The light shone above him and as he looked up in horror, he saw the undistinguishable form of a humanoid creature. That was no human, it was... No, that would be impossible. But it was possible, and it was happening right in front of him. It was the thought that had been plaguing his mind for weeks, the mystery keeping him up at night and eating away at him day by day. It was the Mothman.
The creature was now so close it could touch him if it wanted to. It reached out its hand and
Jughead's phone rang.
With a groan he picked it up to see who it is.
Betty.
"Hey Betts."
"Hey Jug, sorry to bother you this late, but I just wanted to ask... Did you accidentally take my English notebook the other day?"
"Hm, let me check." he clumsily rummaged through his backpack until finally pulling out a pink notebook "Yup, here it is."
She exhaled in relief "Thank god, if I'd have lost it my mom would've killed me. You can bring it to school tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah of course."
"Alright, good night Jug."
He smiled "Good night Betts. Make sure you lock your window." he noted, remembering her habit of leaving it open at night.
"I already did." she sighed "You be careful as well, okay?"
"Of course." he said, glancing at Archie sleeping on the bed next to him. He had checked every entrance point three times that night. Jughead was genuinely surprised the guy even managed to get some sleep.
"See you tomorrow Jug." Betty said shakily from the other end of the line.
"See ya." he responded absent-mindedly.
There was really nothing else to say. They all knew the Black Hood was a real threat, no one knew when or whether he would even strike again but it was enough to put everyone on edge. The Jason Blossom mystery was done as soon as it had begun, or so it felt like to Jughead, and now a new cancer was invading the town in its place.
But there was nothing he could do about it. His best option, his only option was to keep writing his silly fantasy world where him and his friends went on incredible, wacky, and incredibly unbelievable adventures in their every day life.
And so, he turned back to his laptop and continued writing into the early morning, writing until the fiction began feeling like reality.