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Stiles had the advantage of remembering every single second of his life, since he was born. Well, his mom said it was an advantage, but Stiles thought it was a curse.
His first memory was of his mother, she held him in the Hospital, and whispered to him in polish. “My little treasure, you are going to be the best witch the world has ever seen.” He had just blinked at her, not really understanding what she meant. “You are going to be so good.” She smiled at him, before tapping gently against his chest, directly above his heart. “You are an Addams, Swjatoslaw, you are never going to be alone.”
After that his father had come back. The man had still been in his uniform, and smiled at his wife, before looking at his Son. “Hi Mieczyslaw.” Claudia gave him over to John, and Swjatoslaw followed the them with his eyes, before blinking up at his father.
Something deep inside him told Swjatoslaw that he couldn’t trust the man.
His childhood was a hectic time, with no place for his father. The man wasn’t home often. Claudia always told him that his father loved him, but Swjatoslaw wasn’t sure how he should believe her.
When Swjatoslaw was two, his parents argued almost daily for a week. It started one Saturday, when John had been home. He had seen Swjatoslaw and flipped out. He had screamed and raged and Claudia had screamed back. Friday, six days later, she took Swjatoslaw put him in the car and told him that they would go see her brother Gomez.
A few hours later, they pulled up in front of a dark, gloomy house. Grey stone and a black roof. Absolutely beautiful.
When his mother parked the car behind the big metal gate, the door opened and a beautiful woman stepped out, followed by a man who kinda looked like his mom, who had a black-haired girl on his arm.
“Claudia.” The man gave the girl to the woman and came running to the car.
“Gomez.” She sighed and fell into his arms. “I missed you.” The strange woman came closer and Stiles looked at her from inside the car. Her red lipstick stood out from her pale skin and her dark hair, and Swjatoslaw couldn’t help but feel, as if she looked like him, at least a little bit.
He too, had pale skin and dark hair, even though his hair was brown and not black, and her skin was much paler than his. Still.
She smiled at him and the girl in her arms cocker her head, assessed him, before giving him a small smile. The woman put the girl down on her feet and then opened the car door.
“Hello.”
“Hello, my name is Morticia, what is yours?” she was still smiling and holding out a hand at him. He thought for a moment, before taking her hand.
“Swjatoslaw.”
The kids had warmed up to each other fast, trying to spent as much time together as possible.
Swjatoslaw also met Grandmama, who wasn’t actually his grandmother, not that anyone cared, least of all Grandmama, who had declared him her grandson the second she laid her eyes on him.
She taught him all sorts of things that he needed to know, even though Swjatoslaw wasn’t sure if that was necessarily true. But it had soon be explained.
Swjatoslaw was an Addams, and a magical one at that.
Well, every Addams was magical, but while his Uncle could bend people to his will, Swjatoslaw would be able to perform actual magic, something that was very rare, even for an Addams. Uncle Gomez said that he was born for Greatness.
The Family explained things to him that no one had ever bothered to explain to him, among other things, that his father hated what they were.
He had talked his mother into giving her heritage up, to distance herself from her family and life a completely normal life in California.
Gomez refused to get into it, but it was clear, at least to Swjatoslaw, that his mother was the white sheep of the family. The abnormality, the Normal One. Which wasn’t never ever bad, Gomez had said immediately after. People need to find their own way, and they shouldn’t be afraid that their family would judge them, because a family should always support their own, no matter what that person did.
Swjatoslaw could understand that. His mother had brought him here, to meet his family, to learn his origin, so he could choose his own way with all the information that he needed. She made her side clear; he didn’t need to be what his father wanted him to be. He could choose to be like his Grandmama and his Uncle and his Aunt and his Cousin, and she would support him every step of the way.
But she also told him that it would be hard. His father had expectations that he may never be able to meet, and that he should never, under any circumstances use his abilities in the presence of his father. She hadn’t seen the look in his eyes at the mention of John, his Cousin had, and she nodded at him. At that moment, the cousins promised something to each other that no one would come to fully understand till years later.
They stayed for two weeks at the Addams Estate, and it was glorious.
When they got back to his father, the screaming stopped. Swjatoslaw didn’t know what was different than before, but he didn’t particularly care either. He had other problems.
Swjatoslaw was four when he first realized that something was seriously wrong with his mother. No, that’s wrong, he had known longer. His mother had never felt as healthy as his father, or his Aunt and Uncle, or any random passerby that Stiles encountered on the street.
He had known she was different, but he had just thought it was her being an Addams, it wasn’t till it literally hit him in the face that he knew that something was wrong.
And it did literally hit him in the face in form of his mother’s fist.
It was summer. Swjatoslaw didn’t necessarily like the weather; it was too hot and he liked being inside. It could also be that he had taken to wear darker clothes. Well, let’s rephrase, his mother gave him darker clothes ever since he had met the rest of his family. Swjatoslaw thought it was her first act of solidarity.
