Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

   Enid Sinclair was eleven years old when she first arrived at Nevermore Academy. Her eldest brother holds her hand, while surrounded by her other brothers she’s never felt so small. It’s the first time she has really been anywhere else besides home and now she was being thrusted away to this dreary place. It seems scary, she feels scared even though she’s been reassured by Ollie about a thousand times that everything would be okay.

   Maybe it would be. 

   The Sinclair clan were a motley crew of course, summers were always filled with joy and roughhousing that seemed to never end. She was the only girl, of course her parents had tried and tried till she came. After nine boys and three sets of twins you would pray that eventually you would be given your wish. They were.

   So Enid knew deep down she would never be alone. Not even as the rest of her brothers ran off, besides Ollie who stayed holding her hand and Everett who didn’t seem to entirely enjoy being back at the establishment.

   Ollie sighed, ruffled his own hair making it look like a mop on his head. He looked down at the two youngest, a gentle smile on his features with eyes that made Enid's crinkle. “It’s not that bad. You’ll get a big room, bigger than any at our house,” Ollie says.

   Enid chews her lip, looking between him and Everett nervously. “Just hope your roommate isn’t bad.”

   “Everett,” Ollie hissed, sending the sheepish boy a harsh glare. Ollie looked back at her, much kinder than he did their brother. “You’ll be fine. Girls are always nicer than boys.”

   “I don’t know,” Enid murmurs. She never had many friends before she was forced to come here. “I think girls can be mean.” Ollie's eyes darken a little. He says, bending down to block the sun from her eyes and see Enid clearly. He’s tall, the tallest right now. She wonders briefly if she’ll ever be that tall. 

   “Nobody’s gonna mess with you, Nid. Come on. You too Everett, you can’t just cower in the courtyard all year.” Everett whines, hosting his bag farther up his shoulder. “Go to your room, I have to help Enid find hers.”

   “Okay.” They both watch him look around the courtyard and Enid can feel his feelings in her gut. It didn’t make her feel very good. The place was enormous afterall, and her brother couldn’t be around her the whole time.

   But Ollie takes her hand, already holding both of their bags and begins to guide her somewhere named Ophelia hall.

~

   At the entrance of Ophelia hall they’re greeted by a woman wearing wide glasses, red hair cut to her shoulders. Her bangs rest on the edge of her glasses, and Enid wonders if she even has eyebrows under there. But she’s nice, takes her bag from Ollie and thanks him for helping her. “I got it from here.”

   “Right.” he looks thankful, but a little reluctant when looking down at her. “You’ll be fine. After a month you’ll feel like this is your home.” Ollie ruffles her hair, and no squirming or swatting makes him stop. He chuckles and leaves her alone.

   “Come on. You have a special room in Ophelia hall, it’s one of my favorites,” the woman, Miss Thornhill Enid learns, tells her.

   She doesn’t expect so many stairs but once they do enter the room its big. Bigger than she could have imagined. Ollie was right, she feels like two bedrooms from home could fit in here, maybe even three of them. Some of her bigger stuff had been shipped, and was already here.

   Miss Thornhill sets her bag down on the bed towards the left. “Your roommate should arrive sometime this evening. You should get settled in. Orientation will be held in the quad around five pm before dinner. If you need anything, or get lost I’ll be downstairs waiting for everybody to leave.”

   And then Enid is alone. For the first time in her life there is no noise. There’s nothing. Her heart stutters in her chest. With excitement, fear, and nerves she can’t quite seem to settle. She could do this. All her brothers could, so Enid could as well. 

   She unpacks, starting with her easy items and working her way down. By the time she’s down, every box is empty, stuffed animals are piled in a corner and Enid's side looks like a rainbow barfed. It’s perfect. She can’t help but giggle to herself and fall back on her bed. 

   Not much later, an impromptu nap, Enid is stirred by a knock and her door opening. She bolts upright, eyes blinking as Miss Thornhill enters the room. “Enid, your roommate has arrived. Wednesday this is Enid Sinclair.” 

   The girl hidden behind Miss Thornhill is… dark. She looks like she could be a vampire, or even a ghost. Her hair was perfectly braided, not a hair out of place. Her eyes looking up through her lashes, dark voids staring into Enid's soul.

   Oh, Enid fears for her life. 

  But she hops up from the bed and skips across the room with the best smile she can muster. “Hi! It’s nice to meet you!” Enid's nerves vibrate with ample amounts of energy. The girl blinks at her, and Enid is sure she caught a grimace. “Are you alright? You look… a little pale?”

