"People of Riverdale, I have rid this town of the drug-dealing child-killer and others like him. Now, you must choose your fate. The next hours will be a test. And I will be watching you very closely. Show me you are pure of heart, and my work ends. Continue to sin, and I will take up the sword again." Tomoko read the Black Hoods warning in the newspaper.
"To live without sin is impossible." Abby looks down at her feet.
"He means big sins right? Not like white lies." Trevor was panicked. This guy found a way to get into the jail to get his last target. His reach was limitless.
"Who knows with this guy? He tried to kill Moose for having sex." Abby shrugs.
"And doing drugs," Tomoko added when she saw Trev's fear heighten.
"Maybe you shouldn't see Sweet Pea until this is over." Trev looked at her.
"I don't have sex with him every time. Most of the time we just hang out." She rolled her eyes.
"Abigail, this is serious. He killed his first Southsider." Trev insisted.
"Yeah, but he did have ties to the Northside. He was the Blossom's Sugarman. The drug was all over the Northside when the Black Hood went after him. This adds to our theory that he is a Northsider. If he was from the South, he would have known about the drug sooner." Tomoko pointed to herself and Abby. They shared the same thought of where the Black Hood was from.
"That doesn't make you guys scared. That we might know him. That our chances of crossing paths with him are higher." Trev jumps out of his seat to pace.
"Trev, you can't let this guy get to you. That's what he wants. He wants us to feel like he is larger than life, that he's our spiteful god. He's not god. He's just another sicko." Abby stood up to grab his shoulders to stop him from moving.
"She's right, Trev. We can't give him what he wants." Tomoko nods.
"Then what are we supposed to do." He sighs.
"Live our lives normal. Besides, Trev unless you have some big secret. What is your sin, that you stole from a store once because you forgot the hat was on your head?" Abby teased. Trev looked over at Tomoko. "Oh, you think your sin is that you guys are dating behind my back." The looks of shock on their face made her laugh.
"You knew!" Trev screamed.
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Tomoko gasps.
"I thought you guys wanted to have some kind of secret love or something." She thought it was funny to watch them scramble to make up lies to cover their tracks.
"How did you find out?" Trev thought they were being sneaky.
"You went on how many dates to Pops? You didn't think my coworkers would tell me." She shook her head.
"I thought they would assume we were hanging out." Tomoko defends their lazy cover-up.
"You guys shared milkshakes and kisses." Abby laughed.
"You're not mad?" Trev double-checked.
"No, I got a lot of questions but I'm not mad." She shook her head.
"Ask away." Tomoko waves her hands towards herself to say bring them on.
"How did this happen? How long has this been going on? Why did you guys hide it?" She fired away.
"You were spending a lot of time with Sweet Pea. We hung out by ourselves. I found myself enjoying it being the two of us. One day after Pops I brought up that we're basically dating without intimacy and then Trev kissed me." She blushes.
"That was in the middle of October. We didn't want to tell you at first because we didn't know if us being a couple would work. If it didn't work, we didn't want you to feel awkward. It's been working great, but we couldn't figure out how to tell you that we've kept this secret from you. None of us have kept secrets from every other." Trev answered the last two questions.
"I get it. When I found out, my first thought was what if they break up, our dynamic would be ruined. Or, if you guys fall in love and I get pushed out." She admits.
"We would never do that." Tomoko wouldn't leave Abby out. They had traditions that she cherished.
"I know I was just panicking. Fangs hang out with Sweet Pea and me all the time. I'm not bothered by it." She looked down at her hands. "I'm happy for you guys." She looks up to smile at them.
"Aw." Tomoko and Trev pulled her into a hug.
"Now we can make out in front of you." Trev ruffled her hair.
"You do that and I'll report you to the Black Hood myself." She pulled away from the hug. She screams and turns her back to them when they kiss, getting a laugh from the couple.
"I can't believe we are walking out of a slaughterhouse to pick up a pig heart for your witchy friend." Sweet Pea looks down at the package in his hand.
"Cheryl is not a witch." Abby rolled her eyes.
"Then what does she need a pig's heart for if not to curse someone." He held the package up to her face.
