farm, and so he convinced me to name them after those twins as a 'fulfilment' of the prophecy."

"Geez, Pol."

"I know." Polly rolled her eyes. "I wanted to call them Jason and Elizabeth Blossom. So really, I can't blame Dagwood for calling himself that."

"Aww, really Polly? You wanted to name one of them after me?" Betty felt her heart swelling.

Polly smiled. "Well yeah… you're one of my favourite people."

Tears welled up in Betty's eyes. "You're gonna make me cry."

"Let's change the subject then. I'm getting a little emotional myself." She gave her sister a small smile. "Have you and Jughead worked out your birth plan?"

"Um, not really…" there was a lot that Betty had been avoiding; besides, she still had four months left to figure it all out. "Yale has a teaching hospital, and it has birthing suites…" Searching for the hospital was as far as Betty got, honestly, because as she went through the website for New Haven Hospital, all of the medical terminology and options for giving birth had started to overwhelm her.

Alice walked into the room with a fresh round of orange juice for the sisters, just as Polly was in the process of saying: "To be honest, Betty, I highly recommend a home birth. At the Farm when I had the twins I felt so close to nature, and had total control over my own labour; no drugs, or uncomfortable positions or angry doctors around to disturb the peace of my own incoming motherhood…"

Later, after Alice had returned from dropping Polly back at Thistlehouse, she calmly walked into Betty and Jughead's room and, in no uncertain terms, told Betty that if she didn't want to put her mother in an early grave she would be giving birth in a hospital.

Betty wasn't about to argue about that.

…..

Jughead was being extra affectionate towards her upon her return home, which Betty would never complain about. He rubbed circles into her hands, and fiddled with pieces of her hair, and still wrapped his arms around her at night. He stayed as a steady force of comfort over her period of bed rest, and she felt grateful again that she had him by her side.

Pop was understanding, as she'd expected, and had assured her there were enough workers looking for extra shifts that she didn't have to worry about missing work the rest of the week.

She'd been slightly worried about Elio's reaction when she called him and let him know she couldn't come in that week. She didn't know him well, and he had a dangerous edge to his personality that sometimes rubbed Betty the wrong way; but he was understanding, and pointed out that the faster she obeyed her doctor's orders the faster she could come back.

"Truthfully, Betty," Elio had said on their phone call, his voice raised above the background noise of the Hoe Zone, "you have more brain cells than the rest of my waitresses combined. You're way too smart to be working for me, so I'd be an idiot if I punished you for needing time off. Please just look after that pretty little head of yours so you can come back next week as good as new!"

A tad extra, in Betty's opinion, but an appreciated gesture none-the-less. She only hoped when he found out she was pregnant that he'd be just as understanding…

And so she allowed herself to rest and relax, and tried not to roll her eyes when Alice fussed over her. Alice hadn't asked her for too many details about her pregnancy, other than to make sure she was taking prenatal vitamins and check when her next appointment was.

Betty hadn't seen FP yet, but from the frown on Jellybean's face when Betty asked about him, she could guess he was still mad at Jughead. Betty decided she wouldn't add fuel to fire and determinedly avoided bringing up FP's reaction with the Jones siblings, and instead let them entertain her with their banter.

But after the second night of being confined to the comfort of her room, Betty found that she was itching for something to do. Anything she could get her hands into. Even just a different view to look at, since she'd already counted every flower on her wallpaper.

Given how nervy he'd become about the topic, Betty didn't want to bring up the sex tapes with Jughead just yet. But as one of her Netflix shows became background noise, she decided to use her free time to write down her thoughts and ideas in her notebook; she opened to her list of "locker" suspects and scanned them once more, before she sighed and flipped open a fresh page.

Me and Jughead might have a stalker, she wrote. A cold shiver ran through Betty's body. No, there was no evidence of a stalker… just someone who liked to take photos and videos of them having sex… more of a voyeur. She crossed out the first sentence. There's a voyeur targeting me and Jughead. That was more accurate.

The voyeur knows me and Jughead, Betty continued. Of that, she was certain. There was no way someone had picked the two of them at random, multiple times, as the subjects of intimate videos. No, this had to have been planned.

This voyeur had access to Jughead's laptop. Well, Brett and Donna were the obvious suspects in that case. Betty frowned; Joan and Johnathan were involved in the whole ordeal too… perhaps expanding her range of suspects would be beneficial…

Someone called the FBI to tell them about the first video. That someone had to have known Betty was underage in the Stonewall tape. Was it the same person who posted it? Probably, but that would depend on how widespread it was within the hours it was initially uploaded. She'd need to ask Charles for more details…

Someone framed Jughead. That was the most disturbing fact, in Betty's opinion. They'd made a profile in his name on a pornographic website, and posted the video from his laptop.

Someone wants to ruin my reputation. She paused as she re-read the notes. If that was their intention, they'd succeeded.

Previously, she'd barely even had a reputation from a sexual standpoint. Crazy? Sure. Serial Killer Potential? Definitely. But Slutty? They were so discreet (and cutesy, as Kevin described their minimal PDA) with their affections in public, that people seemed to not even know her and Jughead were having sex in the first place before the Stonewall video came out. Fair, since they were still in High School at the time, and not all high schoolers had nearly as much sex as they pretended to. But now… people she didn't even know seemed to recognise her, and she'd been propositioned by more than one man since the video was released.

She knew it angered Jughead that it was her reputation that was now so damaged, even though he was equally as naked on camera, equally as having sex in an internet video, and equally as involved in this 'scandal' as she was. Betty idly twisted his silver ring around on her middle finger as she considered her now 'ruined' reputation. She didn't really care what everyone thought of her, because a person's promiscuousness shouldn't even be an issue. She could have slept with the entire football team and not have felt any different about herself.

She really just hated what it was doing to Jughead; he was struggling with the small-town publicity, struggling with his personal life being exposed, and struggling with how violating this video had been. And honestly, she couldn't blame him for being so spooked, what with him nearly being arrested and all…

Betty paused, considered Jughead's near-arrest and stared back down at her notes. Her eyes widened, and she jolted in realisation.

Someone wants to ruin Jughead's reputation.

She drew a tiny star next to the theory. If Jughead had been charged with distributing child porn… Betty thought, feeling cold as she made the connections. If this had gone according to plan, then Jughead would be a sex offender… he'd be on a registry, he'd be kicked out of Yale, he'd never be able to take their baby to school, he wouldn't be able to get a decent job, no company would ever publish his novels, he'd probably get beaten up in jail, or worse…

Sure, this tape may have ruined Betty's reputation in their small town, and for all she knew the tape was going to haunt her forever. But this tape had almost ruined Jughead's life. His life.

Betty felt fury clawing its way up into her chest, and winced as her body tensed up. She took a few calming breaths to rid herself of some of the tension; it was causing pain in her bruised ribs, so getting angry would be counterproductive. She was on the cusp of something massive here, she could feel it… she'd just need to consolidate her discoveries with Jughead.

She wrote down a few more notes - she was reasonably convinced, for instance, that the person who uploaded the first tape from Jughead's stolen laptop was not the same person who had sticky taped screenshots of said tape to her locker. The Uploader had a vendetta against Jughead, but the Locker-Fiend seemed to have a grudge against Betty.

But, whoever The Voyeur was that had filmed them at Lover's Lane, and in their bedroom, could have been the same person, and could also have been the same person as the Locker-Fiend. Or, perhaps, one of them could know the Locker-Fiend.

Her head was starting to hurt, so she put her notebook away for the time being.

There was going to be hell to pay for all of this.

….

Unfortunately, Betty couldn't confront anyone while she was on bed rest, so she eventually relaxed and lulled herself back into a state of boredom.

By the evening she was bored enough that when she opened her RIVW phone app to tune in to her mother's 5pm report, she found herself perusing the social media accounts of one of the missing girls from Centerville.

"...exclusive interview with the best friend of April Lambert, who describes her as loyal, outgoing and bubbly…" Alice's voice became background noise as Betty scrolled through April Lambert's facebook page.

