Chapter Text
“Look, she’s here.”
Wednesday had only been to her family’s parties before. She was well aware that they were eccentric and that their yearly ball wasn’t what she was about to experience. She had never been to a college party or anything deemed normal at all before, and she didn’t mind. It would be an interesting study on human behavior.
She could hear the noise from outside, the bass from the loudspeaker made the whole house vibrate. It disgusted her, but she couldn't turn back now. Backing up from a challenge would bring dishonor to her entire bloodline. As she approached the place she identified people smoking outside and a pair making out in one corner. Public displays of affection were her parents' speciality and it made her want to gauge her eyes out with pliers. Wednesday couldn't understand it.
The raven opened the door of the apartment and the mixed smell of alcohol, tobacco and weed made her gag a bit. She looked around and saw Sinclair in a corner with what she assumed were her friends. Enid looked in her direction and waved. Wednesday sighed and started to make her way over to the blonde.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” A smooth voice was heard behind her. “Wednesday Addams attending a college party? Will the world end?”
Wednesday turned around and greeted her long time friend. The dark skinned girl had a buzzcut now and looked genuinely happy to see her.
“I hope so, Bia. It would be best that the world ended. Then I could get out of this adolescent cliché I was forced to attend.”
“Come on, Addams. Nobody forced you to come, stop being dramatic.” Bianca smiled and then added “It's good to see you.”
“You too, Barclay” the raven said softly. Bianca was her sparring partner during high school. They had won multiple fencing competitions together, both national and international. They had represented their high school and got along surprisingly well after a rocky start in freshman year. The year before, Bianca had decided on moving all the way to Florida for university.
"I have to be near the water” she had told Wednesday, "but I'll call. Don't worry. I know you will miss me.” "You are giving yourself too much importance,” Wednesday had answered, but she knew that Bianca was right. She did miss their daily sparring sessions. And she hated to admit that she had grown fond of Bianca. They hadn’t had much contact in the last months except for a few calls and some instagram videos that Bianca had sent her.
Her friend smiled and opened her arms.
“Aww… do I get a hug, Addams?”
“No.”
Bianca rolled her eyes playfully and pointed towards the group in the corner, where Enid was.
“Let's go meet the birthday girl. Do you remember Divina, my cousin?”Wednesday remembered vaguely Bianca's family. She had heard horrors about her mother but she never met her. She had met the others at a competition somewhere in the midwest. But when she looked at Divina, the one in the corner next to Enid, sitting on another girls lap, she saw the resemblance. They had the same light-colored eyes and carried themselves with elegance and confidence .
“And I was wondering why you would come all the way from the south to this... event.”
Wednesday followed Bianca towards the group. They all got up and looked at Wednesday like she was something strange.
“Wednesday, this is my cousin, Divina” said Bianca and gestured towards the girl Bianca had pointed at before. “Divina, Wednesday Addams. A high school friend, maybe you remember her?”
“From fencing, right?” Asked the girl and smiled. “It's nice to meet you. This is Yoko Tanaka, my girlfriend. And you already know Enid.”
Wednesday nodded and looked at the other girls. Enid smiled and waved energetically. Wednesday resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She made eye contact with Divina and said:
“Likewise. Have a woeful birthday, Divina. I got you something with the motive of the anniversary of your birth.”
Gomez and Morticia had taught her to never go empty handed to a party. It was considered a sign of respect to have something for the host, in this case, Divina. It was also common that the guests stayed until late to help with the cleaning of the house, but Wednesday despised cleaning other people’s messes. Specially other people’s drunken messes, and her family didn’t lack of those.
Wednesday handed the green-eyed girl a small black box. She had little time to arrange it, but her conditioning made her look for a present.
“Thank you.” Divina said with her eyebrows raised. “Is it okay if I open it now?”
“Sure, it’s nothing fancy. I found it in my room and thought it would be appropriate.”
Divina smiled and hugged her. Wednesday stiffened and took a step back. She avoided physical contact as much as possible, but the others didn’t seem to notice. Bianca whispered something in her cousin’s ear and Divina took a step back with an apologetic expression. Sometimes her father or Eugene would forget too. Bianca had always asked, but Wednesday had said no most of the times. Closeness made her uncomfortable. It felt dangerous, but not the exciting kind of dangerous.
“Can I ask what it is? I've... never seen anything like this,” asked Divina after opening the box.
“It’s a souvenir” she explained. “A remnant of the Iroquois Theatre. A seat number, D20. I had it somewhere and thought it was appropriate, for you are twenty years of age now and your name starts with that letter.”
“The Iroquois Theatre?” Asked Sinclair. Wednesday frowned.
“From the Iroquois Theatre fire? In 1903? Over 600 casualties?” Everyone looked as puzzled as Divina, so Wednesday let it be. “Well, I wish you terrible things for your birthday. I will preoccupy myself with the punch, If you excuse me.”