   “Right!” Miss Thornhill interrupts, her hand clasping Enids shoulder with a gentle squeeze. “I’ll leave you girls too it. Remember orientation starts at five pm.” Theres a brief moment where she looks warily between the two. Neither young girls move, forcing Thornhill to make the first steps and leave them with the door shutting behind her.

   Enid hadn’t even really noticed the trunks on the other side of the room. All of them looked just as dark and dreary as this girl. She wonders if she’s ever seen a pop of color in her life. Maybe that was rude. 

   Wednesday doesn’t pay her any mind, hasn’t even said a single word to her yet. Everett was right, she thinks solemnly. Her roommate sucked, probably hated her and Enid hadn’t even said two sentences to her yet. How could she live the full year?

   Gosh, she had to stay here all year, Enid thinks as a second thought; It punches her in the gut. Her eyes follow Wednesday as she carefully unpacks something that Enid is sure is a very old looking keyboard. But it doesn’t have a screen.

   “What’s that?” she asks, inches towards the desk.

   “A typewriter.”

  Enid blinks. “Wheres the screen? How do you see the words?”

   Wednesday for her part doesn’t move for about five seconds. Her fingers curl around the desk’s edge. “There is no screen. Paper is inserted through the top. When you press a key ink is stamped onto the page.”

   “Oh.” Enids eyebrows furrow. “Well, what happens if you make a mistake.”

   “I don’t.”

   “But what if you--”

   “Do you have something else to do? That does not include pestering me with brainless questions.”

   Enid gasps. “I am not-- I got A’s and B’s all last year!” Enid shouts. “Don't be all fussy because you can’t afford a laptop. You don’t see me whining and crying.”

   “I do not whine .” Wednesday turns sharply, fists balled at her sides. Enid tilts her head, a rebuttal on the tip of her tongue. Because even through this girl’s tone hadn’t changed or shifted the entire conversation she could pluck annoyance from a haystack. “Nor did I ask to be interrupted. Spare me inept thoughts that have cultivated in that slow churning mind of yours.”

   “You-- You bitch !”

   “Spectacular insult.” Wednesday scoffs, and turns around like nothing happened.

   Enid was ready to throw something. Her chest heaved and her eyes couldn’t burn the girl away fast enough. With a huff, Enid just leaves. Right out of their room and stomps down all the stairs from the attic. Because of course they had to stick her in the attic with some mean girl who--

   “Woah there, pup, what's going on?” Enid smacks right into the shoulder of a slightly taller girl with sunglasses. “Are you good?”

   Enid doesn’t know this girl. But she’s so frustrated already that it all just comes right out. From the moment the storm cloud walked into her room to Enid throwing out the one insult she knew would get a back hand from her Mother if she even caught a whiff Enid had uttered it.

   “Woah,” the girl laughs. “She sounds like a case. How about we head down to the quad, huh? Get you and me a snack before orientation?”

   Enid sniffles, hadn’t even noticed the tears till she was all down. “I thought dinner wasn’t till later?”

   “It is. But they won’t let us starve. Come on.” Enid looks at the hand outstretched to her. She hesitates, but nothing worse can happen. She takes the girl's hand, and lets herself be led out of Ophelia hall.

~

   Wednesday Addams was her worst enemy and Enid had to deal with her the entire year. Each holiday she would go home and pray something would make the girl fall ill. Or she would get expelled from Nevermore. But Enid quickly learned the girl's parents were loaded and trying to get her expelled was like trying to get a wolf to willingly eat cucumbers. 

   She had daggers, Enid had even seen them! She’s seen some other things too but of course Wednesday gets off free every time with a stern talking to and maybe a forced session with a therapist in town.

   She’s heard it all. Everyone by the halfway point knows to steer clear of Wednesday. She even saw the girl scare a senior to pee his pants! Well, Enid didn’t see it. But Yoko was told by Kent who was told by Ajax who was told by his roommate that it happened, so Enid knows it actually did. 

   That’s why Enid isn’t all that surprised to see Wednesday alone one lousy afternoon with the sun beating down a little too hot. What is surprising is Wednesday being outside. Enid thought she was half vampire with how she stuck indoors. Even though Yoko had told her and swore up and down that vampires got charms to protect them from the sun. 

   Like a void, Wednesday sucked the sun in. The rays hit her skin in a way they could never hit Enids. She knew from rooming with her that Wednesday had the faintest freckles dotting pale cheeks, and wondered if the sun would make them brighter. 

   Of course not though, Wednesday would never allow such a thing. Enid knows. She’s heard it all by now. 

