Lexy hadn't gotten any quest cards for days. Days! She had never felt so useless in her life. No control, whatsoever. And after she had just been on such a high for weeks.
She lay upside down on her bed, staring at the wall. What else was she gonna do now that she didn't have Gryphons and Gargoyles? What if she scared off the guy who had been giving her the quest cards and letters when she begged him for fizzle rocks? Was this all her fault?
The doorbell rang and for the first time in hours, Lexy channeled enough energy to sit up straight.
If it wasn't important they would just go away.
Then the doorbell rang for the second time. So it was important. The first G&G quest in days was important. She jumped off her bed and ran down the stairs. The next quest was probably going to be amazing, that's why it took so long.
When she opened the door however, her mood immediately deflated when she saw Reggie standing there.
"Ugh what?" She asked, not hiding her disappointment at all.
"Nice." Reggie rolled his eyes. "I'm here to give you something."
"Another attempted lecture? Because if that's it, you failed last time and you'll fail again this time."
Lexy turned around and went to lie down on the couch, suddenly not having any energy anymore. Reggie shrugged and followed her inside.
"Nope. This." He flipped her lucky coin onto her stomach.
Lexy glanced at the coin and then at him. "You mind telling me how you have this?"
"Sweetpea gave it to me to give to you. After you told him about everything you've done these past few weeks he wasn't really interested in giving it to you himself."
"Awww I'm so hurt."
There was not a hint of sincerity in her voice. She continued to lie on the couch, uninterested in any sort of conversation with Reggie. When she began to shut her eyes, he took it as a cue to leave.
"Nice talking to you, Little A."
He patted her on the leg and left her alone in the house. Alone to do nothing but sit around with her thoughts.
And there was one thought that stuck in her mind. One sentence that Reggie had said stood out over all the others.
"Sweetpea..." She said, grinning at herself in the mirror. Then something hanging on the mirror caught her eye.
Idle hands are the devil's playthings.
***
The next day, Veronica and Reggie sat with Archie and Betty in the student lounge. Fangs, Sweetpea and Jughead played fuse ball in the corner. Perfect timing for a bombshell to be dropped.
Lexy strolled into the room. She pretty much avoided all of them like the plague when she was in school, and now here she was, walking into a room full of her old friends as if nothing had happened. It became clear why she was there however when she began fiddling with Veronica's pearls which were hanging around her neck.
Veronica stared at her in shock, along with everyone else. They didn't quite know what was going on but they knew it probably wasn't good.
Lexy planted herself in front of Veronica while everyone else remained silent. A venomous smile crossed her face.
"Well you guys all love keeping secrets together, so obviously you're all fully aware of the fun I've been having these past few weeks." She said to the group.
Her eyes locked with Sweetpea's in a glare. She then pulled the pearls over her head and around her hair and dropped them into Veronica's lap.
"But I can give things back to people face to face. After all... I'm not a coward." Lexy put emphasis on that last part, considering that was what Sweetpea called her when he dumped her.
She then approached his group playing fuse ball. From about a metre away, she flipped her coin at him. He just barely managed to catch it.
"You can keep that. I'm making my own luck now."
She spun around on her heels and began to leave the room.
"Am I dreaming or do you actually seem sober?" Sweetpea said cockily from behind her. He was the one person who refused to walk on eggshells around her. "You're not smiling like a temptress or laughing every two seconds. Coming down?"
Coming down from being high. This made Lexy's blood boil.
The gargoyle only gave her a select amount of fizzle rocks. She didn't want them all to be gone by the time her next quest came around.
And Sweetpea knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to irritate her as soon as she was vulnerable.
"I'll know I'm fully down at rock bottom when I start remembering what I ever saw in you." She replied with nothing but disdain for the boy she used to say she loved.
"Andrews, you've already hit rock bottom."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm leaving."
"Oh yeah? Where are you gonna go? Back to wallow around your house, grieving the loss of your drug candy?"
He assumed the only reason she was sober was because she ran out of fizzle rocks. He was right.
"The state." Lexy announced from the doorway of the lounge. "I'm leaving the state."
And with that she left the room and the school. Truth be told, the only reason she gave Veronica's pearls back was because she wanted to get Sweetpea's attention and because she was bored. It was something to do.
Jughead turned to look at Sweetpea. "Did you really have to provoke her?"
Sweetpea shrugged him off and kept the fuse ball game going.
"Umm shouldn't somebody go after her?" Betty asked, gesturing to the door.
Archie thought about it but then shook his head. "Nah, dad has the truck so she won't get very far." Everyone nodded at Archie's reassuring words. "But I think maybe it's about time I told my dad what's going on. Because if the truck was there, she'd waste no time making her way to California."
***
Archie had been waiting for his dad for the past hour. He stood up from the couch when he heard Fred enter the house. He smiled at his son in the sitting room.
"Hey Arch. Sorry I missed dinner. Is Lexy here?" He asked.
"Dad, I need to talk to you about something." Archie ignored his question.
