Valentina

Fear. It's the most basic, the most human emotion. As kids, we're afraid of everything. The dark. The boogeyman under the bed. And we pray for morning. For the monsters to go away. Though they never do. Not really. Just ask Jason Blossom.

ΨΨΨ

"V-Viktor?" I stutter as I walk back, my legs hitting my bed and I almost fall behind. "W-what? How?"

"Valentina."

"Don't move." I shout when I see him moving forward to help me. Putting my hands up in the air and looking up at him, I can see its him.

He still has the same baby face I used to love as kids, the same blue eyes and cute button-like nose. His hair is longer than usual, and he has a beard now. I have to admit he looks good for his age- and for a person who left his family when he was ten.

I wonder what it was like, living away from us for ten years.

My brother. The one I thought was dead, standing right in front of me with sadness evident in his clear eyes. I don't let him move away from his spot, I just sit down on my bed and state at him. I have no idea what to say or do now. Should I start with a hug? Or a punch in the face for making me believe he was dead?

"You better have the best and most convincing explanation ever, or else I'm going to shout and call for help."

"Please don't do that. I promise I'll explain." I nod and he comes to sit by my side on the bed, and this time I don't stop him. "I left." He starts explaining. But that's the only thing he says.

"No shit, Viktor." I throw my body back on the bed, burying my head on the soft pillow. "But why?"

"I wasn't feeling loved in this family. You were the only one I loved, mother and father weren't- and I believe they still aren't- the most affectionate parents. They didn't hug us, they didn't kiss us goodnight, and most importantly, they didn't care about us. We were left with housemaids and butlers every single day of our lives. Aren't you tired of this?"

I nod, but deep down I don't want to agree with him. He could have taken me with him. If he knew I wasn't being loved as well, why did he leave me here alone?

"There's just something I don't understand." I uncover my face and look up at him. "Why not take me with you? You weren't the only one they ignored. I was in the same boat. Yet, you left me alone. We could have overcome this situation together, but you chose to leave and have a life away from us, away from me."

"Don't cry, Giggles." He wipes the tears I didn't notice are falling down my face away with his fingers and looks down at me. "I've regretted this decision for years. I tried to find you and bring you in with me but I didn't have much. I was only a ten year-old boy, I didn't have any money and I was barely breathing most of the times. I didn't want you to go through all that."

I nod.

"I understand, Vik." I sniff and circle my arms around his shoulder. "I just- I wish you had contacted me. I would have loved to hear your voice."

"I'm sorry, sis. I missed you so much." He kisses my forehead and buries his face in my hair.

"I missed you too, bro."

ΨΨΨ

Another fun fact about fear. Sometimes it grows up with you. Or it curls up inside of you, tightens around your guts.

ΨΨΨ

Betty calls me on the phone as soon as my back hits the bed. I'm current laying on my brother's bed, staring at his back as he moves around, his hands running around his already messy hair. He is trying to figure out a way to let out parents- and the world- know he is alive.

"Calm down." I whisper before answering the call. "Hey."

"Valentina, I need your help." Her voice is strangled on the other side of the phone.

I think Viktor noticed my change of mood and sits by my side, his inquisitive eyes never leaving my face.

"Are you up for a trip?"

"A trip?" I question, snaping Viktor's hand away from the phone. "Please explain, you're not making any sense."

"The Sisters of Quiet Mercy. "

"What is that? Like a church? Or a charity?"

"No. It's a 'Home for troubled youths'. Where disenfranchised teens will learn such virtues as discipline and respect, enjoying lives of quiet reflection and servitude.'" I hear her sigh and another voice interrupting out conversation.

It's definitely male, but I can't really understand what he's saying or who he is. But I can bet it's Jughead. How do I know that? Well, Betty and Jughead are always together, act like a couple all the time and steal lovey dovey glances with each other.

It's obvious they have feeling for each other. I just don't understand why it hurts so much.

"Why do you want to go there? If I may ask." I ignore the pang of jealousy that hits my heart and wait for her answer.

