Before you leave,
please know this;
I'd rather be the girl
whose name dies at your lips
every time you try to speak of me,
than a girl
you tell stories about at parties.
What I'm saying is this, darling.
I'd rather be your 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦,
tha...
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Things weren't quite the same as they were before. With all things considered, at least Indigo could count on Midge to cheer her up with the tales of the high school football team's stupidity. Together, the two giggled cuddling in a friendly way on the student lounge couch. Indigo wasn't paying enough attention to notice the bubblegum haired serpent enter the lounge, but Midge did.
Her smile dropped, and the girl glared despite claiming to be over the transfusion of schools. Indigo gave Toni a smile though throwing her phone into her backpack. "Plans with Toni?"
"Uh, yeah, Jug and I are interviewing her grandfather for our oral history report. The oldest living serpent." Indigo paused at Midge's complacent expression. "It was Jughead's idea," it sounded ridiculous, but the idea reassured Midge.
"Have fun."
☉▣☉▣☉▣☉
Toni's grandfather's trailer was warm and the lights were dim as the one in the bathroom flickered on schedule every two minutes. Comfily perched on the sofa, was Jughead and Indigo whom both quietly scribbled notes as Toni's grandfather answered their questions.
"Thanks again, for meeting with us," Jughead told the older man yet again. "Toni told us that you're one of the founding members of the Serpents.
"Yes. The snake, the laws, it's all based on Uktena traditions." Indigo looked down on her journal jotting in the name. "Who were the Uktena?" She inquired softly. "Uktena is a Serpent. A horned serpent, a water serpent. Before there was a Riverdale, all this land belonged to the Uktena."
Simultaneously, Jughead and Indigo shared a glimpse before writing. "How did the Uktena evolve into the serpents?" This time it was Jughead to ask the old man.
In the pair's surprise, the Topaz man chortled. "The Uktena, we didn't evolve. We were all slaughtered." Jughead met Indigo's ocean eyed gaze. "When my grandpa was a baby, there was a raid, and it was led by your hero over there General Pickens. The battle, if you wanna call it that ... only lasted for 12 minutes. But, the slaughter was total and savage."
Indigo swallowed hard. She felt cursed to be stuck in such a sick town. By the age of eighteen, she planned to be leave, escape Helltown.
"The General Pickens ... whose statue stands proudly in Pickens park?"
"Yes, and every year the Northside honors this man who massacred children. When my grandpa died, we formed the Serpents as a way to keep the family together."
Indigo wasn't quite as surprised as Jughead was. Christian would always go on and on about the true evil this town hid. Jughead, on the other hand, was genuinely perturbed. "How do people not know about this?"
