#ohc2019

“Legend has it people have been disappearing into that house for centuries,” Reggie Mantle told the new girl Kippi Goode. He had gathered some of his friends in Pop’s Chock’Lit Shoppe to meet their new fellow student.

Kippi raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean ‘disappearing’?”

Reggie took a sip of his coke. “Isn’t it obvious? They walk in for whatever reason and then they don’t walk out, meaning they’re-” he dragged his thumb across his throat, making a croaking sound.

Kippi gave him an odd look.

“Don’t let Reggie scare you, Kip. He’s full of shit anyways,” Veronica Lodge told her new friend. Reggie mockfully puckered his lips at her. Veronica rolled her eyes.

“No worries, I’m not scared. It’s an urban legend for a reason. And anyway, don’t you think if people have been dying in that house for centuries someone would have done something? Like storm the house or something?”

“People tried,” Jughead informed her. Kippi gave him a questioning look. “A few years back when Cheryl Blossom disappeared her mom and dad had a mob try and storm the house.”

“And?” Kippi asked when Jughead wouldn’t go on.

“Octavia Cahill grabbed her shotgun and took a few shots,” Kevin Keller said, filling in the blank.

Kippi’s eyes widened. “She killed someone?”

Betty chuckled a bit. “No. But she sure scared them off. Sheriff Keller couldn’t do anything either since it’s private property and there was no concrete evidence pointing at the Cahills being involved in anyway. Their estate is surrounded by a swamp and if you don’t know your way around the are you could easily get lost - or drown.”

Archie Andrews flagged down Teddy Green as he walked into the building and past their row of seats. “Teddy, come here for a sec! Kippi, this is Teddy Green - he’s Dorothy Cahill’s cousin.”

Teddy leaned on the seat with a sigh. “Another round of urban legend explanation for another new kid, I assume?”

“This is Kippi Goode. She just moved back here and doesn’t believe in the legend. Tell her what you saw,” Kevin told Teddy. 

“Well, I can’t say much given that my mom and I barely know Dot and Octavia. But, what I can tell you is that once my mom had to get out of town for work, and since we have no other relatives in Riverdale, she had me stay the night at the mansion. It was creepy as all hell in there. Since it was a youth reformatory center before it was turned into a home there still are some things left. Some of the dormatory rooms were never converted, there is still a little church and the whole administrative area is still there. Dot and I went snooping around the abandoned part of the house once and we found a lot of things that were left behind by the inmates.”

“Anyway, one night I woke up and heard whispering from the next room over - Dot’s room. The door was left open a bit so I looked inside...” Teddy said and took a little break for dramatic effect.

“And? Don’t keep me waiting!” Kippi demanded.

“I saw this little girl sitting on Dot’s bed with her but she has no siblings, other cousins or even friends. A few years back, I remembered that story and told my mom. She told me that around that time a little girl went missing from the outskirts of town and when she described her to me I could have sworn that was exactly who that girl was,” Teddy went on. 

“So you saw a missing girl in your cousins house and never said anything?” Kippi asked.

Teddy sighed. “Kippi, I was six years old and staying in the singlehandedly creepiest house in this whole town. My brain was making things up. Or maybe it was nightmare. My relatives may be reclusive but they’re not crazy.”

“According to you,” Reggie sniped.

Teddy gave him an annoyed look. “Anyway, I have other things to do. Nice to meet you, Kippi. Bye guys,” Teddy said, then walked away to another booth.

“Teddy’s theory is not our theory - obviously. And we also don’t share Reggie’s theory,” Archie told Kippi.

“Clearly,” Veronica said with another eye-roll.

“What is your theory then?” Kippi asked, ignoring Veronica’s looks of annoyance towards Reggie.

“So, we think that Dorothy and Octavia aren’t killing the kids. We think Octavia takes them so Dorothy can have a friend,” Kevin explained to her.

“FYI, that’s not what I think either,” Jughead chimed in.

The group let out a collective groan. “Here we go again,” Reggie mumbled.

Kippi laughed a little. “Well, then what is your theory?”

“I think,” Jug said, pausing to take a sip off of his milkshake. “That Octavia and Dorothy Cahill are just extremely private and reclusive people and that they’re practically self-sufficient, which is why they don’t have to leave their home and no, I don’t think they’re killing or keeping kids in their home.”

