Wednesday

Wednesday's POV

As soon as Enid spoke about stealing the mask from the museum, I knew it was impossible. Tyler's enthusiasm wasn't a surprise considering how impossible the mission was, but it was me who had to break Enid's dream. Last thing I wanted to do.

- That's imposiible, Enid - I said while she turned to me. Her beautiful gray eyes glued on me. Focus, Wednesday. - The mask is protected by a case and a high-tech alarm system. If we can't get it, nobody can. - I exlplained.

The room went silence and I met Tyler's look. A disappointed look.

I wasn't gonna rob a museum just 'cause he wanted to feel the adrenalin rushing in his veins.

- This, on the other hand - I said, dropping the book in my hand on the desk - could be full of surprises. Especially the last page.

The last page was full of doodles without any sense. But that wasn't what catched my attention.

- What's surprising about a bunch of scrawls? - Tyler asked.

I turned off the lights and the page glowed in the dark.

- How did you know that was there? - Xavier asked me, focused on the signs on the page.

- I got interested into how spies exchanged messages, after I found out my grand-grandfather was one against Nazis - I explained. - The most popular one was glowing-in-the-dark ink. I just thought that, if the students were part of the secret society, it would make sense for them to write their secrets like spies. And if you pass a hand over the page you can feel something like wax - I told them.

- Now, who's brain is working slow? - I asked, turning to Tyler and returning the comment he did earlier. Tyler looked at me and laughes, shooking his head in denial.

- I'm still waiting for your thank you - he said, pointing to Enid with his head.

He knew. I realized. He knew about the kiss. He knew about my feelings for her. Wait, was that the reason he kissed me?

- Hey, there's something interesting - Xavier said, catching our attention. We leaned to the book. - The doodle and the secret writing are somehow complementary. The writing describes the room where they did their reunion and their rituals while the draw is a map that lead to the room. It's in the basement of the academia. - He exclaimed.

- What are we waiting for, then? - Tyler asked, like that was the moment he waited for his entire life.

I was curious too, like everyone else. At this point we were too much involved to let it be. And I needed something to focus, otherwise my brain would lead me to the kiss, Enid and the feeling of her lips on mines... She was so warm...

God, control yourself. I told myself.

- Wait - I said while everyone was moving outside. They stopped by the door.

- Thing - I called. My amputated friend got out of its drawer-bedroom. - You'll come with us - I told it, hiding it in the pocket of my sweter.

- And that is? - Tamara asked.

- That's Thing. Thing, these are Tyler, Xavier, Ajax and Tamara - I introduced them. - Thing has been my - our - I said, throwing a look at Enid - roomate since I came here.

Thing got out of my pockets and jumped on the desk where he signed "Nice to meet you. I've heard of you" and then jumped back in my pockets.

- And why are you introducing it to us now? - Tyler asked. I could see his brain trying to understand what was behind my behaviour.

- We're going in an unknown place where Thing dimension might turn useful - I explained to him. - And there's a rule against strangers in academia, that's the reason I hid it from you all.

- Understood - Tyler said, opening the door without missing a bit. I shook my head in exasperation. Of course Tyler didn't care about Thing. Or rules. He just wanted to see the mysterious room in the basement. I understood him way too well.

I closed th door behind me. And we followed Xavier, who was following the map.

We got through a first round of stairs, it brought us at level minus 1 where we found out there were the kitchens. We turned into a side corridor, trying to be as silent and invisible as possible, so the staff wouldn't catch us. There was another flight of stairs we had to take to get to the real basement.

The place was obviously abandomned. Darkness, dust and spider webs everywhere.

I liked this place.

Xavier didn't. His hate towards spiders made him hard to concentrate and we took the wrong change. When we ended in a blind alley and we had to turn back, Tamara stole the map from his hands.

Following Tamara and the right directions of the map, we ended up in front of a statue. It was a guy with a crow on his shoulder and a book in his hand. A hourglass pin on the blazer was the only sign we were on the right path.

- Sir Charles Edward Crow - Tyler read the target at base of the statue.

"To those who are looking for the true power, your time will come" the target said.

-What are we supposed to do now? - Ajax signed.

Xavier stole the diary from Tamara, scanning the writing looking for something. - You shoud pull down the arm with the crow, till the pen in his hand touch the book in his other hand - he said.

That was the moment I noticed the pen in the other hand. I took a step forward and touch the cold metal of the statue, grabbed the arm and pull it down.

There was a click somewhere behind and then the statue moved sideways, leaving a black passage in the wall.

