Light In The Dark - Riverdale AU

Chapter 47; The Final Jubilee.

Jughead.

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings, Laozi had once said. It was hard to watch this journey come to such a fitting end. Or at least, we thought it was the end. The fight for our lives continued to stigmatize once again, really the war. The war with ourselves. It was no surprise that over the course of seven years that we'd have demons and things that we'd succumbed to unlike about ourselves. Though, the thing that was a surprise was facing all those demons head on at once as if we were emerging into the eye of the storm with our minds wandering, hoping to find a lighthouse to guide us back to our innocence mended with all this havoc. Though, for some of us, those demons were still brewing or were something we didn't realise was there all along. The end might be near, but our fight isn't over. Merely, in a town like Riverdale it truly never will be, until we've accepted that maybe Riverdale isn't the problem, but we are.

Tuesday, 3PM, Meadow beyond Talon Tower.

Archie felt his brain become clouded and flooded from the intoxication of Happy Hour. He was out of control, his whole body staggering from left to right as his dazed expression met Betty's. "Wh-what do we do?" He stammered in a muffled undertone.

Betty didn't respond, as if her emotions were beginning to get the better of her. Intoxicated and attempting to calm herself, she rests her forehead gently on the trunk of a tree while Reggie voiced something behind her.

Reggie raised his hand to his head, feeling the ache from the weight of it. "I think we should try and find a way out of here. These people are even more intoxicated than us, they need our help." He shouted, looking around at the group.

Betty made a sharp head movement as her eyesight became shaky and distorted, setting her eyes on Reggie. "You're the one who got us into this mess! If you told us about the landmines and if you told us about where TBK actually was we wouldn't be here! And my sister if you didn't-"

Reggie moved closer to Betty. "I TRIED TO SAVE ALL OF YOU!" He barked back through gritted teeth. "I am not on Hiram's side and if you had just let me explain, we also might not be in this situation." He went on in a lighter key.

Betty scoffed, lunging herself towards Reggie. "You're seriously saying that this is my fault!?" She retorted with a glowering expression, prepared to throw a punch.

It was then, when it was like the drug settled in on phase two of its plan. Betty felt overcome and surrounded by darkness and her friends merely just became blank silhouettes. "What is happening?" She winced as her head began to throb.

Betty began to see two colours converge and distort, until her eyes settled on a dark figure, fading the rest of the darkness away. "The Blackhood..." She said aloud, stumbling against the tree.

Betty wasn't the only one experiencing this weary side-effect of the drug. It was merely all a matter of facing your demons. Archie thought his mind was playing tricks on him as he began to see a group of ten men before him. Seemingly, the men he didn't save on the battlefield. Reggie's vision impaired to laying eyes on his father, consumed with shame and disappointment with the same look in his eye like Reggie was about to meet his disciplinary demise. Tabitha saw the face of someone she betrayed long ago. Jughead felt his body ache, full of remorse. A memory he'd hidden long ago began to resurface, a memory that only the Preppies at Stonewall Prep knew. An older man named Dock appeared before Jughead and just by the sight of him made Jughead's heart ache as a mournful sob tugged at his mouth.

Much like anyone else, they were lost. Trapped in this void, surrounded by only their worst memories and before long the group were separated. In the distance, only yelling and screaming sufficed the air.