𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚂𝚔𝚒𝚗// 𝚂𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝙿𝚎𝚊

𝚂𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛

*Jughead's Narration*

This story is about a town, small town, and the people who live in the town, work there, fall in love there, get married there, have children there, and yes, even die there.

From a distance... or from the window of a train rushing by... it presents itself like so many other small towns, all over the world. Safe. Decent. Innocent. But that's only how people want it to be. Or think it is because they're young and don't know any better... or they're old and they don't want to know any better.

At a certain point, though, you look close enough... and you start seeing the shadows underneath the town. And sometimes... the shadows take over. And you're living in this place you don't recognize anymore. And you're feeling a lot of things, but safe isn't one of them.

The name of our town is Riverdale.

And our story begins, I guess, with what the Blossom twins did this summer.

On the Fourth of July, just after dawn, Jason and Cheryl Blossom drove out to Sweetwater River for an early morning boat ride. The next thing we know appended 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 Police dragged Sweetwater River for Jason's body, but 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 that Cheryl told made the rounds.

That Cheryl dropped a ribbon in the water, Jason reached down to get it, and accidentally tipped the boat, panicked, and drowned. As for us, we were still talking about the July 4th tragedy on the last day of summer vacation, when a new mystery rolled into town.

*Anna*

August 16, 2017

Dear Diary,

There is no reason for me to be upset and every reason for me to be happy, but here I am at 5:30 in the morning, awake and scared. I kept telling myself that this was all just a dream and that I would wake up and this would all be over. But this doesn't explain why I feel so scared—so lost. I know that sounds crazy but nothing like this could ever happen in a town like Riverdale.

Could it?

I was born here on the north side of Riverdale. I live at 114 Elm Street next to my childhood best friends Betty Cooper and Archie Andrews. I have a twin brother named Nick and my cousin is Jughead Jones, my room has been the same since I was eleven. Band posters and burn marks on the floorboard where Nick and I tried to sneak cigarettes in the 5th grade and nearly choked ourselves. I can look out the window and see the big oak tree Archies and the guys would climb up to crash my birthday slumber parties. But right now none of that mattered, all that mattered was the darkness that loomed over Riverdale.

𓆗𓆗𓆗

The last few weeks of summer have gone by within a blink of an eye. It was like after Jason Blossom died time sped up in the weirdest way. School started tomorrow and I was dreading it probably more than anyone at this point. Maybe I could just stay home and lay in bed, pretend I'm not feeling well like any other child would to get out of going to school but knowing my mom, she would see right through me.

Ella Gilbert the Northsider who married the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. My mother was a successful doctor while my father, Sam Jones was partners with Fred Andrews over the company Andrew's Construction. They both had successful jobs and were paid well, a Southsiders dream come true. My dad didn't talk much about growing up on the Southside, he said it was something not worth talking about, as if he wasn't proud of where he came from.