Heavenly Hell
Jughead x Betty
In which Betty escapes The Sisters of Quiet Mercy and finds that Jughead is already on his way to save her.
Warnings: Sisters of Quiet Mercy
Word Count: 2,186
A/N: This is the first time I’ve written in a while, so be kind lol. This is based off of Episode 6 of Season 3. Jughead and Betty had really good communication in this episode and I figure he was probably calling her at the end to tell her where he was going before Alice . There would be no reason to suspect something was wrong, but still, my sweet child needs to get out of there before she gets killed and who knows how long that will take the Riverdale writers so I’m doing it myself. There’s probably a universe she wants to stay and investigate but I want her to get the hell out and pair up with Jug before doing anymore investigating. Welcome to my new canon.
Masterlist
One ring.
No answer.
Second ring.
“Hey, this is Betty. I can’t get to the phone right now so just leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
Voicemail.
“Hey.. Betts, listen. I’m in a bit of a bind right now. Archie.. he, uh, he wants to get out of town. I’m sure you’ll hear about it at some point from Veronica, but I just wanted to let you know myself. And I, uh, since he’s going away, I didn’t want to let him go alone. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, a few days, maybe? I’ll still have my phone on me if you need anything so just, call me if you need me, okay? In fact, call me when you get this, I could really use your voice right now. Love you.. Bye.” He pulls the phone away from his ear, pressing the button to hang up and taking a deep breath. He’s suddenly overcome with an odd feeling. That was odd. If Betty is around her phone, she normally answers on the first ring, if she’s not there’s at least four or five before the voicemail. She hung up on him for some reason.
He furrows his brows, looking to Archie who just got off the phone as well. From the look on his face, his conversation was probably a little more emotional. Jughead sighs, patting his best friend on the back.
“You really don’t have to do this, Jug.” Archie says, taking one of the backpacks that had been placed on the tracks.
Jughead shrugs him off, small smirk on his face. “It’s really no problem,” he says, “You’ve got almost all you need to survive. There’s a few waters, a few granola bars, a change of clothes. You’re all set for a new life.”
“Thanks man, that really means a lot,” he slings the backpack over one of his shoulders, sliding his arm through the other strap in order to distribute the weight properly. While he felt fine, Kevin’s comment about bursting his stitches stuck in his mind, “So, uh, how did Betty react to you doing this for me?”
“You know, it’s funny you ask,” Jughead replies, putting his own sack over his shoulder, “She didn’t pick up.”
“They said you would resist, Betty.” Alice says, her eyes looking into her daughter’s.
The look on Betty’s face was undeniable. Betrayal. Hurt. Shock.
“Mom-” she says, already being dragged away by two men from the place she calls hell. The Sisters of Quiet Mercy, “Mom, please, how could you-” she begins to say, but is cut off by being dragged out of the house, the door slamming in her face.
She tries to fight them off. Her mom was right about one thing, she definitely isn’t going out without a fight. She is a resistor. She tries to kick and squirm, but the grip from the men tighten around her, restraining her. They put her arms behind her back, handcuffing them together.
The men shove her into a car with dark tinted windows, and it’s only then that tears start to form on her face. How could her mother do this? How could she ever think that this is the solution? The Sisters of Quiet Mercy is no place for her, her mother has officially lost it. Betty can’t believe this is actually happening.
The car starts, and her house, her safe place, fades into the distance. She takes a deep breath, blinking the tears away. She can’t show them fear, she can’t. Her cheeks dry, her eyes stop watering. All signs of distress fade away from her face. Her heart, though, the pain she feels in her chest right now might never fade. She may never forgive her mother for this, how could she?
The car ride isn’t that long, thirty minutes max, but Betty isn’t sure. It’s hard to keep track of time when one is being held against their will and taken to a place that resembles a jail for women.
They force her out of the car, taking the cuffs off her hands. There was nowhere for her to run when she was here. There was barely anything for miles. She thinks about how Cheryl got out, immediately working through how that scenario could have played out. Maybe that’s the key to Betty’s escape as well. She needs to get out of there, she needs to find Jughead. Something is going on and she has to find out what.
She takes a deep breath and composes herself. She will get through this. She has to.
“She didn’t?” Archie asks, raising his eyebrows, “Isn’t that odd? She always answers your calls.”
Jughead shakes his head, shrugging his shoulders, “She must be busy or something, I don’t know. She’s been trying to get our parents to tell her the truth so she’s definitely got her hands full. I’m just wondering..” he trails off.
“You want to go check on her, don’t you?” Archie finishes the thought for him, not even having to flinch with what his best friend is thinking. He just had to say goodbye to his love, and he was lucky enough to be able to hear her voice. He isn’t sure how long they’ll be away, but Jughead at least deserves to tell his girl where they’re going. Just because his life is over doesn’t mean his best friends has to be. Archie is very hyper aware of that.
Jughead nods reluctantly. “Just to tell her where we’re going, what we’re doing.” he says softly. “I could wait for her to call back but that would be leaving her in the dark and I really.. really don’t want to do that. Not at a time like this. Some freaky shit has been happening, man.”
Archie takes a deep breath. “Alright, let’s go find Betty.” he says, turning about face heading back into Riverdale.
