Okay guys, I won't ever make a promise like, "I'm going to try to get this one done earlier!" anymore.
My work schedule was absolutely nuts for two weeks, then I had a (very fun) but also work trip to England for a week. And came back directly into Christmas time rush/workload. So I was only able to write little bits and pieces for the last three weeks but pushed really hard over the weekend and today to get in done. So fun fact, some of this chapter was written on a plane above the Atlantic ocean, in some airports, and also a bit in Liverpool for any readers from the UK out there!
Double fun fact, as I realized all the dates for the events happening in this story were actually passing, I found myself thinking "Oh, tonight this happens…" And then continuously thinking, "Oh, sorry Betty," over and over, especially on Halloween. (Which I surprisingly got a few things right (sorry Jughead.)) And now the dates have fallen behind in the story since I've had no time.
Boris Yeltsin, yes! It is nice to see Kevin finally getting the help he needs! Everyone is starting to. And I'd say something's in the cards for Penelope.
Kitten9322, to answer your question - The Wyrm has been abandoned since the end of S2. Veronica bought it, then Hiram bought it, then nothing happened with it. So, the Serpents aren't there anymore. No one is. I love your strong reactions to everything and everyone! Hold on, because I will warn that this chapter (both parts) is a rollercoaster.
ButtonMashr, I'm here to provide the wholesome, S1 vibes, because the show ain't. Thanks for the kind words! I'm so glad even the little scene like Jug in the offices held a lot of weight for you! Tom Keller is great, and lots of game-changing needed to happen all over! Oh yeah, the details with Betty are so hard for me to write but so necessary for what she's going through. The Archie/FP line was an add in my final draft and I was like, "Oh no, what did my heart stumble onto?" Get ready, because this two-part chapter will probably also hurt hearts (it sure did mine.)
Ellie, thanks once again for the great review and kind words toward the writing! I love that you are enjoying this storyline so much. I wanted to bring the realness back (while still having adequate conflict and drama) because my heart just loves S1 too much. Cheryl definitely needed some closure, that wound has been left open too long. Betty's in a pretty precarious place right now for sure, and I agree! The show never addresses like anything! Hope you enjoy the coming chapters.
AvidMovieFan16, so glad to hear you are enjoying this! I'm glad that Cheryl finally got some peace with Jason too. And you won't have to wait long now to see what happens...
Kish99, thank you so much for the kind words! That makes me blush a bit... hope you continue to follow along with the story!
Guest, thank you for the kind words! I was getting anxious while writing this too, sorry for the long wait! But I hope it's worth it!
Also, now that we're seven episodes in… I'm very glad I decided to write this fanfiction after all. That is all I will say about my opinion toward the show right now.
So, with all ranting and fun facts aside, because let's be real, this is the chapter you've all been waiting for, let the story continue!
Chapter 13 – Exodus Pt. I
The forest grew eerily still. Jughead furrowed his brow and slowly turned around, his breath swirling in the chilly air in front of him. Penelope Blossom was standing a few feet away, adorned with a dark floral dress and a malicious smirk, a handbag perched in the crook of her arm.
"More déjà vu…" Veronica uttered to herself as she moved closer to the boys.
Archie stepped forward and raised his fists defensively. Jughead immediately whipped out the knife from his pocket.
"Already trying to spoil the fun?" Penelope tutted. "How typical of you children. Archibald, Jughead, there's no need for anything rash. Not unless you want someone to get hurt." She reached into her purse and pulled something out. Jughead looked at it, stiffening when he saw the flash of silver metal. He could tell Archie and Veronica saw it too, as Archie had dropped his fists and pushed himself closer to Veronica.
Penelope smiled and dropped it back inside her bag. She then paused and raised a finger. "One, two, three… oh dear," she frowned, "We seem to be missing one, don't we?"
Archie jerked forward but Jughead grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.
"Archie, no!" Jughead hissed. His own anger was flaring, but they had to act smartly. He stared at Penelope, studying her facial expression. She looked too… eager. He knew they needed to hear more.
"We do not have time for this," Veronica snapped. "Why the hell are you back?"
A slight movement caught the corner of Jughead's eye and he glanced at Veronica. She had pulled her phone behind her back and was holding down the call button.
"Oh, I've been around more than you've known. Lurking, waiting. It's been so much fun watching you three self-destruct." Penelope smiled darkly. "But you were starting to get too friendly again, so I thought it high time I step in."
"You tried to kill all of us. For sport," Jughead spat, still holding Archie back. His stomach twisted, but his mind was also prickling. Threads were starting to come together in his head.
Penelope smirked and shrugged her shoulders gleefully. "What can I say, I guess I just don't know how to let things go."
"So are you here to try to finish the job? Because that didn't work so well the first time." Veronica was sneering, but there was hesitation in her voice.
Penelope bobbed her head and frowned, "As much as I hate to admit my failures, you're correct, it didn't. But who doesn't like a second chance?"
Jughead squeezed his pocketknife a little tighter.
"I've learned a thing or two from my mistakes. And now I know that I don't have to kill you to see you die. You can still feel the pain I did another way."
Penelope reached back into her bag and Archie lurched forward once more. "I can grab the gun before she can use it!" he whispered back as Jughead charged too. They were not going to go down now. Not when they were this close.
Archie and Jughead only made it a few strides before Penelope lifted her head, but what was in her hand was not a gun. And then a voice filled the air, freezing Archie and Jughead in their tracks.
"It opened the first wound, the original trauma. If I had to guess, Betty, this was your point of no return."
Jughead felt the blood drain from his face. Archie tensed up next to him. Penelope was holding what looked like a tape recorder in her hand, her finger hovering over the play button.
"Ah, ah, ah boys, I wouldn't do that if I were you, or I won't let you listen to the rest," she tutted.
"Who is that?" Veronica asked hoarsely, coming up behind Jughead.
Her question didn't register, but he turned toward Penelope and asked his own, "What is that?"
"You all seemed so sad without your friend, so I thought I'd bring you a little present from dear Elizabeth, something for you to remember her by." She grinned and hit the play button.
