Abby had stayed home with Tessie while the guys raided the apartment building that the Gargoyles took over. They had a fun night with Fred, playing board games and watching Disney movies. It felt normal. It was refreshing. For one night, she didn't have to think about Gargoyles, drugs, or a cult.
She wakes up the next morning, wishing she could live like that every day. She was wiping away the sleep crust from her eyes when she felt something hard scraping her face. She raises her hand over her face. She stared in horror at the bracelet of teeth that was around her wrist. "Are these real?" She raises her other hand to feel them. Her breath got caught in her throat when she saw the dried blood that was on the root of the teeth.
She yanks it off her wrist. She looks around to see she was alone in the room. She got up to go down the stairs. She almost ran into Archie and Sweet Pea who were running up them. "The Gargoyle King killed Brandon, did you get anything?" Sweets asked.
"I woke up wearing this." She held the bracelet.
Archie took it from her. "FP and Jugs are in the living room."
"She got this." Archie gave it to Jugs.
"Do you know if Brandon was playing G&G?" Abby took a seat on the couch.
"No, he thought it was all boring." Slash being the closest to him answers.
"Then, Kurtz is going completely off script." She shivers at the thought of him being more unpredictable and dangerous.
"How did he even get in?" Sweet Pea put a lock on the windows.
"The kitchen door is busted," Jughead told him.
"Weren't you sleeping on the couch?" Greg looks at Dracula.
"No, Fangs said he was coming home yesterday so I met up with a girl." He bit the side of his cheek.
"He doesn't get any more guard duty. That's the third time he slacks off." Sweet orders.
"Sweets…." She was going to remind him that they need to keep Fangs close.
"No, none of his stuff is here or at the tent. He's living there. He's abandoned the Serpents, you, and most importantly Tessie." This betrayal wasn't something he was going to forgive easily.
"Where is she?" She didn't want her to hear this.
"Nancy and Kraken took her out," Greg told her. "Didn't want her to overhear this."
"Fangs is being brainwashed, we have to do something." She argues.
"A murderer who has threatened to kidnap you broke into the house last night. We have more important matters to be taking care of." Sweet thought her situation was more serious.
"Don't worry, Abby. Betty is on the cult case and I'm working on this one. When this is over, I'll be helping her out." Jughead tried to reassure her that something was being done. She huffs knowing that was the best she was going to get.
Abby looked around at her friends, wondering how so much could change in a little over a year. Before High School, she only had two friends. She used to hide when anyone tried to get too close. Now, she is in her sophomore year and surrounded by close friends. She had a lovely boyfriend and the cutest kid. She counts her blessings to try and distract herself from the doom around her. Cheryl's voice coming through the intercom ruined that. "Good Morning, my dear Riverdale High constituents and comrades. A Lot of you have been asking about the Farm's student advocacy group. Well, here's the skinny. The sign-up sheet is posted throughout the school. The club is open to all students, where the one became many and the many became one. So, uncap those pens, sharpen those pencils and sign up. A little birdie told me it's what all the cool kids are doing."
"I still can't believe they got Cheryl." Abby sighs.
"Are you kidding? She is a gaping wound that moves on emotions. She would be the easiest to manipulate." Greg shook his head.
She looks out the door of the classroom they were in to see the Farm walking past them. She stares at Fangs smiling at Kevin. "I hate him. He thought he was too good for Fangs then all of a sudden they're together. He used his loneliness to take him to that damn farm." She grits her teeth. "I should have done more."
"Abby." Tomoko grabbed her hand. "Fangs was most likely suffering from depression. It didn't matter how much you did, the nagging voice in the back of his head told him he had nobody. These cultists take advantage of that. They use it against them."
"We will get Fangs back after we deal with the Gargoyle King," Dracula told her.
"I'm so sick of people saying that." She stood up. "We don't even know who that is. Fangs is right there within reach. Doesn't anyone else care about him?" She began to feel like he was right to feel alone.
Trevor sighs. "It's not that we don't care about him. He is not in danger. He doesn't have money or anything worth taking. They're using him to get a bigger following."
"No one gets it." She ran out of the room.
"Abigail." Sweets cursed when he tripped. He pushed himself up to run out of the room and look both ways. "I lost her."
