Saving Her

Chapter 39. Busy Sunday

It was the morning after prom; Sunday. The girls had been heavily impacted by the news of Hal's return to Riverdale that they could barely sleep.

Since it was early enough and FP was still asleep, Alice got up from bed and she carefully made her way to Betty's room, seeing the girl's door open just a crack. She then pushed it further and she noticed the girl was awake.

"Hey?" she whispered.

"Mom, what are you doing up? Are you okay?" the teen sat up, pushing her hair to the side.

"No, I'm fine," she furthered into the bedroom just so she could sit on the edge of the bed. "After last night, I just couldn't sleep and I could only imagine what you were going through because I don't know. Have you slept?"

"Not much. I've tried but I only slept about an hour or so..." she covered her mom up with the blanket and she laid beside her, hugging her tightly, though avoiding her tummy. "Everything happened so fast and I kept thinking about the Midnight Club while I was there. I got my request in one of the fancy invitation cards from the Gargoyle King and I went out into the halls like I was told. Told nobody because it said not to and then I got locked out of the gym and he attacked me. The walls of the girls' bathroom had red writing; flip for your fate and all the nonsense that goes with the game."

"Oh, my gosh..." she clutched her daughter a little bit tighter only because she could recall the Ascension night like it was the day before and she knew what her child was talking about when she spoke of the red writing.

"Mom, I didn't want to tell you this, but... I had been visiting dad to talk to him. I was really angry with you for being with the Farm and I was scared. I literally had no parents, but I could talk to him even if it wasn't the best option."

"I'm so sorry," she shook her head. "I was so out of my head and I didn't mean to ever get that far, sweetheart. I'm sorry you couldn't even talk to me."

"I know, mom, and I'm not worried about that right now. Did you ever tell dad about Ascension night?"

"No, never," she shook her head affirmatively. "Not at all in our twenty-five years of marriage."

"He said he killed your guys' principal; Featherhead."

"That's impossible. He was never there, part of neither group and..." she paused. "It's just impossible. It started out only; Penelope, Sierra, Hermione, Fred, FP and me and then on Ascension night, we joined forces with Darryl, Marty, Hiram and Tom. That was the night that Hiram brought Fizzle Rocks and everybody got high, except for me because I was pregnant with your brother."

"Hm..." Betty pondered, trying to see the possibilities of where her father could fit in.

"Being pregnant, I had a natural morning sickness headspin, but I remember that clearly. I saw the Gargoyle King, saw Featherhead and got out of there. With FP, of course, two Serpents on the premises after dark wouldn't have looked good."

"I believe you... Also... You never visited dad after you went to forgive him with Polly, right? That was the one and only time?"

"One and only time. If I could, I'd take it back... Especially after what he did to you last night," she sighed. "I've been so stupid."

"No, it's okay. Okay, so... The guard mentioned that an Alice Cooper was visiting dad and I didn't think anything of it, other than the fact that you were crazy to do that because he tried to kill us."

"So, that means somebody was visiting in my place, just to get in because family only."

"Right. And who was dad seeing when you kicked him out?" she arched her brow.