Chapter Text
"Ajax stoned himself again," Enid groaned into the phone. "I swear, if he isn't able to kiss me at the New Year..."
Wednesday awaited the rest of the sentence, but it never came. "Then what?"
"What?"
"You started the sentence and didn't finish it. If he isn't able to kiss you, then what?"
The werewolf's huff was audible through the annoying device. "I'm just saying, he better be there."
"I don't understand why he hasn't removed the mirror from his bathroom." This was the third time since Ajax and Enid began dating that Ajax accidentally used his powers on himself. Wednesday knew the pop culture phrase about the definition of insanity.
"Well he does need a mirror. What would you say if someone removed the mirror from our bathroom?"
"But having the mirror in our bathroom doesn't have any adverse consequences."
Enid sighed. "Whatever. I just need his petrification to wear off faster than normal."
"How?"
"I don't know. I want to ask his moms, but he asked me not to tell them about his accidents. I can't go behind his back like that."
Wednesday hated herself for the suggestion that she was about to make. "What if I were to ask them?"
There was silence, and Wednesday wondered if the technological nuisance in her hand had dropped the connection. But then Enid spoke quietly. "It will embarrass him, but... I don't not want you to do that.
Wednesday sighed internally at the double-negative, and at the latest continuation of her recent tendency to give herself new obligations on behalf of her acquaintances. "Very well."
"Thank you so much, roomie." Enid's characteristic bubbly tone returned. "So anyway, what's happening at Shea Addams?"
"Unfortunately little." The extended holiday since the untimely end of her first semester at Nevermore had been dull. That would not typically have bothered Wednesday, as she was often content with reading dark novels or with writing her own, but her increasingly recalcitrant mind kept wanting to replay the events of the semester, and specifically the memories of how thoroughly the monster had managed to deceive her.
She was furious with herself. She had warned herself against trusting others, and yet she had allowed herself to trust the one person she couldn't. She had proven herself to be as naïve as any other teenager, and that was not supposed to be the case. She was supposed to be so much better than that. She was supposed to be cold steel.
And now the memories refused to leave her be, and the lack of interesting developments since she had been home meant she had no sanctuary from them.
"Well, the latest email from the Board of Governors said that the school should be fully restored and operational in a couple of weeks. And there will be new enchantments in place to protect it from fire." Enid's voice quieted again. "You are coming back, right?"
Wednesday's lips quirked in the direction of a grimace. She knew that she would, of course, even if she wasn't pleased about it. The school had proven to be a far more interesting place than the other schools she had attended, and the odds were very low that any other schools willing to admit her, if there were any, would provide as much intrigue.
And she was loathe to admit it, but she didn't want to leave Enid and Eugene unprotected there.
"Please, Wednesday. I really want you to come back."
"Why?"
"You know you don't have to ask that at this point."
"You're correct. And I'd rather you didn't answer it."
Enid giggled. "I figured as much. But you're coming back?"
"Yes, Enid, I plan to return." She pulled the phone away from her ear at the unsurprising squeal of delight.
"Good. I'm so glad. I can't wait. This semester is going to be so much better than the first, I'm sure of it."
They had decidedly different definitions of what would make the semester 'better,' of course, but Wednesday found herself hoping that Enid wouldn't be disappointed.
* * *
The letter that she wrote to Ajax's moms was concise and straightforward. She showed Thing the address that Enid had texted her, and gave him the letter to deliver far more swiftly than a mailman would.
Once he was gone, she sat sideways on her window seat, watching the sky slowly darken through shades of indigo. She checked the time on the phone and sighed. Again, sunset was minutes later than the day before, as would continue to happen now that the solstice had come and gone. She didn't look forward to daylight extending its reach further through the day.