"She is not going to leave school. If anything she is going to talk to Fangs." Kraken put a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't want him to hurt her any more than he did." He went to look for them.
"Fangs." Abby approached the Farmies.
He stood up. "Hi Abby, do you want to finish your interview?"
"What?" She was put off by the question.
"You know the one you lied about. You said it went well but all you did was talk about me. Stop it. I'm not yours to protect or keep. I'm a person. I'm not something you can collect." He points at his chest.
"Collect?" She tilts her head.
"Yeah, the farm opened my eyes to everything that was controlling me, the serpents and you." He stood firm.
"When did I ever control you?" She put her hands on her hips.
"You do it to everyone around you. You get in trouble and then act helpless expecting people to save you. You did it in the beginning when I saved you from Reggie." He thought about how he made her one of his top priorities. It didn't fulfill him in any way. She had chosen Sweet Pea over him. A guy who was a total jerk to her when they first met. He could see now that she only used him to get to his old best friend.
"Fine, you don't have to be my bodyguard anymore. Come back, Tessie and all the serpents miss you." She would drop to the ground and beg if she had to.
"Then why haven't any of them come to talk to me? As soon as I joined another group they were done with me." He took a step closer to her. "Don't use Tessie against me. She'll be joining the farm too."
Abby's eyes widened. Sweet Pea opens the door to the classroom they used as a hangout. He got in between them. "You are out of your mind if you think you can take Tessie."
"She's not yours. One call to CPS and they'll find she is not being taken care of by her guardian." Evelyn stood by Fang's side.
Abby launched at her. She pins her down to one of the desks, hovering over her with her fingers wrapped around her neck, nails digging into her skin. "I don't know what the fuck you're getting out of Fangs, but I won't let you take it from him. If you think about going near Tessie I will have you and your daddy kidnap, locked away in a basement, dosing with Frizzle Rock, until you lose your fucking minds." She screamed into her face.
Sweet Pea whistled, making the rest of the gang charge in. They held back the farmers from getting to them. He grabs her to pull her off of Evelyn. Her nails scraped along her skin as she was pulled off, leaving claw marks on her neck. He carried her out while she screamed vile threats.
She shook as she watched the Serpents drop the farmers to walk out. Fangs helped her up. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know she would do that. She has never been violent before."
Kevin ran to her side. "Let's get you to the nurse. You don't want to catch rabies from that animal."
"Don't worry, they aren't that deep they won't scar." Cheryl inspected the scratches.
Evelyn stared at the door. She acted afraid of Betty in the hallway when she was threatening her. She was afraid now. She knew that Abby would have crushed her windpipe if it hadn't been for Sweet Pea. She would need to talk to her father about this.
Sweet Pea carried her to his Harley and he held her until she calmed down. "Do you think she'll have me arrested? That's aggravated assault. A felony." The reality of her action comes back to her.
"Are you forgetting who the sheriff is? With your first offense, he'll give you a slap on the wrist." He rubs her back.
"I can't believe I did that. I blacked out when she said Tessie's name. I don't even know where those threats came from. I never felt that kind of rage before." She didn't like how out of body she felt.
"I understand. If she wasn't a chick I would have decked her." He rested his chin on her head.
"We need to move Ms. Shapely in or have Tessie stay there for a little, just in case CPS does show up." She didn't want to be apart from her.
"We scrambled up the money to buy her a trailer. Tessie can sleep there and we'll stay in my tent." He knew there wasn't room in the house for the older woman. She wouldn't take kindly to being uprooted anyways. She would remind them that she had other children to look after too.
"That would be best." She nods.
Abby was at her locker with Sweets when one of the Vixens ran towards them. She was foaming at the mouth and growling. Sweets pulled Abby to the side as she put her head down and ram the lockers. "What the fuck?" He grabbed the girl and put her arm behind her back. She growls and twists trying to bite him.
"What the hell is going on?" Jug ran out of the student lounge with Archie, Betty, and Veronica.
"I don't know, she ran full blast into the locker." She explains.
Gina and Ginger ran around the corner. "Thank you for stopping her." Ginger was grateful that someone was able to restrain her.
"Did she take something?" Jug asks.
"Yeah, she took some G," Gina told him.
"Get her to the infirmary." Jug didn't know why Sweets was still there.
"Got it." He carried her there.
