Miles to Go

CHAPTER ONE - FIRST BLOOD

The room was filled with crates all carrying Jingle Jangle. The blonde paced back and forth, waiting for her delivery boys to show up. It was 9:15, and this delivery was due by midnight at the latest. She had been waiting to make this deal for a while, since Clifford Blossom was pegged down from the murder case and she was put in charge of the dealing. Despite her new position of power, it was still risky dealing in this side of Riverdale.

The door behind her opened, and she turned to find a pair of Serpents walking in. One of the men she recognized (she saw him almost every night in the Whyte Wyrm), the other....was new.

"You boys are early." Penny exclaimed as she walked over to them. "I'm impressed."

"We know this deal's important to you. Besides, we need to give our new rookie here some time to know our business." Tall Boy explained as he nudged the unfamiliar man next to him. Penny smirked and eyed the stranger.

"You can refer to me as the Snake Charmer." she extended her hand out to him. He didn't take it.

"Let's just get this over with." he replied, rolling his eyes. Penny coldly brought her hand back to her side, and she walked back over to the crates, gesturing the men to follow her.

"These crates need to go to Greendale before midnight. You got other people with you?"

"Just out back, yeah."

"And only Serpents?" she asked, stopping in her tracks to glare at the men. Tall Boy glanced over at the new Serpent.

His hand began shaking. What if this goes wrong? What if she figures out why I'm really here? It was reminding him too much of what happened in....

"Hey....you alright?" Tall Boy asked him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"I'm fine." he mumbled nervously.

"Alright boys," Penny snapped her fingers at them and whirled her finger around in the air. "Let's get this shit loaded up." Tall Boy and the new Serpent began to move towards the crates. But before the new Serpent could get his hands on the crates, Penny took his arm and rolled up his sleeve to examine his forearm.

"Where's you tattoo? Aren't all Serpents supposed to have tattoos?" Shit. Is she catching onto me?

"I haven't figured out where I want it yet," the stranger spoke, pulling his arm back. He looked at Tall Boy, trying to figure out how to take this next step.

"Should we open up the garage door?" he continued, pointing to the garage door behind his partner. Penny scoffed behind him.

"Tall Boy, please tell me he's joking." She was practically chuckling. "Tell me, where exactly did you find this one?"

"Unimportant..." Tall Boy defended, which shut her up. "And he's got a point," he gestured to his partner, "our car's out back here behind this door."

"Would've been nice if you stated that earlier, dumbass." Penny brought her hands together, looking back and forth between the two men. She sighed and moved past the new Serpent towards the garage door. "Fine, just open the door, but we need to get these crates out. We are on a schedule here."

"Whenever you're ready." Tall Boy asked the Serpent. He gave Tall Boy a thumbs up, and Tall Boy pulled the chain, opening the garage door. Penny expected the lot to be empty with only their truck. Instead, she was harshly greeting with blaring red and blue lights and dozens of police officers standing outside pointing guns at her.

"Put your hands up! Stay where you are!"

"What---what the fuck is this?" Penny stuttered as she slowly lifted her hands in the air. She turned to face the new Serpent, but he brought her hands behind her back and pushed her face down onto one of the crates, handcuffing her.