Snakes & Sigs
“You look like shit, dude.”
Harry didn’t even look at Ajax, he just kept his head down and went to his desk to find his journal. He couldn’t talk to Wednesday about kissing Xavier, and he didn’t have a way to get ahold of Tyler, and Harry didn’t know what he would say if he did.
It was a mistake?
He was sorry?
Please don’t leave him?
Harry’s breath hitched on that last thought.
Would Tyler leave him when he found out?
The sparks of magic inside Harry flared and flowed simultaneously, increasing their pressure as Harry’s heart rate picked up.
It was all Harry could do to grab his journal and climb through their window to get to the balcony before his power burst from him and hurt Ajax. Not that Harry cared much about Ajax, but his hair was rather amusing when Harry was in a mood to be amused.
In the cold night air, Harry could force himself to breathe, let himself shed a few panicked tears he’d held back, and curl up in a corner of the balcony.
Everything between Harry and Tyler felt so deep, so real. They’d shared so much, they’d shared almost everything.
Harry was pretty sure he loved him. He knew people, Wednesday, especially, would scoff at it- they were young, they were new, but nobody made Harry feel as trusted, capable, and alive as Tyler did.
If that wasn’t love, Harry didn’t know what was.
And Harry was going to lose him because of his interest in Xavier’s soft smile and sweet innocence.
Xavier didn’t understand death and dying, not like Harry and Tyler did. He’d never killed anyone and he’d never lost anyone. It only made him more interesting.
“Don’t leave me, don’t leave me, don’t leave me,” Harry whispered to himself. His tears dropped on his journal, leaving water droplets on the cover. “Don’t leave me, please.”
Harry couldn’t lose him, he just couldn’t. It would destroy him in a way that being locked up again couldn’t even do.
In an effort to rip his mind off the image of Tyler leaving him, Harry straightened his legs out and propped his journal on them. The journal was already half-full, filled with lonely rants, sad poems, and the angry words of someone Harry hardly recognized anymore.
Everything had gotten better. Everything should be perfect.
Harry had a cousin who loved him, he had a godfather who had been watching over him for years, he had a boyfriend that understood him, and he had a friend who supported him.
Harry pushed his cousin away and lied to her by omission about the Hyde.
Harry let his hurt and jealousy make him lose an opportunity to finally sit and ask Sirius all the questions he had for him.
Harry snogged another bloke, something that no boyfriend would understand.
And Harry went and did something as unforgivably stupid as falling for his best mate.
Life was a tangled mess and Harry couldn’t figure out how to undo it all.
“Hey, dude,” Ajax poked his head out the window, startling Harry who assumed he’d fallen asleep. “You cool?”
Harry turned his head away from the window, hastily swiping at his face with his sleeve.
“Yeah,” he croaked, his voice thick. “I’m cool.”
Ajax snorted and climbed the rest of the way through the window, which was the opposite of what Harry wanted in the moment. Harry watched from the corner of his eye as Ajax loped across the balcony with an easy confidence and hopped up on the rail.
“I’m going to ask Yoko to be my girlfriend this weekend,” Ajax said with a grin. He swung his legs and looked up at the sky. “She’s great, isn’t she?”
Harry didn’t really have an opinion on Yoko, the vampire girl in Apollo Hall, so he just curled his legs back against his chest and hummed.
“I know she’s like two thousand years old, but she’s so hot,” Ajax went on, ignoring Harry’s complete disinterest. “And she’s smart too, dude, like… super smart.”
“She’d have to be if she’s two thousand years old,” Harry pointed out quietly. He looked up when Ajax laughed and saw him nodding eagerly at Harry.
“You’re so freaking right,” Ajax said cheerfully. “See? She’s got beauty and brains, dude!”
“Great,” Harry muttered. Tyler and Xavier both had beauty and brains. Tyler was street smart, he understood how the world worked, and Xavier was book smart, he was top of their class. “I’m so happy for you.”
“My bad,” Ajax said sheepishly. “Are you and your boyfriend having some sort of problems? Xavier’s a good dude, did he like… break up with you or something?”
Harry’s chest felt like Ajax punched him and he almost immediately looked back down at his knees.
“Xavier’s not my boyfriend,” he muttered. “Tyler is.”
“Duh,” Ajax laughed. “I met him, at the dance, remember? I just sort of figured you were like dating them both?”
Harry blinked at him. “People don’t do that. That’s- that’s…”
That was the most logical thing Harry had ever heard. Why couldn’t people date two people at once? And Tyler liked Xavier, they already hung out together and… and rubbed each others shoulders.