She had striking blue eyes and a friendly smile. Her brown hair was down around her shoulders in her profile photo as she looked up at the rather handsome-looking boy next to her. A few worried friends had tagged her in posts requesting that people call the police if they had any information; her little brother was missing his best friend…

Betty frowned as she searched for another of the missing girls.

Parvati Dasgupta (if Betty had found the correct facebook page) had no photos of herself other than the few group photos she'd been tagged in at larger events. Her profile was a black cat (maybe her own?) wearing a little sombrero, and her cover photo was an artistic snapshot of Sweetwater River.

"... has still been no reported sightings of the missing teenagers, and Sheriff Lansdown has stated the curfew will continue…" Alice's voice drifted in and out of Betty's awareness.

She tried to search for Ellen Ellison, but the girl seemed not to have a profile. Betty searched the RIVW website to check if she'd found the correct spelling, frowned, and decided if she did have facebook, it must be private or under a fake name. She was in foster care, so maybe there were custody or family issues that prevented her from having social media. No photos of the girl were posted by the RIVW…

She typed in the search bar 'Eliza Ellison-Mates', the name of the girl's also-missing younger sister, but was unsuccessful. Hmm… Betty thought, I wonder if I try… she tried searching for Eliza Mates and changed the location to Riverdale, and found a possible result. There you are, thought Betty triumphantly.

Liz Mates seemed to fit the description. Her profile photo was one of two girls, both with honey blonde hair and deep brown eyes pulling the typical pouty-lipped expression some girls did in selfies. Betty flicked back to RIVW's website to check their ages. Fifteen and fourteen. She flicked back to facebook and scanned the girls' faces again on the display photo. They seemed to fit the age bracket…

Betty scanned Eliza's profile in search of something. She noted the girl had "live, laugh, love" and no less than six emojis in her bio, and she was also a student at South Side Elementary and Middle School. As Betty continued to scroll down the page, something, indeed, caught her eye.

*1 Mutual Friend*

Heart racing, Betty clicked Eliza's friends list. Everyone else on the list was hidden, hinting again at the Ellison sisters' possible need for privacy. But Betty was still able to view their one mutual friend:

JB Jones.

Betty found herself frowning again. Jellybean had never mentioned this girl while the missing person's reports were coasting the media, so she mustn't be a good friend… then again, Jellybean rarely mentioned friends at all, unless they'd done something to annoy her. She seemed to be a bit more social than Jughead, and by all means she was certainly more talkative, but Betty did note that at times Jellybean could shy away from people she wasn't close to - and spent a lot of time on games like Minecraft rather than hanging out with people in person.

Betty considered that maybe she was wrong about the missing girl's identity, or that Jellybean didn't know that Liz Mates was the missing Eliza Ellison-Mates. But as she investigated further she realised a few other younger teens had commented on Eliza's profile photos with messages like "dude were r u" and "can you plz call me back? this isn't funny anymore".

One friend had, interestingly, written: "You finally did it! I'm so proud of you! Those monsters don't deserve to breathe the same air as you or Ellie. Fuck the system!"

Curiouser and curiouser, Betty thought. She was well and truly down the rabbit hole now, and was about to look more into some of the friends of Eliza/Liz, when she sensed movement out of the corner of her eye. She tore her gaze away from her MacBook and looked up towards the doorway.

Jughead walked inside, his beanie halfway-askew and an unopened parcel in his arms. "Hey you." He said casually, smiling at Betty as he made his way to his side of the bed and put the parcel and his beanie on his nightstand. He sat down to start unlacing his boots. "Did you finish that unsolved murders show you were watching?"

Betty managed to laugh and groan at the same time. "It was too gruesome, Jug. I had to turn that one off." She admitted, thinking about her unsuccessful attempt to get through Case Files. She turned down the volume on her phone so that the news report became a quiet background noise. "There was this one episode about a baby… it was so messed up, Juggie. They actually showed the charred body and it got too much for me." Betty sighed. She usually had a strong stomach when it came to TV gore, but the case involving an adopted baby hit too close to home, and she didn't want to bring the nausea back. Her stomach had only just settled from all the IV fluids the hospital pumped through her.

Jughead reached out and rubbed her hand. "That's all good, maybe we can watch it next year…" he suggested.

"Sounds good to me." She smiled and put her MacBook aside. "What's with the box?" She asked, indicating to the parcel.

Jughead smirked as he placed it on the bed next to her. "I ordered some light reading." He joked, then proceeded to open the package. He pulled out no less than five books.

"Light. Yeah, for you I guess." She laughed at the grin on Jughead's face. "Wait, are these…"

"Baby books." Jughead said, his cheeks turning a little pink. "Well, actually, this one is a pregnancy book, and that one with the blue cover is a 'fatherhood' book, but they were all from the baby section of Glamazon…" he started to stack the books on top of each other.

Betty smiled at him. "You're being very proactive." She watched as he placed the pile back on top of his nightstand.

"Well, I did promise you I would be." He dumped the now-empty parcel paper in the waste paper basket under their desk and then unceremoniously flopped down onto the bed next to her.

Betty leaned over and planted a kiss on the side of Jughead's face then went back to her facebook investigation. "Hey, do you know this girl?" She turned her MacBook towards Jughead.

Jughead shifted and sat up with his legs crossed. "Liz Mates… hmm, no… why?" He asked, giving Betty a confused look.

Betty huffed, and pulled the screen back towards her. "She's friends with JB on facebook… she's Eliza Ellison-Mates, one of the girls who went missing in Riverdale. I think the other girl in this photo is her sister Ellen."

Jughead looked over the profile again. "She doesn't really ring a bell… maybe she's one of those people you just add because they're friends with your friends and you see them at parties?"

"JB doesn't really seem like much of a partier." Betty said, still flicking through the visible photos on Eliza's account.

"Maybe they go to school together?"

"Nope. Liz goes to school on the South Side."

"Hmm…" Jughead ran a hand through his hair as he thought. "JB has had facebook for a long time. Since she was like nine, to be honest. Maybe… maybe Liz used to go to Riverdale Elementary with JB?" Jughead shuffled closer to Betty. "Why are you so invested with this, anyway? It sounds like those two girls ran away from their foster carers, which is sad, obviously… but it's not unheard of. I mean," he picked at the stray thread on the bedspread. "I would know… since I did it too…"

Betty smiled sadly at him and rubbed his thigh. She felt his muscles stiffen under her fingers, so removed her hand quickly. "It's just… it's weird, right? How can these girls have just vanished?" Betty sat up straighter, being mindful of moving too fast and not hurting her already-sore ribs. "I mean, maybe Ellen and Eliza's disappearances really aren't connected to the girls in Centerville. Maybe they just ran off to find their biological parents. Their foster parents were arrested, after all… if they were abusive, the girls could have just wanted to get away. One of their friend's comments makes it sound that way, now that I think about it."

"They could have tried to cross the border into Canada… if they had a boat, it is possible…" Jughead looked at Betty's computer screen. "I'll go ask JB how she knows her. You've got me curious, now." Jughead said, starting to leave the bed.

Betty quickly grabbed his hand to stop him. "She went to her friend's house."

Jughead settled back on the bed, and his eyebrows furrowed. "You know who might know for sure?" Jughead asked, turning his head towards the window that faced the Andrews' house. "Archie…"

Betty followed Jughead's line of sight. "Archie? Why, because he has kids their age coming through the Center?"

Jughead shook his head. "I mean, partly. But mainly because he's the one who reported the girls missing."

"What?!"

Jughead nodded and turned back to face Betty. "Yeah, I thought you knew… in one of your mom's reports last week she mentioned that the director of Andrews' Community Center reported them missing. Well, Archie is the director."

The memory of the news report flooded back into Betty's mind. "Wait, you're right. I do remember that." Betty groaned. "My brain is all over the place these days."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up. You're dealing with a lot." Jughead said kindly. He wrapped an arm behind her shoulders. "Besides, we haven't really talked about it much but it's a hot conversation with the Serpents. The ones who are deputies now are all getting involved in the missing persons' case, since they're all from the South Side and know the area. Fangs and Jinx spent the better part of their week searching places off the walking tracks for the sisters in Fox Forest."