"Is it haunting, Betty? To have stepped through the veil…"
The world seemed to disappear around him as every new word poured out from the scratchy tape recording. Jughead could hear the blood pounding in his ears.
"Jughead, who is that?" Archie repeated Veronica's question in a more pained voice.
"That's… that's Edgar." His voice sounded hollow and far away. Through his panic, Jughead was trying to take in what Edgar was saying, trying to make any sense to it, but even though it was all he could hear, none of the words were sticking. He wondered if this is what the piercing of a dog whistle felt like; hearing a noise made only for certain ears, but inaudible and undetectable to the rest.
And then a second voice echoed from the tape.
"Edgar, stop…"
The voice was quiet and desperate, and it was accompanied by ragged sobs, but it was unmistakably Betty's.
Jughead took a sharp intake of breath and he could hear the others do the same. The ground felt like it had dropped out from under him and he reached out to grab Archie's jacket just to make sure he was still there.
"Everything started after this point. So much pain, so much death entered your life after this. All the places we've had to revisit, they all started here..."
Veronica started shuffling on her feet, and Jughead managed to pry his eyes away from Penelope and the tape just long enough to see her squeeze her eyes shut. But his own eyes immediately snapped back to the slowly spinning tape inside the recorder. He thought he could hear Archie begin to whimper.
"Which is why it has to end here."
Lightning coursed through Jughead's heart. Everything in his body stopped working for a second and colorful dots started to dance in front of his eyes.
There was the shuffling of fabric and a wail on the tape, then nothing. Just soft static.
Even after weeks of being in the dark, Jughead only now realized how much silence could hurt. He could hear faint crying but he wasn't sure who it was coming from. Maybe it was him. Seconds passed, and then a minute, and then:
"I'm just a kid, Edgar. Don't do this, I'm just a kid."
He wanted to be relieved when Betty's voice came back over the tape, but he couldn't. It was the most broken Jughead had ever heard her, and something deep inside told him it might be the most broken he would ever hear her.
"Stop it!" Archie finally wailed. "Turn it off, he's torturing her!"
Jughead felt him rush forward and he tried to hold him back again, but his grip was too weak to hold onto his friend. But Archie staggered and Jughead looked over; Veronica was holding onto the other side of him.
Penelope stopped the tape recorder and slid it back inside her purse, a wicked smirk shadowing her face. "As I said, I don't need to kill you."
She began walking back into the darkness of the surrounding forest. "Ta ta, little mice, it's been a pleasure," Penelope trilled, backing away from the frightened teenagers.
Archie started forward but Jughead put his arm out, speaking softly, "No, let her go."
"What?" Archie balked, hitting Jughead's arm out of the way. "Why? Did-did you not just hear that?" His voice strained.
Jughead's eyes swam and he tried to swallow down his own emotion. "Yes, I was listening. And what I heard was that she knows where Betty is. If we let her go, she could lead us directly to her." He was trying to keep his voice steady, strong. "If we get to the station now, the police can identify her car and we can follow. Does that sound like a plan?" Archie stared at him for a second, then his shoulders relaxed and he pulled away.
"Yeah, yeah it does," he said quietly, turning away.
Veronica pulled her phone out in front of her with a trembling hand, clicking on the speakerphone. "Cheryl?" she called into the phone, "Did you hear all that?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Cheryl said from the other end of the line. "That was… harrowing."
Veronica looked at Archie and Jughead. "I thought she would want to know that her mother was here," she whispered.
"My mother has tormented all of you long enough, and now she's working with that demon." There was a growl on the other side of the call. "I'm meeting you at the sheriff station."
"We won't let your mom get away," Veronica called into the phone. "Not this time."
"Come on, let's get going." Jughead felt his daze start to fade and his eyes darkened as he broke into a run. He could hear the others jogging behind him, and soon Archie was sprinting ahead of him toward the truck.
If it hadn't been before, it was now overwhelmingly clear that this was a matter of life and death.
"Thank you so much, Kevin," FP said, escorting the teen out of the room. "Just wait in the lobby for me, okay? I'll be out in a few minutes."
Kevin nodded and walked down the hall, soon disappearing around the corner. FP turned around and looked at Charles and Agent Kane. "Well?"
'Well, all of that would've been helpful to have known months ago," Kane grumbled.
"Kane, come on. The kid was traumatized," Charles scoffed.
"The other two that testified with us months ago didn't seem so traumatized."
"People are ready at different rates."
"Oh, are you a counselor now, Charles?" Agent Kane countered.
"Guys!" FP cut in. "Knock it off. We got new information out of it. We need to move forward, and quickly."
Charles and Kane looked at each other. Kane adjusted his tie and grunted. "Of course. Charles, let's head back to base-,"
"Sheriff Jones to the lobby please!" Agent Kane was cut off as Kevin's call echoed into the room. "Sheriff Jones you're needed in the lobby!"
FP knit his brow and jogged out of the room. He was not ready for what met him around the corner; Kevin was standing nervously in front of a very breathless and distraught group consisting of Jughead, Archie, Veronica, and Cheryl. All of their faces were red and splotchy.
"What happened?" FP asked, looking carefully between all of the teens in front of him. "What's wrong?"
There was a cacophony of replies as everyone answered over top one another. FP's eyes bounced from one person to the next trying to keep up. He heard "Edgar" and "Betty", something about unscrambling the clue, and what sounded like Cheryl calling her mother a hag.
"Woah, Woah!" FP said, raising his hands, "One at a time."
"We just had a run-in with Penelope Blossom," Jughead started, stepping toward his dad.
FP's eyes grew wide. "What?" He waved a passing officer over. "Where is she? Why didn't you call me?"
"We let her go on purpose, we figured you could track her. She's probably still in Riverdale," Veronica answered.
FP whispered something to the officer, who subsequently scurried off. He turned back to the group, "We're on it. What did she want? Did she hurt you?"
"Not physically." Jughead looked down at the ground.
"But she had a tape, Mr. Jones," Archie stammered.
"And that witch is working with Edgar," Cheryl snarled.
