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It’s been a really bad day.
Wednesday finds herself being surrounded by schoolmates. People who extend sympathies, who ask if she’s okay, if she needs any help. No, she’s not okay. She’s kissed a man, found out that man was the monster that had been responsible for a string of murders she’d been investigating, got stabbed once by a bigot who was summoned from the dead, revived, and nearly slain by the aforementioned man she’d kissed.
Nothing is okay.
But most importantly— what had happened? There was fire, blood, and everything else had been a blur. No, there’s one last thing. Wednesday had left Enid in the woods when she’d ran off to save her school from destruction. It has to be, what, two hours since then?
She hasn’t heard any mention of Enid at all.
She needs to know if she’s okay.
There’s an image that springs to her mind. Enid is in werewolf form, with slashes across her body and blood staining her fur. She’s laying on the ground. If Wednesday was there, if she could reach out and touch her, she’d find that her roommate’s body was cold as ice.
No, that couldn’t happen. Or it shouldn’t, because if Enid was gone… if Enid had run out there to protect her and died because of it…
The unknown has always bothered her. Now it screams at her, loud and clear, of the uncertainty that faces her. There’s no way to really know if Enid is alive or not. And Wednesday knows that Ajax is out there looking for her, but that doesn’t solve anything. She feels absolutely useless, covered in blood and on the verge of a— god forbid— panic attack.
Then she hears, “Where’s Wednesday?”
She’s never been so happy to hug someone.
That night, Wednesday sleeps.
Wednesday finds herself in the middle of a grass field, surrounded by fog and dead trees. At first, she thinks she’s having a vision, but when the feeling of weightlessness and dread overtakes her, she realises it’s a nightmare.
The only reason why she hasn’t figured it out earlier is, well, her nightmares usually consist of being stuck in endless parties or being covered in glitter. This is a little different— this looks a lot like the forest she was wandering in after she got stabbed. Now there’s the sound of growling behind her, the one Tyler had released during that fateful night when he was holding her by the throat, claws ready to rip her to shreds. And unlike last time, Enid isn’t there to save her.
Wednesday runs.
These are the kind of nightmares people hate. The kind where you’re barreling ahead and it seems like you’re going nowhere, the kind where you get smaller and smaller while the thing you’re running from expands around you, threatening to consume you. Wednesday recalls being a child, overhearing her little brother squirm in his sleep because he dreamt of sharks dragging him under the water. She’d envied him. None of her dreams were that creative.
And now here she is, feet snagging on branches and stray rocks as more monsters appear around her. The sky grows darker. The road ahead of her stretches on forever. There’s no escape, really, and yet she keeps sprinting.
Where are you? Where are you, Enid?
She trips on uneven ground and tumbles. Her hands splay out, trying to catch herself—
Help.
Now Wednesday’s on her back. She stares up at the moonless sky, breathing hard. The sound of snarling approaches, and she sees it vividly: this time, Tyler will make sure there’s no trace left of her to be found. She’ll be stripped to the bone, flesh and all, resigned to a terrible death.
Help!
“Enid!” Wednesday yells. “Enid!”
The monster hovers over her, his teeth inches above her face.
“Enid!”
Wednesday is shaking. She is shaking and there are hands on her shoulders. There is a brief relief that overwhelms her, that it was all a demented dream and nothing else. But the potential reality of it still grips her, sends her into stillness until Enid comes into view.
“Wednesday!”
“Huh?”
“Wednesday?” Enid asks, face twisted in worry. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…” Wednesday breathes. She still sees Tyler, his vicious eyes staring into hers. “I’m fine.”
“You were screaming for me just now. Is everything okay?” Enid lowers her voice. “Was it a nightmare?”
“I said I’m fine.”
Enid gives her a look. She clearly doesn’t believe her, but there’s nothing else for Wednesday to say, unless she wants to make herself feel more vulnerable than she already does.
“You can tell me anything, you know. We practically survived, like, ten murder attempts today.”
“Hm.” Wednesday rolls over in her bed. “It’s not as fun as I thought it would be.”
“Of course you’d say that.”
Wednesday shifts uncomfortably. Pulls the covers to her chin. “You should go.”
“You know I can’t. Not when you’re—” A pause. “Not when we’re both like this.”
And then.
“Plus,” Enid lowers her voice even more, “I can’t sleep either.”
