Collateral Damage ▻ Riverdale [1]

1.29

THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
July 11, 2017

Jughead sat at a booth at a Pop's, eying the text he had gotten from the unknown number. He read it over and over and still couldn't believe what he was reading.

  Jughead,

  Your sister is still alive and breathing. And I know exactly where she is. Nothing is as it seems.

- Unknown

  It was so brief, but it still had him beyond shaken. How could Queenie still be alive? Could this have just been a lie?

Jughead sighed as he grabbed him phone and laptop before heading out the door. He knew then that he would do anything and everything in his power to find out where his sister really was and what happened to her exactly.

————

On the Southside of town, Sweet Pea stood in his trailer, basically going crazy with this theory that Queenie was still alive while Fangs, Toni, and Mandy hesitantly listened to him. They didn't really believe him, but because he was their friend and all, they just decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I can't believe you guys don't believe me! I swear to God, I know she's alive. I just know it." He complained and Toni sighed.

"Sweet Pea, Queenie's gone. We're all depressed about it, but you can't be stuck on this forever. She's gone, she's not coming back." Toni told him sadly and Sweet Pea shook his head.

   Just as he was about to start arguing with the girl, Joaquin barged into the Tall Serpent's trailer without even bothering knock before entering .

    He was out of breath and took a minute to catch it before he finally began to speak to his friends, "Sweet Pea, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're right."

"What?" The whole group said in unison, completely shocked by his statement.

"It's kind of confidential and all, and I'll probably get murdered if I told too much, but FP and I found Queenie's necklace in the basement of the Whyte Wyrm like an hour ago."

"The necklace that Hot Dog ate the two headed snake off of?" Mandy asked and Joaquin nodded his head in response.

"Wait, the same exact one that had the ring Jason proposed to her with attached to it?" Fangs asked him concerned and Joaquin nodded once again.

"Look, guys, believe me when I say this, Queenie never takes that thing off. And if it was lost, it should be lost in Sweetwater River, not all the way on the Southside of town. Do any of you guys know if she was wearing it on July second? The last day we saw her alive? Because that was the last time she was at the Wyrm."

"She was," Sweet Pea replied, "But she left the bar with it still on."

   The whole group have Sweet Pea a questioning look, and he only scoffed loudly, "What? I pay attention to details." He argued in a calm tone and they all nodded their heads in response.

"Wait, shouldn't her ring be attached to it, then?" Mandy spoke up.

"Yeah, it actually should." Joaquin agreed with her before he started to become confused.

"Then, where the hell is it?" Mandy said quietly.

••••

   At the Whyte Wyrm, FP roughly slammed Mustang's back against the basement's wall. He held Mustang by the collar of his jacket with one hand while he used the other to hold up Queenie's gold necklace, "Can you tell me why the hell my daughter's necklace was laying beside that Blossom Boy's body, Mustang? And you better answer truthfully, understand me?" FP questioned angrily.

"I already told you the first time, FP, I don't know. She could have just lost it or something when she was down her one day." Mustang replied and FP pushed him backwards against the wall yet again.

"And why the hell would she be down here in the first place, Mustang? Huh? She doesn't go down here! Nobody does!" FP argued, growing fed up with the Serpent.

"Maybe the Blossom boy had it. I said I don't know, FP. Calm the hell down!"

"Calm down?" FP asked with attitude, "Calm down? Are you seriously asking me to calm down right now? My daughter supposedly drowned along with Jason Blossom in Sweetwater River exactly a week ago, but here I find him shot in the head in my bar's basement while Queenie's necklace, which might I add, she never takes off, is lying beside his damn body!" FP shouted angrily, "Now you better start talking, Mustang! Right now! You hear me?"

  Within weeks, all of Queenie's closest loved ones were all on a search to find out what really happened to her. All of them not knowing that each and every one of them were finding the same exact clues and getting nowhere. There was one who got extremely close. It was Jughead.

   Jughead had everything he needed to find out what happened to his sister on his computer when Cliff Blossom walked past his booth at Pop's and 'accidentally' tripped, causing him to spill his large cup of coffee all over Jughead's laptop. Jughead ended up losing all of his data and evidence about his older sister because he never got to finish putting it on a hard drive like he did with his novel.

Jughead ended up also finding out numerous things about his sister that he never knew before beginning of his search: Her rape, her plan to runway, even the true identity of Queenie's real mother, who happened to live in Greendale with a daughter of her own that was a little bit younger than Jughead.

   And I might guess that's where the next part of the story would start: Greendale during the night of Riverdale High's back to school semi-formal dance. Also know as the night where Jason's dead body was found.

AN: There it is, I'm finally done with part one of this story. I already have chapter one done for part two, I'll post it after editing it up a bit. I hope you keep reading.