   Maybe that’s why she walks up to the girl lounging on the grass with a notebook in her lap that was sprawled with pretty handwriting. Handwriting she would never admit was the prettiest she’s seen in their year, or ever even. 

   “Stalking your prey?” Enid asks. 

   Wednesday doesn’t look at her. Part of Enid has this inkling that somehow she knew Enid was staring before she had walked over. Wednesday watches students across the field. Some were her brothers joined in a feverish game of frisbee with some other furs. 

   Enid watches Carter catch it with his teeth before raising it in the air with a triumphant whooping sound before he’s tackled to the ground. She grins, feeling all giddy inside. She wants to race over and join, but she knows she would only get hurt in the chaos. At least that’s what her mom always said. 

   “I’m amazed how quick animalistic behavior was bred out,” Wednesday says. “Yet somehow they are still lacking what processing power they should have gained.”

   Enid's nose crinkles. “They’re just playing frisbee, that’s fun. Sometimes my brothers let me play. At least when mom isn’t home,” Enid rambles a little, rocking on her heels. “Ollie always ends up on top, but sometimes he lets one of us win. I’ve never won.”

   “How horrific.”

   “It gets pretty aggressive,” Enid adds with a toothy smile where fangs nearly pierce her lips. Wednesday finally turns her way, and it’s the first time Enid hasn’t felt absolute dread over her roommate. “You’d like the bloodbath probably. Cause you know, you’re a weirdo.”

   “All I’ve seen is a mockery of what vicious creatures you should be. When the moon rises, do you prance around and sniff the flowers? Or use your teeth to rip the throat out of a more measly animal?”

   Enid swallows, suddenly feeling very queasy and wondering why she came over here. “I-I haven’t. Shifted. Wolfed out.” Her face begins to feel hot, the flush runs all the way up to her ears and she hates it. “But— I-I don’t think they do that. I think they just run around and wrestle. Sometimes they come back with scratches, but nothing major.”

   Wednesday huffs, writes something down with the shake of her head. Enid watches, tries to read the paper but her cursive is too loopy and smushed for Enid to read. As pretty as the writing is. 

~

   Someone went missing in the woods. It’s the third student to be “lost” sending their principal into a rather not so nice spiral. Enid thinks the woman was going mad. Three students, all listed as runaways. 

   Wednesday didn’t believe it. Enid knows because the girl set up a board in their room with red strings attached to pictures. She even had little post-it notes with ideas and theories. Enid couldn’t help but watch, even if the idea of kids actually going missing terrified her. 

   “Where do you think they went?” Enid asks one night. She’s curled up on the floor, nearly on Wednesday's side of the room looking up at the expansive research Wednesday had done. 

  “They’re dead by now. The first 48 hours are vital to a missing persons case.”

   Enid swallowed roughly. She squeezed her stuffed animal Emerett gave her tighter to her chest. Wednesday didn’t seem as deteried as Enid did. She was fascinating, the weirdo she was. Enid wanted to barf just thinking about it. The woods aren't safe. 

   “But-But no bodies have been found. That’s good right?”

   “Cannibalism isn’t as fair and far between as you might think. There are cookbooks, how to—“

   Enid's vision goes black. She wakes up two hours later with her head on top of a pillow. Wednesday was nowhere to be found, but the stupid disappearance board stared right in her face. 

   Enid did not sleep well that month. Or year. 

~

   Enid wandered down into Ophelia Hall's common room late one evening. It was a Friday, thank god. But she still would love to be sleeping. But Wednesday was in one of her investigation fixations. Enid couldn’t sleep with the noise, or her murmuring. 

   She thought about bugging Yoko, but knew the older vampire wouldn’t like being woken up. Even if she was kind to Enid there were limits. The same with her brothers. Enid didn’t even know how to get to where any of them were. She barely remembered how to get to Ophelia Hall half the time. 

   She curled up in a chair, pulling her blanket tighter around her with slowly blinking eyes. She shivered, feeling as if the paintings on the wall were watching her. Of course they weren’t. Enid was a big girl, she knew that wasn’t possible unless that weird kid Xavier was around. Enid really didn’t like him. 

   She must have slowly nodded off because the next time Enid woke up she shot up, startled, a hand shook her shoulder and suddenly Enid's heart was beating a mile a minute fearing she is the next victim. Even if she isn’t in the woods. 

   But no, Miss Thornhill pears down at her through her glasses, a surprised yet deeply concerned look on her face. “Take a deep breath, Enid. What’s wrong? Why aren’t you in bed?”