Betty leaned her head against Jughead's shoulder. "Okay, but why the forest? The Centerville Sheriff seems to be focused on Frigid Forest. That's the one that connects to Fox Forest, right?"

Jughead nodded. "Aside from the streams that run off from Sweetwater River and create the mild degrees of separation, they're basically connected." Jughead thought about it for a moment. "Dad was pretty worked up about the forest too. My guess would be the girls in Centerville all went missing in or near Frigid Forest, so now Sheriff Keller is being cautious about Fox Forest. No-one really seems certain of how Ellen and Eliza disappeared though… sounds like their foster parents might have had something to do with it."

Feeling a little crestfallen, Betty merely nodded and sunk further into his arm. They remained like that for a few minutes, and Betty considered asking Jughead if they should try looking more into these disappearances, when an ear-piercing, shrill sound echoed out of Betty and Jughead's phone's simultaneously.

"What the - oh." Jughead said, muting the sound. "It's an Amber alert." He rubbed his eyes and unlocked his phone.

Betty snatched her own phone up off her bed and muted the alert. "For Riverdale?" She asked. As she went back to the RIVW app with the intention of closing it, she paused and realised a new face was now on the screen. It was a younger girl, maybe about Jellybean's age, smiling brightly in what looked like a school photo.

Alice's voice had been replaced by Sheriff Keller's. "...the first few hours are crucial. An eye witness to the abduction is currently…"

"Betty, look. " Jughead said, turning his own phone towards her.

Betty took a closer look at the Amber alert on Jughead's phone. "Red van? Well that won't be easy to hide…" she paused as she read the name of the missing child. "Thirteen year old girl—Carla Clayton? Wait… isn't that…"

Jughead stiffened and turned towards her. "Chuck Clayton's sister."

The disturbingly wonderful thing about teenagers, is that there is a consistency to their chaos.

For example, if the local law enforcement bans people from entering a place, then instantly that place becomes the most exciting dwelling or area that the child can imagine escaping to.

So when Sheriff Keller announced that Fox Forest was off limits at night until further notice… he should have known that the forest would only become more exciting for the young teens of Riverdale.

Jellybean hadn't set out to disobey her father's request that she stay out of the forest. Truly, she had always found it creepy, and after the Griffins and Gargoyle's fiasco, she'd been in no hurry to go anywhere near them.

But then Ricky had sent her a DM on instagram, and she was genuinely thrilled to hear from him. He used to be her best friend, the only one who could understand what it was like to have crazy, absent parents, and who made the most effort to get to know the real her. Without Ricky to secretly message while at school (her phone discreetly hidden in her pencil case at all times), she was forced to deal with the dramatic teenage girls and imbecile male species.

The kids she'd become friends with from the South Side were alright - in any case, they cared far less about the ridiculously exaggerated reality tv shows than the girls she sat with at lunch. But she didn't know the South Side kids well enough to strike up an active friendship, and besides, they went to a different school - it would never work out.

So to say she was excited to meet up with Ricky was, therefore, rather a large understatement.

Not that she'd tell him that, of course. She had her cool reputation to uphold.

Jellybean leaned against the wall of the comic book store on the South Side. The sun was shining brightly, but a cool breeze counteracted most of the heat. Jellybean could smell the roasting coffee beans wafting out from the dingy looking cafe next door, and was tempted to change their meeting destination, when a voice alerted her to the presence of another person on her right.

"Princess Jellybean." Ricky's voice was slightly deeper than she remembered, and he wore a cheeky smirk on his face. He still had that boyish look about him, but he was gaining in height, and it was possible that if she stood right next to him he would be taller than her.

Jellybean smiled brightly. "Nerd. No one uses their G&G names anymore. That's so last year." She pushed off the wall and made her way towards him.

"Hey, that character name is a lifelong honor." He joked. His voice cracked a little midway through his sentence, making her smirk, but she decided not to embarrass him by pointing it out.

Jellybean was still smiling when she reached out her arms. "So is my friendship, dork." Ricky stiffened slightly when her arms wrapped around his body; but he recovered quickly, squeezing her with just a little bit too much enthusiasm.

Ricky's face was slightly pink as he pulled away. He shook his head and laughed. "It's good to see you, JB."

Jellybean pouted her lips. "You could have seen more of me if you didn't routinely drop off the face of the earth."

"I know, I'm a shitty friend." He laughed, regaining his composure. "For real… I'm sorry for ditching you… life just got kind of crazy."

JB felt any lingering annoyance towards Ricky melting away. "It's cool." She gave him a happy smile. "Hey, have you been to Trent's Tattoos? His Mrs has the best cupcakes in Riverdale. I'll buy you one..." she wiggled her eyebrows.

The side of Ricky's lips twitched. "Nah, not yet… I actually messaged you because I wanted to show you something." He played with the front pocket of his jeans, a nervous habit JB had picked up on the last time she'd seen him. "Sorry for rushing you, but it's a bit of a trek, and you do not wanna be in the forest at night."

JB stood up straighter. "You wanna go into the forest?" Her voice was more nervous than she thought it'd be.

Ricky raised an eyebrow. "Is that a problem?" He asked curiously.

JB tried to think of an excuse that wasn't as lame as my dad said no. "Isn't there like a curfew, or a ban from the forest?" She knew full-well the curfew only really came into effect after Eight PM, but she had promised her dad she wouldn't go into the forest, regardless of the time.

Ricky shrugged. "Dunno, I don't watch the news." He turned and took a step in the direction of the forest. He looked over his should and smirked at JB. "You coming?"

JB's stomach rolled with nerves. She quickly checked her phone: Six PM. If she did go with him, technically she wasn't breaking the curfew… "Yeah, duh, I can't let you go alone."

They talked non-stop on the way through the walking tracks. JB forgot that Fox Forest was a little creepy, and focused instead on the sound of Ricky's voice and the way he made her laugh. He asked if she got the Amber Alert for 'that Northside chick' - but because the tornado warnings that popped up when she was in Toledo scared her, Jellybean's mother had turned the emergency alerts off on her phone a long time ago, and turning them back on had slipped her mind. She hoped whoever had been abducted wasn't somebody she went to school with, and made a mental note to turn them on again later.

The sun was setting, leaving pink and orange streaks of light above their heads as they made their way deeper into the forest. A very small clearing came into view, along with a large metal dome-looking… thing that was nestled into the ground.

"What is that?" Jellybean asked, her nose crinkling up at the sight.

Ricky stepped closer towards it. "This is where I've been hiding out lately. Here, and the Docks on the South Side." Ricky grabbed the large metal wheel on top of the circular metal lid. "I was down here most of the week while the cops were sniffing around. Didn't wanna get caught and be thrown back in foster care." He started to turn the wheel, and a loud metallic grinding started to overpower Jellybean's hearing.

"Is this… the bunker?" Jellybean asked, realisation overtaking her.

Ricky nodded. "Yeah, you know about it? Not many people do…"

"My brother was hiding here in late March." She'd never actually seen the fabled bunker for herself, so there was a bit of an excited thrill entering Jellybean's body. But why he was showing her this place was the true mystery.

"March… hmm, I started crashing down here in May. It's good to keep out the rain." He pulled open the hatch. "But, I realised recently I'm not the only one who uses it. Which is why I'm bringing you here."

Jellybean got closer to the hatch and looked down at the ladder. "I mean, I have no idea who else would be using this place…"

Ricky shook his head. "Nah that's not it… I've been running on the South Side for most of the Summer, so I haven't been back here much. But I came here Monday for the first time in ages and… well, it's easier if I just show you." He threw a leg over the side of the hatch and started to make his way down the ladder.

Jellybean took a look around her, out into the dimly lit forest. Nobody seemed to be around… she followed Ricky down the hole.

When she turned around, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust in the candlelit bunker. "This is kinda sick." She said, her head nodding in approval.

"Sick is the right word." Ricky said as he ducked to move into the larger room.

Jellybean followed him into the (honestly cool) bunker, and took a moment to take in the surroundings. The already-lit candles would have sent Alice into a fire hazard meltdown, but they gave the bunker a mystical lighting that looked both haunting and romantic. She then followed his gaze, and focused on the wall behind a fold up mattress. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she tried to process what she was seeing.