"My sisyer, Polly, is there. I found out where my parents are keeping her and I need to talk to her." She sounds like she's close to tears.

"Poor Polly." I was never the best of friends to her but she was Jason's girlfriend and he was clearly in love with her, so it was my job as his best friend to treat his girl with respect. "When?"

"Oh, thank God you're coming with us." I don't question who the other person is- I have a feeling it's none other than Jughead himself- and let her continue her little rant. "It's been months. There's gotta be a reason my mom and dad don't want me to see Polly. But I don't care anymore."

"Alright, all you have to do now is tell me the day and the time, I'll be there."

I hear tapping and muffled voices before Betty comes back to the phone with a jovial tone to her voice.

"It's settled then, I'll text you the details once Jughead and I decide what to do." I hum as a reply and she says her goodbyes.

When I put my phone down on the bed after our conversation, Viktor is still staring at me with calculative eyes, just like mine.

"What?" I run my fingers through my hair and sigh, feeling tired out of nowhere.

"Boy trouble?" He asks, laying down next to me, his head on my lap. I take this as my opportunity to play with his soft blonde hair.

"Not really." I play with his hair and look down at the bed. "Just a friend who needs my help with her sister."

"Who is it?"

"Betty Cooper." I don't hesitate to tell him everything about Betty and her sister Polly.

After hearing his story for a few hours and not questioning the reasons behind his departure, he decides to do the same with me and circles his arms around me, pulls me to his chest and listens to what I have to say while playing with my hair.

I only keep a few facts about Jughead a secret- like his father's current situation with the Southside Serpents and the kiss we shared- and tell him everything else about my life. How Jason was killed, Cheryl stopped being my friend and my suspicions on who really killed him.

"You have a very messed up life." He kisses my forehead and looks down at me with sadness shining in his bright eyes. "I'm sorry I caused most of your pain these past ten years."

He runs his fingers through his hair and doesn't meet me eyes. I must look truly horrifying, my eyes bloody and puffy from all the crying. I bet my hair is a mess right now, even worse than a bird's nest.

"I'm sorry." That's what he has to say. Explanations have been given a few hours ago, just after I found him in my room.

But it doesn't mean I accept his apologies. It still hurts that he didn't even try to get in contact with me while he was gone. It hurts he didn't care enough about his little sister to give her a call and tell her he was fine all this time. 

"Excuse me for a second." I stand to walk back to my room but he stops me by grabbing my hand.

"Where are you going?"

"To my room. I need time to think."

Indeed, I need time to ponder on some deep issues. Like the fact I'm falling for Jughead with each passing day. How am I going to solve this when Betty and him are getting closer? I don't think I have it in me to break such a great friendship- that is clearly developing into something deeper and more beautiful. Love. They're learning how to love each other.

Why didn't he choose me? What does Betty have that I don't?

Oh, the answer is pretty simple.

Jughead. She has him wrapped around her little finger. And I don't.

ΨΨΨ

Two days later, Betty's text arrives and I'm ready to jump in my car and disappear. I don't want to do this, but I promised I would be there.

After meeting the two near Betty's house, I let them inside my car and drive them around town towards The Sisters of Quiet Mercy, Betty and Jughead giving me directions as they already know where it is.

We sit on the car outside the building. I only have one word to describe it: creepy. An angel's statue stands in the middle of the entrance with two flights of stairs on each side leading to the door.

"Oh, this is going to be amazing." I chuckle under my breath and close the door behind me, locking my car as soon as everyone is out.

"Hey. Don't judge a home for troubled youths by its facade, right?" Betty tries to smile at me and Jughead but fails miserably.

This girl took the boy I like from me. But I'm not heartless. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and bring her closer to me, feeling her body trembling under my embrace.

"It's going to be alright." I whisper and kiss her forehead in a motherly way, looking in her eyes as I speak. "You're Betty Cooper. You're strong, and I know you can do this. I believe in you, Betty."

Her smile is real this time, small tears falling from the corners of her eyes. I wipe them away and straighten my back as I guide her to the entrance of the building, her hand in mine the entire time.

