If We Had 5 More Minutes

The Murderer Is In This Room Pt. Ten

Veronica

Seven Little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

    Veronica woke up with a pounding headache, and to the soft sounds of the machine she was hooked up to. She looked around her vision still fuzzy and panicked as she saw someone in a gray trench coat, scarf and fedora hat covering their face. They were pointing to the bedside and Veronica slowly turned her head to look to the tableside to find a note. She had jerked her head back around when she heard the door shut, and the person standing there before was gone. She reached for the note on the bedside table and read it.

6742 224 Langley street
Go Now

She recognized the address and realized it was the address to Thistlehouse, she turned the note around to see if there was anything else written.

Or Else.

She had removed the hospital blanket and walked to the bathroom, when looking in the mirror she had seen the writing on her gown, and held her hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. She removed her hand once she calmed herself down and peeked her head out the door to see if the coast was clear. Once she saw it was, she made a dash for one of the exits not even bothering to grab her shoes. She just wanted to get as far away from the hospital as possible because she no longer felt safe there. She’d gotten Smithers to drive her, although she did have to do some heavy convincing. They had finally pulled into the drive thru, and Veronica thanked Smithers before leaving and walking up to the door. She went around back hoping that she could sneak in through the kitchen without startling anyone and causing a bigger scene than she had expected. However she hadn’t noticed Tabitha when entering, and when she turned around Tabitha screamed, dropping a bottle of wine on the floor. Veronica tried walking towards her to calm her down, However Veronica cut her feet on the shards of glass and watched as her blood mixed with the wine.

“Tabitha! Tabith-” Jughead had been shouting as he was running into the kitchen, but stopped in his tracks as his eyes landed on Veronica. And Jughead was followed by Cheryl who had her hands placed on Toni’s shoulders, then Betty and Reggie, then Kevin. They all stood there looking at Veronica, until Betty rushed to her, pulling her in for a hug.

“Oh my god V, I'm so happy you're awake.” Betty let out a sigh of relief and then pulled away looking Veronica in the eyes.

“What happened? Who did this to you?” Betty asked and Veronica recognized the look in Betty’s eyes, Betty’s eyes were filled with vengeance.
"I think we should all be seated for this.” Veronica said as she scanned her eyes at everyone who had been staring at her.

“I’ll grab the first aid kit.” Cheryl said.

    Everyone sat across Veronica as she told her story about the Trenchcoat person at the hospital and Betty tended to the cuts on her feet.

“Were they a woman or a man, could you tell?” Jughead asked as he leaned in both his hands placed under his chin.

“No I couldn’t. Everything was so fuzzy at the time, and it all happened so fast.”  Veronica stated, trying really hard to think back and remember something that could be of use.

“How’d they get in the room? I thought only authorized personnel or anyone on the list could come in?” Kevin asked, still trying to wrap his head around everything. Jughead shared a look with Betty, both of them knowing that this further supported the idea that the stalker was one of their own. Jughead then looked around the room wondering how well he knew everyone here, afterall they all drifted further and further away with the passing years. He then noticed that Arche and Fangs were missing.

“Where’s Archie and Fangs?”  Jughead asked.

“Fangs left a while ago.” Toni chimed in.

“Archie also left earlier. He wasn’t feeling well.” Betty replied. It came to everyone’s attention that whoever this stalker was, wasn’t just going to fade into the distance, and they didn’t like being ignored.

    Toni had finally gotten home after Betty left to stay with Veronica for the night, and everyone started going home one by one until it was just her and Cheryl. Since Fangs left with the car, Cheryl offered her a ride, to which Toni accepted. She searched the house looking for Fangs and checked the drive way to see the car wasn’t there, which means he never came home. She sighed as she sunk into the couch, she left baby Anthony with her Nana earlier today, and told her she’d be back for him tomorrow. Which meant she was going to be left alone in the house tonight. After the night Toni had she really didn’t want to be alone so she pulled her phone out to text Cheryl and see if she wanted to stay with her or vice versa. Before she could send the text she heard the doorbell ring and shuffled her feet to the door to answer it.

“Hey Tiny”

“Sweet Pea?” Toni said looking up shocked to see her former best friend standing before her.

“Hey girl.” Josie dragged out as she came out from behind him, and Toni smiled a bit overwhelmed by such a surprise visit.

“Well are you gonna invite us in, or just let us stand out here in the cold?” Sweet pea chimed in, rubbing his arms to emphasize the coldness.

“Yeah- yea, of course come in.” Toni said, stepping to the side and inviting them in. Josie walked and as soon as she was no longer within earshot distance, Sweet pea bent down to Toni’s level and talked to her in only a tone he and she could hear.

“First off I'm hurt for not getting an invite. Second off you and Fangs? We are definitely talking about this over some cold bears at the Whyte Worm.”