"What is the fourth law?" Tall Boy's voice boomed amongst the chattering echos and noise of the Whyte Wyrm, his face inches from Jughead's. I'd sat beside Toni not too far away. Since sitting down, I hadn't been able to let go of her hand. Holding my breath from one law to the next. So far so good, but the worry had my heart racing with adrenaline.
Jughead shouted back, "No Serpent is left for dead!"
"What is the fifth law?"
"A Serpent never betrays its own!"
"What is the sixth?"
"In unity, there is strength!"
With the final law spoken, the rest of the bar erupted with an echo of it. Tall Boy held out his hands to silence the crowd. "You know the laws," he turned back to Jughead. "But now it's time for the next trial." Sweet Pea and Fangs moved from there spot at the pool table to reveal the large terrarium, the one housing the Serpents' rattle snake. She was a nice old girl once you got to know her. But her bite still stung. She lay curled just behind the knife stuck in the dirt.
The knife, I knew, Jughead would have to retrieve. What Jughead didn't know, was that she was practically harmless when you got down to it. Her venom glands had been removed long ago. "Retrieve the knife," Tall Boy told Jughead.
Jughead looked from the tank back to Tall Boy, eyes round, "What?"
He looked to me with a slightly panicked expression. I rose my eyebrows with a nod, urging him to hurry on with it. And he took slow steps toward the tank. It's intimidating. Every new recruit knows that. But Jughead found it within himself to not act like it was. The snake bit him, but he got the knife out, thus completing the trial. As soon as possible, I'd sat him down at a table with a first aid kit. "Nobody ever mentioned a snake, Diana," he said, voice hardened in anxious annoyance.
I sighed, wrapping a bandage around his hand. "Jug, calm down. Its venom glands were removed. You're not gonna lose your hand."
"But why is this even a thing?!" he swung out a hand in the direction of the snake tank.
"You wanted to be a Serpent," I shrugged. "This is what it takes. Now you just have to make it through the Gauntlet."
"That sounds promising," he grumbled, under his breath.
"Well, Doc, is he gonna live?"
Toni appeared from my left, putting a beer on the table between Jug and I before walking around me to take a seat, her own drink in hand. She sipped it from a thin straw as I replied. "Looks like it," I said, sitting back after finishing the bandage with an exhale.
"Bummer," Toni smirked.
Jughead was anything but impressed with the humor. My phone suddenly buzzed in my back pocket, and I grumbled as I adjusted on my seat to fish out the device. When I held up the phone to read the caller ID, my thumb immediately pressed the red button, before placing it face down on the table. Jughead raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm guessing a bill collector?" he asked, sarcastically, as the twinge of a grin caused the left corner of his lip to climb.
Leaning my right forearm on the table, I rolled my eyes. "Wrong number."
"Ugh, what I would give for a wrong number," Toni sighed, slowly shaking her head as I glanced at her across the table.
A bit of a smile came to my lips, but I knew how she felt. Bill calls were frequent and a complete nuisance if you lived on the South side. I startled hard when strong arms slid around me from behind, a body pressing to mine. But the warm voice that followed instantly calmed my nerves. "Hey, baby," his lips were close to my ear, his hot breath fanning down my neck. "How're you feeling?"
I dropped my head back onto his shoulder, closing my eyes as my body relaxed into his. "Better, now that you're here."
"Hey! What are we, chopped liver?" Toni questioned, offended.
"Don't bother, Toni. King Sweet Pea has arrived," Jughead quipped, voice full of sarcasm.
"Gosh, when did I become the favorite at the races?" my eyes peeled opened, shifting between the both of them at the table. "I didn't realize I had this big of a fan base. Don't worry, I still have time for autographs before I leave for the photoshoot."
Jughead huffed a chuckle, turning to face the table. He gently rung his hand as his forearms rested on the table top and I felt a little guilty. I would've warned him, but the reaction wouldn't have been genuine. It wouldn't have been enough to prove his worth. If he really wanted in, I was going to show him exactly what it took. Maybe he'd chicken out? Or maybe he'd prove everyone wrong with the Gauntlet, just like tonight?