Wednesday stares at Enid.
Now, it might be because both of them have gone through something equally traumatic. Wednesday with the hurt of having the first boy she’d kissed turn out to be an ugly, snarling beast who kills people for fun. And then having to face near death two separate times. Here’s Enid, who by all means should not have ran out to save Wednesday, who did so anyway because that’s what friends do, who underwent a painful transformation for the first time and fought Tyler away with her own claws.
And because of that, Wednesday finds herself circling her arms around Enid for the second time. If Enid somehow ends up curled up in her bed, then there’s that. They’d just saved an entire student body. There’s excuses to be made.
Neither of them talk about what happened that night. Maybe it’s just one of those things you don’t talk about. A mood-killer. An anvil crashing in an empty room.
Wednesday knows they’re both thinking about it, though.
When Enid greets her at breakfast, her grin unchanged from before the mysteries, the truths, the carnage and everything in between, Wednesday thinks, oh, yes, Enid’s definitely thinking about it.
“How did you sleep?” Enid asks. And what an odd question to ask. Wednesday hears sleep and cannot think of anything else other than the feeling of Enid’s back pressed against her body, cannot stop thinking of how she slept a soundless sleep last night, how it all might be tied to Enid but also might not.
Wednesday could say all that. She danced with a boy and hugged someone willingly in the span of a week. Confessing these strange new thoughts would be easy. She wonders, for a moment, what Enid’s face would look like.
But of course, she’s only wondering.
“It was alright.” Wednesday stops. “And you?”
“Slept excellently.” Enid smiles at her. Then she winks, which makes Wednesday feel something she knows she probably shouldn’t.
The renovation and repairs of the school are expected to take around a month. Wednesday thought it’d take less, considering magic exists, but it turned out Nevermore has a strict no-reviving-dead-souls-to-do-your-construction-work-for-you rule. Apparently, it took the school nearly burning to the ground to teach everybody that maybe summoning dead spirits might not be a good idea.
However, it might be a blessing that renovations came right as semester break rolled around. For the school, at least. Wednesday looks at the letter sent by her parents outlining their vacation plans and wonders if she can hide out in the school indefinitely.
“Letter from an admirer, roomie?” Enid asks, peeking over her shoulder. Wednesday glances behind her and notices she’s crossed the line separating their shared rooms. She should really tell her off, she thinks, but maybe another time.
“It’s from my family.” Wednesday can’t keep the disdain from her voice. “They want me to go on road trips and climb mountains with them for this semester break.”
“Sounds great.” Enid pouts. “All my family wants to do is see me wolf out like I did back there.”
“What’s your family doing for the break?” Wednesday asks.
“Erm…”
Enid scratches her cheek. It’s an annoying habit of hers that seems to get more frequent the more anxious she gets. Wednesday tilts her head and sees a red mark forming on her skin.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not going back. I told them I had a lot of assignments to finish this month.”
“But we… weren’t assigned any.” Wednesday squints.
“I know.” Enid walks over to her side of the room and flops over on her bed. “But I mean, I just don’t want to spend time with them, you know? Now that I’m finally a ‘bona-fide’ werewolf, it’s like they… want to spend time with me because of that. And I keep wondering, ‘What if I never got to transform?’ and think about those conversion camps they wanted to send me to.”
Wednesday remembers Enid ranting about her family, those late-night conversations that culminated in a tearful Enid and a very vengeful Wednesday. “If I were you, I’d have ripped their throats out by now.”
“Yeesh.” Enid laughs. “They’re not that terrible.”
She walks and stops in front of Enid’s bed, crossing her arms. “Thinking about sending your children away to mold them into something they’re not is pretty terrible.”
“Yeah, well. That’s why I don’t want to see them.” Enid sighs, hugging one of her many stuffed animals. “Have fun with your family for me, would you?”
“I probably won’t,” Wednesday says dryly. “But I’lll try.” There’s the unspoken for you.
Enid relaxes slightly. “Thanks.”
Well. Here’s Wednesday, in front of her room, in good old Nevermore Academy. If she thinks hard about why she’s here she might leave at any moment. But she stays, obviously. This is a choice she made for herself.
The truth is, today’s the first day of semester break. Wednesday is not home, like she should be, and not enduring long family road trips, like she should be. The answer to why that is lies behind the door she’s about to knock. And so Wednesday knocks. One, two, then three times.
