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Cobblestones and an unusual smell made Enid immediately uncomfortable as she was pulled along by her mother's strong grip on her wrist. She had recently turned six; and the day after her birthday her mom packed her into a car, leaving her older brother and sister, as well as her many younger siblings, in the care of her already tired father. Her mom didn't answer when she asked where they were going, but the drive took so long she fell asleep while colouring in her new book.
"Mommmm…" she complained, stomping a little, "where are we gooooing?"
Esther muttered under her breath but didn't answer, as they had stopped opposite a small cottage, detached from the surrounding buildings.
"We are here for a viewing, Enid. Like your brother and sister before, to see if all will be well in your near future!"
Esther spoke like this was a good thing, but Enid worried her bottom lip, switching to her hand and nibbling on the side of her palm. Knowing the future could be scary, what if she wasn't nice in the future? What could she do?
"Stop biting yourself, you'll get scars, and boys don't find them attractive."
For whatever reason this made Enid scowl, looking the spit of her mother, who didn't notice as she knocked on the door. Enid found herself staring at one of the haunting gargoyles clutching the roof edge with its hooked claws, so she jumped when the door opened.
"Oh. Sinclair."
Her mom spread a painful smile across her lips and pulled Enid closer.
"Darla. We are ready for another viewing."
"You didn't think to call first?"
"I told you the date when she was born, not my fault it slipped your mind."
The woman, Darla, frowned even deeper at Esther, and the two began a quick back and forth Enid didn't care to keep up with. Instead she studied this strange woman.
She had dark skin and hair, which was done in a kinky twist, with several beads and gems woven in. She was slightly shorter than her mother, but held herself taller with her presence, hands clasped over her stomach, making Enid enthralled by her many rings and long nails, each coloured a different shade of pink. This brought her to her eyes, which matched her nails, as they too were a hot pink shade, flickering over Enid's face questioningly.
Oh, she asked me a question!
As she didn't know the answer, she felt her own question would be less rude.
"Why do you have gargoyles?" She asked, and Darla smiled wide, showing off one fanged tooth.
"They keep demons and dark spirits from entering my property. They usually work."
Enid didn't know why her mom huffed in annoyance when Darla's eyes pointedly landed on her.
"Let us go, then."
The room smelled like her aunt's smoking sticks, making Enid pause a moment before her mom dragged her inside. Taxidermy creatures littered the walls alongside newspaper clippings and thick books, piled high and most likely dangerous. There was an old box TV, paintings on the wall and a bead curtain they walked through, making Enid giggle quietly at the colours and faces in the pattern.
"How are you, Enid?" The woman asked as they settled in the back room, which was small with no natural light, several candles lining the wall and flickering about.
"I'm sleepy," she complained, not looking at her mom, "and confused, but I like your house and your hair! So I think this will be fun!"
Darla smiled and rested her hand across the table, patting it twice in her direction.
"Never let anyone tell you hair cannot be fun, little wolf. Do you want me to explain what is going to happen?"
Enid nodded her head, legs swinging from the seat and joined at the ankles. Darla leant back and pulled away a sheet, revealing a crystal ball filled with slowly swirling smoke.
"I'm a seer, Enid. Your mother insists I use my gift to look into her children's future, to see what is to come. Normally I would disagree, but your mother-"
"Made a deal." Esther cut in, and pink eyes rolled.
"Yes. A deal. Is this something you are comfortable with, Enid? Seeing glimpses of your future?"
Enid pursed her lips to the side in thought, glancing to her mother and nodding immediately.
"Mom says it's good, so 'course!"
She grinned, showing the gap in her front teeth which her tongue stuck through a little. Darla sighed quietly but smiled warmly, giving one last unhappy glance to Esther before settling her hand over the ball.
"Then we shall begin. I will start the incantation, and god's giving, we shall see what your future may hold."
Enid nodded determinedly, as much as a six year old could be determined.
"I'm ready!"
Darla closed her wondrous eyes and started speaking a language Enid did not know, holding her hands on either side of the ball before the colour shifted, the white smoke turning bright pink, and she opened her eyes, which were now smokey and white.
Enid yelled in fear at the emotionless expression, but her mother hushed her, taking her wrist to keep her still. Darla didn't speak, but her throat sounded raspy, and she tapped the top of the ball with one finger, her pink nail tapping the glass.
Suddenly the smoke left the ball, going up like a flame and wrapping around the three present, swirling and encasing them in its movement, showing flashes of a life Enid was to expect, silent, but somewhat visible for brief seconds.
She saw arguments with an adult, listening to music, hugging a vampire, wearing a uniform, a wolf fighting a large creature with buggy eyes, holding someone tight, hugging them. She saw TV shows, talking to strangers who treated her like a celebrity, moving out, moving in, hugging someone in bed, a faceless person Enid was desperate to see.
And then it settled, revealing a scene they were incapable of ignoring.