Fred took on a serious look and nodded his head, taking a seat in his arm chair. "Okay. What is it, son?"
"Usually I would say "Lexy's at a study group" or "Lexy's out with Sweetpea" or "Lexy's helping Jughead with Serpent stuff". But the truth is dad, every time I've said something like that... I was lying."
Fred furrowed his brows. "You were lying about where Lexy was?"
"Yes. Because I didn't want her to get in trouble. Or I didn't want to betray her secrets. We've never done that to each other before."
"What secrets, Archie? Where has Lexy been? What is she doing that could get in her trouble?"
Archie sighed. Once he told his dad there was no going back. And Fred would stop at nothing to make Lexy better. But maybe that was a good thing?
"Lexy's been playing Gryphons and Gargoyles, dad. Like hardcore. Jughead said she's been playing off board? I'm not really sure what that is but apparently it's a lot worse than on board."
"She's been playing-" Fred's tone turned harsher but Archie cut him off.
"Wait! There's more. She's also been taking fizzle rocks. A lot of them. I don't know if she takes them for the game or just for fun but-"
"How long has this been going on for?"
"I don't know. Betty said that she cut off all her friends weeks before I came home. I'm assuming around then?"
"So this has been going on for weeks and you didn't say anything to me!?" Fred stood up.
"I thought it was just a phase and when she got over it we could just pretend it never happened. I didn't think she needed help." Archie tried to explain his irrational reasoning.
"So when you were caught with fizzle rocks on school grounds..."
Archie looked down. "They were Lexy's. I was only holding them because I had found them in her room and I was confronting her about it. And then a teacher saw me and it obviously looked bad. Lexy didn't say anything to make him think otherwise."
When Fred received a call from the school about the fizzle rocks, Archie simply told him that he found the empty packet on the ground and Mr. Gordon got the wrong idea. Fred believed him.
"She probably knew I couldn't get into any real trouble. She knew the drug test would come out negative and because the packet was empty, they didn't really have any evidence against me." Archie realized. Even on drugs Lexy was still a shark lawyer. Just like her mother.
"What has Lexy done? Playing G&G off board. What quests has she taken into the real world?"
Archie shook his head. "I can't tell you that."
"Why?"
"Because morally... if I told you, you'd have to tell the cops. And I don't want Lexy to go to jail because she felt so lost that she didn't care what she did to her hometown as long as she got the next level."
Fred rubbed his forehead. This was putting him in a very tough position. But his family meant everything to him.
"I don't want to see that happen either, Arch. So tell me what she's done."
***
Lexy lay on the grass next to the highway. That was as far as she got out of state before running out of energy again. She was barely even out of Riverdale.
"Would all you cars stop rubbing it in my face! You don't even realize how lucky you are! You can come and go from the state as you please!" Lexy screamed at the six lane highway.
She was about to lie back down but someone tapped her shoulder making her jump. She then turned around to see the gargoyle person. Presumably the one who was giving her the quest cards and letters.
"So you're finally back. I was beginning to think you had given up on me."
"Never." The gargoyle responded quickly. He handed her a quest card, which Lexy snatched from his hand. It was about time.
Walk through the swinging pendulums.
Swinging pendulums. What the heck were swinging pendulums? She glanced at the gargoyle.
"I don't understand." She said.
He then pulled something else out of his pocket. The familiar fizzle rocks packet. Lexy gasped and jumped forward taking the candy from him.
She ripped it open and shook it back into her mouth. The entire packet. After being sober for what felt like forever, it probably wasn't smart to pile on all of the candy at once.
She squeezed her eyes shut at the aftertaste but then shook her head.
"Okay, can you please just tell me what I have to do? I don't know what swinging pendulums are." Lexy admitted.
The gargoyle stayed silent for a moment before turning around and gesturing to the busy highway. Lexy still wasn't catching on for a while but then she realized...
"I have to walk through that?" She didn't sound scared, merely curious.
"It's the quest that will bring you up to level nine."
Lexy didn't need to hear anything else. She walked past the gargoyle nonchalantly and down the grassy hill to the side of the highway. It was 9:00pm. This was when all those people who took night shifts or who worked away from a home were coming or going. This was the real rush hour in Riverdale.
Lexy took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"This is all you. You're in control again." She whispered to herself.
And with that she began walking. She got through the first lane no problem, but a car zoomed right in front of her face when she got to the second one. A rush went through Lexy. She continued walking, wanting to feel it again.
A car screeched in the background as they quickly had to steer around her. But even though the car was right next to her, to Lexy it sounded like it was echoing far away. Like she was in a tunnel.
Then she heard rubber burning harshly against the ground as the truck tried desperately to stop. But it was too late. The two vehicles collided.
She saw flashes of neon colours. The world suddenly felt like it was spinning, emphasising the feeling of being in a long tunnel.
"Lexy, what happened? Did you see?" A voice called.
And then she saw something on the other side of the highway. The Gargoyle King.
And next to him, a small girl. She had long blonde hair and skin so pale she looked like ice. The girl smiled sweetly and gestured for her to come to her.
