Emily Keller-A Jughead love story (Book two) *Discontinued*

Eight

Emily's POV
" These symbols look so familiar to me. It's like I've seen them before and it's driving me crazy I can't figure out where." Betty said. Her, Kevin, Toni? Jughead and I were all in Jughead's trailer trying to crack the code sent to me by the black hood.
" Maybe if you loosened your ponytail." Toni said making all of us look at her in shock. " What? That was a joke, guys." She said
" Betty's ponytail is iconic and beyond reproach." Kevin said seriously
" Kev It's fine. And at this point, I'm willing to try anything." Betty said taking her ponytail out.
" Per Mrs. Paroo's books, I'm looking for common letter associations like T-H, A-N, I-N-G." I said looking through the book
" I'm looking for doubles. Double L and four-letter words like kill." Toni said
" That's morbid" My brother said
" We don't know if this thing's even in English.
Guys, I mean, this could be an angram." Jughead said
" It's literally on the top of my brain" Betty said
" All right. Let's go back to the basics. What do we know about this guy? Who is he?" I said
" He's a white male, in his 40s." Betty said
" Like almost every serial killer ever." Toni said
" No, I mean like why Why is he killing people? Or at least, why now?" I said
" We know the Hood's obsessed with cleansing the town of sinners and hypocrites, right?" Betty said
" And he seems to be attacking anyone with ties to the Northside." I said
" Here we go with the fake news again. You Northsiders and your privilege. All you do is demonize the Southside so of course you think the Black Hood's from there." Toni said angrily
" It's not demonizing, Toni. It's stating facts.
There's way more drugs and gangs and..." I started but she cut me off
" The drugs you mean which were sold primarily to Northside crackheads? And what about the Northside Neo-Nazis? The Red Circle? The Red Psychos, you mean. Hell, Emily, I'm surprised you haven't just come out and said it yet." She said
" Said what?" I asked upset
" That you think the Black Hood's a Serpent.
We all know how much you hate us." She said
" Okay, Toni, I don't hate the Serpents." I said
" Oh, yeah? Then why is it that your boyfriend here lies about the fact that he sits with us at lunch?" She said. I looked over to Jughead as if asking if that was true and he looked away.
" I'm gonna go." Kevin said standing up
" Yeah, you know what? I'm gonna get outta here, too." Toni said
" Okay. I can walk you home." Kevin said to Toni " Or you can walk me home." He said seeing Toni walk out. " You coming Betts?" He asked looking at her
" Yeah" She said getting up "  Um, bye, guys." She said before leaving
" Listen, Emily, I sit with the Serpents purely for reasons of survival." Jughead said as soon as everyone left
" It's okay, Jug, let's just keep working on the cipher, okay? The clock's ticking." I said
" What clock? I mean, this could be his laundry list." Jughead said
" Or his kill list" I said
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up on the couch with Jughead's arm around me. I quickly sat up upset we fell asleep
" We fell asleep. How did we fall asleep?" I asked
" Exhaustion. It's not easy being us." Jughead said
" Oh, my God, he's gonna kill me. I have to go." I said grabbing my stuff
" What?" Jughead asked confused
" My dad, he's gonna kill me. I have to go, okay.
I'll call you later." I said giving him a quick kiss than leaving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walked into the Blue and Gold office surprised to see Jughead standing there waiting for me.
" When you left this morning, you forgot some of your books. Your notebooks. Look, I wasn't snooping, believe it or not, but It just fell out." He said
" What did?" I asked
" Your letter, from the Black Hood." He said
" Jug.."
" I'm assuming that it came with the cipher.
Emily, why haven't you told anybody?" He asked
" I, I did, I told Kevin and Betty" I said
" Why didn't you tell me?" He asked hurt
" Because you've been at Southside High, running around with the Serpents." I said
" Emily, I'd been gone for two days. And yeah, it sucks that we don't go to the same school anymore. But that's not the reason you're sitting on the fact that the Black Hood has sent you a letter. So why is it?" He asked upset
" Because of what it says, Jughead!" I practically yelled " Because of what he wrote.
That I Inspired him. I inspired all of this Madness."
" You think people are gonna blame you for this?" He asked
" Not people, just one person." I said
" Archie?" Jughead asked getting it right away "For what? For writing a speech that this lunatic has twisted around in order to mess with you and mess with the town? Yeah, Archie's definitely shook, but he knows who the bad guys are, and you're not one of the bad guys. You're Emily Keller. Like Nancy Drew meets Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." He said taking my hand in his.
" Oh, my God." I said
" What?"
" In his letter, the Black Hood said that I'm one the only two who could solve the cipher like he created it specifically for me and one other person. Maybe using one of my touchstones, Jug. If I'm right, I think I know how to decode this. Let's go." I said grabbing his hand and pulling him with me.