She turned around and cursed herself. She should have found a more known disaster or a spare taxidermy kit. Maybe some poisonous chocolate? Wednesday dodged the people in her path and made her way to the table with food and drinks. There were alcoholic beverages of the worst quality imaginable and a big water cooler with punch inside. Wednesday served herself some punch and was abut to steal a cookie from the table when a blonde appeared next to her and put her hand on Wednesday's shoulder.
“You came! Not that I thought you would lie, but I know this is probably not your usual scene. I'm glad you're here! I promise you will have so much fun!”
“You invited me, but I still do not understand why” Wednesday took a sip from her punch. It was, as expected, garbage, but she took another sip. It was a necessary evil to be able to tolerate the loud music, the suffocated air and Enid Sinclair.
Enid shrugged and reached for a cookie.
“I kinda wanted to know you better. We've seen each other a few times and we met when we were kids. It's kinda crazy, right? That we both ended in the same university. Like, I always wondered what happened to you after that incident. I never forgot you.”
Maybe. Wednesday had never forgot Enid either. When the small blonde approached her in the fourth grade and asked if she wanted to sit with her friends and Wednesday had told her no. After Nero, she wouldn’t make any more friends. Friends were a weakness and Wednesday didn't care about making friends anymore, the only thing she wanted was to escape the prison her parents had put her in. School. She had hated school with a passion. It was a system for suppressing creativity, identity and community. It turned excited kids into depressed teenagers and into more depressed adults.
Wednesday never had interest for geography in the second grade, but she liked reading mathematical texts and tried to do the proofs for theorems herself. In the third grade, she got into carnivorous plants. Her mother had smiled and showed her the ones she had in her greenhouse, how to water them and how to avoid being eaten by them. Morticia was patient and answered every question her daughter had, and when she didn't have an answer for Wednesday, they would both head to the manor's library to learn more. In the eight grade, Wednesday built her first computer and learnt about cybersecurity. Her father had helped her to find a group of hackers that could teach her the works. Wednesday worked with them for a few months, while they scammed and stole money. And she observed and learned.
School was nothing like that, but her parents had explained that she needed to go to school and then "graduate" to go to university later. If she wanted to study forensics, or biology or mathematics on an advanced level, she had to finish school. But Wednesday had hated it. Every second of it except for Eugene and Bianca. She got herself expelled from five schools during elementary. She went through three different middle schools and only one high school. She met Eugene in the first semester and tried her best to not get expelled. She got banned from attending the graduation ceremony, but she still got her certificate sent per mail.
Wednesday had jumped from school to school, raising havoc in every one. Sadly, she never beat her father’s record in arrests throughout high school.
“What are you studying?” asked Sinclair. Wednesday was pulled away from her thoughts and answered flatly:
“Forensic sciences.”
“Oh, wow, that sounds... I could never. I'm doing journalism. I could never see a dead body without puking. Why forensic sciences though?”
“My parents own a funeral parlor. I have been around the deceased since I was a child. Death has always fascinated me. I suppose that while doing journalism you are bound to encounter things you don't like, Sinclair. I suggest you expose yourself to corpses so you don't vomit while on the job.”
“So... I'm more into politics than homicide, but thanks for the suggestion! Do you want to join us for beer pong with Divina and the crew? They're waving at us.”
“I will abstain, thank you.” Wednesday declined politely, and took another sip from her cup, but Sinclair hadn’t listened, so she grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to where her friends were. Like she had no choice. There was something in the blonde girl that intrigued Wednesday. Maybe it was how confident she was, how happy she seemed. Or maybe how friendly she was to a complete stranger like herself. How could someone be so cheerful in a world full of misery and hate?
“It's okay, you can watch with Xavier and Yoko. They don’t wanna play either. Oh, look. There's Ajax! He's my boyfriend”, she explained. Wednesday looked at the boy that Sinclair had pointed at. He had a dark green beanie on and looked already completely stoned. He approached them and kissed Enid on the mouth and then greeted Wednesday.
“So you must be that Addams girl, right? I was told you killed a teacher at your school, that's crazy dude. Like how did you-?”
Sinclair, blushing, put a hand on her boyfriends mouth to stop him from talking further.
“I told you the teacher survived, Ajax! Wednesday, I apolo-”
“Actually, it was two teachers, but who's counting?” She was interrupted by Wednesday, who was somewhat amused at the horrified face of the boy. Sinclair sighed and introduced Wednesday to more people.
“Wednesday, this is Ajax. This one here is Xavier and you already know Yoko. You sure you don't want to play?”
“Yes, Sinclair. Stop pestering me,” she grumbled and sat down next to Enid's friends. She watched how the others played something they called beer pong. It consisted in throwing a ping pong ball into plastic cups on the other side of the table. How juvenile, she thought.
