The Other Detective - Book 3 (Riverdale Season 3)

Survive the Night - Part 3

"Looks like it's my turn," Betty said as they came to the next area lit with fires and candles. She handed Jughead her jacket, starting to walk forwards before he caught her hand.

"Hey. I love you."

"I love you too," she told him before kissing him gently, pulling away and walking to the pile of candles, opening the small box that sat there, a gun inside. The note above it reading 'One Bullet.' The Black Hood walked over to them and Betty picked up the gun before Hal took off his hood.

"You know how this has to end," he told his daughter. "You have to kill me, Betty. That's your heart. That's your truth. You can't deny your destiny." He pulled out his own gun and she held hers up.

"Don't make me do this," she pleaded. "Please."

"Either kill me and get the antidote," he nodded his head over towards a vial hanging from a tree, "or I will kill you and your friends. You have till the count of three." Archie let go of Veronica and slowly started moving. "Either shoot me or I'll shoot you. One... Two..." Betty discharged the gun. Hal groaned as he crouched on the ground, cradling his left shoulder.

"I will never be like you, Dad," Betty said, putting the gun back into the box.

"Enough!" Penelope shouted as she walked into the clearing. "Good God, Hal. You can't be trusted to do anything. You were a terrible serial killer then and you still are today. Useless." She pulled out a gun and shot Hal in the head, causing him to fall to the ground.

"No!" Betty let out a blood curdling scream as her body gave out, Jughead and Veronica rushing over to hold her as she cried. Aminity stood frozen where she was, all of them turning to where Archie stood as he grabbed the vial from the tree.

"And what do you think you're doing?" Penelope demanded.

"He's claiming our prize," Jughead told her. "We won, didn't we? We survived the night. We proved that we're better than this town."

"That may or may not be true," Penelope nodded. "But one of you still hasn't completed your quest." They all turned to Aminity.

"What are you talking about? I've been completing it all night," Aminity pulled out the G&G card from her pocket, the Princess on the front. "'The Princess has been stricken by disease, but she must make a perilous journey to reach the cure,'" she read. "I've been playing my quest all night."

"And I must say, you're doing quite nicely so far." Aminity hid some more of her coughs as she felt her lungs become more restricted. "But that journey? It isn't over yet, Princess. You still have more wood and if you don't make it out, well..." She turned to the group of Gargoyles with her. "Kill them. Kill them all!"

"Come on!" Jughead yelled as they started running. "Archie!" They all started sprinting through the woods. Archie fell at one point, scrambling to get back onto his feet and pulling Veronica along with them. Aminity started to hyperventilate as her pace became slower, her lungs restricting any oxygen to enter her body. She glanced up at the sun rising in the sky as she started to cough harshly before falling to the ground. The world began to spin around her and she heard distant screams, the Gargoyles behind her, her friends and brother ahead of her, turning back as they heard her fall. Jughead yelled, but she couldn't hear him, her ears ringing too loudly. She looked past them, eyes barely focusing on the trucks pulling on the dirt road. She saw Cheryl's mouth move, a few Serpents tugging Jughead back behind a van as Cheryl and a few of the Poisons shot arrows at the oncoming Gargoyles. Aminity put her head down as the arrows started to whiz past her. She was suddenly thrown over, a Gargoyle on top of her.

"Kurtz never finished his mission," the Gargoyle pulled off his mask, his eyes focusing on the sacrifice marking on her shoulder that could be seen through the tears in her dress and coat. "That just means I'll have to do it for him." He raised the switchblade above his head before he was thrown off of her, Sweet Pea landing on top of him and punching him till the Gargoyle's face was bloody.