Poison | Jughead Jones

Chapter thirty five

Her truth
Jessebelles PoV

"I was five when I found the north side, making friends with those better than me. Trying to better myself for them. But how many kids could say they had gone through what I had gone through, how many kids were orphaned without even knowing it wasn't normal?

"I was raised within a pack, I had family that people discounted, I had a part of my life that people grimaced at. The blossoms never liked the fact I strayed from the tracks of south side, but I kept my distance and they seemed to settle their disapproval.

"But when I turned 14, half way through the school year, something had happened with Jug. He hadn't calmed down after his mum and sister left, and with the anger sewn into his genetics, FP made me switch schools. It was my job to keep him in line, I hadn't even thought about the Blossoms hatred because it was such an ancient issue at the time. But I started to get threats, ones that not only targeted me but my family. all of my family.

"We had kept that hidden on school records, where I had come from, because of the stigma we knew I would get. But somehow, someone already knew. It was obvious it was the Blossoms, but I chose to rise above whatever bullshit they had planned. No idiotic school boy taunt or fake death threat would scare me, not when I had come to keep a person I loved safe.

"Soon enough I found out they were very real warnings, after I was targeted in the girls changing rooms. There were loud thumps and a sound of rattling, and to this day I still have no clue who the hell that was. I tried to get out, but the doors were locked. A heavy smoke had began to blind me, the foul stench of maple syrup a way to authenticate who was behind it all. A fire had sprung to life and I was meant to die with it. But I'm from a gang, you would've thought they would factor that in. I scrounged for any loose hair pins in lockers and soon enough I had fought my way out. And I kept quiet because the only thing to come out of that night was the schools funding to rebuild that groggy room.

"It was a couple weeks after that, when I went to see Jughead like any other day. I was meant to meet him at the lamppost down by my street, because my brother had never been that keen on him. But he was late, as usual. I waited for a while, trying to ignore my paranoia of being watched. And when he didn't show, I decided to go anyway.

"I was heading to sweetwater river, because Jug would know if I was anywhere it would be there. A car had started to follow me towards the end of my route, slowly and supposedly inconspicuously, but it was too freaking posh to not see. I picked up pace, the sun was sinking so I thought it'd be easier to hide once the shadows of the trees were on my side. I heard a door slam and suddenly footsteps chasing me.

So I ran faster.

"I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could. And I could've ran farther if it weren't for the roots of a tree to trip me up. The burns I had kept hidden were unrelentlessly painful, fresh cuts on my knees adding to it all. And I could've sworn that I died, once I made eye contact with him. I could feel the life slither from my reach.

I blacked out the rest.

"I remember waking up, covered in blood and clothes torn. I remember seeing a fire of red hair in a blur of my memories. I remember seeing Jason blossom try and kill me, and in a way he succeeded."

•••

This chapter is quite different to all the others, I didn't know how to write her interrogation without it being boring and on going.

So this is her statement to Sheriff Keller, in Bellas own words, her experience 2 years ago when she was 14.

Sorry if it's messy I'll upload the next chapter soon x