Ajax raised his brows and bit his lip, holding back a laugh.
“Bro, have you like seen half the students here?” Ajax asked, his voice shaking with suppressed laughter. “Eddie and Marcus have been banging Kent for weeks. Vanessa is like totally humping Marlene and Ainsley’s legs, even though those two hate each other. And don’t get me started on Bianca, I think she’s fucking half the school.”
Harry and Ajax weren’t close, Harry had thought he wanted to be friends once, but it had been a cold distance between them since that day, but Harry was a bit desperate.
“It’s normal?” Harry asked. He averted his eyes for a moment, looking at Ajax’s hoodie he wore. “To want to date two people at the same time?”
“It’s like the most normal thing ever,” Ajax said, finally laughing. “This might be the first normal thing you’ve ever said.”
Harry scowled and looked Ajax right in the eyes.
“Your hair thinks your hat stinks and your snoring keeps it awake,” Harry snapped. “It’s annoying.”
Ajax lost his smile quickly and he reached up to touch his grey cap that covered his snake tendrils.
“You… you can hear them talking?” Ajax asked Harry. “Dude… what?”
Harry defiantly held Ajax’s eyes and stuck his chin out stubbornly.
“They’re snakes and I can talk to snakes,” Harry said. “Here, I’ll prove it.”
Harry got up and moved to lean against the railing beside where Ajax was sitting and he tilted closer, listening to the whispers that never ended beneath Ajax’s cap.
“Suffocating… need to breathe…”
Harry pictured the snakes in his head and cleared his throat before trying to talk to them through the cloth.
“You can’t breathe if you’re going to stone people,” Harry hissed, startling Ajax. “How can he let you breathe without turning himself or anyone else to stone?”
The tendrils became excited, Harry could tell by the shifting outlines of them moving quickly under the hat.
“He manages just fine when he drowns us,” they hissed venomously. “Why can’t he wait and let us breathe before hiding us in shame once more?”
Harry nodded understandably. Nobody liked being hidden away in shame, Ajax hiding his Gorgon tendrils was like the Dursleys hiding their freak nephew.
“How long should he let you breathe after his shower?”
Their voices began overlapping and Ajax had to grab the rails to hold himself steady when they were arguing and moving around too quickly.
“An eternity!”
“Three days!”
“Seventy-six minutes!”
“Seventy-six minutes it is,” Harry declared. He closed his eyes and shook his head, forcing himself to not think of the snakes anymore.
“They want you to keep the mirror covered for an extra seventy-six minutes after your showers,” Harry told Ajax, ignoring the continued whispers of the snakes. “They think you’re ashamed of them, I guess.”
Ajax looked at Harry, completely stunned. His mouth was just hanging open and it took him an awkward moment to recover.
“Uh… okay then,” he said. “Cool, thanks, dude, I’ll do that.”
Ajax hopped off the rail and slowly made his way back to the window, his hand nervously patting his head.
“For the record, you’re not bad,” Ajax said, flashing Harry a grin over his shoulder. “And it’s not weird to date two dudes at once, not if they don’t care.”
“Thanks,” Harry told him genuinely.
“Anytime,” Ajax said cheerily. “I’m going to go take a shower then… I dunno, I guess I’ll play Among Us on my phone for seventy-six minutes,” he laughed. “Night.”
“Night,” Harry said, feeling rather fond of his roommate suddenly.
Harry hopped up on the rail, his journal forgotten on the ground by the wall, and thought about what Ajax said.
Other students did date more than one person at a time, Harry had seen it himself in the quad and at the cafeteria. Eddie, Marcus, and Kent were always sitting together at meals, holding each others hands out in the quad, and once they’d even gotten scolded by Mrs Welsh for snogging each other during music.
And suddenly, Harry pictured himself being the one ducking behind the brass section, hiding kisses from Tyler and Xavier both. And… Harry’s breath caught and his stomach lurched… Tyler and Xavier snogging each other but Harry was there and…
Bloody hell.
It was hot on the balcony.
Harry wrapped his legs around the ornate poles of the rail to hold himself steady so he could peel off his blazer. He tossed it over by his journal carelessly, cooling down instantly in just his tshirt and black school trousers. He was glad Ajax went inside, Harry didn’t even know his neck could even blush alongside with his face.
Maybe Ajax had a point. Maybe Harry could… could what? Tell Tyler that he could date Xavier if Harry could too? That was mad. Dr. Kinbott would be so disappointed in him if he said that. That didn’t sound like progress, that sounded selfish.
Right?
