The Theory Of Chaotic Perfection |BUGHEAD|

Chapter XXXV - Prayer For The Wicked

Alice Cooper stared blankly into the white of her perfectly cleaned and wallpapered wall. The words of the officer in front of her passed her ears. Apparently, her daughter had turned herself in to the police. She shook her head as the officer asked her something again, pulling herself out of her mindless daze. The room around her was spinning, her husband's crossed hands scared her, for the first time he did not wear confidence, he was frightened of what came next.

"Is it true Mrs. Cooper, did she shoot the man in self defense?" The officer asked again, running his eyes up and down Alice, trying to catch some sort of sign that she was listening.

Alice nodded, "of course! My daughter is not a monster, all she wanted to do was protect that boy of hers," Alice sighed, no more lies, no more secrets.

The officer wrote it down, tapping the end of his pencil on the notebook he held, "then how come she takes anti depressants?"

Her eyes widened, "my daughter was very sick when she was young, she would often do strange things, so we put her-"

"But she wasn't sick, upon investigation we found that you never contacted a doctor, it was a self diagnose done by you Mrs. Cooper, Elizabeth only acted out because of her pills." The officer said.

Shaking her head Alice grabbed Hal's hand, he put his other hand on her shoulder and shielded her away from the officer's questions, "Alice had a troubled mother, it was in her genes, when Betty had strange behaviors we decided to tackle the problem before it showed up."

"Those symptoms were not medically approved," the officer continued to press.

"What are you saying, officer, that she killed a man because she went crazy for taking anti depressants, well do you know that she stopped taking them a long time ago, said they made her feel numb, hated them, found ways to get rid of them. They were out of her system." Hal raised his voice, making the officer stand up and take his hat off the dining table.

Looking at a crying Alice, the officer nodded, "good day to you, sorry for the disturbance."

As soon as he left and Hal closed the front door, Alice jumped off her chair and sprinted to the phone. Hal caught her before she could call anyone, preventing her from moving.

"Let me go, Hal, I need to call them and report that I am a witness. I can't let my baby spend another day in prison," she pulled at his finger to release her.

Feeling pain, he released her, "Alice, they already know you're a witness, what are you gonna do for them to release her, say you killed him? They're doing their legal work, it's going to take time."

Alice fell on her husband again, tears streaming down her face, "why did we even try to get her back, she is old enough, she could take care of herself."

"Alice, we couldn't leave her with that criminal-" Hal reminded her of why they tried so hard to get Betty back.

Betty watched the moon through the barred window of her prison cell. She wished she was back in that stupid house they rented with Jughead, wished that it would all go back to normal, whatever version of normal they had. Then she realized whatever they had was not normal, it didn't have a normal start, nor did it look like they would have a normal end.

An officer walked into her cell, cuffing her up. It felt horrible, being pinned down by someone to a wall as they put cuffs on you. She tried not to show fear and trust the police, but after what she witnessed on the road with Jughead, she knew that people could be deceiving.

He lead her out of her cell and into an interrogation room. Jughead sat on a chair, getting up the second she walked in. The officer took the cuffs off and closed to door, leaving them alone.