Claws and Tears
Wednesday was awaken. Sitting up in her bed and looking around, she didn’t see Enid and figured the blonde had now made it a habit to get them both coffee in the mornings. She took her usual cold morning shower and walked out of the bathroom to find a cup of coffee sitting at her table just like in the previous day.
‘’Thank you, I can get used to this.’’ Wednesday said, approaching the table so that she could taste the sour black liquid, letting it bring a faint smile to her face.
She didn’t know why that was, but this morning had a beautiful energy to it. Beautiful like the dense fog that penetrated the woods around the property where she grew up. The day ahead of her felt uncasually optimistic, which was quite an unpleasant feeling, considering Wednesday was a proud pessimistic.
The optimistic feeling was crushed as soon as her and Enid walked through the crowded corridors and happened to stumble upon guards inside the school. The girl became even less optimistic of the day and week ahead of her when she spotted Sheriff Galpin and Amelyne speaking in business manner. She couldn’t believe it.
‘’Not him again.’’ Wednesday said, stopping her strut and Enid followed suit.
‘’Is he that much bad news? Maybe he’s learned that he should trust you now that he knows what you’re capable of.’’ Enid tried cheering on her roommate and best friend, not succeeding.
‘’If there’s one thing that I know about that man is that he will never ever trust any of us.’’ Wednesday answered with an aggravated tone to her voice.
Enid frowned, they both stared at Galpin for a little while until he took notice of them.
‘’I think he’s coming in our direction.’’ Wednesday lamented.
And he was indeed, the Sheriff made his way to the duo confidently and fiercely. Tipping his hat to them as he inched closer.
‘’Listen Addams, there’s no hard feelings about last time, but you gotta let the professionals handle it this time around, got it?’’
‘’If you’re gonna do your job the same way you did it last time we’re all doomed.’’ Wednesday mocked him.
‘’Listen here you missy, you’re just a teenager, and I’m the SHERIFF. Which one of us do you think actually knows what they’re doing? You and your fantasies of being Sherlock are just as unreliable as your little visions, you stay out of my investigation or I’m finding a way of having you expelled this time, for good.’’ He threatened, stepping closer so his height advantage over her intimidated the brunette.
‘’Alright. Why are you here anyway, who called you here? Was it Amelyne? Or someone else?’’ Wednesday ignored his empty threats, he couldn’t do any of the stuff he mentioned unless he produced false evidence against her, which was illegal. And extremely hard, she left no loose threads behind that could possibly incriminate her of anything.
‘’I’m not answering any of your questions.’’ He scoffed and walked away.
Wednesday sighed, she picked up walking again and resumed getting to her class but she didn’t have a time window to try to process anything that was happening. Suddenly she heard an enraged scream from Xavier coming from the distance. She turned around to find him walking to her at a worryingly increasing speed.
‘’So you told Yoko I’m nothing to you? Is that what I mean to you Wednesday Addams, NOTHING!?’’ He said, increasing his volume in each word and spitting as he spoke.
He shouted and pointed and fisted in the air, giving the impression of someone who was under extreme psychological distress. Wednesday knew he was unhinged, but not at the level to publicly harass someone over petty teenager gossip.
‘’You BITCH! I would do anything for you, ANYTHING. I went to PRISON for you! And this is how you repay me?’’ He stepped closer to her, the closeness allowing Wednesday to see the expression of seething anger on his face.
‘’Xavier, I-’’ Wednesday didn’t know what to say, for the first time in her life, she didn’t know what her next move was supposed to be, the unfamiliarity of the feeling being just as frightening as the tone on Xavier’s voice. He seemed way taller now that he was screaming that way at her, and she felt so small.
She was frozen in place, wide eyed at the boy who grew angrier at every inch he came closer to her and it all happened like a flash. He swung her way, and Enid’s hand stopped the punch centimeters away from her face. Enid growled like an animal and actually grew taller in size, her fingers turning into colorful claws.
‘’Mind repeating what you just said to my face?’’ She yelled at him, her small nuzzle centimeters away from his face.
He punched her with his other hand and she yelped, growling louder and punching him back. He fell back and stumbled, when he composed himself again and got up from the ground he was held back down by a guard and Sheriff Galpin. Wednesday came to herself and gasped, looking at Enid who now had a red mark on the right side of her face and still growled low, her hands shaking from the adrenaline kick.
‘’Hey are you- Are you okay?’’ Wednesday stuttered, grabbing Enid by her arm.