The young woman before them was Enid. She stood in a small room by herself, wearing a slim white wedding dress with a black pattern of vines over her shoulders and down her back, and again at the hem of her dress, vines reaching up in twisted horror and beauty. She held black roses in a bouquet, looking at herself in the mirror, and Enid took herself in.
Her hair was blonde with flares of pink and blue framing her face, matching her eyes which remained a sharp blue, lips full and pulled into a familiar tentative smile, nerves clearly clawing her stomach. Her face was scarred, four cuts traveling down her cheek and brow, cutting below her jaw and under the neckline of her dress.
"You can do this Enid…" her future self whispered, lifting her hand to play with the engagement ring wrapped around her finger, which had many small rhodium leaves wrapping around her the band, cusping up to surround two smaller black stones, which nestled against a larger diamond, which had hints of red in it. Enid felt it must have been impressive, as when her mother caught sight of it she gasped quietly, clearly impressed.
Something to the side, unclear to the viewers, caught her attention and future Enid smiled.
"Okay, I'm ready."
She exited the room and her father was there. He still seemed tired, but undoubtedly happy, looking dashing in his simple black suit and white tie, offering his arm to his daughter.
"You look beautiful, Mrs-"
The name fuzzed out, and Enid supposed it was a dip in the capabilities of magic. Her mom huffed, but Enid was too enthralled to care.
"Thanks, dad."
She kissed his cheek, and they exit the grand hall. Enid tried to take in all she could, from the towering columns to oil paintings with the faces blurred. They watch as the two exit the mansion to the step of music, beautiful and haunting, and step onto the grass, the dress apparently being slightly held up by small sprites to keep it clean from dust or debris. The people gathered had blurred faces, but they came in all manner of shapes and sizes, some more human than most. Enid knew her mother didn't approve, if the quiet sniff of disgust was anything to go by. Enid found she didn't care what her mother thought, and was exhilarated to meet these fascinating people one day.
The vampire was at the alter, in a black dress with red vines similar to Enid's, but still she could not see her face. She smiled at her dad and they stood side by side, waiting, when the vampire spoke.
"You nervous, Sinclair?"
The wolf grinned and met her gaze.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic -"
The fuzz stole her maid of honour's name, but the excitement surging through the child made her care little.
Music swelled up again, and Enid watched her future self snap her eyes to the doors she had just left from.
"What is this?" Her mother questioned the silent seer.
Another approached arm looped with a larger faceless man, who showed his glee through his movements as they almost glide down the isle. Her future self sniffled a little, holding the roses close to her chest, as the other woman approached. Her dress was black, vines and leaves dark as the night melding over her chest and down her sides, stark against her beautiful tan skin, sheer material floating behind her like a ghost, in a way that made her look more than human, ethereal almost.
The vampire whistled quietly, name stolen from her lips as the other approaches, headless rose stems in her bouquet.
Their words are stolen and hidden away, but Enid watches herself, and just knows that whoever this woman is, she will love her very much.
"Enough!"
The smoke swirled and Enid whined as the future was torn from her grip, watching her older self say I do before being dragged back to the small room in the middle of who knows where. Darla blinked her eyes rapidly, pink returning as anger took her face.
"What was that?!" She yelled, and Esther pointed an accusing finger at her.
"You tell me! How dare you warp her future, to confuse her!"
Darla held out her hands with a pinched face.
"What are you talking about?! I didn't -"
Esther silenced her with a hand in the air, cutting her off with a flourish.
"I will not be subjected to lies anymore. Enid we are leaving."
The girl whined and hesitates.
"But I want to know who that girl was!" She yelled, lip poured and prepared for a tantrum, when her mother grabbed her arm and pulled. They stumbled out the house, Darla yelling after them as they storm to the car.
"Enid!"
The girl managed to pull free of her mother's grip and rushed back to the seer, needing to know more, anything else about that wonderful future, and she cupped her face in her hands.
"Who was she?" Enid asked and Darla shook her head as Esther rapidly approached.
"I cannot give names, but clues or riddles are easier. Ponder this, Enid; What is at the end of a rainbow?"
Esther grabbed Enid and threw her over her shoulder, eyes glowing with a wolf rage, claw pointing at the seer threateningly.
"Stay away from my daughter." She frowned, and Darla raised her chin at her as she turned to the car.
"You cannot change the future, Esher. To try is to push her away from you!"
Her mother didn't listen as she slammed the door closed and threw Enid into the back seat, leaving just as fast as they had arrived.
Enid looked out the window, watching the cottage sink into nothing on the horizon, then took her colouring book and scribbled in the back as best as she could; what is at the end of a rainbow?
It was a question she found herself asking for many years. She asked her father, but he had no answer other than a lot of gold, which made even less sense.
Enid would scrawl it in her book at normie school, flowery calligraphy and big words, drawing rainbows and pots of gold, what is at the end of a rainbow? Circled over and over. It didn't take long for bullies to get ahold of her, but luckily that was when her claws came out, and they were now afraid of her.
