Chapter Twenty-Seven: Jughead

My eyes flit from Cruncher's smug face to Venom, but I don't recognize whatever he's holding, even as he crosses over and hands it to the other Scorpion. I strain a bit in my chair to try to identify the object, but Cruncher turns his back before I can get a good look.

"You know what I find interesting, Jughead?" Venom drawls, walking up to me, phone still in his hand. I force my eyes away from whatever Cruncher is doing to look at the gang leader instead. "That you don't have a Serpent tattoo. You'd think as the 'Serpent King's' son, they'd want to mark their property."

"I'm not a Serpent," I spit back, trying and instantly failing to remain calm at the dig. "And I'm sure as hell not anyone's property."

"FP doesn't trust you to be a Serpent, huh?" Venom chuckles. "Or is it that he's too ashamed to bring his scrawny son into the gang? Doesn't think you've got what it takes? Doesn't think you're man enough? That's gotta hurt."

I glare up at him murderously, the jabs at my pride hitting home. It's all stuff I've thought before, usually on long nights alone in the trailer, while Dad was god knows where on Serpent business. Wondering why he kept me out of it all. He always talked about how the Serpents were family...So why wouldn't he let his son be part of his family?

"He's protecting me. He doesn't want me involved because he doesn't want me to get hurt," I counter flatly, repeating the mantra I say to myself every time I ask these same questions.

Venom laughs at the response, a gleeful glint in his eyes. "If he wanted to protect you he would have gotten you out of here by now. Face it, kid - your dad left you here to die."

"No," I shake my head, determined not to believe it, determined to push the doubts away. "I know what you're doing, and I'm not going to let you get into my head."

"But hey," Venom continues as if I hadn't said anything at all. "The Serpents won't claim you - so how about the Scorpions do, huh? How's that sound?" My brows furrow in confusion, unsure what he's asking or what I'm supposed to say. Venom looks at me expectantly, as if waiting for an answer.

"What?" I ask dumbly after a long moment of silence.

The gang leader shrugs casually, a self-satisfied smirk spreading across his face. "It seems right, doesn't it? It's not like you're ever going to walk out of here, anyway, so why not embrace the lifestyle? I'm sure you've imagined yourself as a Serpent, but your father clearly doesn't want you. Just imagine the pain he'd feel finding out his own son joined an enemy gang instead. Of course, it won't come close to the pain he's caused you over the years, but it sure would feel good, wouldn't it?"

"You're serious?" I huff out a laugh at the ridiculousness of the idea. "You kidnap me, torture me, stab me, kidnap Betty - abuse her, shoot Mr. Andrews -" My voice rises as I continue, rage growing with every word. "And you think there's any way in hell I'd even consider joining you - or helping you - in any way? The only thing I want to do with you is kill you!"

Venom guffaws at the threat, head shaking incredulously. "That's cute, Jughead, really. Thanks for the laugh, but have you taken inventory of yourself recently? You seriously think there's any way you're going to break out of those ropes, let alone kill me, in your condition?"

"I swear to god I'll do everything in my power to kill you, and every single one of your goons - and if I can't, then my dad will. He won't rest until all of you are in the ground."

"Still with all the false faith in FP," Venom sneers, sounding bored. "How many times do I need to tell you that he doesn't care -"

"He does care," I snarl, eyes blazing. "Sure, he's not the best dad in the world - even he would own up to that - and I don't know what the hell he's doing right now or why he hasn't given you names, but he does care about me. You're not going to convince me otherwise, so you might as well save your breath."

Venom rolls his eyes at the response. "Believe what you want, kid. It won't matter."

"And for the record -" I can help but add, anger encouraging the irreverent snark that has rewarded me with a lot of pain over the years. "You inviting me to join your 'bad guy gang' is the stupidest, most banal thing you've said the whole time I've been here. You just had to get your villain cliches in before killing me, huh?"

"Glad to see you've still got some life left in you, Jughead," the man replies, clearly amused. "Makes me more likely to keep you around for a while. Maybe you'll even come to enjoy being a Scorpion - although I will admit, I really don't care how you feel about it."

"I'm never going to join you, no matter how many times you ask. So save the ink."

Cruncher barks out a laugh, reminding me of his presence. I glance over to him briefly, only to see his back is still turned. Venom is also smiling at me, as if I've just told a good joke. "I already told you, kid - I don't care how you feel about it. I wasn't asking. And we don't use some pussy tattoos here in the Scorpions."