Enid seemed like her eyes were glued to Xavier, expressionless and alert, like a wolf watching its prey. Wednesday pulled her chin so the blonde looked at her instead, finding it hard to unlock her gawking on the boy.
‘’Hey. Hey…’’ Wednesday’s voice softened, she held the blonde’s face.
Enid’s pupils dilated and she seemed to come back to herself, shrinking in size and looking like her usual self again. She looked embarrassed, and she was. They had actually caused a scene and made the police intervene, there wasn’t a way on earth she wasn’t embarrassed.
‘’Ow.’’ Enid said as Wednesday touched the red mark on her face. ‘’That hurts.’’ Her voice was hoarse.
‘’We’ll take care of it, come to the infirmary with me.’’ Wednesday answered.
‘’Not so fast!’’ Sheriff Galpin yelled, ‘’I need to know why he was after you.’’ he said, getting up.
‘’But can Enid at least go treat her wound first? She has nothing to do with this.’’ Wednesday inquired.
‘’Fine. But you’ll come with me.’’ The Sheriff answered.
Enid took off to the infirmary to get some ice on her face, texting Ajax to meet her there, and Wednesday reluctantly followed the Sheriff so she could be interrogated. Xavier is being kicked out for his behavior, that took off a huge weight from Wednesday’s back, but Enid had gained a new one on hers.
Ajax was acting weird, as in being cold and distant from Enid. Deflecting on everything she said or every question she asked, he seemed mad at her for something. But she didn’t know what, there was lots of stuff running through her head that she did that could’ve possibly made Ajax freak out on her, mainly because of how much of an anxious little shit she is. They ended up fighting, when all she needed was some support. She had just been in a pretty scary fight, and her boyfriend wouldn’t even acknowledge how traumatizing it could’ve been for her. Great.
‘’Listen,’’ She started, ‘’If you’re not gonna support me through this, that’s fine! I have people who will.’’ she concluded. And by ‘people’ she meant Weds and Thing. Mostly Weds.
‘’All right!’’ He said back, ‘’That’s all I needed to hear!’’ yelling at her.
‘’What are you talking about?’’ She asked, her voice shaky.
‘’You know really well what I’m talking about!’’ He yelled, scoffing and walking away.
Enid was distraught. She tried being just a little bit dramatic so her boyfriend would feel bad and apologize, but it blew up in her face. She didn’t want to fill Wednesday’s ears about this and Yoko wasn’t exactly trustable right now. Thing was gone because of Amelyne. She had absolutely no one to talk to about this.
Except.
Enid remembered Wednesday quickly telling her about their new ‘dorm dad’ while they were setting up the investigation board together. Maybe Enid could ask him if she could speak to a school therapist? or a Counselor? Enid wasn’t really sure about what these people did, but she knew that Mortimer was the one to ask. She quickly made her way to his office, which Wednesday had told her was located where Marilyn’s old office was.
He was sat back in his brown leather chair typing something away in his laptop. Enid felt shy to walk in, he took notice of her presence and welcomed her in. She entered the room and sat down in the chair that rested in front of his table, facing him. She felt nervous, she had never done something like this before, she thought about walking out, this felt wrong. She didn’t know why she had an instinct to not trust him, her hands picking on her skirt in a desperate try to fidget the anxiety away.
‘’What can I help you with?’’ He asked, smiling gently.
‘’Um…’’ Enid looked down, embarrassed. ‘’Do you have anyone I can speak to? About… anxiety, and stuff?’’ She struggled to even get the words out.
‘’Well, we actually don’t have anyone at the moment.’’ He lightly shut his laptop, ‘’The therapist our school used to recur to has passed away and the spot hasn’t been filled yet.’’ he said, lamenting.
‘Yes, Miss Kinbott.’ Enid thought to herself.
‘’So,’’ He continued, ‘’I’m afraid we don’t have a therapist for you. But I am a licensed Counselor.’’ he said, pointing to a degree which hung on his wall inside a wooden frame. ‘’And if you’d like, I can be the one to hear you. What’s wrong?’’ He said, a soft and comforting voice. He seemed like a trustable profissional, and Enid felt safe. So she went on.
Enid told him about her confronting feelings about a certain female friend and how she made her feel, and about a certain boyfriend, and about how he made her feel. These two being obviously, Wednesday and Ajax. And about how scared she was, given the fight she was in earlier. Just saying those words out loud made Enid feel relieved, but she instantly regretted even stepping inside this room as he gave her his rotten and distressing piece of advice.