"What is G?" Abby asked the cheerleaders as they followed Sweets.
"A new form of Fizzle Rock," Gina explains.
"Fucking Kurtz." She mutters under her breath.
She let them go inside before she called a number. "Hello, am I speaking to the goddess or Abigail?" She cringes at hearing his voice.
"Aren't we one in the same?" She leaned her head against the wall.
"I suppose. What are you calling for?" He was packing up a duffle bag to make another deal.
"I want to make a quest." She cut to the chase.
"I'll bite, what quest?" He leaned against the table that had the drug equipment.
"It's called killing the farmers. They are using magic so only their crops will grow, we need them dead to make all the land fruitful." She knew it was rough around the edge. She had only thought of it an hour ago.
"Okay, meet me tonight at the junkyard. I'll be in the trailer." He instructed.
"I'll be there." She hung up the phone as Sweet came out.
"I almost got bitten. The nurse sedated her. I didn't know that school nurses had that kind of shit." He put an arm around her.
She opened the door to the trailer. Everyone was too caught up in Archie's fight to notice she slipped out. She turns on her phone light. "There you are." Kurtz wrapped his arm around her stomach making her scream.
"Don't sneak up on me in the pitch dark." She scolds. He wrapped his arms tighter and picked her up. "Kurtz! What were you doing, Kurtz!" She screamed and struggled as he carried her. He threw her into the room and shut the door, bolt locking it from the outside. "I have to make sure the goddess has completely taken over." He pushed for a recording of him reading the manual to play on a loop.
"No, Kurtz! Kurtz! Let me out! I promise I'm the goddess. That's why I need the farmers gone to be the only group in town." She pounds on the door.
"No, you need them gone to get Fangs back. He's a filthy rat that should be dead. Now I have to go, hang on tight." He ignored her scream. He grabs the duffle bag and walks out the door.
She looked around the room to see the window was bordered up from the outside. The only thing in the room was a small futon. She sat on it as Kurtz's voice played. "A cemetery guarded by vampires where fallen players go to rest. Overgrown with deadly nightshade and other poisonous flowers, these burial grounds are not welcoming to beginners and practitioners of white magic. Instead, necromancers and their ghoulish cohorts may come here to resurrect fallen players from the dead. Players…" He drones on and on. She tried to tone it out and think of a way to get out but she kept coming up empty.
All she could do is listen to the different species and the roles they played in the imaginary world. She took a deep breath. "This is fine. I'm going to be fine. I have to play the role again until he trusts me. I can do this." She reminds herself that she played this game before and bested Kurtz. She could do it again.
FP and Jugs were able to catch Kurtz dealing and take him to the station. He was handcuffed and sitting in the interrogation room. "You've hurt a lot of people Kurtz. What were you thinking? Sell a bad batch, get out of town, dodge a murder charge?"
He didn't respond. He looks at the pictures of Baby Teeth's dead body. "Why Baby Teeth? Did the Gargoyle King demand a sacrifice?" Jughead asked.
"Baby Teeth was only the warm-up." He giggles.
"To what?" Jugs asked.
"To the ultimate quest. To one final game for you and your family, Hellcaster. It was demanded by the King. Save the little princess." He smiles.
It took Jugs a second to realize who the princess would be to him. "Jellybean."
"What the hell did you do?" FP shook him. "What did you do?" He let go when he saw him smiling.
"She's been summoned by the King. The Goddess needs a pure soul to completely take over the human body." His laughter bounced around the walls. As much as the Jones men wanted to kill him they needed him alive to get their loved one back.
Jughead grabs his ringing phone to see Sweet Pea calling him. "Jugs, Abby's gone. I don't know where she is. I think she might have gone to the farm by herself."
"No, I don't think so." He looks at Kurtz. "I'll call you back." He hangs up the phone. "Kurtz, what did you do with Abby and Jellybean?"
"They're fine. The goddess even more so when I get back. They came to me, you know. The girl wants a friend and the Goddess wants a problem to take care of." He brags. "I'll take care of it after tonight, so shall we begin? The quest starts at your house."
"I hate it but I think our only option is to play." Jugs look at his dad.
"Yeah, I hate it too." FP knew this teen wouldn't break from a beating. "Come on." He dragged him back to the cruiser.