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It always took a while to adjust to being back home after Nevermore. Of course the semester had been cut short, the spring term still stood in question, so Enid imagined it should feel different entering the house this time. The scents shouldn’t be so unfamiliar, the sounds so alien. Her brothers fell in like a pack of hyena’s, pushing and shoving, shouting and barking, pestering and insulting, laughing and growling – all of their usual antics Enid would normally have watched with envy. They belonged, she knew, unlike herself, staring into her own family like an outsider.
Enid thought it would be different after she wolfed out.
Her nose detected the faint aroma of wool her mother knitted with, mingled with the traces of a long ago extinguished fire. She moved cautiously towards the stairs her brothers had just trudged their way up loudly and she listened to her parents whispering behind her as she dragged her suitcase and duffel bag up towards her room, anticipation beginning to turn her stomach.
“Enid,” her mother called as she’d reached the fourth step. She turned, lips pressed together tightly, ready for that first insult – that first note about her weight or her gait or her hair. “Get freshened up, I’ll be up in a moment so we can talk.”
Talk. Enid nodded. Talk about what? Her eyes slowly drifted back to the step in front of her and she carried herself up, each step a nauseating wave of adrenaline rushing through her until she reached the second floor and made her way down to the end of the hall, listening to her brothers crashing and banging inside of their rooms. Her door sat closed, her name in wooden letters, painted pale blue, pink, purple, and yellow stared at her as she raised a hand to the brass knob.
It turned quietly and she stepped inside, dropping her belongings beside her twin bed and going back to close the door, shutting out the howls and lively discussion. She sat at the edge of her bed and took a long breath, nose missing the one scent she needed in that moment, frowning as she realized it. Some mix of old books and ink, a touch of her perfume. Eyes closing, Enid imagined it, letting the frown she saw calm her heartrate as she gripped into the quilt on either side of her.
Normally she’d still be at Nevermore – through the holidays, through the spring, but this year she imagined they’d be relegated to online tutoring, or worse, she opened her eyes to look to the door, her mother’s idea of homeschooling. Enid stood and lifted her suitcase onto her bed, unzipping it to begin unpacking her belongings. Her clothes were hung up or tucked away; her shoes tossed in pairs into her small closet; her stack of collected flyers and posters set atop her writing desk to be examined later and pressed into a memory box.
It had been quite the year, she thought, lifting her laptop out to move it to her desk, opening it and turning it on, plugging it in. She sat there, looking at her reflection in the darkened screen before her wallpaper flashed up. Fingertips rising, she traced the scars on her left cheek and then touched the one at her temple, bowing her head sadly.
“I’ll have to find the ointment,” her mother called softly from the door. “It’ll heal right up, Enid, don’t worry.”
Looking up at the woman, Enid flinched and she saw the way it affected her mother, the way she looked to the floor a moment before entering the room. “Are you happy?” Enid asked. “Finally did it, finally wolfed out,” Enid stated sadly as her mother sat on the bed.
The woman nodded slowly, hands coming together in her lap before she asked, “You’ve been awful quiet, honey, are you alright?”
Enid shrugged, looking back to her laptop a moment. “My back and face were torn open, ever bit of me was transformed, I almost died, my best friend almost died, and my parents showed up two weeks later when they were asked to pick me up and take me home.” Enid nodded. “Am I alright?” She looked to her mother. “No.”
“Would you have preferred we left you there?” Esther questioned.
With a sarcastic laugh, Enid offered, “Maybe I should have gone with the Addams, they offered, you know – take me for a while.”
Esther stared, face hardening as she stated, “Next time, you should. Be a load off our plates.”
“Nice,” Enid replied softly. “I’ll let Wednesday know.”
“Why are you being combative?” Esther growled. “I came in here to check on you.”
Enid slumped into the chair and took a long breath, raising her hands to her mother to state, “Go on then, do your usual examination, let me know what’s wrong with me.”
“Enid,” Esther gasped.
“I’m tired, mom. I’m in pain. I’m home,” Enid told her plainly.
Esther huffed lightly and asked, “Are those things related?” She looked to Enid. “I suppose this means you don’t want to talk about it – your first transformation.” Esther shook her head. “I thought this could be a bonding experience for us.”
Enid sat up, brow coming together, “Now you want to bond? A million things I could talk to you about that happened this semester and this…” she trailed. “It hurt, mom. I was scared, I thought my best friend was going to die, I was alone in the woods – it was like being hit by a train and then I had to stand up and fight off a Hyde.”
“You fought a Hyde?” Esther asked, eyes widening.
Turning away, Enid frowned, fingers coming up to touch her scars again. “It sucked,” she told her. “Really and truly, and it isn’t our bonding moment. I’ve already talked with Wednesday about it, she cleaned my wounds, she patched me up, she took care of me and we bonded over it, her and I.”
Twisting as if slapped, Esther let her mouth drop slightly, tongue pressed to the inside of her cheek before she nodded. “Wednesday,” the woman stated, frustration evident in her tone. “Your roommate.”
“My friend,” Enid corrected. “My pa…” she began.
“Enid, don’t,” her mother interrupted, a finger out sternly, jaw clenched tight. “Do not call that girl your pack.”
Dropping her chin to her a chest, Enid reminded, “They called you from the school that night, you said as long as I was fine there was no need for you to make an unnecessary trip just to check on me. You said that while Wednesday was literally sewing my back up, so yeah, I’m going to call that girl my pack.”
Esther stood, body rigid and she barked, “We’ll discuss this in a few days – you’re obviously going through something traumatic and you’re not in your right mind.”
“Obviously,” Enid sighed, surprised by the slap that landed across her left cheek, burning in three lines she felt re-open as she looked up at her mother, who stared down at her angrily.
“We’ll call you down for supper,” Esther told her plainly, turning and leaving the room, door slamming shut behind her.
Hearing the silence that suddenly came over the house, Enid closed her eyes and reached up to touch at the blood now dotting her wounds. She stood and went to her closet to grab a first aid kit, pulling out a strip of gauze to tear free with her teeth before using it to blot the cuts the Hyde had left, sitting on the floor and taking deep breaths. Her heart thundered in her chest and if she pondered just how far she’d get if she climbed out her window and took off towards the east coast.
She listened to the shouting coming from the first floor, her father’s voice rising in a way she’d never heard; her mothers countering thunderously to silence him. Enid pulled herself to stand and she looked to her red duffel bag, pressed into the foot of the bed. Dropping the bloodied gauze into a waste basket beside her desk, she pulled the bag up, dropping it to bounce against the quilt and she undid the zipper, finding a bundled package inside she had not packed
Curiously, she pulled it out, touching the black wrapping paper and eyeing the white ribbon holding it all together as she sat. She undid the bow and let it fall aside, turning the package over and carefully opening it to find an envelope and a black t-shirt inside, some lines of poetry across it she recognized. Enid opened the envelope and slipped the note free, seeing the written words across it and really smiling for the first time since leaving Nevermore.
“For your comfort, should the need arise. – Wednesday”
Lifting the shirt to her nose, Enid inhaled deeply and felt her entire body unwind from a tension she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. That familiar scent of her best friend soothing away all her worries as she dropped onto her side in the bed, a realization drifting through her thoughts: I love her. I love her. Oh God, I love her. Enid pushed it aside and buried it deep and thought of her mother’s wrath. She frowned, thinking of the camps the woman would still send her to as she hugged the shirt against herself, curling herself around it protectively, her tiny sliver of connection back to the only thing that mattered to her. Enid closed her eyes and let that soft balsamic aroma, that soft ink and that old paper – the unmistakable scent of Wednesday – lull her tired body to sleep.