Hundreds of photos were sticky taped to the bunker wall. She leaned in further, and started making out the faces of the little figures. Her breath hitched. "That's my brother!" She choked out.

"Not just him." Ricky said solemnly. He nodded towards a photo in front of him, and Jellybean narrowed her eyes to scrutinise it.

It was hard to process what she was seeing, at first, because the photo's existence made no sense. But then she jolted back as she realised that she was in some of these photos. It took her a moment, but she deduced there were three images of her and Jughead; one of them sitting on his old motorbike (though her face was covered by her helmet), one of them standing outside of Walgreens, laughing at each other, and another of them walking up to Charles' new apartment.

The rest of the photos all included Jughead in some way - there were even a few images of him and Betty stealing a kiss in the school hallways. Of course, those photos had nothing on the images of them having sex in Jughead's Stonewall dorm room - copies of which were numerous along the bunker wall; Jellybean cringed and averted her eyes from those images.

"It's like a dedication… no, a shrine to my brother…" Jellybean muttered in a horrified voice.

Ricky shuffled awkwardly. "Yeah… it's super creepy. It's like he has a stalker."

Jellybean nodded weakly as her eyes scanned the photos. There was Jughead coming out of their house, his face looking down at his phone. Jughead's school photo, the very same one used at his fake funeral. Jughead handing out copies of the Blue and Gold Newspaper. Jughead and Betty at the park with Juniper and Dagwood. Jughead talking to Archie at their lockers. Jughead tied up shirtless to a chair in his bedroom (Jellybean tried not to focus on that photo for too long). Jughead leaning against a fence, laughing at Reggie Mantle. Jughead smirking at Toni Topaz just outside of a classroom. Jughead reading in the senior lounge. Jughead alone in a booth at Pop's, typing madly…

Jellybean didn't want to keep looking at the particularly graphic photos of her brother, but something possibly more disturbing caught her eyes. There were errors in several of the more lewd images, and Jellybean stared at them trying to figure out what was wrong… and then she realised:

Betty's face had been scratched out.

"Oh my God." Jellybean gasped. "We need to get out of here. And then I have to show this to Jughead." Jellybean backed away from the images and started to make her way to the circular entry of the bunker.

Ricky grabbed her wrist. "Wait. Let me go first."

Jellybean scoffed and wrenched her hand away. "Why? Because I'm a girl?"

Ricky shook his head. "No! It's just… I want to make sure nobody is out there…" For the first time in their friendship, Jellybean noticed fear in Ricky's eyes. "And, I know you're going to tell him about the photos, but please don't tell Jughead it was me who showed them to you. Or that I've been here. Or that I'm even still in Riverdale."

Jellybean gave him a quizzical look. "Is it a secret or something? Jughead's not a snitch… and how am I supposed to explain how I found this place?"

Ricky merely made his way to the ladder. "I trust you, JB. But nobody else. I can't have anyone finding out I was talking to you… it'll be bad. For both of us."

Jellybean frowned as she followed him to the bottom of the ladder. "If you expect me to lie for you, I at least want to know why."

Ricky paused, his hands steadying themselves on the ladder. He took a breath and shook his head. "I've already said too much, JB… I'm sorry." He turned away and started his ascent.

"You haven't said anything." Jellybean muttered. She would have kept arguing with him, but the fear in his eyes and her own stress about being in the forest were weighing too heavily on her mind.

Ricky seemed to have relaxed a bit once they were back on the walking track, but Jellybean was still on edge. The sun had almost completely set, and the trees that had been ambient and glowing as they walked towards the bunker now resembled cruel and devilish shadows. Despite the dry summer air, she shivered.

"Are you going to stay in the bunker again tonight?" She asked, both out of curiosity and to break the silence.

Ricky shook his head. "Fuck that. Now that the cops have stopped searching for Liz and Ellie in the forest, there's nothing stopping your brother's stalker from coming back to their sexual lair."

Jellybean screwed her face up. "Ew. That's just gross."

"Exactly. So I'm not sticking around and waiting for them to show up. I'd rather take my chances under the docks again."

Jellybean wanted to ask him more questions about that - surely foster care or homeless shelters couldn't be worse than living alone on the streets - but she became distracted by a rustling noise to her right.

Ricky must have heard it too, because as Jellybean turned, Ricky grabbed her arm. "Don't look, just keep walking."

Jellybean snapped her head forward. For the first time that day she was truly, and inexplicably, afraid.

She was struggling to see in the dark, but Ricky slid his hand down her arm to take her hand and she felt comforted. Only slightly though, because Ricky didn't want to turn their phone lights on in case somebody saw them, and the darkness remained an eerie presence.

They heard the snapping of twigs again behind them, and Jellybean told herself it was just woodland animals. Nothing scary in these here woods, surely… she said to herself, hoping it was true.

Perhaps it was because of the darkness, which had nearly engulfed every inch of light from the forest that neither Jellybean nor Ricky had seen the upcoming dark mass in their way.

And they still didn't see it when Jellybean hit the mass with her foot and tripped, and fell.

"JB," Ricky whispered, "are you okay?!" Despite the whisper, his voice was loud in the quiet of the night.

Jellybean couldn't take the darkness any longer. With shaky hands, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and activated the torch. As she scanned the light over the mass, it took her a few seconds to realise what she was seeing.

And as she realised… she screamed.

….

There were cops everywhere when Jughead haphazardly parked his Dad's motorbike at the edge of Fox Forest. He'd never driven his bike so fast when his dad called him and told him about Jellybean's "discovery" on the walking track…

The news that a body had been found in Fox Forest was disturbing. Jughead had left Betty to unwind in the shower and went out on a quick UberEats run; as he waited the RIVW began to broadcast the report. He, Pop and several of the diner's customers crowded around the small TV as Alice's face popped up, her head against the standard newsroom background as she explained that the Sheriff was asking residents to stay away from the crime scene while they investigated.

"You think it's one of those Centerville girls?" A man seated at the bar to Jughead's right asked no one in particular.

An older waitress dressed in her yellow diner uniform responded from behind the bar. "Oh I hope it isn't little Carla Clayton…" Her eyes welled up with tears.

"Come now, Denise." Pop put his hand on the woman's shoulder. "Let's not get ourselves worked up…"

She sniffled and wiped her eyes on her apron. "It's just terrible Pop… oh, look at me. I'm all in a tizzy." She took a breath to compose herself and looked at the iPad that was sitting proudly next to the register. "Oh shoot, sorry Jughead, I haven't even started making the order…"

"No rush, Denise. I'm sure whoever made the order is happy to wait for their milkshake - especially when it's made by you." He flashed her a charming smile, which she returned with watery eyes.

It was then that Jughead's phone started to chime, and his father quickly relayed that he was on his way to Fox Forest because the dead body was found by none other than his sister.

His UberEats delivery was promptly abandoned as he sped off on the bike.

Relief flooded Jughead's body when he arrived and spotted FP with his arms locked around Jellybean securely.

"Daddy, you're legit squishing me." Jellybean grumbled against her father's chest.

FP's voice was gruff as he responded. "I don't give a flying fuck, Forsythia Jones." As Jughead approached, FP started rubbing Jellybean's back. "What the hell were you even doing out there… you trying to give your old man a heart attack or something?"

Jughead reached them seconds later. "JB! Are you okay?!"

"Everyone keeps asking me that. I'm fine. I'm not the one who's dead." Jellybean said quietly.

Jughead's stomach rolled. "Yes… but finding the body…"

Jellybean wriggled out of FP's grasp. "I don't want to talk about it… I have more urgent issues to take care of."

"More urgent… you need to come sit down in the car, kiddo." FP's exasperated voice perfectly matched his frown.

But Jellybean, in all her nervousness, stayed firm. "Uh-uh Dad, I'm serious… I found the bunker where Jughead was staying…"

"Jellybean I told you I didn't want you in those woods…"

"Can you lecture me later, please? I found something really serious…"

Jughead turned to the side and noted that Charles' car was pulling up to the scene. He thought maybe he'd heard about the body and come to check on Jellybean, but two more FBI agents emerged from the car and Jughead realised that they were there to take over the investigation…

Charles spotted Jughead and nodded grimly before he trudged deeper into the forest with the other agents.

