Jughead's Novel

Chapter One: The River's Edge

{This is all Jughead's POV}

This story is about a town, a small town and the people who are in the town, and work there, and fall in love there, get married there, have children there, and yes, even die there.

From a distance -- or from the window of a train rushing by -- it presents itself like so many other small towns, all over the world. Safe. Decent. Innocent. But that's only how people want it to be. Or think it is because they're young and don't know any better -- or they're old and they don't want to know any better.

At a certain point, though, you look close enough -- and you start seeing the shadows underneath the town. And sometimes...the shadows take over. And you're living in this place you don't recognize anymore. And you're feeling a lot of things, but safe isn't one of them.

The name of this town is Riverdale.

And our story begins, I guess, with what the Blossom twins did this summer.

On the Fourth Of July, just after dawn, Jason and Cheryl Blossom drove out to Sweetwater River for an early boat ride. The next thing we know happened for sure is that Dilton Doiley, who was leading Riverdale's Boy Scout Troop on a bird-watching expedition, came across Cheryl by the river's edge.

Riverdale Police dragged Sweetwater River for Jason's body, but never found it. Needless to say, there were no fireworks in Riverdale that night.

So a week later, the Blossom family buried an empty casket, and Jason's death was ruled an accident, as the story that Cheryl told made the rounds.

That Cheryl dropped a glove in the water, and Jason reached down to get it, and accidentally tipped the boat, and panicked, and drowned which is super-weird, because Jason was captain of almost every sports team at Riverdale High, including water polo. Not that anyone examined those facts too closely, or asked too many questions. See, the Blossoms had their tendrils wrapped around the entire town -- no one wanted to make enemies of them.

As for us, we were still talking about the "July Fourth tragedy" on the last day of summer vacation, when a new mystery rolled into town.

It was midnight, and my old friend Archie Andrews arrived at the one place in town that was still open. He was looking for the girl next door. Instead, he found me.

And so, it wasn't one heart that broke that night. It was two. And the night was far from over.

By morning, everyone would be talking, texting, and posting about it. We'd all be feeling it. That the world around us had changed, maybe forever. That Riverdale wasn't the same town as before. That it was a town of shadows and secrets now.

On Monday, the autopsy on Jason's body would take place. And on Tuesday, halfway through fifth period, the first arrest would be made.