She was moved to Nevermore a year later, and she met the vampire from her vision. A year passed and the new girl arrives, and Enid ponders if she could be the one she sought, but her standoffish nature and general hatred of contact made her scrap that thought. She remembers her love holding her tight and never letting go, maybe next semester they would show up.
Then everything happens with the Hyde, and Enid got her hug, but still no answers. The riddle made no sense, she can't jump into perusing someone without solving the one clue her seer had given her first.
Enid is lying on her bed, waiting for Wednesday to return so they could watch their movie, a new little tradition the roomies had began. Wednesday enjoyed the contact, and Enid enjoyed watching her horror at the movie they were watching.
"Still no luck, huh?" Yoko asked, not expecting a positive answer as she spoke on facetime from her phone. Enid shook her head.
"No, still no clue."
Yoko hummed from the other end, slurping coming from her blood cup.
"Could be Addams, you know?"
Enid blushed a little and laughed it off. She knew Yoko and anyone with eyes could tell she had a not so subtle crush on the other girl, and had only not acted on it because of this stupid riddle.
"How so?"
Yoko's side rustled as she shrugged.
"Pot of gold? She's the richest kid at the school. Hell, I think the Addams Family could be the richest people ever."
Enid snorted.
"I wasn't given a sage riddle to solve and find the answer out to be 'because she is minted', Yoko."
The vampire laughed down the line, sighing a little.
"Man it's so fucked your mom did that to you. It's not actually legal anymore, you know? Least not in this country."
Enid understood that, she was relatively lucky with her reading, being so young and seeing so little, but others would become obsessed with their future, some driven mad by it. Seers still had work, but on a more professional capacity than reading old friend's futures, with waivers needing to be signed before even sitting around the glass ball.
It did mean Enid was enthralled with finding her future, her future wife, her love. She didn't ask out anyone else, didn't both herself with useless relationships, knowing what she had to look forward to. Not too bad by most accounts, but not exactly good either.
She'd never forgive her mother, not really.
"Yeah, I guess. I just wish I could figure out this stupid riddle."
"What riddle?"
The wolf and vampire both yell at the sudden presence of Wednesday in their room, Enid throwing her phone and scrambling to catch it gain, a bemused eyebrow raised from Wednesday.
"How do you do that?!" She complained, and Wednesday smirked a little.
"Practice. What is your riddle?"
"Didn't know you liked riddles, Addams."
Wednesday, as always, ignored Yoko. The wolf looked up at her from her bed, thinking the same as her friend, before realising she was talking to Wednesday Addams , of course she liked riddles.
"Wanna hear it?" Enid asked, and Wednesday nodded eagerly, crossing her arms.
"Okay…" Enid quietly whispered, cleared her throat and recited the words from memory, "What is at the end of a rainbow?"
Yoko's red eyes widened when she heard Wednesday gently laugh.
"Very good Enid."
The wolf frowned and sat up.
"What?"
"It's a joke, correct? That you were stuck on this riddle."
Enid flushed red in embarrassment, but knew Wednesday wasn't being mean, she just thought the other girl was joking with her.
"No, I don't know the answer, do you?"
Wednesday paused and cleared her throat.
"Oh, I apologize. The answer is W."
It was an unusual penny drop moment, at first Enid thought Wednesday was joking, when her brain began to turn.
"... Wha? It isn't gold?"
Enid agreed with the vampire, who was now joined by Divina on their end. Without a doubt having the oh so flattering angle of Enid and her slack jaw, Wednesday on the edge of the screen.
"No, don't be foolish." Wednesday snipped at Yoko, halfheartedly glaring at the screen, before meeting Enid once more.
"Do you not know?" She asked, and Enid shook her head.
"No, how is it W?"
Wednesday sat on the edge of her bed, keeping her hands to herself, mindful of all the colour.
"Enid, repeat the riddle."
"What is at the end of a rainbow?"
Wednesday raised her eyebrow expectantly, and Enid ran it through her head, over and over, until finally-
"... It's the last letter of the word."
Wednesday nodded and stood from the bed, pacing to her side of the room and picking up a book to settle into her own bed with.
"When you have recovered from the ease of my genius, get your laptop ready to watch the movie. I'll be waiting."
Enid looked at the phone in her hand, Yoko and Divina wearing matching expressions, all of them utterly gobsmacked.
"Holy shit."
"Holy shit."
"Holy… shit."
Wednesday glanced over her book, but chose to ignore their unusual behaviour for now, all three silent and staring into space. Maybe they had seen a ghost, she thought amusedly, and turned the page, content to wait out whatever had blown her wolf's mind.
Across the ocean in a small home residing in Scotland, Darla felt a comfortable chill shiver up her spine. Her pink eyes glowed from glee, and she sipped her tea as she looked out the window.
She figured it out, the seer thought, well done, Enid.
She scratched her cat between the ears, his purring filing her heart with glee as her partner prepared dinner in the kitchen.
… Next time I should make the riddle impossibly easier.
She smiled into her cup, and contented herself with watching the sunset into the horizon.