"There's only one of you, but we are legion. We're called the Red Circle." Abby and Fred were watching the video on Fred's phone when the star of it came in through the kitchen door.
"So, what did you think, that I wouldn't see it?" He asks without turning to look at his son.
Archie walked around the table, so they could talk face to face."Dad, I was pissed off. We were all pretty pissed off. We were trying to send a message, scare the Black Hood."
"It's more likely you'll antagonize this maniac and become a target yourself. Take it down right now, where I can see." He slid the phone over to him.
"I already did the original post, but people keep sharing it." He told them.
"Good grief, Archie." Fred sighs.
"Can I ask why shirtless?" Abby thought it looked like the start of a porn film.
"Reggie thought it would look more intimidating." He explains.
"I gotta tell you it doesn't have that effect." She laughed.
"Abigail." Fred scolds.
"I'm sorry, this is serious, but you have to admit it looks ridiculous." She giggled at them making that video, thinking they were doing something. After seeing the glares she was getting from them, she pulled herself together. "The video isn't going to scare the Black Hood. Your muscles aren't bulletproof. All this video is going to do is cause people to feel more panic."
"I know, I realize that too late. It's out there and I can't get it back." He sighed. He was an impulsive person who never thought anything through. Before that wasn't too much of a problem when it was football plays or dates. But, now that the town was getting more dangerous, choices were having more weight to them. He was worried he wouldn't be able to balance the scales to save everyone's life.
Abby was stopped by Cheryl when she walked into school. "Hello Abby, I got a shirt for you." Cheryl passed her a shirt that had the red circle symbol on it.
"I'm not wearing that." She shook her head.
"But, you have to. It'll be in support of your brother, show the Black Hood he can't break us and most importantly we'll be matching." She moved the pile of shirts she had in her hands to show she was wearing it too.
"Cheryl, take that off." She glares at the shirt.
"How forward of you." She bats her eyelashes.
"Cheryl," Abby said in a stern tone.
"When I first saw the flyer I thought your brother was crazy but after having to live in fear for the past week, I realize the red circle is what we need. Not the bulldog red circle, or just your brother, but the whole town. We need to join together and look out for each other." She held out the shirt.
"Give me the shirt." Cheryl cheered as Abby put it over her head.
"Looking good." Veronica came over with Archie.
"This does not mean I support you going out looking for him. This is about backing up each other when the bad guys come to us, not the other way around." She wanted to be clear on when she was supporting.
"That's what the red circle is about." He nods.
Abby was watching The Great British Bake-off, with all the chaos going around she needed some goodness. Gene Belcher's singing came from her phone. "I'm not afraid of ghosts. I'm not afraid of sharks. I'm not afraid of cancer. I'm just afraid of snakes! They really creep me out. Where are their arms and legs? It's really not okay!"
"Hey, Sweet Pea." She answers.
"Abby, I just saw your brother on the Southside and he stuck a gun in my face." Sweet Pea sounded out of breath.
"What?" She jumps up pushing Vegas off of her lap.
"We were coming out of the bodega and saw him spray-painting that red circle shit on a wall. So I confronted him about what he was doing. He tries to walk past me like he is too good to talk to me." He sneers.
"Why didn't you just let him walk past?" She got annoyed with how he couldn't let things go. Even if it wasn't her brother, she wishes he didn't feel the need to fight everyone who disrespected him. As he always says his reputation is a matter of life or death.
"He's tagging our turf. I can't just let that shit slide. Other people are going to think they can move in." By other people, he meant the Ghoulies.
"So what? He pulled the gun on you because you didn't let him pass." She didn't see how this could escalate so quickly.
After a long pause, Sweet admitted. "I pulled out my switchblade."
"What? You planned on cutting him." She couldn't believe he would do something like that to her brother.
"No…. it was just a scare tactic to get him to go home. I told him to get his ass back to the Northside. That's when he pulled out the gun. Fangs and I ran away after that." Sweets wasn't the biggest fan of Archie or any Northsider. But she was his exception and she meant a lot to him, so if that meant he had to tolerate a few Northsiders then so be it.
"Well, when someone has a knife to your face and you got a gun I suppose that's what you do." She couldn't believe he was trying to blame the victim when he started the confrontation and escalated things.