FP and Jellybean didn't notice Charles, and Jughead tuned back into the conversation.

"... but I'm scared we're gonna get in more trouble if anyone sees us going in there—" Jellybean was rapidly recounting her story, but she was so rattled it wasn't coming out as it should.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Take a deep breath, let's start again." FP said gently to Jellybean.

Jughead focused back on his sister. "Hey, no one's getting in trouble, alright? What happened?"

Jellybean took a breath and blew the air back out. "I… was walking around the tracks and found the bunker."

Jughead's forehead crumpled. "JB… how? That's not easy to find…"

"I just did, okay?!" She snapped, and Jughead dropped the questions. "There's heaps of screenshots of Jughead and Betty's sex tapes… and all these stalkerish photos of Jughead on the walls. Someone's been following him… they've made some kind of collage dedicated to him in the bunker. It's so creepy… Betty's face is scratched out of some of the photos… there's even some of me in there."

Jughead felt dread filling up his mind. "That's… I need to go see this."

"No." FP grabbed Jughead's arm. "You need to stay here with your sister."

"What are you going to do?" Jughead asked, but his dad was already walking over to some of the Sheriff's deputies. Jughead reached out and put his arm around Jellybean's shoulders.

With a startled jolt, he realised that the deputies were actually his fellow South Side Serpents Fangs and Tonsils. They looked nervous as FP approached them, and their expressions were grim as they conversed with him, but eventually they both nodded in determination and headed off into the forest.

FP came back over to his children with a solemn expression on his face.

"What happened?" Jellybean asked, her voice shaking in worry.

FP softened his expression. "I have it on good authority that Fangs is gonna "look for evidence" in the bunker and just so happen to stumble across the 'child pornography'… he might have to lock the place down as a crime scene if that happens. Might even need to take it all into evidence…"

Jellybean relaxed. "Thanks Dad…"

FP eyed her suspiciously, but didn't press her for more information. Jughead, too, wanted to know how she knew there were photos of him in the bunker, but Jellybean had just found a dead body…

… everyone in the Jones family knew how that felt.

Besides, potential stalkers were pretty low on his list of priorities right now. He could deal with that when he had time to wrap his head around it…

"Alice Smith, reporting for RIVW. It has now been confirmed that the body found on Friday night in Fox Forest belonged to Parvati Dasgupta, one of four teenage girls who went missing in Centerville this last month. The Riverdale Sheriff's department is assisting Sheriff Lansdown in his efforts to gain more information about the circumstances of the tragic end to Parvati's story.

The Dasgupta family have asked for privacy as they grieve the loss of their beloved daughter, a Centerville High Student who was about to undergo her Senior Year and had just been given an early acceptance into Harvard Business School…

Grave concerns remain for Lia Sheridan, April Lambert and Tricia London, and authorities are considering the possibility of a serial killer. It is still not yet clear whether the abduction of Riverdale resident Carla Clayton, and the disappearances of South Side teens Ellen Ellison and Eliza-Ellison Mates are connected to the Centerville disappearances…

With the death of one teenager so tragically confirmed today, some residents of Centerville are fearing that the still-missing teens may not be found alive…"

….

"That's it. I'm done." Alice stormed into the kitchen from the back door; it slammed behind her and rattled in its hinges. FP and Jellybean both jolted in shock; FP dropped his pizza slice onto the napkin in front of him.

Jughead calmly lifted his head up from his MacBook. "With what?" He shifted in his seat at the dinner table so that he could properly face her.

Alice's eyes were narrowed in fury. "Those soul-sucking sea urchins that run the RIVW! You won't believe the speculative crap they wanted me to get on TV and present as fact! Oh, and don't even get me started on the illiterate idiot that Hiram put in charge of the Riverdale Register. I am a journalist, not a puppet for the higher ups to sell their hidden agendas. Twenty years of my blood, sweat and tears went into that newspaper and Hiram Lodge has completely destroyed it. Well, I won't stand for it any longer."

"Hell yes, Alice, stick it to the man." Jellybean said; her usual smirk didn't quite reach her eyes, but she made an attempt at sounding like her normal, spunky self.

Some of the steam left Alice's body as she nodded at Jellybean's comment, but she was still visibly angry. "Honestly, I should have known something was amiss at the Register - I mean seriously, in the space of two years it went from being the Riverdale Register, to the Lodge Ledger, then back to the Riverdale Register again… honestly, how are the reader's meant to trust the voices of the Newspaper with that kind of inconsistency?"

FP shifted in his seat again. "Wait, so are you going to quit?"

"I'm resigning from the Register tomorrow… but…" Alice's face went red again, but it seemed to be because she was blushing in embarrassment instead of raving with anger. "Ah… I don't exactly need to quit the RIVW…" she let out a gush of air.

The Jones trio took a moment to process the implications of her statement. Jughead piped up first. "Wait, they fired you?"

Alice looked down for a moment. "Well, they've certainly recommended I find somewhere else to work."

"They can't just fire you!" Jughead said, feeling anger on Alice's behalf.

FP stood up. "Alice, surely there's something we can do about this…" He made his way over to where she was standing in the kitchen.

Alice shrugged. "Let's not get too worked up about it now, gentlemen. I'll find something else to do with my time, I'm sure…" She picked at one of her long fingernails but didn't elaborate.

"Mom? Are you okay?" Betty's voice came from the staircase. Her face appeared from around the corner of the staircase, and moments later she was in the kitchen.

"Elizabeth! Why aren't you in bed?!" Alice's horrified expression immediately overtook her frustrated one.

Betty's cool resolve didn't change. "Mom, calm down. Bed rest ended today." She made her way over to join Jughead and Jellybean at the dinner table; Jughead noted that she looked away from the pizza in mild disgust.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you should be prancing around the house—"

"I walked down one set of stairs, Mom."

"But are you still in pain? Any headaches? Nausea? Are you—"

"Mom, I'm fine."

"Oh, you're fine?! Were you fine last week when I had to rush you to the emergency room?!"

"Wow. I was wrong. I do have a headache." Betty gave Jughead a smirk.

Jughead snickered, and tried to turn his laughter into a coughing fit. Alice's eyes narrowed as she looked between the two of them.

"This isn't funny." Alice said in her infamously no-nonsense tone. "Betty, you need to take your health seriously, for your sake… and the baby's."

FP's cheeks flushed, and he suddenly was looking anywhere but at Betty or Jughead.

Betty gritted her teeth. "I don't need anyone babying me right now. I know that I need to look after myself."

There was an awkward pause between the mother and daughter, and neither Jughead nor FP could think of anything to break the silence.

But Jellybean got some of her courage back. "Alice got fired." She said quickly. Everyone turned to her, their faces varying degrees of confusion. "That's what we were talking about, Betty. You know, when you came downstairs…"

The confusion left Betty's face. "Oh. What? Why?"

Alice huffed and moved towards the fridge. "They made some… demands that I wouldn't agree to… things got a little heated… the details aren't important..."

Alice wouldn't elaborate, but I later found out (through eavesdropping) that she refused to interview, or allow anyone else to interview the person who found the body of Parvati Dasgupta. The RIVW Director had accused her of withholding public information and implied she wasn't a real journalist because apparently "as a journalist it was her duty to let the public know the truth, no matter how gruesome or invasive!"

She also refused to say on camera that the disappearances could be the result of Centerville's very own "Black Hood" and that all girls in the area should be fearful of going out alone, lest the Reaper of Sinners capture them. The resulting argument with the Director had ended with Alice breaking a microphone in anger…

… I respected her a lot more after that.

Betty and I discussed the possibility that I had a stalker, and she showed me the notes she'd made that possibly supported that theory. We'd need to find time to investigate our theories, and interrogate some of our prime suspects - but until Betty was well enough, and until Jellybean didn't need distractions from thinking about the body of Parvati Dasgupta, we decided to remain vigilant and continue to gather clues.

But we were going to figure out who was watching us. And soon.

"You're back!"

