Betty and Veronica begin to develop feelings for each other due to a series of seemingly random events but then they realize it might not be as random as they thought.
Alice Cooper sits at her desk, staring at the box at the end of her desk.
I thought it was just some kid, or a bunch of kids, playing a game on the out-dated journalist. It wouldn't have been the first time the place would've been vandalized or a prank pulled on us. We've had so many things painted on our office windows and walls that we keep an extra bucket of paint remover and paint just to make sure that we can get it done quickly when we come in every morning.
The police are no help. They just keep saying that kids will be kids and that we just have to live with it. We shouldn't have to live with this type of riff raff in our town. Ones who know what the difference between text messages and real news is. Kids these days just don't respect honest, in depth journalism. They get everything from the internet, or at least, Facebook and Twitter.
She tilts her head to one side to make sure the box is the same.
But this isn't like the other times. It hasn't been that way for a long time. This is different. There's a darker purpose at work and I wish I knew what it was. It all started with a note. A simple white piece of paper on my desk. Although that's not what made me think that it was different. What made it different was the message that was written inside.
'Do you know where your daughter is?'
A simple, yet worrying message, written in computer printed ink so finding out who wrote it would be extremely difficult. There wasn't much I could do about the message except worry for Betty's safety. I quickly texted her and followed up with a call when she didn't answer the text. But when I got her on the phone she reassured me that everything was fine and I shouldn't worry. Not that I told her about the note, I wouldn't want to worry her in case it was some kind of prank.
I hoped that it was just a prank, or some strange way to be romantic by my husband. But as time went on, it became clear that was far from the point. The next message was less of a question and more of a picture. A literal picture actually. My daughter at her school, seemingly unaware of the photo being taken of her.
That really got my journalist instincts into high gear. No one threatens my daughter and gets away with it. If there was more to it then I would've gone directly to the police with the photo. But I knew what they would say if I did. They'd say it wasn't enough to start an investigation and to comeback when I had more to go on. So the only thing to do was to find some evidence.
It wasn't much, but it was at least a place to start. I started with checking out her school, specifically where the photo was taken. But again this didn't lead much of anywhere. It was taken in the main hallway of the school, a place I know my daughter spends a lot of time in the day. The photo was taken outside her locker, where anyone could've taken it. They all have cameras on their phones after all. It was hard to know exactly who took it and when.
A dead end.
Over the next few weeks, I got more photos sent to me as messages. Sometimes with messages, but again they weren't enough to make a real case out of.
They said things like 'Do you know what your daughter is doing?', and 'Do you know who her real friends are?'.
Photos of my daughter kept coming with each message. Most of them with friends like Archie or Jughead or Veronica, and even a few with Cheryl. All of them seeming innocent enough. The only thing worth worrying about being the fact that none of them seemed to know they were being photographed. I tracked down each and every one of them, finding the place where they were and where the photo was taken from.
All of them dead ends.
And then things really took a turn. The people my daughter was spending time with started to get more specific. Archie and Cheryl seemed to disappear from the pictures and the places she was spending time with seemed much more private. She was spending a lot more time with Jughead and Veronica. The way they were with each other got a lot more intimate.
Jughead and my daughter have been dating for a while, much to my personal displeasure... at first at least. I'm mostly okay with it now, so it wasn't really a surprise to see them together. I wasn't really sure what the point of the Veronica pictures were. They're friends, that was hardly a surprise to see them together.
What was more surprising was when the pictures seemed to get a lot more intimate. There were several of them holding hands, either in public or in a private booth at Pop's or wherever they were. What was whoever was sending me these pictures and messages trying to say? Betty wasn't like that. She was with Jughead, it wasn't really even a question.
But the mysterious stalker seemed to ask the question anyway when I got the message 'Do you know who your daughter's with?' along with another photo of Betty and Veronica together. They were very intimate together.
It was absurd. Whoever was taking pictures of my daughter and her friend were trying to imply something that wasn't going on. It just wasn't. Betty wasn't like that. She was a good girl. She knew what was right and wrong. She would never do anything like that. She wouldn't do that to Jughead.
Coopers don't cheat on the people they're with. We're a loyal and monogamous family. But my daughter's anonymous stalker seemed to be implying something different. That she wasn't the upstanding young woman I raised her to be. It couldn't be true.
That's just the way girls are these days. Maybe it's not the way that me and my girl friends and I were back in my day, but it's the way they are now. They're much more touchy feel-y and open about the way that they express themselves. Whoever was stalking them was clearly trying to say that something more than that was going on, but I'm not buying it.
I sit back in my chair, taking a deep breath as I look at the box on my desk.
And then this arrived. I'm actually really worried about what might be inside. Given everything that I've been sent over the past little while, I'm not sure that I want to know. Whatever is in there can't be just a simple picture. The box is too big for that. But what could it be?
I'd really like to just ignore it but I don't know what will happen if I do. Whoever's behind this wants me to know what's in it. They wouldn't have sent it to me otherwise. And while I may have been worried that they were trying to hurt Betty in the beginning, I'm not so sure that this doesn't have more to do with me then my daughter.
Clearly whoever's doing this thinks I'm not as good a mother as I am. They think I'm letting my daughter down some how. It seems less physical harm and more emotional harm is what they're after then anything else.
What could be so important that it requires a box to send to me? What could I need to know about my daughter and Veronica that they couldn't just say themselves?
That's assuming it's even about them. It could all be one big misdirect. That's why I haven't confronted Betty about any of it, or my husband. I don't want anyone to panic.
Slowly, I get up and lean over the box, taking one more look at it to make sure there's nothing all that bad about it.
I have to know. Whatever else might be going on, I need to know. I can't protect my daughter from what I don't know, and as this person has taught me, there might just be more going on in my Betty's life then I knew.
When I'm sure that there's nothing wrong with the box, I reach out and start to open it.
I have to know.
I open the flaps of the box and look inside.
Oh my god!
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