Wednesday hears the sound of something hard thumping behind the door. A yelp. That’s definitely Enid. And then the door pulls open and yes, Enid’s looking straight at her like a second moon has gone up.
“Wednesday? What are you doing here?” Enid asks. “You’re supposed to be at home right now.” Then she gasps. “Did you forget? Ohmygosh, you actually forgot today was the start of your vacation. Wednesday, get back out there, right now—”
“Enid.” Wednesday holds up a hand before she reaches out and slaps it over Enid’s mouth. “I’m not going for vacation.”
“Huh?” Enid blinks. “But why?”
Don’t make me say it, Wednesday thinks, hoping her stare is strong enough to pierce the thick membrane that surrounds Enid’s skull. There’s a silence that follows, one where Enid’s trying to figure out why Wednesday is here and one where Wednesday hopes she can emerge through this interaction with her dignity intact.
“You didn’t.” She starts.
Wednesday rolls her eyes.
“Oh em gee, you totally did! You came back because you—” Enid stops, pressing a hand to her chest. “Wait, unless I’m wrong.”
Wednesday shakes her head.
“So I’m right?”
Wednesday slowly nods.
“You came back for me? You really ditched your vacation to spend time with me?” Enid’s face is growing increasingly red, and she’s making that expression that precedes one of her high-pitched squeals. Wednesday claps her palms over her ears as she moves her bags back into their room. “Holy crap! You did that! For me!”
“More like I didn’t want to see my parents mash their faces together for the billionth time,” Wednesday mutters, unzipping her luggage. It had taken a series of back-and-forth letters, of her mother asking Are you sure? multiple times with her Father’s, We miss you so much, our little bear-trap, for her to finally convince them to stay over for the break.
The thing is. Enid. The girl that takes two hours to paint her nails and one more to do her makeup, the girl who inhales social media for breakfast, the girl who talks non-stop and jumps at the first opportunity for a group hangout—
She’d never survive spending semester break alone.
So really, this is for that one time when Enid saved her from that blasted monster. Wednesday owes her that much. Of course, she doesn’t say any of this, not a word, doesn’t even think it as Enid dances around her.
“Hey, Wednesday.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Wednesday.”
“Are you trying to make me regret moving back in?” Wednesday asks.
“Oops.” Wednesday’s staring at the ceiling from her bed right now, but she can clearly imagine the sheepish expression that crosses Enid’s face. “Sorry.”
Wednesday sighs, and rolls over so she’s facing Enid’s bed on the opposite side. She tries to blink the blurriness out of her eyes, to see Enid through the darkness. “What?”
“I can’t sleep.” Enid says. Under the covers, Wednesday spots Enid moving around, likely wringing her hands together nervously. “Is it okay if I… wait, it’s fine that you don’t want to, or anything, I’m just asking in, like, a hypothetical sense—”
“Stop talking,” Wednesday says, lifting her blanket. She hopes the invitation is as obvious as it is to herself, unless Enid wants her to spell things out again.
“Sorry,” Enid whispers. Then she sees Wednesday, raising an eyebrow, lifting the blanket further up as if to ask a question. “Wait, really?” Enid perks up, pushing all her quilted blankets to one side. “Really?”
“Alright, I’m going back to sleep.” Wednesday turns and puts the cover back down.
“Wait! I didn’t even stand up yet!” Enid scrambles across the room, stutters to a stop, then runs back, grabbing five stuffed toys in the process. “You’re okay if I bring them with me, right?”
“If any of them touch me while I’m sleeping, I’m throwing them out the window.”
The threat flies completely over Enid’s head. “Cool! I’m coming in!”
Wednesday’s bed creaks as Enid wiggles under the covers, and the feeling of sudden warmth beside her is something she didn’t prepare for. Of course Enid, with her sweaters and many layers of clothing, would constantly be warm in the middle of winter. But it’s a welcome surprise nonetheless. Not that Wednesday will mention any of that.
“Thanks.” Enid snuggles up against her, laughing. “It’s freaking cold outside, you know that?”
I know, Wednesday thinks, sliding an arm underneath Enid’s neck. She hates that it almost feels automatic now.
Wednesday wakes up with Enid snoring by her shoulder. There’s drool on her shirt.