Harry should spend some of his savings on a cell phone. He had Dr. Kinbott’s number and she said he could call anytime there was an emergency and this certainly felt like an emergency.
In fact, Harry finally felt the air in his lungs moving normally when he had a sudden realization, Ajax had a cell phone! He’d probably let Harry borrow it if he asked politely.
Harry was going to jump up, try and catch Ajax before he got in the shower, but the quick claws that grabbed Harry by his shoulder and his side and yanked him backward off the rail sent all the air from his chest once more.
*****
“She’s going to kill you.”
Wednesday opened her eyes and saw that she was back in Sarah Addams’ cottage. Certainly in the past then. When she looked to her right, she saw Goody beside her with wide eyes and an intense focus as they zeroed in on Wednesday.
“She’s going to kill you,” Goody said again, as if Wednesday didn’t hear her the first time.
“She can try,” Wednesday said curtly. She tried to stretch her arms over her head, but they were bound behind her back on the chair she sat in. “Why am I bound?”
Goody smiled mysteriously. “I told you, Wednesday Addams, I told you. Not all friends are trustworthy and not all foes are your enemy.”
With that cryptic and unhelpful remark, Wednesday was unceremoniously thrust from the past to the present.
Wednesday kept absolutely silent when she came to. She opened her eyes a mere slit and immediately began working on the knots behind her back while she assessed the situation.
It seemed to be the inside of the crypt that had once been decorated for Wednesday’s birthday. Now, there were tea candles lit in a circle around the marble tombstone that held Joseph Crackstone’s body. Wednesday was placed in a hard wooden chair at the bottom of the short set of stairs that led to the tomb.
Across from her, oddly enough, was Lucus Walker, the dead mayors son. He was also tied to a chair and seemed to be entirely unconscious. His casted arm was bound above his head with his other arm.
What he was doing there, Wednesday couldn’t fathom.
More importantly… Wednesday tried to crane her neck subtly, seek out Thornhill.
There.
At the head of the tomb was Thornhill, placing jars in equal distance on the ground between the candles.
It seemed as if Wednesday had been kidnapped for a ritual of some sort.
Delightful.
“I know you’re awake, Miss Addams,” Thornhill called. She placed the final jar on the ground, what looked to be John Doe’s pancreas, and turned to face Wednesday with a smile.
Wednesday gave up the charade and opened her eyes fully. She clenched her jaw when the knots in the rope holding her hands were more intricate than she expected, they were exceedingly annoying to get a firm grasp on.
“Were you a Girl Scout, Laurel?” Wednesday called mockingly. “It must have been hard to get your Brownie Badge when you were declared dead.”
Thornhill laughed, clearly she also gave up her charade.
“Your sense of humor is one of the things that I admire about you,” Thornhill said. She pulled a gun from her waistband - an Sig 365, it seemed like - and aimed it at Wednesday. “Unfortunately, your bloodline and insistence on sticking your nose places it doesn’t belong is what brought you here.”
Wednesday was fast, she was an excellent fighter, but she couldn’t outrun or out-fight a bullet.
“You must think you’re the first person to kidnap me and aim a gun at my head,” Wednesday said deadpan, “you’re wrong.”
“Am I?” Thornhill cocked the chamber, her face filled with manic excitement when Wednesday’s eyes must have accidentally betrayed a small shadow of discomfort. “I’m not the only one who is wrong here, hmm? I heard you accused poor Valerie of being me, you stupid girl.”
“You gave Kinbott the flowers to give to Sirius,” Wednesday realized. “You unlocked Xavier’s Hyde and you’re the one who killed the mayor.”
Thornhill laughed again, her hand not shaking in the least.
“You believe you’re so clever and yet you couldn’t solve a mystery if the clues slapped you in your pasty white face,” Thornhill said. If she thought Wednesday was bothered by the words of a psychopath aiming a gun at her head, she was wrong.
“So you aren’t about to try and use my blood and Lucas here for some ritual involving bringing Crackstone back to life before you plan to kill me?” Wednesday asked.
“No, I am,” Thornhill said, “but Xavier has never been a part of this.”
Wednesday would have argued the point, but a snarl ripped through the air and Thornhill’s sinister smile grew even wider.
“And for our final guest of honor,” she simpered. She quickly stepped over beside Wednesday in three long strides and wrapped one arm around Wednesday’s neck and used her other arm to hold the barrel of the gun to the side of her head.
“Did you figure this out?” Thornhill whispered to Wednesday when the door to the crypt opened and the Hyde itself came through the doorway, crouching slightly to fit its hulking frame in the crypt.
And in its arms was Harry.