"Cynthia!" That voice caused my head to snap up and meet his desperate gaze. His eyes were pleading and terrified. Even through my tears I could read his expression from there.
"Come to the shore and we'll figure this out together okay?" Veronica c...
Once I had made it out of the double doors, I sprinted down the halls until I was no longer in the school. The fresh air and cool rain still didn't calm me. The one person who could stop what was happening to me wasn't here. I didn't even know where to find him.
"Cynthia?" Cheryl's voice shouted as I heard her heels echo behind me. I quickly kicked off my slip-on heels and left them sitting in the rain as it got heavier. I ran. I went to the only other place that would help after the panic attack ran its course. Ignoring the scratches on my feet, I jumped over large branches as I entered the wood. After a little more frantic running, I had reached the rocks where Cheryl was found. The place where Jason's body washed up. Alone, soaking and cold, I sat on the damp rock and cried. I cried for Jughead. I cried for me. And I cried for Jason.
What makes a place feel like home? Is it warmth and familiarity? Some idealized, make-believe version of the American dream? Is it love and acceptance? Or is it simple safety? Or none of those things. And it's a place where the captain of the football team is murdered. Or maybe it's just a forgotten closet under a well-trodden staircase, where it's just you and the mice and the spiders, like an extra in a Wes Craven movie.
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Jugheads POV
When my alarm went off at 5:45 in the morning, I groggily sat up in the sleeping bag. I collected my things and went for a shower. After checking the halls were clear, I began the walk to the school showers. They may not be state of the art facilities, but they were more than enough to suit me. It wasn't, after all, the first time I had to have a shower at school. I looked back in the mirror and saw Archie's face smiling back at me.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, laughing probably at the randomness of the situation.
"Taking advantage of the school's state of the art facilities." I answered. As soon as the words left my lips, I knew he didn't believe me. Archie and I had been friends long enough to know when the other was lying. After he asked again, I chose to show him, what had been, my hotel for the past few days. Archie would never judge me, but he was certainly shocked. I told him the truth. That things weren't great at home and how I had been living at the drive-in.
"Just don't tell anybody. Especially not Cynthia." I warned him. If she knew where I was, she would insist I stayed at Thornhill. Although the thought was there, I didn't want to live in the haunted house with her very posh parents. Archie nodded, and we continued down the halls. We were silent until we heard heels running towards us. We both turned to see Cheryl and no Cynthia. Cheryl's mascara had run down her face, tears leaving her eyes.
"Have any of you seen Cynthia?" She sobbed. We both shook our heads. I had spent last night thinking she was angry at me because she hadn't answered any of my text messages. The plan was, to speak to her today. I assumed it was because I had ditched her to go and help Betty, but I was going to fill her in last night.
"She didn't come home last night," My eyes widened in worry, "she ran out at the variety show, having a panic attack after your song, Archie. I tried to stop her, but she took off. I've looked everywhere. Pop's. The woods. School. People in town hadn't seen her. What if something happened? What if she's—" A sob cut her short. I told Cheryl I'd find her and ran out of the school building.
If she wasn't at Pop's or in town then there was only one other place she could be. Whenever she was sad when we were younger, she would go straight to Jason. Even if he was with a group of guys, she's march over and hug him. Jason dropped everything to see her. Thia hadn't changed much, so that meant she could only be one place. What worried me more was that there was a killer on the loose and she was too vulnerable. If I had been at the Variety Show, then I could have calmed her down and she wouldn't have run off. It had been raining all night which meant she would be freezing cold, her clothes stuck to her body. I knew that if she was anything less than perfectly fine, I'd blame myself. I should have known something was wrong. Maybe she was better off without me.
I found her just where I thought she'd be. Cynthia Blossom was sat looking out at the rushing river, tear stains cutting down her pale skin.
"Cynthia?" I asked, approaching her slowly. She heard me, but didn't turn to face me. Cynthia Blossom would always be someone that I needed to protect, even if she was acting strong. Deep down, the moment I saw her at the river's edge, I knew that this is how she would always be, how she truly felt. As I pulled her into my arms, I silently vowed that I wouldn't let anything hurt her, that I would protect her from anything and anyone who wanted to come between us. In that moment, holding her close as she cried into my chest, shivering and sobbing, did I know. I would die for Cynthia Blossom.
"You...w-weren't-t...t-there," she stuttered into me, "I t-thought you were g-going to leave m-me." Her words were barely above a whisper, and between her gasping breath, it was almost inaudible. I stroked her bright hair, pulling her tighter to me, ignoring how her wet clothes brought shivers down my spine.
"I'm sorry, Thia. You mean so much to me, I'd never let you go." I kissed her head. I wished that this was the way my dad treated my mom, then I'd still have a family. Never, would I do to Thia, what he did to mom. She would be by my side until the end of time. Slowly I pulled back, taking my hat off my head and putting it on hers. Her lips were pale, her eyes red ad sad. I shrugged off my jacket and pulled it around her body, then picked her up bridal style. To the Jocks of the school, I'm a weak, murder nerd; in reality I am still a murder nerd, just with more strength than they give me credit for.
Cynthia POV
Jughead had brought me back home, leaving me in my bed and Cheryl's care. Cheryl spent the day lying with me, choosing not to go with our parents to hunt for Polly, instead filling me in on school gossip. Jughead was helping Betty Cooper, who promised Cheryl the two were only friends, look for Polly Cooper, who was pregnant with Jason's baby. That meant our parents wanted to find Polly.