Either way, I wasn't really looking forward to the next stage in his initiation. Sipping the last of her drink, Toni made a disgusted sound. "You could at least try to keep it somewhat PG," she commented, setting down her empty glass with a clink. "I mean, I'm happy for you—really, I am. But your constant ogling is getting a little nauseating."
"Wow, way to be a buzz kill," Jughead said, quirking his eyebrows.
"Yeah, Topaz, you're ruining the mood," Fangs suddenly slid into the chair in between Jughead and Toni, the seat opposite mine, and he took a random beer bottle off the table top to take a pull. "It's young loooove."
Toni threw out her hands, looking between Fangs and Jughead with a confused and somewhat humored expression. "Okay, hold up! When did we stop agreeing on PDA and why wasn't I notified?" she questioned, causing Fangs to snicker into his bottle. Dropping her hands on the table, she eyed them seriously. "Now I just look foolish. You knuckleheads need to work on your communication skills."
Jughead opened his mouth to speak, but I didn't hear it. It was drowned out in my ears by the loud sound of my phone vibrating against the wood of the table. This time, I knew, I wouldn't be able to ignore it. I sat up with a mild groan and swiped my phone off the table. "I have to get this," I announced, peeling myself from Sweet Pea to slide off my chair.
"Don't be too long, okay?" Sweet Pea, holding me there a second longer with a hand on my wrist.
I nodded with a small, soft smile, "Trust me—this won't take long."
As I turned away from the table and began to walk toward the exit, I heard voices from the table's occupants, voices of sarcasm and alcohol. Carrying comments making fun directly to my ears. "Hurry back, dear!" Jughead called, patronizingly. I could almost picture the look on his face when I heard his tone, and I chuckled a little at the thought.
"Yeah, baby, I'm gonna miss you!" Fangs added, just as patronizing.
"Alright, both of you shut up," Sweet Pea said, obviously irritated.
If they said anything after that, I couldn't hear it. The sounds of the bar started to drown everything out. And then I was outside, walking down the steps to the parking lot as I answered the call. A call I'd dreaded since arriving back in Riverdale from the drug run. "What do you want, Penny?" I sighed, sliding my free hand into my Serpent jacket pocket.
"I'm interrupting again aren't I? I'm sorry- here, tell me the times of day you won't be busy to do what you asked for."
I rolled my eyes, "Get on with it before I hang up, hag."
"Meet me at Pop's in ten minutes."
"What? No. I can't just drop everything and leave."
In the silence following my words, it didn't take much to realize she'd hung up. Probably after her final demand. Swearing in a loud groan, my thumb slammed into red button on the key pad, ending my side of the call. Then I sent a quick text to Jughead. Just something simple letting him know I needed to run an errand and would be back in a half hour. I didn't wait for his reply to start walking up Third, toward Pop's.
The cold air sent my hands into my pockets after a minute of hanging out in the cold. It just reminded me how close to the end of the year we were. The neon signs of the Chock 'Lit Shoppe would've been a better sight had it been under different circumstance. But, instead, I pushed through the door with dread. It didn't take much to find Penny Peabody. She sat in a booth near the end of the aisle, by the windows, with her back to the door.
Seeing the Serpent jacket on her shoulders left a bitter taste in my mouth. A human being like her didn't belong in that jacket. It made me wonder just when she turned into the person she was. Did she wake up and decide to ruin people's lives, or did she always have that philosophy? Sighing, I walked down to the aisle to her booth and dropped into the seat opposite her. "Hey, DJ. How's your night going?" she asked, carefree.
She stirred her coffee absentmindedly, looking at me with her usual patronizing smile-smirk. I wanted to slap her. But, instead, I used my words to explain my disgust. "Look, White Trash Barbie. I'm not here because I wanna be, I'm here because you called. So tell me what this is about before I reach across the table and do something you regret," I replied, sharp but calm.
Her smile remained, but her eyes narrowed in thought, nodding slowly a little as she eyed me a quiet minute. "Well, that was ballsy," she turned her eyes to her coffee, coming to in a snap. "I'm going to choose to ignore that—because I actually like you."
