#god my hand held a pencil properly 8 years ago

[puppetgearing]

i rlly should

practice drawing with my tablet

i should

but fingie more comfy........

[rubyventure]

Splinters In The Fire - Chapter One: Chrysalis

Summary: Life is strange in Riverdale. 8 Months ago Jughead Jones' best friend Toni Topaz dissapeared. When he's about to get shot, Betty can safe him by rewinding the time. Together they start to investigate the vanishing of Toni Topaz.

Hey guys!

So this is my first multi-chapter fic. And it's obviously AU. It is based on a request by @birdlovesafish ! (x)

I've got it all planned, I just have to write it, haha. I'm not always inspired and I'm really not the fastest writer, but I'll try to update this fic once a week though <3

Also a big THANK YOU for @allskynostars for beta this little something! <3 You’re the best and I love you <3

Also WARNING: A gun will be used in this chapter! Don't say I didn't  warn you.

Read it on Ao3 - Words:  1927

Life was strange in Riverdale. At least, that’s what Betty thought. No one seemed to notice the little things that made Riverdale this strange. However, this would change in the coming weeks…

The wind pulled at her hair, so severely, that her usual ponytail had dissolved itself long ago. Where was she? She had no idea how she ended up here. She lifted her gaze towards the dark heaven. There were no stars. Nothing. It rained fiercely, her clothes were completely soaked. It was freezing cold, Betty shivered. It was so dim that she could hardly see her own hand. The blonde looked for a sign. Anything that could tell her where she should go. Eventually she saw Pop's' neon-sign, flashing between the trees that surrounded her. She headed towards that sign, she ran, as if the devil himself was chasing her. She clung to the hope that at Pops she could find out what this was about. She just had to reach those damn neon signs. Everything would be fine, once she was there, right?

However, as she reached Pops, pure horror seized her. Her legs trembled, and she could hardly breath. A tornado of monstrous size was headed towards Riverdale. This storm would destroy everything, there would be nothing left in Riverdale. Betty opened her mouth, because she wanted to scream. But she couldn’t, no sound came from her lips. She felt as if she would choke. Her lungs were empty and she couldn’t breathe anymore. Pure fear ran through her whole body and hastened her heartbeat.

Betty blinked against the bright light. She looked around, completely confused. Was that just a dream? Everything had felt so real. Not like a nightmare, more like a vision. Her heart still pounded way too fast. A vision? ‘That is ridiculous!’, Betty reminded herself. What was wrong with her? A few days ago she had started dreaming about this storm. And now, she even had this dream during the day? Musing about it, she played with the necklace she was wearing today and looked out of the window. Her thoughts slowly returned to the present. She was at Southside High, helping some of the children with their homework. Her mother was convinced that this honorary work would look good on her college-applications.

College...just a few months more in this town and she could finally leave Riverdale. Soon, she would graduate from school. She felt more uncomfortable in Riverdale from day to day. Every day an oppressive feeling crept up on her. A gaze out of the window reinforced this feeling. It was only September, but during the night last night, all the green leaves had changed their color. They all had turned brown. It was a gruesome and mysterious spectacle of nature and no one could explain it properly. No one knew what happened. Therefore, people just ignored it. As always. No one in Riverdale wanted to know the truth. Never. Everything that could be inconvenient in the slightest was ignored completely. The blonde was so damn tired of it.

With a sigh, she looked at her students. All the kids worked eagerly on their tasks. Betty couldn’t hide the smile that spread over her lips. It had taken a few weeks, until these kids trusted her, however now they did it. Now, they tried to impress her and in order to do so, they concentrated even more on their homework. Since they were all busy and nobody seemed to require her help, Betty left the small classroom to get herself something to drink. She could use it. And maybe also some chocolate. She instantly had to think about her mother and what she would say about that. "Chocolate? Dear, you should keep an eye on the calories you’re eating." Betty shook her head in an attempt to get rid of this thought. Alice didn't have to find it out.

As she arrived in the small break room, she approached the corner in which the vending machines filled with beverages and sweet junk stood. Betty bought something to drink and disappeared further into a quiet corner of the room. She needed a pause, she needed silence. Just for a few minutes. However, the silence didn't last very long.  After a few minutes, the door opened and two guys entered the room.

A redheaded guy, who Betty knew only too well. It was Jason Blossom, her sister's ex, if you believed what the people around town were saying. Betty instantly froze, her fists clenched, nails digging into the soft skin of her palm. What was he doing here? Now her gaze shifted to the second guy. The other one was a dark-haired boy, with a certain beanie on his head and piercing blue eyes. The blonde knew him too.

It was Jughead Jones. Betty hadn’t seen him in years though. But he hadn’t changed that much. After his father was arrested and sentenced five years ago and his mother had vanished, leaving him alone with his sister, a foster family from the Southside had taken the siblings in and they both had to transfer to Southside High. Actually, she had hoped to see him here, when she was tutoring the kids. Because a few years ago they were best friends and there were days when she really missed him. But they weren’t best friends anymore. It felt as if they were hundred miles apart. But in truth, it was only another district of this damn town, another school. But that had changed everything between them.