Betty turned around and focused on the overly-excited voice of the twenty-one year old stripper Betty had struck up a friendship with since working at the Hoe Zone. "Yep! All better now, Layla." It was mostly true - the pain in her ribs was reduced to a dull-ache if she moved the wrong way, and the nausea hadn't bothered her to an alarming point for several days. She didn't feel 'great', more like 'okay', and she could still only eat eggs on toast, but the little pamphlet Dr Patel gave her had emphasised coming to terms with the possibility that she might feel awful through the whole pregnancy.

She was trying not to let that stress her out.

Layla practically bounced over to Betty. "You were sorely missed. Elio put Lucy in charge of taking orders… the poor girl actually cried when George came in."

Betty tried to remember which of the other waitresses was named Lucy, and recalled a skittish young brunette. "Ahh, yes, George…" George was an elderly man that came into the club at least three times a week and tipped Betty obscenely large amounts of money for 'taking care of him' whenever she brought him his Pina Colada. "He makes a lot of lewd comments… I've found that just nodding along and smiling like the polite young ladies we're pretending to be does the trick."

"She's young. She'll grow thicker skin." Layla nodded as though that was end of it.

Betty raised her eyebrows. "She's the same age as me."

"True, but you're built differently. You're tougher. You're not scared of the guys who come in here thinking they'll get a pretty girl to fall in love with them if they pay them enough." Layla winked and started to make her way over to the dressing room. "I'm dedicating my first dance to you, darling!" She called out to Betty.

Betty laughed. Honestly, working at the Hoe Zone wasn't nearly as seedy or degrading as she thought it would be. Sure, the name of the club had "hoe" in it, but she was called that all the time at Pop's. And the strippers seemed to mostly have a great sense of humour, and were all comfortable in their own skin - even the ones who weren't traditionally beautiful.

Sometimes while she was behind the bar, waiting for the drinks to be made, she'd watch the strippers dancing and flirting with the crowd. The men jeered and threw money at them, but the girls didn't shy away from the attention. And the strippers made bank - they didn't even have to give Elio more than a 5% cut of their 'tips', if the gossip between the other waitresses held any truth to it. Betty often thought up mini-manifestos on the feminist implications of stripping… she'd love to write an article on it one day, maybe get a review of the strip-club industry from the inside…

She was still thinking about female empowerment as she wandered over to her first set of customers for the night. As promised, Layla sent Betty a wink as she started removing her sexy nurse costume to the tune of "Sweet But Psycho", and the men Betty approached were all focused on the sway of Layla's hips.

Betty cleared her throat. "Can I get you gentlemen anything?"

One of the boys started to turn their head. "Yes, please, I'll have a — Betty?"

Betty stiffened as she realised that she knew several of the party-members. "Reggie… hello." She tried not to let herself feel awkward. I'm not a stripper, I just work with them, and who cares what my ex-classmates think? Betty shook the doubts away - it wasn't very 'feminist-manifesto' of her to be worried about being caught working at strip club… but ages-old prejudices died hard.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, confusion overtaking his previously cool demeanour. "Are you a stripper now?" His eyes raked over the skimpy red lingerie she was wearing, and she tried to resist the urge to cover up her prominent cleavage.

"No, no… I'm just a waitress." She studied the rest of the group of boys and realised they were all from her grade in school. "Aren't you guys all underage?"

"Not according to my ID." It was Fangs who answered, and held up a card that undoubtedly had someone else's name on it.

"You're a cop." Betty said, trying to keep the judgement out of her voice.

"Sshh." Fangs looked around nervously. "You can be eighteen and still go to a strip club. I'm not drinking anyway, someone needs to drop these… very sober friends of mine home."

Reggie nodded, and Betty realised by the blood-shot appearance of his eyes that he was one of these supposedly 'sober' friends. "We're not here being weird, either." Reggie said quickly, a note of discomfort in his voice.

Betty rolled her eyes. "Right."

"No, seriously Betty! We're doing research."

"Research?"

Another voice responded before Reggie had the chance to collect his thoughts. "I'm not doing research. I'm here to see the boobs I was deprived of all these years."

Betty scanned his face and recognised one of the other South Side Serpents: Slash. He sat next to a sheepish-looking Sweet Pea, who seemed to be trying to discreetly cover his face with his hand. The final member of the group was one of the boys from the Riverdale High basketball team. Betty had seen him at school but couldn't remember his name.

"You're a riot, Slash." Reggie said sarcastically. Slash shrugged and threw a dollar bill onto the stage.

Curiosity got the better of Betty. "What are you researching?"

Even through the dim lighting of the strip club, Betty could see Reggie's blushing cheeks. "Well, it's a funny story actually…" Reggie began. He cleared his throat before he continued. "Fangs here has been doing some… ahhh… niche cinematic projects with Kevin."

Betty tried not to be shocked that Reggie knew the words niche and cinematic. "I see…"

"And it makes a lot of money, but they have to give the director a cut… so I thought, what if they didn't have to give a cut to the director… because they co-owned the company?"

Betty's mind swam with confusion. "What the hell kind of business are you getting Kevin into?"

"Oh, he's already in the business, Betts. I'm just giving them a mutually-beneficial means of continuing." Reggie grinned triumphantly.

"The business of...?"

"Underground Films!" Reggie continued. When Betty just stared at him in confusion, he elaborated. "You know… not the mainstream stuff. Really specific kinks, and customised videos, kind of like… secret porn, but not porn - well, unless the people we employ are into that, then maybe we can expand."

Betty raised her eyebrows. "You're getting Kevin into porn?!" She would have been more outraged if she wasn't so surprised.

"No, no, no… you're misunderstanding me. Listen, Kevin is already doing this, and he's making a lot, he has a following, and he doesn't even have to get naked! So now is the time for him to branch out and start his own business… that's where I come in."

Betty just stared at him.

"I'm doing a Diploma of Business Management at Riverdale Community College, so I'm going to know all about how to run our niche video market, and I'll have the credibility to back myself up! We just need more actors… hence why we are here." Reggie indicated to Layla. "Researching places we can potentially recruit new employees! I'm sure there's someone who works here that would be interested in making money off the the Underground Film industry."

Slash tore his eyes away from the stage to look up at Betty. "Look, I have no idea what this guy is talking about, but if tickling someone on camera for ten minutes is going to make me five grand, I'll happily join his company. That's way more than I ever made off of selling pot."

The basketball player choked on his glass of water. Poor innocent boy, thought Betty, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"I was just… bored." Sweet Pea said in a weak attempt at defending his presence in the Hoe Zone. He looked like he was immensely regretting his decision to come out with the other boys.

Betty had a feeling tonight was going to be a long night.

….

Jughead waited inside the station wagon outside of the Hoe Zone's back door. Betty had already texted him to let him know she was gonna be out late, so he was killing time by patiently reading a free iBook that promised to 'shock him to his core'; truthfully it was so poorly edited that he only continued to read it so that he could have a laugh at the grammar and spelling mistakes.

He'd become so absorbed by the 'ritualistic werewolf attack' the thirteen year old author was trying to describe that he nearly dropped his phone in fright when he heard a knock on the driver's side window. He stared up into the pale face and unseeing brown eyes of the girl outside his car, and mentally thanked himself for locking the doors.

He shoved his phone into his pocket and rolled down the window just enough that the girl could hear him. "Hey there…" he said, confused.

She folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the window. "You looking for a good time tonight?" She said in a croaky voice.

"Ahh… no thanks." Jughead said, his mind going blank.

The girl's unseeing expression didn't change. "Come on, baby… I'm a lot more fun than those strippers you're always picking up."

Jughead realised what it was she was implying. His mood changed from confused to disturbed. "Ah, it's not like that… I'm just picking up my…" he paused before he said girlfriend. This random prostitute didn't need to know anything about his personal life. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm not looking for a hooker tonight."

Jughead wanted to close the window and get as far away from this girl as possible, but she kept talking. "I've got other things, if you're interested…" she looked down at her pushed up cleavage; with her slender fingers she pulled a tiny bag filled with white powder out, then quickly shoved it back in again.

Jughead was about to tell her firmly to go away, but as she looked back up at him, he realised that he recognised her. "Hey, I know you…" Jughead blurted out.