   Enid does as she’s told. Not even noticing her glass that pierced holes in her facile blanket. Miss Thornhill waited patiently, giving Enid all the time she could need. Her brain moved sluggishly, but quickly remembered what Wednesday had been up too. 

   “Wednesdays being creepy,” Enid murmured. She yawned, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “I couldn’t take it. My ears are too sensitive so I heard all her whispers about the creepy woods and-and I'm really sorry.”

   “Oh, dear. It’s okay. Hey, why don’t you come back to my room, and I can get some comfort hot chocolate going?” 

  “You have got chocolate?” Enid asks, her attention immediately swayed. 

   Miss Thornhill chuckled. “I do, come on, sweetheart.” She helps Enid not trip as she stands and Enid can’t find room to complain. 

   She never thought about where the teachers sleep, but Miss Thornhill quickly leads her to a room not far from the common area in it’s on little hallway. The door looks like the rest of them, but the inside of the room is much more. 

   It had a kitchen, a bit small but tucked away to the right as soon as you enter. To the left there was a couch and a chair along with a desk pushed rather haphazardly against the back of the couch. Then, at the back of the room was the bed. It didn’t look like Miss Thornhill had slept in it yet. 

   Not to Enid's surprise, plants were everywhere. She couldn’t help but wander up to the ones hanging by ropes from the ceiling. The pots are decorated with paint of every color of the rainbow. It was pretty, Enid smiled to herself thinking it was even something she would like. She didn’t know a lot about plants, but the wolf in her always felt at home with them. 

   “It shouldn’t take me long. Why don’t you sit down?” Enid nods, sending a glass to her dorm mom who was already getting the drinks ready. 

   She listened, as to not push her luck. Her blanket dragged along the floor as she settled into the corner of the couch, pressed against the arm with her blanket wrapped tighter around her. Miss Thornhill was always nice, but Enid knew the rules. She shouldn’t have been out of her room, let alone so late. 

   She chewed on her lip, everything Wednesday had been talking about powering right back up. She didn’t want to think about it. But those girls were gone. They weren’t lost. Wednesday was right, they hadn’t come back and Enid knew deep down they probably wouldn’t. She wanted to hope. But all the other kids, the older ones who were even friends with the three girls didn’t have any. 

   Enid doesn’t know how long she stayed in that thought, because quickly Thornhill was handing her a mug. The handle was a steam and it had a flower blooming out the side. Enid gratefully took it, heeding Miss Thornhill warning to gently blow on the steaming cup. 

   “Do you think you could tell me what happened? You’re not one to break the rules, Enid.”

   Enid nearly whined, because she wasn’t. And because she really, really, didn’t want to. She took a sip, the liquid hot on her tongue. “Don’t be mad at Wednesday, please? She just wants to figure it out.”

   “Figure what out?”

   “Where those girls went,” Enid whispers. She stares into her mug, taking a stuttering breath. Her thoughts were way too scattered, way too dreary for her liking. “The woods are supposed to be safe. But they aren't . And-And Wednesday says that after forty-eight hours they’re probably dead. But it’s been a really, really long time. So they’re dead. Or eaten. Wednesday thinks somebody ate them!” 

   “Woah, woah, okay.” Miss Thornhill rushes to set her mug down, scooting across the middle sets to gently take Enid's hands.

   Enid bites her lip, wincing from a fang that she didn’t notice pop out. She squeezed the woman’s hands, trying to take deep breaths but everything was just way too big. “I-I don’t want them to have been eaten!” Enid cries, and suddenly she’s crying into the woman’s shoulder, her mug no longer in her grasp. 

   “They weren’t,” Miss Thornhill shushes. 

   “But you don’t know that!” Miss Thornhill holds her tighter. Runs circles into her back to sooth her sobbing. Enid clings to her shirt, squeezes her eyes shut with each rasping breath. 

   “The police have scoured the woods many times. Isla, Clarke, and Emery were friends. Friends who didn’t like being here very much.”

   “But-But,” Enid stumbled, trying to gain her functions back. Trying to quell the tightness in her chest. “They left so far apart. Wednesday thinks—“

   “Wednesday is not an adult, sweetheart. She doesn’t have all the information.”

   Enid takes a minute. Slowly calming down, and slowly sinking closer to the woman. An embarrassment floods her that she tries so hard to ignore because at some point she has to pull away. Her mother would have already pushed Enid away for making such a mess. 

   “I’m sorry.”

   “There’s nothing to be sorry for. The woods are safe. You’re safe.”

   “They weren’t eaten?” Enid sheepishly asks. 

