Chapter Text
Enid was already having a bad day; she didn’t need some sarcastic 3ft tall goth girl making it worse.
It’s Eugene’s birthday, which obviously means all of his friends are over at his apartment. Enid made sure to wear her yellow and black striped jumper to fit in with the theme, Xavier tried dying his hair yellow, but it looks really bad and Yoko’s already taken pictures to use for blackmail material, while Divinia shook her head in disappointment. Enid’s fairly confident she’ll be chastised after.
Bianca had been the one to pick up on Enid’s shitty mood, clocking it as soon as the werewolf had walked through the door and only offered a half-hearted smile in greeting. The truth is, she hasn’t been sleeping well since she moved into her new house.
Over two months ago.
She’d moved to Vermont from San Francisco two years ago and had been kinda couch surfing for a while before meeting Yoko at a monsters anonymous meeting. Not that it was anonymous because everyone there knew all attendees were monsters, it’s literally the requirement. Anyway, some places have clubs for local monsters to meet each other, chat, share struggles of living amongst normies, the usual stuff. She and Yoko became quick friends, and she introduced Enid to her friends, it wasn’t long before she found herself integrated well amongst the group.
She’d been roomies with Yoko for about a year before she realized she was really getting in the way of her and Divinia’s sex life, so she started house hunting. Her job as a park ranger paid pretty well and the townhouses in the quiet town were a reasonable price, though, she should’ve maybe questioned why her current home was so cheap and why the estate agent was so eager to sell it to her.
Because it’s haunted.
Now, Enid can deal with the odd ghost. Her grandparents had a whiny ghoul living in the attic for most of her childhood. But this is insane.
She hears constant whispers and conversations. Her stuff is always going missing, she wakes up in the night to heavy footsteps racing down her hallways, swears she sees figures out the corner of her eyes. Its relentless and there is definitely more than one and they are most definitely screwing with her. It doesn’t help that they don’t reveal themselves to her to try and communicate.
Ajax and Xavier had shown up one day to try and “help,” Enid took one look at their Ouija board and sent them home.
The point is, she’s grumpy. She’s an energetic person who relies on sleep to function and remain peppy.
“Hey Enid, is Wednesday here yet?” Xavier appeared suddenly next to her, and she visibly jumped at the words.
The name didn’t ring a bell.
“Who’s Wednesday?” She asks in confusion and watches his face shift from curiosity to surprise to realization and then to smugness, for some off reason.
“How has Enid never met Wednesday,” Bianca laughs from where she pours drinks in the kitchen and Xavier skips over to her, likely to make sure there’s enough alcohol in them.
Yoko smirks from where she’s sat on the couch with an arm around Divinia.
“Enid, you’ll love her. I’ve actually really been wanting you guys to meet for a while,” there’s something about her tone that Enid can’t quite pick up on and the way Divinia elbows her girlfriend, doesn’t help.
She narrows her eyes at Tyler, who can’t lie for shit.
“Because you know, you guys will get along great, we’ve always said that right?”
Everyone chirps up and hums in agreement and Enid stifles a yawn with her fist, thanking Xavier as he passes her a drink.
“How come I’ve never met her if she’s friends with all you guys?”
“Well, she travels a lot for work,” Tyler shrugs.
Ajax snorts, “and she barely hangs out with us as it is, I think she actually only likes Eugene out of all of us.” He adjusts his beanie and winks at Enid, “you guys will get along like a freakin’ house on fire. Trust me.”
Smiling unsurely, Enid hums thoughtfully and takes a sip of her drink, nose scrunching up at the very obvious disproportionate vodka to coke ratio.
However, she can’t help but wonder how she and this Wednesday (who’s called that anyway?) have never met. She would’ve thought it was intentional that her friends were keeping them from meeting, but they all seem oddly excited at the idea. She wonders what the girl’s like. Maybe they have a lot in common.
Ajax and Tyler did say they’d get along great.