She lies there for at least thirty minutes.
There’s not much to do in the school when nearly half of it is closed off. Enid exclaims this as they round what must be their fifteenth spiral of stairs, searching for any hidden secrets or books that might actually be interesting. This is what Wednesday has chosen to spend her time on, she thinks, wandering empty school halls with Enid Sinclair. There’s something odd in that choice, though there’s no point trying to decipher what it all means.
They walk and walk until the weather bites into their fingers, digs frost into their skin. Enid shivers and rubs her mittens together. Wednesday pushes through it; she’s never been a complainer. “Yeesh, some outing. Seems like winter isn’t letting up this year.”
Wednesday hums, looking at the ground where a layer of ice has coated over it. “It’s tolerable.”
“It’s not…” Enid trails off; her arms stop swinging. “I mean it’s not that bad, right?”
“What’s not that bad?”
“Hanging out with me. It’s great, isn’t it? Two buddies snooping around for mysterious secrets.” Enid giggles, but even that cuts off quickly as well.
Wednesday looks up and sees the smile fade from Enid’s face. She recognises that look, she’s seen it when Enid met her family that one time at school, when she was terrified of the prospect of being rejected by Ajax. It’s a small thing to fear, Wednesday’s rejection, since she practically rejects the entire human race wherever she goes. But the walk’s gotten quiet, and Enid not talking should be equivalent to Enid’s heart not beating.
“It’s better than hanging out with my family,” Wednesday kicks at the dried-up grass, watching it shake in the wind. “And… other strangers, I guess.” She’s awful at this.
Enid smiles. It’s so easy to make her smile, but it feels like something that should be earned, anyway. Wednesday tears her eyes from the sight, walking fast until she’s just ahead of Enid.
“Want to go to the Nightshade room?”
“It’s warmer in here,” Enid says.
It is warmer, and now Wednesday doesn’t regret going down another long and arduous staircase, because Enid’s finally stopped shivering. The air’s still as stale as ever, though.
“I remember when Ajax brought me here.” Enid continues, hopping down the steps. Wednesday tries very hard not to count the rhythms in which one foot hops past the other, but she can’t. One, two. One, two. One, two, three, one. “I was so mad he kept it a secret. This place is pretty cool, though, so I can see why he did it.”
“It’s very unhygienic.” Wednesday grimaces at the dust that collects on the bottom level. And not the good kind, either. “Seems like the secret club didn’t add cleaning duty to their roster.”
“I think it’s okay,” Enid finally hops down from the last step, breathing hard. “Hey, what are you looking at?”
The picture of her parents is there. Old and nearly crumbling, but still there. Wednesday stares at it, the faces of a younger Morticia and Gomez Addams. It makes her want to vomit, in a way, but now that she knows about the truth behind her parent’s coverup, she looks at the way her father smiles in the picture and realises her father truly loved her mom.
Not that the daily make-out sessions made it clear enough already.
“About the family thing.” Enid says, and Wednesday turns around. “I know you mentioned them earlier. I mean, you care about them, right?”
Wednesday narrows her eyes. There’s a moment that passes before she answers, “Enough to not make me want to kill myself.”
“Good. ‘Cause, uh, to be honest, when I heard that you gave up spending time with them for me, I…” Enid looks at the picture, shrugging. “I don’t know, I guess I don’t know if I’m worth that much. Write back to them sometime, would you?”
“I write back to them every day,” Wednesday says. “and your worth isn’t determined by comparing yourself with others. It’s what you decide for yourself.”
“Yowch, some words of wisdom from Miss Addams over here.” Enid teases. “Hey. Thanks for coming out with me today.”
“I’d have died of boredom if I holed up in my room all day anyway.”
“Yeah, well,” Enid reaches out and grabs Wednesday’s hands. Wednesday can’t even pull away, she’s too shocked for that. “I’ll warm up your hands a little. Consider it a gift of gratitude.”
“Gratitude?” Wednesday asks. Her face is definitely turning red now, there’s no denying that. She can’t look away as Enid blows hot air into her fingers, rubbing them between her gloves. “For what?”
“For everything.” Enid grins, and Wednesday’s not sure if Enid’s smiling because she’s happy or because Wednesday’s face is so spectacularly red.