FP looked back and forth between all of the teens. They were all visibly shaken up by whatever had happened. "What tape?" he said gently, looking at Jughead. "Son, tell me what happened."
"Penelope said that she had been watching us for a while. That she wanted to see us self-destruct." Jughead coughed and cleared his throat. "We figured she just wanted to finish what she started last spring at Thornhill, but-,"
"-but she said she didn't want to kill us," Archie interjected, the frenzy returning to his eyes. "That there were other ways to die, and she played us a tape."
Archie and Jughead both returned to looking at the ground. FP turned his confused look to Veronica. Her face was red but she seemed able to talk. "It-," she choked out, meeting FP's eyes, "uh, it was a recording of Edgar torturing Betty."
"Oh no," Kevin gasped, gripping his hair. He turned toward the wall and began pacing back and forth. "I was too late." Cheryl walked over to him.
FP felt his stomach twist and he instinctively placed an arm around Jughead, who looked up with tears in his eyes. "She's a part of this, Dad. She's a part of what happened to Betty. And… and it's bad."
FP's eyes drifted over everyone standing in the lobby. Jughead was staring blankly ahead, Veronica was holding her arms, Cheryl was trying to consol a panicking Kevin, and Archie looked ready to punch a hole in the wall. It looked exactly like all the reactions the teens had when they had found Chic and the mocking note in the cabin. Then FP's eyes widened.
"That's it!" he shouted, pulling away from Jughead. Everyone stared at him. Jughead wiped his eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"What's going on out here?" Charles and Agent Kane turned the corner. Charles looked at FP in curiosity.
"There was another incident tonight. But it seems we actually may have gotten the answers we've needed. Everyone in my office, now."
"Woah, woah, we don't need a bunch of teenagers in the middle of this." Agent Kane tried to step in the way of Archie and Jughead as they headed into FP's office.
"Nice to see you again, Agent K," Jughead ragged, stepping around him.
FP huffed. "These teenagers have been in the middle of this from the beginning. They were witnesses tonight and our missing person is their best friend. They are as much – if not more - involved in this as you are, Quinton," he retorted, holding the door open as Jughead, Veronica, and Archie marched smugly into his office.
Jughead tried to hold in a snort.
"What?" Agent Kane shot him a dark look as he closed the door to FP's office, shutting the group inside.
"Nothing, nothing at all." Jughead looked away. "Quinton."
Agent Kane rolled his eyes as Charles pushed his way toward FP. "You said there's more information?"
"Right." FP cleared his throat and dug through a stack of files on his desk. "Well, earlier today I went back to the place we were sent the day Betty was first abducted."
"The cabin across the river?" Jughead guessed, perking up. FP could see the wheels already turning in his son's head.
"Yes. That part just never quite added up to me. I mean, why would Edgar wait around a whole day to shoot Chic when it was set up as a distraction in the first place? That didn't make any sense, and the scene felt oddly familiar."
"Of course!" Jughead exclaimed. "Penelope was working with him already. She shot Chic."
FP nodded, placing a finger on his nose then pointing it at Jughead. "And it looked like a mimic of Jason's death. It was the same type of bullet and gun that Clifford used."
"And she had that gun with her tonight," Archie added, staring at the photo FP was currently pulling out of the stack of files and tacking to the whiteboard. He was pulling up a series of old images from Jason's case.
"So is that why Chic was involved? Because of Penelope?" Veronica asked.
"What are we even talking about?" Kevin asked, perplexed. Cheryl slapped his shoulder and then whispered to him, presumably catching him up on everything that had happened.
"My guess is that was a happy accident on their part," Jughead continued. "Chic was afraid of something, I could see it. This was why. His instinct after escaping prison would have been to find the only person who might still take him in."
"My mother," Cheryl spat.
Jughead nodded, "Yes, and by then she was already working with Edgar. He got roped into their plan, probably threatened to be the scapegoat." FP snorted and crossed his arms. Jughead looked up, a sympathetic look washing over his eyes, and continued, "So he had hoped to get caught. Putting him back in jail would've kept him safe."
"But I didn't take him here, I took him to the bunker," FP interjected, pressing his hand against the door, closing the small crack that had been left open. "So he tried to flee to save himself, but Penelope must have gotten to him."
"That's how the riddles were so personal. Penelope would have known. I mean, she even called us the three blind mice tonight. She wrote those riddles."
"Or Mrs. Cooper might have told Edgar about some of that stuff," Kevin spoke up.
Jughead flipped his head toward Kevin, placing his hands on his hips. "And they used that against us and it worked. And they were almost able to completely cover up their tracks. Almost."
"Almost." FP nodded.
"So my father letting Chic out on the same night Edgar decides to kidnap Betty was, what? Just a coincidence?" Veronica crossed her arms.
"Seems like it," Jughead said.
"Thanks Dad," she muttered under her breath.
"Did Edgar and Penelope Blossom know each other beforehand?" Charles looked between FP and Jughead.
"My mother met with him on a few occasions, but they definitely weren't friends," Cheryl snorted.
"But why?" Archie asked, running a hand through his hair. "Why team up?"
FP didn't have an answer to that. He looked to Jughead, who was squinting and rubbing his face.
"Well, we sent Penelope on the run after what happened last spring, and after tonight, she obviously has been seeking revenge this whole time. She even said it herself – she can't let things go." He reached up and rubbed his beanie, furrowing his brow. "She was probably looking for resources after getting run out of town, and she happened to find an ally with a similar intention."
"Enemy of my enemy," Veronica growled.
Jughead nodded uneasily. "Betty managed to almost completely expose and dismantle his entire front. That sounds like a motive for revenge."
"We can ask Betty the specifics of that 'why' after we find her," Archie barked, trying to pace amongst the too-many people stuffed in the too-small office.
A phone went off and Charles tucked himself into a corner, holding a hand over his ear. "Yeah?"
"And we're going to find her. Soon." FP turned toward the map next to the whiteboard.
"We know where she is," FP and Jughead said simultaneously, causing them to look at each other.
"You have a location?" FP asked. "We know The Farm's in Canada from Kevin. He overheard them talking about it the night they left Riverdale."