‘’That’s completely fine, Enid. Sometimes we feel confused, that’s normal. But you can’t let the confusion drift you away from what’s right. And you’re a smart girl, you know what’s right for you, you won’t throw that away, right? These issues with your boyfriend will certainly go away if you though through them and you’ll two go back to the way things were before, I’m sure.’’ He said in a stern voice.
Enid didn’t feel reassured at all. In fact, she might be even more anxious now. Her heart pounding in her chest and her legs weak. That was totally not what she needed to hear. Still, she thanked him for his time and quickly left, feeling extremely pressured by what it was expected of her to do, she needed to disappear deep into the world of her blankets and pillows asap. This whole thing had come to a point where Enid felt stressed out when even the smallest thought of Ajax crossed her mind, whether it be conscious or not, making her feel physically sick. She had no idea where Wednesday was, leaving her with nothing but the previous idea of sinking into her bed and not getting up until her black haired roommate pulled her out of it. Wednesday was the only one who could make her feel better right now.
Circling back to Wednesday, the girl had just gotten out of interrogation and it was just 5 minutes past 11AM. It was too late to go back to class but too early to go to the cafeteria for lunch, which left the girl with enough free time to go do some interrogation of her own. She hadn’t exactly had enough time to have a one-on-one with their new principal yet, the girl expected to cross the woman out of her list of suspects quickly as Amelyne was a very uptight person, making it difficult for anyone to consider her as a villain, but also making for a great cover in case she happened to be one.
Amelyne sat on her desk, frowning at papers. She had glasses on, red and pointy shaped lenses matching her tie, adorned with pearled cords. Being the principal, she surely had access to files which belonged to Weems priorly, and with access to those files, she surely was aware of Wednesday’s ‘’troublemaker’’ reputation and her almost expulsion. Wednesday walked into the room with that possibility in mind.
‘’I’d like to speak to you.’’ Wednesday quickly cut the silence, making her presence known and speaking in a formal tone.
‘’Can I help you?’’ Amelyne looked at her, puzzled as to why she was being addressed by a student with such attitude.
"Why is Sheriff Donovan here?" Wednesday asked.
"Because I called him." Amelyne answered shortly.
"Why would you do that?" Wednesday inquired again.
Amelyne was shocked, in her 20 years of being the head of numerous top tier schools from throughout the country, she never had encountered a student with such disregard for authority and power hierarchy. She assumed it was because of how soft their old principal was, creating a school who took their liberties for granted, Amelyne was about to change that.
"I'm not answering your questions. And you're going back to class." Amelyne stated firmly, putting her siren power into use in the second sentence. Wednesday obeyed quietly.
She walked all the way back to the main hall before realizing what just had happened, she stomped her foot on the ground and cursed at the principal silently. It was almost noon, and the cafeteria would soon open for lunch time. Wednesday planned to meet Enid there and go back to class in hopes to still make use of this hellish day. She paced her way through the bricked wall corridors and took an early place in line to grab her lunch, some minutes later she was sat and eating, though she did not see Enid anywhere. She ate slowly and chewed on her food patiently as she was taught to. Though, she observed not every teen gets educated about dining table etiquette at home. Given that some of them ate like animals, especially the werewolf kids, she presumed it was just in their nature, though Enid didn't eat like that. Enid was composed in everything she did, even though eager.
The cafeteria became more silent as the students finished their meals and left, some groups staying to chat and catch up with their friends on whatever could possibly have happened to them this morning that was more chaotic and exciting than what happened to Wednesday. One or two rogue students sat quietly with books, studying for exams which were still months ahead. Wednesday read 1h13PM in the old dusty clock which hung on the wall, she asked herself when was the last time the poor thing had been adjusted to reflect the current time, doubting it's accuracy. She concluded it did not matter, as time was relative anyway. The black haired girl got up and gave the utensils she used back to the cafeteria staff so that nobody had to pick them up, then she left and patiently walked her way back to class. Worry flushed over her when the class had already begun and the seat next to her was empty, something happened to Enid which made her miss class. She paid attention to class and tried to repress her constant thoughts of worry for Enid, telling herself that she would find out what happened after class was over.
