Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

“Hi.” Tyler was beaming when Harry slid in the passenger seat of his car. His eyes were still as blue as they were earlier, no grey in sight, and his dimples were on full display.

“Hi,” Harry replied, feeling mildly shy in the face of someone so obviously happy to see him.

“I’m glad you came,” Tyler said. He reached over and cupped Harry’s cheek with his hand, tilting their heads closer together. “I wasn’t sure you would.”

Harry’s lashes fluttered closed and he lifted his chin, sure Tyler was about to snog him…

“Kindly don’t do that in front of me.”

A car door slammed and Tyler jolted while Harry silently groaned in exasperation.

Wednesday had the worst timing.

Tyler released Harry’s face and spun around in his seat to gawk in the backseat where Wednesday and… Enid… slid in. Harry was confused by Enid’s presence, but he was more confused by the black snood that Wednesday wore on her head.

“Uh… can I help you?” Tyler asked them.

“We need a ride,” Wednesday told him. “You should drive, before we get caught.”

Harry turned and glanced at Enid quickly, not quickly enough though, because Enid caught his look and grinned.

“Wednesday tried to sneak out without me,” she said brightly. “So here I am, ready to solve mysteries.”

“Nobody is solving any mysteries,” Tyler said, sending Wednesday a sharp look. “Harry and I made plans, nothing that involved being an Uber for you and your girlfriend.”

Harry ducked his head to hide a laugh when Wednesday said a firm denial of dating Enid and Enid herself giggled loudly.

“Unfortunately, we need a ride and you have a car,” Wednesday drawled over the sound of Enid’s giggle. “You and Harry can continue your illicit romance afterward.”

“Fine.” Tyler sighed and gripped his steering wheel tightly after kicking on his car. “Where to?”

“Gates Manor,” Wednesday said unhesitatingly. “Let’s go.”

Harry gave Tyler an uneasy look when he began driving with his face set in a stony frown.

“Sorry,” Harry offered quietly. He knew that Tyler had something important he wanted to do that night, but Wednesday was insistent and more than a bit bossy.

Tyler looked toward Harry for a split-second while his car turned on the main road for Jericho. He reached over slowly and rested his hand on Harry’s knee, his thumb moving in a small circle.

“It’s fine,” he said, sounding resigned. “We can talk later, I guess.”

“After we explore the manor,” Wednesday cut in.

Tyler looked at her in the rearview mirror and his eyebrows furrowed together for just an instant before he blinked and his expression smoothed over.

“After we drop your friends back off,” he muttered to Harry from the corner of his mouth.

Harry nodded. Whatever it was that Tyler wanted to do, it could wait a couple of hours.

Surely.

When Tyler’s car pulled up to the Gates Manor, a large two story house on a huge piece of empty land, his headlights flashed on the front of the house and Harry stiffened in his seat.

“I thought this place was empty,” he said to Wednesday.

“It’s meant to be,” Wednesday said, leaning forward and watching the house intently, no doubt seeing the same thing Harry had.

A light, one of the upstairs rooms, had been on and it flipped off almost the same instant that Tyler’s headlights touched the house.

“Then why was there a light on upstairs?” Enid asked. She gulped loudly and all of the others heard it. “Is it- is it haunted?”

“By ghosts that weren’t meant to be there, perhaps,” Wednesday said. Tyler parked his car and killed the engine.

“Or, more likely, by the monster itself,” Wednesday added. Harry could hear the thrum of excitement in her voice and wondered what about the possibility of facing the monster or exploring an old manor could possibly excite her.

“Let’s get this over with,” Enid said, clearly terrified despite the brave voice she used.

“Uh, Harry and I can wait in the car,” Tyler said when Wednesday opened the back door.

“Great plan,” Wednesday agreed immediately.

Harry rolled his eyes and opened his car door. He made half a dozen little lights appear, guiding them with his fingers to float around the others when they exited the car as well.

If nothing else, Harry was good as a magical flashlight.

“Harry’s going to go in,” Harry said, trying to sound as firm as everyone else sounded. He didn’t necessarily want to go in, but he couldn’t wait in the car while Wednesday went in without him either, especially if there was someone - or something - inside the house.

