"We're all on the edge of madness; deep down, darkness is within all of us and we're on guard constantly trying to avoid losing control."
In which Mickey Lodge has a few skeletons in her closet.
{COMPLETED WITH ALL SEASONS + epilogue}
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"Jug, do you really think Vee and I are going to sit idly by and not help our boyfriends graduate?"
✿
"I'm ready to rise from the grave."
Mickey is nervously twisting the charm bracelet on her wrist as she watches Jughead pack his duffel bag. "Are you sure?" Fear encompasses her voice. If he comes back too soon, the Preppies will just try to kill him again. They're ruthless like that. "It's only been two weeks, Jug."
"Yeah, and I feel like I'm actually dead." Jughead didn't anticipate the toll hiding out would take. He's read his own obituaries and watched a livestream that Betty set up for his wake. He's been very careful not to ruin the plan, but it's become too much. All of his friends have went beyond for him to nail the Preppies to the wall—even Archie and Betty with their fake dating; he knows that's not fun for Veronica.
The plan hasn't gone perfectly. People have caught on, but at least it's the people they could trust the most. JB figured it out on her own after Betty asked for the fake blood to smear on the decoy rock that was tested. Mickey told FP right after the morgue and he's been playing along ever since. Veronica had to tell Hermosa when Hermosa threatened to tell their parents about the kids lying and to keep using her private investigator skills to dig for the truth; she also assumed that Betty and Veronica were secret girlfriends. Speaking of Betty, she told Alice just like Archie told Mary.
"It's lonely down here, Mick."
She felt for him, but it wasn't like she could come down every day. It was too risky. She's only been down here twice for less than five minutes to drop off food, supplies, and a change of clothes.
Mickey glances at his murder board. "All the strings are connected. Have you figured it out?"
Jughead knows she looking for any reason to keep him safe. He moves over to her and wraps his arms around her. "Yes." He's used all this time and the cover his friends have created to solve everything. He focused on every scrap of even fence, went over every minuscule detail, and looked for hidden patterns, hints, and clues. "This was a different kind of mystery than the ones I've tackled before. This wasn't a whodunnit. This was a whydunnit. More psychological."
"Are you sure?" she asks one more time.
"I was just going over all of this one more time." Jughead smiles, "We're going to blow Stonewall Prep out of the water."
"First, you need to shower."
✿
"The floor is open," DuPoint says to the students in the seminar room. "Any thoughts regarding Dostoevsky's take on morality?"
