Second Chances [Sweet Pea x OC]

Chapter 3

"So you're worried about a game that only has one known instruction manual and was being played by three people. Two of them are now dead and the third is stuck in the hospital with no access to anything related to the game."

"It's not just the game, it's the Farm, too," Betty said. "They've gotta be connected somehow."

"The Farm is nothing but a cult," Dakota said. "I've heard about them."

"Yes, thank you," Betty said. "We have to put a stop to all of this somehow."

"Okay, but we don't even know they're connected for sure," I said.

"The Farm showed up around the same time Ben and Dilton started playing G&G, Jughead said. "And Betty's Evelyn always seems to be around when someone has a seizure."

I sighed. "It could be a series of coincidences. The Farm hasn't left town, but after Dilton died, and Ben offed himself, no one else has played the game."

"Until today, when I played it with Ethel Muggs."

"And here I thought you were trying out something new with blue lipstick," I said with a laugh, watching Jughead scrub at his lips.

"Come on, Abigail, this is serious," Betty said.

"I'm not worried about the game," Hunter said. "You said people have been having seizures?"

"Yeah, a few," Jughead said. "Why?"

I looked at Hunter, trying to figure out where he was going with this. "Do you have those pictures of the jingle jangle lab?" I asked Jughead.

He shook his head. "I don't, but Veronica does. Veronica!" he waved her over from where she and Mantle were taking inventory. "Do you still have those pictures?"

"Of the jingle jangle lab? I gave them to my dad, but I still have copies," she said, looking around the table.

I ran a hand through my hair. "If Hiram knows, then he's already moved the lab. I need to see those pictures."

"You think they're changing the recipe?" Hunter asked.

"Or making something new," I replied.

"Great. We have a new drug in town and a Sheriff who won't be doing anything to stop it," Veronica said.

"We're not going to find anything tonight. Let's get home," Hunter said.

I followed the boys out, Veronica promising to get the photos. We rode back to Centerville in silence, the three of us lost in our own thoughts.

A few days later, Jughead woke me up earlier than necessary, calling my phone nonstop. "This had better be good," I growled.

"Abigail, everyone had a copy of the Gryphons and Gargoyles manual in their lockers the other day," Jughead said.

"Okay?" Maybe it's because I was still half asleep, but I didn't see what was so important.

"Ethel told me the copy she gave me was the only one, and while we were at Veronica's opening night, my dad went through my things and found it. He burned the only copy there was and now they're everywhere."

"You really believed that was the only copy? Sometimes I forget how gullible you can be, Jug," I said with a laugh. "But if this happened days ago, why are you calling me freaking out about it now?"

Jughead sighed in frustration. "The game is spreading like crazy, almost every single student at Riverdale High is playing Gryphons and Gargoyles. For every manual confiscated, two pop up in its place. Our parents are going insane trying to shut it down but it's spreading like an epidemic."