Flatline ((Jughead Jones)) 3

3

We've all felt it. The first day of a new school year. Butterflies in the stomach. We've all looked around and wondered, where will I fit in here? Who will I sit with at lunch? Will I even make it till lunch? Multiply that by a thousand, and that's how Archie Andrews felt as he was being processed at the Leopold & Loeb Juvenile Detention Centre.

Jughead recruited Betty to help us get into the coroner's office in order to get the details of Dilton's death. I sent Betty and Jughead to find out any major details while I went to prepare the dark room for Jughead's return. He had shots of Dilton's back and the symbols, and one of his lips and stained blue that was now a similar colour to the rest of his lips.
"What are we up against Jug?" I asked as he pegged up the final photo, an image of the final symbol carved onto his back.

"I don't know, Thia. But it has to have something to do with that game." He replied, turning back to me.

Even though I didn't verbally say, I agreed with Jug. A new game shows up that they can't talk about, and suddenly one of them is dead and the other is barely hanging on. I wondered if anyone else had played the game with them, if they had introduced it to other people. Maybe the dying was part of game.

"We need to see Ben." I said to Jughead, and I knew that he agreed.

When we arrived, Jughead let me take the lead, after thinking that if one of Ben's parents was there then seeing a girl on crutches was less of a threat than a teenager with an obsession with a beanie. After asking at the front desk we began the winding path of hallways to get to his room.

Sitting in his room was a blonde haired lady that seemed like she had been crying. It was his mom. I felt sorry for her, nearly losing her son. I imagined it was a similar feeling to losing JJ, but I would never know. Maybe it was like how I felt when Jug got hurt, but I doubt that compared to the hurt this mother felt, not knowing why her son tried to kill himself.
"Hi, Mrs Button? We're friends of Ben's, and we wanted to know how he was doing." I said as I slowly entered the room. She smiled at me as I entered, but still held a defensive look on her face. I was sure reporters had tried to speak to her, and I guessed she was sick of people trying to poke and prod at her for answers.

"How do you know my Ben?" She asked us, Jughead taking a place next to me, his hand on my waist.
"From school, and I worked with him at the Drive-In." Jughead answered her. She seemed to accept this as an answer, taking a visible breath in before turning to us.
"Well, he's stabilized but he hasn't woken up yet." She told us, looking towards her son.

The woman's hands hadn't moved from her sons as Ben lay there still, covered in a blue blanket that was neatly tucked around him. He seemed too still, the only movement being from the up and down of his chest as the oxygen mask filled and then went clear again.
"Do you know what happened in the woods Mrs Button? Why he was there?" I asked.
"No. Ben's always been a bit of an odd duck, you could say. Kept to himself. Especially after his piano teacher was murdered." We both knew who she meant. It was in regards to the Black Hood killings and knowing Mrs Grundy and hearing Ben's reaction after her death, she was probably seeing him like she was Archie. "But this summer, he became friends with Dilton. It's like he became a different person. Secretive, sneaking out at all hours. Having these terrible nightmares." Jughead had started to look around the room, look in case anyone had brought something or anyone had left anything related to the game.

"Mrs Button," He said, holding up a small wooden doll that was hung on the door handle. "Do you know what this is or how it got here?" The item Jughead held in his hand was similar to anything associated with the game. It was like the 'Gargoyle' that was built in front of the two bodies when we found them. It was like the Gargoyle King that Dilton drew on the back of the map.
"Maybe that nice girl left it." She said. I was quick to ask about who had left it. If someone else had visited Ben, maybe it was another game friend, another person who had played this game and had the potential to shed some light on why they died. "I don't remember her name. She wore a bow in her hair." Everyone knew who that meant. Who in Riverdale had a bow in her hair even though she was in high school. We needed to see Ethyl.