I'm Darkness || Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones [2]

The Picture

THE PICTURE

"Ellie,"

She looks up from her hands, and into Sheriff Keller's eyes. He's not accusing her, she doesn't find any judgment in his eyes, no. All she finds is pity. He's pitying her, and she lets him, because even though the guilt is consuming her, Ellie wants someone – just one person – to look her in the eye and tell her that Midge's death isn't her fault.

"I'm sorry, what did you ask?"

"I know this is hard but" Keller sighs before repeating the question. "I wanna know more about the letters, maybe. Jughead told me about them."

"There's nothing to say, it was just Ethel being a selfish little..." Ellie stops herself mid-sentence before she says something way out of proportion, but she's angry. Mostly at herself, but also maybe at Ethel. "We didn't know it was her at first, I mean we had our suspicions but we couldn't risk it, so we talked to Cheryl, and her Mom ended up taking her off the play anyway so..."

"You had to recast her, right?"

"Kevin was thinking about casting Ethel because if the letters were really from her then she would never stop if we casted someone else." She explains, and it's the next words that hurt get past her throath. "I insisted with Kevin for him to cast Midge, because I wouldn't let Ethel win. Well, turns out we all lost anyway." Ellie's eyes are looking at the man sitting in front of her, but all he sees is void. "So Midge's... death... that's on me."

. . .

"I also feel it is my duty to say that like the Furies of Ancient Greece who pursue blood atonement when a crime's commited, the Vixens and I vow that we'll not rest until those responsible for the death of our sister... is rightly punished."

Cheryl's speech, of course. Because no one else would dare to make such a statement, and Ellie's still figuring out how she's standing here, at her funeral. She can't even look at Midge's Mom without it breaking her heart in a million of tiny pieces.

"Hey," Veronica places one hand on Ellie's shoulder, gesturing with her head for her to come. "we should go. Everyone's leaving."

Ellie lets herself be dragged away from the grave by the dark-haired girl, the rest of her friends, including her sister, are slightly ahead of them. But they all come to a stop, when their eyes find Midge's Mom talking with the Sheriff a few feet away.

The woman slaps him hard in the face, words only coming after. "You were supposed to be protecting our kids... You should be ashamed of yourself." And she walks out.

Cheryl, that's standing right there, steps forward with a warning. "Your days of failing this town over and over again are numbered, Sheriff."

Eleanor can't blame them, she understands very well the need to blame someone, only she usually blames herself, and this time is no different.

. . .

"I have a theory." Jughead's voice breaks the silence that had settled between them at Pops'. And everyone turns to look at him. "It's a copycat killer. And who coincidentally showed up in Riverdale after Mr. Svenson was killed? And has been giving us creepy vibes ever since?"

Veronica asks, curious. "Who?"

"Chic."

Ellie sighs, her head falls back against the window, and she looks outside now. She's not sure she can deal with this right now, she can only think about the pills she didn't take last night because she knows those are the last ones, and she gotta save them for the right time.