The Theory Of Chaotic Perfection |BUGHEAD|

Chapter XXXII - Fate

Fate is cruel, and sometimes it can come when one least expects it. When Jughead realized that one afternoon he had no escape from the same criminal path that followed his father, he thought of taking Betty to drive around town one day and just drive away without explaining anything to her. But he could not be so reckless. Instead he figured he'd have to be silent until he could find another way out. Fate was even crueler to him when he came back one night and Alice Cooper was sitting in his living room, Betty by her side.

Leaving the keys in the lock, he raised his hands as Betty's mother pointed the gun in her hands at him. Betty shook her head in fear and her pony tale bounced from left to right. He thought she no longer put her hair up into it, but that day she did. 

He scanned the room and there was no one else in the house, no one he could see at least.

"I am trying to convince my poor daughter to come back with me, but alas with no success, maybe you could put some sense into her?" Alice said, still keeping her gun pointed to him.

Jughead sat down on the couch in front of them and covered his face in the palms of his hands. To make the day even worse, Alice Cooper had to show up. He didn't know how to act, he couldn't just give up and let her have Betty.

"Mom-" Betty started saying, "I love Jughead, you are not taking me away-"

Alice laughed, "love Jughead? Betty darling, you and I both know you're just using him as a means to an end."

Jughead looked up at the both of them. Of course he knew that Alice Cooper was lying, she had to be. When people are on their last inch of the thread they're holding onto they have to make up some sort of an excuse to survive.

"Mom-" Betty started again, but this time Alice didn't let her finish.

"There is a darkness in you Betty, you know what happens when you don't take your pills, all sorts of illusions are created by that sick mind of yours," Alice said, still pointing the gun at Jughead.

Betty started crying, Jughead hated when someone made Betty cry, "I am not sick mom!"

This time Alice turned around to face her daughter, "Betty, stop this, haven't you hurt this boy enough already!"

Standing up, Betty started circling around the room, her hands blocking the sound from entering her ears.

"You know that no boy will be okay with your condition, that's why we arranged for you to get married, you wouldn't survive in the real world!" Alice kept saying. Jughead was even more confused now, perhaps he finally found a family that was as messed up as his was if not more.

"No!" Betty kept repeating as she walked in circles. The worlds that Jughead tried to keep together clashed and he was watching Betty suffer his consequences. He did not wish that he never payed her any attention, that he did not save her that night, that they did not run away. If he had to do it all over again, he would in a heartbeat. The truth was, Betty never needed him, he needed her.

Before he could confront Alice, the front door opened again and someone walked in on the scene. Rat was standing with a cigarette between his teeth in their living room. As if the day could not get any worse.

Both Alice and Betty looked at Rat whom Alice quickly recognized as someone who once worked for FP. She pulled her daughter closer to herself and now her gun was pointed at Rat, to which he pulled out his own gun. Jughead jumped in front of Alice and Betty, trying to convince Rat to put his gun down. The situation escalated and he tried his best to calm everyone down.

Through screaming and arguing, Betty closed her ears again, but there was no silence that could give her rest, all she saw was someone pointing a gun at Jughead and her mother eyeing the back door ready to escape. Her mind caught up with her body and she pulled the gun out of her mother's hands, shooting straight in front of her, the bullets grazing Jughead and hitting Rat who fell flat down on the floor, blood oozing from his chest.

Alice fell on the floor, fear in her eyes as her daughter held the gun. Jughead slowly turned around, to his shock it was not Alice who pulled the trigger. He put his hands up in the air as he slowly approached Betty and took the gun out of her hands. Her body came collapsing into his and he held her tightly as she realized what she had done.

"We need to get out, all of us," Alice said as she stared at Rat, dead on the ground.

Jughead looked at her, Betty still in his arms, "I am not letting you take her away from me."

Alice looked at him, anger in her eyes but also pain. She knew that her daughter was no longer under her safety and control. Standing up, she pulled the hairband out of Betty's hair and her daughter turned around to face her. It was like a symbol between them, a controlling mother finally letting loose of her little girl's hair, admitting that her little girl was no longer little. Her little girl shot a man. "Take her away, Jughead, as far away as you can."

Jughead nodded and sat Betty down on the couch. She didn't say anything, just kept staring out into the distance of the room. Alice took her belongings and ran out of the house to her car. Jughead searched the house for the money he stashed earlier. When he came back into the living room Betty was still locked in her old position.

"Betty, we need to go-" he said, hoping that he'd awake her from the strange trans she was in. The sound of her mother's car driving away woke her up and she looked around the room.

"Jughead," Betty said, "I just killed a man." Tears started to pour out of her eyes again and he pulled her up, leading her out of the house and into the car Mr. Andrews let them have. He started driving, but he was so worried about Betty that he had to stop in the middle of nowhere. He let her crawl up closer to him, crying into his shoulder. Wishing he could take her fear and pain away, to be the one behind the trigger instead of her, all he could do was be with her and tell her everything was going to be alright.

"There is a darkness in me," she whispered, "and I can't control it anymore."

Jughead pulled away from her, "we all have a darkness Betty, and yes you can control it, because it is yours, you choose when to let it out and suppress it."

Betty nodded, clinging tight to his words as if they were her last breath. Rat was a bad man, and he was threatening them. She did everything she could to protect those she loved. Her fate was to embrace the parts of her that she was afraid of. Rat's fate was making a big mistake and going to intimidate Jughead some more.