The Serpent Queen

Chapter Thirty One

Jughead had decided it was his job to go and lecture Mayor McCoy about how unfairly she was treating the Serpentsover the Pickens Head fiasco. He was now convinced Hiram Lodge was the mastermind behind everything and was bribing the Mayor. Now, his mission was to find the statue head and save the trailer park.

FP and I had slightly bigger things to worry about. Penny Peabody had returned and was out for blood. We were in the Wyrm ready to hear her out when Jughead came in.

'Did you really think you'd seen the last of me?' she asked him with a smirk.

'What's the snake charmer doing here? Dad? Crystal?' Jughead questioned.

'Tall Boy brought her in' I told him softly 'Says she can help us'

FP refused to look either of us in the eye and I knew he was furious with us both.

'We don't need Penny's kind of help' Jughead argued.

'You don't get a say anymore' Tall Boy told him, 'Not since you broke Serpent law and hurt one of our own. Penny was about to tell your dad all about it'

I started to panic a little incase Penny mentioned me, well, of course she was! I wasn't gonna escape from this easily. Penny banged her arm down on the table to show off the scar that was left where her Serpent tattoo had been removed.

'That used to be my Serpent tattoo' Penny told FP who looked disgusted 'Until your son sliced a chunk out of my arm and left me bleeding in a ditch in Greendale'

She didn't mention me which made me very suspicious but I stayed quiet as FP buried his head in his hands and Penny continued to talk.

'But I'm still willing to help the Serpents. Tall Boy showed me those eviction notices. They're legit. But luckily, I can think of about forty one different ways to stall the process'

'What's your price Penny?' I spoke up again from where I was stood next to Sweet Pea.

'Blood for blood' she answered, 'An eye for an eye. I want back in with the Serpents and I want him kicked out'

FP looked devastated as he lent back in his chair.I went over to him so I was stood behind his chair.

'Oh yeah, one last thing. I want his tattoo carved off and I want to do it myself. With a dirty knife' she decided.

Jughead stormed out of the Wyrm as we carried on discussing the matter. Penny and Tall Boy were pushing hard for Jugheads banishment but the rest of us were trying to come up with a lesser sentence for the kid which still made him see the error of his ways. We eventually settled on having a vote, Jughead versus Penny.

'I need to go talk to Jughead' FP muttered and left the Wyrm, the rest of us separated off into little groups.

'We screwed p' I muttered to Sweet Pea and Fangs once I'd reached them.

'No, Crystal, it was the right thing to do at the time' Fangs reassured me, 'No-one would've seen this coming'

'Come on Queen, we'll stay at mine tonight' Sweet Pea offered me and Fangs which we gladly accepted.

I texted dad so he knew where I was and got ready to chill with Sweet Pea and Fangs. I needed a stress free night and I think they did as well so we ordered take out and watched movies late into the night.

We woke up tangled together on the couch and after pushing Sweet Pea onto the floor and moving away from Fangs, I decided to go and see FP and see how he was coping with the Penny and Jughead situation.