"I told you it's for some old recipe for her nana." She pushed the wrapped heart out of her face.
"Why couldn't she pick it up?" He put the heart into his saddlebag attached to his bike.
"She's practicing with Josie all week. She wants to help her make a good impression on that producer." She explains why Cheryl needs her to do this favor.
"Is that why she hasn't been trying to steal my time with you? I'm not even going to complain about the beating heart." He wraps his arms around her waist to pull her close.
Abby turns her head making his lips meet her cheek. "I'm not making out with you in front of a slaughterhouse."
Sweet groan before nodding. "We should get the heart in the fridge before it starts rotting." Abby scrunches up her nose at the thought of what that would smell like.
Abby was sitting in the student lounge room with Trev and Tomoko. "So, I'm going to be the godmother to your guy's babies, right?" She teased.
"Abby." Trev blushes.
"What? Don't tell me you want to make Val the godmother. She is already going to an Aunt. I want a title to connect me to the baby." She whines.
"Stop talking so loud. People are going to think I'm pregnant." Tomoko hissed.
Abby stopped her teasing when she heard the clicking of high heels. She knew only one girl who would wear those to school. She looked over to see Cheryl yelling at Chuck. "We got your note, Cretin. This sick game you're playing with my girl ends now. Some people may be buying the snake oil you're peddling, but not me. You're still the same Chuck that thinks women are playthings to possess and torture."
"Cheryl, what are you even talking about right now?" Like most people in Cheryl's grade, he was used to her loud outburst.
"Stuffed animals are one thing, but a pig's heart?" Josie steps out from behind Cheryl. Abby perks up in her seat.
"Josie, I, uh…" Chuck tried to explain that he never left her any gifts when Cheryl cut him off.
"If the Black Hood weren't clearly an old white dude, I'd say you'd be a prime suspect." She glares.
"Hey, what's going on here?" The janitor went over to them.
"Oh, good. Mr. Svenson's here to clean up the trash. Chuck's been threatening Josie, sending her disturbing messages. The creep probably wants to cut her open and feel her organs." Cheryl told the adult in the room. Abby felt torn. She had loyalty to Cheryl but this could get Chuck in serious trouble.
"Josie, is this true?" He looked to the teen that he knew he could trust.
Cheryl whispered something to Josie while Chuck prayed she would know he wouldn't do something like that. "It is. He's the one." Josie nods.
"What?" Chuck gasp.
"It's true." It all adds up in Josie's head. He started coming on to her after she got the gifts. He never denied giving them to her when she asked.
"It is not true, and you know it." He took a step closer to her.
"You're going to Weatherbee's office." Mr. Svenson dragged Chuck out while he screamed that she was lying.
"I can't believe you, Cheryl." Abby had texted her to meet her in an empty classroom.
"Don't believe what?" She tilts her head in faux innocence.
"Am I supposed to think it a coincidence that I picked up a pig's heart for you yesterday and today Josie gets one as a gift?" She put her hands on her hips.
"Weirder coincidences have happened." She shrugs.
"You set Chuck up." She didn't care for the guy, but to get framed for stalking was cruel.
"I did it to protect Josie. She was falling for his act. For someone who claims to be a strong independent woman, he was able to trick her easily. But, I see right through him. He has not changed, so I took care of it. She saved my life and I'm going to make her dreams come true." The determined stances and fierce look in her eyes made Abby's stomach drop.
"You were the one that put the notes in Val and Melody's locker." She realized that she was manipulating Josie's every move.
"She wanted to go solo but she couldn't bring herself to do it. I helped her out." She didn't see anything wrong with giving a friend a push.
"Josie deserves to make her own decisions…..Are you her secret admirer? Scaring her, so you can be the one to comfort her." Abby knew Cheryl was twisted, but this was just disgusting.
"If what I'm doing is so wrong then why didn't you say anything?" She crossed her arms over her chest.
"What?" Abby asked.
"You didn't say anything when Chuck was being dragged out and you're not going to say anything to anyone, are you?" She took a step closer to her. "I'm not threatening you, I'm stating a fact. You won't say anything. As much as you pretend to be some saint, we both know that the moral code doesn't always fit what needs to be done."
