Stardust // Reggie Mantle (3)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Caia knew Jughead was taking care of recruiting the Ghoulies, so she tried to put it out of her mind. Jughead was entering with the promise of freedom from the law. However, it would turn out that there was only one Ghoulie left. The rest had been drafted into a more dangerous gang. The Gargoyles.

Those members drafted, if gone through with, would turn out to much more dangerous for Caia than she had originally anticipated. But she knew nothing of it.

In fact, she was more focused on trying to keep Archie from killing himself. She got dressed up, like she was going to have done to go to Le Bonne Nuit, and made her way to Archie's boxing gym. Fights, apparently, were black tie affairs.

Caia caught sight of Archie preparing and made her way towards him. However, she snuck herself into a hidden corner when she saw Ellio approach Archie. What was he doing here?

"Glad you decided to show, Archie," Ellio exclaimed happily. "Wise man."

Archie stopped punching the air and lowered his fists. "Yeah," he agreed, turning to Ellio. "But I'm not taking the fall Ellio." Caia's eyes widened. Archie had taken her advice after all.

Ellio looked livid. "What are you trying to prove, Archie?" He spat. "Go down in round three like we decided, and everyone walks out happy. And in one piece." Ellio's threat made Caia shiver. Archie, though, didn't seem fazed.

He turned away from Ellio and strode away. He breezed past Ellio's fighter, who looked very intimidating and scary, to grab something from his locker. He made his way back to Ellio and pressed the parcel of cash to Ellio's chest.

"Deal's off."

As much good as Archie thought he was doing, Ellio would never back down with that kind of behavior. Ellio, like a rattlesnake, would only become more agitated by needless moments. It was only a matter of time before he struck.

Caia's assumptions seemed to be correct as Ellio turned to Randy Ronson, the other fighter. "You heard the man," He spoke. "Kill him."

Caia turned on her heel to go find Archie. She had to warn him, or at least tell somebody what was happening. However, In her haste she tripped over a trash can and almost sent herself flying to the floor.

And just with her luck, Ellio, who was walking past at that moment, turned at the commotion. He gave the girl before him a once over, and immediately recognized her from Veronica's casino night.

Ellio smirked. "Do I know you?" He questioned, making his way over to Caia.

Caia regained her footing, smoothing out her dress. "No," She lied. "No, I don't think so." She turned to walk away only for Ellio to grab her arm.

"Not so fast," He hissed. "You know Veronica Lodge, don't you?" Caia's lack of a response gave Ellio his answer. "Is Andrews your boy, huh?" Caia glared at Ellio.

"Wouldn't you like to know," She spat.

Ellio smirked. "I'm assuming you heard that exchange," He began. "So, unless you have a couple million dollars to pay off some bets, you're not going anywhere or telling anyone anything."

With that, Ellio yanked on Caia's arm, pulling her behind him. Caia internally groaned. This was less than ideal.

*

Caia had been reluctantly relegated to sitting right next to Ellio in the front row, near Randy's corner. He was not letting her out of his sight. In fact, he hadn't let go of her wrist. She figured to other people it looked like they were holding hands, which was probably why no one had said anything.

The round one sign was held up. Caia watched Keller give Archie a pep talk before he and Randy made their way to the center of the ring. Caia tried to settle herself with the fact that if Keller was here, Archie would most likely be okay.