Prologue

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Jughead POV

The cast, including Thia, all come out of the dressing room, singing and warming their voices for the show. It was going to be great. At first, I was worried about Cynthia being the lead after Cheryl was threatened, but no notes were sent, and none of the cast seemed to bothered. Everyone loved Cynthia.

Archie grabbed my shoulders, smiling at me as I got a close up of his face. After Archie moved away and Cynthia waved to the camera. I grabbed her wrist before she could walk away, pulling her to my chest. Moving the camera to point at us, getting a close up of her giving me a kiss before moving to get her costume, I saw he smile at me and blush at the camera. In that moment, that short moment between her blushing at the lens, and Toni coming to grab her away, I knew that this was the girl for me. Never did I think that I would live out every cliche in every romantic chick-flick. But looking into her eyes in that small moment as she glanced behind her to blow me a kiss, I knew this was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

After discovering cut up magazines in Ethel's dressing room while doing the final interviews of the cast, and getting kicked out of the room, I started to get a bad feeling. I moved to where I knew the gang were, and saw that Cynthia wasn't with them.

"Guys, have you seen Thia? She needs to do her final interview before the show." All of them shook their heads, none of them showing any sign of knowing where she was. I pushed away the panic, trying to compose myself and think where she would be. There was no way she would miss this production after Kevin had begged her to join the cast.

"Jug, she's probably either side stage rehearsing lines, or greeting Cheryl at the door. Just do her interview after the show and pretend it was done before. Producers always do that kind of thing." Betty said, standing up and coming over to me, clearly seeing my worry for Cynthia's sudden disappearance. Whenever she suddenly went missing, something bad always seemed to pop up.

"Jug, come one! You're going to miss the start of the performance." Kevin shouted from the end of the corridor. I said bye to Betty, then ran to join him. She's just side stage. She's fine. They were the lines I repeated over and over in my head.

I was sat in the audience, camera pointed at the stage, filming the action. Mrs Cooper was surprisingly good at singing. She was doing well and the opening scene was living up to Kevin's expectations. I made sure to get a shot of his gleaming face watching the performance, watching the first show he directed run through perfectly. The sets looked good. The costumes were amazing. The singing was on key. It felt like nothing could go wrong.

"Alright Carrietta, it's time to come out of your closet." I thought the line was more than a little cringy, but this was, after all, a high school production. Instead of looking at the stage through my camera, I looked up, wanted to witness my girlfriend on stage in real life, not through the lens of a camera.

As the set lifted, I gasped at the horror show that was on stage as one hushed whisper left the mouth of the woman I adored. Instead of the melodic singing we should have heard, two words were forced in agony from her lips which made me rise from my seat, dropping the camera to the floor.

"J-J-u-g.... Help...." 

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