Hey, so here we are at the second chapter! Thanks for all the positive feedback & I hope you keep reading!
Thornhill- Friday, 10:30 P.M.
"Eleven hundred channels and you lollipops decide to watch iCarly," Cheryl grumbled without looking at them. She was lying on her back on a couch, staring at the ceiling while Betty and Veronica sat on the floor, eating popcorn while dressed in pajamas and thoroughly engrossed in the next episode that was just starting.
"It's a modern classic," Veronica said. "Plus, my house gets regular Nick, but not TeenNick."
"Which plays all the classics," Betty told her. "Remember Victorious?"
"Victorious left us far too soon," Veronica nodded. "Gone after only four seasons, poor, sweet, summer child."
"Did you not watch iCarly as a kid?" Betty pressed, turning her head back to Cheryl.
"I did," Cheryl said curtly. "But since I'm not ten, I don't watch it anymore."
"Seddie or Creddie?" Veronica asked her with a smile.
"What?"
"Sam and Freddie or Carly and Freddie?" Betty clarified. "I was Creddie all the way."
"I don't think I really cared," Cheryl said with a scoff.
"I was neither," Veronica said. "Sam was clearly a lesbian and I shipped her with Carly."
"What?" Betty exclaimed. "Where did you get that?"
Veronica shrugged. "Just look at her. And why do you think she's always at Carly's house?"
Betty knitted her brows. "Oh, my God, maybe you're right… Wait, but they're fighting over a guy in this very episode!"
"Denial," Veronica said dismissively. "Or some good old-fashioned lesbian competition. Plus, it's a kid's show. Nickelodeon just wouldn't let some quality woman-on-woman content fly."
"I cannot believe this is what we're discussing," Cheryl said from her spot on the couch.
"Look me in the eye and tell me Sam's straight," Veronica challenged.
Cheryl turned her head toward Veronica with a harsh look. "Is there something you want to tell us, Lodge?"
"I just—" Veronica started, but stopped when Betty sat up suddenly.
"Do you hear that?" she asked. "Turn off the TV."
Veronica frowned. "But Spencer's still trapped in the elev—"
"Turn it off," Betty demanded.
Veronica turned off the TV and heard it too.
Footsteps, somewhere out in the hall.
"Jay-Jay?" Cheryl called. "Archie?"
No answer.
The three climbed to their feet and snuck over to the closed pair of double doors between them and the footsteps.
Cheryl put one hand on each knob and pulled, revealing only an empty hallway.
"Boys?" Veronica called.
Again, nothing.
The footsteps had stopped, so Cheryl shut the three of them back into the parlor.
With the bright glow of the TV, the cheery colors of the Shay apartment and Ridgeway High gone and Carly and Sam's cheesy banter silenced, Thornhill was once again a scary place with old things and dark secrets.
The three stood in silence and listened for the footsteps again but heard only their own breathing.
"Is someone out there?" Veronica asked.
"Of course not," Cheryl said with fake confidence.
Betty's skin was tingling again; she felt eyes on her. The phrase crafted into Thornhill's great black gate floated into her mind.
Radices currere abyssi.
"Then what was that noise?" Betty asked.
"I don't know, it could've been anything."
"It sounded like a person," Veronica pressed.
"And you sound like a child," Cheryl scoffed. "Scared much?"
"Come on, you've gotta be at least a little scared, too," Veronica said with a smirk. "You probably know all the bloody history of this place, all the reasons ghosts would be walking the halls…"
"Veronica," Betty whispered.
"How many people do you think died here, Cheryl?"
"I don't know but there's about to be one more," Cheryl said with glare.
A low rumble of thunder outside stopped their argument, starting low and getting louder until it was over. All three stood tensely, staring at the window.
"It's just lightning girls," Cheryl said, trying to sound nonchalant but Betty and Veronica could hear an edge in her voice.
For a long time, no one said anything.
All around, Betty felt eyes, focused on her. Stalking her.
Trying not to succumb to the fear and anxiety, she turned from Veronica and Cheryl and turned the TV back on.
Sam and Carly were still fighting for the boy.
As the episode closed and the channel started playing commercials, another noise came.
This time, it was a dull thunk from down the hall.
Then another, and another.
The three exchanged some looks and wordlessly agreed to investigate.
They rose and padded down the hall without turning the TV off.
Cheryl lead them toward the noise, and when they reached the room the noise had come from, they stood frozen in front of it.
"Library," Cheryl mouthed, pointing to the set of closed doors.
"Your house has a library?" Betty mouthed, impressed. She turned to Veronica and mouthed, "Her house has a library."
Veronica nodded, unimpressed; some of her father's many houses had had libraries, too.
Another thunk from the library turned the girls on edge again. They exchanged more uneasy looks, and finally Cheryl shrugged and slowly opened the door.
Three heads poked out from behind the doors, eyes wide and alert.
When they saw nothing, the girls took a few steps inside and began combing the shelves without splitting up.
Empty. Empty. Empty. Empty.
The lights were dull—distorting art and shelves into stalkers and demons—but not off.
No, Veronica, Betty, and Cheryl were not alone in the library.
They crept forward and stared down another row of shelves.
Across from them stood a figure: a man.
Too small to be Archie or Jason. Too real to be the lights playing tricks on them. He didn't seem to notice the girls behind him.
But when one arm shot to his side toward the shelves, all three gave a small jump.
The figure's head whipped to the side.
Betty and Cheryl turned tail and scrambled through the shelves—flight—while Veronica charged toward the figure.
Fight.
Okay so this chapter was a bit shorter than the last and than the others will be, sorry about that, but look forward to longer updates in the future! Also, most of this was the girls rambling about old Nick shows but honestly, I would pay good money to see that for a full forty minutes on an actual episode of Riverdale. Who's with me?
If you get a chance, please-please-please drop a review!