Maybe she listens to K-pop.
She tries to relax and not fall asleep in Eugene’s insanely comfortable armchair that you usually only find in an 80-year-old woman’s living room. There’s lively chatter and Ajax only had to be scolded once for trying to vault over the island in the small kitchen. Xavier dared him after bragging that he’d managed to do it before, despite the fact that there was no witnesses present.
Her eyes begin to droop sometime around five o’clock, so when she hears a firm three raps on the front door, she sits bolt upright and offers to go and answer, or else she’ll fall asleep for real. It’s probably this Wednesday person.
Enid frowns when she opens the door, not seeing anyone but then she looks down slightly and is greeted by a face that is just downright murderous.
This can’t be Wednesday. There’s no way this is the person Eugene was raving about earlier.
Jet black hair is neatly pleated, and a braid falls over each shoulder symmetrically. Her heavily lidded, dark eyes look up at Enid with so much annoyance and distaste that Enid feels the strong urge to glare back at her, despite how pretty she is.
“Um, are you at the right place?” Enid pokes her head around the doorframe and glances down the hall. “Sorry, who are you?”
The girl’s face doesn’t change but Enid sees her eye twitch and her hands are in tightly curled fists, one clenching a small paper bag.
“Jesus Christ, would you believe. And you?” She says in a deadpan tone.
Enid bites her tongue.
“Zeus, would you believe?” She mocks and the girl gives her a very slow once over, huffing quietly.
“Funny, I thought he’d be taller,” she raises a single brow, “and impressive.”
Enid glares, “ok you know what-”
Suddenly she feels an arm curl around her waist and pull her back before she attacks this random girl. Tyler gives her an odd look and smiles welcomely at the newcomer.
“Wednesday, hi! Sorry about Enid, she’s a little cranky.”
The girl, Wednesday apparently, shoots Tyler an unimpressed look before zeroing in on Enid’s jumper and frowning even harder. “I would be too if I had to wear such a hideous color.”
Enid gasps and gestures to Wednesdays all black outfit.
“Excuse me? At least I’m matching the theme, you look like you were barfed out of a Hot Topic magazine.”
Wednesday doesn’t respond physically to the insult, instead she takes a step forward, stepping over the threshold and Enid feels Tyler’s hands on her hips pull her back into the apartment as Wednesday approaches slowly.
Even in her chunky, platformed Doc Martins, she’s tiny.
Enid looks down at her as Wednesday looks up with bored eyes. She smells of smoke and-is that blood?
“Clearly you’ve never seen a black carpenter bee,” she drawls, and Enid narrows her eyes in response, about to fire a retort, when Eugene comes flying around the corner in his mustard yellow jumper, talking a million miles an hour while Wednesday watches unfazed.
He looks like he’s about to wrap her up in a big hug before stopping short and holding out his fist. A moment passes and she stares at him blankly before slowly lifting a pale fist to awkwardly bump his. Eugene beams at the gesture and Wednesday raises her other hand that is currently clutching the small giftbag.
“Happy birthday Eugene, while I personally do not celebrate such a dismal day, I have procured both a practical and aesthetically pleasing gift for the occasion.”
Eugene wastes no time in taking the bag from her and opening it, pulling out a slim black box and opening it to reveal a very thin, very sharp looking blade. The shine from the metal glints across his glasses as he stares in awe at the item.
“The handle is designed to look like honeycomb,” Wednesday says blankly, “the blade is thin to replicate the stinger of a bee, thin and delicate enough to remain concealed, should you need it.”
Tyler coughs quietly into his fist.
“This is so cool!” Eugene gasps, “I gotta show everyone else,” and he darts into the living space, leaving them standing in the hall. Wednesday bends down to take off her shoes, taking her overall height down like another inch or so and Enid tries really hard not to smile at the sight.
She walks right past them, following Eugene and Enid turns to Tyler.
