Chapter Text
“Oh, boy. You’re down bad.”
Enid hadn’t slept at all. She hadn’t even tried, because every time she closed her eyes, the girl appeared in front of her, eyes open and terrified, swollen neck and foam coming out of her mouth. Yoko took care of her the entire night while she sobbed and held her head in place when she vomited because of the disgusting images.
Testifying wasn’t as bad as she initially thought. There was no interrogation room or shackles. Yoko went with her and sat outside in the waiting area while Enid told a middle aged bald guy, with a smelly breath, everything she had seen and done the day before in excruciating detail. There was someone from the paramedics that told the police officer that whatever she had said was correct, then she signed some papers and could go on about her day.
“Is it the same killer as the other two?” she asked the officer before standing up.
“We don’t know. We have a few detectives working the case, we’re doing everything we can right now. Go home and rest, kiddo. It’s been a long hour.”
Enid had already asked some of her classmates for lecture notes because she was going to spend the whole day at home. In bed, probably. Rotting, watching movies and looking at memes to keep her distracted from the images that kept playing in her mind. But she had little luck. There was something she couldn’t take out of her mind: Wednesday Addams.
As she laid there, she remembered the day before. She tried to put pieces together in chronological order. Some things blended together, but there was one thing that had bothered her: Wednesday had been there the whole time. And her spider too.
“What did she die from?” she had asked the officer.
“Some arachnid poison injected in a very high dose. It was not an animal, but the animal’s poison was injected into her neck.”
Enid remembered Wednesday’s book. Toxicology. She was taking a seminar on it, those were her words.
“I… I know someone that owns a spider, ” she whispered and looked at her hands. She bit her lip. She shouldn’t accuse Wednesday of anything unless she had proof, but… “you can look into her. She was… expelled from my middle school and I think… look I have no proof, but I am highly suspicious!”
“Woah” the officer put a hand on Enid’s shoulder “, calm down, kid. Look at me. Who is this person? I promise we will look into it.”
“Wednesday Addams.”
It didn’t go unnoticed to Enid how the officer’s knuckles turned white while gripping the pen. Or the nervous twitch of his eye. The man looked at her with something she couldn't pinpoint.
“Addams.”
“You know her, sir?”
The man wanted to say something else, Enid knew it. He had some beef with either Wednesday or someone from Wednesday’s family, but he didn’t explain further. He squared his jaw and answered.
“Not personally, no. But I know that family. They’re no good. Tell me what you know, we’ll keep a close eye on that one.”
Enid told the man how Wednesday was there outside. She told him about her fascination with the macabre and the blood on her shirt the morning after the second murder. The man annotated everything the blonde said and then, when she was finished, he put a hand on her shoulder.
“C’mon, kid. Let’s go meet your friend outside. We’ll contact you if something arises.”
Enid was just starting a new series on her laptop when she saw a notification pop up in her phone screen. It was Wednesday Addams. Her number one suspect as of now.
Enid thought of herself as a cheerful and happy person, but she had done and avoided things for her pride sometimes. She hated being proven wrong, so she was betting everything on the raven being the killer. The blonde opened the app and read the message.
Sinclair, how have you been faring? I was told you were the one to find the latest body. It is always difficult processing for unaccustomed eyes. Do try to sleep, as sleep deprivation can bring unpleasant hallucinations related to the events.
Maybe she should believe the girl. She had grown up in a funeral home, who else had more experience with dead people than her? Enid felt a weird pang of guilt after reading the message. The day before, Wednesday had been nothing but nice to her. In her own creepy way, but nice. And now she had sent the police after her. She shook her head energetically. No, she wouldn’t entertain those thoughts. Wednesday was guilty and she could prove it. She needed to investigate further. She answered the girl’s message quickly.
Hi! Yes, I found the body. Kinda disgusting ngl I’m still processing
Thanks for the advice and the tea yesterday <3
The answer was almost immediate.
Always dreadful assisting you.