- Someone should stay here, while we find how to open the door from the inside. Or we will be stucked there - Xavier said, his voice sounded terryfied at the idea.

- You wanna stay here? Maybe you'll become friend with the spiders - I whispered at his back, making him jump away. I smirked. It was so funny to scare Xavier.

- Thing - I called it. It jumped on the floor, ready to follow my orders. - We're gonna enter the passage. If the statue don't move in 5 mintes, you'll open it from the outside. Understood? - Thing did something similar to a military salute and took place on the metal book of the statue.

- Time to go then - I said, taking a step in the darkness behind the sculpture.

There was a room. A big, round room, with tapestries against the wall, draws on the floor and an altar in a corner. The other ones were looking around, the same question on their faces - or non-face for Ajax. Then someone turned the light on.

Tyler spotted a switch against a wall, hidden behind a painting were a thousands of humans were tending their arms to catch the golden apple in the hands of the beautiful woman at the centre of the picture. It rapresented the trojan war.

Near the door, Ajax found another switch that opened and closed the statue. We had a way out.

Thing entered the room and wander through the room for a while, when it was done, it jumped on the altar, waiting for us.

Tyler and I spotted at the same moment a shelf full of books. We moved in that direction and founnd out the books were still readable. They were all about dark magic and occultism. They must have been the other diaries of the society, like the one we found in the library.

The rituals in it were more bloody. If our diary rituals included artifacts, faith and - in some cases - to sell your soul, the ones in this diary were about goat sacrifices or how to build a connection using your own blood. That was too much. Even for someone like me who liked blood, that was disgustinng and creepy. I put the book back on the shelf and looked at Tyler. He was next to me, still scanning the pages, his face turning more pale every second.

Then, we heard something. We froze. All of us.

The slightly hope I had it was just my imagination - even if I don't have one - vanished. Steps. But the sound didn't come from the way we took to arrive here. Enid and Tamara were both looking at the wall behind the paint of the Trojan war.

The sound came from there. From the wall. Someone was coming here.

- We need to hide - I whispered. Ajax turned the switch and the statue outside moved sideways. We got outside and that was the moment I realized.

Someone wasn't there with us. The blonde-hair-girl I kissed twenty minutes before was missing. Tyler had to physically stop me from opening the secret passage during what was probably a reunion of the secret society.

I was panicking. For the first time in my life, I knew what that word, so used by people, felt like. I felt the distance from Enid like a physical ache, like someone just cut one of my limbs and put it in another room.

- Think, Black cat - Tyler whispered at my ears. He was basically hugging me to stop me from doing something stupid. It would pissed me off if my mind wasn't imagining what was happening to Enid on the other side of the wall.

- Enid isn't alone there - Tyler tried again. This time his words entered my brain. I looked around, Tamara, Xavier and Ajax were there. Fists clunched looking at the door. Only Xavier was looking at me, with pain in his eyes. I realized I wasn't the only one scared for Enid.

- Thing is with her - Tyler said, reducing the grasp around my body. - They will be fine - he tried to convince me.

- Who will be fine? - a squeaky voice asked by my side. My girl's squeaky voice.

Enid was there, spider weeb in her hair, Thing on her shoulder and she was looking at me with ice in her eyes. Tyler froze behind me and drop his grasp over me almast immediatly. The guys, moved to hug Enid while I stood there. Immobile.

I wanted to hug her. But I just put a show about opening the passage, I didn't want to make more obvious to everyone I had a crush over her.

- We gotta go - Thing said, jumping over my shoulder. We all silently agreed and started moving upstairs, to our bedroom.

- So, - Tyler said sitting on my bedroom. His skin was less pale now but he still look like he hasn't sleep for days. - What happened when we got out? - he asked Enid. We all turned to Enid. Thing jumped on the floor and took place on her bedroom, next to her.

I would pay to be that amputated limb and being physical next to her.

- We're sorry - Xavier said, looking embarassed at the floor. - We didn't notice you were missing till we were outside.

- Yeah, sorry about that - Tamara added. Ajax just nodded. Tyler and I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. I was so focused on ignoring her I forgot her in a room full of psycopaths. "Sorry" didn't seem enough to express how I felt. And even if it did, I never learnt how to say that. I looked at Tyler with the corner of my eye. His face for the first time expressionless. I didn't know if he was feeling guilty about what happened to Enid or he was just annoyed but that waste of time when the only thing he wanted was to know what happened behind that door.

- Let's start with this: I had no intention of following you outside - Enid said.

What?!

