Lifeline ((Jughead Jones)) 1

24

I gasped, tears falling as realization hit me before I had seen it. I didn't need to watch the events unfold because everyone sat around watching the old laptop screen could tell what was about to happen. He reached into the pocket of my beaten brother, pulling out the ring he was to give to Polly. At the sight of the ring, Jason began to struggle. He didn't know then that Polly was his cousin. Daddy raised his gun to Jason's head. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen as I felt Jughead try and pull me into his chest, so I wouldn't have to watch. I pulled out of his grip, tears running down my face. As quickly as the gun was raised, it was fired, Jason falling to the side.

"No!" I gasped, my breathing increasing quicker than it had before. Hysterical, and hyperventilating, I began to cry. I was screaming for Jay-Jay. Betty pulled the screen forward, blocking my view of Jason's slouched and dead body. She got up and called Cheryl, I heard that much. Veronica was crying, knowing that her dad didn't kill Jason. I was crying, knowing that my dad did. Jughead tried to pull me into his arms, but, like at the party, I wouldn't let anyone touch me. The only difference was, his touch was no longer comforting. The small garage was getting too tight and the people crying was becoming too much.

I was a Blossom. Cheryl wouldn't be doing this. Blocking out every other voice in my head, I listened to the one calling in my head. It was a memory of Jay-Jay.

Mom and Dad taught Jason to ride a bike, along with Cheryl when they were 7. I refused to learn. So, when I was 13, I still couldn't ride, and I was terrified that someone would find out. He took me out a day in the summer, dedicating the following weeks to teaching me. I could hear his voice in my head as I sat in the seat, hands shaking. I wasn't scared of the bike, I was scared that if I fell, I'd get hurt.

"Cynthia, I'll catch you. I'll always catch you." That promise was fulfilled many times that summer and I never once hurt myself. It became a metaphor and he caught me every time I stumbled through school or through life. When I had my first panic attack, he caught me. But now, in that tiny garage, he couldn't catch me.

I stood up, trying to control my breathing. Jughead was in front of me, trying to get me to look at him. I wiped my tears, pulling out of his grip, and walked back t Thornhill. I heard Archie telling him to leave me alone for a bit. I just wanted Cheryl, and I wanted to see my father.

That night, Sheriff Keller and Mayor McCoy saw what we watched in Archie's garage. Jason, tied to a chair in the basement of a bar on the South Side of Riverdale, while a serpent called Mustang, taunted him. Then the unthinkable.

Later, we would learn why my father confessed. Because Clifford Blossom visited him on the night of his arrest with a threat. That I, Jughead Jones, as well as his own daughter, Cynthia Blossom, would suffer the same fate as Jason Blossom, Cynthia's to destroy me, if my father didn't confess. My dad was protecting me from a monster. He was protecting the girl I love from evil. And the nightmare was far from over.

And our families, far from repaired.

And though one question had been answered that night, that it was Clifford Blossom who killed Jason, a new mystery loomed over Riverdale. Why had he done it? It was a question only Clifford himself would be able to answer.

Cheryl pointed to the barn, telling Keller where daddy had run off to. I stood beside her, hand-in-hand, surrounded by our messed-up lives. Our faces were blank as the cars zoomed past, our mother's eyes red.

It was the ultimate cliff-hanger. Clifford Blossom had killed himself. But why? Life's not an Agatha Christie novel. It's a lot messier. Turn out, maple syrup was a front for his true business, transporting heroin from Montreal on his trucks.

A narrative quickly emerged, 'that Jason Blossom had learned about dear old dad's drug running, and threatened to expose the truth, which led to Jason's abduction at the hands of a Southside Serpent named Mustang.' And then to Jason's murder at the hands of his father. 'Clifford killed Mustang to cover his tracks, making it look like he overdosed, and tried to replicate a rival businessman, Hiram Lodge, as having masterminded the whole thing.'

And, oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Mr Blossom threatened my, and my loves, life, so that my dad would confess to pulling the trigger, even though all he did was clean up the mess. He would've gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for a group of pesky kids who uncovered the truth.

Jason's murder had revealed some dark truths none of us were too eager to face. Especially mayor McCoy, who wanted every last vestige of corruption crushed like a snake under a boot heel.

We hadn't gone to school the next day. It was daddy's funeral, and although Jughead had offered to come with me, it was just the three of us and it was the quickest ceremony. We ended up in the barn, in the exact spot where he died.

"It was to have been the grandest funeral in Riverdale history. Instead, he was buried like a pauper," Mom said. Cheryl and I were dressed in the outfits we were supposed to wear for Jason's funeral. This occasion seemed more appropriate. We were both shedding small tears.

"Why are you crying? You both hated him." She stated.

"Don't say that, mommy." Sobbed Cheryl. I held her hand, letting tears fall. That's all I seemed to do. Cry.

"We've been cursed. Ever since the original murder when brother killed brother. Wo will the Grim Reaper take next? You? Me?" This was turning into a morbid conversation and it was clear mother wasn't coping well. We both look at her stunned as she continued her speech, "Maybe you father had the right idea. Just end it. Better the sweet hereafter, then this awful limbo." Mother wasn't taking notice in us. She was stuck in her grief, not taking into account her own daughters feeling, which were identical to the others. We both looked up at the very part where he died. Maybe being there wouldn't be so bad after all.