Riverdale: The Lost Soul

The asylum

We took the bus the next morning.
"Greenville, ClearWater Asylum"
I was nervous.

Liz looked at the dark wall of the asylum. It scared her, made her think of her own old home.
"Ivy, are you sure..."
"We're going in." Ivy pulled Liz with her.
Inside was fairly calm, Ivy looked around the reception room.
"It looks okay, doesn't it?" Liz asked her.
"Reminds me of The Shining. We both know what happened in that movie."
The lady at the front desk was biting her nails anxiously.
"Ahem." Ivy fake-coughed.
The lady looked up and asked Ivy: "Name?"
Ivy stammered her name, and the lady asked her why she was there.
"I.. I want to see CJ Jones, I'm family."
"Fill out this form, your friend is gonna have to wait here." she pointed at Liz.

Ivy walked down the hallway with a nurse. The nurse seemed kind.
"So, you here for a family matter or a friend thing?"
Ivy didn't answer right away, finding it weird the nurse would ask her this, but she responded either way.
"..Family matter... I'm here to see CJ Jones.."
"What's he to you?" she continued.
"I'm willing to find out." Ivy mumbled.
They reached a room that looked like a daycare, and Ivy looked at the few children inside the room.
"You have children this young here?" Ivy said out loud.
"Oh, no, dear, these are children of patients. That little guy in the crib is CJ, he was born about a week ago, had visitors yesterday as well."
Ivy stared at the baby in the crib. "Who are you, CJ?"
"Those visitors yesterday seemed very touched by seeing him, or maybe it was because they visited his mother first."
Ivy perked up, this is what she was waiting for.
"His mother? Who is his mother?"
The nurse looked through her file she was holding.
"Teenager, Jones Mika, she family of yours?"

My heart sank.
Mika, the mother of this mystery boy.

"Can I go inside, can I hold him?" Ivy asked the nurse and she agreed.
Ivy was handed baby CJ and she carefully held the infant up in front of her, as if she was looking for a facial feature that was Mika's.
She just wanted proof this was her nephew.
"Who's the father? A patient here?"
Ivy put the boy back in his crib and she looked up at the nurse.
"I don't know, sweetie. She was here for, I believe, 2 months when she found out she was pregnant."
The nurse noticed Ivy being stressed and offered for her to sit down.
"It must be a lot, finding out you're an aunt at such a young age, your sister didn't inform you she was having a child? Patients are allowed to send cards when it come to a birth or a death."
Ivy just stared at the crib, too many things going on in her head.
"Can I take him with me?" she asked after sometime, even though she knew the answer.
"His family has already decided where he'll go, I'm sorry." the nurse announced.
"His family? I'm family as well, can't I change that decision?"
"No, you can't. His grandparents already selected a caregiver for him."
Ivy realised she needed to come up with something and she thanked the nurse, running out to leave as quick as she could.

"Hold. The. Fuck. Up." Florian said as the gang sat underneath the tree in the Andrews garden.
"This CJ kid is your nephew?"
Ivy lifted her shoulders and explained the whole thing again.
"I don't know who his father is, but I need to get him out of there."
"Why? He's safe there, isn't he?" Aurelia asked her.
"Apparently his grandparents have chosen a caregiver for him. How could mom and dad lie to us like that?" Ivy responded, looking at her brother as she talked about their parents.
"What are you saying, Ives? You want us to go break this kid out of that asylum, raise him ourselves? That's madness." FP said, but Ivy perked up at the idea her brother had given her.
"CJ deserves a family, his real family, instead of a stranger taking care of him. I will admit, 7 teenagers with very low wages are not perfect, but it's better than nothing." Ivy said as she stood up.
"Where do you plan hiding him? Mom and dad will find out if he's taken." FP asked his sister.
Ivy became quiet. Everything she had thought of, except where to hide CJ. Without a safehouse, they were hopeless.
"We could try the bunker?" Florian suggested.
"What bunker?" Sebastian asked him.
"Our parents used to own a bunker, back in High school, but my dad never spoke of it in my entire life. I found out because of Reggie, he told me in October."
Ivy smiled and reached out her hand to the group.
"Swear to me, even if it is the last thing you do, you will help me protect and care for CJ, help me find his father, and make sure he won't ever be alone."
Everyone placed their hands together and swore to protect and care for baby CJ.

It was a mission deemed impossible by half of the group members.
Even I had doubts.
We had to believe.