Jughead shot an angry look over to Kevin. "You knew this whole time?"
Kevin put his hands up. "I know, I'm sorry. I was protecting the wrong people, but I'm not anymore. That's why I'm here. I was giving my testimony."
"Yes, and he's trying to help, so none of that." FP shot Jughead a look. He backed off.
"Jughead figured out the rest of Betty's anagram, Mr. Jones. It said Ontario," Veronica pointed to the map behind FP.
FP put a hand on Jughead's shoulder. He could feel his son's heartbeat hammering through his body. "Really? Nice work."
"But that's still a huge area!" Archie cried. "How will we know where to look?"
"We'll know because our asset just told us," Charles came back into the fold, his eyes wide. "It's Alice." Now FP's heart began to hammer.
Charles was holding a hand over the phone, "She just gave us an address." He turned to Agent Kane. "We need to mobilize a group now. She says it sounds like Edgar's planning to move again. Soon."
All of the teens' eyes widened and FP could feel the tension in the room grow.
"What?" Charles asked, putting the phone back up to his ear. His eyes fell and he turned back toward the wall. "No, she's not," he said in a smaller voice. "Alice, she's been missing for weeks."
There was an awkward silence as everyone tried not to look at Charles. Then FP's door burst open and the officer from earlier came barging in.
"Sheriff Jones, we got a hit from one of the traffic cameras on Penelope Blossom. She's heading north out of Riverdale."
FP and Agent Kane pushed between Archie and Jughead and headed into the lobby.
"We're going to set up a convoy immediately to cross the border. We can get clearance for a small unit from your station to assist," Agent Kane ordered.
"We're coming, too," Jughead demanded as he pushed his way back into the lobby. All of the teens followed behind him with the same gumptious look on their faces.
"Yeah, this is personal for all of us," Cheryl crooned. Kevin nodded vehemently behind her.
"No, absolutely not." Agent Kane whirled around to face them. "We just barely gave you on-site access to help with the local investigation," he said, looking at Jughead. "We cannot, and will not, be an accomplice to bringing a group of minors across international borders into a potentially dangerous raid. No arguments."
Jughead's eyes seethed. "But-,"
"No buts, Jughead!" FP snapped. "You have helped enough. Please, let us do our job now. I promise I'll call you. I promise we'll bring Betty home."
"Dad!" Jughead started, but FP shot him another look and he quieted down. Charles jogged into the lobby.
"We need to go. Alice is pretty riled up right now; it honestly sounded like she was about to go in guns blazing herself. If we head to base now, we can be out and moving in half an hour. FP, follow us there and we'll get you up to speed on the protocol."
Agent Kane nodded and he and Charles ran out of the station. FP watched as they disappeared around the corner outside and then turned toward Jughead and the others.
"Kane is right about the danger. I can't put you guys into the path of what could possibly become a firefight."
"Dad, come on-," Jughead started, throwing his hands up. The whole group behind him began to protest.
FP raised a hand and glanced around before looking Jughead directly in the eye. "But hypothetically, if you all had your passports, and you all drove far enough behind, then there's no reason that you couldn't cross the border on a spontaneous fall break trip to Canada." He winked at Jughead as he passed.
Jughead raised an eyebrow and nodded. This seemed to sedate the other teens as well, as they all looked around at each other eagerly.
"Right, right, of course," Veronica said. Archie was pulling his keys out of his pocket and she grabbed them. "And I'm still driving."
"Here's what's going to happen. Down that hall is the entrance to the electrical room. I'll get inside and cut the power."
Hiram was talking quietly to a group of a dozen inmates or so. They were all hunched together over a table in the cafeteria. "That takes the electricity out of the fences in the courtyard. There's an opening somewhere in the eastern corner."
"And you know this how?" Donnie asked from across the table.
"I overheard one of the guards talking about a need to fix it up. But they haven't gotten to it yet. That's to our advantage." There was, in fact, no loose fencing. This just gave all the inmates a further distraction when Hiram decided to defect. He would set them up to be literally cornered.
"And the new guards are holding their last training session in the courtyard then, too? We'll have a nice opportunity to rush 'em." One of the men blurted slightly too loud.
Hiram shushed him and leaned back, warily looking around at the few guards standing by the doors. They seemed not to have noticed. "Be careful of what you say, Jack, and how you say it," he berated. "Now, we've got to act fast or they'll catch on, and we do not need Captain Patton to find us. He'll be on his break in about 15 minutes, so let's go over everything one last time."
He locked eye contact with everyone in the circle. "First, I'll complain of a stomachache and be taken to the infirmary. On the way there, I'll steal one of the guard's passes and find the electrical room."
"After the lights go out, we'll blockade the entrance to the courtyard so the captain can't get in," one of the guys said.
"And so none of the fresh meat can get out." Donnie gave a rather cruel smile. Hiram made a mental note to make sure he was properly contained after all this.
"And?" Hiram asked, wanting to make sure they fully understood what to do.
"The fight will distract the guards from noticing the first half of us escaping. And once they're all down for the count, the rest of us will make a run for it."
"Good, Vic." Hiram nodded.
"But doesn't that leave you trapped inside?" Jack asked, turning to Hiram.
"If any of you gentlemen are familiar with the game of chess, then you'll understand that in order to win, certain pieces need to be sacrificed along the way. I intend to be one of those pieces for you men to win." Hiram smiled. That was half true.
Someone slapped him on the back. "Good man, Hiram. And here we all thought you were a snake just like the rest of us." There was a wave of laughter and hissing amongst the group.
"Don't judge a book by its many front-page covers." Hiram rose from his seat. "Now if you excuse me, I think it's time to get this started, shall we?" He turned away from the group of inmates at the table and smiled to himself.
This would be even easier than he imagined.
Jughead sat in the backseat of Archie's truck, staring at the yellow lines on the road speeding past under the headlights. The group had swung by Elm Street to pick up Jughead and Archie's passports (turns out Veronica always has hers on hand), and then Jughead had to talk down Jellybean from coming with them. They had compromised when Jughead had agreed to take her slingshot so they could, in her words, "take out a third sleazeball" for her.
