Chapter Text
“This is not my fault!” Enid shouted, trying to defend herself.
She stumbled to her feet after they were dropped on the ground.
Out of a portal.
That was now closed.
Wednesday stood up as well “If you had just left me alone, nothing would have happened in the first place.” She said irritated.
“I didn’t know I couldn’t talk to you!”
“I could not exactly tell you that, could I?” The seer emphasized.
Enid’s mouth snapped shut “Fine, maybe it was my fault.” She bowed her head. “What do we do to fix it?”
“We are not doing anything. I am.”
Enid looked up and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “What do you mean?” She raised her voice “I’m helping. Whether you like it it not!”
Wednesday had to resist the urge to rub her temples. “Fine. You may join me, but you are to stay silent until I state otherwise.”
“Fine.” Enid crossed her arms.
Wednesday sighed , “What exactly did you say when I finished the incantation?”
Enid was glancing at anything but her.
“Speak, Enid.”
Enid tightened her jaw “I’m not your dog.”
“Enid.”
“I said that I was talking with Divina about which nail polish would match with the design I spoke to you about yesterday and-“
“No, after that.”
“Oh..” She frowned “The thing about the future?” She said wearily
“Yes.”
“I asked if you would want to meet your future self one day.”
When she decided that she wanted to wanted to hold a seance to contact a family member, this was not how she imagined her day would go.
She turned the notion over. That sentence could have triggered infinite outcomes.
Were they in the future now? Even so, whose is it?
“Where even are we?” Enid muttered.
Now that she mentioned it, Wednesday had not given their surroundings much thought up until now.
Her eyes widened.
They were standing in a field with flowers. On the top of the hill, about 30 feet away, stood a house.
Not a house, a mansion.
“That‘s beautiful!” Enid gushed.
She had to admit the mansion did have charm.
The grand house was elegant, yet homey at the same time. Tall windows and elaborate columns gave the mansion an almost aristocratic appearance, but flower boxes crowded every windowsill and roses climbed the porch railing. Pillars at every corner matched well with the golden accents on the walls.
It reminded her of home a bit.
“Look at those roses!” Enid whispered
“I wonder who lives here.”
“I plan to find out.”
“Wednesday wait up!” Enid shouted, scrambling up to follow Wednesday who was already marching forwards.
She didn’t get far before she was caught by her sleeve. “How about I do the talking, and you glare at the owners?” Enid offered.
“Fine.”
“Great!” She said enthousiastically as she tugged the seer further towards the mansion.
Before they could make it up the stairs, a black cat appeared from behind one of the pillars, greeting them with a loud, demanding meow.
“Aw, look at him!”
“I am looking. What about it?”
“He’s so cute.” Enid crouched down, immediately reaching out to scratch beneath his chin. The cat leaned into her hand and meowed again.
“Tamp down the exuberance.”
Enid ignored her. “He has a collar. Look.”
She gently turned it around and squinted at the little tag.
“Shelley,” she read aloud. She hummed thoughtfully. “Sounds like a name you would choose.”
“I fail to see how that is significant.”
Enid glanced up at her with a grin. “Well, what are we waiting for?”
“What are you waiting for?” Wednesday asked, sighing.
“Oh. Right.”
Enid straightened, reluctantly leaving Shelley behind, and turned towards the door. She raised her hand to knock.
After waiting for twenty seconds, Wednesday started to get impatient
“Maybe they aren’t home?” Enid whispered.
“Try again.”
So she tried again.
And again.
Till the door opened at last.
Before she could get a good look at the owner, Enid had already started talking. “Hello! I’m sorry to bother you, but my friend an I” she gestured to Wednesday “are a little lost and we were wondering if-“
Even before she took a glance at the owner, she realised something was wrong.
Enid‘s jaw dropped. Wednesday snapped her head to the person.
“Well isn’t this a surprise.” someone admitted in a curious tone.
Not someone.
Her
She took a sharp inhale.
Wednesday looked the same.
That should have been reasurring. It wasn’t.
The woman standing in front of her had her face, her eyes, her voice. Every familiar feature was there, arranged in the way it had always been. And yet, something wasn’t right.
She looked.. content.
Wednesday almost frowned at the thought. Contentment had never been a particularly admirable quality. It suggested complacency. Weakness. An acceptance of circumstances rather than the desire to control them.
And yet her older self stood before her like she had nothing left to prove.
Wednesday didn’t like that.
