Collateral Damage ▻ Riverdale [1]

1.28

THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
July 11, 2017

It was Queenie's birthday. It was her seventeenth birthday. Yet, she wasn't here to spend it with Jughead and her father like they all planned.

FP hadn't been himself during the past week after hearing about his daughter's 'death'. The story was, she, Cheryl and Jason went on a boat ride on July Fourth and Jason went to get Cheryl's glove in the water, but the boat ended up tipping. Cheryl had made it to the shore, but Jason and Queenie didn't.

  FP was a complete mess nonetheless. He hadn't slept in days and he hadn't answered the calls of any of the Southside Serpents. He even got a few calls from Jughead, but he didn't answer those either, which he probably should have.

   He was beyond depressed. He lost his daughter. The only person who truly cared about him after everything their family had been through. FP looked down at the coffee table in the living room. There was a picture laying face down. He picked it up to see that it was a picture of Queenie, Jughead and Jellybean.

   He remembered that day like it was just yesterday. It was the last day they had the family altogether before Jughead's Mom moved to Toledo, taking Jellybean along with her.

They had all gone to the Drive in together, Jughead and Jellybean hid in the trunk and waited to come back out when they parked while Queenie just snuck in to the drive in. She had a secret entrance that she wouldn't tell anyone else about. She would always use it to go watch the movies on her own. FP remembered Jughead and Jellybean spending the whole movie questioning Queenie about where her secret entrance was, but she would never budge, saying it was top secret and maybe one day, they would get the chance to know.

  FP had tears welled in his eyes when he looked up at the guitar case that was laying on the couch. It was a brand new acoustic guitar FP bought Queenie for her seventeenth birthday. He had been planning to get it for her for months, but Queenie never knew this because she was never home. She was always with Jason.

   FP was sad that he never got to say goodbye, the last time he saw her was two days before her dispearance. Two days. He wondered, was he even a good father? What kind of father doesn't see his kid for two days and thinks it's okay?

FP's sadness was channeled into rage and went over to the case, taking out the guitar before smashing it into the wall. Within seconds, it was smashed.

Next came the coffee table. He flipped that thing without any effort in a fit of rage. Within minutes, the whole living room and kitchen was trashed. FP thought it would have made him feel better, but it didn't. It didn't help him at all. It just made him even more depressed.

FP walked over to the refrigerator and took out a beer. He stared down at the bottle for a moment and didn't feel as beer was the kind of liquor that would make him feel better at this moment.

He sighed before opening up one of the kitchen cabinets and took out his bottle of whiskey. It was one he had had since forever but never found himself having the chance to drink it.

He was more of a beer kind of guy, not one to drink hard liquors as much. He usually only drank that stuff when he wanted to blow off steam, this being one of those occasions. FP twisted the cap off the glass bottle of whiskey before placing it to his lips.

   He didn't even bother to get a glass, he just drank it straight from the bottle. It was clear, FP Jones was in deep pain and sorrow, grieving her daughter's supposed death.

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   Just an hour later, FP was called in by Mustang about a clean up job at the Wyrm. The ended up having a bit of trouble with a guy who supposedly wronged them and it got pretty ugly.

FP didn't ask any questions since he was the leader and all, which meant he had to clean up. He wouldn't want any investigations with the Serpents on his hands. In these kinds of predicaments, Queenie was the one who always offered to help him, even when he protested, she would still insist on helping. But now she wasn't here to.

FP ended up calling Joaquin to help. The duo made their way to the basement of the Whyte Whyte to see Jason Blossom's body on the floor, a bullet wound to his head.

"Oh, my God," Joaquin muttered quietly, "Jason." He stated, clearly remembering this boy as Queenie's Northside boyfriend, the one who supposedly drowned along with Queenie at Sweetwater River.

   FP shared the same worried look that Joaquin had. He might have hated this Blossom boy for taking his daughter away from him, but he still cared. He was just glad Queenie wasn't here to see it. He wondered how the hell Jason ended up being at the Wyrm when he supposedly drowned along with Queenie at Sweetwater River a week before.

   But maybe FP was wrong with the facts. After all, he did cut himself off from everyone for a whole week.

   After the two males cleaned up the body and placed it in the basement's freezer, they began to clean up the blood on the ground with mops.

   Joaquin frowned when he found a familiar necklace on the basement ground. He picked it up and took a closer to look at it to see that it was Queenie's, "What's that?" FP spoke up, noticing that Joaquin was examining something, which he was holding in his right hand as he stared at it.

   Joaquin lifted it up and hung it from his fingers to show the elder Serpent, "It's Queenie's necklace. She used to have a ring attached to it."

"Let me see," FP insisted as Joaquin quickly handed FP Queenie's necklace.

   FP eyed the necklace and sighed when he instantly recognized it, "Yeah, it is. It used to have a two headed serpent attached to it until Hot Dog chewed it off and ate it about a year ago. She insisted on still wearing the chain and said that she find something to attach to it as a replacement sooner or later." FP explained and Joaquin looked at him shocked.

"Then, why was it with Jason's body?" Joaquin asked confused.

"I don't know," FP replied, "But Queenie never takes it off. Why would it be here?"

AN: And here is the start of the suspicions about Queenie's disappearance. This chapter is FP and Joaquin. The next will be Jughead, who has the most suspicions and a small part of it will be Sweet Pea, who grieving to a maximum.