The Game

6 - Archie Andrews - 6

'Your mission is to find out who shot your father in this very diner,' Pop Tate told me over the counter of his diner.

I left without any idea of where to start, so I decided to drive the Sheriff's office to see if they had any leads yet.

I walked through the door and headed straight for Sheriff Keller's room.

I knocked and he gestured for me to go inside.

'Hello Archie, what can I do for you?' He asked, smiling.

'I was wondering if you have any leads on-,' I stopped. As I was talking to him, I looked into his eyes. They were green. Small triangles of green. 'Actually, it- it doesn't matter, thanks- thanks anyway,' I stuttered, turning to reach for the handle to leave.

As I was waking out, my mind kept switching between the image of the shooter's eyes and the image of Sheriff Keller's.

I decided to head to Veronica's to see if she could help me figure out what to do next.

'Veronica,' I called as I knocked on the door of the Pembrooke.

'Hey Archie, what can I help you with?' She asked, letting me inside.

I walked up to the table and sat on one of the fancy wooden chairs. She sat beside me.

'I need to find out who shot my dad,' I told her.

'That's sounds easy enough, you saw their eyes so hopefully you can recognise them,' she said.

'Yeah.. well.. I was just at the Sheriff's office and I looked into Tom Keller's eyes, they looked just like the shooter's,' I admitted.

'Well let's not go jumping to any conclusions, who else could it be?' She asked me.

There were a couple of other people I'd been suspecting.

'I was thinking maybe Clifford Blossom or Hal Cooper, they both have similar eyes,' I told her.

'Okay, let's start with Hal, he'll be at the Riverdale register, then we'll go to Clifford's place and if both of those people can be ruled out, then we'll go back to the Sheriff,' she decided, standing up to leave.

I followed and got into the driver's side of my car, she got into the passenger's side.

I drove for no more than five minutes until we reached the register.

The front of the building was mostly glass, so we could see that Hal was in there.

I hopped out of the car and knocked on the door with Veronica behind me.

'Hello Archie, what can I do for you?' He asked as I closed the door behind the Latina.

'Hal, did you shoot my father?' I asked directly, hoping for him to just admit to it.

'Where is this coming from, I'd never hurt your old man,' he said, standing up and walking towards me around his desk.

'Where were you when it happened then?' I questioned, trying to get him to crack.

'I was here,' he began, 'Alice and I were working on a case for the register, I can phone her and have her speak to you if you'd like?'

I thought about it for a minute, but if it got back to Betty that I'd accused her father of attempted murder, she'd never forgive me.

'It's okay, Mr Cooper, I believe you, sorry for bothering you,' I turned around to leave, satisfied that he didn't do it. He wouldn't have offered to let me speak to Alice if he had done it.

'So to Thistlehouse next?' Veronica asked from behind me.

I nodded.

~~~

Knocking on the huge door, I was surprised when Cheryl answered it.

'What brings you to the lovely house that is Thistlehouse?' She asked in her usual perky voice.

'I was wondering if I could speak with your father?' I asked.

'I would be more than happy to bless you with the privilege, but he is currently in the middle of a field surrounded by pigs,' she told me, deadly serious.

'How long has he been there?' I questioned, hoping to be able to rule him out as a suspect.

'About a week now I believe, it's been the most peaceful week of my life,' she told me. 'Now if there's nothing more I can do for you, would you kindly leave me alone?' She added.

We turned around to walk back to the car.

'So it must be Sheriff Keller,' I mumbled, glad that I finally had an answer but surprised at what it was.

~~~

'I know what you did!!' I shouted as I burst into the Sheriff's office for the second time that day.

'I'm sorry Archie, I'm not following,' he said, standing up.

'You tried to kill my father,' I insisted.

~~~

GAME OVER: MISSION FAILED, the screen read.

'What?? How did I fail?' KJ exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation after putting the controller down.

'It wasn't the Sheriff,' Derek explained, 'it was Hal Cooper. You never bothered to speak to his wife and make sure he was where he said he was, which he wasn't, so you failed.'

'Does that mean we all have to play again?' Madelaine asked, screwing up her face in disappointment.

'Yes, but this time it's for real,' Derek said.

He snapped his fingers.

The world became foggy around the six players, almost like a dizzying feeling, until they could see nothing but white.

After a few minutes, the world around them began to form again, but it was different to the one they'd left behind.

All six players were stood in the diner of Pop's, where they had seen their characters stand so many times before.

'Ah, I see you are here for the real missions now!' Pop Tate told them, over the counter of his diner.

They all realised what was going on at the exact same moment; they were stuck in the world that some call a game.

~~~

Author's Notes:

That was a fun ending!
I might make a sequel to this in the future... we'll have to wait and see :).
Thanks for the support on this story, I will have another fanfic out soon, keep an eye on my status board for updates.
For the last time on this story, please vote and comment!! 🖤🤍