This Spells Trouble - A Riverdale Fanfiction

The Shadows That Day Brings

As the night had passed, Betty had grown wearier and wearier as she waited for her redheaded friend to return with Sabrina. Jughead was not only weary, but irritated, that much was obvious, as he kept asking when he could go home and when he could have something to eat. The latter demand she did eventually surrender to, giving him a sandwich. Well, sandwiches. Jughead would not settle for less than seven. Betty was unprepared in the face of this exaggerated appetite. Whatever had happened to him had made insanely hungry.

He remained on her bed, arms crossed petulantly, as the night got into the later hours. He said if he couldn't leave, then he could at least have the bed to sleep on. Betty was left with just a chair, and she sat there for some time, both watching for Archie's return through the window, and Jughead as he slept soundly on the bed. Her eyes were heavy that night, as so she allowed herself to shut them, if only for a moment.

At some point, she must have fell asleep, because when she opened her eyes, the light was breaking on the horizon. Morning, she noted drowsily. She groaned when the pain in her neck brought by sleeping on a chair came to light. She yelled angrily when she discovered the other pain in the neck, Jughead, was missing from the bed. She searched her house frantically, asking her mother if she had seen the wayward boy. Unfortunately, Alice hadn't seen him despite her early rise, and that meant that Jughead had left during the night. Betty raced other to Archie's house to check if he was there, but Fred told her neither Archie or Jughead had returned.

Betty at that point was flipping out, though quietly and internally. She had to maintain some sensibility. She sat on her bed, clenching her fists tightly, unsure of what to do. Should she look for him, or wait for Archie to return with Sabrina? She sat there for a while, pondering the question, when she heard a knock at the door. She knew her dilemma had been answered when she heard Archie call out to her.

She sped down the stairs, opening the door, greeted by a tired looking Archie and a sad looking Sabrina. They both looked groggy, though the former was definitely the worse off of the two. Despite this, Betty couldn't help herself when she saw her. This was all Sabrina's fault. Everything that was happening was because of her. Born from frustration and annoyance, she slapped the hapless girl in the face, the sound sharp and abrupt, the attack not light or overly viscous. It did however leave a red mark on Sabrina's cheek, which darkened to look like a one sided blush . When Betty realised what she'd done, her hand flew back to her mouth, and she gasped.
"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry!" she apologised hurriedly.

Sabrina didn't even look angry.
"It's okay. I deserved it."

Archie looked ready to collapse, and yet he managed to smile, though it did follow the look of surprise he had worn as he had watched Betty slap Sabrina.
"Hey. How's Jughead?"

Betty cringed, looking down shamefully.
"He ran away in the night. I don't know where he is."

Archie and Sabrina eye's widened, and they looked at her in horror. Sabrina was the first to overcome it, eyes narrowing with determination.
"Then we look for him. We'll find him, and then I will help you get your friend back."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jughead was lost. And not just in the physical sense. His whole world was shaking, blurring between what was there and what felt like memories. But he didn't recognise them, any of them, and every time it happened, his hurt burned, and he felt woozy. He didn't know what was going on, and he was in pain, which was just getting worst by the hour.

The day before had been strange. All his friends had seemed worried. At first, he wasn't entirely sure why. He was fine. Better than fine. He'd felt quite happy, in fact. But then, as the afternoon came round, everything started feeling strange. He couldn't pinpoint when exactly, or how to describe the shift. He'd lost time, of that he was certain. But he couldn't recall how he'd lost time, or in which way he'd lost it, but he knew that the sunlight did not fade so quickly as it had seemed that afternoon.

Actually, he couldn't recall much of anything. Especially before yesterday. And what he could felt like pictures for him to view, and not something he had done himself. He didn't feel anything when he thought of them. Nothing at all. They didn't feel like they belonged. They felt...foreign. And yet that was all he had to go on. All he had to know who he was. The only part of himself that he could trust was his instincts.

That's why he ran from Betty's house, because every instinct was yelling at him to search for proof that everything was okay, and that he was overeacting. Betty wasn't telling him any time soon, and she hadn't been helping him by sitting there, watching him. It was Betty's eyes that compelled him to run, for they looked at him with a hurt he couldn't understand. No, it was more like longing. Like when she looked at him she was thinking of someone else. Who did he remind of her of? Jughead wished he knew. He wished he understood why he felt like his skin was not his own. He wished food could solve it, as it had always done...or how he thought it always done. Wishes that he kept making, but none of which came true.

Jughead didn't know where to go, and the flickering visions weren't helping. He wandered until the sun rose, which came with it's own troubles. He eventually reached the edge of Eversgreen Forest, the sun filtering through the leaves of the trees. Hidden in the rays of lights, Jughead caught glimpses of a moment no longer occurring. He saw a group of people, all of which he recognised. The search party (Jughead couldn't explain why he used that term to describe them) looked solemn, focused, murmurs echoing in Jughead's ears. It faded as soon as it appeared, leaving the forest empty, quiet.

Jughead staggered forward, shaking his head side to side to clear whatever it was that was causing the torment in his mind.
It was pills that Betty gave him. It must be. He felt fine before he had them. Or he thought he felt fine...he hadn't really thought about it. How long had this feeling been lingering under his other, no longer distracting emotions? He didn't actually want to, because his head hurt every time he tried to remember anything.

God, he was hungry. But at the same time, he wasn't. It was a phantom hunger. Just as the visions were phantom memories. Then again, maybe it was he who was the phantom. He continued to stumble through the forest, his mind and body raging against hidden enemies. His head was just hurting more and more, the pain a fog that was amassing, and not going away not matter where his thoughts. He tried to think of every good memory he had, but they didn't help. Because they only felt real for a moment, and then a different one would try to replace it, and the pain would follow. There was no escape, and for hours he walked aimlessly through the forest.

He was so lost in his own troubled mind that he didn't realise he had reached the river's edge, and he tumbled down the shore, the sharp pebbles digging into his skin as he tumbled. He managed to slow his fall, so he didn't fall in the river and end up like Jason.

That thought stung like crazy. Why the hell did the river make him think of Jason? He sat up, unaware of the cuts all upon his body, trying his damn hardest to figure what he was missing/ Whatever it was, it felt important. something he should know. The pain grew and grew, but then for one moment, it was clear, everything. He knew who had done this to him, and he knew what she had taken from him. He knew why his Betty had looked so sad. It was like the looking glass had been cleaned of all the fog that distorted it, and he could finally see what he hadn't before.

But then something inside him choked the lucidity, and once again unconsciousness snatched it all away.