Rainy Days ▸ BUGHEAD

chapter twenty two

"woah man." archie said. "first you buy this amazing car and don't tell me, but now you hide dead bodies in it. awesome!"

my hand met my forehead. and betty wanted him to come?

it had all made a bit of sense, everything that happened that day. why cheryl was being so nice and why that court trial was so unrealistic. it must have been cheryl's intend all along.

but then again, with cheryl you never know. if i was gonna know i'd have to ask a really stupid question. but in theory, is it really that dumb? honestly right now, stupid questions are even in the mix.

"are you sure the body is real?" i asked betty.

betty leaned down to pick up something. "i found this in the car. if you ask me it's pretty convincing."

she handed me a knife, covered in what appeared to be blood. this was the ultimate game changer. the chances were slowly decreasing to prove this was a fake body. and increasing the chances that there was indeed another riverdale murder.

oh dear.

but what didn't catch my attention at the time was archie. apparently he had a keen eye, while checking out the knife, very carefully. and what he was about to say strangely changed everything.

"are you sure that's not strawberry jam?"

i flashed him a look. "what makes you think this is jam? jam looks nothing like blood.

"hand it over jug."

i handed him the knife, scared of what he'd do. and as expected, he dipped his finger in the red substance, it was hard to tell anymore. he put it on this tongue, as his face gave a disgusted look.

told ya. jughead jones is never wrong.

"definitely not strawberry jam." archie said.

"juggie tried to warn y-" betty said.

"its raspberry!" archie interrupted. "those dang bastards. everyone knows in fake crime scenes you use strawberry jam."

my face turned puzzled. archie could not be right, archie is never right. he hooked up with the music teacher for crying out loud. like is it not obvious something is brutally wrong with him?

"gimme that." i said.

i took the knife from archie. i figured the only way to know if this was true was to taste it myself. so i did what archie had done, i dipped my finger in it and put it aganist my tongue.

archie was right.

it took me a moment to process it, but i let it settle in. maybe archie isn't as dumb as we all thought, or at least with this.

"unless her blood was as sweet as she was, archie's right.." i said.

"so if that is jam," betty said. "that does that mean that polly's body is..."

she paused as i held up the knife. "let's find out."

i walked over to polly's body. i take my knife, and you all know where to with from there.

RIP

inside we didn't find what you'd expect. there were no organs, no blood, nothing. expect stuffing, pure white stuffing. the kind you'd find if you chopped off your sisters teddy bear's head.

don't ask how i'd know, it's a long story.

"it's all, fake." betty said. "the car crash, the body, everything. which means..."

"polly is still alive." i interrupted.

archie chuckled. "can't believe you didn't know that. haven't you watched stranger things?"

i rolled my eyes at his tv tactics. "first of all the kid was sent to the upside down, not supposedly killed in a car crash. second of since when have you had time to watch that?"

"its eight episodes dude." archie said.

betty rolled her eyes. "can we focus on polly please?"

"sorry." i said. "so anyone got any ideas on what to do next?"

it suddenly got really quiet. it appeared no one had a plan. i had one, but unless someone else as a better one, i'm keeping it to myself. lately my plans have been backfiring, so someone else just have a successful one.

"i got it!" archie said. "we go to the upside down and we fight the demogordon until it gives us polly back. anyone know how to get to ten upside down without moving to Indiana?"

this is when i was fed up. "enough with the stranger things references. focus on polly."

"mouth breather." archie snarled.

"anyways, looks like we only have one choice." i said getting us back on topic. "confront cheryl."

i really should have gone with archie's plan. though it be theoretically impossible.