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Wednesday had been trailing Xavier for close to two weeks now. She was sure that he hadn’t noticed her presence at the edges of the forest when he went to his shed.
She could hear his loud music, the splashes of paint as he violently tried to paint his feelings away. From what she could see from the small window, all of his paintings involved the Hyde in some way.
Some nights when she was close to the shed, she could hear his muffled crying. She first thought it must have been from guilt of killing so many people, even if he was following orders from a mysterious master, and not doing it out of his own free will. But as the days passed by, and a new attack happened when she had been following him, she had started to doubt her theories and even her evidence. And she hated doubting herself. So she intensified the surveillance on him, having Thing always on him, mostly lurking around his classes when their schedules weren’t the same.
She followed him as he left his shed, his panicked breathing loud enough to hide her soft steps. He was trying to call someone on his phone, and apparently the other person wasn’t picking up. He started running towards the school’s exit, and Wednesday cursed. She wouldn’t be able to keep up with him if he kept on running. He stopped by the bike’s rack, and jumped on it. She could see the terror in his expression, but she had no idea where he was going. She hoped the tracker that Uncle Fester had put on his bike was working.
“Thing, find Uncle Fester. I’ll try to not let him out of my sight. Something is happening.” Wednesday said, running as fast as she could to keep Xavier’s bike on sight. Luckily for her, he seemed unsteady on the bike, not being able to go as fast as the bike could take him. She wondered if he was trying to fight the monster, or perhaps had been poisoned.
Uncle Fester caught up with her halfway to Jericho, driving an obnoxiously decorated motorcycle with a sidecar. She jumped into the sidecar, telling him to speed up so they could keep Xavier on their eyesight. The boy seemed to be so inside his head that he didn’t hear them tailing him. Amateur, honestly.
They followed him up to the main square of Jericho, and Wednesday motioned for Uncle Fester to stop. She followed Xavier on foot up to Dr. Kimbott’s office building. She saw him leaving the bike on the curb, and just sprinting upstairs. Wednesday also sprinted up, not even bothering to try and disguise her presence anymore. She needed to keep eyes on him at all times.
When she reached the upstairs corridor, she saw that Xavier was still near the stairs, doubled over and hyperventilating. She looked around, and could see that the door had been blown off its hinges, and there were huge blood stains all over the walls, as if the monster had rubbed its paws all over them.
Wednesday moved to stand near Xavier, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out. She put her hand on his back, and moved him to sit on the stairs’ steps. She guided his head between his knees, and sat next to him, waiting for his breathing to become normal.
“The…. the monster. It could be here. She could still be alive.” Xavier gasped, turning to look teary-eyed at Wednesday. She shook her head, hesitantly putting her hand on his knee.
“Not with this amount of blood. I will call the Sheriff Department if you can lend me your phone.” Wednesday said, gripping his knee when she saw him start shivering. “We can talk this through later. I know you’re not the monster.”
Xavier wordless handed her his unlocked phone, and she quickly typed in the phone for the Sheriff department. It rang twice, and she quickly got the Sheriff himself on the line.
“Sheriff Galpin, there has been another monster attack. Dr. Kinbott’s office. I had an appointment and found her office door out of the hinges and an alarming amount of blood.” She turned off the call before he could answer, and focused on Xavier.
“Xavier, you need to tell me everything.” Wednesday stared at him, trying to urge him to say things for her, even after all the accusations she had made against him.
“I have had these dreams since the semester started. First I couldn’t see anything, I just heard screaming in the dark. Now, I see all the deaths. I tried to warn her, but she wouldn’t take me seriously. I’ve seen her die for a week now. I warned everyone. Principal Weems assured me….” Xavier couldn’t go on, tear welling on his eyes.
Wednesday had the sudden urge to shake her head, as if it would make her thoughts gather differently. She had been wrong about the identity of the monster and the master, and that left a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“I believe you. I know you’re not the monster. But I will need your help to get whoever is behind this. All my evidence pointed towards you for a reason.” Wednesday said, and almost immediately regretted it. Xavier got pale as a sheet, and he looked on the verge of passing out again.
“C’mon. Head between your knees.” Wednesday said, gently guiding him. He shook his head, trying in vain to fight her, and almost fell a step. She propped him with her shoulder, and he dropped his head on the curve of her neck. His breath tickled her, and she shivered slightly, gripping his knee. So the feeling he brought on her wasn’t the excitement of being close to a murderer after all.
They stayed this way until the Sheriff and his officers arrived. Wednesday moved to let them pass through, and Xavier wrapped her wrist in a tight grip, not wanting her to leave him behind. She gripped his hand and made him follow her down the stairs, not even looking in the Sheriff’s direction. He was either incompetent or he was inside the plot, and either way, he was useless to her. Some of his officers tried to stop them, but Wednesday barked that they needed Principal Weems to talk or it would be illegal.
She guided him to the Weathervane, and he refused to let go of her. It seemed that he latched into any bit of comfort given, especially the one given by her. For some reason she couldn’t fathom, he seemed to like her, even with her abrasive ways.
Wednesday ordered him a cup of chamomile tea and a quad for herself, letting him sit down close enough to her that their arms were squished together. He took small sips of his tea as they waited for Principal Weems to arrive, relaxing against her as he did so. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant feeling, and Wednesday let herself enjoy the close contact.
