Night Fall | Sweet Pea (completed)

Chapter Fifty-One.

"Chic."

Betty and Jughead spoke his name at the same time. A wave of shock rushed through me but also at this rate I really wasn't surprised by the revelation when the Gargoyle King removed his mask to reveal they were correct. It was Chic but with sickening red hair.

"What the hell?" Archie spoke as he stared in disbelief.

"Since when did Chic have red hair?" Veronica spoke asking the real questions.

"I'm guessing since he started working with Penelope, doing her bidding." Jughead answered as Chic walked slowly behind him, Betty and I.

"Yeah look mate it really doesn't suit you. Do you want me to bleach your hair to a nice shade of blonde instead?" I asked sarcastically as I tried to hold back a nervous laugh.

"This was after he got the Gargoyle symbols tattooed on his back. That's why Ethel said the Gargoyle King was Jason. Because you called him Jason. Because you dressed him up like Jason." Jughead spoke, a sense of humour in his voice as he looked at Penelope who remained silent.

"You didn't murder Chic." Betty spoke the first words she had to her father as she stared at him in disbelief. "After you chased him through the woods, you..." she shook her head unsure of what else happened so Hal stepped in.

"I recognised a kinship in him and I spared him. He begged for mercy and pledged his life to me in service of my mission."

"But it wasn't just your mission, was it, Mr. Cooper?" I accused as I saw Betty trying to wrap her brain around all this new information. "Maybe not at first, but eventually, you started working with someone else who also had a grudge against Riverdale. Quite frankly I suggest you two should have just moved towns and taken your creepy fake son with you. Started fresh. Saved some lives."

"In the middle of all that stuff with the Black Hood last year, my dad... was having an affair with Penelope." Betty pieced the pictures together out loud.

"Yes, I did cultivate your father's... murderous impulses. It's true."

"You mean sexual desires there Penelope but okay." I shook my head at Penelope's choice of wording, this time getting a laugh out of Archie and Veronica too.

"It was to take my revenge on a town that allowed me to be sold as a child bride to the Blossoms. Your parents knew. I told them. And they did nothing but mock me. And years later, when my Jason was murdered in cold blood, do you think one of them reached out to me?"

"Just putting this out there Penelope but you're kind of a bitch. Murdered child or not it's not like they were your friends, plus you spoke with them like thirty years ago woman." Snide comments had become the way I was handling this information and Penelope's way of handling my snide comments was by ignoring anything I had to say.

I looked up and met Jughead's eyes as he mouthed 'stop' to me but I only shook my head and waited for her to continue on her tragic sob story.

"No, they were too busy ignoring the rotting, fetid truth. That Riverdale is a hideous and cruel place, twisted and cursed. And the Black Hood and I, we were doing quite well, exterminating its sinners." I watched as both Penelope and Hal nodded, almost as though they were reminiscing about the old days.

"Until my dad got arrested." Betty added as she worked through the case.

"Yes but that was fine because Hal's disciple came to me. Lost, and I gave him purpose to continue our great work."

"But not as the Black Hood. So, instead, you made him dress up like the Boogeyman... the Gargoyle King. As well as obviously molding him into a less perfect version of your dead son." I added smiling as everything started falling into place.

"You introduced G&G to our parents 25 years ago. And then re-introduced it this year to Chic..." Betty spoke shaking her head in disbelief.

"His name is Jason." Penelope snapped at Betty making all of us take a step back, not literally of course.

"And you're way more delusional than I thought." I whispered under my breath earning a glare from Penelope once more. Maybe I should have turned this into a drinking game.

"Who gave it to..." Betty ignored my comment as Jughead spoke

"Ben Button. Who started playing with Dilton Doiley..."

"And Ethel Muggs. And then G&G spread like a virus or a poison."

"And the true mastermind behind it all, the true King, is you Penelope."

I watched in amazement as Jughead and Betty worked on the same wavelength figuring out the truth. They reminded me a lot of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in that way.

"Oh. Well done. Well done." Penelope smiled as she raised her glass to everyone at the table before taking a sip of wine and continuing "But now, it's time to play one final round, with you, the Midnight Children."

I couldn't help but cringe slightly at the name this delusional woman had given us all before Jughead interrupted my thoughts asking the one question we were all wondering.

"To what end?"

"Say it's to reveal your true nature. To prove that you're as dark-hearted as the town that birthed you." Venom laced Penelope's voice and I could tell this little story time of hers was almost over.

"And what? If we win, we escape?" Archie spoke trying to figure out if there was any hope for us even if we played her game.

"You won't win." Penelope chuckled slightly to herself, already aware of what lied ahead for us all.

"So, what happens if we lose?" Veronica spoke up making me place my head in my hands at her stupid question. It had been obvious upon our arrival that we weren't going to make it out of this place alive.

"Well, then your parents will feel the pain that I felt. The death of a child, could there be anything more dreadful?" Penelope aimed her rhetorical question at me as she mentioned the death of a child and it did nothing but make my blood boil.

"You're nuts. If you even think about going near my baby I will kill you will my bare hands." I threatened, darkness in my voice as I stood up from the table slamming my hands down on it.

Before anything else could happen a bell started chiming and Penelope stood up from her chair.

"Ah. It is time. Come to the lawn for the Gathering." Everyone remained in their seats as Penelope strolled out the back door. Not one of us was prepared to move in fear of what would happen but we were also left in a room with the Black Hood and copycat Jason so we really only had the choice of choosing between two evils at that stage.

"Let's go beat this bitch." I spoke as I made my way out the back door, the core four following close behind me. If I wasn't determined to win this before the mention of my baby certainly fueled my motivation to kill this woman.