As I reached Sweetwater River I heard the music, upbeat, loud, dance music. I could see my friends dancing, lead on by Veronica. Unlike myself who was wrapped up warm in the cold night air, Veronica was wearing a short cocktail dress like she was at a nightclub. She looked… It didn't matter how she looked.
Walking closer to the "party" I began to see the horror that my friends were dancing around. Archie was there, dancing with Reggie, Kevin was there making out with some boy I didn't recognise, Jughead was right, there in the middle of a full blown dance party was a dead body. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I knew our class had a few idiots but to be so crass and impersonal as to dance over a person's corpse? "Oh my god, Jughead, do you see who that is?" I stopped in my tracks as I recognised the body.
"Oh wow," it dawned on Jughead too, he hadn't been this close to the body yet. "That's our old janitor from school. What was his name?"
I tried but I was struggling to remember his name. We used to see him every day sweeping the halls. I believe we had only ever spoken once, when Archie and I were younger we asked about a badge he had on his overalls. He told us it was a fishing award he had won that year. "I can't remember his name, he used to fish in Sweetwater River, I think."
"He must have had an accident and drowned. How sad." We looked at each other with disgust, we couldn't believe how crass and inconsiderate our classmates were being. Treating a man's body like it was a joke, like an attraction for their amusement. I felt sick.
"Hey Betty, great party, huh!" Archie came up behind me, picking me up in a huge hug. He span me around with a huge smile on his face. Didn't he see the dead body? His breathe stunk of alcohol.
"Archie, what are you doing? A man has drowned, we need to call the police!"
Archie laughed, "Nah Betts, he didn't drown."
Jughead stepped in, interrupting his oldest friend, "What do you mean he didn't drown? He is soaked. Do you know what happened?"
"Ronnie said he was bitten by a vampire!" Archie howled like a wolf and ran back to join the dance circle once more.
Jughead shook his head, "This is insane. He doesn't know what he is talking about."
"He's drunk."
Jughead nodded, "Not only that, I saw Reggie passing out some needles earlier…"
"Ugh, my god." I felt disgusted, what the hell had gone on here? I needed to find out what was happening and there was only one women who had the answers. "I gotta talk to Veronica. Where is she?"
"Right here, Betty." I heard a voice from directly behind me, making me jump. As I turned around, there she was, in all her glory, bare skin exposed to the elements (not that I was looking), a bottle of beer in her hand, without a care in the world.
"Veronica, what happened here?" I asked, quickly trying to regain my composure.
Veronica smiled. She was usually so pretty when she smiled, now it looked chilling. "Betty, can you believe it? I found a dead body! I tried to take good care of him, I named this party in his honour!"
"Ronnie, this isn't ok, we need to call the police."
Before she could answer, Jughead pulled me aside. "Actually Betty, that might not be such a good idea."
"What are you talking about?"
"Look at the body."
"Do I have to?" He dragged me to the edge of the river, giving me my first close look at our old janitor. The body had been ransacked, I then looked at my dancing classmates and saw Reggie wearing the janitor's fishing jacket, I could see Ethel wearing a man's beanie. And I could see Archie wearing a watch that was not his. "Oh my god, how stupid can they be? They are all incriminated." I said, the horror dawning on me. A lot of our friends were gonna go down for this.
"If we call the police, we are all screwed." Jughead said coldly.
Not able to look at my friends anymore, I took another look at the body, it did look like he had drowned the poor man. As I got down closer I saw a mark on his neck, two marks to be precise. Two puncture wounds right along his carotid artery. Exactly like a-
"Betty, I got it!" Jughead pulled me out of my revery, "If we all leave now, trash anything that incriminates any of us and let some dog walker find the body in the morning, we might be able to get away with this."
"I don't know Jug. It's so disrespectful." It was all so morbid.
Jughead's plan was not a good one, but it may be the only way to save our friends…