On Friday, Enid saw a familiar shadow in the library while walking in. Wednesday was already there, sitting in the front row again, blending into the shadows. She had a black oversized striped black and white t-shirt on, black jeans and the same black boots as always. Her hair, as always, into two pigtails, but that day it was braided loosely with black ribbons. Enid looked at her watch. Quarter past three. Enid always went to the library after lunch, so it was safe to assume that Wednesday always arrived before her. She had been already been there on Monday.
She sat a few places behind the girl and noticed that she didn’t move at all in the few minutes Enid had already been there. Usually, she would be scribbling on loose pages, fast, like she was running out of time. Or turning book pages like she had a timer, every turn with mechanical precision and a quick snapping sound. That’s when Enid noticed that the girl was asleep. Without making noise, Enid left her place and went over to Wednesday. The girl didn’t move when the blonde whispered her name, she was probably in the deepest sleep already.
Enid studied Wednesday’s notes from afar. They were all over the table, messy and unorganized, so unlike the person she presented herself to be. Wednesday wrote in an aggressive cursive, with many lines and letters close together as if to save space, making it difficult to decipher. But she made out a name, and it was a name she recognized. It was circled many times and underlined. Tyler Galpin. Ajax’s friend. There was also a list in another page with names, including Rowan. Some of the names were crossed out and some others were circled with exclamation marks, like ‘Prof. Thornhill Psychology’ or ‘Moises R. HR’. And some of the annotations were in spanish, which Enid didn’t understand. What she did understand was the underlined words ‘NO WITNESSES’. She was plotting a fourth murder. There was also a date underlined . The following Monday. Enid cursed.
Wednesday stirred and Enid stopped her breathing. She waited for the girl in front of her to lift her head up and look at her with a furious glaze, but the dark-haired girl didn’t wake up, so Enid took quick photos of some of the notes Wednesday had left and went straight to her place, grabbed her stuff and headed home. Her heart was racing and her brain not understanding why Wednesday, cold and calculating Wednesday, would leave her notes sprawled there for everyone to see. Maybe it was a warning. Tyler was next.
While translating from spanish, she was met with several sentences that described the dead bodies. It described everything in scrutinizing detail, from physical appearance to circumstances in which the body was found. She learned that Rowan had been missing a thumb and that the second one was missing a kidney. It was more than Enid could handle without puking, so she didn’t read further for the time being. Her heart thrummed in her ears, panic surging through her body.
She had broken up with Ajax a few days before, right after testifying at the police station. Enid had told him that her feelings were not the same as before and that she didn’t want to hurt him, but appreciated him as a person. They had decided to stay as friends, so it wouldn’t be weird to text him, she thought. She asked about Tyler, how he was doing after finding his friend’s body and where he was.
doing ok. Not talking much, hes home with his parents, taking a break. hbu?
Enid smiled sadly. She couldn’t imagine the pain of losing someone as close to her, much less finding their body.
i’m ok. i didn’t know the girl tho, it’s weird. i js think tyler might be in danger, tell him not to come back until killer is found
Ajax responded with a thumbs up, but about three hours later, while Enid was in her afternoon run, Ajax started to spam her chat.
Enid
Enid
Tylers back in town
I just saw him
Told me hes been here for a few days
Enid cursed quietly. Tyler should be Wednesday’s next victim. His name was circled on the page, she whispered while studying the pictures she took of Wednesday’s legal pad. The splotches of black reminded her too much of blood. Dark and messy. Calculated. She texted Ajax as fast as she could, asking him to watch over Tyler. He shouldn’t be alone, she wrote, it’s dangerous.
Tyler was a sophomore psychology student. Ajax had met him during orientation week and they’d befriended each other. Now Tyler’s best friend, Rowan, had been murdered. The other two Enid could not identify. Someone from history? She tried to remember, but it wasn’t important. They were dead, and so were their dreams, their hopes and the lives of their families. The important thing now was justice. And saving Tyler. That’s why she needed to know Wednesday better. She had to take advantage of the fact that the raven seemed to like her and even started to trust her. Wasn’t that what a journalist should do? Put their lives on the line on the search for truth? Well, she hoped she wouldn’t pay with her life for this, she thought and then texted the girl.
wanna hangout and have coffee tmrw morning?
yoko and divina r taking bianca to the airport
The Addams girl responded a few minutes later.
