THE BOY WHO RAN WITH THE SERPENT ⟼ JUGHEAD JONES

HEART OF DARKNESS; PART I

T H E B O Y & T H E S E R P A N T
JUGHEAD & ROSARIO
❝ My heart fly to your service, there resides/To make me slave to it ❞

☺ ☹ ☺

Rosario felt cold when he woke.

Very, very, cold.

But Kevin felt warm against his skin.

Very, very, warm.

•          •          •

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," a man of the shadows said, clicking his tongue in a almost taunting gesture.  "What did you do, what did you do?"  The voice hummed softly, their soundless footsteps echoing Rosario's own harsh, rapid stomping against the pavement as Rosario fled from the home he'd stumbled upon in a drunken rage, the home he'd stumbled upon Kevin in, the home he'd marked Kevin Keller in with no more than his lips, tongue, and teeth.  "Poor Jughead, too.  He had so much faith in you..."

Rosario stilled at the mention of the name.

He knew the shadow that followed him wasn't one to be trusted.  Let alone heard.  He wasn't real.  He was a figment if his imagination, a walking corpse, trigged by none other than Jason fucking Blossom.

He is dead.  Rosario reminded himself, forcing his face to remain neutral as he walked onward, the ghost that danced circles around him no more than mere wind.  Loud, loud, wind.

"Come on, Rosario," Henrik giggled as he twisted on the heel of his leather brown dress shoe — a gift none other than Rosario Lodge had given Henrik.  "You can't ignore me forever.  After all," the memory went onward, the corners of his lips curling into a chesire, cat-like smile, "it's your fault I'm here."  Rosario's pace slowed at the statement, his head shifting ever so slightly upward, to steal a glance of Henrik.  He looked as he had the very day they met.  Young.  Naive.  Innocent.  But, Rosario knew now, better than ever, that dead or alive, Henrik was and is anything but those things.  

"... Why are you here, Henry?" Rosario winced at the own weakness held in his tone.  Once composed, and anything but weak, was now breathed in a tremble of fear and weakness.  

"Because, wether you want to believe it or not, Rosario, you want me here."

"Rosario!"

Rosario flinched at the sudden voice, more surprised than he was scared.  With a single, final glance at Henrik, Rosario twisted toward the sound of the newest voice.

Jughead.

"J— Jughead?"  Rosario cleared his throat, forcing himself to gain back his composure.  "What are you doing out here, this time of day?"

Jughead shifted uneasily.  Guilt, inscripted within every movement.  "I— I, um, was worried.  You didn't answer your phone after you left."

"That's because it was dead," Kevin Keller interjected.  Rosario whirled to face Kevin, his lips parted slightly in surprise.  "But, not to worry, I charged it."

"K... Kevin," Jughead stammered, his stare fleeing between both males with a narrowed stare and knitted brows.  "Why— Why do you have his phone?  Did you two spend the night together?  Not, like, together-together as in together, but—" Jughead sucked in a sharp, needing breath, forcing his tongue to still.  

Henrik, with a growing smile, leant in close to Rosario.  His breath, cold against Rosario's neck as he breather into the back of his ear, "Uh oh."

"I don't care what you do, or don't do," Jughead spoke up, his stare contradicting the neutrality held in his tone.  "It's none of my buisness, but—"

"But, what?" Rosario spoke, the words escaping his tongue before he could truly process what he was to say.  "If you don't care about what I do, why are you here?"

Jughead huffed, offended.  "Because I care about your stupid ass—"

"Really," Kevin interjected, a tone of false question in his tongue.  "Because you just said you don't care what he does."  Rosario's stare flickered momentarily toward Kevin, almost warningly.  

"I don't," Jughead insisted.

"But, you said—"

"Jughead," Rosario interjected, "what did you need?"

"Forget it."