She dropped the phone beside her on the thinly-cushioned seat, assuming that she would have no further communication obligations beyond her family for the rest of the day. Actual conversations with Enid typically replaced the usual waves of text messages full of emoticons—since learning that older term, Wednesday would never again call them 'emojis'—that she had neither the interest nor the patience to decipher. She'd had a few short conversations with Eugene, but he was mercifully less invested in regular communication than Enid was. And Xavier finally seemed to have given up after she ignored his first several texts and calls. Even though he was the one who had given her the phone, she felt no obligation to communicate with him and subject herself to further manifestations of his persistent and wearisome interest.
As for the mysterious stalker who had sent her her first text messages, she'd received nothing further from them. She had a feeling it was someone at Nevermore who was awaiting her return before continuing their anonymous pursuit. Pity, she could have used the entertainment.
She was driven from her thoughts by a tapping at the corner of the window, and she frowned. Thing was back way too early, and he was still holding the letter she had given him.
She opened the window and he darted in, dropping the letter and signing frantically. Her blood chilled, and not in a good way.
The monster was nearby.
"How did he escape?"
Thing shrugged with two fingers.
"How close is he?"
Close enough that he clearly knew where she lived.
Standing, she went to the collection of knives displayed on her shelves and selected a few of her favorites, then put on a thick jacket and stashed them in the pockets. Then she made for the door of her room.
Thing darted in front of her and asked where she was going.
"To end this." No feeling could ignite her insides like the lust for revenge. Monster form or not, she was going to kill him.
Thing kept signing his concern, but she ignored him, leaving the room and descending the stairs to the house's excessively large foyer. Lurch stood idly near the large double doors, awaiting his next instructions, and she turned and made for the side exit out of the kitchen. She could hear her parents talking in the drawing room and carefully avoided stepping in view of its open doorway. Unfortunately, Pugsley was in the kitchen.
"Where are you going?"
"You are to ask no questions and pretend you didn't see me, or else."
"Or else what?"
"Use your imagination." She stepped out of the house.
No sooner had she quietly shut the door behind her, however, than Thing dropped onto her shoulder, clutching tightly.
"Get off. You're not stopping me."
Thing acknowledged that he couldn't stop her, but refused to let her go alone.
"Fine." She set off into the woods, keeping all of her senses on alert.
The monster found her all too quickly. "Wednesday." He was in human form, and she averted her eyes. The only thing he was wearing was a pair of Newton High School sweatpants that certainly wasn't his.
"Here to finish your master's work?"
"Actually, I'm here to see my master."
She stilled. Had Laurel also escaped? "She's here?"
"Yes, she is."
Wednesday looked around, but no one else was visible.
"I don't know if Laurel is dead or if something else broke the bond, but I can't feel her in my head anymore."
She looked at him, locking her gaze on his face. His eyes were still full of that same darkness that he had shown her after she learned the truth.
"Instead, I feel someone else, ever since I woke up and transformed in that police van."
She recalled passing the van on her way home. "Me?"
He nodded, and then held out his arms, a smirk crossing his face. "I'm yours to command, Wednesday. Just tell me who to kill."
A shudder passed through her, unbidden. She had been so looking forward to killing him. But this was an unexpected development. "You'll kill anyone for me?"
He nodded, his smirk widening into a real smile.
Interesting.
She glanced down at the pants he was wearing. "Is the person those pants belonged to still alive?"
"Unfortunately. He wasn't around."
"Good. You're forbidden from harming innocents."
His smile fell. "Fine. But maybe we can discuss what qualifies as 'innocent.'"
"No. You're not to harm anyone unless I explicitly tell you to." She would probably have to find some way to slake his bloodlust from time to time, but not at the expense of anyone she didn't want dead.
Thing tightened his grip on her shoulder, drawing her gaze, and signed. Was she sure about this?
The truth was that she wasn't. She was still furious at the monster for his deception, and part of her screamed to just kill him and be done with it. But she was excited by this new arrangement. What she lacked in the strength and speed to hunt down her enemies, he certainly made up for.
And she could always dispose of him later if she changed her mind.
She looked back at him. "Where are you living?"