For a moment she thought about revealing her presence. But the conversation between them seemed to be heated, and she decided that she didn't want to interfere. Instead, Betty listened while holding her breath. "Tell me what you did to Toni, tell me where she is, or I swear to god, I’ll bust the drug deals you’re doing on this school, asshole!" Jughead hissed and pushed Jason into the wall beside the door. He grabbed Jason by the collar and held him there. You would think that Jason was stronger than Jughead, but it didn’t seem to be that way. Although Jason didn’t exactly fight back.

"I don't know where that slut is! I’ve told you this a thousand times already. She simply had enough from this shitty town and ran away. Accept it!" Jughead laughed. However, it was not joyful. It was icy. And it gave Betty the chills.

"Believe me, if she wanted to leave Riverdale just like that, I would’ve known about it." Now Jason laughed too, and he shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh, come on. Do you really believe, just because you were allowed to fuck her from time to time, that she told you everything?" Betty blinked, confused and disgusted by Jason’s words. And apparently Jughead didn’t like them either.  He let go of Jason, just to punch him straight in the face with his fist.

"Bastard! You of all people should know that Toni and I were just friends. I’m gonna expose you. I’ll go to the principal and tell him everything about you." Jason bent forward, holding his chin he began to laugh.

He sounded batshit crazy, as if he was losing his mind. As he began to speak again, he whispered, and Betty had trouble understanding him. "You won't cause any more problems for me…You won’t have to worry about her anymore once I’m done with you…" With these words, he pulled a weapon from his jacket and aimed it directly at Jughead. Betty covered her mouth with her hand in order not to cry out loud. What was happening? Where did Jason even get that gun?

"Jason". Jughead said nothing more than Jason's name, letting it sound like a warning. But Jason didn't listen to this warning. Instead, he started waving the pistol around in front of Jughead while he was speaking.

"You’ll regret it! This whole town will regret it! I will finally free myself from this hell and YOU will certainly not hinder me!!" Jason was furious now, Betty could see it in his eyes. And he wanted to say more, but he was stopped. Because a shot came off. With eyes wide open, Betty watched as Jughead fell to the ground, hit from Jason's shot. Blood spread over the ground immediately.

“Jughead!” A scream left her lips, she stretched out her arm while she got up in order to run over to her childhood friend and help him. And suddenly, everything slowed down around them. Everything moved in slow motion. Her view become blurred and everything began to move backwards slowly, getting faster and faster eventually.

Only seconds later Betty found herself back in the small classroom where she tutored the kids, standing near the window, playing with the necklace she was wearing. Did she have another nightmare? Was this a déjà-vu? Everything was exactly like she left it earlier. But her breath was heavy and she could feel one single tear rolling down her cheek. She wiped the tear away vehemently. Was she crazy now? Did those last few minutes really fly by backwards? She was distracted from her thoughts as a child near her suddenly knocked over their pencil case by accident and all the pens spread out on the ground.

She could try again. This way she could find out if she really was crazy. With her heart throbbing Betty stretched out her hand again, she concentrated on the child and only seconds later, her view became blurred again. The pens flew back into the pencil case, and the pencil case was laying on the table again. Betty withdrew her hand.  The child knocked the pencil case over once again now, but Betty could catch it before all the pens landed on the ground. What on earth was happening here? Betty felt like she was losing her mind. Did she just...rewind the time?

Her gaze flew to the door. Should she go back to the break room? Could she maybe prevent what had happened there, only a few minutes earlier? Jughead couldn’t die! She couldn’t let that happen! Betty hurried to get out of the classroom and stumbled into the break room. It was quiet, just like before. Everything was the same. She disappeared into the rear corner again and looked around. On one desk, she saw a stone. Somebody must’ve brought it in here. Betty grabbed it even though she admittedly didn't exactly know what she would do with it. It was better than nothing. Just after she hid once again, Jughead and Jason came into the break room, as before. The same things happened, they said precisely what they said before. Betty started to feel the panic in her body and she resisted the urge to clench her fists. How on earth could she prevent Jugheads dead? Feeling kind of helpless she looked around again, and her gaze landed on the red fire-alarm. She hammered on the glass with the stone and activated the alarm, only seconds before Jason pulled the weapon. Jughead stood still for a moment, looking around in confusion.

"We are not done, Blossom” he hissed and hurried out of the room. Jason followed him only seconds later. However, the weapon remained in his jacket. Betty breathed a sigh of relief. Tears streamed down her cheeks now. What was going on here? She had no clue and suddenly, Betty felt extremely weak. She sank to her knees and hid her face in her hands, while she began to cry recklessly.