Paranoia // Third Book To The Lucky Series

Chapter 40

  Junior prom is a cliché in every teen's life. However few can say theirs turned into a blood bath the deadliest prom night since Carrie's. A twisted night birthing yet again another tragedy in Riverdale. Riverdale High had been overrun by the Black Hood and the Gargoyle King, true identity yet to be determined. Jug and I tagged along to every search of the school. The whole search to find the countless bodies and the fact we were only down the hall the whole time was honestly terrifying. They got murdered right under our noses. We and the rest of the town needed answers. And we need them now.

"So how in the hell did Hal Cooper fake his own death in a bus explosion?" Jug asks as he, his father, and I stand in Curdle's office once again.

"Well, I re-examined the tell-tale hand recovered from the bus," Curdle says to us as he points to a severed hand. The hand is greyish blue. Disgusting looking. I move my eyes to the floor, "See here? The erratic incision at the wrist leads me to think this amputation was self-inflicted."

"So the Black Hood cut off his own hand and left it behind to convince everyone he died?"

"It's not an easy task," Curdle says, "There are eight bones in the human wrist." I look at him skeptically.

"How is someone trained in forensic science not able to identify this," I say to him as I cross my arms over my chest, "listen Curdle we need the whole truth. Was this a misunderstanding?"

"Absolutely," He says to me, "I would never do this on purpose. He's a murderer." I look to Jug weakly. I take Jug's hand gripping it tightly as we move from the office. As we make it to my car I sigh slightly.

"This is crazy," I say to him, "absolutely ape shit." I look down feeling a wave of nausea move over me. I try to relax myself and look back to him.

"Lets go to the movies," He says to me, "lets go see something fun." I nod letting him take control. He drives as I sit in the passenger seat nervously bouncing my leg. Jug watches me out of the corner of his eye carefully. "The new avengers movie is out. It'll be fun let's see that."

"Of course," i say to him. Once at the theater we grab our snacks and tickets sitting down for Endgame. It wouldn't be a movie date with out Jug getting a insanely big thing of popcorn and eating it all himself. Three hours later once he and I leave the movie theater tears are stained on my cheeks as I sob lightly. "I want to die."

"I seriously didn't think it would be that sad," he says to me as he takes my hand, "I'm sorry." I look over and rest my head on his shoulder.

"I'm glad we went in saw it," I say, "but fuck the Russo brothers man. My heart didn't even catch a break." He sighs moving to wrap his arm around my waist. We move back out to the truck. Once again he movies to the driver's side. He heads towards Pops leaving me to once again bounce my legs nervously. It's a habit I'm not too frequent with unless I severely thought something bad would happen. A way to balance my anxieties.

"Babe whats wrong?" He asks me, "you don't look so good." I sigh rubbing my temple.

"He can't be alive can he?" I ask Jug widely. The words make me sound more like I'm on the brink of going completely crazy. "My dad has to be dead I mean we saw the body. The whole body. There's no way."

"Of course there is no way," Jug says, "he's dead and he's been dead for a while now. Dead people just can't come back."

"Yeah well Hal's running around butchering people and Cheryl's talking to Jason," I say as I stare out the window making a point to look through the shadows.

"We saw the body," he says to me, "we saw it. For better or for worse he's dead. Your father is dead." I look away nervously. My mind racing at the thought. Even the slightest chance of hm being alive was enough to drive me up the wall. I'm terrified. He pulls into Pops leading me into the restaurant. As we move inside I tap my fingers against my leg. Another bad habit from my nerves. I sit down in our booth while he went to go order for us. I pull my phone from my pocket. I start to dial Lily's number. To get some kind of word that she'd help. Or know what to do. I delete the numbers from the screen the phone toss down. "Hello beautiful," Jug says as he sits down across from me handing me a milkshake. I pull it towards me as he takes his own.