Night Fall | Sweet Pea (completed)

Chapter Fifty-Two.

"The task before you is simple. Make it through the woods. Survive the night. You will be tested, each of you. Refuse my tests, or try to escape, and my Gargoyle minion will kill you. May the final quest begin." Penelope spoke, the five of us stood there and stared at each other. Unsure whether or not we should move in case one of her masked men come towards us.

"I'd start running if I were you." With that being said Veronica, Betty and I all hitched up our dresses and turned towards the cottage to run. Archie and Jughead were right behind us as we made our way through the woods, unsure of whether to go and terrified of what could jump out at us. 

"The good news is, if Penelope wanted us dead, we would be." Jughead spoke as he now walked in front of the four of us.

"Yeah because it's not like she's got the Black Hood, the Gargoyle King AND an army of brainwashed minions on her side. No sure we're totally safe." I spoke whilst I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure nobody was on our tail. 

"She wants us alive Danica. That's something." Jughead cut me off as we continued to walk aimlessly, all sense of direction was off as we tried to figure out where we were meant to be going.

"Yeah, well, at least long enough to complete her bizarre social experiment." Betty commented making me smile towards her as she took my side.

"Yeah or die trying." Jughead mentioned instantly switching sides to be with Betty. 

"We don't even know where to go." Veronica complained in an attempt to take the topic off of our impending death. 

"Actually, Enchantress, we might." Jughead stopped walking as he spotted a makeshift sign with a G&G symbol on it and a red arrow pointing straight ahead.

"Let me guess we're going to walk directly to where the arrow is pointing and hope to not die?" I commented as I leant on Archie to catch my breath as well as remove the ridiculous stiletto shoes Penelope had paired with my green ball gown. 

"Come on, let's go." Jughead sighed, shaking his head slightly as he saw what I was doing.

"I can't tell whether that's a genius idea or whether we should be holding onto those as weapons." Archie commented as he held his hand out to grab ahold of the shoes.

"Either way my feet are already feeling better than they did before. Let's hope they're now easy access weapons too." I joked light-heartedly as we tried to lighten the mood whilst following Jughead towards our doom.

"It's a Red Paladin card." Jughead spoke as he shined the torch on a tree about 10 metres in front of us. He grabbed the scroll attached and turned his attention to Archie as we reached him.

"Archie, this quest is for you." 

"The Red Paladin must conquer the Grizzled Beast. He must battle alone in the pit to save his home." Archie read the scroll before looking up slowly.

"What is a grizzled beast?" Veronica asked, confusion written all over her face. Growling was all we needed to confirm my suspicions. 

"Pretty sure it's a bear, how original Penelope." I rolled my eyes whilst looking towards the direction of the noise. 

"Oh, crap." Archie spoke making me laugh slightly as he realised what he had to do. "Not again." 

We all walked down the hill towards the noise where we were greeted with the sights of a fairly muscly main in a bears mask facing us. A thirst for blood was evident in his eyes and from his mannerisms I was beginning to wonder whether or not he was part bear.

"That's not exactly what I was expecting." I commented quietly as Archie stared at the man-beast in front of us.

"Archie, don't do this. That guy is eight-feet-tall and jacked." Veronica warned, it became clear to me she was still in love with Archie despite the fact they were no longer together and it warmed my heart slightly.

"It's just a fight, I've been fighting all year. Don't forget I survived a real bear attack, remember?" Archie spoke as he removed his suit jacket and vest. "If I don't make it, tell my mom and dad I love them, and you guys." With that Archie began his walk down the hill and into the ring determined to fight to the death with the man-beast.

---

After what had felt like hours later we had managed to conquer Archie's brush with death, Veronica's Russian roulette style spin-the-bottle that resulted in both Veronica and Betty being poisoned, Jughead's fight with Chic that determined who 'led the kingdom' and now we had stumbled upon my challenge. 

"Defeat the devil. Save your friends." I read the scroll with the snake on it as I looked towards the battle area that had been created for me.

"The devil? What devil? What are they talking about?" Veronica questioned, confusion was clear as she glanced around the woods to see who or what would show themselves.

The next minute a hustle came from behind Jughead, Archie, Betty and Veronica.

"Um Dani..." Archie drifted off, I turned around to see four of the brainwashed minions pointing spears directly into the backs of my friends. 

"Holy shit..." Jughead trailed off as another noise came from behind me. Turning around once more I became face to face with the devil himself, Malachi.

"Malachi? I thought you were in jail? What? How?" I stuttered upon my words as Malachi neared me once more.

"Oh sweetie you're smart enough to know I'm never really gone, especially not from you. Penelope contacted me and asked if I wanted to level the playing fields with you: she kills your friends and I get to kill you. It seemed only fitting if I'm being truthful with you." Malachi flipped open his switch blade as he made his way towards me.

"You being truthful? I'm sorry but that's crazier than this current hell I ended up in, now I know you're one of the reasons I'm here." 

"I figured that if I got little Charlie's mother out of the way that it would be so easy for me to just slip on into the sheriff's house and grab her whilst your pathetic boyfriend grieves you. Come to think of it, she's not even old enough to remember you yet. How perfect." Malachi's wicked smile sat on his face as I swung my fist towards him, he dodged swiftly before punching me in the stomach. 

I managed to throw my fist at his face whilst he bragged about raising my daughter as a Ghoulie. We scuffled, punches were thrown, his knife slashed my skin before I managed to stab him in the arm. He screamed in pain before climbing on top of me, wrestling me and punching me at the same time. I felt pain shoot through every inch of my body but there was no way I would let him win. 

Not only would my friends die but he would get my daughter and that was one thing I was determined to never let happen. I sent a solid punch straight into his ribs causing him to loose his breath before I overpowered him and climbed on top of him. My legs pinned down his as I battled for the knife clutched in his hand. His grip didn't loosen so I came up with another plan. I picked up a rock that was just in arms reach, smashing it down on his hand that held the knife. I heard him scream once again as I pried the knife from his broken fingers. 

"You won't do it. You're too scared. You had your shot to kill me and you failed." Malachi spat at me, the venom in his voice was evident but what was even clearer was his fear. I had known him long enough to know when his façade was dropping and luckily for me today was one of those times.

"Goodbye Malachi. I'll see you in hell." I spat back at him before plunging his own knife deep into his chest. I kept pushing it in until I felt his heart stop. I didn't dare move off of him until I felt his lungs collapse and his pulse die out. That's when a loud sob escaped my mouth. I started shaking as I fell beside him, his blood on my hands and dress as I cried. I couldn't even tell you why I was crying, I felt no sympathy for the man but it may have had something to do with the fact I had just killed someone for the sake of this pathetic game.

"It's okay. It's okay. I've got you." I heard Jughead's voice hush as he rocked me back and forth, calming me down. I don't know how long we were sat there but I knew one thing was for sure as I stood up prepared to end this game: 

Malachi was dead. And I had killed him.