When we reach the front desk, a woman sits in the other side of the glass, protected by a thick wooden desk and said glass around the space.

"Hi. My name is Elizabeth Cooper. I'm here to see my sister, Polly." Betty speaks without stuttering and I smile, proud of her for staying calm.

"May I see some identification?" The woman's raspy voice reaches my ears and it rings chills down my spine.

I inspect the place as Betty and the woman speak for a while, getting really weird vibes from the people around me. I see two doctors- at least they look like doctors- walking side by side down the hallway to my left. A scream erupts from someone's mouth to my right, but I don't look. It's already bad enough that we're here, with people that have been abandoned by their families because they were "too much to handle".

What if my parents knew about this place? Would they send me here?

"They'll have to wait." The woman abandons her desk and comes to stand by Betty's side. Pointing at Jughead and I with her bony finger, she leads the way. "Polly's room is right this way."

I can't hear anything else coming from the woman's mouth. Jughead is already sitting on one of the couches near the door. We'll be here for a while, we better get comfortable. Sitting by his side, I play with my fingers and look around the room.

There are two doors leading to the outside, the mysterious desk with its surrounding glass, and two hallways on both my left and my right. The dull white someone decided to use on the walls is already turning a dark shade of grey near the corners, dust adorning the top of every furniture.

"This looks like a mental asylum." I whisper to myself, aware of Jughead's presence by my side. "Is it just me or this place seems haunted?"

"Haunted by what? The spirit of a poor soul, trapped in this world about dying here, without having a chance to say goodbye to her lover."

"Where did you get that from?" I ask, turning my head to face him.

"Polly." He lets his eyes fall on me and I blink. "I imagine that is what would happen if she suddenly died. Her lover- in this case, Jason- has already passed away, so she didn't really have a chance to say her farewell."

"Oh." I lower my head and grab the bag I carried with me the entire trip here. Without knowing it, my fingers run along the edges, painting invisible doodles as they go.

I don't know how long I've been here, "drawing" with my fingers, listening to the sound of Jughead's breathing and the soft hum of the light above our heads.

"Valentina?"

Hearing my name being called by his voice sends chills down my spine. We are alone in the couch, no one around us to interrupt our moment together.

"Yes, Jughead?"

He doesn't speak for a minute, only staring at my eyes with his breathtaking ones, stealing my attention with only one movement of his hand. He caresses my cheek and I feel my heart beat faster, the thought of his lips against mine invading my mind. I'm not acting like myself right now, I would never kiss another girl's guy.

Jughead isn't Betty's man, is he? They're certainly not dating, she would have told me, right? Then why does this feel wrong? Maybe because I know they have feelings for each other and I would ruin the relationship they've built along the years. I've known Jughead since I was a kid, but nothing like Betty and Archie do.

So I shouldn't be here with him, about to kiss him, when he's saying sweet things to another girl.

"Jughead, stop." I put my hands on his chest and push him back, looking down at my own hands.

"Why?"

"It's not right." I want to get up from this couch and leave as fast as possible. But he has something else on his mind as he grabs my hand to prevent me from leaving.

"Why, Valentina? Why should we stop?"

"One week." I whisper, letting go of his hand. "You have one week to decide what you want to do."

"What do you mean?" He sounds really confused and I huff in annoyance. It's like he doesn't even understand what he's doing.

"You've been playing with my feelings, Jughead." I stand and stare down at him, feeling a bit nauseous. "You go off with Betty, yet you kiss me and say the sweetest things in the world. Then I see you with Betty again and you act like you couldn't care less about me. I'm tired of being played with, I can't deal with this right now."

"I'm so-"

"Don't you dare say you're sorry. As I told you before, I'll give you a week to think and decide whether you want Betty or me. But I have to warn you." I lean forward, just inches away from his face. "If you choose her... Don't come back to me ever again because I won't take you back."