Cheryl had traded her car for Kevin's truck and they were tagging behind as well. They had been very adamant about coming along, seeing as they both personally wanted to help bring Edgar down. Jughead had been reluctant at first to let them come (Cheryl had to remind him that it wasn't his choice,) and he had acquiesced after Kevin sincerely told them the rest of his story.
And then there had been quite a commotion trying to dissuade Cheryl from bringing her bow and arrows along. In her words, she wanted to "show her mother what it felt like to be the hunted." Veronica had convinced her that having an armed FBI team come after her was enough to show that, and they had left the weapon behind.
Then they had waited near the bridge heading north out of town until all of the FBI's vehicles and FP's cruiser drove past. When it was clear, they had slipped behind, making sure to stay just out of view.
FP had texted Jughead the address Alice had given them. Apparently, The Farm was holed up in a small town called Cornwall that was directly over the border to Ontario, and the plan was to discreetly surround the building to both search for Betty and detain Edgar. The prospect of witnessing an FBI search & rescue/raid combination would have been extremely exciting to Jughead if the stakes weren't so personal, and he was growing anxious at the thought of what they were heading into. He was already restless and they still had about two hours to go until they even got there.
And it seemed that it was going to be a quiet ride. Veronica had ended up driving and that was probably for the best. She had suggested that Archie and Jughead try to get some sleep on the way there, but Jughead was feeling anything but tired. His mind was moving faster than the truck on the freeway and he was almost shaking knowing how close they were. Archie, on the other hand, had managed to calm down from his frenzied state at the police station and was now curled up in the passenger seat.
Jughead looked out the window and watched as cars gently rolled by. They were in a fairly dense wooded area at the moment, but Jughead could see the glittering lights of a distant city on the horizon below the hill they were driving down. A bay stretched out to the left and the reflection from the lights spread like a soft golden blanket over the water.
It was quite peaceful, all things considered.
But his heart was still heavy. Betty had probably never seen what he was seeing right now. They were surrounded by beautiful views as they headed toward the Canadian wilderness, visible even at night, and Betty had probably been shrouded from it all. She had been robbed of so much.
"Can you stop that?" Veronica's question jolted him away from his thought. "You're shaking my seat."
Jughead looked down. His leg was bouncing and his knee was going directly into the back of Veronica's seat. "Sorry," he mumbled as he slid down the bench seat. He put his hand on his knee and resumed staring out the front window.
They were silent for a few more minutes but Jughead could feel the tension in the car. He glanced up and saw Veronica making eye contact with him through the rearview mirror.
"What's on your mind, Lodge?" Jughead asked dryly, continuing to stare out of the window.
"Now that we have some space, I wanted to see if-," she paused and Jughead could hear her choosing her words. "I wanted to see if you needed to process what we heard."
"Do you need to process it?"
"Don't deflect the question," Veronica fired back. The truck began drifting to the right, but Veronica relaxed her shoulders and centered back in the lane. "Sorry."
Jughead slumped back against his seat and folded his hands in his lap. He stared down at the floor and stayed silent for a few minutes, the only noise being the faint rumble and shake of the truck.
"When this all began, we were so adamant about not giving up, and then we just fell back into normal rhythms," He sighed, now staring up at the ceiling of the truck. "But nothing was normal. And then when we hit all of the dead ends in the investigation, it's like the urgency was slipping away little by little instead of heightening, and all we could do were things that felt trivial to keep our hopes up. And because life wouldn't let us stop and properly grieve, our emotions came out in other nasty ways."
He scrunched up his face and tried to relax his quivering lip as he continued. "While we've been fighting about petty issues, Betty's been fighting for her life. Because we were still going about our normal lives, I think we truly forgot the gravity of that until…" Jughead swallowed, and when he spoke again, his voice was low and tense, "until Edgar said it had to end. And that silence… I thought we were listening to her losing the fight."
His leg began to bounce again and he was fighting tears. "But then she spoke and she was okay, but… she wasn't. The pain in her voice…"
There was a sudden loud sob from the front seat and the truck suddenly swerved again. "Woah, hey!" Jughead lurched slightly to the side and grabbed the back of the passenger seat, his other hand going to Veronica's shoulder. There was a honk from behind them. Kevin had noticed, too.
"Sorry, I'm sorry," Veronica hiccupped in between sniffling as she once again steered the truck back into the lane. "I've been trying so hard not to picture what's been going on this whole time. I couldn't bring myself to do it. But hearing… actually hearing… shattered all of the blinders I had put up in my mind."
Jughead could feel his throat tightening now and his leg bounced harder.
Veronica wiped the back of her hand across her eyes. "All anyone told us was to act like everything was normal, to just keep going about our lives and to school as if nothing happened. It felt so wrong."
Jughead snorted. "It's such terrible advice. Everything has changed, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Time is a cruel master – it doesn't let you stop, it just keeps pulling you along with the current, unbothered by whether you're moving forward by floating or drowning."
"And you start to notice just how much someone affected – touched – your life once they're missing from it." Veronica sniffed and leaned back in her seat. Jughead's knee was pounding into the back of it again, but if it was bothering her she didn't say anything. They fell back into silence once more.
A light snore from the passenger seat broke through the quiet. Jughead looked down at Archie. "How can he be sleeping right now?"
"I think this is his way of processing," Veronica replied as she glanced over at her boyfriend. A wave of soft, yellow light from the passing headlights rolled over the car. Jughead caught a glimpse of Veronica in the rearview mirror; she had a very somber expression plastered on her face.
"He's been running himself ragged at the community center and football practices, to exhaust himself I'm pretty sure. Mad Dog has called me a few times to check if made it home okay." She paused. "Even with all that, he's been having trouble sleeping, at least at normal times."
Jughead nodded, his mind flashing back to when he had walked into Archie's house only to find him dead asleep at noon. Archie was usually pretty active in the mornings with his workout schedule and to walk Vegas.
