Secrets • Jughead Jones [1]

|Route 40?|

As Betty stared into her mirror Jughead climbed up to Betty's window and knocked on it.
"Hey there. Nurse of duty?" Jughead greeted when Betty pulled up the window.

"Hurry up, Jughead." Aria shouted from below.

"Sorry." He replied coming through the window and Aria following after.

Betty sighed,
"They're crazy. My parents are crazy."

"They're parents, they're all crazy. Even mine." Aria said brushing down her clothes,
"And next time, let's wait until your parents are gone, and I'll take the front door."

"Sure." Betty laughed,
"But what if, what if Polly is too? Uh, the way she was talking to me, the way she looked at me. And now, all I can think is, maybe I'm crazy like they are."

"Hey," Aria mumbled and put her hand on Betty's shoulder,
"We're all crazy, we're not out parents, Betty. We're not our families. Ok?"

"Yeah- The car!" Betty remembered.

"What?" Jughead questioned.

"Polly talked about a car Jason had stashed for them down Route 40. Near some sign? If we can find it, we can confirm Polly's story."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Aria finished.

~•~

Aria, Betty and Jughead walked down a path near Route 40 trying to find the car that Polly was talking about. They spotted the Blossom Maple Farm sign and knew they were close. As they looked ahead, Aria spotted the car and ran towards it, she pulled of the soaked cover with twigs and leaves on top of it, to reveal the car.

As she opened the boot of the car, while Betty and Jughead helped, they searched and found all of Jason's things including drugs.

"What are those?" Betty asked shining the torch at black packages.

"Drugs. Betty." Jughead replied.

Aria was stunned with shock. Jughead picked up the drugs as Aria quickly said,
"Wait, Jughead, put it down. This is evidence. This is all evidence."

Jughead put the drugs down and muttered,
"Crap, this whole car is a crime scene."

"I'll take pictures." Aria said and took out her phone.

"We need to get Sheriff Keller and then Polly." Betty ordered.

"Someone should stay here." Aria spoke.

"No, Aria I'm sorry but it's too dangerous. I can't let anything happen to you." Jughead replied.

"Ok." Aria sighed.

~•~

"Sheriff Keller!" Betty ran to him.

"I got your text. What is it?" He asked.

"Look. It's Jason's jacket." Aria showed him her phone.

"Where'd you get that?"

"In the trunk of a car with a bunch of his other stuff." Aria answered.

Betty informed more,
"Jason was running away with Polly."

"Where's the car?"

The 3 teens went out of the school as Sheriff Keller followed.

~•~

'Here's the thing about fear. It's always there. Fear of the unknown, fear of facing it alone. Fear that the closest to you are the monsters. Fear that as soon as you slay one, there's another monster waiting to take its place.'

The police pulled up near the car and as they got out of the car. They saw the car; ablaze.

'Fear that there's one more bogeyman waiting at the end of the dark hall.'

Betty, Aria and Jughead ran towards Polly's room and opened the door.

"Polly?" She asked.

But no one was there. Lighting struck and lit up the room and what they saw was the window smashed with blood on the glass shards.

'She was out there, alone, bereft, unmoored. Where was she going? And what would she do next?'

~•~