"Are you seriously taking his side right now?" He narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not taking anyone's side. You both went too far. I told you before guns are too easy to get in this country for you to go around threatening people with a knife." She was surprised this didn't happen to him sooner.
"Are you saying I should get a gun?" His tone turned mocking.
"No, I'm saying you don't know who has a gun. I'm not having this argument again." She was tired of having the same argument that went nowhere. In the end, they always agreed to disagree.
"I told you already I need it for protection. I live in a bad neighborhood." He never let an argument go so easily.
"Oh really, I have a serial killer running around mine." She was tired of him using his environment as an excuse.
"What, you want a blade, I'll get you a blade." He could get her one of those colorful switchblades that some of the female serpents have.
"Sweet Pea. I said I didn't want to argue." She rubbed her temple.
"I'm concerned about you living with him." He gave the real reason he called.
"Archie? You can't be serious?" She scoffs.
"I am, Abby. You didn't see his face tonight. His eyes were crazy, he looked to be hopped up on something. You'll spook him while going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and he's going to shoot you." Even though he felt like the Northside was getting their just desserts for what they did to the South, he didn't want her to fall into that. She was the only Northsider he ever met that didn't hold him being a Serpent or being from the South against him.
"I'll talk to him when he goes home." She promised.
"Be careful." He knew the adrenaline would still be running through his veins.
The back door shut behind Archie. "Did you stick a gun in anyone else's face tonight or just my boyfriends?" Abby sips her coffee.
"He started it. I told him I didn't go there for him. He shoved his knife in my face, saying I made a mistake. I defend myself. I showed him how he was the one that made the mistake." His eyes were how Sweet Pea described.
"You're scaring me, Archie. Are you willing to hurt anyone who gets in the way of your revenge quest?" She wraps her arms around herself.
"Only if they hold a switchblade to my face." He brushed past her and went upstairs to his room.
She watched him, feeling like she was watching a stranger.
Abby and Toni were having a girl's spa night. Abby was filling Toni in on Archie getting pulled out of class by Keller for what happened last night and getting ban from school property for having a black hood in his locker. "You know Sweet Pea isn't the one who called the police, right?" Toni smeared the facial mask they made on Abby's face.
"I know it was the Bodega owner that did. The tensions between the North and South are getting out of hand. It doesn't matter where the Black Hood is from, it's about catching him." She did Toni's mask now that she was done.
"I couldn't agree more." Toni would have nodded but Abby was putting the mask around her eyes.
"Besides, I think it's someone from the North." Toni laid back as Abby put cucumbers on her eyes.
"You do?" She tried to keep her face still to not crack the mask, but she was truly shocked so it was hard to contain herself.
"In his letter. He knew my dad was having an affair with Mrs. Lodge. He knew that Mrs. Grudge was a child predator. The only people who knew about that were in the North, so how could a Southsider find out. He also wrote that Riverdale was not innocent. He didn't say the Northside, he meant as a whole. I think he's picking the sins that are closest to him, first." She reasoned.
"Betty thinks the Black Hood is a Serpent," Toni remembered the awful afternoon she had.
"She said that?" She painted Toni's nails.
"She hinted at it and didn't deny it when I called her out on it." She huffed at the thought of Jughead's girlfriend.
"Everyone looks at the acts and makes their own conclusion. One thing that Jason's death taught me is that the problem starts at home." She thought of her father being shot and her brother jumping off the deep end.
"That's morbid." Toni teased.
"I've seen the books you've been reading. You don't get to talk about morbidness." Toni had a stack of serial killer books on her coffee table.
Abby's phone rings, she put it on speaker since she had the mask on. "Hey, Ronni." She greeted her brother's girlfriend.
"Where are you?" She asked.
"I'm at my friend, Toni's house. Is everything okay?" She could sense the frantic tone.
"Is that on the Southside?" She wonders.
"Yeah, what wrong?" Abby didn't know why Veronica was beating around the bush. It wasn't like her at all.
"Your boyfriend and his snakes came over to call your brother and the bulldogs out for a rumble." She informs me.
"They had a what? Without me!" Toni sat up making the cucumbers fall off her eyes. Abby shot her a dry look. "Sorry, not the point."
"Where is it? I can go and try to stop it." Abby grabs a napkin to wipe the cream off her face.
