*Much like the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, we hide behind curtains. Much like Eleanor Rigby, we put on a mask before we go out in the morning. Much like monsters, we pretend to be good.*

When I was released from Harmony Hills Institute for the Mentally Insane, they didn't really have much of a readjustment plan. They just throw you out into the real world, and expect you to figure it out on your own. In other words, I was having trouble figuring out this whole "apartment" thing. It came furnished because I didn't have much anyhow. But I had to pay rent, water, and electricity. That meant I had to go out and get a job. Do you know how hard it is to get a job for someone with a record like mine!? Someone who is practically branded mentally insane!? I tried every place in town that I could think of, but no one was hiring. Until, right before it closed it's doors for the night, I walked into the Riverdale Public Library. It wasn't what I was expecting, but the old lady behind the counter was trying to balance a comically large stack of books and kept apologizing to the line of people waiting to checkout. I rushed over grabbing the stack of books from her arms.

"Oh thank you, sweetheart." She exclaimed relieving her arms of the heavy weight.

I nodded and headed off to a computer to check in the books. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, but I finally got it. As soon as she was through with the line the old lady walked up to me. She smiled. "Thank you for helping me, dear."

"Anytime," I replied smiling back. "I'm Ophelia Blossom."

"Ahh, you're back Miss Blossom." The old woman said. "I remember you when you were just a tyke."

"You remember me?" I asked. Then I peered at the woman before me.

She nodded. "Of course I do, Lia."

"Mrs. Marvin?" I asked. She smiled nodding. Mrs. Marvin was the librarian when I was a little girl, and she was the first one to call me Lia. "I'm so happy that you're still here!"

"I may be old, but I'm not that old." She snapped causing me to laugh.

"It's been good to see you again, but I really should get back to job hunting." I replied waving goodbye.

"Nonsense," she exclaimed. "You're hired!"

"Really!?" I asked. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Th-"

"Alright, alright, I get it you're grateful." She said. "Now don't yell in a library."

I laughed and got back to work.

I smiled sitting across from my little sister in a booth at Pop's. I ordered a chocolate strawberry shake and leaned back. "So Cher-Cher," I said. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Ophelia," she looks on the verge of tears. "I'm so sorry I forgot about you!"

She burst into tears as someone sat down my milkshake. I grabbed her hands trying to comfort her. "It's alright Cheryl. Mommy and Daddy aren't a bundle of joy when they don't get their way."

She laughed bitterly through the tears. "You have no idea."

"I assume nothing's changed at Thorn Hill?" I asked taking a sip of my milkshake.

"If anything it's gotten worse." She replied.

"How could it have gotten worse?" I asked leaning forward intrigued.

"There's nothing us Blossoms pride ourselves on more than being the perfect family." She mumbled. "Then Jason ended up dead in the water."

"Then I showed back up." I muttered. "And all the hard work to be perfect went to Hell." I laughed bitterly. "I really fucked up their lives didn't I?"

"In their opinions," Cheryl said. "Yes."

I smiled painfully. "Just one more black spot on the Blossom record." I adopted an English accent for some reason, I don't even know why. "If I don't watch out I'll go the same way Jason did."

Cheryl looked at me shock in her eyes.

"Shot in the head and left for dead. Frozen in time for a pretty dime. Sent to the river to make the town shiver." I sung. "That's how Jason Blossom died."

Cheryl looked at me horrified ,but I couldn't stop now.

"Locked in a padded room then sent to her doom. Called her crazy to make the memories hazy. Sent to the chair to get her fixed but not to get the treatments mixed." I sung. "That's how Ophelia Blossom fried."

Cheryl backed away her mouth opening and closing like when you realize what a freak show really is.

"Rowed at his command to get to the other land. Tipped the boat so he couldn't float. Searched the bottom so no one caught 'em." I sung. "That's how Cheryl Blossom lied."

Cheryl was shell-shocked. She glared at me. "Our parents were right, you are insane." She got up to leave.

"If I'm insane then Jason died of natural causes." I holler at her back. She hesitates for a minute then runs out the door. I sigh going back to my milkshake. So much for trying to talk things out with my sister.

"Nice song," said a voice. "You should really write it into a full one some day."

I turned to the direction the voice was coming from. I looked at the person before me in utter confusion. "And you are?"

They sat down across from me. "An ally."

*The Blossom aren't exactly know for being kind, but we do have a long history of covering things up. The Blossom history is a long and twisted one that I plan on exposing.*

*Thinking back on everything that had happened in Riverdale since I left; I was almost relieved I went to Chicago. Almost but not quite.*

I swirled my straw around in my banana split shake sighing sadly. "You alright Yazzy?" Asked Ally sitting across from me.