   Miss Thornhill shakes her head, fingers gently running through the end of Enids hair before coming to rest on her back. “No, they were not eaten. Just a group of friends with an elaborate plan to run away.”

   Enid chews her lip. Miss Thornhill would know more. She was an adult. And as smart as Wednesday seemed, she was the creepiest thing here. She probably wanted something bad to have happened to the girls just so she could stumble right on it. 

   Enid sighs, cried out. Her eyes felt so heavy but she still really wanted her hot choclate. “Can I still have my drink? Even though I cried all over you?”

   Miss Thornhill laughs, pulls away and reaches for the mug she safely set aside. Enid takes it carefully, taking a much needed sip of the Cho lately goodness. 

   “Now,” Miss Thornhill begins. She wipes Enid's tears away, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Why don’t you get some much needed rest? I’m on night duty tonight, so I have to head back out but you are more than welcome to sleep in my bed till you feel better. I can have a talk with Wednesday—“

   “No!” Enid jumps to say. Wincing at her own harshness. She looks down, shaking her hair back out to hide her face. “I don’t want her to get in trouble. It’s not her fault.”

   “She won’t be. From what it sounds like this must be bothering Wednesday as well. Some information needs to be cleared.”

   “You promise?” Enid dares to look up, the woman looks serious, but still that same soft smile on her face. 

   “Of course, I promise. 

~

   The case of the missing girls was left unanswered in Wednesdays book. She didn’t get in trouble just like Miss Thornhill had promised but they had a very deep conversation about the situation. Wednesday was upset with her, said it in her own threatening way. Enid had a stomach! She just couldn’t keep thinking about someone’s leg being eaten!

   Enid survived, the missing persons investigation board was gone. She could sleep peacefully. As peaceful as one could have. She still had nightmares, sometimes. But those went away after the investigation had died down. Enid slowly but surely forgot about the girls. She hopes Wednesday did too, for her sake. And her own sanity, Enid can only imagine how much more the dark girl could take before she snapped. 

   Enid did not want to know what Wednesday Addams snapping looked like. 

   Apparently Enid would soon find out. 

  The day hadn’t been anything interesting. Enid ate lunch outside, surrendered by her friends talking about the newest music and huddling around Yokos phone as it blasted the latest song that had just dropped. She happily went back to her dorm room with nothing wrong. 

   Then Wednesday stumbled through the balcony window with her arms filled. Enid jumped, claws already out as the disheveled girl walked quickly to her desk spreading everything out. Enid knew, deep down, she did not want to know. 

   “What’s that?” Enid carefully stood from her desk, homework abandoned. It was for Miss Thornshills class so she knew if she didn’t finish it it would be okay. 

   “Nothing.” It was short, curt. Wednesday ignored her, focusing solely on reading whatever wa sin front of her. Enids gut told her otherwise. 

   “Wednesday.”

   “You don’t want to know, Enid .”

   Enid grounded her jaw. She stepped across the line separating their room. “Well, you brought it into our room. Where did you just come from? God, you smell like cheap coffee and sweat.” Enid wiped her nose, hoping to erase the scent with her own sleeve. 

   “It’ll wash out.” Wednesday suddenly stood up straight, clenching a paper between her fingers. She roughly turned, eyes Enid up and down. “I will be heading to Principal Weems office. It will do you best to stay away.” Her eyes were narrowed, Enid felt the knife slice her soul. 

   “Whatever.”

   Wednesday gave a curt nod, and rushed rather quickly from the room with the same paper still between her fingers. 

   Enid grew up with nine brothers. If she’s learned one thing it’s that nothing is private and she is a hound for every secret she can get her grimy little hands on. They did it too, so it was only fair. And she knows for a fact Wednesday has snooped around her room five times since starting here. She can smell her scent lingering stronger every time she does it.  

   Though, Enid thinks. This was Wednesday , whatever was on that desk was everything Enid probably did not want to see. She could have the transcript for hell for all Enid knew. 

   Enid growled, and marched over. She was twelve now. She had a backbone, and she for sure had a stomach!

   Enid, in fact, did not. 

   The moment her eyes landed on the files and began to shift through them it ate up her throat. Acid, bile thick as her chicken nuggets forcing their way back up and right onto the dark wooden floor. 

   The missing girls didn’t run away. 

Chapter Text

   The case on Emery, Isla, and Clarke had ended just two months shy of summer break. An animal attack, that’s what they said. Wednesday didn’t believe them. Enid wanted to believe them. She believed Miss Thornhill, but maybe Miss Thornhill didn’t have all the information. She was just a teacher, after all. 

