Haunting ||Archie Andrews||

Heart of Darkness// part 3

Heart of Darkness// part 3

--

Cheryl is standing in front of the mirror the next morning when Veronica walks over to her. She extends an arm out of fix her bright red hair.

"You ready?" She asks gently and Cheryl smiles.

"Just about. You go ahead and go, I'll be down."

Veronica smiles back at her and rubs her arm in comfort before nodding and leaving. Just as Veronica walks out of the room, Hayley comes out of the bathroom with frown on her face and mascara smeared all around her eyes.

"Didn't you just take a shower?" Cheryl asks as Hayley plops on the bed.

"Yeah," Hayley's voice is strained, "I can't believe I'm going to Jason's funeral. I can't believe you're going to Jason's funeral."

Cheryl tries to smile, "I can't believe we're both wearing black."

Hayley shakes her head and gets up, not ready to let Cheryl push this down.

"Cheryl," Hayley grabs the red heads hands, "No twin should have to see their twin's funeral."

"Hayley, it's okay," Cheryl replies, "I'm okay."

"Cheryl," Hayley breathes in deeply, "Just know, you can talk to me."

"I know," Cheryl says before a smirk grows on her face, "Now, do you really think Jason would want us to go to his funeral in black?"

"Cheryl, you know I can't,"

Cheryl's smirk drops and she glares at Hayley, "Why are you so ashamed of my brother? He trusted you. He loved you. Sometimes, it felt like he loved you more than he loved me. Why are you so ashamed of him Hayley? What has he ever done to you?"

"Cheryl," Tears well up in Hayley's eyes, "I'm not ashamed. It's just the one thing I have to myself. One relationship people can't judge. What I had with Jason was between us. He was like my brother."

"And he was my brother. Besides, we know that's not the only thing you have to yourself Hayley. May I remind you of your sister?"

Hayley laughs bitterly, "Please do. I would love to hear about my dead twin on the day of Jason's funeral."

Cheryl's eyes soften, "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. I didn't mean it."

"Yeah, you never do Cheryl," Hayley sighs and harshly rubs her eyes before heading back in the direction of the bathroom to fix her make up, leaving Cheryl standing alone in her room.

—

When Hayley walked into the living room of Thornhill where the memorial was suppose to be happening, she spotted Archie right away. She sighed and took her seat beside him.

"You okay?" He wondered, his hand automatically flying out to grab her knee in comfort.

She looks up at him and nods with a small smile, "I'm good."

Just then, Veronica walks up to the group, "Days like this really put life into perspective. At least we're here. At least we're alive."

She sits down directly in front of Hayley and shoots her an apologetic look. The look doesn't go unnoticed by Archie and he turns to Hayley, wanting to know if everything was okay.

"Are you sure you're okay baby?"

"I'm fine Archie," Hayley whispers back.

Suddenly, something catches people's attention and slowly one by one each row turns to see what has caught the last rows attention.

It's Cheryl walking down in a white dress.

"Oh," Veronica starts, "My God."

"Yes," Kevin whispers as his eyes follow Cheryl's every move.

She eventually reaches the podium and speaks.

"Welcome to Thornhill. Thank you all for coming. If you'll kindly take your seats. I'd like to start this memorial with a few words about Jason."

Out of the corner of her eye, Hayley sees Penelope try to get up but Clifford stops her. Veronica turns and whispers, "You are going to make things worse."

"The last time I saw Jason, I was wearing this dress. I know this seems impossible, but when I put it on. It's like he's still in the room with me. Even though we're twins, I used to demand that I have my own birthday party. Until one year, out of the blue, Jason convinced me that we had to combine them into one. It wasn't until years later I found out why. It was because no one wanted to come to mine and Jason didn't want me to know. He protected me," her voice cracked, "Every single day. I wish, on that day at the river, I protected him," she breaks away from the podium and turns to the coffin, "I'm so sorry Jay-Jay. We failed you. All of us."

Veronica looks around before getting up and walking over, enveloping Cheryl into a hug as the girl sobbed on her shoulder.

Hayley closes her eyes and tries to even out her breathing that seemed to be getting heavier every passing minute.

Archie turns to her, "Hals? You okay?"

"Archie," Hayley snaps, "I said I was fine. Stop asking."

Archie flinches back in shock. Thinking this was a good time to take the attention off of Cheryl, Penelope walks up and dismisses everyone.

Hayley and Archie walk over to the food. Archie walks slightly behind Hayley, wanting to give her some space.

Hayley turns around to face him and sighs, knowing that she had been unfair to him.

"I'm sorry Arch," she says and looks around, "I can't explain it, but I promise I will when I'm ready."

"You don't have to explain anything to me," Archie shakes his head, "I just want you to be happy."

Hayley smiles lightly and takes his hand, pulling him to the table filled with food.

Meanwhile, upstairs, as Betty and Jughead rummaged through Jason's room, Jughead found something in his dresser.

Polaroids of Jason with a strangely familiar writing on the back.

---