I don't let him say a thing. Walking to the front door, I stare at the small garden out there from the small window, and let my confusing thoughts roam freely around my mind. I did the right thing, I need some stability in my life and Jughead isn't giving me any stability right now. If he really likes me- or Betty- he will choose. And leave the other one alone.

"No!"

"Betty!"

I hear yells coming from the hallway to the left. Leaving a stunned Jughead behind, I run down the hallway to find Betty and Polly embracing each other, Betty whispering something in her sister's ear.

"I love you, Polly." She yells before a nurse drags her sister away from her, and mama Cooper takes hold of Betty's arms.

"No!" Polly's screams can be heard from the entrance where we now stand.

Betty is staying as far away from her mother as she can, sitting by Jughead's side as he plays with her hair and kisses her forehead. Envy and anger bubble inside my stomach.

"Valentina Adams." Betty's mom crosses her arm over her chest and looks at me. "I never thought you would choose my daughter as one of your friends. What happened to Cheryl Blossom?"

"We are still friends, but not as close as we used to be." I remember how my best friend ignores me at school, only to come back and apologize once no one is around. I'm starting to think she doesn't want to be seen with me. "How are you?"

"As you can see, my two daughters aren't in a very stable condition, so I'm not exactly fine." She sighs and rubs her arms with her hands. "But thank you for asking."

"No problem." I manage to give her a small smile and balance my body on the heels of my feet. "Do you want me to take Betty back to your house? I can calm her down so you can talk to her there."

She nods, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. I have never seen her like this before. She has always looked so fierce and powerful. I only saw her once or twice growing up, but every time she went to my house to interview my family and ask about my brother, she would sport a confident smirk. This is not the woman I'm used to.

"I'm sorry about your brother." She pats my arm as I walk past her. I stop and look back. "I shouldn't have pressured any of you to talk. I now understand how hard it was for you to hear his name. I'm sorry I didn't realize it before."

"It's fine." I smile and walk to my friends, looking at their intertwined hands.

"Valentina..." Betty whispers and releases her right grip on Jughead to hug me. I blink furioudly and let my arms fall on her shoulders. She needs this right now, she needs a friend, a shoulder to cry on.

"It's going to be fine." I rub her back and stare at the wall behind her. "I promise."

ΨΨΨ

I leave Betty alone for a few minutes after the heated conversation she had with her parents right after we got to her house. We dropped Jughead off near the school and came back here. While the Coopers were arguing, I sat on Betty's bed and played with my phone.

She entered her room with tears streaming down her face and I knew what I had to do. I hugged her and whispered sweet words, reassuring her she is not going nuts, that Polly is only being guarded by her parents and not completely insane.

I made sure to close the door on my way out, giving the girl some privacy.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I just heard Betty's window open and close. Wanna bet who just came in to save the day?

Jughead.

Gluing my ear against the door to listen to their conversation, I cringe at my own actions. Am I that desperate that I can't let my friends alone in a room for a second? The problem is, these are not just my friends. The guy who's inside with Betty is the one that managed to steal my heart and he's playing with it while pretending to like me.

The fact he came to Betty's aid after today's events only validates my thoughts. Jughead Jones never liked me and never will. His heart belongs to one person, and that person is Betty, not me. I know I gave him a week to decide but it's clear he doesn't even need it. He already knows what do to, who to choose.

"They're crazy. My parents are crazy." Betty sighs and I hear her walk around the room.

"They're parents. They're all crazy." He chuckles.

"No, but what if... What if Polly is, too? The way she was talking to me, the way she looked at me And now, all I can think is, 'Maybe I'm crazy like they are'."

"Hey. We're all crazy. We're not our parents, Betty. We're not our families. Also-"

"What?" There's silence on the other side of he door. What?"

Ragged breathing, lips moving and gasps are the only thing I hear. They're kissing. To be honest, I never thought it would hurt this much. I feel like my heart is being ripped from my chest and stepped on by every single person on earth.

"The car." Betty interrupts their kiss and gasps loudly.

I take this moment to enter her room. All I want to do it grab my bag and get the hell away from this house, from these people, so I can go back home and cry my heart out.

