the exception | jughead jones

103. lure us away

jessica and raymond had received a letter from the gargoyle king.

everyone had met up in a room, alice, fp, sierra, tom, hermoine, penelope, fred and reggies dad.

"so, we all received letters then, to finish ascension night." tom said.

"it appears so." jessica said.

"this was tapes to my trailer." fred said.

"mine came to the dealership." reggies father said.

"mine was tapes to my car." raymond said.

"i thought you caught the gargoyle king, fp." hermoine said.

"tall boy was using the game as a cover to deal drugs, but he wasn't the one setting up chalices back when we were in high school." fp said.

"we're not really taking this seriously, are we?" hermoine asked.

"shouldn't we?" jessica asked.

"i think we have to assume this is real if only for our kids sake." tom said.

"and then what? i mean, we're just supposed to leave them home alone all night, while we run around pretending to be teenagers again?" hermoine said.

"may i remind you what happened last ascension night? someone ended up dead." alice said.

"we don't have any choice in the matter. we all know why this is happening again, and now." penelope said.

"and whys that?" raymond asked.

"two members of the original midnight club are daring to get married, to be happy. and the gargoyle king, whoever or whatever he is, wants to destroy that. he is a vicious and petty god. and if we don't finish the game now, the gargoyle king is never gonna leave us alone." penelope told them.

"yeah, maybe if we do this, we catch the son of a bitch." fp said.

"maybe." jessica said.

"there's only one problem. the letter says we all have to participate." sierra said looking at hermoine.

"i'll talk to hiram." she said.

"all right, well, it's settled, then. we finish the game we started." tom said as everyone around the room nodded.

-

they all broke into the school that night and they saw hiram and hermoine were there yet.

"feels like we never left." fred said.

"cause we never did." alice said.

"i'll say." jessica said.

"all right, the gargoyle king wants us to finish ascension night. so, we better start by finishing the chalices. then we flip for our fates, and drink up, game over." fp said.

"easier said than done." raymond said.

"you want us to drink poison?" fred asked.

"not quite. penelope, did you bring them?" sierra asked her as she nodded.

"the antidote to cyanide. drink it now, you'll be inoculated for three next several hours. oh, come on." penelope said seeing they were hesitant to drink it.

they all finally drank it after seeing penelope do it.

"well, we're still alive." raymond said.

"all right, let's get these chalices, and get this over with." tom said.

"should we wait for the lodges?" sierra asked.

"we're already here, sierra. friends, good to see you again. although, i'm certain that not all of you feel the same way." hiram said.

"something like that." jessica said.

"well, i sure as hell don't, but we're here on a mission, so, let's get after it." fred said.

they all began to look around the school until they all met back in the middle of the hall.

"girls bathroom is clear. that's where i found that chalices before." alice said.

"did you check the trophy case?" fp asked.

"yeah, we did. nothing." reggies father said.

"we searched the student lounge, the closet where we found featherhead." fred said.

"we checked behind the celling tiles on the first floor." jessica said.

"the second floors clear." tom said.

"so is the cafeteria." hermoine said.

"and the library." hiram said.

"i don't understand. the objective was simple. return to the school, find the chalices, finish the game. what aren't we seeing?" sierra asked.

"wait a minute. where's penelope and raymond?" alice asked.

"probably ran off, no doubt." jessica said.

all the sudden they heard penelope screaming in terror and they ran to see her and raymond in a classroom.

"penelope? what is it?" alice asked.

they all turned around and saw that someone had written got you in red paint on a projector and put a gargoyle king bone in the middle of the table, full of fake blood.

"mother of god." jessica mumbled.

"what the hell does it mean?" hermoine asked.

"it's a prank, and we've been played." hiram said.

"no, it's something else." raymond said.

"or... it's just another iteration of the game... and what the gargoyle king wanted, all along. to distract us, and lure us away from-" penelope began.

"our kids." fred said.

they all pulled out their phones and began calling their kids.