We were running for so long; the sun had risen halfway in the sky. My lungs burned, and by the heaving gasps that my friends were taking behind me, so were theirs. But I barely felt that, I had laser focus; finding Juniper and Dagwood and making sure that they were okay and safe.
There were tears threatening to escape my eyes and my whole body just wanted to shut down and panic. I mean, my parents and my sister were dead. I had just witnessed Penelope Blossom orchestrate it, not to mention the heart-wrenching, gruesome murder scene that went along with that.
And I had just left them. Left them to be picked up by a couple of police officers and taken to the morgue. Though, if the police officers had any brains, then the cause of death would be fairly self-evident; they had been shot in the head.
Three residents of Riverdale, two of them innocent, all of them parents, had been killed in cold blood. All by another mother who was still grieving from the loss of her very own son. Still, that definitely didn't excuse any of her behavior.
But, they would just be treated like any other dead bodies; thrown into a casket and virtually forgotten about, with only the small space of ground that they would occupy for years to come as their remnants.
Suddenly, I thought, me and Cheryl don't seem so different.
We both lost a sibling at the hands of our father, our fathers were both dead, and we both wanted revenge against one person; Penelope Blossom.
I would've blamed my father, hell, I still do, but I wanted, needed, even craved someone that I could take my anger out on, so I decided that that lucky person would be Penelope.
I swear, if she hurt the twins, too, I thought, silently plotting how I would make her pay.
I had ripped my high heels off long ago, worried that I would break an ankle if I'd have worn them any longer. Hence, I felt the pounding of my soft feet on the hard ground more than I would've normally.
Huffing and puffing, we came to another clearing. Only this time, there were a couple dozen people in it, along with a truck and a van.
To my absolute surprise, Cheryl was there, standing confidently in the back of the truck, flanked by Toni, another surprise, and a Serpent. They were all, somehow, shooting the minions that were running after us with bows and arrows.
As we came closer, Toni yelled," Take cover!" Then went back to ambushing the enemy, with such grace I didn't even know she had.
She didn't so much as give us a second glance, but she did look visibly calmer, so did Cheryl for that matter.
We did as she said, skidding behind the van, collapsing with exhaustion. The three others looked at me, asking questions that probably went along the lines of,' Are you okay?' or, 'Betty, we're in the clear now'.
I didn't hear them, though. My senses were way too foggy for anything right now. I just needed to find the twins.
"The twins," I mumbled, pulling away from their grasp, my eyes flitting across the scene to see if they were there.
"Betts, I'm sure they're safe, but we need to stay here, together." Jughead said, taking my actively bleeding and clenched hands in his.
But it wasn't going to be enough. Jughead didn't know what it felt like to be ripped away from your entire family, the people who raised you, and then have to run away from their dead bodies for fear of the death of all of his closest friends. I couldn't just calm down, or ignore it.
It was as if I was carrying around a 40-pound weight all across my body. It was weighing me down, and was impossible to ignore. And the key to getting it off was finding the twins, to make my parents and Polly proud.
I didn't voice my concerns though. I just clenched my fists even harder, making more blood flow out of them. Jughead must've felt that too, because I heard him exhale loudly, anger and worry showing through.
Drowning in my own panic, I didn't even remember the poison that I had coursing through my veins until I felt a sudden wave of dizziness, and fell against the side of the van.
"The poison! Archie, where's the antidote?" Jughead practically yelled, as he moved to support me from falling over.
Archie opened up his hand and revealed a tiny glass bottle full of clear liquid.
He passed it over to Veronica, who was also struggling with dizziness, and she uncorked it and drank half of it. She then passed it over to Jughead, who tried to get me to unclench one of my fists and take it, but it wasn't going to happen.
So instead, he coaxed me to open up my lips, which I did, because it would be much easier to find the twins if I was conscious.
He poured the liquid into my mouth, and I immediately swallowed, feeling much more alert.
With my newfound strength, I ran over to the truck that Cheryl was standing in and glanced in it for any sign of babies.
"Dear cousin, thank the almighty gods that you're alright," She said, jumping off the truck and wrapping me into a hug.
"Cheryl- Cheryl, where are the twins?" I asked, hearing the heavy tremble in my voice.
"Your mom, an angel in disguise gave them to me and helped me escape that godawful organ farm place. In fact, I'd love to thank that wonderous woman in person. Let's go," She said, motioning to the truck.
"Where are they?" I asked, more firm this time.
"They're safe at Thistle house with dear Nana Rose. Some of The Poisons are guarding them, actually. But why are you so worried, cousin?" She said, confusion flitting across her face.
Not being able to hold the sickening wave of panic and grief that overwhelmed me, I let loose the tears.
I heard three pairs of footsteps coming up behind me, as I cried. My mom's last act had been to protect the twins. I let myself sink into Jughead and Veronica's loving arms once again, as I finally unclenched my fists.
My body was racking with sobs, as Cheryl said, concerned," What happened?"
She was suddenly on high alert, knowing that I normally didn't break down in front of people.
Since Cheryl didn't direct the question at anyone, Veronica answered.
"Cheryl, when we were in the woods, we each had to complete a quest of sorts, to satisfy someone. That someone, is your mom," Veronica said tentatively, as she rubbed soothing circles on my back.
"Yes, I know. Nana Rose told me that Mumsy had been planning this whole forest charade for months, now. Personally, I think she needs to straighten out her priorities." Cheryl said, being her usual sarcastic self, but with a tone edged with worry.
"Yes. So, all of the tasks were specifically tailored to us, to teach us a lesson or feed on a fear that we had. Archie had to fight a guy in a bear costume, Jug had to fight Chic, who by the way is The Gargoyle King, and I had to do a spin the bottle game with Betty, but instead of kissing we had to drink poison. They were all the test our loyalty and strength. But Betty, Betty had to do something bad.
Her and her dad were locked in battle, Hal said that she either shoots him, or he shoots her and all of us. She ended up shooting him, which we were all very surprised by, but he blocked the bullet with his hand so it didn't kill him. But then, Penelope came up behind him, said that he broke the rules and disobeyed her. She- she had- I guess, kidnapped Alice and Polly, you know? Just in case he disobeyed her.
She told him that she threatened him with the killing of Polly and Alice, but not Betty. Because she wanted someone to live on with all of pain and suffering, he'd caused. Then- then," Veronica paused as I had dug my nails in again.
"B, it's gonna be okay," she comforted. But what V didn't know is that I had been doing this my whole life, as a coping mechanism. Anytime something bad happened, or I had to act like everything was perfectly fine, even if it wasn't, I had dug my nails into my palms until they broke flesh. It seemed to compensate for all of the emotional pain that I had been feeling.
So, even though her attempt was nice, it wasn't going to be that easy.
Veronica took a deep breath before she finished the story." Penelope shot Hal, Alice and Polly."
I let out a huge sob right then and there.
Because people saying, that meant that it really happened.
That they were really dead.
That I was completely and officially alone in this world.
"Oh my, oh my god," Cheryl said, in shock.
"Betty, I'm so, so sorry." She said, as she knelt down to give me a hug.
It was warm and genuine. The kind of hug that you might've gotten from a sister.
I could tell that from that moment on, me and Cheryl would have a bond that couldn't be broken.
I returned that hug, being as warm and as genuine as I could, knowing that she was the only one in that small clearing that completely understood what I was going through.