Riverdale: The Ghoulies Return

5~ Broken Plans~ Jughead

As we headed towards the camp, I thought about when they beat me up. I had wanted to kill them for that. It hurt me, my dad, Betty, and everyone around me. I really, truly hope we capture Penny.  We were close to the camp, so I was wondering where all of the Ghoulies went. I sent out a group of four Poisons in each direction to scout out the area.  "If you see anything tell me," I notified the groups.   We finally reached the camp but didn't see a single person there. Suddenly, my dad came out of a fort area.  "We captured a few of them but the rest got away. I never saw Penny. Wait, did you guys already encounter the whole lot of them? You look fine," he trailed off.  "No, dad, there's a problem. We never got even the slightest sighting of them. I sent a group of four Poisons in each direction, and all have yet to return. We thought we would see them on our way here but that never happened. Didn't you see them leave in the direction we just came from?" I asked confused.  "I did. We all did," he said trying to figure out what had happened.  He suddenly looked as though he had had an epiphany.  "Jughead, they tricked you. They tricked all of us. Before we arrived at their Sweet Water River camp, didn't you send out about thirty scouts?" he asked.  
I suddenly started to realize what he was saying. 
"And only seven of them returned! They knew we were there, and they changed their plans," I said.  It was such a rookie move. I sat down on a stump and ran my hand through my hair. Now they have some of our Serpents and Poisons captured and we don't know where they are. As I was mentally slapping myself, I got a text from Betty. She asked me where we were, and I decided to call her instead.              "Juggie, what's going on, where are you? We can't see anything, and a scout just came to us. He told me that there had been a fight and I was needed by your request," she said.             
"Betty, nothing happened. We walked all the way to their camp but didn't see a single soul. We lost a lot of scouts, and whoever made it came back to me. I never called for you either," I said slightly confused.             
"I don't know. They were wearing a Serpent jacket. Just tell me everything when you and Arch get back," she said and hung up. I told everyone what she had said and then Archie looked at me.             
"You know Jughead, it was probably a Ghoulie playing tricks on us. Good thing Betty called first," Archie said.             
"We should go," I said.             
As we made our way back, we still didn't see anyone. My dad caught a couple of Ghoulies who weren't expecting him to be there, but they didn't say anything. I didn't see Betty or Veronica. Suddenly I realized that some windows at the diner were shattered and cracked. I started panicking. Where were they? I darted inside Pops with Archie. As we walked around the glass crunched beneath or feet. We ran into the speak-easy and I saw Veronica.              "Veronica are you okay?" asked Archie.  She was sitting at the bar and tears were running down her face. Pop was sitting beside her but no one else was there.              "Where's Betty?" I asked.  The broken glass windows. Veronica crying. Her and Pop Tate hiding out here. Betty was gone. I ran my hands through my hair and stood there staring at the ground.              "Veronica," Archie said carefully as he walked over to her.  She looked up at him.              "Archikins, I, I don't," she trailed off and started crying even harder.  He rubbed her back.             
"Do you know where Betty is?" Archie asked her.  Her face was red, and her eyes were still puffy, though she stopped crying a little bit.             
"They took her with them. They just attacked us after she got the phone call from you and we didn't leave," she explained.             
"Who? How many of them were there, and where did they take her?" I asked panicking and raising my voice.             
"The Ghoulies. Malachai came with about five others and threw bricks through the windows and took Betty. I ran so I didn't see where they went," said Veronica.  They set us up and kidnapped Betty. It was unbelievable.