The Game

3 - Jughead Jones - 3

'Your goal is to lead the Serpents to victory in a battle against the Gholies,' Pop Tate told me over the counter of his diner.

After leaving the diner, I immediately headed to the Whyte Wyrm, knowing that lots of the Serpents would be there.

However, when I walked in there was only a few people.

Joaquin, Tall boy and my dad were the only ones inside.

'The Gholies are going to attack us because they want the Wyrm, we need to get everyone together,' I shouted, they all turned to look at me.

'Are you sure, boy?' My father asked.

'Positive,' I assured.

'Right, Joaquin and Tall boy go and get the rest of the Serpents, Jughead, we'll prepare weapons,' he ordered, taking control.

Joaquin and Tall boy left to do their job then I turned to look at my father.

'What can we use for weapons? There's nothing here!' I exclaimed, exasperated.

'Go and gather thick sticks from outside,' he told me.

I went outside and could only find small, useless twigs at first but beneath those were bigger ones, they should be useful.

Loaded up with sticks, I went back inside.

I was surprised when I saw around 30 Serpents in the Wyrm, I'd only been gone for around ten minutes.

Putting the sticks on the bar, I looked over to where my dad was directing Serpents.

'Go outside and smash the ends of those bottles,' he told Sweetpea and Fangs. 'Everyone who doesn't have a weapon yet, grab a stick,' he ordered, I stepped out of the way of the crowd headed towards the pile of sticks that were next to me.

'Okay, so this is the plan,' he began, addressing all of the Serpents, 'if you have a broken bottle, you will stand on the outside and throw them at the Gholies.

'If you have a knife or a close range weapon, you will make up the front row of the gang, and if you have a stick, you will stand further back and act as a secondary defence line. Any questions?' He asked the crowd.

'What about me?' I asked, I didn't have any weapon.

'Jughead, boy, you will be our leader, you will lead us in then stand to the side and help anyone who is injured,' he told me. That was normally his job.

As the Serpents started to head outside, I saw Betty come running in.

'Betty, you can't be here!' I told her.

'I heard about the fight, I came to help,' she said, a determined look in her eyes.

Deciding that it wouldn't be a major risk, I allowed her to lead the gang into battle with me, there'd be less chance of her getting injured that way.

Once we were all in position with Betty and I at the front, we heard a stampede heading towards us. It was the Gholies.

'Good luck Serpents, do your best,' I said as Betty and I headed to the side.

Penny Peabody was leading the other gang, and she stepped to the opposite side.

There was about an even number of Serpents to Gholies, so we definitely had a good chance at winning.

I felt a hand slide into mine, and I realised that it was Betty's. She interlaced our fingers and began to rub smooth circles above my thumb.

It dawned on me that she'd probably never seen a fight like this before and when I looked over to her, the fear in her eyes was evident.

The fight continued for about ten minutes until there were over double the amount of Serpents left standing than Gholies.

A gunshot went off. Everyone stopped fighting and looked over to where it had come from. It was Penny.

'I say that this was unfair,' she began, looking me straight in the eyes, 'this was your home turf, so you had the upper hand.

'I think we should have a rematch, but this time it should just be us two, Jones, one on one, no weapons, a fight to the death.'

I thought about it. She was smaller than me and without weapons it should be easy to beat her.

'Fine. I'll do that,' I said. A gasp erupted from the crowd.

Betty squeezed my hand reassuringly.

I stood close to the Wyrm and Penny stood opposite me. We were about ten metres apart.

My father shot the gun into the air, signalling the start of the fight.

She ran towards me and took a shot at my face with her fist, but I managed to dodge and jabbed her in the stomach instead.

Whilst she was doubled over in pain, I took the opportunity to punch her face, which knocked her to the ground.

That was even easier than I'd anticipated.

I jumped on top of her, pinning her down and placing my thumb on her throat, blocking her airway slightly.

'Say goodbye to the world, Peabody,' I snarled as I applied more pressure to her throat.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you,' she whispered, struggling to say anything.

'Give me one good reason not to,' I said, keeping the pressure on her throat.

'Because I have something you want,' she told me, her voice husky from the lack of oxygen.

I took my finger off her throat but kept her pinned down.

'What do you have?' I asked, confused.

'Let me go and I'll tell you,' she ordered. I let her sit up. 'You won this fight, Jones, but you won't win the next one.'

~~~

'So I won?' Cole asked, confused.

'Yeah, you won,' Derek told him, a smile on his face, 'but in the next round she'll tell you what it is that you would want from her.

~~~

Author's Notes:

What do you think Penny has that Jughead wants?
Or do you think she just said that so he'd let her go?
Thanks for reading, please vote and comment if you enjoyed it!! 🖤🤍