"I've woken up in the middle of the night a few times to find him staring vacantly out his window and crying," Veronica continued, her voice again becoming uneven. "I know it's sometimes about his dad, but not every time."
Veronica paused as Archie turned over in his seat. Jughead looked down, wondering how much else he hadn't noticed. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He'd been so focused on himself, so caught up in his own grief, that he had let himself believe that he was the only one experiencing pain. Archie's soft snoring resumed, filling the truck.
"So, the energy drinks...," Jughead related.
"The energy drinks," Veronica nodded, her voice soft.
Jughead looked back up into the mirror, catching Veronica's eyes a third time, a quiet understanding passing between them.
There was a reason a literal arsenal of people were barreling toward a potential danger zone right now. There was a reason all of them needed to make sure that what they had heard earlier that night wasn't actually the end.
Jughead stared ahead through the dark toward the approaching city lights. They sparkled and shimmered like a golden oasis in a black desert. Somehow, someway, Jughead hoped that this glimmer of hope he was seeing, this light shining before him, would find its way to Betty. To let her know that her family was coming. To let her know that she wouldn't have to be alone in the dark much longer.
A sharp ticking echoed through the empty halls of the building. Fluorescent lights hummed lazily against the black night in the windows. It was late and most everyone was now asleep. Edgar leaned up against the open doorway to his office and stared at the clock on his desk. He then let his gaze wander down the empty hall, drinking in the still air. He smiled.
He had won.
The trip back to Cornwall the previous evening had been pleasing; Betty had cried for a majority of it, but by the last hour she had grown silent. And when he had left her back in the cabin, her eyes had been completely empty. And something told him they would stay that way for a while.
Edgar turned and strolled into his office, running a hand along his desk. He would announce in the morning to everyone that they were moving and should start packing. Then they would be free and clear within the next few days.
What a sweet feeling.
He heard footsteps approaching and Penelope rounded the corner. Edgar pressed his hands together and watched as she dropped her bag on his desk.
"That smile on your face tells me we both had good nights," she leered.
Edgar sucked in a deep breath. "Relishing the moment. It's good to stop and smell the roses every now and then." Edgar sauntered over toward his bookshelf. He turned over his shoulder, "I'm preparing to move The Farm within the next few days, Penelope. You should prepare to move on as well."
"Don't worry, I'm almost fully ready to part ways. I just came back tonight to gather the rest of my things and I'll be gone by morning."
Edgar smiled again. "Excellent. I'd like to thank you for all the information you were able to provide me, it was quite worthwhile."
"And thank you for all the fun, Edgar. I never thought I would be able to get past Jason's death, but you helped me see there were ways to find closure. And now all those teens have finally been put in their place, too." Penelope said, tossed something to Edgar. "All of their faces may have been worth all the pain."
Edgar frowned and stared at Penelope for a second, then down at what he had caught. He stiffened. The clock on the desk ticked.
"How did you get this?" he asked in a low, tense voice as he waved the tape recorder in his hand. "This is from my personal records. This is private!"
Penelope scoffed, "Oh, calm down, Edgar. You have your tricks, I have mine. I knew what I was doing."
Edgar wrapped the tape tightly in his fist and stepped indignantly toward Penelope. "No, I don't think you do. You approached those kids, didn't you? And I assume they're all still alive, which means they probably went to the authorities, who could be on their way here right now." His eyes had darkened and he was practically snarling by the last word.
Penelope grimaced and took a step backward. Edgar kept inching forward.
"There's no need to be rash," Penelope stammered, reaching for her bag, "We've both slipped through the fingers of the authorities before. We'll do it again."
No.
Edgar could feel himself trembling. It was not going to end like this. His plan would not be ruined in the eleventh hour by someone else's arrogant incompetence.
Edgar lunged.
"You're right." He shoved Penelope against his desk, dropping the recorder and pinning down one of her arms. The other hit the clock and sent it crashing to the ground. "Except only one of us will this time." He reached down into Penelope's bag and pulled out her gun. "Someone has to take the fall."
Penelope sneered. "You wouldn't! We had a deal!" She shoved him off and tried to make for the door but Edgar bolted and blocked her path.
"No hard feelings, Penelope. I know you'd do the same for me." He flashed his teeth and slipped through the open door, slamming it behind him while ignoring Penelope's cries of protest. "If someone is on your tail," he called through the door, "I'll just make their job a little easier."
He quickly locked the door and turned around. Alice and Evelyn were coming down the hall staring nervously at him. He shoved the keys in his pocket and marched down the hall to meet them.
"We heard something crash, is everything alright?" Alice was looking past Edgar's shoulder toward his office.
Edgar ignored her. "Evelyn, Alice, start gathering people now. We have to move."
"What about you?" Alice asked as she anxiously laced her fingers together. She was eyeing the gun in his hand.
Edgar glanced at Alice, then made eye contact with Evelyn. "I have one more thing I need to take care of." He tucked the revolver into his belt behind his back. Evelyn nodded and darted off. Edgar pressed past Alice, whose eyes had grown indistinct, before slipping around the corner, his festering anger acting as his only guide.
The first sign that something was wrong was when the lights went out. The second was when a wave of angry inmates burst through the doors to the courtyard.
Tom instinctively lowered his hand to his side holster but quickly drew back. They were enclosed in too tight of a space to safely use rubber bullets.
A few prisoners grabbed the closest picnic tables and dragged them over to the doors leading back into the building. Others started circling the small group of guards that were standing startled in the courtyard.
Tom watched a handful of guards leap nervously to their feet, attempting to back away. Four men in jumpsuits quickly flanked them. Tom slowly shuffled closer to the youngest looking security officers, then put his hands up, looking around at the group of riled inmates.
"Stand down, everyone! You just blocked off the way to the infirmary, no one needs to get hurt tonight. I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding about whatever it is you're upset about."
"That's where you're wrong, buddy." Donnie sauntered over to Tom with a triumphant grin on his face, Jack and Vic flanking him, "We're taking back our freedom. It's time to put all you corrupted control freaks in your place." He whistled and Jack lunged at Tom.
