Second Chances [Sweet Pea x OC]

Chapter 45

"So, why am I here again?" I asked, from where I sat in the Serpent HQ.

"We need your brain," Jughead said.

"Great answer, very helpful," I said sarcastically, handing back the leather bound book I'd been flipping through.

The Gospel of the Gargoyle King. Jughead had found it hidden in a seat cushion earlier while checking out an old Southside High bus at Junkyard Steve's with FP. Meanwhile, Betty was standing in front of the murder board she'd arranged in the corner. Or was it an un-murder board, considering she thought the Black Hood was still alive and working with the Gargoyle King?

"There's a lot of mythical stuff in this Gospel," Jughead said, opening the book in his lap. "The Gargoyles were thought to be evil spirits that lived in the clouds, preying on people," he explained as Betty walked over to sit in the armchair, listening.

"So the Gryphon Queen turned them to stone. They fell from the Kingdom and shattered when they hit the earth," I continued. Someone had put a lot of thought into the book, with the detailed narrative and drawings that filled it. I hadn't seen an author noted anywhere, and it seemed too sacrilegious to have been written and published by the Sisters, even as twisted as they were.

Betty shook her head. "Jug, Abigail, all this lore builds up the Gargoyle King to be some kind of supernatural creature, but this guy is just a serial killer. Just like my dad," Betty said, a somewhat lost look in her eyes. "The Black Hood was flesh and blood, and so is the Gargoyle King. Which means," she said, walking back to her board to pull off her father's picture, "that he can die."

Jughead watched her with a worried look on his face.

"Betty, if you need a couple of days, you can take a break," I offered. "We can look into all this for you."

"No, I need to keep moving," she replied, returning to her seat. "I just want this to end."

Jughead and I exchanged looks, for once thinking the same thing. He leaned forward, picking up his phone from the table as it dinged. "It's Dr Curdle Jr. He's got the results from Kurtz's autopsy for us."

I followed Jughead and Betty into the morgue. Betty handed an envelope over to Curdle, who quickly made it disappear before getting right down to it.

Leading us to a nearby table, he pulled back the sheet revealing three tattoos on Kurtz's back. "Judging by the healing, I'd say Mr Kurtz got these tattoos last month," Curdle said.

"Yet again, the same symbols that were carved into Ben, Dilton, and Baby Teeth," Betty said.

"Well, the Gospel says that you need these markings in order to be sent to the Kingdom," Jughead said, stepping closer to take a picture of them.

Kurtz had tried to Ascend once before, when Jughead and the Serpents raided the apartment building, and he'd been ready to run away the night he'd been killed. "Maybe these tattoos are Kurtz's way of trying to slip his way in," I said, looking towards Betty.

She nodded in response. "Whoever gave him these tattoos could be a new lead."

After following Betty and Jughead around town to various tattoo shops, I took charge and forced the pair to stop at a place that nearly blended in with the surrounding shops. "Kurtz wouldn't risk going somewhere he might be recognized, he'd go somewhere more out of the way."

"We've struck out everywhere else," Jughead said. "Might as well try somewhere random."

The walls were covered with pictures of past work, some more impressive than others. "Got IDs?" A man asked. "Gotta be 18 or over to get inked." It also helped if you knew the right people or flashed enough cash, but that wasn't what we were here about today.