Let the Stalking Game Begin
It’s been a hot minute since Wednesday had last seen the campus of Nevermore. People always say time paints things prettier in hindsight, yet she found it just as hideous as she had the first time she came here. The courtyard was buzzing with the excited chatter of overzealous students returning from spring break. She really wasn’t in the mood for wasting time on small talk, so she decided to sneak into Ophelia hall through the back entrance.
Her plan of going unnoticed was soon diminished as she rounded the corner of the building and caught sight of a pastel pink raincoat at one of the benches under the old tree right next to their dormitory. Right next to it was her roommate, her blonde head laying on the table with a blank expression on her face.
“Would you care to explain what you are doing right now?” Wednesday spoke up, startling the girl who was deep in her thoughts.
“Wednesday! You’re back! Oh my god, it’s so good to see you!”
Whatever was bothering Enid before seemed to disappear right at the moment she set her eyes on the ravenette. She jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Wednesday for a quick moment, then backed away unable to decide whether they’re on hugging terms since the whole Gladstone incident or not.
“Your scars faded. They suit you,” Wednesday pointed out.
Enid lifted two of her perfectly manicured fingers to the already closed wounds she gained from her meeting with the hyde in the forest.
Wednesday knew she was insecure about them, and mentally face-palmed herself for bringing them up.
“Thank you, Wens,” Enid said, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. “Tell me all about your break! Oh, and let me get one of these for you!”
She grabbed one of the bigger suitcases of the Addams girl and started heading towards the entrance of the building.
Wednesday couldn’t help but notice the way Enid’s muscles flexed under the weight of her baggage.
So that’s what wolfing out does to a person,-she thought.
After catching up to the blonde girl, she answered her question with a quick “Everything was horrible and I loved it.”
“Mine was also quite decent. My mom was working a lot, so I didn’t have to put up with her mean comments that much. It’s better to be back here with you though. I hate to admit it, but I missed the clacking of your stupid typewriter. Why do you write on a typewriter anyways? I get the whole dark academia retro chick thing, but since you’re not on social media and stuff…”
“I love how it resembles life. Mistakes aren’t easily erasable,” she said, stopping the seemingly never-ending rambling of the werewolf.
Meanwhile they got to their room- half of which still looked like a unicorn puked on it-, and Wednesday started unpacking her bags.
“Oh, by the way you will not believe what I’ve just heard! Xavier, you know, Xavier Thorpe. He got the hugest of black eyes from Bianca for asking her to use her siren voice on him, isn’t that crazy?”
“I know. I saw it on your blog.”
“Aw, you are reading my blog? Is Wednesday Addams finally starting to look at the bright side of social media?”
“I never look at bright sides. My eyes cannot take it lightly,” she remarked.
It’s not like she was about to confess she needed to keep up with campus gossip to be able to find who the mysterious number sending her death threats belongs to.
The ping of a notification hit her ears. She looked around the room in alert, despite knowing that her own phone was always muted.
“Damn, it’s Yoko. She wants me to go over her room and check out the new sunglasses Divina just got her. Would you like to come with?”
“No, thank you. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to match your enthusiasm knowing I have a load of bags waiting for me to unpack them back in my room. You go though.”
“Okay, I’ll be back ASAP,” and with that, the heavy wooden door shut behind Enid.
Not knowing how much time she had left alone, she grabbed her phone and opened up her messages. Just as she expected it, the stalker did reach out to her again.
I know your secret. You and your little friends aren’t safe until you come clean and give back what does not belong to you.
Attached to it was a photo of Wednesday and Enid hugging in the backyard of Ophelia Hall.
A rare smile crept onto the Addams girl’s face because of the new solvable mystery at hand. She realized she actually missed the excitement of life on campus.
The sound of muffled tapping got her out of her thoughts. She opened up the lid of one of her suitcases and let a furiously signing, seemingly worn out hand crawl out of it.
“Lord, Thing, you can be a handful sometimes. You only spent what, three hours in that suitcase?”
Another fit of signing followed.
“You are a severed limb, you do not need oxygen to live.”
Thing huffed, then turned its attention towards the phone laying on Wednesday’s bed. It cautiously crawled over to take a better look at it.
“There is another message. They caught me with Enid in the backyard, which only proves my theory of the stalker being a student or a faculty member of the school.”
The hand shrugged, seemingly asking why anyone would do that.
“That’s what I’m going to find out in the next few days. I’m not going to lie, getting death threats from someone… Knowing they take me for an enemy worthy of getting out of the picture really warmed my heart. However, they are threatening Enid now.”
The all-knowing, smug tapping of fingers were quickly interrupted by the rebuttal of the ravenette.
“She saved my life. I’d like to return the favor and get rid of my debt as quickly as possible. That’s it, and nothing more.”
The door of the room swung open with a loud thud, revealing a panting Enid behind itself.
“Wednesday, you need to come right now! It’s Eugene.”
The two girls (and a hand) rushed through campus to get to the Hive, where they found Eugene kneeling in the middle of what couldn’t be described any other way than a huge mess. The usually neat, white protection suits were piling on the floor with mud stains on them. Some of the bee hives also laid on the ground with their doors swung open. The faint buzzing of a few bees was providing the only sound besides Eugene’s sobs in the room.
“My babies… They are gone,” the boy whimpered.
“Eugene, what happened here?”
“Wednesday, thank god you’re back already! I really don’t know. I just got back to school, and wanted to check on hive number 5. When I got here, I found this mess. I clearly remember locking the door, someone must’ve broken in, I just don’t understand why.”
“Is anything missing?”
“Nothing, except for 13 of my bees. Why would anyone take my babies from me?”
“I don’t think it was the bees they were after. They are just collateral damage. Whoever broke in here was looking for something else they obviously couldn’t find.”
“What else they could’ve been looking for? No offense, but the only two people who spend time here are you and Eugene, and it’s not like you guys keep anything interesting here.”
“Thank you for the valuable insight, Enid. Make yourself useful and help me look around the room. Thing, you too. And do not touch anything that seems out of place.”
The three of them scattered to different ends of the place in hopes of finding anything that could lead them to a suspect.
Wednesday was replaying what Enid had said a few minutes before in her head.
“No offense, but the only two people who spend time here are you and Eugene…”
Her and Eugene, that’s right. Her, Wednesday Addams, and the annoying boy reminding her of her brother, who she unwillingly grew close to.
“You and your little friends aren’t safe until you come clean and give back what does not belong to you.”
Of course it was the stalker. They thought whatever she had that did not belong to her was hidden here. The perfect spot to hide important items that others might want to find, since no one comes here besides her and her friend.
It would’ve made the investigation a lot easier if she knew what her mysterious stalker thought she had, but as much as she hated to admit it, she had no clue.
“Wens, I think you need to see this,” Enid’s voice called out.
Wednesday rushed over and crouched down on the kneeling girl’s side shortly followed by Eugene. She followed the gaze of the blonde just to find a golden pendant half buried under the sand left after someone’s shoes.
Wednesday grabbed it using the sleeves of her sweater to take a closer look. It resembled an open palm with a silver full moon in the middle of it. It kind of reminded her of a Hamsa hand, but differed just enough not to be connected to it.
“Have you seen that symbol before?” Eugene asked, seemingly calmer than before.
“No, but I’ll figure out what it means. Then I’ll find out who did this to your bees, and make them pay. That’s a promise.”
“And how will you do that?”
“First of all, I’m going to have to take a closer look at our classmates.”
“Sounds like fun, I’m joining in,” Enid chirped excitedly. “Let the stalking game begin!”