A Secret - Choni

Twenty

Cheryl's POV

A long cafeteria table surrounded by my friends is where I thought I'd be happy. I thought if I distracted myself enough from the ongoing problem in my life then maybe, just maybe, I'd forget. I didn't. I could never forget.

Heather was sitting to my right, which reminded me. She reminded me of all the things that I've lost since Toni disappeared. Yes disappeared, not died. I'll forever keep my hopes up, no matter how unrealistic they seem.

Heather destroyed a part of me, all over again. A part of me that Toni somehow managed to fix, that broken part of me. I hated it, I hated where I was right now.

X

Fangs and Sweetpea were sitting opposite me, which reminded me. They reminded me of the happy memories I shared with Toni on Christmas day, the times we sat in the Whyte Wyrm together.

Fangs and Sweetpea broke a promise. A promise they made that we'd find Toni, no matter what. They gave up searching, they said it was too mentally exhausting and that she was definitely dead by now.

X

Betty, Jughead, Veronica, and Archie were also sitting at the cafeteria table with us. I never paid much attention to them. Jughead perhaps, since he never gave up on looking for Toni. He actually kept his word, but it's only because he liked a mystery. He liked solving things. It wasn't because it was Toni.

X

"Cheryl do we have Vixen practice tonight?" I heard come from the end of the table, right out of Veronica's mouth. My head, however, was elsewhere. I could hear her, but everything sounded like I was underwater. "Cheryl are you okay?" Jughead asked. "Cheryl." I kept hearing, out of everyone's mouth. I paid no attention, I just paid attention to her.

Nobody else saw my worst nightmare, I was beginning to think that perhaps I imagined it. Perhaps I was losing my fucking mind by this point. That was until Jughead moved his gaze over to where my eyes were fixed. The colour draining out of his face assured me that I certainly wasn't seeing things.

X

Soon after, everyone else saw her too. Archie, Veronica, and Heather were all clueless as to why we all looked so terrified. She began to walk over to our table. Oh shit, she's coming.

"Hiya Jonesey. Missed me?" She chuckled, a menacing tone lacing her voice. Tears fell from my eyes slowly. "Penny, what the fuck are you doing here? How can you even get on school property?" Jughead growled back.

"Riverdale High's security isn't top of the range. Don't worry, I won't stay for long." She smirked. 'Where the fuck is my girlfriend?' was right at the top of my tongue, however, I couldn't bring myself to say those words, unsure if I wanted the answer.

"Glad to see that you're here too Red." She averted her gaze to me, rather than Jughead. My heart began to pound in my ears, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move a muscle.

X

"No I'm not here to hurt any of you, I just came to give you something, a small farewell perhaps." She spat out at Jughead. "The Ghoulies and I are skipping town, there's no potential left in the town with pep." She winked sarcastically.

"Just tell me what you want and fucking go." Jughead's voice cracked, I could tell that he was terrified. Either terrified of what this thing was or terrified of Penny.

"Here." She handed him a map of fox forest, a circle in red marker stuck out. "What's this?" He questioned as he held it in his hands. "Wellllll, one of your friends is dead, one is alive but barely." She smirked. FUCK.

"That right there is the location of the dead." I wanted to fucking punch her. Fuck that. I wanted to fucking kill her. The cafeteria doors flew open and in ran Joaquin. There were other Ghoulies following behind him. "Aw look at that, you finally made it." She patted his back as he spluttered and had blood dripping from his mouth.

"One's alive, one's dead," I whispered, however, the entire cafeteria was in dead silence, so they heard me. "Oh, Red finally speaks." She laughed.

X

Tears began to well at my eyes, realizing that the dead was Toni. She killed my fucking baby. My heart physically hurt, I felt sick. I couldn't do this. No.

"Joaquin, is she telling the truth?" Jughead asked quietly. Joaquin looked up at him with a guilty expression on his face, behind all the blood you could see the hurt. "I'm sorry Jones. I couldn't do anything. They killed her right in front of me." He began to shed tears slowly and everyone around the table did too.

"You fucking bitch. WHY?" Jughead screamed at Penny. "I've always wanted to slice up the bloodline, an heir of the serpents. Little Antoinette was a prime target." Penny laughed, joined with Malachai and the other Ghoulies that surrounded her.

I froze up, she said it. She killed Toni.

X

Everyone stayed in dead silence until Sheriff Keller burst through the door with a bunch of other armed officers, he ran right to Penny.

"Penny Peabody you are under arrest for attempted murder..." He began, everything else drowned out after that. Attempted?

Once he had her and her posse in handcuffs, Jughead decided to bring it up thankfully.

"Sheriff, did you say attempted murder? That means that Toni's alive?" He rushed out, hoping to hear the answer that would've fixed every broken piece of me.

"WHAT THE FUCK? YOU WERE DEAD YOU STUPID BITCH!" Penny screamed while pointing behind us, when we all turned to find who she was talking to, I almost passed out right on the spot.

Toni fucking Topaz, standing before us. Alive. Breathing. Sure she was battered, bruised and bloody. She was alive though.

i apologise that i've been hella busy for a while, i'm gonna try writing more when i can❤️ thanku all for waiting patiently, i appreciate it.