Witch | Veronica Lodge

19 | my friends need me

nineteen
my friends need me.

"MY DAD WANTS you to go through with your Dark Baptism soon," Selene informs the next day at Pop's. Josie had convinced Selene to go back to Greendale last night, but she came right back this morning. "I've been making excuses for you, but Jo, I can't keep stalling him. He's getting impatient."

"I know, but this is something that I can't take back," Josie states, sipping a vanilla milkshake nervously. A witch's Dark Baptism is one of the most important things to happen in her life. Said witch signs their name in the Dark Lord's book, and they gain power like they've never known and immortal life. But if Josie doesn't go through with it soon, her powers will start to fade away and she'll become a mortal. "What if I regret it?"

"I don't know if you'll regret it or not," Selene points out, drinking an iced coffee. She's sympathetic to Josie's situation, because she's also grown up with mortals and immortals. When she was only a couple of weeks old, she was sent to protect Sabrina Spellman, a witch-human halfbreed. "But the way I see it, your life won't change that much. My father has agreed to let you keep living in Riverdale. You'll just have to take more classes at the Academy of Unseen Arts."

"It's just... I don't know if the Academy is the path I wanna take," Josie admits, biting down on her lip, her nerves being completely off. She can't believe she's about to admit this. "An old friend of mine once told me not to make the mistake of falling in love with mortal. But I think I'm making that mistake right now."

As soon as the words leave Josie's mouth, the Blackwood girl grins excitedly at her. "What's her name?"

"Veronica," Josie replies, smiling at the thought of her. She might be mad at Veronica, but she still likes her more than anyone else she's ever been interested in before. "She's kind and brilliant and strong. And she's so beautiful."

"It sounds like you really like her," the strawberry blonde declares, never having seen Josie like this. She seems like an entirely different person-one who's really in love with someone. So Selene smiles at her, and puts her hand on the Scratch girl's gingerly. "Look, Jo, I'm not just my father's daughter, I'm your friend. You don't have to go through this alone. I'll support you, no matter what."

"Thanks, Blackwood," Josie breathes, gently squeezing the girl's hand before her phone buzzes. She pulls it out of her purse to see a text from Veronica telling her to meet her at Archie's as soon as possible. "I have to go."

"Right now?" Selene raises a curious eyebrow, and Josie gives her an apologetic look.

"My mortal friends need me right now," Josie sighs, pulling away from Selene. "Look, it's a long story, but I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay."

With that, Josie rushes out of Pop's and basically runs to Archie's. Veronica's text sounded urgent, so Josie assumes that they need her. When she gets there, she finds Veronica, Betty, Archie, Jughead, and Kevin crowded around a laptop. All of them have tears in their eyes, like they'd seen something they can't unsee. So she licks her lips and looks at the laptop only to see a video of the real murderer shooting Jason. Josie stares at it, her blood running cold before she fumbles to her her phone out of her purse. She feels tears begin to come out of her own eyes as she dials Cheryl's phone number. The redhead picks up on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Cheryl, you need to get out of your house right now," Josie whispers, her heart racing a mile a minute. "I can't really explain it right now, but your dad... he's the one who killed Jason, not FP."

Cheryl is silent for a long moment as if she's slowly processing what Josie's saying. And finally, Josie hears Cheryl let out the breath she'd been holding. "I understand."

And with that, Cheryl hangs up. And later, Jughead tells Josie that FP confessed, because Clifford Blossom visited him in jail the night he was arrested. He threatened FP, saying Jughead would suffer the same fate as Jason, if he didn't confess. FP was just protecting his son from a monster, and yet, FP was still charged with tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, mishandling a body, perjury, and several other things. He won't be getting out of jail any time soon.

And while everybody now knows who killed Jason, one question still stands. Why? What would drive Clifford Blossom to kill his own son? It's a question only Clifford himself would be able to answer, but that's not an option anymore since Clifford's body would be found when Sheriff Keller went to arrest him. Somehow, he knew he'd been caught, because he hung himself before he could face any jail time.

UNEDITED