Chapter Text
Even over the loud music, I can still hear Wednesday coming up the stairs. Don't ask me how I know her footsteps, because it really doesn't matter. When she walks in, I immediately go over to her. I didn't see her all summer, even after she told me she would try to visit me in San Francisco. She was probably busy with her novel. "Howdy, roomie." I greet her exactly how I did last year, grinning at her, my canine teeth sticking out. Thing had told me that she thought it was acceptable when I did that, and that basically means 'cute' to her.
"Enid." Her voice is softer than how her eyes are looking at me right now, and I can't say no to her face.
"All right! Everyone out. Thanks for the help." The music stops, and the pack walks out. I'm glad I have more friends, but I still want to spend time with Wednesday. I close the door behind them. "How was your vacay? Because I had the best summer ever and I've been dying to tell you all about it."
"I'm sure I'll want to kill you after you tell me, so we both win." Most people wouldn't understand when she's joking, but I like it when she does.
"Well, I'll spare you the details, but..." I pause while I go to get her gift, and I go back over to her. "I did get you something at Lupinpalooza in Golden Gate Park." I think she'll like it. I hand over the bag to her, and she opens it. "Get it? Like Beowulf? I thought you'd love the literary reference."
"Nothing like a bad pun to throw dirt on the coffin of epic poetry." We'll see about that: sometimes she says things like that, but I can tell she's lying. Once, I saw her asleep with the massive brown bear I got her from IKEA, after she said that it was a waste of money that was feeding into the capitalist businesses of the world. "I got you a gift as well. From my summer travels." She hands me an almost life-size doll, with blonde hair a little bit like mine.
"Uh... Oh. Thank you. I mean, it is a little creepy, but the curls are super soft."
"It's made from real human hair." Her small smile is really pretty, and I wish that she would do it more. I head over to my side to put it down.
"I just have so many goals this year. I wanna secure my place in the pack, become dance troupe captain, and finally join the Nightshades. What about you?"
"Avoid people and work on my new Viper de la Muerte novel." There's something else, something kind of being restrained. Maybe she'll help me practice slow dancing. I did hear there is meant to be some sort of gala this year, but there's only one person I want to go with.
"That doesn't sound like much of a personal evolution."
"I don't evolve. I cocoon."
"Speaking of your novel, was that publisher interested?" She pulls out a huge mass of paper tagged with way too many red sticky notes.
"I call it death by a thousand notes." She hands it over to me, and I flick over to a random page, trying to figure out what kind of typo she made, but I'm too distracted. I can see her in my peripheral vision staring at my face, but she must just be gauging my reaction.
"This one here just looks like a typo." I tell her, and she comes to stand next to me, closer in proximity than she ever has been before with me.
"It's not. It's the Old English spelling for dismemberment." She looks up at my face, and I can't help but try to memorise her face. Don't blame me—it's been six weeks since I've seen her. "This novel was two years of my life. They'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands before I change a single word." I smile, happy for her. I want to read it really badly, but I don't think she'd let me. Maybe if she leaves the dorm one day, I can read a little. A knock on the door sounds. "That better not be any more brattish autograph hounds."
"Tell me about it." I say. I love people, but it was kind of getting out of hand. I set her novel down back into the box she took it out of. "We seriously need to set some boundaries. Let's post hours to sign stuff in the student lounge." She looks at me in a dumbfounded manner. That probably wasn't the best thing to tell her. She opens the door, and as soon as I see Ajax, I hide. I've been putting off talking to him because I'm not sure how to tell him that my feelings for guys have... well, kind of flipped, I guess? To the other side.
"Hey, Wednesday? How was your summer?"
"I scalped a serial killer." I heard about that, but I hadn't realised it was her.
"Huh." He says, sounding like he's smiling. He has this tone that lets you know that he is kind of happy. "Is, uh... Is Enid around?" He asks, and I violently shake my head at her.
"She left earlier with the pack. I threatened to neuter them if they didn't get out."
"Would you mind giving her this?" He hands her something, and she slams the door, immediately throwing it to me.
"Thanks for covering. I know the only thing you hate more than colour is relationship drama."
"Machiavelli once said that friendship is watching a person's slow drip of miseries and feeling honoured to be present for their most dismal moments."
"Does that mean..."
"In twenty-five words or less. Go."
"I'm not sure how I feel about boys anymore. Ajax is sweet, but he's still in love with the old me and I've changed. Hey, look, twenty-four words."
"Talk to him and get it over with." She seems to be ignoring the part about boys in general, so she's probably okay with it. She wouldn't exactly judge a person on that kind of thing, anyways.
"If I do that, then it'll be like an arrow through his—" I'm rudely interrupted by an arrow flying past my head. "Holy shit! 'Welcome back, Wednesday. I'm still watching.'" She comes up to me. "You have a stalker?" I am concerned for her, but I know she'll be okay.
"Don't be jealous." She rips it from the arrow, and seems to focus on it for a few seconds. Black tears go down her cheek while she tells Thing something. I brush away the black trail for her. Now I am worried.
"Thing and I are headed to the Founder's Pyre. You joining?" I ask after we look at Xavier's newest painting. Rather than answering, she goes up to her desk.
"Have you been using my typewriter without permission?" She asks Thing. Then she reads out what's on the piece of paper that she pulled out of it. "Read any good books lately?" I frown, and go up to her. She finds a riddle in the drawer that she usually keeps her novel in, and it's kind of weird: "Higher, higher, higher, I am a demon of the fire and each blazing roof's my pyre."
She comes to the conclusion that her stalker is going to burn her novel. "That's not your only copy, right?" She stops talking. "Seriously? Copy machines aren't even 21st-century technology." I scold her.