She liked it even less that a small, unfamiliar part of her wanted to know why.
She looked about fifteen years older— thirty perhaps. Thirty-one if the date was anything to go by
Her hair was not in two, but one singular braid on her back. The bangs that she had were still there, but longer, making them frame her face.
The only thing that had not changed was her color palette.
For once she found herself without an immediate response.
“Wednesday?” Enid breathed.
Her older self set her gaze on Enid. “Last I checked, yes.” She said with an almost fond look.
Enid’s ears turned red as she quickly clasped both her hand in front of her.
She was about to question the woman before her, when something made her freeze.
She looked happy. She didn’t do happy.
Emotions required feelings. She didn’t do feelings either. Did she not believe in that anymore?
Her older self studied her “Hello.” She said with graceful simplicity.
Enid was still gaping at the person in the doorway “You live here?” she gasped.
“Yes.” She said with a twitch of her lips. For a second it almost looked like a smile.
Enid’s face heated. She suddenly seemed very interested in the floor.
“How about we all go inside?” Older Wednesday asked.
“Oh— sure.” Enid replied quickly.
Wednesday was too overwhelmed to answer. The next thing she knew, her older self started giving out free hugs.
“That’s settled then.” Her older self said as she moved away from the doorway and gestured them in.
Enid send her older self a weary glance as she stepped over the tresshold. She turned around to meet her eyes.
She scrunched her eyebrows “Wends?”
Everything seemed to be moving too quickly around her. Her fingers dug into her palms as she swallowed against a sudden dry throat.
Enid noticed the way Wednesday’s hands were clenched.
Enid always noticed.
“Hey” she said softly “you okay?”
Wednesday immediatly straightened.
“Perfect.”
“You’re doing the thing.”
“What thing?”
The pretending— you’re fine thing.”
Wednesday frowned “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Enid gave her a small smile “Yeah. That’s definitely the thing.”
She grumbled “I don’t have a thing.” Finally moving to step into the home.
Her home.
Her older self was watching them with a lifted corner of her lips.
“I will leave you two alone for a bit.” The woman said as she turned to leave “You can hang your coats up there.” and calmly walked through a open door.
Now that she was no longer observed by her older self’s vigilant gaze, she was finally able to let her guard slip for a second.
Enid glanced at Wednesday, then at the unfamiliar hallway around them.
“Okay,” she whispered. “So.. this is happening.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “We’re in the future. With an older version of you. In her house.”
Her eyes flickerd to the two coats hanging on the rack.
“Which is totally normal.”
She paused.
“It’s not normal, is it?”
“No.”
“Great.” Enid sighed and walked down the hallway.
When she moved through the door she gasped “Oh em gee.”
Wednesday stepped further into the room.
She was expecting black.
There was black, certainly. Dark wooden furniture, heavy curtains and black wallpaper. But there was also color.
Far too much of it.
Deep green cushions rested on the sofa, cat hairs could be seen clinging to the fabric. Long light pink curtains, with a coffee table decorated with a vase of red roses.
It was elegant.
Comfortable.
Lived in.
Wednesday found the last quality particularly disturbing.
Her gaze moved across the room again.
The high walls and roof made the home look spacious, but not cold. Dark wooden floors stretched beneath a large worn rug, while tall windows allowed the late afternoon light to spill across the furniture.
A black fireplace dominated one wall, its mantel crowded with books and trinkets. Shelves filled every available space, some neatly arranged and others overflowing with books interrupted by framed picture frames and small porcelain figures.
Despite the size of the room, there was something strangely intimate about it. Nothing seemed to be placed there simply for decoration. Everything appeared to belong.
Placed on the dining table, two mugs were facing eachother. One pink, one black.
This was supposed to be her house.
Somehow it looked like a place where someone actually wanted to come home to.
Wednesday glanced through one of the windows. The cat was still sitting on the porch, watching them.
Her older self returned again.
“Oh my god, look at those cushions!” Enid admired. “Did you decorate it yourself?” Out of the corner of her eye, Enid was glancing in her older self’s direction.
“No I did not.” Older Wednesday replied amused by her antics.
Wednesday had finally re-learned the ability to speak “Why do you live here?” Wednesday asked her older copy.
“I have my reasons.”
“Then explain them.”
“No.”
Wednesday scowled “You’re withholding information.”
“Obviously.”
“Why?”
“Because I know you.”
She narrowed her eyes “That is hardly an explanation.”