Wednesday was Harry’s friend, and if Harry had to deal with burning sparks and hand tremors to keep her safe, then he would.

That was what friends did.

Probably.

Harry was still a bit new to having friends, but he was pretty sure Wednesday would do it for him.

Tyler’s pocket buzzed while the four of them were slowly making their way up the long drive. Harry felt it against his own hip as he and Tyler were walking close together. Enid and Wednesday were walking in front of them and Harry thought it was funny seeing the bright sparkling pink snood next to Wednesday’s black one.

It was a pretty good representation of their personalities.

“It’s probably just my dad,” Tyler whispered to Harry when his phone continued to buzz. “I’ll call him back later.”

“At which time you will not be mentioning this event,” Wednesday called over her shoulder. Harry swore she had super powered hearing.

“Oh, yeah, I was going to tell my dad all about breaking and entering tonight with three students who snuck out from school,” Tyler said mockingly. “I’m sure that would go over great for me.”

“It probably wouldn’t,” Harry told him. He was trying to contribute to the conversation, warn Tyler not to get himself in trouble with his police officer dad, but as much as Harry tried to fit in, he was still bollocks at it. Tyler and Enid both snickered softly while their group went up the steps to the manor’s front door and Tyler squeezed Harry’s hand affectionately.

“I was being sarcastic,” Tyler assured Harry. Wednesday began picking at the lock on the door with a small silver contraption and Harry blushed a furious red color.

“Oh, me too,” Harry said, ducking his head in mortification. Why was there not a spell in Sarah’s book to make Harry less horribly awkward?

“We’re in,” Wednesday said smugly, swinging the door open after unlatching the lock. Harry coughed a little as dust and dirt swarmed up in a cloud that washed over them.

If someone was living in that house, they must be truly desperate because it smelled like mildew and filth.

The parlor they stepped in had the look of a room that had once been beautiful and fell into decay with disuse. There was a chandelier hanging above them, the dust so thick on the crystal decor that Harry could see it even from the ground where he stood. Directly ahead of them was a large staircase that led up to the second floor and split off in two directions.

A creak above their head, from the second floor, caused Harry and Enid to jump.

“Quaint,” Enid said with a nervous sounding laugh. “Um… what are we looking for, exactly?”

“Whatever evidence we can find,” Wednesday told her curtly. “If someone is here, we need to find them. They’re somehow involved in the murders.”

Wednesday turned right, and the others followed while Harry’s lights circled around them and illuminated the filthy house they crept through.

They passed by a sitting room and Harry twirled his finger, guiding two of his lights to circle the room slowly so they could look in there.

“That’s the Gates family,” Wednesday said when Harry paused one of his lights in front of a large portrait hanging on the wall. There was a man, a woman, a teenage boy standing behind the woman, and a young girl with blonde hair standing in front of the man.

“Mrs Gates killed herself after Garett died, Laurel drowned out of state, and Mr Gates drank himself to death,” Wednesday told them, unemotionally. Harry took a small step closer to the painting, squinting at the blonde girl. There was something about her smile and the little curve to her nose that felt familiar.

“Let’s keep moving,” Tyler suggested, pulling gently on Harry’s hand.

“This way,” Wednesday said. She led them through another sitting room, one with a creepy portrait of Joseph Crackstone where the other had a family painting, and through to a kitchen.

There was a brown door in the kitchen, one with footsteps in the dust that showed someone had came in through it recently, and Wednesday and Tyler both tried opening the door.

“It’s stuck,” Tyler said after yanking on it a few times. “It’s probably locked from the inside.”

“I’ve got this,” Enid piped up eagerly. She pushed up the sleeves of her pink coat and grabbed the doorknob. Harry’s brows shot up his forehead when Enid yanked it open with just one harsh pull.

“Wow,” Harry said. He smiled at her, trying to be polite. “You’re really strong.”

“It’s a werewolf thing,” Enid shrugged. “I’d rather have magic floating lights.”

Tyler’s arm snaked around Harry’s shoulders in a comforting loose embrace. “Magic floating lights are useful,” he agreed, causing Harry to grin in embarrassed pleasure.

Not only did Harry have friends, but he was useful to them. Harry wasn’t good at a lot of things, but he thought he might be decent at being a friend.

