AND JUST LIKE THAT, BETTY AND MARLA WERE BACK ON. They were back on with everything — their investigation and their quote-unquote situationship (because they didn't know what the hell they were doing). They were careful around Jughead, working at separate tables while they were in Newspaper. They sat together at lunch and played footsie under the table.

Marla was slowly getting used to their being together, trying to get over the fact that the damage had already been done (and that she had taken part in it) and that Betty and Jughead were over. She should be happy that she got what she wanted. Right? Then she remembered the expression "Be careful what you wish for" and got a big bite of karma straight to the ass.

     "You okay, Mars?" Betty asked as she brushed Marla's hair back while the two were at lunch. She was back in her "girl-next-door," as she liked to call it. "Yeah." Marla nodded, "I was just thinking."

    "What about?" Betty sat up, all ears. "Just. . ." Marla trailed off before laying it on, "I guess I'm just trying to wrap my head around everything that happened. I have to get used to the fact that I did the one thing I swore up and down I'd never do and I have to live with that on my conscience forever. But trust me, I love being with you and everything that comes with it. I just wish that I didn't have to go about it this way."

     Betty nodded, understanding. "Do you wanna. . ."

Marla shook her head. "No. Not at all. I'm gonna stick this out, whether I like it or not. I'm gonna have to get over it at some point, right?"

"C'mere." Betty pulled Marla close to kiss her. "You're gonna be fine. We'll be fine. You trust me?"

"I trust you."

When Marla got home that day, there was a cardboard box sitting on the table in the kitchen. She set her bag down to go take a look at it.

Peering into it, the first thing she was antlers. What the fuck? she thought, getting a closer look at it. Pulling it out, it looked like a mask of some sort. "What the — " She dropped it at the sound of her mom coming down the stairs. Turning around, she went to go say hi but was then stopped in her tracks. "Did you see what was inside the box?" her mother asked right out the gate. "Uh. . ." Marla didn't know how to respond, albeit the question being a simple yes or no.

"Marla Paladin McQueen, did you see what was in the box?" her mother snapped. "Yes!" Marla squeaked, wincing at her God-awful middle name. "I saw what was in the box!"

"Do you know what it is?"

"Yeah. Creepy is what it is. Mom, what is that thing?"

Her mother sighed. "I wish I didn't have to tell you this. I didn't even mean to leave this out. I meant to put it back in the attic after I was done cleaning."

Marla was bewildered. "What is that doing in our attic?"

    "Your. . .father didn't just drop dead off the face of the Earth when you were born, Marla. He was murdered."

"How did he die?" Marla had a sick feeling in her stomach. And if her brain weren't going haywire right now, she'd be able to figure out where this was going. She had to sit down.

Her mother looked into the box, looking at the mask. "They were playing that game when they were your age."

That was when Marla's brain stopped bouncing off the walls in her skull and snapped back into place. "No. But you said that he didn't even go to Riverdale High with you."

"It's true. He was playing with a group on the other side of town." Her mother nodded, "and he was their Gargoyle King."

Marla wanted to puke, but she needed answers. "If he was Gargoyle Ki — God, I can't even say it. If he was King, how did he actually die? Because no one can touch the King."

"There was a party at Riverdale High after hours — "

"Wait, wait, wait. Were you part of the Midnight Club?" Marla interrupted. "I wasn't." Her mother shook her head. "But I was there. You see, I was just like you. Always snooping around, looking for a good story.

"I was stalking around the outside of the school and saw some of the kids sneaking into a classroom. I followed. Turns out, it was the Midnight Club, just like you said. They were having a party and playing that horrid game."

"You didn't play the game?" Marla asked. "Oh, no," her mother assured her, "it freaked me out." Marla chuckled. Her mother went on. "So I snuck into the school behind them. They were all playing and having a good time and I snuck into the girl's bathroom to see two goblets set up at the sink."

"You didn't touch it, did you?"

"I'm still here, aren't I?" Marla's mother sassed before continuing. "I saw those two goblets in the bathroom and next to them was the Gargoyle King. He took off his mask and there stood your father."

Marla put her head into her hands and groaned. "If he died before I was born, how did he die?"

"I told you already," her mother reminded her, "he was still playing the game even after we all grew up and buried it."

"He was still playing?!"

     Her mother nodded. "One of his friends finally beat him for Gargoyle King and made him ascend."

     Marla could feel bile rising in her throat. "So he was technically murdered with that Fresh-Aid and cyanide cocktail thing. Did they ever arrest the so-called friend who did it?"

     "They did. He died in his cell."

      "One more question." Marla held up a finger. "Why is the mask still here if he's dead?"

     "He told me to hold on to it to remember him by. I was most definitely brainwashed by him and I took this out of the attic to burn it, actually. It's been giving me bad juju vibes, that thing."

     "Do you need help with burning it?" Marla got up from her seat at the table. "No, I got it. Don't need that on your conscience." Marla's mother patted her shoulder before the carrying the box out to the backyard. Marla desperately wanted to believe that her mother was set out to burn the mask but she couldn't help but think about what she might actually want to do with it.

      Marla was quick to dial Betty's number. The minuted she picked up, Marla went in with her request. "I need to talk to your mom or anyone who was part of the Midnight Club. I think I know who was under that Gargoyle mask when your mom and her friends were in school."