I sat down on the hard bed in my cell. It was stiff and not comfortable at all. But I mean, what did I expect in jail, right? I can take getting arrested. But if Hiram and Minetta think they can imprison my friends too? They better think again.

"Archie!" I heard my name called by a very familiar voice. My dad. "Archie, sorry I didn't come earlier, I literally just found out what happened." He looked at me. "What did happen? From your perspective." He tilted his head.

"Dad, I didn't murder this man!"

"I know you didn't murd-"

"Hiram and Minetta- they're working together. They just arrested Jughead for a crime he didn't commit too. They're tearing us all apart!" I shook the bars of the cell.

"Archie, what happened?"

I looked at my dad's eyes. He seemed so sad, so confused, but determined to get me out. "Cassidy broke into Veronica's house while we were staying there. He escaped so I ran after him. I tackled him..." My dad raised an eyebrow. "But I didn't hurt him! That's when Andre said he'd take it from there."

"Who's Andre?"

"Mr. Lodge's doorman and guard."

"So... do you think Andre killed Cassidy?" My dad asked. I nodded my head. We were silent for a few moments. "Who else has visited you?"

"Betty, Veronica," Hiram and Hermione... I thought. But I wasn't about to scare my dad anymore than he already was.

"That's it? No one else?"

I looked around at the bare walls of my cell. Everything was grey. It was so empty. There was no indication that anyone had ever been here except some faded tally marks on the wall. "That's it."

My dad shook his head. "This is all my fault."

My forehead creased. "What? Dad, no, none of this has to do with you. This is all Mr. Lodge's doing."

"If I didn't have that stupid grudge with that family, he would leave you alone. We could be at home right now, ordering dinner and watching the football game. Hiram has a lot of enemies, and when he lashes out, the results are frightening. Trust me." He seemed lost in his thoughts; lost in his past.

I leaned as close to the cells as I could get. "None of this is your fault." I told him. "It's my own. I don't know why I got so close to Hiram's mafia thing. It was really stupid of me."

My dad smiled. "Yeah, that was pretty dumb."

"Fred Andrews? Your visiting time is over." A policewoman stepped towards us, motioning the exit. My dad started to walk away.

"Stay put, Arch. We're going to get you out." He called.

Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I thought.

{-}

I was staring at the wall, tracing the tally marks with my finger when I heard him.

"Let go of me!" There was definitely a struggle happening. "I didn't do anything! You can't just throw me in here!" I saw two policemen handling Jughead, his precious beanie crown gone. Probably confiscated. His dark hair was tousled and messy (Probably from the struggle), but his blue-green eyes still twinkled. He was shoved into the cell adjacent to me. It was locked, and he started to hit the cell bars as the policemen were walking away. "Hey! Don't just walk away! You can't just leave me in here!"

"Hey, Jug." I said.

"This is ridiculous." He said in return. He smiled half-heartedly. "Abandon hope all ye who enter here, am I right?"

I scoffed. "Jug, what are we going to do? We can't stay here. Betty and Veronica... they could be next."

"I know, Archie. They have no evidence against us!"

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. Minetta will just listen to whatever Hiram tells him to do." Jughead started to hit his head against the bars. "Stop, Jug, you're going to hurt yourself." He obliged.

We continued talking about how this whole thing was really messed up, how Betty and Veronica could be in danger. He told me how he ended up in jail, and that Chic escaped. We talked for a few hours. I hated that both Jughead and I were here, but in a way, it was refreshing to have someone to talk to. About halfway through our conversation, we saw a a blonde and a brunette walk out of questioning rooms.

"Betty." Jughead gripped the bars, willing them to break. They didn't. Betty and Veronica glanced at us, giving us small smiles, and walked out of the station. I didn't blame them. There was no way Minetta would have let them visit us, paperwork or not.

Eventually it started to get dark. The station was about to close, but before it did, we heard a voice. "Wait!" They said. "Let me... let me see my son!" Fp. He sounded angry and... drunk.

"Dad?" Jughead called. We heard the sound of footsteps. Fp appeared, looking a bit messy and unshaven. "Dad... what happened to you?"

"Boy... what happened to you? Did you get into some trouble..?" He slurred his words.