A small mercy considering he’d never had one before Wednesday came to Nevermore.

“Obviously Harry is the most useful of our group, but your strength does have its merits,” Wednesday said. She stepped in the new room and Harry followed behind her.

It wasn’t a room, it was a large three car garage. The entrance to it must be on the back side of the manor because Harry hadn’t seen it when they entered through the front. There were two cars in the garage, both covered with large tarps.

Enid took one tarp off and revealed a slick black car, not unlike the one that Wednesday’s family drove. Wednesday herself removed the second one and she stepped back with wide eyes at what it revealed.

“This is the car that hit the mayor,” Wednesday breathed. She ran her hand across the hood of the turquoise car and Harry grimaced at the bloodstain over the headlights. “It’s been drove recently,” Wednesday added. She turned and faced the door they entered the garage through with her jaw set determinedly.

“Whoever tried to kill the mayor is either still here or was recently,” she said. “Let’s split up and find them.”

“Uh… hold on,” Enid reached out and grabbed Wednesday’s wrist when she went to stalk out of the garage alone. “Maybe we don’t split up in the creepy house with a possible killer hiding inside it?” she whispered.

Harry and Tyler exchanged looks while the girls argued in harsh whispers about the merits of splitting up to search the manor.

“Maybe you should answer,” Harry told Tyler quietly when his phone began buzzing again.

“Yes, please do,” Wednesday said, turning away from Enid’s pouting face to face Tyler. “The last thing we need is your father to come looking for you.”

Tyler’s jaw clenched tightly for a moment before he nodded and yanked his phone from his pocket. Harry wasn’t being nosy, he just saw a capital ‘L’ on whoever was calling him, maybe his dad’s first name, an odd way to store his contact information.

If Harry had a dad and a phone, he’d save it as ‘Dad’, but then again Tyler and his dad didn’t get along much.

“Hello?” Tyler said in his phone. Wednesday and Enid resumed their whispered argument while Tyler was on the phone and Harry tried to pretend he couldn’t overhear all the conversations happening around him that didn’t involve him. Instead, he focused on making his lights flash different colors.

He made the one beside Wednesday turn pink, but he didn’t think she noticed as she argued with Enid.

“If we split up and I die then I will never forgive you.”

“I can’t, Dad, I’m not home right now.”

“If you die I’d hardly summon your spirit to hear more complaints.”

“No, come on, it’s not a good idea.”

“Would you throw away my stuff if I died?”

“I would keep anything of yours in black.”

“Damn it,” Tyler snapped. “Goodbye.”

Harry looked curiously at Tyler when he jammed his phone back in his pocket then quickly turned away when he saw Tyler looked annoyed by whatever argument he’d been having.

“Why don’t you guys check out the upstairs and Harry and I will look around downstairs?” Tyler suggested abruptly. He raised a brow at Wednesday when she fell silent and appraised him. “If it gets this over with faster, let’s just do it.”

“Excellent,” Wednesday nodded at him. “Enid with me, Harry stay with Tyler.”

Harry sent some of the floating lights with the girls when they returned to the parlor and the girls went upstairs while Harry and Tyler stayed downstairs.

“Should we go check out the rooms back here?” Harry asked, guiding his lights down the corridor that went opposite from the kitchen and garage. It might have had a bedroom or loo, something with some sort of clues that Wednesday would appreciate them finding.

Tyler coughed and Harry looked back at him and saw an uncharacteristic scowl on Tyler’s face.

“Do you always do everything Wednesday tells you to do?” he asked.

Harry bit his lower lip and shuffled his trainers in the dust on the floor. He didn’t do great with arguments, they made him feel flustered and confused, his thoughts began to get jumbled and nothing came out right.

And it sort of sounded like Tyler wanted to argue.

“No,” Harry answered his question quietly, trying to choose his words slowly so they didn’t come out wrong. “I was just trying to finish quick so we could talk or whatever.”

“Well that was blown out of the water when you brought your friends with you!” Tyler practically yelled.

Harry shuffled back a step and wrapped his arms around himself. “Sorry,” he all but whispered. He should have known Tyler was mad, he hadn’t seemed like it earlier, but Harry messed up his plans by letting Wednesday and Enid follow him.