What an unpleasant invitation. I accept.
Enid smirked to herself. She already knew what she could ask to prove the girl didn’t have an alibi for the last three cases.
great <3
campus cafe at 9?
Wednesday’s answer came after some time, late into the night.
08:15. I have business to attend to at 09:30.
Enid wondered what business one could have on a Saturday at that hour. Family breakfast? Paying a visit to the grandparents? A walk in the park? Homicide? She sighed as she typed on her phone. She hated waking up early, but this had to do. Everything for the sake of the investigation.
alright! :D
Enid entered the café at eight o’clock and waited for Wednesday. She wanted to be there first to avoid being caught unprepared. She thought that if she was there first, she could take easily control of the situation. So she waited patiently.
The girl entered the establishment at eight thirteen. Enid waved and Wednesday walked towards her quickly. She looked specially pissed that morning: she had her jaw squared, her fists clenched and a murderous look in her eye. She shrugged off her black coat and put it aggressively over the back of the chair.
“Greetings” she muttered and sat down in front of the blonde. Enid noticed ink on her arm, peeking out of her black Metallica shirt. A tattoo? That would look hot on her. Well not hot in the sense that Enid would absolutely love to get railed by her, but in the objective sense. She was a journalist, she had couldn’t afford to make biased observations. She had to notice everything, even the uncomfortable details, such as Wednesday’s attractiveness.
“Hi! Um… can I ask why you look so angry?”
Wednesday looked at her and tilted her head as if deciding if she was worth the story. Then she sighed and grabbed a menu. She talked while skimming through it.
“My mother is visiting today. I shall pick her up at the bus central later. I should be excited, as her presence is always unwelcome. But I fear she has arrived at a rather…inopportune moment.”
“Why is that? If I may ask, of course.”
Enid noted how the girl in front of her gripped the menu until her knuckles turned white.
“Nothing I can tell you about. How have you been faring? It’s been a few days.”
Enid hummed. She’d been doing well. As well as a person who just saw a corpse could be. Yoko was there and she helped calm her anxiety a bit, but sometimes she would wake up at night completely drenched in sweat with the most vivid and disgusting images in mind. Sometimes she would look at the mirror and see foam coming out of her mouth, or her face swelling like with the girl. But it was lessening.
“I’ve had a few nightmares but that’s it. I’m doing better today. Thanks for the message. By the way, how did you know that I had… found the dead girl?”
Wednesday told her that she’d seen Bianca for dinner and that Yoko had told Divina. Enid forgot sometimes that Divina’s cousin was very close with the raven. She knew Bianca because of Divina, and she liked her, but she’d never really known her well. They weren’t friends so to say. After that they both ordered their drinks. Enid had a flat white with the small strawberry tartlet she loved and Wednesday black tea with a chocolate chip cookie. Like the last time. A woman of rigid schemes.
“Were you outside the whole time on Monday? You know, after I talked to my mother…”
“Indeed. Is the old hag still alive? I could fix that quickly, if it pleases you.”
Enid laughed a bit at the absurdity of everything. This girl was proposing violence against her mother the way she’d propose a to fix her refrigerator. Or like a walk in the park. Had she brushed the other killings off the same way? Like: ‘Oh cool, I did it! Onto the next’?
“She’s not that bad. No need for violence, Wednesday.”
“Pity” she took a sip from her tea “, but the offer still stands.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll pass right now, but thanks, I guess. Tell me about your time in Mexico. After you got expelled. It sounded interesting the last time.”
Wednesday looked at her with a little bit of wariness but spoke quietly. Enid could compare her to a feline, it made sense. She had sharp senses, an avoidance of touch and distrust in humankind. And she probably had claws too. The metaphorical kind, of course.