"Yeah," I sigh. "Just thinking about how everything has changed in this town."

"My mom used to say that events change things," she said. "Like every little thing changes something in a big way. You leaving the town, for example, could've caused the town's innocence to fly away. Ophelia coming back could cause the town to fall apart." She sighed slumping back in the booth. "The one thing she always reminded me was if we knew the outcome, even if it was absolutely horrible, would we change our actions in that moment."

I nodded then smiled. "Like that one episode in series one of Merlin when Kilgarah tells Merlin that if he saves young Mordred he'll grow up to kill Arthur, but Merlin saves him anyways because he's just a child."

Ally cracks a smile. "Of course you would reference a TV show, but yeah pretty much."

"Hey!" I snapped. "Merlin is so much more than a TV show! It's a lifestyle!"

At that she burst out laughing. I crack a small smile and suddenly everything in the town is back to normal. It's just Ally and I cracking jokes and eating fries (or throwing them at each other occasionally). None of the bad stuff has happened in Riverdale. It's the same as it always was, but we knew it could never last. The scent of death lingered over our town like a looming thunderstorm on the horizon.

Ally and I talked about everything and nothing. We were so caught up in our own conversation that we didn't see Ophelia and Cheryl in the booth behind us. We didn't see Cheryl storm out, and we didn't see the person join Ophelia. It was as if, for us, the world had stopped turning, and, in that moment, we were just two freshmen spending an afternoon together at a favorite local diner.

I don't remember much else of my first week back in Riverdale. Everything was incredibly crazy. Cheryl and my brother, Archie, telling the sheriff about hearing a gunshot on the fourth. The town was slowly beginning to piece together the jigsaw puzzle that was Jason's murder. I don't remember what day it was when Betty Cooper asked me to be in the Blue and Gold office, but I do remember what happened while in it.

Ophelia and I walked down there together, Ally and Carter had yet to arrive at school. When we entered the room, I was surprised to see Jughead there; he doesn't really get involved in school things.

"So," I asked taking a sip of my coffee. "Why am I here?"

Betty cast a nervous glance at Ophelia before speaking to me. "Well I remember that you were such a great writer-"

"Let me stop you right there, I write fiction or poetry not exactly something you want in a school newspaper." I said swirling my coffee around in my cup.

"But you're capable of writing nonfiction, and despite what you say you're good at it." She replied smugly.

"Lots of people can write ask one of them." I stated turning to leave.

"I also know you have a strong pull to solve mysteries and see justice done." She shouted at my back.

I stopped not turning around. "Are you asking me to solve Jason Blossom's murder?"

"Well," she answered nervously. "Not exactly solve but..."

"Investigate," jumped in Juggie. "Report on."

"Delve into," Ophelia offered. "Perhaps lead an intrusive operation." You could hear the anger present in her words. She huffed. "If you guys wanna investigate Jason and the Blossoms make sure you're prepared for anything. And also I want in. I can't necessarily write, but-"

"She's one hell of photographer." I interrupted. "We'll both join the Blue and Gold and help you."

Betty smiled. "Jughead I need you to go interrogate Dilton Doiley. And Yaz, Lia see if you can uncover anything about Jason's home life."

"Roger that, Captain." Said Lia giving Betty a fake salute.

I shook my head at her. "Don't do that."

"What?" She asked innocently.

"Just don't do that," I replied taking her arm. "Let's go."

"Wait, wait," asked Carter after we had explained to her and Ally about how we're working on the Blue and Gold. "She asked you two to delve into Jason's home life?"

We nodded. "So it's back to ol' Thorn Hill for me." Ophelia said giving a bitter laugh. "Back to where it all began." She sighed taking a bite of her apple then sinking down in her seat.

"This time we venture to where no other humans have come back telling truthful tales. We travel into the deep dark mystery that is Thorn Hill Mansion." I said in my best TV announcer voice.

"And if we live to tell the tale, we will become legends." Finished Ophelia laughing.

"But if we don't we'll become distant, forgotten memories." I added laughing a little myself.

"Well glad you two can joke about this. That place gives me major creepo vibes." Said Carter with a shiver. We all shared a laugh.

"But seriously guys," said Ally. "Be careful in there."

"When are we not?" Asked Ophelia and I at the same time. Ally and Carter just rolled their eyes at us.

*And so per say Betty's request we traveled into the deepest depths of some of our greatest fears. Finding people's secrets can be deadly... We hope it isn't this time.*