Because I feel horrible.

"Wow. That's what you're thinking about in the middle of our moment?" Jughead chuckles once again, caressing her cheek.

I cough uncomfortably and their eyes meet mine. Jughead's ones are surprised and embarrassed, while Betty is just excited and scared at the same time.

"No! Polly talked about a car Jason had stashed for them down Route 40 near some sign." She grabs my hand and looks me in the eyes. "If we can find it, we can confirm Polly's story."

"One way or another." I sigh and run my eyes with my free hand.

"I need to know, guys." I nod, knowing she really needs this.

"Let's go." I show them my car keys and we run downstairs, not even caring about her parents in the living room.

We reach the place Jason's car is hidden at in a few minutes. I instead even inch on the front seat while Betty and Jughead work on the backseat and trunk.

"What are those?" Betty asks, her voice coming from the back of the car. I follow her voice and gasp when I see the contents on he trunk.

"Drugs, Betty." I whisper, covering my mouth with my hands.

Was Jason using drugs? What was he doing with these in his car? Where they for him? Or was he trying to sell them?

Jughead's hand reaches for one of the packages and I slap it away, glaring at his sudden stupidity. These are important evidence, we can't just touch these and change their positions. There are prints everyone, there has to be something that can leads us to Jason's killer.

"Wait! Jughead, put it down! This is evidence. This is all evidence." Betty scolds him while I only look at the car.

"Crap. This whole car is a crime scene." He breathes in and out.

"Okay. We need to get Sheriff Keller and then we need to get Polly."

Betty texts Sheriff Keller while Jughead and I stare at each other, fury and pain evident in my eyes. I can't believe he didn't even take a few days to think about us. We step away from the car and walk to a more secluded part of the forest.

"Val-"

"Stop." I put my hands up, forgetting about my feelings for him. "You could have told me you weren't going to consider my offer. You could have told me you were already going for Betty."

"It's not like that."

"Then why did you kiss her?" I almost yell, tears running down my face. "Why did you make me suffer? Can't you see you're killing me inside? I can't believe I have you my heart and you used it like a little puppet."

"I'm sorry I-"

"No, you're not sorry." I look down at my feet and feel Betty getting closer to us so I lower my voice and whisper the last words to him. "Goodbye Jughead."

It only takes a few minutes for Sheriff Keller to get here. I'm very relieved when I see his car and I can't wait to go back home and sleep. It has been a long day.

"Sheriff Keller." He gets out of his car and nods his head at me.

"I got your text. What is it?"

"Look, it's Jason's jacket." Betty gives him the jacket she found and I flinch. It seems like yesterday the last time I saw Jason wearing that jacket.

"Where'd you get that?"

"In the trunk of a car with a bunch of his other stuff. Jason was running away with Polly."

"Where's the car?" Sheriff Keller asks after inspecting the area around us. We still have to walk for a bit to get back to the car.

"Back this way." We guide him back to the car but stop as soon as we see it.

"Oh no." I whisper, my hands finding their way to go mouth.

The car- right when we needed it to be intact and untouched- is on fire. I believe someone did this, the car wouldn't just explode out of nowhere.

Betty and I share a look, both of us thinking the same thing. There was someone after us tonight, and this person saw what we were about to do: expose Jason and possibly discover who killed him. That means...

The killer was just inches away from us this entire time.

ΨΨΨ

Here's the thing about fear. It's always there. Fear of the unknown, fear of facing it alone Fear that those closest to you are the monsters. Fear that as soon as you slay one, there's another monster waiting to take its place. Fear that there'sone more boogeyman waiting at the end of the dark hall.

Polly? She was out there. Alone, bereft, unmoored. Where was she going? And what would she do next?

ΨΨΨ

Helloooooo! I've been away for a while, but I hope this is a good chapter for you guys. And the amazing (not) image attached to this chapter was made by me. Just a little illustration of this chapter and Valentina's feelings right now.
As always, don't forget to comment and vote, it shows you're enjoying my work.
See ya next time.