“Woah woah woah,” Jughead puts a hand to his chest, “You are staying right here Archie Andrews. I can’t risk people seeing you and you’re not in any shape to fight your way out of anything.”
“Fine,” Archie sighs, moving to take his backpack off, “Just hurry back.”
Betty is immediately ushered into a room when she gets there, a change of clothes waiting. A dress with a collar, how original.
Her facial expression calm, she changes just as she’s ordered to, always keeping an eye out for a way to escape, for a way out. If Cheryl could do it then so could she. She moves slowly, almost in a catatonic state. She’s still trying to process everything and be alert at the same time. She hopes she’s doing a good job of both at the same time, but she knows that she’s probably missing something.
As soon as she’s changed they begin to bring her to another room, the woman who is with her talking about how she’ll be happy here, or something like that. Betty can’t really hear her, she’s too focused on the entry and exit points. There seems to be one unguarded by the staircase. If she makes a break for it she can hide somewhere and avoid everyone while making her escape.
Didn’t Ronnie say she helped Cheryl? She remembers her saying something about a tunnel. If she hides she may just be able to buy herself enough time to find it.
Her thoughts are interrupted as she grabs a paint brush, noticing that it’s an art room she’s been brought to. She goes to stand at the empty canvas. Looking around, her heart nearly stops. Her breathing picks up. How could.. This couldn’t be..
The Gargoyle King.
On all of the canvases.
It takes everything in her not to faint.
It doesn’t take Jughead long to get to the Cooper’s, and it only takes moments to figure out that something is way more off than he thought. Betty isn’t there, and her phone is left on the counter. Alice is nowhere to be found.
He snoops around the house, looking for some sort of clue to see where they could have gone. Did they disappear somewhere together? Was Betty missing? Did Alice know Betty was missing? Did Alice.. cause Betty to be missing? The thought crosses Jughead’s mind and instead of shoving it away he considers it a real possibility. Alice seems to have done a lot worse in her time, from what Betty tells him. Not to mention what Alice did to Polly just for being pregnant.
Polly.. That’s it. He doesn’t have to think anymore, it’s almost as if he knows where she is on instinct. Of course, if Alice had no qualms about sending one daughter there, how could she about sending another?
The Sisters of Quiet Mercy.
The woman walks away and Betty knows this is her chance. If there’s anywhere a tunnel would be, the basement would be it. She makes a bolt for the stairs outside the room, surprisingly not catching anyone’s attention until the door slams behind her. By then she’s already flying down the stairs, making her way toward the basement. She has to get out of here, she just has to. Her mind is everywhere, but the one thing she can focus on is escape. This is all connected, but she’ll figure it out when she’s not imprisoned.
She’ll come back with Jug. He’ll know what to do. He seems to be an expert on the Gargoyle King now anyway.
Jughead arrives in record time, his heart beating fast. He doesn’t play around when the one he loves could be hurt. He’s on foot, so it still took him a bit longer than he would have liked, but at least he made it.
He looks up at the building, still as gloomy and haunting as the first time him and Betty laid their eyes on it.
He takes a deep breath. It’s now or never.
Betty makes it to the basement, tearing her way through each room, looking for a tunnel, looking for something.
Based on pure dumb luck and some miracle, she sees a large vent that’s just slightly off its hinges. She uses all her strength to kick it in, and from the looks of it, it leads to somewhere not here.
She’ll take it.
Getting on her hands and knees, she makes her exit.
She doesn’t know which way leads out, Ronnie hadn’t gotten that far in her explanation, so she just tries to follow any sign of life that isn’t from The Sisters of Quiet Mercy. The first sign of being outside, running water, makes her stop and head towards it.
She arrives in a place dark and damp, sort of like an underground sewage system, the same one Archie escaped from only a few days earlier.
This has to be it, she thinks.
She looks up, knowing that there has to be something that leads onto the street. She only has to walk about 15 feet before spotting one.
Climbing the ladder, she begins to put all her strength against the large metal circle.
Jughead is about to head for the door, when suddenly he hears something from up the road. He furrows his brows. It sounds like someone pushing up the sewage cover on the street, or at least trying to. He walks over, wanting to investigate. The large and looming building fades in the distance, the vantage point of the front door now blocked where he was by the surrounding trees.
He waits a moment to see if he was just going insane, seeing things. He takes a breath. The cover moves once more. Something, or someone, is definitely trying to get out.
He kneels down, waiting for it to move again so he can get a good grip and help. As soon as it does, he pushes with all the strength he has. He isn’t sure what to expect when he looks down, but damn he’s sure happy with who he sees.
Reaching down with an arm to help her out, he lets out a sigh of relief that it’s his Betty.
Out of all the people she expected to see when she got out, she isn’t sure if she’s surprised that it’s Jughead. Still, she’s relieved, thanking whatever there was to thank out there that he had somehow known something was up.
She takes his hand, moving to sit up on the street, taking her legs out of the hole and using the strength she had left to push the cover back into place. If she hadn’t just come out of there, it would look like it had never been disturbed.
She then looks to Jughead, and without thinking about how grimy she had become, throws her arms around him.
“Oh thank god.” she says softly.
“What the hell happened?” he asks, obviously concerned as all hell.
Betty just shakes her head, knowing she’ll have to tell him everything eventually, but for right now the only thing that came to her mind was,
“Jug, we have so much work to do.”
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