“Yeah, well I’m sorry too,” Tyler said harshly. “Sorry that I even asked you to go with me tonight.”

Harry nodded miserably and swallowed back inappropriate tears that prickled his eyes. He would have apologized again, but Tyler clearly didn’t want to hear it.

“You should go,” Tyler said, his voice hard and unfriendly. “Just GO!”

Harry didn’t want to abandon Wednesday, but he wanted to stand there and fight with Tyler even less. Harry pushed past Tyler to get out of the manor, his fight against his shameful tears losing.

Even when Harry ran to the gates, floundering on which direction to go back to Nevermore, he still left his floating lights behind with his friends.

Wednesday was inspecting the master suite of the manor, a filthy and disgusting room, when she heard the hard slam of the front door.

“Harry?” she called down the corridor, pausing when there was no reply. “Harry!”

“Uh, Wednesday?” Enid called from the opposite end of the upstairs they were exploring. “You’re going to want to see this…”

The mystery of why Harry or Tyler had left the house was pushed to the back of Wednesday’s mind when Enid called out. So far, they had found plenty of evidence proving someone had been in the house recently, aside from the comatose mayor, and no clues as to who the person was.

Though, it was a mystery that somehow increased and lessened when Wednesday followed Enid’s voice and entered one of the bedrooms.

“This must be Laurel’s room…” Wednesday mused. She looked around the bedroom and saw that it was the only cleaned room in the house. The bedspread was dust free, the lamp on the desk was warm to the touch, and there were even fresh flowers on the nightstand.

Purple roses.

“It looks like she’s moved back in,” Enid said while she spun around slowly and took in the feminine room they stood in.

Wednesday spotted a shining mahogany music box, one that played a tinkling version of ‘Claire de Lune’ when opened.

“It’s not possible…” Wednesday said, watching the ballerina spin circles inside the box. “Laurel died nearly twenty years ago…”

Or had she?

The sheriff said she drowned, but Wednesday was skeptical with all the signs that pointed to another conclusion. A conclusion that said that Laurel Gates had returned to Jericho and was involved in the murders…

“GUYS IT’S HERE! RUN!”

Enid shrieked and Wednesday snatched the music box when Tyler’s shout was drowned out by a furious snarl.

Wednesday sent one last look at the roses, plucking a single one from the vase and tucking it in her pocket before she grabbed Enid’s elbow and began running.

“Not downstairs!” Enid shrieked when Wednesday began running in that direction. “It’s down there!”

“So is Harry!” Wednesday yelled back, ice crawling from her stomach through her veins. She had left Harry downstairs without her protection and now the monster had found them.

If he was hurt, it would be Wednesday’s fault for not simply allowing him to go off on his insipid date.

The girls ran toward the stairs, but were blocked by the appearance of the supernaturally huge monster climbing up them with its teeth bared and a growl ripping from its throat.

“RUN!” Enid shrieked, running in the opposite direction and dragging Wednesday with her.

“In there!” Wednesday said, spotting a silver square on the wall that slid open to reveal a dumbwaiter, similar to the one in the Addams’ home.

The girls climbed in and Wednesday barely slid the door shut before the monster ripped off a chunk of her arm in its sharp teeth.

Enid’s breath was ragged and Wednesday herself felt shaken - she imagined Harry downstairs by himself, facing off against the monster with only the spells that made his fingers tremble to use - and the girls tried to stay quiet.

A moot attempt as the monster slashed out and its claws tore through the metal, causing Enid to scream when the wires holding the dumbwaiter snapped and they went barreling to the ground.

Enid leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Wednesday from behind and squeezed her while Wednesday clenched her eyes shut against the inevitable crash.

When it came, it was a harsh landing, but the girls spilled out in what seemed to be a basement relatively uninjured.

“There’s a window,” Enid said after she got to her feet shakily and clung to Wednesday like a maggot on a corpse. “Let’s get the heck out of here.”

Wednesday let Enid drag her toward the window, only jerking her to a stop when a shelf caught her attention.

“Wait!” Wednesday stalled despite hearing the increasing volume of the monster, indicating it was closing in on them.

