Anarchist | Riverdale

The Tell-Tale Heart

"What happened?" Ellie asks, quietly due to the shock.
"No, no, no. Don't come closer." Alice stops her as she steps forward. "Don't touch anything. He tried to hurt me, and Chic, your brother."
Betty pulls out her phone and starts dialling 911 and something flips in Ellie's brain, that they have to act fast and she must help her mother.
"No, what are you doing?" Ellie snaps, snatching the phone from her sister's grasp.
"I'm calling the police." Betty replies, tearing eyed, her voice breaking.
"No. Don't do that." Alice warns, standing from the floor.
"Mom, there's a man on our floor."
"The police will take Chic away from me. I won't let that happen again."
"Well, if it was self-defence." Betty replies, panicked. "It was self-defence right?"
"Yes, of course it was. But it doesn't matter." Alice says, frantically rushing around.
"What do we do?" Betty asks.
"Go to your rooms, you didn't see anything." Alice demands.
"No, Mom, let me help you." Ellie replies, stepping forward.
"No, it's better if you're not involved." Alice says and then Betty's phone starts to ring.
"It's dad." She says.
"Don't answer." Ellie tells her.
"What if he--?"
"Yes. Answer." Alice says, freaking out a little.
"Just act like everything's normal." Ellie gives her advice.
"Hi dad, what's up?" Betty raises the phone to her ear after taking a deep breath. "Okay I'll see you in bit."
"Please tell me he's not coming here?" Alice closes her eyes, almost praying.
"He needs toiletries, but he doesn't wanna get in a fight with you." Betty explains.
"Betty-." Alice sighs.
"Mom, we don't know how much time we have. Please just let us help you." Ellie says sternly and a reluctant Alice agrees.
"Bleach is under the sink." She says and the her two daughters quickly remove their jackets, leaving Betty in her pink dress and matching heels she wore for Veronica's confirmation and Ellie in Sweet Pea's top and a pair of joggers.
They rush to find the bleach and cleaning supplies to help their mother clean up a mess their brother made.

And in one reckless moment, the lives of the Cooper women were forever changed. They were a mother wanting to protect her son, and daughters wanting to protect her mother. While less than fifty yards away...

The three women were just catching their breath and Ellie's mind was still going a million miles an hour, thinking of what exactly she will tell Sweet Pea when Hal Cooper walks in, shouting for Betty.
"Betty. Alice. Ellie." Hal walks into the kitchen.
"Hal." Alice and Ellie say at the same time.
"Dad."
"Oh, where's Chic?" He asks, looking around.
"Upstairs in his room, resting." Ellie answers, she knows she can keep a straight face and act natural in the toughest of situations.
"What's that smell?" Hal asks again.
"Bleach, I spilled tomato soup. I didn't want it to stain." Alice replies.
"Well there must've been a lot of soup because it smell like a hospital in here." He says, growing more suspicious.
"Dad do you want me to get the toiletries for you?" Betty cuts him off, steering his mind elsewhere. He sighs and then begins walking upstairs, allowing the girls to breath.

"What if someone comes looking for him Mom?" Betty asks as Alice, Ellie and herself are on the way to dispose of the body.
"People go missing every day." Alice reassures her.
"But what if he has a family?"
"Didn't strike me as the type. I mean who walks around without a wallet."
Ellie doesn't say anything as she is just concentrating on the road ahead of her, her vision slightly blurred from the pure shook and horror of what just happened. Deep down she is terrified, she has never seen a dead body before and she is completely freaking out.
Alice and Betty leave Ellie in the car as they head to leave the body wrapped up in the rug, in an old sewer pipe somewhere in the woods.
Tears drip onto Ellie's phone screen as she types a simple text to Sweet Pea, in which she gets several replies but doesn't answer as she knows as soon as she tries to relive what happened, she will breakdown in tears and wanted to do that by her boyfriend's side. The only thing she wants right now is to be cuddling with him in bed as she tells him her problems and he holds her tight, the faint smell of his cologne still clinging on his bare chest from the morning, the warmth his body gives out and the feeling of his muscles around her bare back, letting her know she is safe. The only place she feels safe as of late.