“So, you were the one who unleashed scorpions in Mr. Shannon's class?” asked the asian girl and Xavier looked at both of them with wide eyes. “I was also in that class, but you probably don't remember me. We never talked. How did you do it? It was frankly traumatizing.”
“Indeed. That was me. It pains me that you remember the one time where I failed at the job. But I could not find enough scorpions, in my defense.”
“You're creepy” laughed Xavier.
“So I’ve been told.” Wednesday drank the rest of her punch in one gulp.
She looked at the group playing at the table. Sinclair was wearing a very short denim skirt and an oversized pink sweater and pink converse boots. Ajax was hugging her from behind and they were both watching Bianca throw the ball. Wednesday tore her eyes away from the girl and looked at the rest of the crowd. There were people dancing in the middle of the room, near a window were two girls smoking weed and on the sofa was a pair making out. Her eyes returned to the blonde for a second before Tanaka asked her something.
“Did you learn about the dead freshman?”
Wednesday hummed and looked at her hands. The investigation was stagnant for the moment and it frustrated her. The police had been nothing but useless, like always. Every piece of evidence she gathered after breaking into the police station was already contaminated. They were likely very stupid and couldn’t follow standardized safety procedures… or someone had sabotaged them.
“Very unfortunate indeed.”
“Ajax is friends with Tyler Galpin, the one that found the body. Said he’s still shaken and that he returned home for the time being to clear his head.”
“I do not know who this Tyler is. I am sure that finding a body can be disturbing for an unaccustomed brain. Even I dreamt for two days about my first corpse.”
Yoko coughed.
“Say what? Your first corpse?”
“My family owns a funeral parlor, Tanaka. I grew up around corpses.”
“That… sounds crazy. Makes sense you’re studying forensic sciences. Do you have siblings? Do you plan on working at your family’s parlor later?”
Wednesday felt interrogated. Why was this unknown woman asking about her family? She had been careless during the last few days, and carelessness had aggravating consequences in Wednesday’s dictionary. She was in the middle of an investigation. For all that was worth, Tanaka and Sinclair could be suspects. She clenched her jaw and looked at Enid’s friend in the eye.
“I have a brother. And I will not partake in this interrogation further.” She looked at her phone and noticed she had already been at the party for over an hour. It was almost ten o’clock. It was getting late. “I need to go” she told Yoko.
“Already? But it hasn’t properly started yet!”
“Goodbye, Tanaka.”
She stood up and went over to Enid and Bianca and said her goodbye. The blonde pouted and looked at her with puppy eyes. She put her arm around Wednesday. The black-haired girl swallowed. Enid was uncomfortably close and Wednesday could feel her own heartbeat hammering in her head.
“Aww…don’t go, Wednesday, ” her breath reeked of alcohol and she was also slurring her words a little “you haven’t even played flip cup yet!”
“I… see you later, Sinclair. Bia, have a dreadful trip back.”
“Thanks, Wens” the dark skinned girl smiled. “I’ll actually stay a week at Divinas’, but thanks. You too.”
Wednesday went out and checked every corner again. She thought about this… Tyler. He could have answers. Or hints. She needed to find him. He had to be important to the investigation. Or maybe a suspect?
She walked towards her apartment looking over her shoulder every few seconds. She didn’t feel observed that night, but something was still off. As if there was this lingering feeling that a tragedy had happened in those streets, with that air, with the same rushing of the water in the background. Wednesday blamed it on the alcohol. She did manage to finish a whole cup of punch.
Eugene was still awake when Wednesday opened the door. He wiggled his eyebrows.
“How was it?”
“It is a good torture method. I never thought Sinclair had such a wicked mind. However, I am ashamed to say that it was tolerable.”
Her friend let out a laugh and then patted her on the back lightly.
“Did you drink?” Wednesday didn’t answer and Eugene raised his eyebrows. “Oh my, you totally did. Wens, you need to go to more parties! You had fun!”
“Absolutely no.”
“So there’s this biology party next weekend…”
“Ask again and your mothers will receive a casket with your name.”
“The Iroquois Theatre fire” Divina repeated and looked at the piece of wood that was carefully placed in the black box. She looked at Bianca.
“This is the weirdest present I’ve ever gotten.”
The girls (Yoko, Divina, Bianca and Enid) were having a sleepover after the party, which had ended way after midnight.
“Her family owns a funeral home,” mentioned Enid “I would be weird too if my parents worked with corpses.”
“So what do you think, Enid? She give you serial killer vibes?” Asked Yoko. “Because I say yes. Your new friend is creepy as fuck.”
“Addams?” Bianca stopped cleaning her make up and looked at the rest of them. “No way, she’s my friend. She’s weird, but in no way is she a serial killer.”