Tom grounded his feet and reached out a fist, clotheslining the guy in the gut and sending him instantly sprawling to the ground. Donnie and Vic went toward a frightened younger guard next to Tom.
"Hey! Watch out!" Tom stepped in front and took a punch to the jaw. He wrapped his arms around Donnie and shoved backward, watching as the grizzled inmate disappeared into the fray that was happening all over the courtyard.
Tom looked back at the other guard and rubbed his jaw. "You okay?" The guard nodded. "Stay low if you can. They're probably going to fight dirty, so don't be afraid to do the same in this case. The goal is to keep things under control and keep people from getting seriously hurt. I'll watch your back."
Tom scanned the courtyard. A few guards were attempting to dismantle the blockade, but inmates were coming at them from all sides. He whipped his head toward the other end of the area and raised an eyebrow. Three men were in the far east corner pulling at the fence and looking agitated.
He glanced back over the massive fight, taking in every face he could. He saw Donnie standing on top of one of the picnic tables with a stolen nightstick. Jack was pulling at the fence in the corner now, and a guard had tackled Vic to the ground. Other inmates and guards were running around and fighting frantically in the crowded courtyard. Hiram was nowhere to be seen among the rioting prisoners.
Ah. So that was his game.
He heard a yell and turned to see a large, tattooed man barreling toward him. "No time to think, Veronica," Tom muttered under his breath, "guess I'm in." He growled and swung his fist.
A gust of wind whistled, rattling through the walls of the lonely cabin. All of the lights were turned on, their yellow hue casting the brown walls in a sickly glow. Dead wood lay in the cold fireplace. The blanket was strewn in a heap across the floor, next to it a pair of discarded shoes.
Betty was sitting with her back up against the front door, her legs sprawled out in front of her. Dried streaks ran down her face and her neck was red and blotchy. Her eyes stared blankly over the room.
Her fault.
Those words kept tumbling around in her head.
The whole time she thought she was the good one, the one trying to fight the cycle of hurt that had befallen the town, but instead, she was the one that had started it.
She wasn't good. She wasn't brave.
She was the charlatan.
She had almost gotten all her friends killed on multiple occasions. She had driven her mother away, she had awakened the monster in her father. She had basically created the Gargoyle King by making the terrible decision to deliver Chic to her father. And all because she had felt like she had needed to do something to get over her insecurities sophomore year. Because she felt like she could fix the town, solve its problems. Because she thought she needed to prove herself.
Another gust of wind whistled outside. Betty whimpered and pulled her legs to her chest as a cold draft hit her back. She felt weak, as though someone had punched a hole in her, letting all of the energy drain out.
How could she have messed so many things up at such a young age? How could she have hurt so many people? That's what she had tried so hard to avoid, to fight against. But maybe that really was just a part of her fate - to hurt others.
No! The cry inside her head was feeble. Betty rolled to her knees and looked down at the floor. Could she fight back? Was this even worth fighting, or was she just simply facing the truth?
The wood around her shook as the wind howled around the cabin. The lights flickered slightly before remaining on.
There were so many voices competing in her head. But there was also something like a whisper pushing against them, trying to force its way up and out. But she couldn't quite make out what it was saying.
It didn't matter. No matter how many voices she could hear, she was alone now.
You deserve this, Edgar's voice rang in her head, they're better off without you. You can't cause them any more pain.
Betty screwed up her face, feeling another wave of tears threatening to break loose.
She had caused all of them to suffer. They didn't need her. She didn't deserve them.
The mumbled whisper was pressing harder now. Her thoughts tried to scream louder in response. Betty put her hands to her head.
It was so hard to focus. Everything was overwhelming. Her breathing began to accelerate. "Stop it, Betty… stop thinking like that," she whispered pleadingly to herself. Her voice sounded far away and unfamiliar.
This couldn't be the truth, could it? Something felt wrong. Edgar wasn't someone that could be trusted. This is what he wanted. But… he wanted to show her who she truly was… was this…?
Betty opened her mouth but couldn't seem to pull in any air. She shook her head. No, that was wrong. But was it?
She screamed, squeezing her eyes shut. Her head was a mess. Everything was a mess. But what he said made sense…
Whoosh.
The whisper broke loose, roaring to the front of her mind as fiercely as if the wind from outside had suddenly ripped right through the front door. Betty gasped and slammed a hand into the floor. A memory suddenly flashed in front of her, a memory that had been clawing its way through her distressing thoughts the whole time, desperately trying to reach her, to remind her:
"You are brave, Betty. Most of my patients haven't been in situations even remotely close to yours'. But here you are, choosing to fight." Dr. Glass looked sympathetically at her.
Betty could feel hot tears start to stream down her face. "It's all my fault," she sobbed, "it's all my fault. I caused the Black Hood. I caused the pain that led my mom to The Farm." She struggled to suck in a breath between the sobs. "I'm not good."
Betty pushed away from the chair she was sitting in and sank to her knees. Dr. Glass quickly got up from his desk and kneeled next to her, handing her a pack of tissues.
"Betty, no. That's not true, you are good. You didn't cause your father's actions, and that was your mother's choice to protect your sister – not to get away from you. You are not their decisions. You have to recognize that and fight the lies."
Betty looked at Dr. Glass through her tears. He was giving her a soft smile, resting one of his arms on a knee and holding out a tissue. She took it.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she hiccupped as she wiped her face. "I've just – I've just done a lot of bad things. And people keep getting hurt."
"We all do some pretty bad things, it's human nature. It's how we respond afterward that matters. What we decide to do after. Hey, breathe, Betty. Come on."
She realized she was almost hyperventilating. She shifted against the chair and tried to steady herself.
"Here, let's try something. Whenever you feel everything start to press in, whenever you feel like you can't breathe, close your eyes and count to ten," Dr. Glass said soothingly. "As you count, think about other memories – good memories that mean a lot to you. That give you hope. Let those block out the bad and remind yourself that you have people that love you. Remind yourself who you are."
Dr. Glass shifted around toward Betty. "Ready? Count with me:"
"One."
