Chapter Text
Wednesday’s breaths come in staccatos. Her side burns and her vision is blurry. She can feel her lungs pleading for oxygen, which she desperately tries to deliver but for some pathetic reason Wednesday Addams forgot how to breathe.
She crawls on her neck and when her efforts for air seem unfruitful and an uncharacteristic sob builds up in her throat, Wednesday thanks all the dark forces that she is currently the only occupant of their shared dorm. Her bubbly and energetic roommate should currently be on a long-anticipated date with Ajax. Wednesday has listened to Enid ramble about it for hours and Thing swears he had even seen the werewolf wagging her tail. At the time, the pigtailed girl was very excited for the prospect of having couple hours to herself. Blissful silence for continuing her novel about the challenges and woes of Viper.
Little did she now her personal time will be spent crouching on the floor trying to stop the trembling in her body.
Wednesday doesn’t fully grasp how she has found herself in this position. One moment she is by her desk, angling her body in the chair to retrieve a fresh stack of papers for her typewriter, the other she is on the floor. The fallen chair by her side and with spikes of pain going through her left shoulder and lower abdomen. Trembling. Gasping for air.
Yes, she certainly was lucky nobody could see this dreadful display of weakness.
Thing isn’t in the room either. The limb is probably in one of the uncountable secret passages at Nevermore, enjoying his time getting to know more of the school’s secrets. Wednesday can’t really blame him; these hidden ways can probably rival the ones back home at the Addams mansion, except maybe with less ghosts and torture rooms. A blatant disadvantage if you ask her.
Willing to regain the control of her body, Wednesday feels her fists ball up and tighten. Her black nails bite into the soft skin of her palm and for some reason this new pain feels more real than the unnerving jolts in places, where she was hurt by a vengeful pilgrim mere months ago.
Wednesday concentrates on it.
And agonizingly slow she feels the tension leave her form, lungs finally capable to expand to their full potential.
Then she carefully stands up, collects the scattered sheets and rightens her chair. There. As if this abnormality never happened. The only evidence of her moment of weakness are the angry, reddish indents in forms of crescent moons on the insides of her palms.
_
Enid returns hours later with Thing on her shoulder, excitingly retelling him the details of her evening. She opens the door and finds Wednesday by her typewriter. But instead of the typical loud typing Enid hears nothing. Brows furrowed, she strains her werewolf ears… and there it is: An eerie silence if not for the controlled, almost pained, deep breaths taken by her roommate.
The other girl clearly hasn’t noticed the presence of Thing and Enid in the room. Her posture is even more rigid than usual, and Enid can see from where she stands, that Wednesday is clenching and unclenching her fists. Fidgeting. Wednesday Addams never fidgets.
Enid feels Thing’s grip tightening on her shoulder. He is worried.
“…Howdy roomie?”
And now Enid knows that something is amiss. Because Wednesday flinches and looks to the entrance door. For a moment while her eyes tried to recognize the intruder, Enid sees it:
Wednesday looks scared.
And Enid is suddenly overfilled with this urge to help and make things right again. To fix this. Because Wednesday Addams never fidgets or flinches. And she is never scared.
But as soon as her roommates’ eyes fall on Enid, all emotion is gone. And her gaze is as unmoving and unfeeling as usual.
“Enid, welcome back. I suppose your meeting with the gorgon went well?”, black eyes stare into blue and Enid recognizes the challenge in them. Don’t even dare to mention what you now witnessed, or you’ll regret it.
But maybe it is not a threat, but a plea.
And like a fool Enid listens. Tells herself, that she is just worrying over nothing. That Wednesday is fine, because the alternative is so unthinkable and scary to her that it is so much easier to take this bate. To listen to the plea.
And so, she tells Wednesday all about Ajax and the date. And tries to forget rigid posture, scared eyes and pained breaths.