The winter only grows colder, and when mornings come they’re always bitter. Wednesday begins the journey to her bathroom with a shuffle, comes out completely frozen to the bone, and wraps a scarf around her neck as her and Enid go down to the almost-kind-of-slightly-recovering courtyard. There’s still magic going around in the kitchens, and so when they come down breakfast is served almost immediately. There’s only one and a half week left till school opens. Enid probably knows this, probably talks more and takes more chances to grab onto Wednesday’s hand or sleep curled up with her because of this.
There’s no room for her to complain. Wednesday just doesn’t know what else to do with this newfound feeling. It’s almost cathartic when she silently decides she’d be okay with living like this forever.
The door to the balcony is frozen. If anybody goes through it they’ll most likely be met with unrelenting winds and snowflakes stuck in their hair. So it’s really a huge mystery as to why Enid still keeps trying to twist the doorknob open.
“What are you doing?” Wednesday asks from her bed.
“You’ll see. It’s going to be totally magical. Once I… open… this… door—oh!” Enid flies back with a resounding thump, her back slamming against the floor hard enough to make even Wednesday wince.
“Are you okay?” Wednesday gets up and runs over, hovering over Enid. No, judging by Enid’s rubbing of her head, her brain’s probably the only part that took damage. “Serves you right.”
“Hey! I worked very hard to open that door!”
“I don’t see the point. It’s getting cold and it’s going to be even colder outside.”
“Come on!”
Enid pulls Wednesday by the hand and drags her into the open air, the brunt of the roaring snow, and the night sky. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
All she can feel is the icy air blowing into her face.
“You’re insane!” Wednesday shouts, keeping a hand over her eyes to protect herself from any stray snowflakes. “I’m going in.”
“No, look.” Enid points to the sky.
“Look, where? You’re—” Wednesday tilts her head up and all the words die in her mouth. Lights, green, blue, and yellow, streak across the sky in overlapping patterns. If there was something to compare it to, it would be the Aurora Borealis in the north pole, except this is something she’s never seen before. Wednesday looks at Enid, question half-formulated in her throat.
“Great, right? Not a lot of people know about this, because it’s usually semester break by then. But I found it last year. Apparently the magic in this school creates a force field or something, and it reacts with the atmosphere.” Enid sticks her tongue out. “But who cares about all that scientific nonsense! This is the coolest thing ever, right?!”
Wednesday can only nod. She tries not to think about the way Enid had said she’d found it last year, tries not to think about a younger Enid who spent her days all alone in an empty school just to avoid her family. Well, here’s Wednesday now. “It’s beautiful.”
“Ha!” Enid smirks. “Guess me opening that door was worth it, right?”
“I’m not letting you claim this as a victory,” Wednesday drawls.
“Nuh-uh. Look at you. You’re smiling.” She bumps her shoulder with her own and unfortunately, Wednesday finds herself to… actually be smiling. That’s another surprise.
“Whatever.”
They lean against the railing, peering into the night sky. If one of them presses even closer to the other, they don’t say a word about it.
Enid starts to exhale shaky breaths, which is a telltale sign of her getting cold. “I’m glad you hung out with me the past few weeks. I mean. I don’t know if you needed it, but I did. You know?”
“Mhm.”
“And, like, you can’t deny it either! I taught you how to knit! And warmed your hands up! And showed you this incredible view!”
“Mhm.”
Enid stares at her, exasperated. “Can you say something, at least?”
There’s a lot of things Wednesday wants to say, actually. She’s just not someone who speaks very often. It’s probably a detriment, but in this case, Wednesday knows Enid would let her if she chose to stay silent all day long. It’s one of those things Enid does unquestionably.
She likes that a lot.
“I don’t need to,” Wednesday whispers, and she leans forward to kiss her.
Enid is definitely shaking, though Wednesday’s not sure if it’s from the cold this time. She shivers and something touches Wednesday’s face, and oh, that’s her hand. Enid moves patiently, gently, slowly, everything that’s the opposite of what she normally is. If Wednesday thinks about it a bit more, maybe Enid’s trying to compensate for what must clearly be the other’s lack of experience.
But she likes this, too.
When they separate, Enid just smiles the widest she’s ever seen her smile. “Wow. So we’re best friends now?”
“Stop joking around,” Wednesday rolls her eyes, and Enid laughs. She kisses her again anyway.