Sweet Pea and I sat across from Jughead and Verne in the booth, waiting for Verne to finish eating.
"You have no idea how much I've missed this place," Verne said, pushing his plate away. "After what happened here, I've been staying away."
"But you were willing to show up today, why?" I asked.
Verne shrugged. "I don't know. I figured if the Serpent Princess herself invited me, that'd mean I'd get some kind of protection."
I ignored the glare Jughead shot at me. He didn't like that the Serpents had begun calling me that again while his queen was nothing more than just Betty or Jughead's girlfriend.
"We can give you that for now," I said. "But once this meeting's over, you're on your own again unless you agree to join the Serpents."
"So you're really the last one, huh? You're the last Ghoulie standing?" Jughead asked, trying to take back control of the conversation. "Where's the rest of your crew Verne?"
"After we lost Malachai and Penny, no one knew who to look to, who to follow, so most of the Ghoulies went to the Gargoyles, started playing G&G," Verne answered. "How are you even here? The last time I saw you, you weren't breathing. You didn't have a pulse."
Sweet Pea's arm tightened around me. "Maybe I'm like a cat, nine lives and all?"
"You've used up too many of them already if you ask me," Sweet Pea said.
"Now that Tall Boy's dead," Jughead cut in, "do you know who their leader is? Who's giving them direction?"
Verne nodded slowly, looking at the plate in front of him. "The closest thing they've got to a leader is some whack-job named Kurtz, who's keeping the game going."
"Do you know where he is? Can you tell me where to go?" Jughead asked quickly.
I looked at Sweet Pea who nodded, already knowing what I was thinking. We waited as Verne gave directions on how to find the rundown house Kurtz was known to spend his days. After one last attempt to convince him to join the Serpents, Verne left, saying he was leaving to join up with the Ghoulies a few towns over.
"Why are you two looking at me like that?" Jughead asked, standing.
"Because there's no way we're letting you go talk to this Kurtz guy alone about bringing them into the Serpents," Sweet Pea said, standing as well.
"Especially not after the way things went with Toni," I added.
Jughead studied the two of us before sighing. "All right, fine, Abigail can come with me."
"If she goes, I go," Sweet Pea said.
"It's all of us or none of us," I said impatiently. "What's your choice, Jones?"
"Let's go," Jughead said after a moment.
Sweet Pea and I followed him out and towards the house Verne had directed us to. We left the bikes a little ways away, not wanting to give the warning that we were there.
"Are you sure your buddy didn't send us on some wild goose chase?" Jughead asked as we got closer to the dilapidated building. Boards covered the windows haphazardly and I could see where part of the roof had caved in some time ago.
I shook my head as the three of us came to a stop. "No, this is it. Though I doubt we're going to find many still coherent enough to join us. Get high enough and you'll take anything resembling shelter. Then when you start coming down off that high and see where you are, you get your next fix and don't care again. What, did you think every gang has a nice place to go back to like the Whyte Wyrm?"
"Never really thought about it, I guess," Jughead mumbled, starting towards the front door again.
I started to follow but was held back by Sweet Pea. "Are you sure you wanna go in there?" he asked, concern in his eyes.
"No, I don't want to, but I have to," I replied. "Now come on, let's get this over with."
Sweet Pea's hand tightened around mine as we stepped into the house. People sat scattered around the room, playing G&G by candlelight. They groaned and turned away as the flashlights we carried caught their eyes. We followed Jughead further into the house, stepping in dead leaves, empty Fizzle Rocks packets, and I didn't even want to think about what else. It was bad enough with all those creepy little voodoo-like dolls hanging over our heads.
"You've really been in places like this before?" Sweet Pea asked, following close behind me.
I nodded, remembering them all. "Visited them, lived in them, ran away from them. Take away all the G&G shit and replace the Fizzle Rocks with Jingle Jangle and it would be like nothing's changed."
Jughead looked back over his shoulder at us, calling our attention to the skull resting on a gargoyle statue across the room. That had to be where we'd find Kurtz. As we approached, the teen sitting under the statue was so focused on the book in front of him that he didn't react when our flashlight beams crossed his face. "Are you Kurtz?" Jughead asked. "I'm here to talk. One leader to another."
Without a word he nodded for Jughead to have a seat on the small camp stool by the wall. Those around us shifted further away while Sweet Pea pulled me closer to him. As Jughead talked, I moved my light slowly over the wall beside him, noting the lists with everything crossed out, some circled. I wasn't close enough to read them, and I doubted Jughead even noticed anything more than the fact that there was a wall there.
"I'm the Serpent King, and I'm here to make an offer," Jughead was saying. "You're all wanted for making and dealing Fizzle Rocks. But if you and your Gargoyles join my gang, I can promise you immunity from the sheriff's office, and the law."
I raised an eyebrow at that. FP had agreed to making that deal with the Ghoulies, not the Gargoyles. Gryphons and Gargoyles was a dangerous game, but Jughead was setting himself up for an even more dangerous one if we recruited even half the people in this room for the Serpents.
"Law? Immunity?" Kurtz repeated slowly. "I have looked into the eyes of the King," he said, pointing up at the skull and statue above him, "and his is the only law. The laws of Gargoyles, carved in stone."
"Right," Jughead said, glancing at me. "So you wanna play a game? I'm a Game Master. Let me be your Game Master."
"No, you're not going back to playing that stupid game again," I snapped. "Either of you," I added, looking at both Jughead and Sweet Pea.
"You think Gryphons and Gargoyles is a game? You are both mistaken," Kurtz said, slowly as he stood. Sweet Pea tensed as he took a step back, pulling me with him. "You come here as a king with his disbelieving subjects, but you're not a king. And you think we're a game. We are living a prophecy." Kurtz resumed his seat, keeping his eyes on me. "And you are all just sacrifices waiting to be made. The Gargoyle King lives. He will decide. And he will choose. And only the worthy will ascend." His gaze moving to the wall beside Jughead as he spoke.
