If We Had 5 More Minutes

The Murderer Is In This Room

       Jughead stood in the corner of the living room at Thistle House with his gaze lowered as he studied everyone in the room. The fireplace crackled and snapped timidly and he looked towards the window and saw that it was the first snowfall of the year, fitting for the night that was in store for them. Toni, Cheryl, Archie, Kevin, Fangs, and Reggie had already arrived, wandering around mingling amongst one another waiting for Tabitha and Betty to arrive.

“Okay Hobo, essentially you're asking me to host a Knockoff Clue party so you, Tt, Cousin Betty, and moi can do some deeper digging into our guest, but how can you be sure one of us isn’t the stalker? How can we know it's not you?” Cheryl finished with her signature red lipstick smirk , and everyone in the bunker looked towards each other, deep down all of them wondering the same thing.

“That’s the thing Cheryl we don’t .” Jughead answered as he took a step closer to Cheryl.

“You're just as much of a suspect as anyone else, and please don’t take it personal, but discluding the people in this room would be a rookie mistake.”

“Oh Don’t worry hobo it's likewise, because if anyone could pull off such a well thought nefarious scheme, it’d be you.”

“Wow Cheryl, that's the closest thing to a compliment that I’ve gotten from you.” Jughead smiled slyly as he held his hand over his heart.

“Yeah don’t let it get to your head, I’ll deliver these.” Cheryl said as she snapped the game invitation from Jughead. “ While you prepare Thistlehouse for this evening, and Toni and Betty get their affairs in order.”

After reminiscing on earlier he looked towards Cheryl and Toni trading looks of understatement and reassurance with one another, and then as if on cue, Betty and Tabitha came through the doors.

“Sorry about running late, closing up Pop’s took a little longer than I suspected.” Tabitha stated, and Jughead noted that she was still in uniform, as she rushed up to him and placed a kiss on his cheek. Jughead then looked towards Betty waiting for her excuse.

“Yeah I was at the hospital with Veronica and lost track of time.” Betty said as she removed her coat and took a seat next to Archie, sinking into his embrace.

“Well everyone gather around the time has come.” Jughead announced as he made his way to the middle of the room, and everyone paused their discussion to close the distance between each other.

“I have gathered you all here today to play a game.” Jughead smiled mischievously as he continued. He then pulls out his beanie with nine folded pieces of paper and holds it out to his audience, quickly sharing glances with everyone taking each expression into consideration.

“Each of you will pick a card without letting anyone else see, we will then wander around Thistlehouse conversating with one another while also trying to discover who the murderer is, if you die you make your way back to this room.” Jughead continued explaining the rules as everyone drew a card from the beanie, and then he picked one for himself, Victim, he then pulled the beanie over his head, for old times sake. He then again looked towards everyone seeing if he could somehow guess who the murderer is right off the back, but everyone concealed their identify rather well.

“The murderer is in this room.” Jughead narrowed his eyes as he scanned the room once more, making eye contact with Betty, Cheryl, and Toni, his words having a deeper meaning between them.

“Let the games commence.”

The next few chapter will be the murderer party from different perspectives. I was going to wait and post them all at once but decided that would take a while.