He smiles sheepishly, “told you that you’d get along great.”
It’s later, after the honey cake and Eugene nearly taking Ajax’s eye out with his new knife, that Enid gets a chance to speak to Wednesday again. The girl had turned down any and all sweet treats, so she currently sits sipping the darkest tea that Enid’s ever seen.
Truthfully, she feels a little bad for snapping earlier.
“Hey,” she says quietly and Wednesday slowly turns her head to look at her. Enid shuffles a little closer on the couch and keeps an eye on Yoko and Xavier playing twister next to them. “The real reason I’m cranky is because I’m tired and I’m tired because of the stupid ghosts in my house keeping me up.”
That catches Wednesday’s attention.
Curiosity flickers in those dark eyes as she turns a little more inward to face Enid.
“You can…hear and see ghosts?”
Oh shoot maybe she’s a normie.
“I’m a werewolf,” she says slowly, wincing in case Wednesday suddenly starts cursing and throws her silver spoon at her or something.
Instead, she raises her eyebrows and looks Enid up and down.
“Fascinating. I wouldn’t have guessed.”
That little-
“That’s actually why I wanted you guys to meet,” Tyler pops up again and Enid misses the way Wednesday shoots him a dark look. “Enid, Wednesdays a ghost hunter, she like removes ghosts from peoples houses and tries to rehome them.”
“Or banish them from our mortal plain.”
“A ghost hunter?” Enid laughs, “what like you’re a ghostbuster?”
Wednesday frowns.
“What?”
“The movie.”
“No idea,” and she takes a sip of her tea, “and Tyler, ghost hunter is the incorrect term you complete and utter imbecile.”
Bianca makes a loud noise and points at Wednesday who scowls and rolls her eyes, reaching into her coat and pulling out a dollar bill and shoving it in the pretty stuffed jar that’s passed towards her. It’s crammed with bills, coins and Enid swears she sees a credit card.
“It’s like a swear jar but for when Wednesday rudely insults her friends that love her so much,” Bianca explains.
“Eat glass Barcley.”
“Love you too Addams.”
Ajax and Eugene stop their mini sword fight and the former gestures to the jar.
“I say we buy a jet ski with it.”
Divinia rolls her eyes and spins the arrow for the twister game. “And why should you get to decide?”
Ajax shrugs, “most of those insults were aimed at me, for one thing.”
Everyone turns to look at Wednesday who shrugs and offers a curt nod in confirmation. They all begin to bicker over what to spend the money on, while Wednesday watches with a bored expression. Sighing, she places her cup down on the coffee table and reaches into her coat, pulling out a small, black, business card and wordlessly hands it to Enid.
WEDNESDAY ADDAMS
. Seer . Demonologist . Paranormal Expert .
Send request via raven or mail
Enid frowns, “you don’t have a phone number or website?”
The other girl turns her nose up at the idea and shakes her head.
“Will that be a problem? If so I can just-” and she reaches to take the card back, but Enid pulls it close to her chest.
“No um-how soon can you visit?”
xXx
Enid got about three hours of uninterrupted sleep last night and dozed for about another hour after she threw a shoe in the direction of a loud tapping noise. At least it meant she was up early enough to tidy up the house before Wednesday came.
They agreed for her to arrive at 10am, Enid assumed that didn’t mean that Wednesday would arrive the second the clock struck 10.
However, the harsh rap of knuckles on the door and the familiar short, dark figure was recognizable through the glass window in Enid’s door.
“Shit,” she hisses, tripping up over a spare pair of boots, swearing that she hears an echoed laughter ring through the house behind her. She clumsily unlocks the door, and it swings open to an unimpressed Wednesday Addams and a…severed hand, on her shoulder? “Wednesday hi! Thanks so much for coming you really have no idea how much this will help me-” She pauses, stepping aside to let the woman walk inside and she frowns looking at the front lawn. “Where’s all your stuff?”