"It's over already. We just dropped Dilton off at the hospital. I'm calling because your boyfriend was talking about the North with so much hate in his voice. I don't want him to hurt you." She was worried for the other girl. She didn't want the tall rage-filled male to take his anger out on her.
"I'll be fine. I'll see you soon." Abby hangs up the phone.
"Sweet wouldn't lay a hand on you." Toni defends her friend.
"I know that. But, he went out of his way to hide this from me. He could have done this yesterday. No, he waited for tonight when he knew we had a girl's night planned. Last night, he made like his biggest concern was me. He never said anything about getting payback, not last night, or this morning, or tonight. He kissed me and left saying he was going to the Whyte Wyrm." She feels her blood boiling.
"I'm mad that they lied too but…." Toni was trying to look at this from an angle that would calm her down.
The door opened and a wet Fangs and Sweet Pea walked in. "Hey, you guys are still in the middle of your spa shit. I guess beauty is hard work unless you're a natural." Sweet Pea teased. He saw the glare that Abby was giving him and thought it was about his eye. "Oh, this black eye. Don't worry about it, you should see the other guy."
"Who was the other guy, Sweet, was it Archie, Reggie, or Dilton who had to get taken to a hospital?" She was only filled with little satisfaction to see the shocked look on his face.
"We know about the rumble," Toni told them.
"I only didn't tell you about it because you wouldn't understand." He looked at Abby.
"Understand what, that you wanted to get back at my brother by kicking his ass. I can understand that, but that doesn't make it acceptable. I wanted to hit a lot of rude people, but I don't." She crossed her arms.
"He was much more than rude. He stuck a gun in my face in front of my boys on my turf." He shouted, pointing at the ground.
"Oh my god, this is about your pride. You don't even care that your life was on the line. You're more worried about your reputation." She scoffs.
"Damn right, I'm worried about my reputation because it is my life. I got to be on guard 24/7 because if not then a rival gang is going to think they can make me their bitch. So, yeah I can't let word get around that a bitch ass Northsider stuck a gun in my face and I did nothing. I don't have the privilege to be vulnerable like you. I'm not a spoiled Northsider. I'm a Serpent before I am your boyfriend." He matched her glare. Fang and Toni slowly walk into her room to avoid having to be in the same room as the arguing couple.
"You don't get to throw that back in my face, every time we fight. I can't help where I'm from any more than you can. But, if that is too much for you to deal with then you don't have to be my boyfriend." She pushed back the tears. She wanted to seem cool and collective even though her heart was pounding in her chest.
"What the hell are you saying?" His glare and anger dropped from his face.
"It means that it is not enough that I'm your exception. My family, my friends, they're all Northsiders. If you're going to be hostile towards them, I can't do this." She looks down at her feet.
He steps to her and cups her face to get her to look up at him. "I'm not the one who started this, Abby. I would never hurt someone I care about unless I had to and your brother forces my hand. He's lucky it was me, others wouldn't have let him walk away with some bruised ribs."
"So what, I'm supposed to be grateful to you?" She let out a bitter laugh.
"No, but you need to understand that this isn't black and white." He used his thumbs to wipe away the tears that fell from her eyes.
"Do you understand that?" She held back a sob.
"I do now that I meet you. You taught me that there is more gray than anything else. That there is light where you think everything is dark." He leaned down to give her a peck. "But, I can't ignore the darkness. I can't ignore the fact that it could take me at any time. I'm just trying to stay gray." He gave her another kiss.
"I don't want the darkness to take you either." She whispers.
"Then don't leave, you're the light. Don't take our sunshine away!" Fangs scream from the doorway of Toni's room.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sweet glares at his friend for ruining their moment.
"Now that everything is sorted out, get out! We are having a girl's night." Toni, who cleaned her face, walked into the room.
"Or we could join your spa night." Fangs drank some of Toni's boozy blueberry smoothie. "Oh my god, this is good."
"Let me try." Sweet's drank some of Abby's.
Toni and Abby shared a look of defeat. "We have to take turns on the foot spa, I only have two." Abby sighed.
"Sounds good. Is this the movie list, because I have some suggestions." Sweet Pea picked up the notepad that had a bunch of chick flicks on it.
"No, if you're staying, you'll enjoy what we already have planned." She took the list from him.
"Yeah, painting nails and all." Toni leans on the back of the couch.
"As long as I can pick the color." Fangs look back at her, smiling.