Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
( volume i, chapter i )
fuck me gently with a chainsaw
TW: MENTIONS OF EATING DISORDERS
There is an idea of Riverdale . . . of what kind of town it is, what sort of families live there, a notion that it exists unchanged and unchanging, as if frozen in a time capsule, that it must be exactly how it presents itself to the outside world.
Safe. Decent. Innocent.
So that if you were looking at it from the window of a train, rushing by, you might wish you lived there.
But that's only one aspect of it, and only on the surface. The truth is, if you really want to understand Riverdale, and what kind of place it is, I have to tell you about its shadows, the town beneath the town . . . Starting, I guess, with what the Blossom twins did this summer.
On the fourth of July, just after dawn, Jason and Cheryl drove out to Sweetwater River for an early morning boat ride, as was their custom.
The next thing we know happened for sure is that Dilton Doiley, who was leading Riverdale's boy scout troop on a bird-watching expedition, came upon Cheryl by the river's edge.
Riverdale's Sheriffs, led by Sheriff Keller, dragged the river for Jason's body, and hours later, still nothing . . . Needless to say, there were no fireworks in Riverdale that night.
A week later, the Blossom family buried an empty casket, and Jason's death was ruled an accident as the story Cheryl told made the rounds — that an early morning idyll turned tragic when Cheryl dropped a glove in the water, and Jason reached down to get it, and accidentally tipped the boat, panicked, and drowned . . . which is super weird, because Jason was captain of every sports team at Riverdale High, including water polo.
Not that anyone examined those facts too closely, or asked too many questions. Probably because the Blossoms were like poisonous roses in the garden of Riverdale — and no one wanted to get pricked on those venomous thorns.
So, the ❛July Fourth Tragedy❜ became just another suburban legend; a cautionary tale we would analyse and regurgitate endlessly, until some new scandal or mystery rolled into town . . .
POP'S CHOCK'LIT SHOPPE
SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2017
RIVERDALE
''Do you girls think all this neon makes my hair look yellow?'' Mia observed her reflection in the steel utensils carefully, combing her fingers through her curled locks. She stared back at herself, the fluorescent diner lights dancing in the glass of her doll-like eyes. ''Nate always said it did, its why he refused to take me here.''