“I got expelled and I went to another school for a few weeks again, while my parents arranged everything to move back home. The family business, the funeral parlor, has its roots and main headquarters in the city of Morelia. I was born not far away from there, in a little town called Huandacareo, but that is unimportant. Uncle Fester took over the US business and we flew back to Mexico. We waited for the school year to be over and I started the fifth grade there. Pugsley the third grade. I enjoyed my time there very much, if one can say so. It is a city with many dark stories, with a lot of bodies buried throughout the centuries. But we had to return when Uncle Fester got arrested. That’s when I met Eugene and Bianca in the tenth grade.”
“Would you like to go back after university? To Mexico, I mean” asked Enid and finished the little strawberry tartlet.
“Indeed. I… I’d like to… a cousin of mine was… forget it” it seemed like she wanted to say something else but then stopped herself and took another sip of tea. “And you? What would you like to do after university?”
Enid thought about it for some time. Wednesday stared at her while she tried to put the words in her mind together. Wednesday’s eyes bore into her soul, like she was capable of reading her deepest fears and her most forbidden desires. She had a poker face, but something in her eyes talked genuine interest.
“I’d like to write for a paper. Or maybe a magazine. Fashion would be nice, it’s something I like. But I think politics and social stuff is what I would love to go into. I think that there are few journalists that do it with the people in mind. That want to tell stories as they are. And I want to make people feel heard. Give them a space to raise their voices exactly as they want, not watered down stories or biased narration, maybe even help ignite a revolution?”
Wednesday’s expression softened. Softened. Enid didn’t know it was possible.
“I am sure you will be terrible at it, Sinclair. I will read every one of your columns with uttermost disgust.”
Was that her way of being nice? Enid thanked her and asked subtlety about the night of the party, where someone was murdered too. She had come to the café, eyes bloodshot, messy hair and dark splotches over her shirt. Did she have an alibi? Enid would find out.
“You were very tired that morning.”
“Indeed. I had a late night stroll with Thing. I needed to clear my mind.”
“How late?”
“Maybe two or three? What is it with this questionnaire?” the smaller girl arched an eyebrow, “I left the party early, I know it is not a widely appreciated gesture, and I apologize. I am not well versed at social… stuff. Thing likes the sound of water, so we decided to take a late stroll.”
“That’s why it looked like you’d walked through a river?”
Wednesday nodded.
“You’re observant, I see. That’s good. It makes you a more difficult target. The sound of running water seems to ease my mind. And Thing’s too. Like classical music.”
“There’s this one person, not on campus, but a little further away… I found it annoying at first, but they do late night cello solos and I can hear it from Ophelia Hall, and it kinda has helped me sleep better lately. I mean, they must be crazy to play at such hours but… yeah.”
Wednesday looked at her, eyes wide.
“Oh, that’s… interesting. Do you enjoy cello music?”
“I do now. I think it sounds so sexy, like I don’t know how to describe it. But I’m mostly into pop and the occasional jazz, some afrobeats here and there… you?”
Wednesday seemed to choke on her tea for a moment.
“Varied. However, pop music makes my ears bleed. It’s a very efficient torture method I, for once, do not enjoy.”
They chatted for a while and Enid mentioned her testimony to the police after the events. Wednesday frowned.
“The pigs have also paid me a visit, I do not understand why. But they are obtuse like that, what can I say?”
Enid feigned surprise while Wednesday told her that they had interrogated her extensively about the murder. And her roommate too. Enid bit her lip, she started to feel a little guilty about that.
“And then they trashed the place like some animals” she spat with venom. “They even emptied Thing’s terrarium and then asked for our immigration documents. Eugene is a citizen…”
Scratch that. Enid started to feel very guilty about that. After her rant on the police, Wednesday looked at her phone and sighed.
“It has been awful talking to you, Sinclair. It’s almost nine o’clock. Will you accompany me outside? I need to leave soon.”
“Sure! Thanks for coming, I had fun. We should totally do this again.” Enid hoped that the next time would be more productive. She couldn’t obtain as much information as she wanted.
“No objection to that, ” the raven grabbed her black coat and put it on “, I’ve come to despise conversing with you, Sinclair. I am displeased to hear you’re doing worse now.”
Enid had still to get used to the mannerisms of the Addams girl. There were moments when she couldn’t decipher if Wednesday meant it like that or not. Maybe she just lacked basic social skills.