"Me not telling on you has nothing to do with thinking what you're doing is right. It has to do with my loyalty to you. I know you want to be close to Josie. You just don't know how." Abby had seen the drawing of Josie she had in her sketchbook. She had a feeling, she knew what was going on with Cheryl, even if she wasn't ready to admit to herself why she found Josie going out with Chuck to be so upsetting.
"You Andrews are loyal to a fault. It won't bite you in the ass with me, but let hope no one else takes advantage of that." She walks past Abby to get to the door. "I'll see you later, I got to meet up with Josie."
"Do you think it's okay to manipulate a friend, so they make what you feel is the right decision?" Abby looked across the table at Sweets. He came to have dinner with her after her shift at Pops.
"Okay, I told Fangs that someone died in the room that I wanted in the trailer, but maybe someone did, I don't know." He dips his fry into his milkshake.
"That wasn't what I was talking about. I found out Cheryl lied to me about why she needed the pig heart." She looked over at the booth that Cheryl and Josie were sitting in across the diner.
"Who is the witch cursing?" He asked.
"Chuck Clayton," She sighs.
"Why is that name familiar?" He squints.
"He was in charge of that lying on our dicks playbook that the bulldogs had." She reminds him.
"Oh, good for him then." He shrugs making Abby narrow her eyes.
"No, you don't get it." She told him the twisted story of Cheryl sending Josie creepy gifts to comfort her, separating her from the other pussycats, and setting up Chuck so that it looked like he sent the pig's heart.
"Sounds like she wants to wear Josie's skin." He took a bite of his burger.
"I think she likes Josie as more than a friend and she doesn't know how to process that," Abby whispers.
"The motive behind every villain in those lifetime movies." He knew a lot of people who didn't express their love normally. But, none that sent animal parts.
"My loyalty lies with Cheryl, but I feel bad for Josie. I would want to know if someone that close to me was doing that." Abby glanced at Josie who was smiling at Cheryl not realizing she was the reason for her nightmares.
"Did I ever tell you how hot it is when you talk about loyalty?" Sweet stares at her lips. "It is rare to find someone who would have your back no matter what you do." He looked up into her eyes.
"Can you not, we're in public." She looks away blushing from the intense stare.
"Why, no one knows your panties are wet? Unless you're telling me you're leaking through your short. I got you that hot and bothered." He got up to sit next to her.
"Don't you dare?" She grabbed his hands to stop him from touching her below the waist.
"Come on, what's a little public fingering?" He whispers in her ear making his voice husky.
"My brother is right over there." She nods towards the table where Archie was sitting with Jughead.
"We can pretend he's not." He kissed her. She giggled his name on his lips. She kissed him back but kept a hold of his hands.
The phone rang, making Pops picking it up. He was only on for a few seconds before he hung up. "That was him on the phone. The Black Hood. He says that we've failed his test. That we're all sinners. That the reckoning is upon us."
The couple pulled apart when they heard that. The diner was filled with panic whispers. "Can you spend the night?" Sweets asked his girlfriend.
"Why, are you scared of the Black Hood? Don't worry I'll protect you." She teased.
"I'm serious." Sternness and worry replaced the playfulness and lust from his eyes. "The Black Hood never attacked in the Southside. I would feel better if you stayed with me."
"I don't want you worrying about me. I live here." She didn't want him to get caught up in this fear too.
"I know, but he already attacked your dad and friends. He got your address from your dad's wallet. You're in arms reach of him." It's been on his mind since reading the warning in the newspaper this morning.
"I'm not going to live in fear." She refused to let the Black Hood control her.
"Just hear me out. Fangs and I have been talking because we knew the test was unpassable. We can take you to and from school and work. If we can take turns with our Serpent duties one of us can be with you always. I know your dad is not going to be cool with you spending every night at the trailer, but your living room has a couch." He worked out his Serpent schedule. Normally Fangs and he try to get all the same work assignments, but today they were trading with people to make sure they never work on the same days.
He saw the hesitation in her face. "I can't stop worrying and neither can Fangs. So just humor us."
"Fine." She sighs.