The shelf had five different jars on it; one was empty, four with various organs in each one. Wednesday would bet anything that they were a set of lungs, a liver, a heart, and a pancreas.

“It’s from the victims,” Wednesday said as she inspected the fluid the preserved the organs within the jars. “They’re waiting for a fifth…”

“WEDNESDAY!” Enid yelled when there was a bang from outside the basement door. “WE NEED TO GO!!”

Wednesday wanted to steal a jar, but the monster tore in the basement and it was all she could do to follow Enid to the narrow window and climb through before the monster tore in the room and chased after them.

“We need to go get the police,” Enid said, sprinting away from the house. She turned when she noticed Wednesday wasn’t running with her. “Wednesday? Let’s go!”

Wednesday looked at a pink light floating above her head and felt like there was a Vice around her lungs, restricting her air.

“I can’t, not yet,” she told Enid. She began running around the house to go back through the front door. “Harry’s still in there.”

And Tyler, but Wednesday hardly cared if he was ripped to shreds.

Harry walked the gravel road from Gates Manor toward Nevermore, lost in his own miserable thoughts.

He left Wednesday and Enid behind because he couldn’t stand to deal with a single argument.

Harry was a coward and a terrible friend. It was no wonder nobody had ever wanted to befriend him before.

“Pathetic,” Harry mumbled, swiping at his face with his hoodie sleeve. “You’re pathetic and you’re cold…”

And whining about being cold just made Harry more pathetic.

“Yeah, it’s a bit chilly to be out walking.”

Harry, who had been so wrapped up in his disappointment in himself and his confusion on what went wrong with Tyler, hadn’t noticed that someone else was walking down the road until he walked smack dab in them.

“Xavier?” Harry asked. He fixed his crooked glasses and turned halfway away from Xavier, hiding his face with his hair and the shadows from the night.

“Everything okay?” Xavier asked Harry. When Harry glanced up at him, he saw that Xavier was dressed in dark and warm clothes, but his face was pale and looked concerned.

“Yeah,” Harry lied. “Fine.”

“What are you doing out here?” Xavier asked him. “It’s late.”

Harry could have asked him the same thing, but he only shrugged.

“I was with Tyler, but we had a fight, I guess,” Harry murmured. He backed away from the road when a car drove down it, ducking behind a tree so as to not be spotted.

“And you thought you’d go walking through the woods alone?” Xavier asked Harry. “With a monster on the loose?”

The reminder of the monster had Harry looking over his shoulder, sending a guilty look toward the manor he could barely make out over the treetops.

“You’re right,” Harry said, anxiety causing him to shiver almost as much as the chilly wind did. “I have to go back…”

Xavier shouted after him, but Harry turned around and began running full sprint back toward the manor. He shouldn’t have let his emotions drive him from the manor, he should have at least waited outside for Wednesday to finish her investigation.

Harry heard Xavier running behind him, but he had to use almost all of his concentration on not tripping over any of the roots or branches on the ground. When he heard Xavier fall, he felt bad, but he couldn’t stop and wait.

There was a monster killing people and Harry left his friends behind in a creepy house with just a few blinking lights to watch over them.

And Harry’s guilt increased when he neared the house and heard a growl rip from inside of it.

“WEDNESDAY!” Harry shouted, fear increasing his speed. He stumbled over a rock, but thankfully didn’t fall.

Harry ran through the front door and the monster was there- standing in the parlor, its teeth bared and its claws out.

All the air rushed from Harry’s lungs and he felt dizzy, but he stared at the monster and raised a shaking hand in front of him.

It was easy, even in the midst of Harry’s overwhelming panic, to summon the green light to his hand.

The monster growled at Harry, a soft growl, and it took a step back as if it knew what was coming for it.

Harry closed his eyes and held his hand out in front of him.

“Die,” he whispered, sending the light to the monsters chest.

A whimper from the creature filled the air and Harry only dared open his eyes when he heard the sound of a large beast crashing to the ground.

The monster had dodged the spell, landing on its side on top of a table that was nothing but dust and splinters.

Harry’s chest iced over and time seemed to stop when, just before Xavier ran in the house behind him, the monster shrunk down until it was a perfectly human sized, unconscious, Tyler.