Riverdale OneShots

Sisters Of Quiet Mercy (Part 1)

(Sensitive Content: MENTIONS ABUSE)

"You're telling me that nobody has seen Betty in almost two weeks? And she's at the Sisters?!" Jughead was seething. Kevin, Josie, Fangs, Sweet Pea, Jughead, Cheryl, Toni, Veronica, and Archie were in Dilton's bunker, trying to find Betty.

"I thought she was at the farm with her mom," Josie told him, slightly cowering under his stern gaze. 

"Betty hates the Farm! She would never go there!" He shouted back.

Josie was about to reply but stopped when the lid to the underground bunker screeched open. 

"Archie, get behind me. Reggie's out of town, and he's the only other one who knows where this bunker is. Fangs, Sweet Pea, Toni,  get your knives." 

Jughead spoke quickly and calmly, pulling out his own knife and motioning his other Serpents to the front of the group. 

The light coming from outside was shortly blocked by a small figure in a blue dress covered in dirt and blood climbing down the ladder. She turned around and squeaked at the sight of four people towering over her holding knives, and instinctively dug her nails into her palms reopening the cuts from the day before. She didn't even notice the pain.

"Betts?" Jughead whispered, hardly recognizing his girlfriend. He lowered his switchblade and step towards her, causing her to drop to the floor and cover her head. 

"I'm sorry Sister Woodhouse! Just please don't hit me again."

"Hey, Betts. It's just me. It's Jug." He crouched down, careful not to scare her. Betty looked through the gap in her arms and noticed him.  She lowered her arms and flung herself around him. "Oh thank god." Not breaking down, just hugging him with her eyes closed, taking in the boy she had missed for almost two weeks. He wrapped his own arms around her waist, thankful to hold her again. This unfortunately exposed her face to the rest of the group, who collectively gasped.

There was a cut directly above her eyebrow and bruises littered her cheeks, ranging from newish purple ones to older green ones. Her eyes, instead of the vibrant blue they usually were, looked dull and gray. Veronica took a tentative step forward and Betty jumped back when she heard her heels click on the concrete floor, letting go of her boyfriend and showing him her face. "Betty, what the hell happened to you?"

He reached out to cup her face, but she flinched again and hit her head on the ladder. "Shit. that hurts." Betty reached up to hold her head, slightly wincing when she felt the pressure on her bloodied palms. "Where's the peroxide and gauze?" she looked up and noticed her friends staring at her. "Please stop staring at me. My hands are bleeding again, and I wanna put some disinfectant on it before I get another infection." Kevin looked in a nearby cabinet and pulled out the brown bottle and white fabric.

She stood up slowly as if she didn't just flinch multiple times at two people who would never lay a hand on her. Jughead also got up, following her to Kevin. She grabbed the items from his hands and sat on the small cot. "Thanks, Kev." she smiled at him and opened the container, but it was pulled out of her hands before she could use it. "I'll do it." Jug mumbled and held out his hand for Betty to put hers in.  Sighing, she revealed the crescent moons on her right palm, also rolling up her sleeve. "Oh, Betts," he mumbled, spraying it on her hand and wrapping it up in the gauze.

"Other hand, please." she switched hands and rolled up her other sleeve to reveal even more cuts.  "Betty. What happened?" he fixed up her arms and hands as she told them.

"The Sisters. They beat us and forced us to take drugs. And every time I refused they beat me again. So they would force it into my mouth and take me down to see the 'Gargoyle King', who was really just a statue and left me in the darkroom with no food or water for a day at a time, and when they let me out I wasn't allowed to eat for another ten hours. Until I learned to throw them back up, so I stopped refusing."

She stopped and took a sharp intake of breath when Jughead accidentally squeezed her arm too tightly. "Sorry, love. Continue." 

"Then I found out Ethel's obsessed with you because the King wants you to be together. After that, I eventually found a way to convince Ethel the statue was just a statue, not a horrific beast out to kill her. We tied Sister Woodhouse up and found out they created the game on accident, and we stole the keys and went to break the others out, but they didn't want to leave because they thought the king would kill them. So I put on this cape and wings and crown and became the 'Gryphon Queen' and they believed me when I said that the king was dead, so they followed me and Ethel out of the Sisters. Then when they all went where they wanted to go to I ran through the woods to here to avoid my mom, who showed up at the last minute to take me home."

Jughead finished wrapping up her hand and placed a kiss on it. Betty's mouth twitched like she was going to smile, but she didn't.

"Do you have any more cuts?" Betty nodded. "My waist." 

"Ok. We'll get those later. Where do you want to go now? You can't stay in a bunker."

Veronica stepped forward again, and this time Betty didn't move, just looked up.

"You can stay at my place, B. My parents won't mind."

Betty shook her head. "After what you're dads been doing to everyone at the Sisters? Fuck no."

Veronica's kind expression warped into one of confusion. "What do you mean? What did my dad do?"

"He paid them to test the drugs out on us."

Jughead whipped his back to look at Veronica, a wild expression on his face. 

"It was your dad? It's your dad's fault  that Betty was drugged for two weeks?!" He raised his voice, and Betty flinched for the fourth time.

"I'm sorry, love. I'll stop yelling."

"It's not her fault. I just don't want to be near her father. Can I come home with you?"

He smiled and nodded, and Betty slid off the bed and threw her arms around him pressing her soft lips to his, surprising him. The shock quickly subsided and he kissed back, snaking his arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground slightly to kiss her better. Sweet Pea's voice brought them back to reality.

"Um, we are still here ya know. So can you like, not make out with your girlfriend when we need to find where she's living?" 

They broke the kiss and Betty spoke first. 

"What? I haven't seen him in two weeks, I want to kiss my boyfriend!" Betty exclaimed but sat down nonetheless. "So, I'm coming home with you?"

Word Count: 1189

I don't like how the other fanfiction stories about SOQM depict Betty as helpless who needs Jughead to save her, Betty is stronger than that. So this is my version.

~Ana K.