The girl paused and looked away. "No you don't, babe." She pushed away from his window, and as she walked away, Jughead realised where he recognised her from.

"Wait!" Jughead fumbled with the lock on Betty's car, and jumped out of the door. "Wait, you're…" he caught up to her quickly, and stood in front of her. "Aren't you Tricia London? From Centerville?"

The girl's expressionless face quickly morphed into a grimace. "I don't know who that is." Panic started to enter the girl's eyes.

"You're… you're missing right now." Jughead gave her an incredulous look, but Tricia quickly pushed past him and started to walk around to the front of the building. "Everyone is looking for you!"

"Ain't nobody looking for me." She said, refusing to meet Jughead's eyes. She quickened her pace as she tried to dodge his attempts to stop her from leaving.

"Is someone forcing you to work out here?" Jughead felt sick to his stomach. "I can call someone for you…"

"Get lost. You're gonna get me in trouble." Her voice lowered and she looked over her shoulder.

Jughead frowned. "With your pimp?"

"Fuck off back to your strippers. I'm not telling you shit." She shoved past him and continued on down the street.

Jughead was at a loss. He wasn't sure whether to follow her (she might lead him to the other missing teen girls) or do as she said and go back to the Hoe Zone (if she wasn't being forced into sex work, it really wasn't any of his business… but if she was, he didn't want to let her out of his sight when he could have done something to get her out of a terrible situation).

He watched as she walked off down the street and headed towards the docks. Tricia London, Tricia London… Jughead tried to remember more details about her, but was coming up blank. He pulled his phone out to search her name, and an article from the Centerville Sentinel's website came up. He scrolled until he found the information he was looking for.

… a second teen reported missing this week. Tricia London, aged fifteen, was last seen by her teacher…

Aged fifteen.

Jughead dialed Sheriff Keller's number.

While he stood at the front of the Hoe Zone, Betty had already walked out of the back door, finally at the end of her shift. The first day back had been rough, and she was happy it was over, but she still enjoyed herself. It was nice to be back into some kind of normalcy.

As she approached her station wagon, she realised the handsome face of her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen. She frowned, and tried not to let it worry her - but given the sudden chaos in their town, it was hard not to be concerned.

"Hey, you all good?" Layla's voice came from behind her.

Betty turned to face Layla as the other girl walked through the back door. "Yeah… I just seem to have misplaced my boyfriend." Betty said in an incredulous voice. She felt the urge to press her nails into the palms of her hand, but gripped onto the strap of her handbag instead.

Layla laughed. "He probably just went up to the convenience store. You got out late, right?"

Betty nodded and tried to accept the explanation. "Yeah, he does enjoy snacks… why are you out here? It's only midnight…"

Layla smiled. "Yeah, I had to finish early because my son's usual babysitter has a science exam for Summer School tomorrow." She shrugged. "I'd feel terrible if she failed because she was babysitting my kid."

Betty nodded. "I didn't realise you had a son…" she said, the information coming as a surprise.

"Yep! A two year old boy." She pulled out her phone and showed Betty a photo of a cute, chubby-cheeked toddler.

"He's adorable." Betty said, her heart swelling with an unfamiliar, giggly emotion.

"Looks just like his daddy, unfortunately." Layla chuckled as she swiped out of the photos and opened the Uber app.

"Oh, my boyfriend can drop you home if you like."

"That's okay! I wouldn't want to be a hassle, Betty. I'm happy using Uber."

"Really, it's fine. He's using my car anyway." Betty joked. Truthfully, the lack of Jughead in the parking lot was making Betty a little on edge, and the thought of her friend getting in the car with a stranger right now was making her nervous.

"Aww, aren't you sweet." Layla chuckled.

Layla started to tell Betty a story about the sixteen year old girl currently babysitting her son, when Betty noticed another car was joining them in the parking lot. She frowned, but kept her gaze locked on Layla. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the car was, in fact, a red van…

…a red van like the vehicle involved in Carla Clayton's abduction…

Layla had noticed it too, and was in the process of saying: "We should go the fuck inside…" when the sliding door of the van sprang open.

Two men wearing skull-patterned bandanas around their mouths jumped out of the van, and were in front of Betty and Layla within seconds. Layla let out a shrill shriek, and jumped back, but the taller of the men grabbed her by the arm and tried to drag her into the van. She struggled against his hold as the second man got closer to Betty.

But Betty was ready for him.

As he reached out to grab her by both arms, instead of pulling away, Betty grabbed him by the back and pulled him in closer - almost as if they were embracing. As soon as he was pressed against her, she used her remaining force to drive her knee into his groin.

"Fuck!" The man shouted, and let her go instantly. The one dragging Layla froze for a moment, seemed to decide Betty was going to be more difficult to abduct, and reached for her instead - but he wasn't quick enough to get to her before Betty had reached into her handbag and pulled out her bottle of pepper spray.

"No no no wait!" The second assailant said, but Betty sprayed the nozzle directly into his eyes. He let out a very un-masculine scream.

A high-pitched horn sounded from the red vehicle. "Get in the fucking van you idiots!" The driver practically growled.

The man Betty had kneed was still hunched over as he grabbed the arm of his now-whimpering partner in crime. They were almost back inside the open door when Jughead came running down the side of the Hoe Zone and into the parking lot.

"What the fuck?!" He shouted, and dragged the freshly maced assailant back out of the van. He landed a punch on the guy's head, and the guy dropped to the floor with a groan.

It was only then that Betty noticed that the back of the man's jacket had a ghostly skull sewn into it… surrounded by spiky silver studs.

He's a Ghoulie, Betty realised as Jughead set to work on dragging the other guy out of the van.

But before Jughead could give the second man the greeting he deserved, the driver's door swung open and the driver jumped out. He was bigger than the other two men and looked like he had some muscle. Like the other two, his face was also covered by a skull bandana. Betty got ready to mace him too, but flinched as the driver pulled a gun out of his pants and held it up to Jughead's head.

"Juggie!" Betty cried out, and Jughead froze instantly, his eyes hyper-focused on the barrel of the gun.

But the driver didn't shoot. "Give me a reason not to, Serpent." The man said, his voice muffled by the bandana. He stared Jughead down, his eyes wild and unfriendly.

Betty's breath hitched as there was a moment of silence between Jughead and the driver.

"The cops are already on their way." Jughead responded calmly.

The driver's eyes narrowed. "You're bluffing." Betty's heart was in knots, and Layla anxiously moved closer to her side - but the sound of police sirens had them all turning their heads towards the street.

The driver kept the gun on Jughead and moved closer to his friends. He kicked the one groaning on the floor. "Get up." He said forcefully, and the men practically crawled through the sliding door.

The driver kept his gun on Jughead until both doors were closed, and his eyes stayed on the three of them as he sped out of the parking lot, tyres screeching on the asphalt.

None of them said a word for several seconds after the Ghoulies were gone.

"Oh my God." Layla started shaking, and Betty looked up and realised that her eyes were filling with tears.

Betty pulled her into a hug. "It's okay! You're okay. We're all okay." Betty's eyes met Jughead's over Layla's shoulders.

It was only then they both allowed themselves to feel the panic that was forced down by the adrenaline.

….

"Charles, is this really necessary? She's already spoken to Sheriff Keller." Alice fretted as she sat beside Betty in the back of an ambulance.

Betty felt a little sorry for her mother; she'd found out that her daughter worked at a strip club, and had almost been abducted from one in the same night. But instead of freaking out, Alice was keeping her composure.

The adrenaline having now left Betty's body, she realised how sore she was after fighting off the Ghoulies. Her ribs were aching again, and the sides of her arms were definitely going to be bruised. She felt a little nauseous, but thankfully hadn't thrown up yet. She wished Jughead was still next to her, but another FBI agent had coaxed him away to get his testimony and they were both out of earshot.

"I understand your concern Alice, it's late, she's been ill… but Betty knows how important it is to get eye-witness testimony as close to an event as possible - she learned that in my class, which she aced." A small twinkle of pride lit up in Charles' eyes as he faced Betty. "And just between us… your friend over there isn't going to be much help, unfortunately." Charles' eyes drifted over to the other ambulance; Layla was being treated for shock, as another one of the strippers, and Elio, stayed dutifully by her side while her paramedic spoke to Sheriff Keller.