- When you said "Hide!", that's what I did. I noticed wind came from behind one of the tapestry, I just hid behind it, hoping there was a passage enough big for me to hide. It was. And Thing has hidden there, already. We tried to look what was happening inside the room and found out the tapestry had two holes in it. Like someone hid there and watched the students during the reunion, in the past. We didn't see anyone. They were all wearing tunics, their faces hid behind their hoods. We heard their voices tho.

Enid turned to check on it. - You remember the exactly words? - she asked it. Thing nodded.

- "Welcome, believers" - he said, quoting the dialogue they overheard. -"Welcome, Children. Today, we meet after so long for a good purpose. The rituals of the Death will soon take place. The new moon will be next month and the time for Anubi to take his place as the true god of the afterlife will come. Anubi lost once against Osiris. Now, He has us. His servants. We will turn the rules of this world upside down. The deads will walk on Earth next to the living ones. The amethyst is in our hands and soon the mask of Anubi will be too." - Thing stopped, pointing at Enid.

- Oh, yeah. Here he took out of nowhere this purple crystal and showed it to the crowd. That was the amethyst - she said to us and then turned to Thing again.

-"Finally, the time has come. We've waited in silence for so long. It is time for us to raise our voice. We will meet once again, children. On that night everything will turn to its right place." - Thing said.

Silence followed his story. We were all thinking about something. I was thinking about how risky was the situation Enid put herself in.

Tyler was thinking something different. - So... The secret society is now a cult. Great - he said, looking around. - After all this adventures, I'm hungry. Anyone else?

Tamara raised her hand and so did Ajax.

- But the kitchen are closed now -Xavier said, making me realize it was 8 pm and we missed dinner.

- That's not a problem - Tyler said, standing up. - We have and amazing little friend who's pretty good at hiding apperently - he was talking about Thing. - What do you think? Are you in ?

Thing jumped on his shoulder, showing how happy it was of doing something illegal and leaving the room for a little more.

- You wanna come with us? - Tyler asked to me and Enid. We both shook our head.

- I need a change - she said, pointing at her clothes, still covered in spider weebs.

- I'm not hungry - I said.

- Alright, then - Tyler said, shrudding his shoulders and closing the door behind him.

It was me and Enid, now. Alone in our bedroom.

She took off her hoodie and changed it with a new one. She had time to bush her hair from the rests of spider weebs before I exploded.

- Do you know how dangerous and stupid is what you just did? - I said, controlling my voice. I wanted to shouted.

She stopped and turn around, her hair brush still in her hands. - Yes, I know - she said, coldly. That usually meant she was mad.

But she had no rights to be mad.

- You know? Really? You didn't even stop to think about how scared we would be outside that door? We didn't know if they found you, Enid? Do you realize...

- Oh, please! Like you wouldn't have done the same, if you had noticed that hiding place. You are so obsessed by solving this mystery and yet, if I do something you would do, I'm acting dumb - she shouted back.

- I never called you dumb - I said. - And it's different. We're talking about you, not me.

- Exactly! I'm a werewolf, Wednesday - She hasn't called me with my real name for a while, not when it was just the two of us. - I've advanced senses, you don't. But still, you were the one who ran behind the killer at the ball. You were the one who found out about the magician and almost get caught.

She was scared. This all time, she was worried about me and I never realized it.

Then, I didn't know what I was doing. I just wanted her closer. I wanted to be sure she was still alive and warm like she was when we kissed. I saw my hand rubbing her cheek, that was enough to make her stoop talking. I leaned in, pulling her towards me.

Just one kiss. Just another one. That was all i could think about.

When it happened, the sensation hitted harder. The goosebumps on my skin, the electricity when my skin touched her. Then I felt Enid's arm on my back, pulling me closer to her.

My lips parted and I sucked Enid's bottom lips. I heard her hold her breath and for a second I thought "so, that's how happiness feels like". Then, Enid took a step back, interrupting our kiss. And I felt lost. Like the ground I was walking on just opened under my feet.

- I can't do this again, Wednesday - Enid murmured, looking at me.

- Because I'm falling in love with you - she added, a said smile appeared on her face. I swallowed.

Did she just said what I think she said?

- And I know that you don't love me back - I saw a tear slip on her cheek before she turned around, ready to get out of the room. Out of my life.

Please don't go.

Please don't go.

- Please don't go - I heard my voice whispered. I barely heard it. But it was enough. Enough to make Enid stop, her hand still on the handle.

- Why? - she asked, without turning around.

Because I love you, too. I thought. But thinking something is always easier than say it out loud. I couldn't say that. Not that word.

- Because I feel the same for you - I said, instead. At the sound of that words, Enid turned to look at me.