Wednesday walks down Enid’s hall, boots heavily colliding with the wooden flooring as she peeks into the living room and kitchen.
“This is merely an introduction between me and the house,” she mutters, before whispering something to her freaky looking hand and it jumps off her shoulder, scampering somewhere upstairs. “It’ll likely take more than one session, if the hauntings are as severe as you make them out to be.”
“Oh,” Enid says softly, hugging her thick jumper closer to herself. “So, you’re like, not a normie, if you can see ghosts? But I thought normies could see ghosts too?”
Wednesday glances back at her before wandering right, into the living room. There’s a bay window at the front of the house, accompanied by thick cushions and blankets, opposite, built into the wall that divides the house and kitchen is a cobblestone fireplace. There’s a patchy looking couch and so many different throws on it, plus a big rug because the wooden floor can get pretty cold at times. The walls of the house are graced with various paintings and photographs, she likes to think it’s homey.
“Revolting,” the goth murmurs as her eyes pass over a sign that says, happiness is homemade. “No wonder you’re being haunted.”
“That’s not funny and you didn’t answer my question.”
Wednesday sighs like it’s a complete inconvenience to her that her client has questions about her business.
“A large number of houses have some sort of ghost or spirit, but humans don’t notice them the same way we do. They brush it off, assume it’s a fault with the house or a gust of wind. Though, in cases where the spirit is much more aggressive, the humans take more notice and those are the one you hear people talk about.”
Enid makes an oh shape with her mouth and nods.
“So how do you get rid of them? I’ve done the whole, you are not allowed here thing, I sprayed holy water-”
“Are you religious?”
“No.”
“Then it’s useless.”
Wednesday stops in front of one of Enid’s mirrors and then looks behind her to see another mirror opposite. Wednesday stares blankly at two mirrors facing each other, before looking back to Enid, and then she looks back at the mirrors, huffing quietly. “Well, this won’t be helping.” She takes one mirror down, off the wall and turns it around, leaning against the same wall, without even asking first.
The severed hand scurries back towards them and Wednesday bends down as it begins to rapidly tap the floorboards in what Enid things might be morse code. Wednesday stares at him blankly, waiting for him to finish. She nods.
“Adequate work Thing, go check the garden.”
Wednesday glances up at Enid who watches them intently, hands clasped before her and eagerly rocking on her heels.
“Thing is my associate.”
“His name is Thing?” Enid frowns, “who’s hand is that anyways?”
Wednesday shrugs, “that’s an Addams family mystery.”
Of course, it is.
“I would like time to inspect your home, wait here until my return.”
And then she’s off.
Enid watches, mouth hanging open as Wednesday wordlessly strolls into the kitchen. Guess she can’t do anything but wait until the girl’s finished. So, Enid sits down on her couch and switches on Gilmore Girls, surely the positive energy from the show would help ward off any evil entities. Now that she’s left with her thoughts, it allows her to think more about the strange goth girl who’s currently digging through her pots and pans drawer for some strange reason.
Despite their initial clash, Enid finds herself eager to get to know Wednesday better.
She’s weird but not in a bad way.
Plus, she’s kind of pretty.
“Enid.”
“Jesus,” she leaps up off the couch, her pink, white and orange knitted blanket getting tangled in her legs, sending her stumbling and tripping, falling face first into her rug. Unfortunately, it’s not thick enough to properly cushion her from the hardwood floor underneath as she groans out in pain.
Thick boots come into her eyeline, and she looks up to see a somewhat amused Wednesday Addams.
“It’s pronounced Wednesday.”
“Fuck off.”
“Oh, so do you have someone else to deal with your ghosts?” At Enid’s silence she raises a brow and tilts her chin, “hm, I thought so. Now get up, I’ve finished my inspection.”
Enid pushes herself up onto her knees and blows a strand of hair out her face. Cheeks a light dusting of red as she stands up wobbly and follows Wednesday into the back garden. Kicking at a pile of orange, brown leaves as she does so.