Hours later, the bell rang and Wednesday quickly collected her stuff and marched to her room, swaying from students in the crowded halls with only Enid on her mind. She pushed the dorm room open and made a mental note to scold Enid over leaving it unlocked before finding the blonde curled up in her pink sheeted bed. Turns out, she had been crying all afternoon from bottling up some emotions inside of her, which Wednesday supposed were mostly anxiety. The blonde did not want to get up nor talk, which worried Wednesday, but she was still relieved to be beside her friend. She went on to start on some homework and keep an eye out for Enid in case she decided to finally open up to her. Some hours went by and Enid barely moved or made any noises, it ached in Wednesday's heart to imagine how did her friend get so good at crying quietly. A little past 7PM, Enid spoke up.
"Weds, I think I'm gonna wolf out tonight." She said, her words floated in the quiet room. Wednesday did not answer, which made Enid question if the black haired girl heard what she said.
Enid turned around and found that her roommate wasn't doing her homework anymore, she was confused as to where her roommate had went and how much time she had been gone. Then Wednesday came out of their shared bathroom with tissues and proceeded to wipe Enid's face from the tears and give her some so she could blow her nose. Enid felt strangely comforted even though there were no words exchanged between them. Wednesday was an amazing person to have around, she had learned a lot, and Enid slowly was decoding her exotic love language. Wednesday briefly went into the bathroom again to discard all the used wipes and wash her hands, coming back to Enid's presence shortly after.
"Do you want me to lock you in?" Wednesday softly asked.
"Yes." Enid answered almost inaudibly.
Now that Enid wolfed out every full moon, or when she had anxiety attacks, it was common occurrence for Wednesday to be the one to lock her into The Lupin Cages, with Ajax being the coward that he is. It was, strangely, some sort of bonding moment between them.
She felt bad to see Enid inside a cage. The faint sound of the other werewolves screaming and howling in the distance didn't seem to throw the blonde off, she was very quiet, which was unlike the girl.
"Is something on your mind?" Wednesday voiced her concern.
"Yeah."
Wednesday stayed silent, she paid full attention to the other girl through the metal bars, encouraging her to go on.
Enid inhaled. But she didn't sigh.
"You know when... when you feel like even though everything is supposed to be perfect, it's not?" Enid said slowly, like she was overthinking every word, as in to be careful with how much she was letting out.
"I think I might." Wednesday answered before the room went silent.
The silence dragged on, the black haired girl could sense the tension despite her lack of werewolf senses.
"You seem anguished." She added, and with that, came the rest of Enid's testimony.
"Yes... it's just that... it's Ajax. I don't know. I feel guilty about feeling like this. He's been acting off, and I think we just broke up. So there's that. It's just, there's so much pressure on me and- and-'' She stopped abruptly.
Wednesday felt like there was more, the blonde exchanged stares with her. A pained expression in her face. The eye contact was rather comfortable, what she wasn't aware of, is that Enid felt deeply comforted by the compassionate look Wednesday gave her whenever she vented to the girl, something Ajax did too but she never felt understood.
"There is so much pressure on me right now." Enid looked down into her skirt, fidgeting with it. "Everyone is expecting me to pull through, it's unbearable Weds-" the blonde got interrupted by involuntary growls coming from her throat.
Wednesday sat quietly as she watched her friend morph into the thing whom she watched save her life a few months ago. The process was always the same and Enid always looked the same. Yet Wednesday couldn't get enough of looking at her. The addams had a thing for the murderous and supernatural, it was in their genes.
"Look at her." Wednesday muttered under her breath, captivated by the creature standing before her, a beautiful beast moving through the flicks of moonlight that penetrated through the ceiling. The exposed fur and skin of the creature revealing battle scars as she turned and squirmed, ones which Wednesday had never seen before, scattered through her body. The whole thing left Wednesday hazed, sure that she would do anything to always be the one to witness the grandiosity of this wolf. And with that, Enid let out a beautiful howl.
She sat there until the late hours of the night until Enid shifted back to normal and she helped the girl back to their dorm, weak and wrapped in blankets. She couldn't help but wonder what would have been of this helpless little thing had she been sent to those conversion camps. Enid needed caring and she was sure of that, she was also sure that no one would care for her like Wednesday Addams did. As they got back, Wednesday helped her roommate into her bed after locking their dorm door. She supposed Enid would be sound asleep fast, but was surprised when the girl whined when Wednesday left her side. She sat back down in Enid's bed and held her hand, waiting for the blonde to fall asleep. Wednesday would do that so the blonde could have a good night of sleep, she needed rest. A shadow lurked outside their dorm room, and Wednesday pretended not to see it. Once Enid's breath slowed down and her hand became limp, Wednesday changed into her sleeping clothes and went to bed.
First thing in the morning, Wednesday woke Enid up.
"I need to speak to you about last night."