Riverdale: Pandora's Box

To Open or Not to Open Pandora's Box

It all started out so innocently.

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 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 come back 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.