Thing sits (stands?) impatiently, one finger tapping at the ground as they approach.
Wednesday stops and turns, head tilted up to look Enid in the eyes.
“Good news, you have no malevolent spirits on the property and no succubus’ either.”
Enid frowns, “a succubus?”
Wednesday sighs, “a demon or supernatural entity appearing in female form in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity.”
“Oh well its probably not here because I’m a woman.”
“Well, there’s an incubus for that, the same entity but in a male form.”
“Then why’d you only rule out succubus?”
Wednesday rolls her eyes.
“Which is more likely to appeal to you Sinclair?”
Oh my God.
Wednesday Addams more or less looked her directly in the eyes and said, “I know what you are.”
“Point taken,” she breathes out, cheeks flaring a bright red. “So um, what is here?”
Wednesday looks on in disgust as Thing frolics through the autumnal colored leaves. She looks at Enid out the corner of her eye.
“A poltergeist, that’s where you’ll be getting a lot of your noise from. Lights flickering, loud knocking, books flying off your shelf. The one you have is a strong one, it’ll take a little more effort to get rid of it. Next a World War two veteran, he’s sad, any cold areas in the house which bring forth feelings of melancholy are because of him. Next, a little girl-”
Enid buries her face in her hands, and she groans into them.
“There’s always a creepy little girl.”
Wednesday ignores her and continues, “I believe her body is still on the grounds-”
“What.”
“Once I find it and appropriately dispose of it, you should be fine-”
“That’s so sad what the fuck?”
“Then there are some wisp ghosts, also leaving the area feeling cold, I should be able to catch some though. Oh, and lastly, the biggest issue out of them all is what I believe may be a trio of Ecto-mist ghosts. They appear as a vaporous cloud usually appearing several feet off the ground and can move swiftly or stay still, sometimes ectoplasms appear before becoming a full-bodied apparition.” Wednesday looks at her out the corner of her eye before darting away to look back at the garden.
Enid nods, “ok, I feel like you’re not telling me something though.”
“They’re…civil war soldiers.
“Please don’t say-”
“One is a confederate yes, the other two are union soldiers, I believe they are still feuding. Even in death. An…admirable dedication.”
Enid crosses her arms and grumbles, “I can’t believe I have a stupid confederate soldier living with me.” She crunches some leaves under her boots and plasters on a smile to wave at one of her neighbors who’s pushing a pram past her house. “Hey Mrs O’Leary,” she shouts, smile falling when the woman gives her a dirty look.
Listen, she gets that normies can be intimidated or freaked out by people like her, she totally understands that someone with snakes on their head (Ajax) is a little threatening. But Enid’s been nothing but nice. She bakes cookies when she first moved in, as an introduction to her neighbors.
Mrs O’Leary and her husband had moved here not long before Enid had and just welcomed their first kid, despite their outwardly perfect appearance, they don’t treat Enid’s kind too nicely. Next door to Enid is Mel, a single mother with four kids and a dog which snarled at Enid whenever it saw her, so no brownie points won there. Mr Smith across the road is kinda passive aggressive. He sits on his porch with his shotgun propped up next to him most evenings and has made a passing comment or two about how she’d make a nice “Davy Crockett hat.” So, she avoids him as much as she can. The family of witches at the end of the street are nice and so is the old man, Mr Daniels who’s shopping she sometimes carries.
It could be worse.
But the absolute racket her house makes, isn’t making it better.
“I can make her disappear.”
Enid snaps her head around to see Wednesday staring at Mrs O’Leary’s retreating form.
“The child too.”
“Wednesday!” Enid gasps, laughter bubbling in her throat despite her horror at Wednesday’s words.
She watches as the smaller woman pulls a calculator out of her jacket and begins to press the buttons slowly before turning it to face Enid.
$3250
“Oh my god?” Enid snatches the calculator out of Wednesday’s hands. “This is like, a lot.”