   Enid kept thinking that as reassurance. Wednesday's eyes danced with something depraved. Danced with the dead that now felt like they haunted the woods where their bodies were found all together. They were a few miles from Nevermore, only found because a hiker had wandered a few minutes off the main trail. 

   Enid wasn’t going to be like Wednesday. Creepy, and believing that the worst had to have happened. Bears lived in the woods. She’s never seen one up close but she seen pictures and statues enough to know what they could do to a human. Even if that human was an outcast. 

    Overall, if you didn’t think about the investigation, and Wednesday, Nevermore wasn’t that bad. She actually made friends, a lot of them. And their dorm mom miss Thornhill wasn’t mean or strict at all. Enid thinks she actually was one of the best to have. They still had rules, but she gave them a lot more wiggle room than most teachers. Maybe because she was a normie, but Enid didn’t care.

   Seventh grade was going to be her year. A new year meant no more Wednesday Addams. And no more Wednesday Addams meant she could actually be happy and alive in her own space and not wanting to rip a girl's throat out. Or wanting to claw her own brain to pieces. No more crying in her teacher's lap! No more sulking! Her family would be proud of her for that thought.

   Even with her excitement she was still nervous, and for good reason. Last year she had Ollie to ask any questions she had. Or to even stick up for her because of bullies that just wouldn’t leave her alone. Of course he wasn’t there for her nightmares, but Enid had grown she’s to dealing with those alone while at home. Ollie graduated and was off to college for something Enid couldn’t remember. It was good for him, she was proud of him. 

   This year Everett was the one to hold her hand. But it felt more like she was holding him to calm him down. Worried blue eyes took in the exterior, all the other kids happily linking back up with friends they hadn’t seen since last year. she knows last year was rough on the both of them. Enid was still way too scared to step into the woods even if it was a bear. She hadn’t wolfed out yet, she doesn’t think she could take a bear like this. 

   But that wasn’t the point! Nevermore didn’t have any bears. It just had students. Some mean, and some unusually cruel. But they were just kids with problems the same as themselves. 

   “It’ll be fine,” Enid reassured. “We’ll both get great roommates. Nobody will mess with us and if they do we got each other.”

   Everett clung tighter. “Nothing gets better here,” he mumbled. 

   “Everett--” He lets go, doesn’t give her another look before he’s trudging across the quad and towards whatever dormitory he got this year.

   Enid knows it’s for the best. She hopes that for his sake he is given someone nice, he deserves it. He struggled just like her. Of course Enid still had some leeway, but Everett should have turned by now. She should have too, she knows girls shift a little later though so it’s okay. But boys on the other hand, like all her brothers shift early. 

   She shakes the thought, she has to and begins to walk towards Ophelia hall. Enid had requested to be back in her old room. Wednesday was the worst, but the room was big and far enough away when nobody was around it gave her a blanket of comfort she needed. Miss Thornhill was also one of the factors, of course.

   But the second Enid entered her room she realized what a mistake her request was. Because not only was all of Wednesday's stuff already here, but the pigtailed girl in question was typing away at that annoying loud typewriter.

   Oh, Enid doesn’t know what she did to offend the moon goddess, but she was going to offer her soul up for forgiveness. 

   Wednesday doesn’t pay her any mind. Enid doesn’t say a word either. She stews in ehr head, unpacks all her things. This year she has less stuffed animals, her mother had said Enid was growing old and didn’t need them all. But it made everything feel empty. Her bedding was green, like the forest. To remind her where she belonged. Enid didn’t like it, but threw it over her bed anyway.

   Posters, and stringing lights up later, it was nearing dinner time. Enid faintly tuned back into the typing that hasn't stopped. She didn’t realize how easy it was to tune it out. She hates that. Enid wants to be annoyed again, she is.

   “Hasn’t it been an hour?” Enid huffs. 

   Wednesday stops. There’s a few keys she presses slowly till there's a ding and she slides the typewriter back to the start. Enid glares at the back of her head, finally meeting void like eyes as the dark clouded princess turns around.

   “Unlike some people I can write for longer than an hour. Has your grammar improved? Or is it still that increasingly demeaning brainrot?”

   “It’s not brain rot! And-And a lot of people like my blog! I have five hundred followers! What about you, huh? I’m sure you haven’t gotten published yet,” Enid spits out.

   Suddenly a knife wizzes past her head. Enid gasps, following it right into her stuffed snorlax that rested right besides her bed. “How dare you!” Enid spun with extending claws. 