“FYI, again, Jughead has a crush on Dorothy. He met her in town once and eversince then he’s been swooning at the mere mention of her name,” Veronica told her.

Jughead shook his head. “Ugh, don’t listen to them. They just really dislike the fact that I don’t support their kidnapping and killing theories. And anyway, Betty and I are about to find out the truth. Aren’t we, Betty?”

Betty nodded, taking a sip off her strawberry milkshake.

“What do you mean?” Kippi asked.

“I booked a tutoring appointment with Dot to see what’s going on inside the mansion,” Betty explained. Kippi nodded.

“By the way, we all think these two are insane and that this will be the death of Betty,” Kevin chimed in.

Betty sighed. “You’re overreacting. I’ll be fine.”

A few days later...

Betty sat on the chair, sobbing quietly as to not anger Dorothy anymore.

“I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I didn’t mean to lash out at you. I just like silence during playtime,” Dorothy explained as she put a bandaid over Betty’s head wound. “It’s not to deep. It should be all healed up in a week or so.”

Betty almost started crying at the prospect of spending more time here. “You should know that people know I’m here. They will come looking for me,” she told Dot, tears welling in her eyes.

Dot smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Elizabeth. I learned from the Cheryl incident. I wrote a letter in your name and sent it to your mother. She thinks you’ve run off to live with your secret boyfriend. I also wrote that you don’t want to be contacted again - ever.” 

“She’ll never believe that. My friends won’t,” Betty sobbed.

“It’s a very big estate, Elizabeth. There’s even a secret tunnel system that no one knows about. They can come looking for you, but they’ll find no trace of you. Just like they found no trace of Cheryl three years ago and just like they found no trace of Paisley ten years ago. We can hang out together forever.” Dot assured Betty. “Don’t you want that, Elizabeth? A friend to have fun with forever?”

Betty’s sob caught in her throat. “I do! I would love to have a friend like that. But what about my other friends and my family? I’d miss them so much. I could go back home and visit you every day. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Dot sat down on her bed. “You sound just like Cheryl. And I believed her. I allowed her to leave the house for a little fresh air. She tried to run and leave me - I had to do something to keep her quiet.”

“You killed her?” Betty asked with a sob.

Dot laughed a little. “No, silly. I just-” There was a knock at the door. “Come in, Mother!”

The door opened and Octavia pushed a wheelchair with a non-responsive Cheryl in. The red head moved about lazily as Octavia pushed her further into the room, but only her head as the rest of her body was strapped to the wheelchair. There was a small hole in the inner corner of her eye, a clear indicator of a lobotomy. Cheryl let out a subdued moan when she saw her own cousin sitting right in front of her.

“Do you like it, Elizabeth? I think it’s Paisley’s best handy work yet,” Dorothy said, the tone of her voice chillingly chipper.

Shortly after Octavia had wheeled Cheryl in, a girl in a fancy teatime dress with her dark hair done in a cute bun walked in after the two. In her right hand, she held a surgical hammer.

“Elizabeth, meet Paisley. The two of us roamed the abadondoned part of the reformatory for weeks on end. The doctors left quite a lot of things there. Fun things for when they had to keep the patients in line,” Dorothy explained. “Paisley, say hello to our new friend.”

Paisley walked into the room. “Hello, Elizabeth. I heard you’ve been having some doubts about staying here but I assure you, we have a lot of fun. Sometimes, we even get to go outside and pet the horses,” Paisley said.

Betty had been silently weeping eversince Octavia had wheeled in her lobotomized cousin. “Please. Please, let us go,” she whimpered through the tears.

“Aw, I think she has some reservings still. Paisley, if you would take care of this situation please,” Dorothy said. She got off the bed and left the room with her mother and Cheryl.

Paisley walked up to a sobbing Betty, pulling an ice pick out of her sleeve. “Unfortunately, they didn’t leave all of the surgical tools here but I’m sure we’ll be fine,” she said, eyeing the tool as she rolled it around her fingers.

Betty started crying out loud now. “No! Please, please don’t do this. We can leave here together. We can get help! We can!”

“Shhh, shhh, don’t worry, sweetheart. We’re gonna have lots of fun here!” Paisley said as she reclined the chair Betty was strapped to. “And don’t worry,” she said as she put the ice pick in the inner corner of Betty’s eye. “This only went wrong one time. I’m much better at it now,” she went on. “Now, hold still.”