Wednesday arches a brow and pulls a small leaflet out of her jacket too, wordlessly handing it to Enid as well. It appears to be a small catalogue of sorts with lists of different creatures, ghosts, practices and their prices.
THE FOLLOWING PRICES ARE LISTED IN ORDER OF EXPENSE
ITEMS:
White Sage Stick (locally sourced)-$5.0
Sea Salt (10kg)-$10.0
APPOINTMENTS TO DEAL WITH THE FOLLOWING:
Orbs-$10
Wisp Ghost-$25 (Approx)
Unknown spirit-general house visit and cleanse-$100
Interactive Personality-$300
Ecto-mist-$500
Poltergeist-$1000
Demonic Entity-$ Price to be determined.
CASUAL APPOINTMENTS:
Palm Reading-$40 per 30 minutes
Exorcism-$500
Enid looks up from the leaflet, mouth agape.
“It’s kinda insane to put palm reading and exorcism right next to each other.”
Wednesday shrugs and blows air out heavily through her nose, “can you pay it or not Sinclair, prices may vary depending on the spirit and how much effort it takes to rehome it.”
Enid bites her lip thoughtfully. The job pays sorta well but she kinda moved here with nothing and the majority of the money she’s earned has gone towards the house and paying off loans. Maybe she can pick up some more shifts or ask Tyler if he needs any help at the Weathervane.
“I think it’ll be fine, when can you get rid of them all?”
“I’ll come on Tuesdays,” Wednesday says, Thing suddenly appearing on her shoulder and tapping out some kind of code. “Around 5pm, spirits are easier to communicate with at night.”
“Tuesdays, plural?” Enid says and Wednesday sighs again.
“I only do this work for three days a week Sinclair and I have other clients, so yes, Tuesdays. One spirit/group of spirits per week most likely. It’ll also give you some time to gather the extra cash, I could practically see the bile rise in your throat when you saw the price.”
“Gross.”
“I will return at 10pm tonight, to try and catch your wisp ghosts, as it’ll need to be dark,” Wednesday says, beginning to walk towards Enid’s white picket fence and gate with the squeaky hinge that she needs to take care of at some point.
She turns around abruptly, and Enid quickly stops before she bumps into her. She looks up at Enid through her thick lashes and stares at her, not quite revealing anything but her gaze is heavy and Enid struggles to not squirm under it.
“For a werewolf you appear to be of minimal threat, its…disappointing,” Wednesday murmurs, eyes focused on Enid’s mouth for some reason. Likely searching for razor sharp canines.
Enid scoffs lightly, “you sound like my mom.”
Strangely, Wednesdays gaze turns harder at that, her jaw clenches tightly.
“Well, I’m allowed to say that, I’m Wednesday Addams,” she says, ignoring the rapid tapping of Thing’s fingers on her shoulder. “Your mothers intent remains questionable; shall I gut her?”
Enid balks and chokes on nothing.
“Ok you can’t keep offering to harm people for me Wednesday.”
“Don’t be so full of yourself Sinclair, it would be for my enjoyment.”
The smaller girl opens the gate and steps out onto the sidewalk, barely sparing Enid a second look before walking away.
“I’ll see you at 10, Sinclair. Don’t, lock your doors.”
xXx
“Where the hell did you find this girl Yoko?”
“Don’t ask me, one day Eugene showed up with her and now I get a death threat written with cutout letters from newspapers every month on the 25th.”
Enid frowns, and moves to peer out her living room window, keeping an eye out for the girl.
“Always the 25th?”
“Its because we met on the 25th I think,” Yoko mutters, “that sentimental freak.”
“Well, I don’t think she likes me, in fact I think she might actually murder me.”
“Did she threaten you?”
“Um no,” Enid thinks, “she did threaten people for me?”
Yoko hums thoughtfully, and Enid can hear her smile through the phone.