She had spent more than a month thinking that the weird tingling feeling on her stomach when she was near Xavier was simply the excitement of chasing a murderer. But now she knew that he couldn’t possibly be the monster or its master, and she still felt the same way. Wednesday took a deep breath, and started toying with the idea that she felt attracted to Xavier in a way she hadn’t felt to anyone before. She could add the signs, and it seemed like the correct conclusion. With him, she never felt the need to alter a reaction or make her walls thicker. She could just exist alongside him.
With this in mind, she dropped her hand above his where it rested on the table, and felt him jolt against her. She squeezed his hand and he seemed to almost shrink into himself, trying to get closer to her. They stayed this way until Principal Weems arrived to chauffeur them back to school with a scolding and threatening to ground them both into school for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday decided during the car ride that she would protect Xavier. He didn’t look like he could protect himself right now, not with his mind being assaulted by images and feelings so strong they left him shaking. She knew how she hated the out of control feeling she got when she had a vision, and his dreams must feel the same. Only worsened by the fact they happened when his mind was supposed to be resting. Having a rested and calm mind was one of the main goals of every psychic, because things usually turned for the worse when the mind was a mess.
Wednesday and Xavier decided to meet after classes the next day in his shed. It was far enough from other buildings that people wouldn’t listen to their plans, and Thing was going to run a perimeter around to ensure that no one was stalking the shed as Wednesday herself had done for weeks.
She decided to head back straight after her last class ended, not even waiting for dinner to be served. She wanted to take a closer look at Xavier’s paintings without him around. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel criticized, with his mind in the state it was.
When she got near the shed, Thing warned her for movement around the shed from his spot in one of the trees, and she hid behind a tree where her line of sight to the shed’s doors was clear.
She was almost shocked by who she saw leaving the shed - Tyler Galpin himself. With the past he and Xavier shared, she couldn’t think of any good reason for him to be there, or for him to be able to slip onto campus undetected. This situation ran deeper into the school than she previously thought.
When he was out of sight from the shed, she ran to the door, taking care to check for explosives of any kind. One could never be too careful. She found none, and opened the door. She motioned for Thing to start searching for any sign of disturbance. Wednesday was inspecting a row of neatly stacked paints when she saw it. The glimmer of a gold necklace.
“Thing, search for the victims belongings. They’re framing Xavier, and Tyler is on it. He fooled us with his good normie act.” Wednesday rashly said, angry at herself for trusting Tyler for so long, and at Thing for once trying to push them together.
Together, they found all of the victims belongings. Wednesday almost felt panicked. They would frame Xavier as the monster, as a serial killer who kept trophies from each person he killed. She almost laughed. The only thing that Xavier could kill was a carnivore plant, with his lack of any kind of green thumb.
She needed to find Xavier.
Xavier was still in his room, gathering his things after a shower when Wednesday found him. She was out of breath, having run all the way from the shed.
“Xavier, we need to go.” Wednesday ordered, pulling on his arm to get him to move.
“Wednesday, what…?” Xavier tried to ask, only to be shushed by her. She could hear sirens in the distance.
“There are trophies from all the monster’s victims in your shed. Tyler is framing you. You need to run and hide. They’ll search all of Nevermore for you.” Wednesday said, urging him to move out of the door.
“Tyler? The normie bully? What, Wednesday, I don’t understand!” Xavier exclaimed, letting her tug him through the school hallways towards the Nightshade’s entrance. Wednesday snapped her fingers as if she owned the place and almost shoved him down the stairs.
“Tyler was in your shed. Now there are trophies that weren’t there before. He is in on the plot to frame you for being this monster.” Wednesday said, as Xavier sat on a couch in the far back of the Nightshade’s underground space.
“I always knew he hated me, but this is crazy.” Xavier shook his head, passing one hand through his hair in a movement that Wednesday recognized as nervousness.
“I will fix this. Do you trust me?” Wednesday said, stepping in between his legs. She cupped his cheek on one of her hands, making him look at her. This was the first time he had to look up to stare at her, and she enjoyed the feeling.
“I trust you with my life, Wednesday.” Xavier breathed out, nudging into her hand as if a touch-starved kitten.
She looked intensely at him, and caressed his cheek, bending to press her lips against his. He gasped against her mouth, and she smirked, kissing him again. His hands rested on her hips, hugging her to him as she gently kissed him. Even as she felt the urge to press harder into the kiss, she kept it infinitely gentle for him. With a final press of her lips, she straightened out, passing a hand through his hair.
He looked at her with big round eyes, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. The smile she let free was almost feral, and he shivered against her.
“They will regret the day they tried to frame you. Now you stay here, and don’t worry. I will fix it for you.” Wednesday said, untangling his arms from her waist. He picked her hand and pressed a kiss against the back of it, seeming to bask in her touch.
“Thank you, Wednesday.” Xavier breathed out, looking at her.
She couldn’t resist a final press of her lips to his. It was addicting, the way he looked at her as if she was the Goddess herself. Giving herself a moment to savor him, she backed down, and marched up the stairs without looking back.
The people behind this would woe the day they tried to hurt someone under her protection.