My eyes nearly rolled all the way back in my head. Just then, Pop Tate walked up from the aisle. He smiled down at me. "Diana, what a sight for sore eyes. Is there anything I can get you tonight?" he asked, is his usual carefree, genuinely upbeat tone.
I returned the smile, politely shaking my head. "No thanks, Pop. I'm alright."
"Just let me know if you change your mind."
I nodded and he turned to head back up the aisle and finish his rounds. As I turned back to Penny, moving my eyes to her face, I saw she was watching me. Her lips curved up, head slightly tilted, with eyes full of something unreadable. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good. The woman reminded me of a velociraptor. The way she spoke, the way she acted, the way her thought process was so analytical. Adjusting in my seat, I narrowed my eyes. "What do you want?"
"To chat. I hear your brother's joining the Serpents. I'm sure that's very emotional for you," she lifted her mug, taking a drink, keeping her eyes on me.
My arms folded over my chest, "I'm not telling you anything."
"Alright. Why don't I start by telling you a little something?" she placed the mug back on the table, before leaning forward on her forearms, like what she was about to say was a secret. I remained still in my position, waiting for her to continue with a nearly blank expression. "Your boyfriend came to visit me last week. He's actually been working on the expansion to Crestview-"
"You're lying," I spat, my blood about to its boiling point.
She crinkled her nose in a mock apologetic expression. "Oh, I wish I was."
"Why would Sweet Pea need a 'favor' from you?" I questioned, disbelieving.
It was ridiculous—the notion that he would do something like this. Why would he come to her of his free will? He knew just as well as I did never to do that. "I don't know the specifics. But apparently he needs money—a lot of it," my arms tightened across my chest as she kept talking, trying to keep my heart in my body. "Must be pretty important, don't you think? I have proof, if you don't believe me."
She dug into her jacket pocket, leaning to the side to do so. "I don't want it," I shook my head. It was hard not to let it show—the fact that I was starting to believe her. Just yesterday he was telling me to quit my job so he could support me instead. It made me rethink every time he said he was out doing 'Serpent business'. When I'd text him and he'd say he was with the boys. I was questioning everything he ever told me, and that was the point.
It was the point of telling me this. To get my mind off center. To make me start to go crazy. The smirk to her lips said she was seeing right through me as she righted herself, returning her hand to the table top. She knew she was winning. And it was oh so easy to do. "All snakes have a soft underbelly," she said, her voice semi-quiet. "It's sweet, really, that you two are each other's."
My eyes were focused on the table. I knew if I looked at her, she'd be able to tell just how much she'd gotten under my skin. She'd be able to see the boils my veins were searing into my skin from the anger coursing through them. Curling my fingers didn't help. Even when my fingernails dug into my palms deep enough to draw blood. Inhaling a shaky breath, I finally moved my eyes up again. "Rot in hell, Penny Peabody," I sneered, palms pressing into the table.
I pushed myself up to stand and stepped past the booth. A grip on my right wrist pulled me back enough to stop me with a short tug, and I looked down to find Penny's smirk had turned into a sour mid-frown. "We're not done until I say we're done, DJ," she said, firmly.
That was when I ripped my arm from her grasp, shaking my head, "It's Diana."
Her eyes narrowed, but I ignored them, continuing to the door. As I pushed out into the cold night air, I tried to keep calm with deep breaths. But they felt more like gasping gulps of oxygen. Desperate intakes to ease the fire in my lungs. The gravel crunched beneath my feet before I hit the pavement of the sidewalk. It was the only sound I could hear. Jughead was joining the Serpents because of me, wanting to help.
FP went to jail because he wanted to help a guy he knew was my friend. And now Sweet Pea was getting in bed with Penny Peabody to get money to support me. What was I doing to these people? I was ruining them. I was ruining their lives. And all just by existing. By existing and making stupid decisions. Doing what I thought was right just for it to blow up in my face. My fists were curled inside the pockets of my jacket.
But I didn't feel cold anymore, nor did I have the energy to keep them tight. My fingers were folded loosely, limply, and my feet drug against the concrete. At the stop light, the light was red, so I had to stop. As I slowed, my hands slid up my face to cover my eyes. To keep the water in. It felt like my eyes were on fire. They heated the more I tried to blink the water away. I bit my lip as a stray droplet rolled down my cheek. This was a nightmare.