“Oh my God Yoko, what?”
“Nothing, nothing, just I wanna know when the wedding is.”
A loud knock sounds from her front door and Enid swears under her breath, at both Yoko who’s cackling down the phone and Wednesday who somehow managed to slip past Enid’s watchful eye and make her way to her porch.
She utters a hurried goodbye to Yoko, who makes kissy noises down the phone in response, and she chucks it on the couch.
Wednesday wears a black trench coat, black V-neck sweatshirt, with a white collar poking out, as well as black slacks which are rolled at the bottom to of course show off her insanely chunky boots. Thing is perched on her shoulder, and he waves a finger in Enid’s direction.
Next to Wednesday is one of those big, boxy, leather suitcases.
“I’ll get that for you,” Enid smiles as Wednesday moves past her into the house. The suitcase is lighter than expected, but her werewolf genes allow Enid to lift a lot of heavy items with ease. A feat that Wednesday seems to notice as Enid picks up the suitcase by its strap and carry it into the foyer.
A distant laugh, accompanied by a series of bangs make Enid sigh, whilst Wednesday perks up.
“I must say, this is one of the most active houses I’ve visited, it’s dreadfully delightful. Are you sure you want them gone?”
Enid laughs before realizing that she’s being serious.
“I-yes, yes Wednesday I want them gone.”
Wednesday sighs, “alright then,” and reaches around the case, unbuckling one of the locks and pulling it open as Enid watches in amazement as various drawers and compartments expand out of it, revealing jars, vials, weapons. It reminded her of that one guy’s case from that one Harry Potter movie.
Thing begins to take out the mason jars and their steel lids, Wednesday instructs him to begin placing them around the house.
“Wisps are fast and notoriously hard to catch, they’re harmless but if you want them gone-”
“I do.”
“-Then I’ll have to be one step ahead of them.” Wednesday grasps a mason jar and then grabs what looks to be a vial of blood? She pokes her finger inside it and then takes the crimson finger and trails the blood around the inside of the mason jar. Enid watches as Thing does the same. “They’re attracted to living things, feel the need to try and guide them. However, blood is a component of a living thing, yet abandoned from its host so in theory; the Wisp should be curious and come to investigate it.”
“Then you’ll catch it?”
“Thing will jump from whatever dark crevasse he has squeezed himself into and slam the lid on the jar, keeping the Wisp there, and I’ll have some new lights for my garden.”
Enid laughs before realizing again that she’s being serious.
“Ok…and how can I help?”
Wednesday doesn’t even bother looking her way, “don’t.”
Well, that’s a little rude.
“But I can try to-”
“I don’t need your grubby paws messing up my work Sinclair, go to sleep or something.”
“Oh, so you can smother me with a pillow? No thanks.”
Wednesday rolls her eyes.
“Not my style, too quiet, too peaceful.”
And that’s how Enid finds herself in bed, with tea, in a wonky mug she’d made and painted at a pottery class in town. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep with 1. A stranger in her house and 2. That stupid poltergeist that Wednesday identified, keeps thumping around in the attic.
Wednesday, however, works very quietly.
All that Enid’s heard so far was the distant scolding she gave Thing. But apart from that, it’s been near silence. But then again, the Wisps are silent creatures. She wonders what Wednesday does with them all, can you really banish a ghost for good? Or does she actually rehome them. Is she like a real estate agent for ghosts? Does she find them new homes or just let them roam free once she’s extracted them from the house? Maybe she has a big containment unit for them, like in Ghostbusters.
She sips her now lukewarm tea and jumps a little at the sound of popping outside. It sounds like when someone pops the cork off a bottle of wine or champagne. She hears it most nights, it usually begins around this time. It makes sense if it is the ghosts of soldiers out there fighting each other. The popping makes a hell of a lot more sense now too. It’s kind of spooky to think about. That all these ghosts and spirits live and watch her, but she can only see them at select times, when they want to be seen. She knows that its like to be an outcast, what it’s like to be different but to be fair, she’s never gone out of her way to annoy people because of it.