Betty placed both hands on the floor and steadied herself on her knees. She felt the coarseness of the wood under her palms, running her fingers down the knots on the board. The howl of the wind started to fade.
As she traced her hands over the wood, centering herself on something physical, she reached inside her head, past all of the voices yelling at her, past all of the lingering eyes and haunting scenes, and went back, back to one that felt welcoming.
"So, when my mom said we were moving to Riverdale, I made a pact with myself. To use this as an opportunity to become, maybe - hopefully - a better version of myself."
Veronica smiled as she and Betty walked down the track toward the football field.
"That's a lot of pressure," Betty said, looking over. She found Veronica staring at her, as though waiting for her to share something in return. Betty bit her lip but found herself begin to explain about Polly and Jason. About her mom's pressure on her. This was the first time she had told anyone about this, and she was surprised it was spilling out all so easily to the new girl. But Veronica's vulnerability had put her at ease and she found her own anxiety ebbing away.
As she finished, she felt light, empty. What a relief to get something like that off her chest. She glanced over at Veronica for a response, but she wasn't looking at Betty, instead, she had her eyes on the football field. Of course. The new girl wouldn't actually be listening to her.
"Archie!"
Veronica's call sent a fresh wave of anxiety coursing through Betty. Her ponytail swung as she whipped her head back and forth between Veronica and the approaching redhead.
"You're so doing this."
"What?" Betty's heart pounded as her eyes widened. Doing what? What was happening? Was Veronica trying to embarrass her?
But Veronica didn't look snide as she stopped and grabbed Betty's arm. She was smiling and it looked sincere. Her eyes looked excited and expectant, yet reassuring as she answered, "Slaying your dragons, Betty Cooper. One by one."
Slaying your dragons.
Betty opened her eyes and shakily stood to her feet. Veronica had taught her about courage that day. They had known each other for all of one day and Veronica had already seen something in her that she never had; courage. She had learned how to give a face to fear that day, to name it so it would become easier to confront.
Betty looked around the cabin that had become all-too-familiar.
A dragon.
It was just another dragon that needed slain. Her breathing started to slow.
"Two."
"Wait, the Black Hood called you?"
"Yes," Betty hissed, "and it's risky for me to even be telling you this. But we're best friends and we live right next door to each other, so us walking to school together would look perfectly normal to anyone who might be watching. Including him."
Betty watched as Archie started looking around the path they were walking down. A pit was growing in her stomach. How could she do this? How could she put him in danger? She just so desperately needed to tell someone.
"You think he's watching us?"
"I don't know, he could be," she hurriedly answered, "I know it sounds crazy, but it was him."
Archie let out an exasperated huff. "Betty, you have to tell the police! Even if it's not him."
Oh no, had she freaked him out? Oh no, he was the only one that could help her, she couldn't drive him away. She needed her best friend.
"It is him," she quickly said, " and he told me if I went to the police or if I told Jughead, he'd-," Betty felt a lump form in her throat. "God, he knows where Polly is, Arch. If he calls me again, I have to answer."
Archie grabbed her arm and twisted her around until she was facing him. She looked sheepishly down, expecting him to be angry. But his eyes were warm and full of determination when she finally looked up at him. "And I'm not letting you go through this alone."
Betty walked to the middle of the room, picking up the blanket and tossing it onto the couch. She grabbed her shoes and slipped them on, lacing them tight. Her breathing was getting deeper and fuller.
She wasn't alone in this. She never was. Archie always made sure of it.
Some of the voices were backing off now that other memories were rushing forward. She was still shaky, and a few spots were hanging in her vision, but she could feel a new sense of vigor starting to pump through her, more than she'd felt in a while.
"Three."
"My parents are unbelievable, Jug. Polly is locked up in that house like a character out of Jane Eyre, and what are they doing? Changing each other's log-in accounts, throwing bricks through windows."
"Wish I had seen that." Jughead was leaning up against a desk in the Blue & Gold office, staring down at the ground. Betty turned to him with tears in her eyes.
"Okay, I'm sorry." Jughead noticed her expression and crossed his arms. "It's not funny."
"It's like… you know how in a time of crisis people either come together or fall apart?"
Jughead nodded, but he was still staring at the ground.
Betty sucked in a breath and her voice came out in a strained whisper. "It feels like we're falling apart. And the way things are going, pretty soon the Coopers – we're not going to exist anymore. And there's nothing I can do to stop that." Betty could feel herself releasing all of the frustration and pain she had been holding in. Everything was coming out in a fast sob.
"Betty, don't do that." Jughead had risen from where he had been leaning and was now talking in a serious tone. "Don't give up."
He walked over and stood in front of her, staring her directly in the eyes. "Your family is definitely splintering right now, but it won't fall apart because of you."
She closed her eyes, tears still running down her cheeks. She felt Jughead's hand on top of hers. It was warm.
"Because of you. You're holding them together. You're so much stronger than all of the white noise. You're stronger than your mother, you're stronger than your father. You're holding this family together."
Betty opened her eyes and whimpered. Jughead was speaking so strongly, so confidently.
"So don't-," Jughead's chin trembled and he grabbed Betty's shoulder, pulling her close. "Don't let go."
"I won't."
Betty wiped away the tears that had begun to run down her cheeks and walked into the bedroom. She rummaged in the dresser, pulling out the torn up pillowcase, and ripped a small strip of fabric off, holding it out in front of her.
There was something to fight for. There was a lot to fight for. The voices wouldn't win. The white noise wouldn't win. She was stronger than it.
She slid the strip of fabric under her hair, bunching it up and tied tight, pulling her unkempt hair into as best a ponytail as she could. She tightened it, continuing to count in her head, and marched back into the front room.
As she hit ten, she stomped her heel onto the loose board, flipping it up. Betty stooped down and grabbed a piece of the broken plate as well as the V-shaped wire out of the cubby. She straightened up and stared at the door, a new sense of resolve flowing from her eyes.
He came close, but Edgar's lies weren't going to win this game. This wasn't her home. There was a bit more wilderness left to fight through to get to her real one, but she was getting out. She had hope.
"I won't let go, Jug."
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