Broken: the Ultimate Crossover

Chapter 13

Betty's POV

"What's wrong with her?" Kavinsky asks after we took refuge in the empty history classroom.

"She watched her best friend get eaten by a demagorgan," Peter snaps. "What's not wrong with her?"

"She'll be fine," Archie says, wrapping an emergency blanket around Veronica's shoulders. "There's a much bigger problem right now."

"Yeah, there's a space alien growing in Kavinsky's locker," I remind them. "And we don't know how to get it out."

"Which means we can't do tests," Peter adds with a long face. "I'm not even sure if I'd find anything anyway."

My eyes meet Archie's instantly, realization washing over us.

"It's a good thing we can't get it out," Archie says.

"What?" Kavinsky asks in disbelief.

"We forgot to put the invitation in Mr. Hall's mailbox," I tell him quietly, shame washing over me.

How could we forget? I guess with everything that happened this morning with Will we had bigger problems.

Peter almost looks relieved. "Then it's a good thing we couldn't get it out yet. We don't need Mr. Hall on our case."

"Wait, we didn't tell Nancy and Lara Jean," Kavinsky suddenly remembers.

As if on que, Lara Jean and Nancy open the door to the history room, confused looks on their faces. Lara Jean is dressed as an old man, with a short grey wig and handlebar mustache. Nancy even painted wrinkles on her face.

"Why are you guys in here?" Nancy asks.

We quickly fill them both in on Veronica, the death mass, and the invitation.

"Aw man," Lara Jean says with a sigh. "Looking like this took so much time."

"Where's Jonathan?" I ask, noticing the absence of my best friend.

"We just saw him," Nancy explains, pointing down the hall. "He said his mom was going crazy and he had to go home and help her."

My heart wrenches on the stress that he must be feeling right now. I can't imagine how I would feel if the demagorgan took my sister Polly.

I decide that the best thing to do for Jonathan is to give him space. That's always been the best way to handle him when he's upset or worried, and this time it can't be too much different, right?

"I'm going to go take this off," Lara Jean says sadly, gesturing to her face as she and Nancy leave the room.

"I'm going to figure how to get that thing out of the locker," Peter decides and heads for the door.

"We'll come too," Archie and I reply and unison.

"Can you stay here and look after her?" I ask Kavinsky, who looks at the shaking girl and then back to me.

He nods and I follow Peter and Archie out of the classroom and out to the locker where the death mass is waiting.

°•°•°•°•°
Kavinsky's POV

I'm sitting on a desk near the window, staring out and wondering where the demagorgan is. Does it come out during the day? Where will it strike next? I have so many questions that no one knows how to answer.

I'm lost in my thoughts, the sound of Veronica's short breaths almost seem natural after hearing them for so long.

I look down at her, holding her head, curled into a ball. I let out a deep exhale. I want to help her, but I don't know how. I've never seen PTSD before, and if I have it hasn't been like this. It's almost like she's frozen, trapped in her own mind prison that she can't escape.

She suddenly gasps and let's go of her head, which makes me jump a little, making the desk scrape along the floor with a loud noise.

She inhales deeply, like she's just been released from a demon, and then her body falls back as if she's lost all of her strength.

I jump off of the desk and kneel beside her.

"Veronica?" I ask, grabbing her by the shoulders. Her dark, chocolate eyes stare back into mine and she holds the stare for a minute before blinking.  "Are you ok?"

Uncertainty flashes across her face before she shakes her head.

"I..." is all she says, shaking her head again.

Her manicured nails are digging into my forearm as if she's clinging to reality by a thread.

"You can talk to me," I tell her calmly.

Tears form in her eyes. A single drop falls from her eye and slides down her cheek as she looks down.

"I can't escape," she whimpers.

My heart starts beating faster with worry. What is she talking about? She's not stuck with the monster.

Is she?

"I'll go get help," I decide, standing up to go get the others.

But before I can go her hand closes around my forearm in a death grip. I look at her. She has almost an evil look about her face, her dark eyebrows knitted, in her brown eyes a shimmer of anger can be seen.

"No," she says decidedly.

"Why? You need help," I tell her as panic enters my brain.

"No," she says again, and my brain echoes with the memory of Veronica screaming "kill it."

"I need no help," she declares and I sit back down, realizing the only way to win is to wait.

Her eyes lose their angry glint and her face relaxes again.

"You can't tell them," she says sadly, letting go of my arm.

"Why not?" I ask.

"It will make him mad," she says, looking dead into my eyes.

"Veronica..." I start in disbelief. "Are you..."

She nods and squeezes her eyes shut. I feel as though a wrecking ball has been dropped on me: crushed. I can only imagine her pain, and hopefully I never have to feel it.

"I'm stuck," she whispers.

°•°•°•°•°
Betty's POV

"Come on you stupid son of a bitch," Archie grumbles as he desperately tries to pry the death mass out of the locker.

"It's no use Archie," I tell him, defeated. "It's not coming out."

"What are we gonna do?" He asks, looking between me and Peter.

"I don't know, you're the boss," Peter says, reminding Archie of his role as "team leader."

"No no no," Archie says, shaking his head. "Nope, I'm an awful leader. You two are smart and quick thinkers, so I need you to tell me what to do."

I roll my eyes. "Archie, if we knew what to do we would have told you."

"It's cold," Peter says quietly.

"What?" Archie and I ask simultaneously.

"The death mass," Peter explains. "It's cold, and it grew well in Kavinsky's cold locker."

"That means..." I realize.

"Exactly," Peter finishes. We look at each other and grin, having cracked the case.

"Someone please explain this to me," Archie mumbles, confused.

"We can beat it with fire," Peter tells him, looking down the hall to the science room. "We need to get him out of there."