How long have some of these people been here? Stuck here even?
It’s scary to think about.
An increasingly familiar knock sounds against her bedroom door and she welcomes (who she hopes is Wednesday) into the room. The door creeks open and from the shadows emerges an even darker Wednesday Addams.
She pauses, seeing Enid in bed before clearing her throat and walking closer, producing a mason jar from behind her back, sealed with the steel lid. Inside is a light blue orb-like creature. It’s, well, wispy and looks light. It doesn’t seem agitated, which is good.
“Thing and I caught seven, I believe it is all of them,” Wednesday murmurs triumphantly, offering the jar to Enid who takes it carefully and brings it closer for inspection. The ball of light seems to surge brighter when she pulls it up to her face. It swirls around in a circle, and she feels the glass vibrate a little at the movement.
“Aw,” she smiles, while Wednesday frowns, “it’s kinda cute. What was it? Before, I mean?”
Wednesday tilts her head a little, like she wasn’t expecting the question.
“It’s hard to say, especially when you cannot communicate efficiently with them. This one I believe to be a former woodland creature, many are. But many are also wandering souls who never settled anywhere.”
Enid hums and hands the jar back to her.
“So how much will that be today?”
Wednesday shakes the jar in her hands, watching as the spirit goes spiraling inside. “No need to pay me so prematurely Sinclair, like I said the total cost shall be paid for once I have removed every spirit from your home,” she says impatiently and begins to exit the room when Enid’s breath hitches, about to ask another question. Wednesday stops and turns back, a bored look on her face.
“Where do they go?” Her voice is small, quiet enough that she sees Wednesday turn her head slightly to hear her. “Are they ok?”
“They’re dead, Sinclair.”
She sighs, “I know but, it’s just sad y’know, dying, being trapped somewhere and then what? Become some garden ornament?”
Wednesday frowns, “I was obviously kidding. Yoko said you valued humor. Many simpletons do-”
“Wednesday,” Enid sighs, “like, where do they go, do they just wander around somewhere else for eternity or what?”
The smaller girl stares at her for a moment before walking over to Enid’s dresser and placing the mason jar down there. She walks back to the center of the room and holds her hands clasped in front of her.
“Sometimes I banish a spirit, if it asks me to. Other times if it’s a particularly frightful one, I’ll keep it until I need to release it on my enemies. Often, I’ll release them where I think suits them best.” She says in her usual monotone voice, and she arches a brow. “Is that all for tonight, Sinclair?”
Enid nods and Wednesday’s shoulders seem to sag in relief, and she begins to leave the room once more.
“Oh, wait!”
Wednesday’s head drops to her chest, and she turns around slowly again.
“What.” Is said through gritted teeth.
Enid gulps, “uh why do you get rid of the least annoying ghosts first, if it means I’m stuck with the more disruptive ones for longer?”
Wednesday blinks and turns back towards the bedroom door, stepping through it until she is standing in the hallway, figure illuminated by a pale flickering light.
“Well, it’s quite simple Sinclair, the trickier the ghost, the more I need to get to know them. I cannot just show up one random afternoon and get rid of a poltergeist. If I tried to do that, the chances are that his shenanigans would increase by a tenfold.” Thing appears out of nowhere, sitting on her shoulder once more and Wednesday dips her head in goodbye to Enid. “Now, I’ll see you next Tuesday, same time, and I’ll sort out the World War two veteran. Do try and get some sleep, I’ll have Thing lock up for you.”
And then she vanishes again.
Now, Enid isn’t super trusting of a severed hand that magically walks, so she goes to check that the doors are locked once the girl leaves (they are) and she gets into bed, well past 1am. She actually did have a good sleep that night.
That is, until someone decides to have all her electronics and music devices blast her favorite K-pop bands at full volume at 5am.