"I'm not going to allow two years of my life to go up in flames." I walk quietly with her to the Pyre, and get sidetracked by these people who want to take a picture with me. She pulls me after her, and something about her touch snaps me back into focus. I look around while she reaches into her pocket and her hand comes back out with... trails of blood?
"Are you okay?" I ask her. She nods, pulling out another piece of paper. It tells her to go under the bonfire. "Wait. You aren't seriously going?" She charges off to find an opening, and I can't really blame her. It is her novel, and she has the right to look for it before it burns. I help her start moving sticks from the base of the bonfire, and wait for her at the entrance. And then Ajax comes up to me. Worst timing ever. "Oh, hi."
"Hi. I kind of feel like you've been avoiding me."
I stand up. "I guess I have. I just wanted to tell you that my feelings have changed. I've been putting it off."
"Oh. I... I guess squirrels and rats can't work out after all then, huh?" He walks off.
"Bye." I feel really bad for him, because I should have told him the truth, and I should have told him this a while ago. I'm such a coward. How could I tell Wednesday, but not one of my other friends? What's wrong with me? Music starts playing from the front of the stage while he walks away: the Nevermore alma mater. They must be lighting the bonfire soon. "Wednesday, hurry!" I call into the pyre, but I can no longer see her. Then a fireball hurtles towards it, and it begins to burn. Wednesday drops down from higher up, but I don't know if she can make it before the flames engulf her. She manages to come out just before a stick collapses, and blocks what was her exit. She coughs and splutters, probably from the smoke.
"Oh my god." I crawl over to her, and put my hands on her shoulders. "It's okay. Try taking deep breaths, alright?" Her lungs seem to stabilise after a minute, so I help her up and we go to the stage, where the crowds part for us and where Dort seems to be waiting for us.
"Our student of honour, Wednesday Addams!" The cheers were kind of loud, but it might have just been my hypersensitive hearing. "None of us would be here today without your bravery." I can see as clear as day this stupid act he's putting on for the public, and I wonder how she feels about that. I cough a little, because of the smoke emitting from the book. "Wednesday, would you help me unveil something very special? I had this commissioned to commemorate how you and your ragtag group of Nevermore buddies saved our school!" He's acting like it was easy, but he didn't see what happened.
I know that the painting is something that she hates, I can tell just by looking at it, mostly because she's smiling. I kind of like it, though. So I clap and cheer just like everyone else. "Could you give us a few words of inspiration to launch us into the new era?" Here we go. She slams her book into me, but I don't mind until I start coughing again.
"Tonight... is our banquet of discontent. And we shall gladly feast upon those who would subdue us." I smile up at her, and it's difficult to take my eyes away from hers. "Our fight is just beginning. And I'm ripping the Band-Aid off the scab of civility, and will not cease until our enemies have been vanquished." She takes a pause while people are still cheering. "And by enemies, I mean any imbecile stupid enough to cheer on some shallow, rabble-rousing diatribe like that. You thought I was your hero? I'm not. I always play dirty, and I never fight fair. The only side I'm on is my own, and the only place I'll lead you is off a cliff. So, do not put me on a pedestal, because I will burn it down."
She reaches over to the torch, dropping her mic, and sets fire to the corner of our painting. "What the hell are you doing?" I follow her after she snatches her novel back.
"I never agreed to this." She says, seemingly getting away from the ceremony as fast as she can.
"So you're gonna torpedo it for the rest of us? You're my best friend, but can you be a little less Wednesday?" I pause for a second. "This is supposed to be our best year ever!" I only say that because of what happened last year, and what the aftermath resulted in.
Wednesday was stabbed in Crackstone's crypt, and she had only told me because of a nightmare that she had, because I woke up to her jolting out of bed, because I could hear the sudden creaking. I still have the scars from the fight against Tyler, but I cover them with makeup. I was so weak after that because it was also my first time wolfing out, so Wednesday had to help me afterwards, and she picked all the leaves out of my hair, and she helped bandage me. What happened to that girl, the one who was willing to hug me and take care of me? Just a few minutes ago, she let me hold her while she got used to breathing oxygen again, rather than carbon dioxide.
She gets ahead of me on the stairs. "Wednesday, will you wait up?" I finally catch up, and I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her, but instead? Instead she freezes, and she drops her book, looking up at the sky, black tears running down her face already. She's having a vision. Before she falls to the floor, I drop to my knees and I catch her. After a while of just holding her in my arms, I can see red marks start to appear on her neck, and she starts choking, but she stops soon after and she won't get up. I know she's still alive. I can hear her heartbeat. I'll have to carry her back to the dorm. It's not that hard, though. I have my werewolf strength, but lifting a limp body proves to be a more difficult task.
Wednesday's vision in her perspective
I seem to be in a graveyard, a murder of crows flocking and flying everywhere. Their caws and noises seem distorted, and everything is extremely dark, but light enough that I can see. As I walk through it, one grave catches my attention. A crow with a white rose in its mouth is standing on it, just like in Xavier's painting. I look at the headstone, and my heart drops. It's Enid's grave. I can hear her voice, echoing and whispering all around me. This is all your fault, Wednesday.
I won't let her die, she can't. It might be hard to admit, but I do care for her. This is all your fault. I died because of you. The crow drops the rose, and it shatters on the floor. It flies away, and I hear something behind me.
"I died because of you!" Enid puts her hands around my neck, beginning to strangle me, and her face is covered in a massive wound, dried blood surrounding it. I try to take her hands off me, and I can't. But Enid can't die. She can't. I promised not to care so much about anything or anyone after Nero died, but it seems that I have betrayed that promise.