He shrugged and gestured at the forest around them.
"You must be freezing."
"My inner monster keeps me warm."
She looked at the pants again. "Do you tear your clothes every time you transform?"
"If I don't have the chance to take them off beforehand."
They would have to do something about that. She had no interest in seeing him naked. "And you said you can feel me in your mind. Does that mean you can find me anywhere I go?"
"Yes."
She frowned, mourning the loss of her privacy, although that could be helpful if she got herself in trouble again. "And can you sense my thoughts and feelings?"
"Thoughts, no. Feelings, yes."
She sighed. "I don't suppose I can order you not to sense my feelings?"
He shook his head. "It's part of the bond."
"Fine. Just keep what I'm feeling to yourself."
"Of course."
She looked around, wondering if there was anything else she needed to ask about.
Thing tightened his grip again and signed.
"And you're forbidden from hurting anyone in my family, human or otherwise."
"Fine."
She looked at the hand. "Satisfied?"
'Not really,' was the response.
She shrugged him off. "Go take the letter to Ajax's moms."
Thing hesitated and looked towards the monster, but then turned and scampered back towards the house.
"Ajax?"
"Yes, he turned himself into stone again. Enid is trying to find a way to fix him more quickly than it normally takes, so they can kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve."
The monster looked amused. "How is the werewolf? I left her a bit of a mess the last time we met."
"She's fine. You didn't hurt her as much as you think you did. And you're forbidden from hurting her now."
He nodded at the expected command. "Of course. And I assume I'm also forbidden from hurting Eugene? Even though I already have."
She rounded on him, drawing one of her knives. "You're forbidden from mentioning that night. Anything that happened that night."
He smirked again, eyeing the weapon. "As you wish, Master."
"And you're forbidden from calling me that. You can use my name."
"You haven't used my name once today."
"I'm under no obligation to use your name." She stashed the knife and turned back towards her house. "I'll summon you when I need you."
"And what do I do until then?"
She shrugged. "I don't care. But no hurting anyone." She returned to the house and entered, locking the door behind her.
Pugsley was still there. "Am I still not allowed to ask questions?"
"Until further notice." She left the kitchen and quickly returned to the stairs.
"Wednesday?" She froze and turned to Mother. "Is everything okay, dear?"
It must have been some part of her mother's magic that she could always sense when she would most annoy Wednesday. "Yes, Mother." She climbed the stairs and entered her room, shutting and locking the door. Then she took out the knives and removed the jacket.
Returning to the window, she looked out. He wasn't visible, but she had a feeling he was watching the house, waiting for her. Well, he would be waiting a long time.
The part of her that wanted to kill him screamed at her, but she quashed it. This arrangement was too advantageous for her to throw it away due to emotions. He was by far the most powerful weapon she had ever possessed.
* * *
She awoke and immediately felt the extra weight on the side of her bed. Her eyes snapped open and fixed on him. He was sitting there calmly, holding a cup from a nearby coffee shop. "Good morning." He held out the cup towards her. The sweatpants from last night were now joined by a very stretched-out gray t-shirt and shoes that looked like they were from a bowling alley.
"How did you get in?"
"With less difficulty than I expected. Here."
She sat up and took the cup with some reluctance. "I don't suppose you paid for this?"
"No, I didn't trust them to make it correctly. I was in and out before they opened."
She took a sip, and failed to suppress the sigh of contentment. She hadn't tasted this since...
He grinned at her reaction. "Enid also says good morning." He gestured at the phone on her nightstand.
She only briefly glanced at it. Thing had returned late last night and informed her that Ajax's moms were already aware of the situation and were preparing an ointment that would fix him. Wednesday had ignored the flurry of emotive texts that she got in response to telling Enid the news.
She downed nearly half the quad before setting it down on the nightstand. "Get off my bed."
He obediently stood and stepped away, and she got up, feeling a little self-conscious in her black pajamas and without her braids.
