The Other Serpent - Book 2 (Riverdale Season 2)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown - Part 1

Jughead was on the phone with Betty as they walked to lunch while Aminity walked and read.

"Crap," Jughead mumbled as he saw the Serpents sitting around their usual lunch table as they all watched a video from a computer in the center of the table. "Uh, I gotta go, Betty, okay? Hey, I'll talk to you later," he told her before hanging up. "Hey," Jughead said as they walked up to the table. "I'm guessing we're not watching funny cat videos."

Sweet Pea paused the video. "Check this out," he told them as he spun the screen around to show the Bulldogs who were all wearing red masks behind Archie who stood at the front. "Some sick in the head Northsider posted a crazyass video, and uh, we were just talking..."

"About what?" Jughead asked before Sweet Pea could finish.

"Fogarty wants to earn his Serpent stripes. I say you bring us the head of that Northsider and you're in."

"I'm down with that," Fangs said to Sweet Pea's proposal, not taking his eyes off of Jughead. The Serpents smiled while Sweet Pea banged his fist on the metal table, cheering Fangs on.

"No, guys, don't," Jughead opposed.

"What, Jones?" Sweet Pea asked, all Serpents falling silent.

"We know him," Aminity said quickly.

"He's a milquetoast," Jughead continued. "He's a football player. It's kind of lame target, is all I'm saying." Toni gave them a weird look.

"You wanna prove something? Why don't you go after the Black Hood?" Aminity proposed.

Sweet Pea scoffed. "And why would we do that? The Black Hood's targeting Northsiders who do nothing but blame the Southside for everything that's wrong with this town and we're sick of it. The Black Hood's doing our work for us. He's a hero."

"He's a murderer," Aminity shot back.

"Who's killing people who have done us wrong. What's so wrong with that?" Aminity and Sweet Pea glared at each other and Jughead sighed, shaking his head.

***

There was a knock on the door and Jughead stumbled to open it as Aminity sat eating her cereal at the table.

"Betty," he greeted and let her in. "What time is it?"

"7:15. I wanted to catch you before school," she said, leaning up and giving him a quick kiss.

"I'm sorry. I have morning breath," he apologized, shutting the door as she walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, Betty. Do you want some coffee? We also have some milk, juice, and cereal. Although the last is a bit stale, so I don't recommend it," Aminity greeted, standing up and dumping the cereal in the trash after drinking all the milk out of it. "Milk's good though," she joked.

"No, thank you. I'm actually on my way to the library. I asked Mrs. Paroo to set aside all the books she has about cryptograms and ciphers. I thought it might help us crack the Black Hood's code," she said to Jughead as he started to make himself some cereal. "Which I'm hoping is something we can do together, Jug."

He froze for a second before proceeding to pour the cereal into the bowl. "Um, actually, funny enough, Toni, of all people, and I, we... we started working on that yesterday at the Red and Black," he said, moving to sit down at the table. "I can show you what we've got so far, if you want."

"That's why you were back extra late last night? I feel offended I wasn't invited," Aminity teased.

"Toni," Betty started, ignoring Aminity's comment and sitting down in the other seat, "because let me guess, she loves serial killers."