serpent ♔ juliet

"It all boils down to this, Betty," Hal said chillingly, and she felt Jughead pressing calming circles into her back as they all gazed at him. "Either you shoot and kill me, or I murder you and your group of friends."

Shaking her fingers, The blonde took the revolver from the box and pointed it squarely at him, her eyes examining every inch of his body for the least dangerous spot to shoot him. Betty realized there was nothing she could do, but she knew she had to be the one to put a stop to it, not only because it was her mission but also because it would always come down to Hal and Betty battling it out in a battle of darkness over light. She didn't know how much light she possessed, but Betty was confident she didn't want to murder her father. If she had anything to say about it, she wasn't going to murder him. Her thoughts returned to prom night and the way she had been pursued through the halls. Hal Cooper, her own father, had followed her down the halls, and she knew she'd never been able to look at them the same way again.

"Don't make me do this," Betty said, her voice catching and cracking on the word as if the cosmos wasn't done making its point to her. She'd never be able to do this to her own father; she hadn't entirely fallen into the darkness as Hal Cooper had - hadn't quite allowed her demons overpower her in the same way he had. Hal simply smirked.

"Either you do this, or I murder all four of you," he shouted, his tone a furious hiss, and Betty wondered when he had lost himself so completely that he sounded as blank and cruel as the days had been long. As he began counting them down from one, she let out a shuddering moan, unsure of what to do. She leveled the rifle straight at him and – BANG! – as he reached three, she fired a perfectly placed bullet into his hand, causing him to cry out in pain. She believed she saw a sliver of a grin on his lips and wondered what he thought as she put the pistol down, her fingers still trembling from the aftereffect. "Dad, I will never ever be the same as you." She could hear Jughead reassuring her that everything was OK – that she had done the right thing – and she knew her love was attempting to shield her from the impending horrors.

"Enough!" Betty gulped anxiously as a harsh, piercing voice echoed out into the frigid night. "You're a complete moron, Hal Cooper." As the redheaded family member marched forward in all her rage, Betty's gaze landed on Penelope Blossom. "You were a horrible killer before, and you're still a horrible killer now. I can't seem to get anything right." She then took up the dropped revolver and fired a round into Hal's temple, knocking him over and throwing him to the ground, lifeless.

No.

"NO!" Betty sank backward, tears flowing down her face, and her scream was little more than a guttural sob of misery. Jughead sprang forward to catch her in a panicky movement, her breath halting in her throat as tears froze in her waterline as she plummeted to the ground. It's over. Dead. Her father had passed away. As Penelope unleashed her anger on them and the men she had working for her began hunting them down like hounds, Jughead moved her face away from the horror and onto his chest, muttering calming things to her.

It didn't matter that Jughead was forcing her jaw open and shoving the anecdote down into her throat. Betty wished to crash to the ground with her father, dying beside him.

This much she knew: everything had changed. Nothing was ever going to be the same again. Now that she was an adult, nothing was the same. She was always needing to keep an eye on her back.