“It’s a good one when you’re me.”
She looked at Enid and lifted her brows “Coffee with two sugar and one milk?”
“Yes actually..” Enid replied surprised “Thank you!”
Older Wednesday nodded at her before looking at her younger version “Black?” She didn’t answer.
She walked torwards, where she guessed, was the kitchen.
With her older self absent, she walked over to Enid who was busy exploring.
“Your house is going to be so cool!” She said. “Can’t believe you have color in your home.”
“This is a nightmare.”
Enid chuckled.
Her older self walked torwards them, holding a tray with two black cups of coffee and one yellow one.
“Follow me,”
As older Wednesday was setting their drinks on the table, Enid and Wednesday took a seat next to eachother on the sofa.
For a minute nobody spoke, and calmly sipped their drinks.
Wednesday finally broke the silence “How far in the future are we?”
“It’s 2040.” Older Wednesday said with simple directness.
That would mean that she was thirty-one.
“Why did my spell bring us here?”
She shook her head “I do not know.”
Wednesday evaluated her older self carefully. If she thought she had good control of her pokerface, her older self was a professional.
“How do we get back?”
“I do not have a clue.”
“Can we meet ourselves?” Enid asked.
“”No.”” Both Wednesdays answerd.
“Can I atleast see what my life is like?”
“That is precisely why I just said no.” Wednesday reasoned.
“So..no?”
“No, Enid.” Wednesday huffed.
“She has always been difficult.” Her older self said to Wednesday.
Enid snapped her gaze at the thirty-one year old. “You knew me for what? Fifteen years, and still call me difficult?”
“I said difficult. Not unbearable.”
Enid started fidgeting with her necklace instead of giving an answer.
——
When Enid woke up this morning, she did not have a trip to the future in mind.
Her day started out relatively normal for someone living with nevermore’s number one trouble magnet.
She awoke to Wednesday throwing one of her ten pillows at her head.
“Your alarm had been going off for minutes.”
So naturally she was late for class, lost her notebook and didn’t have time for her morning coffee.
Which brought her here, sitting in her room.
Enid had been staring at the same bottle of nail polish for nearly five minutes.
“This one, definitely.” Divina said pointing at the bottle.
Enid frowned “Definitely? It’s boring.”
“It’s supposed to match the design, Enid. Not compete with it.”
Enid held another bottle up beside her nails “But this one is prettier.”
Divina roller her eyes.
Enid smiled. She was about to argue when a familiar voice drifted through the room.
“Could you two be any louder?”
Enid glanced over her shoulder.
Wednesday stood at the other end of their room, surrounded by candles and other objects Enid had been specifically told not to touch.
Which, naturally made Enid want to touch all of them.
“We’re not even that loud.” Enid complained.
Wednesday slowly turned her head.
Enid lowered her voice an octave “We’re barely making any sound.”
“You are currently holding a conversation.”
“That’s generally how conversations work.” Enid grinned.
Wednesday gave her a look.
She turned back to Divina “What do you think?”
“I think I need to get out of here.” She answerd “And pink by the way.”
Enid looked down at the bottles again.
“Fine, pink it is.”
Divina made her way to the door, when she glanced back in Enid’s direction “Send me a picture when you’re done.”
“For sure!”
Before she walked out, she bid Wednesday goodbye. “Later, Wednesday.” and left the two roommates alone.
Behind her Wednesday began reciting the incantation.
Enid only half-listened.
She had heard enough of Wednesday's spells by now to know that they usually involved Latin, ominous candles, and at least one sentence that made Enid wonder whether she should call someone
Still, this one felt different.
Enid glanced over her shoulder.
Wednesday's eyes were closed.
The candles around her flickered.
“Hey, Wends?”
No response.
Enid frowned.
“Wednesday?”
Still nothing.
“Hey, you ever think about the future?”
Silence.
“Would you ever want to meet your future self one day?” Enid wondered aloud “I think I would.”
The flames suddenly rised.
Enid went pale.
“Uh… Wednesday?”
The room seemed to go colder.
Wednesday's voice continued, steady and deliberate.
Enid stood up.
“Wednesday, maybe you should—”
The candles went out.
All at once.
A strange silence settled over the room.
Then something opened beneath their feet.
Enid barely had time to scream.
The floor disappeared.
She grabbed for the nearest thing she could find.
Wednesday.
For one brief second, their eyes met.
And then they fell.