Were those names? The way everyone spoke of ascending, it was something rare, something reserved for a select few. Which could only mean one thing. "I warned you everyone here would be too far gone," I said. "I'm done here." Pushing past Sweet Pea, I made my way towards the door, weaving around people as I went. No, not people, the shells of people. There were still Gargoyles out there who could still think beyond the game, but not here. I could hear footsteps behind me as I walked back to the bikes but I didn't stop, not wanting to be any nearer the house than I had to be.
"Okay, so now what?" Jughead asked when the three of us were back together. "The Ghoulies don't exist anymore and the Gargoyles are so deep into G&G it's like they're lost in a jungle. Can we bring some of the other Serpents here for good?"
I shook my head. "The Serpents are hurting for numbers everywhere. We'll have to come up with another plan."
Jughead sighed, replacing his beanie with his helmet. "Maybe my dad will have some ideas."
As he drove off, I looked up at Sweet Pea who was staring in the direction of the Gargoyle's house. "Please don't say you wanna go back to playing G&G again," I said.
"What?" he replied, forcing himself to look away. "No, I was thinking about what you said earlier, about living in places like that."
I sighed, not wanting to think about those times anymore. "I was living a different life then, willing to do anything to escape reality, no matter the price. And they weren't all like that, most of the places were more like living in a frat house."
Sweet Pea wrapped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head. "I don't think I'm ever going to understand how you grew up around all that and still became the incredible person you are."
"You know I love you," I said, stopping him before he could say anything else, "but please don't get cheesy on me again."
"Alright, I won't," he said. "We have the rest of our lives for me to use all those lines on you."
I buried my face in his chest as he laughed. "I give up," I mumbled.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Abigail. That was the last one," Sweet Pea said. "I've gotta meet Archie and Mr Keller at the gym in a bit. You hanging out with Fangs or Reggie again?"
"Fangs made plans with Kevin, Reggie's working, and the rest of the Serpents have their own thing going on so I'm on my own tonight," I replied. "And before you say anything, I need to try getting through to Fagin again."
"He's still not answering?" Sweet Pea asked, helping me onto the back of his bike.
I sighed. "He answers and will talk about anything but Gladys and her involvement with Fizzle Rocks."
"You'll get the answers you need from him," Sweet Pea said. "And if not, we'll figure out some way to keep her from pulling everyone down with her."
A few days later, we sat on the bleachers in the gym, waiting for Archie and Ronson to climb into the ring. "He's gonna be okay," Sweet Pea said, leaning close. "You saw him the other day, he's ready."
"I know, but I still don't like it," I said, watching Mr Keller arranging everything in Archie's corner. "Last time he was preparing for a fight alone, Joaquin stabbed him to give the other guy the advantage. Now, he's back there alone telling Elio, who's not above that sort of thing himself, he's not gonna take the fall."
"That time, Archie was in an illegal fight club. No one cared much about the rules," Sweet Pea replied reassuringly. "Elio's an asshole from what I've heard, but he's also a good businessman. He's not gonna pull something like that in front of all these people."
Before he could say anything else, the crowd cheered around us as the boxers made their way to the ring. From where we were, we could see Keller giving Archie a few last minute tips as he got him ready. Once the bell rang, it was hard not to feel the adrenaline sweeping through the crowd, hard not to cheer Archie on as he fought his way through round after round. Watching the two, I could easily see where Sweet Pea had influenced Archie.
"This is it," Sweet Pea said as the two retreated to their corners. "One more round and it's over."
"It's still three minutes, right?" I asked, looking between the two. Archie was bleeding from multiple cuts and a busted nose but it was easy to see that Randy Ronson was being worn down.
Sweet Pea nodded grinning, clearly enjoying this. "Yeah, he just needs to stay off the ropes and go for the KO."
The bell rang again and the last round began. Archie was ready this time and took the lead over Ronson, forcing him back against the ropes in a defensive position. Sweet Pea gripped my hand tightly as Archie kept going, not backing off until the bell rang again. We cheered as the bell rang and Sweet Pea pulled me into a kiss. We didn't care if the judges said Archie won or not, he'd made it through five rounds and was still on his feet.
Everyone waited as the announcer stood between Archie and Ronson reading the paper passed to him by the judges. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a split decision," he began, quieting the crowd down. "Judge Wallins scores 8 to 7, Ronson. Judge Anderson scores 9 to 6, Andrews. And Judge Patterson scores 8 to 7 for your winner and still undefeated welterweight, Randy Ronson!"
Sweet Pea and I waited as the gym cleared out and Archie got cleaned up. I turned around when I heard heels clicking on the floor behind us. "Josie? What are you doing here?"
"I uh, came to support Archie," she replied nervously. "I got here near the end. Was the whole thing like that?"
"More or less," I replied.
"Archie should be out in a few minutes," Sweet Pea added.
The three of us stood there awkwardly for a moment, none of us quite knowing what to say. We all turned when we heard the door open and Archie came out of the locker room.
"Great job, Arch. You did it. That was amazing," we all said at once.
I could tell he was down about not winning, but for his first fight, he'd done well. Sweet Pea and I left Archie and Josie to talk.
Author's Note: Yes, I'm aware of how badly written the end of this chapter is. I'm sorry, but I've had it for a week now and for some reason I just can't make it work. Maybe it's the fact that I know next to nothing about boxing, or any other sport really, but whatever the problem is, it's not going away anytime soon.
Aside from that, leave a comment and let me know what you think of the story otherwise, and continue voting on the story.