"Where did you sleep last night?"
"In the woods."
"On the ground?"
"Against a tree."
She pointed towards her bathroom. "Go and take a shower. You'll find an extra towel on the shelf in the closet."
He went into the bathroom without comment, shutting the door. She sighed and looked at the quad. She couldn't hate what he did, not when he brought her that.
Sitting back down, she took another sip, savoring the bitterness.
She heard the shower start running in the bathroom, and quickly stood again and left. Descending the stairs, she continued down a hidden staircase into the basement, entering Uncle Fester's dungeon. Her gaze fell on the straitjacket that he slept in when he was here, but she turned to his closet. His clothing would be far more likely to fit the monster than Father's would.
Of course, Mother was there when she emerged back on the main floor. "Wednesday?" She eyed Wednesday's pajamas and then the clothes she was holding. "What are you doing, dear?"
"Just an experiment, Mother." She quickly resumed her retreat until she was back in her room and the door was locked again. She would need to come up with more of an explanation.
She placed the clothing at the foot of her bed and then took the rest of the quad and went to her desk, turning the chair so that it faced directly away from the bathroom door. She finished the quad while staring at the blank page on her typewriter, not turning around when the bathroom door opened.
She waited until the clothing stopped rustling, then turned. Her uncle's clothes didn't suit him, but seemed appropriate given the whole insane murderer thing.
"Sit here," she told him, standing. "You are not to look at me again until I am dressed after my shower."
He again looked amused at the command, but did as he was told.
She emerged to find him typing away, and froze. "What are you doing?"
He didn't look at her, still following her instruction. "Writing."
She blinked. "I didn't say you could do that."
"You didn't say I couldn't, either."
Once she was fully dressed and braided, she came up beside him, eyeing the paper that moved back and forth across the machine. "What are you writing?"
"A story."
"About what?"
"About you."
She read the words. "You do a terrible job of describing me."
"Oh, I think I have you pinned pretty well."
She glared, knowing his phrasing was deliberate. He sensed her anger and grinned.
She continued reading. "That isn't how you clean a knife."
"Well excuse me for not needing knives to kill." He stopped writing and turned to her.
She plucked the paper from the typewriter and crumpled it up, dropping it in his lap. "You should leave the writing to me."
"As you wish." He stood, and she made to get out of the way. As her arm brushed against his, however, she was hurtled into a vision.
They were standing outside of a cave surrounded by woods. She didn't recognized the place, but the smell of salt in the air told her they were near the ocean.
Xavier was there, glaring murderously at her monster. He was holding some kind of long scepter that looked wooden but also not, and curved gently in the middle before twisting into tight, pointed spirals at each end.
With a cry of rage, Xavier swung the scepter around himself and then aimed it at her monster, and a plume of green flames erupted towards them.
Then she was lying on the floor of her room, her monster kneeling over her with one hand beneath her head. "Wednesday?" The expression on his face was the most human she had seen on him since before he revealed himself at the police station.
"Yeah," she breathed.
"Was that a vision?"
"Yes."
The humanity faded from his face, replaced by a dark eagerness. "Do I attack someone else?"
"No, this time you were being attacked."
His face fell and his eyes narrowed. "By who?"
"I couldn't see who." She didn't want to tell him until she knew what was going on. Xavier was jealous, but he was no murderer. She would have liked him better if he were.
And what was that scepter?
The monster stood and reached down to help her up. She stared at his hand, wondering if it would send her into another vision, and if she wanted that to happen. She wanted to understand, but those visions were hardly enjoyable.
She took his hand. No vision. With a grimace, she allowed him to pull her to her feet, which seemed effortless for him.
"Are you stronger than normal even in that form?"
"What counts as normal?"
"Are you stronger than you would be if you weren't a hyde?"
"I don't know, I've never not been one."
Touché. "Are you stronger now than you were before you... awakened."
"Uh." He scratched his head. "I suppose. I certainly get more exercise than I did before."