My life was the nightmare that didn't end. One bad thing after another until it was one long string of disaster. When the light blinked to white, I went right, bypassing the Wyrm. I couldn't bring myself to go there. Not knowing what I knew. Instead, my feet carried me to a place I hadn't been in almost two years. The cemetery. It was small on the South side, but it was where my parents wanted to be buried. Well, my mother and my father figure.
Bulldog was nothing more than a glorified placeholder. But he was buried right next to my mom. When they died, the Serpents pooled together the funds to get them in the ground with a small head stone. I didn't know where the money came from. Looking back on it, it probably came from Penny and her drugs. I found the graves, side by side, but my eyes lingered on my mother's engraved name. Sniffling, I lowered myself to my knees on the grass.
It was pathetic, but it was my last hope. For someone to finally slap me and tell me what the right thing to do was. A stab in the dark to try and fix the mess I'd made out of everyone I loved. "Hi, mom. I'm sorry it's been so long," I sniffled again, bringing a wrist up to wipe my right eye. "I think I've done it this time. Everything's falling apart, mom, and I don't know what to do. You're probably not even hearing me...but, if you are, please...I need you."
The constriction in my chest pulled a few more stray tears from my eyes. First they were just single tears. Then they were like streams. With a palm against the grass, the other over my mouth, I sobbed. Out of seemingly nowhere, almost as if to answer me, a male voice called out. "Looks like I was right to go for a walk tonight."
Tears streamed my face, but I raised my head and looked left. The older man walking toward me looked at me with a certain empathy I'd never be able to recreate. He was slightly hunched, short, wearing a thick sweater and a coat. He took slow steps in my direction with his hands in his pants pockets, a yard or two from me now. "What's troubling you?" he asked, in a calm voice.
"Everything," I all but snorted, sitting back on my ankles as I looked down at my lap. "Dad's in jail, brother's not making good decisions either, I'm all my little sister has to take care of her, and I just found out my boyfriend made a deal with the devil to support me and our baby."
He exhaled in a hum, coming to stand beside me. "That does sound like a lot for a young woman to handle. What is your name, child?"
"Diana Cassidy," I answered, before pushing myself up to stand.
Sniffling hard, I held out a hand, and his withered features pulled into realization as his hand clasped my outstretched one. "You're Wes' daughter. I've heard many things about you from my granddaughter," he said, as our hands retracted. "She speaks very highly of you."
My eyebrows drew together, "Your granddaughter?"
"Yes, Toni Topaz. I believe you go to school together."
I hadn't expected the answer he gave, but it did make sense. He'd brought me over to a nearby bench with him and we sat. My main objective was wiping my cheeks dry. As the old man settled into his spot on the bench, he sighed. "Some nights, when I can't sleep...I like to walk these areas—the ones people have forgotten," he told me, eyes aimed out at the rows of headstones in front of us. "But the dead can only offer us so much guidance. Then we must look to the living...or find our own way."
There was something about the way he spoke, how he said the words. It was like listening to thousand years of lived days, good times and bad times, and the wisdom of a hundred men at the same time. I'd slowly nodded my head as I took it in. "I don't know what to do, Mr. Topaz," I admitted, with a sigh.
He turned to me slowly, "What do you think you should do, Diana?"
"I think I should confront my boyfriend and call off the deal."
"Do the opposite."
"What? I should let him go through with it—making a huge mistake—for me?"
"You cannot change what's already been done, or a debt that's already owed to a Snakecharmer. But you can change how you handle the situation. Reacting in anger and judgment will only worsen your current standings," he answered. "It isn't your choice what others do—even for you. Ask yourself what you can do to better the situation within your own capabilities and let the rest go."
The concept wasn't hard to grasp. But my stubborn nature wasn't all too happy with the idea of letting anything go. My instincts were to jump in and fix it, change it, and put it where it was supposed to be. I resigned myself to thinking on it, sleeping on it. Mulling it over might give me more of an understanding of what exactly I was 'capable' of doing without changing someone else's decisions.