If We Had 5 More Minutes

Casualties.... Sometimes Those Can't Be Avoided

     

      Heather’s tires screeched as she put it into reverse and sped off. Fangs was completely lost, while Cheryl was waiting for some sort of explanation.

“Hey there again, I just wanted to apologize for the trouble I've caused.” Sabrina looked over her shoulder as she spoke to Cherly apologetically.

“Text Archie and the rest of them to head towards Stonewall prep, with fire power.”Heather interrupted, then making a fast turn, causing them to slide in their seats.

“What’s going on Heather?” Cheryl asked, confused, but doing as she was asked.

“Let Archie and them worry about Stonewall. Toni is at the abandoned Maple club in critical condition.” Cheryl’s head shot up at Heather’s words.

“Is she okay? How do you know of this?”

“One of my friends gets these visions, and she just so happened to see this one.” Sabrina piped up.

“Heather?” Cheryl asked again more pressingly this time, ignoring Sabrina.

“Sabrina messed up okay, now everyone is in trouble.” Heather started out, then looked over at Sabrina disappointingly.

“When I revived you I took advantage of the situation and thought maybe I could bring Nick back as well.” Sabrina sighed. “Well I accidently brought someone else back, someone that should have stayed put.” Sabrina finished off abruptly.

    Jughead stood staring at the whiteboard before them, looking at all the points they put up. They had the gamemaster, the motive, and the plan. However something still felt like it was missing, something still didn’t feel right. Betty then placed a hand over his shoulder giving it a gentle squeeze.

“What are you thinking Jug?” She asked.

“Something’s still missing here.” Jughead responded, not paying much position to the gesture as Betty stood behind him.

“What could possibly be missing?” Betty asked, slightly annoyed, something Jughead picked up on. She continued to massage his shoulder, and this time Jughead caught on to it. A part of him wanted to shrug her off, but he had a feeling that would be the wrong move. So instead he continued to stare at the board. The Gamemaster was Rivervale's Jughead. The motive was to switch places with Jughead, so Rivervale Jughead could live his life. He planned on doing this by kidnapping Toni and Betty. So why was he sitting here lying in wait? He should have made a move by now. If he wanted to switch places with Jughead, he would have to get him alone, so no one would notice the swap. Betty continued to knead his shoulders.

“What are you thinking Juggy?” Betty whispered in his ear, looming over him. Jughead’s heart rate picked up, as he remembered one of the deja vu moments he had back when they were fighting against Percival. He remembered the ticking sound to the bomb Hiram had planted. He remembered seeing himself kissing Betty who was in a wedding dress. He remembered how Cheryl had said that the Jughead and Betty from the Sweethereafter had felt sinister. Jughead had sent the rest of the gang off because Betty had pointed him in that direction, other than Betty he was alone.

“You're not Betty.” Jughead uttered as he felt the cold barrel of a gun against the back of his neck. He gritted his teeth in frustration, again he was one step behind. “Betty never escaped Stonewall. She’s still there being held captive with Your Jughead.” Jughead had finally put the pieces together. There were two gamemasters, however none of that mattered now, it was too late.

“Took you long enough. You know it's a shame your Betty ended up with Archie. You two would have been the real power couple.” Betty stated as she pulled the hammer back. Jughead squeezed his eyes shut, then there was a loud bang that left a silence in the bunker.

    Betty had woken up and quickly became aware of the fact that she had been tied to a chair. She skimmed her surroundings seeing tha Donna nor Evelyn were in sight, instead she was met with Jughead looking at her through a Kubrick stare, one that sent chills down her spine.

“Jughead untie me, so we can get out.” Betty said drowsily, it felt like she had been drugged.

“Now why would I do that?” She heard Jughead laugh cynically as he walked towards her, squatting on his knees as he looked her in the eyes. He laughed at Betty’s confused look.

“Oh Betty. You're not as smart in this universe I see. My betty would have already figured it out. Matter of fact she wouldn’t have allowed herself to be caught in the first place.” Jughead kicked over the other chair meant for him.

“Can you feel it Betty, I've won the game. I truly am a genius, this has got to be the best story i’ve written yet. I bet you were on the edge of your seat the entire time.” Jughead exclaimed through crazed eyes, eyes that frightened Betty.

“You see Betty, I've planned this from the beginning. I took the game from Tabitha, I manipulated you and Toni, so that my Betty could take care of your Jughead, and I could take care of you. We would dispose of you two and take your place, living carefree outside of that wretched bunker I was confined to. Toni though, she was just a casualty. Sometimes those can’t be avoided. Oops.” Jughead frowned momentarily, before switching his expression again.

“You're insane.” Betty said.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? After I just explained my whole masterpiece of a scheme to you. Ungrateful.” Jughead tsked.

“You know at the end of the story the bad guy always loses because he gets too cocky. Even I know that.” Betty said through clenched teeth. Before Jughead could respond a bullet was put through his head, and his body fell to the ground with a thud.

“I’ll add that to my ongoing list of body’s.” Veronica sighed as she lowered the gun. “B.” Veronica sighed in relief.

“V.” Betty smiled at her best friend.

    Cheryl slammed the car door as she ran towards the abandoned building not waiting for the others. Fangs followed closely behind her leaving Sabrina and Heather behind, soon Serpents showed up on the scene, hopping off their bikes, and Cheryl had her bow ready.
They crept into the building and immediately saw the bodies littering the floor, she quickly recognized Nick’s. A sickening feeling bubbled up in the pit of her stomach as it twisted at the sight in front of her. Fangs signaled for the serpents to scatter the building as he followed closely behind Cheryl, he wasn’t afraid to admit she was more skilled with her bow than he was with a knife. The building was dark and it was obvious there had been a struggle here, broken glass, tossed furniture, Cheryl stepped on something, she bent down to pick it up and noticed it was Toni’s phone, she looked up at Fang with worried eyes.

‘Fangs look out!” Cheryl shouted as a ghoulie charged him in the side. Five more than appeared and the serpents quickly rushed in for assistance. The situation escalated and a brawl between the serpents and ghoulies broke out. Cheryl looked around at the chaos surrounding her trying to find her place in all of it, and she soon found it when she found a Penny Peabody revealing herself from the shadows with a shit eating grin plastered on her face. She pulled the arrow back and without hesitation shot Penny watching as her body hit the ground, she stood back up and scanned the area looking for Toni. The brawl was still going on around her, but she soon found who she was looking for and quickly ran to her side.

“Toni!” Cheryl pleaded as she dropped to her knees next to Toni's lifeless body tied to a kicked over chair. “Fangs!” Cheryl shouted as she was trying to undue the rope around her wrists. Fangs quickly looked over in Cheryl's direction and slid down on his knees next to Toni and used his knife to cut the ropes, he threw the chair over in some other direction. He left the fighting to the Serpents, which had started to die down, he watched as Cheryl picked Toni’s body up and pulled it toward her, but already knew. He crawled backwards toward the wall behind him, he tried to be optimistic but Cheryl was right, he was only flesh and blood, and he shouldn’t have made a promise he couldn’t keep. The phone rang and he answered it.

“Fangs we found Betty, she’s okay. Any luck with Toni?” He heard Archie, but he didn’t answer, instead the phone slid out of his hand and hit the floor. He watched as Cheryl clung to Toni, crying hysterically. Her eyes scanned Toni’s body, all the bruises and stab wounds.

“Fangs her body is cold. Fangs!” Cheryl hollered out to him looking at him with pleading eyes, but there was nothing Fangs could do, and now one day he would have to tell his son that his mother was dead.