BENEATH THE SURFACE

Chapter 3: Strike Two

The blackened clouds that draped over Riverdale rumbled with anger as Archie and Betty met in the window frames of their bedrooms during the early hours of Saturday morning. Neither had slept after finding the Black Hood's "gift" four hours earlier, nor had they returned the countless missed calls from their worried significant others. Instead, they sent them a text saying they had decided to go home instead of going through with the dare, even though they knew Jughead and Veronica wouldn't be completely sold on it. But, Betty and Archie would deal with that later, they had a plan to carry out.

When Betty's clock struck half past three, she gave Archie a nod and they made their way to their old tree fort in the Andrews' backyard. Growing up, they had spent entire summers in it –hiding from their parents, listening to music, pretending to be a famous band. Sometimes they even pretended they were married and the fort was their home. Those days were long gone now, but the little blue building in Archie's maple tree always felt like a safe place for them to speak.

"I've been thinking about what the note said," Betty whispered, rummaging through a backpack filled with supplies. "The note said that the person's undoing was wanting to be young, which means they can't be in high school."

"So, we're looking for someone who's like 20 years old or more?"

"No, most people in their 20s are still immature and trying to find their way as adults, Arch." Betty turned on her phone's flashlight and pulled the note out of her pocket. She scanned it for answers. "'My sin was forged beneath the stars, my fingers reveal my hobbies with their scars. My undoing was my yearning to feel young, which brought me death because I did not steer clear from the words that were sung. I once was someone and then another for a short stint, if you don't know me check my fingerprint.'" 

Betty perched down on the floor in front of Archie, reciting the words over and over again. Her head was jumbled up from fear and lack of sleep. "... 'if you don't know me check my finger print.' It doesn't make any sense. The only way we could check their fingerprint is if we got the police involved."

"That's it," Archie remarked, throwing his hands up.

"What?"

"Betty, what if the Black Hood isn't talking about checking a police database? What if the riddle is literally telling you to look at the finger on the hand? Do you have it," Archie paused, trying to get a hold on the spine-chilling words coming out of his mouth, "with you?" 

Betty nodded, pulling it out of her bag. Goosebumps crawled across her spine as she opened the little gift box. She began to shake at the sight of the purple-coloured hand. 

"I... I can't."

"It's okay. I'll do it." Archie said, placing both of his hands firmly on the sides of her shoulders to comfort her. The warmth of his hands and the way they fit around her brought ease to her.

Betty handed him a pair of rubber gloves that she had found in her father's tool cabinet in the garage. She knew it would be wise not to get their own fingerprints all over the hand of the Black Hood's next victim. 

Archie reached in to lift it out of the box, while Betty's eyes stared at the ground. Instead of making her look at it, he thought he'd describe everything to her in case it held other clues.

"It's a... It's a woman's hand. There's no rings or anything." He flipped the hand over, holding back his urge to gag at the scent and appearance of the amputation. He shined the light towards the fingers – there, on the inside of the index finger, he saw it.

"Sixty-seven. It just has a 6 and a 7 written on it in some kind of ink."

"Did you check the other fingers," Betty asked, peeking in the hand's direction.

"Yeah, there's nothing else."

"We have to be missing something," Betty pulled out a notepad and wrote it down."Wait, Arch! The riddle said something about scars on the fingers." 

Betty, feeling more at ease about the hand now that Archie was handling it, watched more closely as he inspected it. 

"There's little scars on her fingertips, just before the skin meets the nail. They look like skin-coloured grooves." He looked up at Betty as she jotted eagerly. "Betts, can I put it back now?"

She nodded. "Thanks."