Veronica woke up confused. Why wasn't she in her queen size feather bed under her cashmere blanket? She sat up, stretching, her muscles sore from sleeping in the booth at Le Bon Nuit. It had been difficult adjusting since she had walked out on her dictator-like monster of a father and tread out on her own. Her speakeasy may not have had the comforts of the Pembrooke, but at least it was hers, and currently her only escape from her parents' criminal activity and cobra like parenting strategy.

Veronica slipped her feet into her satin slippers and walked over to the bar. There was a hot cup of coffee waiting for her next to her favourite seat. It had the perfect view of the glory of her speakeasy and was still central enough for great acoustics and interaction with her guests.

"Praise you, Pop Tate" Veronica said as she lifted her cup of coffee in triumph before taking her first sip.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and set it down on the wooden surface of the bar. Veronica's face fell when she saw that Betty hadn't replied to any of her calls or messages. It had been days since the quarantine, and she had heard nothing from her best friend. It was getting spooky to say the least.

"What on earth is going on with B, I wonder." Veronica muttered to herself. She walked back over to the booth she had slept in and began to pack up her blanket and stash it in the office when her phone rang, caller ID displaying an unfamiliar number.

"Hello" she said questioningly, half expecting it to be a new Black Hood looking for another Riverdale teen to emotionally torment.

"Veronica, it's me. Have you heard from Betty?"

"Jughead? No, Betty's been M.I.A. What about you, what about Archie? Is he okay?" her voice sped up as she spoke, her nerves rising with Jughead's unexpected call. She would have thought Archie would be the one to call her. Unless something bad had happened to him since they left.

"Archie is fine he's safe I have someone looking after him. Can you meet me at Pop's as soon as possible? We need to talk." He said.

"Sure Jones. Give me an hour and I'll be there." Veronica hung up and stared questioningly at her phone screen. This could not be good.

'I guess Jughead wouldn't know that I have been calling this little piece of sub ground level tranquility home' Veronica thought to herself as she headed into the office for her change of clothes.

About an hour later, Veronica strut upstairs into Pop's diner. She said her good morning to Pop and then spotted Jughead in their usual booth looking like he was brooding more than usual.

Jughead sat in the booth alone, sipping on his coffee. It was only 9am and he was exhausted. He had left Ohio before sunrise that morning so he could get to Riverdale as early as possible. There was work to be done. The ride here on his bike had been long but it felt good flying down the familiar roads back to the town that he and his friends called home.

He had called Veronica shortly after stopping by Betty's house hoping to see if there were any clues left there that would tell him how to find her. A small part of him hoped he would find her there, hiding secretly in the house alone, even though he knew that would statistically never happen. It had been days and no one had seen her. Either she couldn't communicate with them for some reason or she didn't want to, and both options he found deeply disturbing. He was surprised to find that the house looked exactly as it always had. There were no signs that anyone had packed much of anything for a trip except maybe the absence of Mrs. Cooper's toothbrush from the bathroom. But, Jughead was concerned to find that Betty's toothbrush was still there, and that her phone was lying face down on the kitchen counter, battery now long dead.

Looking around the house further he could tell that no one had been home in at least a few days. Betty's bed was still made, and her room looked untouched from the last time he had been here. That was only the day before he left with Archie. He could still see the same clothes lying on the floor, the ones he had taken off her the last time he had touched her perfect skin and put his mouth against her perfect pink lips. It was odd considering perfect Alice Cooper would have made Betty pick them up by now if she hadn't preemptively done it herself.

The thing that had terrified him the most was the phone. He had charged it, and it turned on to reveal nearly a week's worth of missed calls and messages. Fear encased his heart as he left the Cooper house and headed to Pop's to meet Veronica.

"Hey Jughead, so what's up? Where's Archie? And why are you asking about Betty? Do you know something?" Veronica asked hastily sliding into the booth across from him.

"I'm fine, Archie is fine. He's safe with my mom and Jellybean. Have you heard anything from Betty?"

"No, I was going to ask you the same. I haven't heard anything from B in days. My mom said that Ms. Cooper ran off to the Farm or something. Apparently she heard that much from Archie's dad, but I haven't heard anything about Betty. I'm assuming she is probably there with her mom hiding out with those culty farmies until the endless storm that is Riverdale has finally subsided." Veronica said.

"Betty would never agree to go there. She must be somewhere else, but Veronica I found her phone at her house." Jughead said.

"What do you mean you found her phone?"

"It was just lying on the counter in the kitchen, with all these unread messages on it, and the house looks like nobody has been there in days." Jughead said, watching the frown on Veronica's face deepen as she began to realize the same thing that he had only an hour earlier. He slid the phone across the table to her and Veronica picked it up and saw the list of her own unread messages sent to Betty over the days she had apparently been missing.

"So you think something nefarious is going down with Betty." Jughead nodded, "Alright Jones, I am on board with your theory. I also don't think for a second that our girl would agree to go to that god awful farm with her mom, but this is straight up spooky."

"Right?" Jughead said. "This is Betty we are talking about. It wouldn't be like her to just disappear like this. And she never forgets her phone. Even if she was at the farm she would have told us something, she would have at least told me she was alright."

"You might be onto something. We need to find out where she is and if she's okay. Now." Veronica said, panic seeping into her voice.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I hope you are enjoying reading this story so far. I have been posting some of what I had already written and edited. I have a bit of work to do to get the rest of this ready for you to read to hang in there. I will continue to publish chapters at my leisure. I write regularly, but sometimes I get busy, as we all do. I intend to complete this story, I have a pretty good idea of how things are going to play out, and right now I have the writing bug bad.

All the best!

Blue