What We Once Were: A Bughead Fanfic

Chapter 20.

Jughead had never driven so fast through town to get to work. When he pulled into the parking lot, he saw that Betty's car was still there, meaning that if she wasn't inside right now, someone must've taken her while she was walking into the office or while she was working.

Panic induced Jughead sprinted through the doors and appeared at Glen's side. Who was standing near the tarnished murder board with a message written in red. Jughead's heart stopped as he prayed that the red was paint and not blood. 

You've got until 8:00 tonight or she's mine. It read, the signature, was the three symbols carved into the three girls were now painted on the wall.

"Jughead, who the hell did this?" Glen demanded in a low undertone.

"Would I be here if I didn't know?!" He snapped.

"Sorry, I'm just worried about her."

"You have no idea." Jughead muttered so only he heard it.

He took a step towards the board and with quivering fingers he touched the red writing. When they made contact with the red liquid, tears stung in Jughead's eyes as the warm blood tainted his fingers. "It's...not paint." He stuttered.

Glen was quiet, "I was running late this morning, I shouldn't have taken the long way this morning." He confessed.

"It's not your fault. We had an argument last night and it's my fault she's gone."

"I think you and I both know, argument or not, she still would've come in early." Glen chuckled sadly, so did Jughead. They both knew that was truth.

"She must've figured out something or else the kidnapper wouldn't have done something this drastic." Jughead thought aloud.

"But what? There's literally no connection between the girls at all." Glen observed, squinting his brow at the board.

"They were all cheerleaders. One was the captain, one of them was a genius and the other was dating the shady outsider." Jughead said, letting his thoughts spill out into the open.

"Sounds like you and her." Glen smirked.

"What do you mean?"

"She was dating the shady outsider? That was you and her."

Jughead's eyes widened. What if the motive wasn't to get back at the girls, but to get someone else to notice them? "Betty was co-captain of the cheer team her senior year with Veronica." Jughead remembered.

"She was a kid genius too. That girl had better grades than anyone that school had seen in a long time." Glen added, also remembering his days in school with them.

"Glen, all of these girls that were murdered don't have anything in common with each other....but they all have something in common with Betty." Jughead observed.

He raced to Betty's desk and rummaged through her abnormally messy cabinets and files. He found the three pictures of the girls and stared at them for the millionth time. Colleen was beautiful, with her pretty blonde hair and her blue eyes. Becky always had her hair up, her style with the sweaters and jeans was exactly like Betty's. Alison had the similar blue and green eyes that Betty had and they both had the same body build. Every one of them had a little bit of Betty in them.

"It couldn't be Jude!" Jughead announced suddenly.

Glen looked at Jughead like he'd grown two heads. "What?"

"I need my senior year yearbook." Jughead scrambled to the archives and pulled out the book, flipping to the senior section, he found exactly what he was looking for.