Betty smiled weakly and clutched her blanket around her arms tighter. It wasn't doing much to fight off the emotional chill in her bones, but the soft fabric kept her hands occupied. "Me and Jughead did speak to Sheriff Keller already. It was three Ghoulies, they pulled up in front of us and tried to get us in the van…" she recounted the exact same story she'd given Sheriff Keller from when she'd first seen the van until the cops had arrived. "Why is the FBI questioning us about this, exactly? Can't they get the information from the Sheriff's department?"

Charles raised an eyebrow. "Oh, the FBI are very interested in gang activity in Riverdale… we're just not certain the Sheriff is going to ask quite the right questions." Charles crouched down so he could be at eye-level with Betty, then pulled out a recording device and activated it. "Did you know the men?"

"Not exactly… I knew that they were Ghoulies but I've never met them before." Betty explained.

Charles nodded. "Why do you say they were Ghoulies?"

Betty frowned. "Because… they were? " She said it like a question.

"What specifically gave you that impression?" Charles' voice stayed remarkably calm.

Betty paused and considered. "They all had on leather jackets with the Ghoulies' logo."

"Can you describe it?"

"The logo?" Betty asked, and Charles nodded. "Um, a creepy looking skull face. And the rest of the jackets were embellished with those metal studs. They usually have 'Ghoulies' written under it, and I did see a word there, but it was too dark and they were moving around too fast for me to get a good look at the word. I'd bet my college tuition on them being Ghoulies though."

"What else did you notice about them?"

Betty chewed on her lip as she thought. "The driver was the leader… he seemed older than the two that tried to grab me and Layla. He was definitely in charge. And the other two seemed… young. Maybe my age."

Charles continued asking Betty for more details, and Betty found comfort in recounting the event - she refused to call it her abduction attempt - because it helped her think of it critically, methodically, scientifically; her specialty. She recounted the men's defining facial features and differences in colouring. It took her until Charles was almost finished with his questioning before she realised what he was doing.

"You're trying not to ask me any leading questions." Betty said, raising her eyebrows.

Charles smiled widely. "Exactly. Human memory is a very sensitive database, and it's easy to manipulate. I'm not having anyone else jeopardise this case by saying we compromised the witnesses, or the victims. That's also why we're interviewing you separately."

Betty nodded her head. "That's fair. You don't want to get into court and have the case thrown out because of something like that."

"I'm impressed, Betty. You're keeping a clear head despite undergoing an undeniably traumatic event." Charles stood up and turned off the recorder. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a notepad, while Alice wrapped her arm around Betty's shoulders.

Betty eyed the notepad curiously, as another thought occurred to her. "Charles… was this the same group that took Carla Clayton?"

Charles looked up from his notepad. "I don't want to speculate…" he looked over his shoulder to check where the other FBI agents were situated, decided they weren't in ear shot, and then turned back to Betty. "But the abduction attempt on you and Layla was very similar. Similar vehicle description, and the assailants who took her were also three men in leather jackets and bone-patterned bandanas."

Betty held her breath for a moment. "Who was the witness in Carla's abduction?"

Charles put his notepad away. "Her older brother."

Betty's heart sank, but she pushed through her thoughts. "And this was the first time somebody actually saw a girl get abducted, right? The other girls in Centerville and Riverdale who disappeared… there weren't any witnesses, correct?"

Charles, once again, looked impressed. "Correct."

"So whoever did this is escalating… or getting desperate."

"Indeed." There was definitely pride in Charles' expression now, but he stayed calm and collected, intrigued by the way Betty was discerning the information.

"What happened to Chuck Clayton? I didn't hear anything about him in the news…"

"That was intentional. It was to protect his identity since we didn't know who exactly had taken his sister or what their intentions were. There was a significant delay between Carla's abduction and Chuck alerting the police, because he was knocked out for around half an hour, and suffered a severe concussion." Charles paused before continuing. "It seems that he tried to fight them off… and honestly, I believe they thought he was dead when they left. He was hospitalised with three broken ribs and a dislocated jaw, and his face was covered in blood."

Betty nodded with finality. "So this is gang related. It's not a typical serial killer, or the same group of serial killers that just happen to be in a gang."

Charles' face held curiosity and anticipation. "What's your reasoning?"

Betty shifted so she could sit up straighter. "Well, for starters it's likely that they used the same van, and they were all probably part of the same gang. And not to be all anti-girl power, but I know Chuck Clayton. He was captain of the football team, definitely works out a lot, no stranger to fights… there's no way I could have fought off the same men that managed to beat him up so badly that he was put in hospital, especially not in my current state. Which makes me think that the people who tried to abduct us, and the people who abducted Carla aren't the same people… but they may be part of a larger gang." She gave him a pointed look. "Like the Ghoulies, who incidentally have been spotted lurking around Centerville and are believed to have been the ones who trashed parts of the South Side a month ago."

Charles nodded along with her explanation. "I've never believed it was a serial killer. Some of my colleagues disagree with me, but I think that whoever is doing this is far too active, particularly for a newbie killer. And based on the biological evidence collected from Parvati Dasgupta's body… it's definitely more than one person, and they're not very discreet."

"Maybe… maybe abducting and killing young women is part of their initiation into the Ghoulies." Betty suggested.

Alice looked between Charles and Betty nervously. "Betty, this is a lot of stress for one night…"

But Betty shook her head. "No, I'm onto something here Mom." She didn't wait for Alice or Charles to react, but powered through. "I think that the Ghoulies are abducting girls as part of some new initiation ritual. The gang almost completely died out last year, but now they're back with a vengeance, and they have something to prove. They seem more organised now, too, so they probably have a new leader." Betty's face screwed up into a grimace. "Possibly Penny Peabody, who hasn't been seen for over a year but was somehow involved with the Gargoyle Gang and has a massive grudge against her old and now rival gang, the South Side Serpents." Betty looked up into Charles' eyes. "Penny used to be in cahoots with Hiram Lodge, and there have been whisperings among some of the Serpents and ex-inmates of the Lodge Detention Center that Hiram is using his prisoners to make Fizzle Rocks and Jingle Jangle in exchange for earlier release dates." She waited expectantly for Charles to say something, but when he didn't she said: "What do you think?

Charles answered slowly. "I think… that you're going to make a great FBI agent one day, Betty."

Alice managed to hold back her groan of disapproval.

Betty's brows furrowed. "There's just one thing that doesn't add up."

Charles cocked his head to the side. "What's that?"

Betty twisted Jughead's ring around her finger. "If the girls in Centerville were abducted by the Ghoulies, then why did Jughead see one of them tonight?"

Charles frowned and turned his head towards Jughead. "Which girl did he see?"

"Tricia London." Betty was growing nervous from the look on Charles' face. "That's why he left the car and wasn't here when I first came out of work… she approached him and tried to sell him drugs… but tried to walk away when he recognised her. He followed her up the road for a bit…" Betty continued to slide the ring around in circles. "I was with him when he spoke to Sheriff Keller. He thinks she might be a prostitute… Jughead is certain it was her that he saw."

"And this happened just before the red van full of Ghoulies showed up?" Charles averted his gaze back to Jughead again, and Betty wondered if he was about to interrupt Jughead's conversation with the other FBI agent.

"Minutes, maybe. Jughead had only just called Sheriff Keller when he came back and saw the tail end of me macing the Ghoulies…" Concern for Tricia, a girl she'd only ever seen news articles of, welled up in Betty's heart. "Could she have run away from her parents? Maybe she wasn't abducted at all; she could have been in a bad home situation and thought turning to the streets was her only option. I mean, I'm all for sex workers doing their thing, nothing wrong with paying an adult for their services, but Tricia is fifteen. She's not even old enough to consent to sex, let alone sex work…"

"Honestly? No, I think it is the Ghoulies who took her…" Charles said, his frown deepening. "But I don't think they're just abducting girls to kill them… I think they might have started a sex trafficking ring."

And with that speculation, one mystery may have just been solved… But what on earth Charles was going to do about it still needed to be figured out.