"Somebody help! We need an ambulance! Can anyone hear me?" She shrieked.
Cars continued to swerve last second to miss Lexy, following up with a series of honks but she continued to amble forward, in a complete trance as she stared into the girl's eyes. The Gargoyle King spread his wings behind her, like he was welcoming her.
"This is a lot of blood. Listen to me, I need you to go inside and use your house phone to call 911."
And then lights started flashing. Blue and red. Lexy ignored it and continued staring at the Gargoyle King and the blonde child who's arms were outstretched, as if she was waiting for a hug.
"In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life you embrace them with-"
But then a car horn beeped, and it didn't sound like all the other ones. This one snapped her out of her head.
She looked to the side to see a cop car stopping in the middle of the road. The driver's door swung open and Fp stepped out of the car, wearing a sheriff's uniform. When did he become sheriff?
"You better have a good excuse." He yelled over the traffic.
"I don't need to excuse myself to you." Lexy slurred.
"Jesus Christ, you're high. And I'm more worried about what your father will have to say to you."
As Fp walked towards her, Lexy realized he was trying to take her away. He was trying to stop her from doing what made her brave and what made her feel like her life was on the line.
She started walking more briskly trying to get to the little girl in front of her. Fp however yanked her back in front of the cruiser.
"No! Let me go! I need to talk to her! She's waiting for me! She's waiting for me with the Gargoyle King!" Lexy screamed pointing ahead of her.
Fp looked to the side of the highway and back at Lexy. "No one's there, Lexy. No one's waiting for you. It's the fizzle rocks making you hallucinate!"
She looked around. There were no damaged vehicles. There was no crash. But she heard glass shattering. Where was all the glass?
"I'm not going with you!" Lexy yelled at Fp.
"I'm not giving you the choice!"
He took out some hand cuffs and restrained her. Lexy kicked and screamed as he carried her back to the car.
Where was the blood? Someone said there was a lot of blood. There was no blood.
Where was the woman who was praying. She heard someone praying. She looked around frantically but cars continued to drive up and down the highway peacefully. No one had gotten out of their vehicles.
"I'm not hallucinating! I'm not crazy! She's waiting for me. She wants to give me a hug! The Gargoyle King is there, he's watching me! I'm not hallucinating! I'm not crazy!"
Fp threw her into the backseat. Everything felt hazy. She kept seeing the flashes neon colours. She looked out the window. Where was he? Where did the Gargoyle King go? And where was the little girl? Did she leave with the Gargoyle King? Lexy tried to open the door but Fp locked it.
***
"The highway!? You tried to walk across the highway!? What were you thinking!?" Fred had never yelled so loudly in his life. The Coopers could probably hear them next door.
"She wasn't thinking. She doesn't even have the capacity to think right now with all the drugs flowing through her veins." Fp chimed in.
Archie stood in the corner of the room, his eyes glossed over, tears threatening to spill as his father berated Lexy for almost killing herself.
Everything that they said went in one ear and out the other however. Lexy sat on the couch, replaying everything that happened in her head. The cars, the noises, the voices, the Gargoyle King, the little girl.
"Lexy are you listening to us!?" Fred leaned down in front of her.
Lexy glared at him in response.
He sighed and stepped back. "You barely escaped death. And it's clear to me that what happened tonight was not a one time thing. I can't let that ever happen again."
"Wait, dad, what are you saying?" Archie asked, stepping out of the corner.
Fred looked at Archie, then at Fp and finally at Lexy.
"I'm saying that this isn't a phase. You're in this whole thing way too deep. And there's no way that me or Archie or anyone will be able to simply talk you out of it."
He glanced at Fp who nodded as if to say "do it".
"And there's no way you'll be able to get better in Riverdale either. So I have no other option... I'm sending you to Chicago."
Lexy felt her heart stop. Archie raked his hands through his hair. He had no idea that telling his father about all of this would lead to Lexy being sent away. Lexy jumped to her defense.
"So basically you don't know what to do with me so you just ship me off to mom? Is that it?" She tried to make him feel bad.
"I never said you were going to your mom's. I said you were going to Chicago." Fred said matter of factly.
Archie raised an eyebrow. "Hold on, what?"
"There's a treatment centre there for teenagers like you. People who have been through traumatic experiences and felt there was no way out of the pain other than drugs."
"A treatment centre!? Are you serious!?" Lexy screamed.
"You've left me with no choice. You can have tonight to pack your stuff. I'll bring you to the airport tomorrow morning."
Lexy ran to her room, slammed the door behind her and screamed. She let out everything she was feeling by just shrieking at the top of her lungs until her throat couldn't take it anymore.
Archie, Fred and Fp simply had to listen as she felt her world falling apart. They heard bangs and thumps and knew she was probably throwing things around her room.
"You think she'll ever forgive us, dad?" Archie asked.
"I don't know. But we would never forgive ourselves if we had to bury her before she even graduated."
A/N: Apologies for the late update!! Be prepared for the next chapter though...;)