FRONT PAGE ☆ SWEET PEA

FOUR

"what are you doing here in the middle of the night, princess?"
chapter four — an old friend

That familiar feeling of home as she walked through the Southside? Gone, now replaced by Debbie's fear for her life and disgust of what she kept running into as she hurried back to the North side of Riverdale. Maybe it was a bad idea to walk all the way to the trailer park, at the Southside of all places, in the middle of the night, alone. And with a serial killer on the loose.

Out of all the stupid things Debbie had ever done, this was probably at the top of her list. She used to laugh at horror movie characters who ran into the night, unprotected, when there was a killer roaming around. Now, she was hit with the realization that she could be in her very own horror movie.

"Stop being dramatic, Debbie." Debbie angrily hushed to herself, her shoes clicking down on the pavement as she walked faster, having heard a weird sound a few feet behind. "Probably just a cat."

"I don't know about you, girlie, but I sure as hell don't look like a cat." Suddenly, as swift as the night, a dark figure loomed over her, eyes menacingly judging and almost mocking her. He bore what seemed to be a small pocket knife, and Debbie gulped as he placed it closer to her, almost touching her neck. "You seem too soft to be from the Southside. You a Northsider?"

"I'm not soft." She gritted under her teeth, hands slowly escaping to her purse to grab the pepper spray from her pocket, but he noticed, instantly ripping the bag from her shoulder and throwing it the other way. There goes her chances of escaping. "If it's money you want, I'll give it, just let me-"

The man laughed, booming with pure, unfiltered hilarity twice the volume his voice was, and she shook, fear taking over her once more. This man was insane. "I don't want your filthy, privileged money. I need to earn my stripes for a group called the Ghoulies. Ever heard of them?"

"So you're gonna kill an innocent girl to, what," Debbie forced herself to chuckle. She was trying to stall him. Maybe someone would notice and help, though why would anyone help a Northsider? "Get through a sadistic initiation process? It's a bit tacky, don't you think? And what kind of name is Ghoulies anyway? I-It sounds like a group of necrophiliacs, if you ask me to be honest-"

"I know what you're doing, and it's not gonna work." He laughed once again. "No one's gonna come here to save you, girlie."

"You sure about that?" A voice rang out throughout the barren street. Both Debbie and the man were confused and startled. Neither of them believed that anyone would come there to save her. But someone did, and he stepped out into the cruel light, revealing who this "savior" was. And damn.

He was hot as hell.

Her captor seemed to recognize him, because he rolled his eyes and tightened his grip on Debbie. "Go away, Sweet Pea."

"Sweet Pea" chuckled darkly as he approached them, and with each step, Debbie felt her heartbeat thunder and shake. There was such intensity in his eyes that she couldn't even describe, a small smirk that didn't just say trouble. It screamed trouble with a promise. Somehow, she became more nervous than the man currently holding and threatening to kill her. The man noticed his quickening steps and panicked, bringing his knife even closer to her neck, slightly cutting her, "She's mine!"

In a flash, Sweet Pea brought out his own man, his being more menacing and sharper as he brought it up to the man holding her. "Technically, you're on Serpent territory. Everything and everyone on our territory is," He goes closer to the two. "Ours. But of course, you didn't know that right? Bet your little Ghoulie druggies didn't warn you about the consequences of trying to spill blood in front of one of our bars." Once again, he paused, waving his knife threateningly at the ghoulie. "Leave. Or else I'll get the rest of the Serpents out here to beat the skeleton out of you."

The man hesitantly nodded, dropped the knife, and ran as fat as he possibly could away from Debbie. Debbie winced at the pain in her neck, but picked up her discarded purse, whispering a small thanks to her rescuer. She could feel him staring daggers into her and for some reason, she was deeply bothered by it. He simply stood there, as if examining her. She hoped he was kidding about the "owning" part earlier.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night, princess?" The guy cocked his head at her silence, Debbie merely turning around and beginning to make her leave. "Or should I say Deborah Cooper?"

Suddenly, she froze. Slowly turning around to face Sweet Pea, she saw him smugly smirking, as if he discovered a gold mine. "How the hell do you know my name?"

"Let's see." Sweet Pea put up one of his fingers. "You're the niece of one of Alice Cooper, who basically gets off on accusing the Southside of everything, you're on a massive, somewhat creepy, picture hanging on one of Riverdale's town hall galleries, and your driver's license, which is still lying scattered on the ground says, 'Deborah Gertrude Coo-'"

"Okay, okay! I get it. Listen," She neared closer to him, each word she spoke next dripping with venom. "If you tell anyone that I was wandering around the Southside like some sort of B-List horror movie character," she was basically nose to nose with him at this point, "I'll personally come here and rip that smug little smile on your lips right off. Got it, Sweet Tea?"

"Sweet Pea."

"Do I look like I care?" Debbie picked up her driver's license and with a slight flip of her hair (she was dramatic that way), continued with her way back home, hoping to erase her encounter with the Serpent from her mind, which would later prove to be fruitless.

Meanwhile, Sweet Pea watched as she disappeared around the corner. After a couple moments, Fangs popped his head out of the bar, confused. "You okay, Sweet Pea?"

The young Serpent headed towards his friend, shaking his head and smiling gleefully, "I was just saying hello to an old friend."