Iridescent - Jughead Jones [2]

Chapter Seven

IRIDESCENT

CHAPTER | SEVEN

Savannah's hands were caked in mud, dirt clung to beneath her nails, and she felt like she couldn't breathe. 

Not once had she turned back to see if he was following her, she couldn't risk the precious seconds that would take and kept hurling herself toward the trailer park. She wasn't far now, a few more minutes and she'd make it. 

She was fine now, she was sure of it. He would definitely have caught up to her. 

Jughead was shouting from inside the trailer, "This life that you wanted to protect me from? I'm proud of this. I'm proud of who I am. You can't take that away from me."

Savannah pushed the door of Jughead and FP's trailer open without knocking, and promptly dropped to the floor. The two men looked over suddenly to her intrusion, FP not getting the chance to reply to his son's emotional outburst.

She had looked better, anyone could admit. Her clothes were dirty and parts frayed from thorns in the woods that had snagged the fabric. She had cuts on her face and bare arms from sharp branches, and her hair resembled a nest for small birds. 

"Oh my god." Jughead was by her side in a heartbeat. "Savannah? What happened?" He took her red face into his hands, not even waiting for her to catch her breath. "Was this Penny, if it was I swear to god -"

"No." Savannah panted, her palms sticky against the tiled floor. "No, it wasn't her." 

FP moved over slowly, listening and watching as his son helped Savannah up from the floor.

"The black hood." She said, wincing as Jughead checked out a particularly nasty cut over her eyebrow. "He was trying to hang me, in the woods."

"How did you get away?" FP asked, looking the girl up and down. He didn't want to say it, but she was barely 110 pounds. He couldn't see her fighting off a strong man in the woods, especially if she were taken by surprise.

"Kyle." Savannah laughed bitterly, "He taught me self-defence. After our dad died and Kyle started working late, he wanted to make sure I would be okay in the house on my own at night."  

She paused, pulling herself away from Jughead to look in a nearby mirror at the state of herself.

"I took him by surprise, I think." She admitted, pulling leaves from her hair. "If he'd known that I heard him coming, he definitely would have killed me."

Jughead bristled behind her, starting to pace around the small living room. 

FP looked to his son and upon seeing his distress, offered the girl a warm shower to clean herself up and gather her wits. She'd left spare clothes from when she was staying there with Jughead, so she collected them up and headed toward the cramped bathroom.

Jughead heard the water turn on, turning to his father. "I don't know what to say to her."

His father was calm and took a seat on the couch, motioning for Jughead to do the same. "There's not much you can say, you couldn't have done anything."

"If I hadn't went after Penny, I could have been with her, I could have protected her."

"You can protect her now." FP said firmly, looking toward the door where Savannah was. "If what you're telling me is true, and Penny is gone, then you've got nothing else left to worry about - except her."

Jughead watched closely as Savannah closed the bathroom door and busied herself in the bedroom. He could see her attempting to brush out the knots in her hair, now dressed in a pair of leggings and one of his t-shirts.