"You've been drinking again, haven't you? That time I saw you drinking... I thought it was a one time thing. You said you were going to stop!" I couldn't see Jughead's face from where I was, but I knew it must have been anxious and heartbroken.

"You're in trouble boy... deep deep trouble..." He hit the cell.

"Sir, we're going to have to ask you to leave." Minetta said. "You can't be back here." Fp shoved him.

"Dad... what are you doing?" Jughead sounded so broken.

"Jellybean...your mom..." He trailed off and laughed. "Alice..."

"Jellybean? Mom? Dad, what are you trying to say?" Fp just looked at him. Jughead hit the cell. "Dad! Answer me!" Police officers grabbed Fp and dragged him to the exit. "Are they back? Answer me!" Fp was taken outside. "Damnit!" Jughead exclaimed. "I should have stopped him from drinking... I should have kept a closer eye on him..." He started murmuring. I didn't say anything. I let him ramble until I heard him fall asleep.

{-}

I woke up to a set of dark brown eyes studying me.

"You're quite peaceful when you sleep, even being in a jail cell." Veronica observed.

"Ronnie!" I sat up immediately. The sight of her woke me up. "What are you doing here?" I smiled.

"I'm just checking on my boyfriend!" She smiled reaching through the cell and brushing my hair back. I laughed. "Betty came too, but she's talking to Jughead right now." I nodded my head.

"Ronnie... I don't want you to be out there with only Betty. I can't stand the thought of you getting hurt."

"I can take care of myself, Archiekins."

"I know, but still..." She cut me off.

"Archie needs to worry about Archie right now for," She waved her hand around the cell. "Obvious reasons. So, I hired you a lawyer."

"Who?"

"Former Mayor McCoy. I was going to call your mom in, but then I realized that if you have a trial, the jury probably would think she was biased. Which she probably would be. Anyway, she's going to be visiting you later today to talk about your options. Also, I tried paying for you and Jughead's bail, but I got denied for both. Apparently, an anonymous donator paid it already. Anyway, I tried at least." She was honestly too good for me. I don't know where I would be without her.

"Ronnie! That's great! I can not even begin to thank you for what you've done." I held her hand through the bars.

"I was sitting here for a while, so my visiting time is probably over. I should go, before they kick me out." I nodded my head. "Bye Archiekins. Hang in there for one more day!" She smiled and left, bringing Betty with her.

{-}

At roughly 2:00 pm, Mrs. McCoy walked in. I heard the click clack of her heels down the hallway.

"Mr. Andrews!" She exclaimed. "How are you?"

I stared at her. "Not very well, which I'm guessing you could figure out."

"Miss Lodge told me you need a lawyer. So here I am. But for this to work, I need to know everything that happened. What really happened."

Did everyone think that I was lying? Did everyone really believe that I killed Cassidy? "He broke into Veronica's vacation house while we were there. I chased after him. I tackled him. Then Andre, Hiram Lodge's bodyguard, said he would take it from there and I left."

"Archie... Andre is dead. So therefore we don't have a witness."

"What? Andre's dead?" Why had no one told me about this?

"Yes. You don't have a witness. So you have to be convincing. Can you do that?" I nodded my head.

"Good. An anonymous person posted bail, so you'll be out of here soon. Charges have been pressed, so you will be having a trial." I groaned. "I know, I know. But it'll be fine. They have no evidence against you."

"But I have no witnesses."

"I told you. Be convincing."

"What about Jughead and his case? Does he have a lawyer?"

Mrs. McCoy sighed. "Charles's immediate family is not stepping forward. We don't know where they are, so we don't know if they want to press charges or not."

"That's bull. The Coopers are his immediate family."

"The Coopers are his biological family, not his immediate family." Mrs. McCoy explained. I sighed.

"Mrs. McCoy, you're visiting time is up." She nodded her head at me and I heard the click clack of her heels walk back down the hallway she came from.

{-}

"Jug?" I leaned on the wall.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"What are we going to do?"

I heard him sigh. "I don't know Arch, let's see what tomorrow brings. We'll be ok. They have no evidence against either of us."

I paused. "Did you know that an anonymous person posted our bail?"

I heard him shift his body. "Anonymous person? Honestly, Hiram needs a new alias name. Everyone knows it's him. He's not fooling anyone. Why would he post our bail if he's the one who put us in here in the first place?"