“She almost killed a teacher ten years ago” Enid mentioned.
“Well, she got arrested about 25 times during high school” answered Bianca. “I bailed her out four times. But trust me, she’s not a serial killer.”
Enid thought about it. Bianca knew her better, yes. But then, it was always the hot ones… not that she thought that Wednesday was hot. Maybe objectively hot. But still, the way the girl talked about dying and arson and her disregard for feelings was unnerving.
“But who takes a souvenir from a theater that was burned down? Over 600 people died! Let me tell you, Bia, that’s psychopath shit.” Divina exclaimed and showed everyone the wikipedia page where the explanation of the tragedy was.
“Girl” she told Divina and turned around in her chair “, for my last birthday she got me a very rare carnivorous plant named ‘Dante’ which I have to feed little dead insects every two days or it gets angry and tries to bite me.”
“The plant or Wednesday?” Asked Divina and the four of them laughed out loud.
“The plant” answered Bianca. “It gets angry. You can’t imagine the horrors I’ve gone through with that plant. But I must say, it’s beautiful. It has this blue and green glow in the dark. I don’t even want to know where she got it from. Look, Wednesday is weird, but her whole family is weird as fuck. Hell, I’d be weird too if I grew up with corpses all around me.”
Enid really hoped that her suspicions would be proven wrong soon, because Wednesday had looked nice that evening. Objectively nice. And it would be a shame that Wednesday was the killer. She stopped her train of thought: Enid had a boyfriend, what was she doing thinking like that about a weird goth girl in a black coat and braids?
“Thing, what about Tyler Galpin? You got anything on him?” Wednesday paced through her room quietly. She didn’t want to wake up Eugene, so she whispered. The only light in the room was coming from the open window and from her laptop, which showed the picture that Galpin had in his student ID. It was way past midnight, but she didn’t need sleep to function.
Not yet, but he’s in town, the tarantula tapped. I saw him in a café on my way to retrieve the passwords.
Wednesday stopped. Enid’s friend had said that Galpin had returned home until further notice. Either she was mistaken or Galpin had lied. Thing caught the girl’s attention and asked:
Did you have fun?
Wednesday glared at the spider, who was glued to the screen, covering Galpin’s face.
“I do not do ‘fun’, Thing. It was acceptable. I will not repeat it in the short term. Sinclair was too insistent, she caught me off guard when she said that Bianca was going to be there. That is the only reason I accepted.”
Maybe you’re getting soft.
She sighed and turned off her laptop. Thing rushed towards the terrarium near the window.
“You’ve found yourself lucky that I do not have the energy to cut off your legs with scissors right now. I could crush you with a book, but then, I do not have the energy for it. Good night, Thing. Have unpleasant dreams.”
But as Wednesday laid in bed, the only thing she could see when she closed her eyes was Sinclair. Her big blue eyes and her denim skirt. Her pink shoes and her soft hair. Wednesday gripped her sheets tightly. Thing was right. She was compromised. She needed to dispose of those thoughts immediately. It was humiliating and distracting, and with a stalker on the loose she couldn’t afford any distractions. Her phone vibrated on the nightstand. A new message. Wednesday turned around, looked at the number and groaned right away. Sinclair. She opened it and read:
wednesday, thx for coming tonight :)
wanna have breakfast with us tmrw at 9? bianca will be there 2. campus café? <3
Wednesday turned off her phone. No, she couldn’t do that right now. Then she turned on her light and texted her brother.
Pugsley, I hope your stay abroad is as terrible as you expected. I need your insight on an important topic. Please reply as soon as possible or I will hire a hitman to take you out before sunset.
Her brother replied a few minutes later. Luckily, it was already daytime in his place of residence for the semester. He was studying abroad in Romania, it was a city near Vlad the Impaler’s castle. A dream location.
Ok, wens. What happened?
Wednesday sighed and started to text.
There is this girl at my university. She wears very colorful clothing that makes my eyes sore. She is irritating beyond the explainable and she has invited me for breakfast tomorrow. I am intrigued, I do not know why I am feeling a pull to accept every invitation of this person even though I can’t stand being physically and psychologically besides her. It is a disgusting feeling I would like to remove from myself with a scalpel. I await your input.
The answer came ten seconds later.
omg wens, you have a crush. I’ll tell mom rn.
Wednesday felt heat creeping up her neck. What an insolent brat. She did not have a crush. She didn’t even know Sinclair. They had only talked three times.
You will not do such thing or I will impale you with an umbrella the second you arrive home. My question is: how do I remove this sensation of interest in another person? Have you heard about techniques in your stay abroad? Does impaling help?
Pugsley’s answer was short and Wednesday stared at the screen for what it seemed like hours.
You can’t. It’s the family curse.