My snarky retort catches in my throat as Venom pulls the hem of his t-shirt up. My heart falters as my wide eyes take in the intricate scarring across his left pec where the image of a scorpion is clearly burned into his skin. The stinger is raised and pinchers outstretched, as if the creature were ready to attack at any moment. Its eight legs are all etched perfectly along the body. I can't tear my eyes away from the brand, brain short-circuiting.

"You can,'t," my voice stutters feebly. "You can't be serious. I can't - you can't -"

"You hear that, Cruncher?" Venom goads, dropping his shirt back into place. "He says we can't."

Cruncher laughs again, finally crossing over to us, revealing the electric branding iron in his hand. My eyes trail from the tool, along its cord to where it is plugged into a nearby outlet, and back. A metal stamp is attached to the end of the wand, and I swear I can see the detailed image of the Scorpion glow with increasing heat.

My head is swimming. I'm going to be sick, already squirming in the chair in an attempt to escape, my throat constricting around the lump that's formed there. This can't be real. This can't be happening. It has to be another sick nightmare.

"Would you like to tell dear old dad what we've got here?" I can hear the smile in Venom's voice, but my eyes can't leave the iron. A moment of silence passes, although I wonder if they can hear my heart beating, the sound pounding in my ears as I stare frozen at the brand.

"He asked you a question, dipshit," Cruncher sneers, suddenly bringing the hot tool closer, waving it in front of my face threateningly.

"Don't!" I shout, clenching my eyes shut as I flinch away, trying to make myself as small of a target as possible.

"Then answer the question," Venom chuckles, as if this were some casual conversation. I squint up timidly to see the weapon has pulled away and the phone brought forward so dad can hear me better. "Tell him what's about to happen."

"It's a..." I swallow thickly, forcing myself to look at the phone only, as if it's some kind of lifeline. "A br-ahh..." The word comes out as a pained whimper, my face scrunched up in desperation.

"Dad, please." My voice cracks again, but I'm too panicked to care. "Please, you can't let them do this. You can't - I can't..."

"We've finally broken you all the way, kid," Venom cuts in after my voice trails off. "If you weren't his son, I might not do this." My eyes open slowly, looking up at the gang leader as a tiny flicker of hope appears. "But breaking you isn't enough."

One moment Venom is nodding, and the next Cruncher is holding my left shoulder back against the chair. I barely have time to struggle before the hot iron is pressed into my sternum.

The pain is instant. It's worse than anything I've ever felt in my life - the brand burns past layer after layer of skin, and I swear it's going to keep going through them all and into my bones. It feels like the area is literally on fire, the flames spreading outwards through my whole chest and whole body.

I can hear the sizzling, can smell my skin burning off, and if it weren't for the incessant screams being ripped from my throat, I'd probably be gagging right now.

My eyes have been pressed tightly shut, but they snap open to meet Venom's intense gaze. Surely it's been a full minute by now? They have to be done now, right? The attempts at pleading are lost in my screams as I'm unable to form any words at all. Instead I'm left wailing against the agony, unable to do anything but silently beg through tear filled eyes that Venom makes it stop.

Finally Cruncher pulls the brand away, taking another layer of skin with it. Another harsh cry is ripped from my throat before my mouth clamps shut so fast that I bite into my lip. Blood trickles down from the new injury and onto my sweat-soaked skin.

My whole body is trembling with after-shocks of pain and my own sobs. The world is spinning around me. It feels like the brand is still there, boring a hole into my chest. My eyes can't focus. I think Venom or Cruncher are saying something.

It all fades away.

Okay guys I don't know anything about branding so this is the most accurate I could get with the amount of googling I was willing to do LOL

I struggled so much with deciding what they'd do to Jughead next. I played out so many scenarios in my head and would toss them around and around trying to figure out what made the most sense/what I felt fit best with the story.

Cutting off limbs has always been a huge NO for me (don't know exactly how branding is much better?) so spoilers, no one will be losing any body parts haha. But that's obviously a big option for torture that I ruled out from the get-go.

It's also hard to motivate yourself to write an intense torture scene when you were all happy enjoying your own life, you know? So I've been working on this in bits and pieces.

I hope this chapter was worth the wait! Please let me know what you think - I'm so anxious to hear the feedback haha

Also I'm thinking next chapter will be from the perspective on the other side of the call. Let me know what you think of that idea! You guys seemed to enjoy having both perspectives of the last one.

Thank you as always for all your support! It truly means so much.