"I don't know." Except I did. The conversation I had with Mr. Lodge... but I had never agreed. He couldn't go through with his offer if I never agreed to it!

"Get some sleep, Archie. We'll be free by tomorrow!" We laughed and said goodnight.

{-}

I woke up to the sound of voices. What time was it? It had to be late, maybe even past midnight. Who was still here besides the prisoners? Somebody laughed.

"I mean, I was going to get him anyway, he's troublesome, that one. Determined, though. I respect that." Was that..?

"You should have seen him when we were trying to get him booked!" They laughed again.

"Jug!" I whisper-shouted. He must have been asleep; he didn't say anything back.

"As I was saying, I was going to find some way to get him arrested as well, but I mean, he just did this to himself."

"He was practically standing on top of that boy when we got there!"

Hiram and Minetta. I was fully awake now, and could recognize their voices.

"Just blame it all on him." Hiram said. "Cassidy, Charles... everything. We'll see where we want to go with Archie, but for now... blame it all on the other one." I froze. The other one? Were they going to say Jughead helped kill Cassidy?

"But Sir, Charles... he escaped from the hospital. We don't know if he's dead or not." Minetta said.

"We don't know if he's dead. The public... they have no idea what's going on. Say that he's dead. Do whatever you can to keep that boy in there!"

"Yes, Sir."

"In return for your services..." I couldn't see, but I assumed Hiram passed money to Minetta. I heard footsteps, growing softer and softer.

Was Minetta going to say that Jughead helped kill Cassidy? And say that he killed Charles, even though they don't know whether he's dead or not?! Why were they doing this? Jughead barely even knew Mr. Lodge, but that didn't stop him from talking about him, saying he was slowly buying all of Riverdale and was going to ruin us all. I should have listened to him. Now look at where we were. I thought back to my conversation with Hiram and Hermione when they visited me but then quickly stopped. Hiram couldn't do that. I had never agreed. I fell asleep listening to the sound of the generator hum, and thinking how anything could possibly be worse.

{-}

I woke up, still rattled by what I heard last night. No more than a few minutes later, there were many officers walking down our hallway.

"All right!" I heard Jughead say. "Freedom, here we come."

I saw who was walking and my heart stopped. 5 officers, Sheriff Minetta, and... Hiram Lodge. The Sheriff opened my cell and said, "Archie Andrews, your bail has been posted. You are free to leave until your trial." Two officers took me by the arms and were starting to walk me down the hallway, but I wouldn't let them.

"What about Jughead?" I asked.

"Ah, yes." Minetta said. "We were just getting to him." He walked up to Jughead's cell but didn't take out the key. "Forsyth Pendleton Jones III, charges have been dropped for the beating of Chic and the attempted murder of Charles Smith." Jughead and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Instead, you have two new charges."

"What?" Jughead asked.

"Forsyth Pendleton Jones III, you are charged with being an accomplice to the murder of Cassidy Bullick and the murder of Charles Smith."

"What? No!" Jughead shouted, shaking the cell.

"Your bail was paid for the previous charges. However, those charges have been dropped. You are charged with the crimes just listed with no bail." He started to walk away, with Jughead shouting at him, frantically.

Hiram smiled a wicked smile, nodding at me and walking off into the shadows.

"NO!" I yelled at him. "I never agreed to your stupid offer!"

I heard their footsteps walking up to my cell.

"Archie!" Hiram exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" I growled.

"Well, I'm here to make a deal, you could say." Hiram explained. He looked at Hermione and she nodded. "I will pay your bail if your beloved friend, Jughead, I believe his name is, is also charged with Cassidy's murder."

"Why the hell would I agree to that?" I demanded. "Sir." I added, mocking him.

"Your bail is over a million dollars. I don't think you can afford that, can you, Archie? I need Mr. Jones out of my way. He's the leader of the Serpents now, so if he's gone, the whole gang collapses. Besides, he's too smart for his own good. He knew my plans long before anyone else did. It would be easier for me to handle him if he were in a jail cell." He smiled coldly. "What say you?"

"I do not accept your offer." I snarled.

The officers started walking me down the hallway, away from my cell, away from Jughead. I was trying to shake them off, but I couldn't.

"I NEVER AGREED!"