Broken: the Ultimate Crossover

Chapter 9

Betty's POV

I can't shake the thought of the man in the red suit out of my head.

Who is he?

Where did he come from?

Nothing makes sense to me anymore. Kids are being taken and killed by a fictional monster and now men are swinging from the trees like Tarzan?

I'm silent the whole way back to school and stare out the window, thinking that maybe I'll just seem the man in the red suit pop up again in the trees.

But I don't.

When we arrive back to school, defeated and confused from finding now sign of Will, we park Nancy's minivan in the now more crowded parking lot and make our way inside.

The three of us look around for our colleagues, but they're not in sight. Students bustle down the hallways, jocks in blue and gold letter jackets, south-siders in serpent jackets, cheerleaders, but no Nancy, Kavinsky, Lara Jean, or Peter.

The halls seem somewhat empty and calm without Cheryl and Veronica strolling through the middle, the students parting like the red sea. We don't see a fake, red lipstick smile or a spider brooch (which is with Kavinsky). Everyone else notices the emptiness as well, but they don't feel the same emptiness we do.

They don't know that she's dead.

After a minute of making our way down the halls, I spot Lara Jean casually leaning against the wall beside the janitors closet.

"There," I point Lara Jean out to my comrades and make my way toward her, Jonathan and Archie on my heels.

She looks at us with big eyes.

"Minor inconvience," she says quietly and opens the door, slipping inside.

The three of us look between each other and then follow her inside, finding Kavinsky, Nancy, and...

Veronica?

Veronica is laid on the floor, on top of some spread out black trash bags, her eyes closed. Kavinsky sits beside her, waving her face, and Nancy paces nervously behind the whole scene.

"What the hell happened?" Archie exclaims and kneels beside the passed out girl, feeling her pulse.

"She's not dead, dimwit," Nancy snaps, totally out of character.

Archie looks at her and drops Veronica's wrist. "Alright my bad."

"What happened?" Jonathan repeats Archie's question impatiently.

Kavinsky looks up and sighs. "It was my fault."

"Damn sure it was," Nancy snaps again. "What gave you the idea to show her the death mass?"

"You showed her?" Archie and Jonathan exclaim in chorus.

"Calm down!" Kavinsky says. "If you'd all just shut up and let me explain myself-"

"Well get on with it," Jonathan butts in.

Kavinsky glares at him before starting his story.

"I was putting the backpack in my locker," he begins. "I finally got it into my locker and I looked inside the backpack to make sure it wasn't dead or anything and then I got creeped out and I zipped it and slammed my locker shut.

"When I turned around, she scared the crap out of me because she was just...right there. So she asked me if we found anything last night and then I didn't say anything because I didn't know what to do and then she somehow figured it out. And then so I finally gave in, because she deserves to know, right? I mean, come on, her best friend died. So i opened my locker and unzipped the backpack and showed her.