They walked outside and they waited in silence for Wednesday’s bus. Enid was frustrated, she couldn’t ask as much as she wanted even though Wednesday had been more talkative than before. In a final act of desperation she asked:
“Do you know Tyler Galpin? From psychology?”
Wednesday turned her head quickly with wide eyes and muttered a spanish curse under her breath. It didn’t go unnoticed by Enid.
“Not personally, why?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
Wednesday didn’t inquire further. She looked at the passing cars with an emotionless face.
“Thing liked you” she said without looking at Enid.
“Your spider?” Wednesday nodded in affirmation. “Really?”
“Yes.”
Enid didn’t know where to classify the new knowledge, if inside the creepy folder or the cute folder. A few moments of silence later the bus arrived. Wednesday said goodbye and paid her ticket. As Enid watched as the bus disappear on the horizon, she felt disappointment. Angry with herself.
Wednesday hadn’t let her get too close. She’d avoided certain answers and she’d worked her way around the conversation, subtlety taking control. And now she stood there on the sidewalk, watching Wednesday’s bus leave, with the feeling that she didn’t do everything she could. The problem now was that she had nothing on Addams. She had nothing.
She met Yoko and Divina in the afternoon and they decided to have a game night. While the three of them sat on the floor of Divina’s dorm, Enid thought about certain shadowy person. She looked at the chessboard inside the red box with board games the blue-eyed girl had. Wednesday and her were playing chess in real life, she thought, only that Wednesday was always two moves ahead and she had, well, nothing.
She had nothing until she saw Wednesday running out of the woods the following Monday, her face and body covered in blood and grime, wild and open eyes and a bloody knife in her left hand.
“So what do you think, Eugene?” Wednesday plopped onto the couch after telling him about her time with Enid. She was surprised that her cello could be heard from a few streets away. She’d definitely start building a special repertoire for a certain pink-loving person. She wanted to retch, she was definitely turning into her parents. She only hoped she could mitigate the effects of the curse and control herself and her mouth whenever the blonde was in sight.
It had been tempting to kiss the blonde’s soft knuckles after their meeting, and even more tempting to use terms of endearment every other moment. She couldn’t stop her mouth when the girl asked her about something and felt the aching necessity to grab her by the waist and kiss every inch of her face.
“Dude, ” Eugene passed her the controller and snapped her out of her misery “she’s totally into you. And I just learned she broke up with her boyfriend. Like, she’s totally thinking about you. You should make a move.”
“Look. I cook and wash. You serve. Infallible strategy. Should I compose the most macabre suite I can fathom for her or is it too soon? Or should I start with a short sonata? Maybe I can threaten Pugsley into playing the piano…”
“Wens, start cooking!” Eugene exclaimed and bent forward so he could concentrate more. Wednesday moved her fingers quickly against the controller, the colorful blonde girl still in the back of her mind.
She’d told Eugene about the day and how the blonde was certainly a disgustingly smart and interesting person. She had accepted it the other night, after the party. After her rather eventful midnight stroll she came to the realization that she had fully succumbed to the curse, and it felt terrible. The good kind of terrible. Exhilarating, even. And she realized too that it wasn’t something worth fighting against anymore.
Around Enid Sinclair she was a stranger to herself. Around the blonde she turned talkative. She turned tolerant, patient even. Around her she didn’t mind her allergy, instead, she welcomed the itchiness and the nausea that came with the lightest of touches.
Her mother had perceived it in mere minutes, but she didn’t prod. It was until Wednesday asked her to accompany her grave-digging the next day, when Morticia asked if there was someone in her life. Wednesday didn’t answer right away, but promised to tell her everything during their bonding activity the next day. It had been years since they’d went grave-digging together. The last time had been in Guadalajara, for her fifteenth birthday. They’d looked for a long lost relative’s ring in the Panteón de Belen.
“Wens, faster! I need those dishes NOW!” Eugene screamed and Wednesday moved faster, forgetting whatever had been in her mind. She could talk to her mother the next day.