   “That was a warning shot.”

   “God, have you ever considered not being a killer?”

  Wednesday smirks, stands from her chair with practiced perfection. Enid stands taller, and realsies with a rush of endorphins that this year she actually is a little taller than Wednesday. “Why would I do that? At least I’d be a competent one. Father and Mother would be proud.”

   “Not when you’re behind bars for being stupid enough to get caught.”

   “Sinclair, I could string you up on the flag pole, and not a whiff would be sent in my direction. Well, that is even if your pathetic family remembers your existence. Can they count? Or are they just as numbskulled as the mutt in front of me?”

   “You--” Enid growls, raising a clawed hand as the door swings wide open.

   “Girls!” Miss Thornhill greats in her cheery tone. Wednesday and enid both stand at attention, hands behind her back. Enid forces a smile, claws digging into her palms to help simmer down the rage rumbling in her chest. “Oh, it’s so good to have you both back. I got you a dorm present.” 

   Miss Thornhill holds a potted plant, something Enid can’t recognize but it looks pretty. She carefully took the pot from the older woman hoping her smile showed her appreciation. “Thank you, Miss Thornhill.”

   “I hope you girls are ready for a spectacular year! Enid, don’t forget if you want to sign up for anything you have to do it before the end of the week. Wednesday, I talked to the fencing coach and he assured me as long as you play fair this year you can be on the team again.”

   “Thank you! I won’t forget! I really do appreciate you helping me last year.” Enid blushes. She still felt embarrassed every time she remembered crying in the woman’s arms but she never seemed to care. 

   “Of course, sweetheart, that’s why I am here.” Thornhill smiles at them both, sends a hopeful but weary look at a simmering Wednesday before leaving with a gentle goodbye.

   “Can’t you at least say thank you?” Enid huffs, spinning to go put the pot near their large window. “After last year you should be groveling at her feet. Especially for getting you a spot on the team.”

   “I will not be participating this year.”

   “Oh, why? You scared Bianca is gonna kick your ass again?”

   “Bianca Barclay is the least of my worries. That team is a pathetic fragment of what fencing should be.”

   Enid scoffs. Great, she was going to have to deal with this all year. Again . 

~

   Enids blog grew. She social butterflied her way into every friend circle she could. It got easier for her. Jumping all around and pulling gossip with sweet words and kind eyes. Her smile was real, big and bright as she learned everything she could. 

   Enid's Nevermore Gossip page was booming. She was up to a thousand followers, with comments on every post. Every time she posted something she swore her heart grew three sizes. It felt exhilarating, to have so many people look towards her for what was going on at the Academy. 

   Of course, some kids, the older kids really didn’t like this. Enid hadn’t been at Nevermore long and here she was spreading everyone’s business on the internet like it was nothing. 

   Of course it wasn’t anything harmful. Even Yoko reassured her that. Just who was dating who, break ups, what people thought of the Poe cup race and the winners. Little things, Enid didn’t want to hurt people. 

   But it turns out people really wanted to hurt other people. She had a way for people to submit her information, if they so chose to, and Enid would spend countless hours not doing homework gasping about who cheated on who and all the nasty things people said about one another. 

   To give herself some credit, she had only just turned thirteen. What were these people even thinking? 

   Enid's not sure. But it comes to a height when a ninth grader corners her. The quad was busy as always, Enid was just trying to make it to class on time when suddenly a fist grabbed her arm and she was shoved against a wall. 

   “Who do you think you are!” The  girl frowned, scales flickered on her neck in the sickly bright sun. 

   Enid gasped, air barely filling her lungs. “Enid?” She stutters confused. 

   “You think you’re funny?” All too suddenly Enid watched in horror as the girl tears her amulet off. She grins, it’s horrific and full of teeth. Her words are sweet like honey when they meet Enid's ears. “Punch yourself.”

   Enid doesn’t want to. But against her will her hand comes up and her fist slams right into her face. Jeez, who knew she could hit so hard. The worst part, people are crowding around them. They’re laughing, Enid holds back a sob she knows will be the death of her. 

   “Again.” The command makes her feel sick, the pain blossoms through her cheek like an electric shock. 

   “Stop!” Enid shouts. “I’m sorry—“

   “You don’t even know what you’re sorry for,” the girl says with seething rage. Something sparkles behind her blue eyes. “Claw your face.”

   Murmurs behind them get louder. People gasp. Enid's ears buzz, her mouth drops open in shocked horror. She can’t stop. She can’t—

   The girl's body seizes in pain. Her eyes go large, a knife is pressed against her throat. “Stop her.” Enid would recognize that voice, that tone anywhere. “Or I’ll carve the scales from your flesh.”

