Lonely Town

Alice believed she was going insane. The vision of her daughter murdered and being left in the trunk of a car has been all she has been able to think of ever since that dark day. Polly had been barely recognizable, but a mother would always know.

It haunted her. Her daughter died alone. She died, leaving two kids behind. She died too young. She died, while building so hard to a bright future no matter how rocky and dark path she had to take to get there.

Polly never had it easy, and Alice realized that part of that was her fault. But after all, their bond had been stronger than ever. For years, they only had one another. Hal was dead, Betty was gone... it was just them. And she felt that she had failed to protect her when that was her biggest responsibility and biggest duty as a mother.

But now Polly wasn't the only one. A new coldblooded maniac was hunting women all over the east coast to kill them, probably simply for the thrill of looking his defenseless victims in the eyes, right before he took it all away. And then Alice promised herself that she would avenge Polly. She couldn't bring her back, but she sure as hell could fight so no other woman would ever suffer the same faith.

If she would have told Betty about her new mission, she either would have joined her, or would have told her that carrying the responsibility to protect all young women was too much for her to carry on her own. She never really knew with her. Not to risk being talked out of it by the only daughter she had left, she decided to keep her new mission to herself.

Betty figured that her mother was distant because she was dealing with her trauma in her own way. She respected that, mostly because she had inherited the same coping mechanisms. They spoke surprisingly often about Polly, which Betty believed to be a good sign.

Little did she know that Alice had thrown herself into an insane case she wasn't officially involved with. Nights of looking at murder bords, mapping out motives or any possibly location had been keeping her up. And nobody suspected a thing.

She took a pin and pinpointed the place she had circled in a bold red color.

Twin Peaks.

That was the town where she could find him. And so, she left in the midst of the night, leaving only a small note to tell Betty she needed some time away from Riverdale. A little white lie, she would say. She just failed to mention that her own life was on the line too.

It was in the middle of the night when she finally arrived in the spooky town. Maybe it were the pine trees mysteriously hovering over her, making her feel like she was being watched every single second, but something about this small unknown town freaked her out. However, Alice didn't know if it was her mind trying to trick her out of her mission, or that she genuinely had something to fear.

She passed a diner that reminded her just slightly of Pop's, but it missed the same bright neon lights that felt like home. After that she noticed a gas station that looked almost abandoned, but probably still functioned. The only thing that really felt alive in Twin Peaks was the enormous waterfall that she passed.

She gravitated towards it, as if it was calling her. It should've freaked her out, but it didn't. Alice turned off the engine of her car, got out and walked to the calling of the water's voice. The roaring of the waterfall was extremely loud, even so loud that it drowned the demons in her head for just a bit. Maybe that was the reason she couldn't keep her eyes off it. It was louder than anything. Louder than herself.

As she stared at the water, she didn't hear footsteps coming her way into the dark. It wasn't until she saw a silhouette that she snapped her head at the mysterious person's direction, like an owl with eyes in her back.