He still was outside, no matter the reason he didn’t like it. His mother was sitting a few feet away, reading her book with one eye on Swjatoslaw, when suddenly her whole posture changed. Swjatoslaw couldn’t really put his finger on it but she just seemed…wrong.
She stood up, looked at him and frowned with a confused smile. “Hey little man, where did you come from?”
Swjatoslaw blinked. Claudia had always been forgetful, but she had never forgotten him. Sure, she forgot the keys, or making dinner, or picking him up from a friend, but never ever she forgot that he existed.
And yet.
“Mom, are you okay?” she just kept frowning at him.
“Are you lost? If you tell me your name, I can get you back home to your parents. My Husband is a police officer, you know?” she took a step in his direction, but didn’t really seem to know what was going on.
“Swjatoslaw. Addams.” He then said. Maybe the name would help her?
It didn’t.
“That’s a beautiful name. Your mother must miss you already.” She took a step closer, and Swjatoslaw saw the exact moment that instinct took over. She looked at Swjatoslaw with something like horror and punched him square in the face.
Immediately after she had punched him, Claudia had flinched back and recognized him again, pulled him to her chest and started crying. Promising that it would never happen again. Swjatoslaw never told anyone what happened that day, only Cousin Wednesday, but he had a feeling that she had known anyway.
It happens again.
Swjatoslaw saw his mother struggling with everything. It wasn’t fun. She couldn’t remember where she put the dirty dishes, or the car keys, or the cleaning products. He was five when he learned what to meant to run a household.
John didn’t notice.
When he’s seven, he and Claudia drive back to the Addams Estate. They visit to see Uncle Fester, who miraculously returned. Swjatoslaw just hopes that his mother wouldn’t have a fit while there.
Uncle Fester is amazing. He’s happy to finally met his nephew, and even happier when he realizes just how much Swjatoslaw is an Addams. Not that it would have mattered either way. His family was amazing like that.
No one apart from Wednesday knows what’s going on, and Stiles doesn’t want it any other way. They laugh and have fun, and Grandmama shows him more magic and gives him more books and Wednesday and he play with Pugsley in the Play Room, and Aunt Morticia shows him how to season food with poison, to give it an extra edge.
Swjatoslaw had never realized how much it hurt to play Mieczyslaw.
The second they were back in California, Swjatoslaw knew that something had to change. He had promised his mother not to tell, but he just knew that something was wrong, and he had to do something, anything. So, for the first time in his life, he relied on his father to listen.
John didn’t believe him, which shouldn’t have surprised him as much as it did. The man had frowned at his Son and brushed his worries aside.
“Don’t worry, your mommy is just a little bit stressed.”
Claudia wasn’t just stressed, she was dying, slowly and painful. Swjatoslaw had finally found out why his mother felt different.
Swjatoslaw is seven when his mother calls him a monster for the first time. She underlines her words with punches.
Four years after Swjatoslaw had realized that something was wrong, other people caught on. At first it was that nice lady Melissa McCall, the mother of Swjatoslaws friend Scott. She was a nurse. She told Claudia, that maybe she should get checked out, better safe than sorry. Claudia didn’t listen.
The next one is Talia Hale. She was the mother of Swjatoslaws friend Cora. The woman was nice, if different, he could feel it. His Grandmama had said that he would be able to feel other that were like him. Different. Magic. He didn’t know what she was though, only that the rest of her family was too.
Thalia noticed that something was wrong. Maybe it was because she was different too, or maybe Claudia had just gotten that obvious. Swjatoslaw didn’t know. But she knew that something was wrong, so it didn’t really matter how she knew. She had told Claudia the same thing that Melissa had told her. That she should get checked out, just to be sure.
For some reason Claudia listened.
Frontotemporal Dementia, that was what his mother had. It was a sickness that would kill her, was already killing her. Had been for a very long time. Since April 8th, 1994 to be exact.
John was blaming Swjatoslaw.
Grandmama, Morticia and Wednesday come a few weeks after the diagnosis. Grandmama and Aunt Morticia want to try and help Claudia, even though Swjatoslaw can already tell them that it wouldn’t work.
He didn’t.
The Sickness is working fast and there is no cure. She’s in the Hospital a month after her diagnosis. Swjatoslaw hasn’t heard his name in weeks.
At eight, Swjatoslaw is a demon. At least in his mother’s eyes. She claims that he’s trying to kill her, that it’s his fault that she’s sick. That he made her sick.
Swjatoslaw knows enough about magic to know that it’s a possibility.
His mother is upset every time she sees him. He comes anyway.
Swjatoslaw can feel his mother going more and more insane, and knows what will happen before it actually happens.
She attacks him, again. But this time, she’s not only trying to get her hands on his neck to strangle him, but she reaches out with the last bit of Different in her, Magic like his own, he realizes, and tries to burn him from the inside out.
Swjatoslaw has been afraid of Fire for his whole life, he doesn’t know why, Grandmama knows but refuses to tell him. So, when his mother tries to burn him, Swjatoslaw loses control for the first and last time in his life.
Claudia Stilinski-Addams dies on the 23 of October, 2002. A month before her 30th birthday.