That wasn't her intended meaning, but he clearly didn't know for sure. "Have you had breakfast?"
"Yeah, there was a ferret out back."
She wrinkled her nose.
"That was a joke. I took a bagel when I got your coffee."
"Right. I'm going to eat something. Stay in here." She touched his arm before she left, trying again for another vision, but nothing happened.
Mother looked up as she entered the dining room. "Will your guest be joining you for breakfast?"
Wednesday froze.
"You think I can't tell who is in my house? Bring him downstairs."
Containing her reaction, she returned upstairs and summoned him. He put on a display of nervousness as he followed her back to the dining room.
Father and Pugsley were there now, standing on either side of Mother's chair. Wednesday met each of their gazes in turn. "Mother, Father, Pugsley, this is Tyler." She pushed the name out even as her jaw attempted to clench around it.
"The sheriff's boy?" Father looked him up and down. "I imagine he's delighted." He grinned widely and stepped around the table. "And I can sense the darkness that has lured our little stormcloud to you." He held out his hand, and the monster shook it, but he pulled him close with surprising strength and speed. "But understand this." His voice lowered dangerously. "If Wednesday comes to any involuntary harm under your watch, there is no afterlife where you will be able to hide from the spirits of this family. And I will send you to them very slowly."
"Father, that threat is unnecessary."
"I know, dear, but I only get to meet my daughter's chosen companion once. I have to make it count."
"You're misreading the situation."
"I doubt that."
Wednesday turned to Mother. "And what do you have to say, Mother?"
Mother had remained seated, studying her monster. "Gomez, do you remember Francoise Sylvanne?"
The monster stiffened.
Father thought for a moment. "The name does ring a bell, but I can't put a face to it."
"The face is right before you. He has so many of her features."
Father studied him anew. "Your mother was an outcast?"
"Yes."
"And you?"
Wednesday turned fully to the monster, wondering if he was willing to identify himself among the people Laurel had trained him to hate.
"Yes."
"And what manner of outcast are you?"
"He's a hyde," Mother answered for him. She stood and circled around the table until she was standing beside Father. "He inherited it from her."
Wednesday couldn't restrain her curiosity. "How well did you know Francoise Sylvanne?"
"Not very well." Mother lowered her gaze. "She mostly kept to herself, and we... There was a prevalent fear of hydes, even among the outcasts, because of their unpredictability." Her gaze snapped back to the monster.
"Well, they're decidedly more predictable once they have a master," said Wednesday. "And he's under orders not to harm anyone in this family."
Both of her parents looked at her.
"So you have a pet monster?" Pugsley asked. "That's much cooler than a boyfriend."
* * *
Breakfast came and went without an extensive interrogation of the monster, to Wednesday's mild surprise. She was used to her family taking danger in stride and often embracing it, but a hyde was new for them, and easily the deadliest creature to ever set foot in this house. At the very least, she expected Pugsley to ask for the goriest details of the monster's kills. Perhaps he was still adjusting to the new guest.
A grunt from Lurch drew their attention back towards the foyer. Thing came scuttling into the room and signed.
"It seems we have another surprise visitor," said Mother. They all exited to the foyer, where Lurch opened the large doors. Wednesday stared as Xavier entered her house, instantly recalling her vision.
The man who entered behind him wore a gray three piece suit. His hair was a shade lighter than his son's was, and pulled back into a neater bun. He promptly examined the large foyer, and then his gaze fell on Mother, and he grinned. "Morticia."
"Vincent, this is a pleasant surprise." Wednesday recognized the disingenuous undertone within Mother's response, and wondered about it.
Xavier's face fell when he saw the monster.
If not for her vision, Wednesday would have basked in the tension that filled the room as Xavier stared down her monster and her mother stared down Vincent Thorpe.
Vincent, for his part, seemed oblivious to it as his grin broadened. "I understand that our children have become very important to each other, and decided it was time we should all meet."