   “ S-Stop ,” her words fearfully tremble out. Enids claws barely dug into her cheek before she can gasp and have full movement of her arm again. 

   Her eyes connect with Wednesdays, the girl is short, can barely see over the shoulder of the girl she has a knife pressing into. Wednesday pulls the girl away, in a flawless movement she has the girls arm ending up her back, pressing her into the pavement. 

   “I stopped! I stopped!” The girl cries out. Enid doesn’t make a single move. 

   Wednesday leans down, she whispers something. Something nobody should hear but of course this was a school for the supernatural so those with advanced hearing all perked up and everyone winced all at once. Grimacing, turning to puke into the grass or run away. 

   But Enid for the first time since she met Wednesday felt nothing but relief, and awe. In awe at the horrific protection the girl gave her. And why? Why did she? Wednesday didn’t care, she was a bitch. She insulted Enid at what felt like every turn.

   All too suddenly the principal arrived and the show was over. 

~

   Enid loved Miss Thornhills class. However, today was not the day. She could practically feel the woman’s disappointment in her in waves. Enid squirmed in her chair, not saying a single word the entire lesson. She was so grateful when class was over till Miss Thornhill asked her to stay. 

   She stacked her books, played with her pencil as all the students trickled out. Her throat felt tighter, the room grew silent and the greenhouse door shut. 

   “I know your brothers can rough house but I expected different from you, Enid. What’s going on?” Miss Thornhill slowly made her way towards Enids desk. Her shoes piercing Enids ears with each thoughtful step. 

   “I-I’m not like that,” Enid murmured. 

   “I can’t hear you, sweetheart. You have to speak up.”

   “I’m not like them,” Enid repeated. “I… this girl started it.” Miss Thornhill chuckled. Enid ha sno clue why because she didn’t find any of this funny. Her face still hurt. 

   Almost as if the woman could hear her, gentle fingers guided her chin up. Miss Thornhilld lips pierced as she took in the sight of Enid's bruised cheek. “You aren’t healing.”

   “I haven't, um, wolfed out yet. So I don’t heal fast.” Miss Thornhill nods slowly. Enids staring into her shoulder because she still can’t dare herself to look at the woman’s face. 

  “Why don’t I make you something for that bruise, and you tell me what happened?”

   “Okay,” Enid relents. Miss Thornhill gives a happy hum, pulling away to wander off towards her desk. Enid watches her shift through plants and bowls before gathering ingredients. 

   “I’m not hearing any talking.”

   “I-I have a blog,” Enid blurts out. It’s the last thing she wants a teacher to know, especially Miss Thornhill. “I made so many friends this year because of it. Everyone loves me and-and I like that. I must have said something about her.”

   “So… what are you saying on this blog?”

   Enid wishes the silence would kill her. “I don’t know.” Enid does know. She shifts in her seat, pulls her sleeves down into her hands. “I don’t hurt people. I try not to but people like hearing gossip. They come to me now.”

   “Well, anything can hurt somebody,” Miss Thornhill says. “You could also be saying incorrect information. Information people don’t want out there. They could feel embarrassed. You could be pouring salt into an open wound.”

   “But— People love me for it.”

   There’s silence. Miss Thornhill stops mixing plants together and Enid hates all too suddenly how the teacher is right back at her desk. Enid feels like she has to defend herself. Because she’s about to get into even more trouble than Principal Weems already gave her. 

   “I have so many friends. Everyone talks to me. And-And they all know my name! Kids who are older than me know my name! They don’t bully me, or anything.”

   “Did they bully you last year?” Miss Thornhill asks gently. 

   Enid pulls her sleeves tighter. “Just teasing. I haven't… wolfed out yet, you know. And I’m too, like, weird. I don’t know. My mom thinks I’m too childish.”

   “You are a child,” Miss Thornhill says. She sits down right next to Enid. Scooting the chair a fraction closer as she does. Enid thinks if she stared long enough the desk will eat her entirely. “It’s perfectly normal to be childish.”

   “She doesn’t think so. She made me change my bedding . It’s green now. I don’t even really like green. Maybe if it had blue with it, or something.”

   “I’m sorry, sweetheart. That is very upsetting. What kind of bedding do you want?”

   Enid mulls it over, chewing down on her tongue to stop herself but she can only do that for so long. “I want my old one. With all the colors. It had fun shapes and fun colors and wasn’t boring stupid forest green.”

   “Can I make a deal with you, Enid?” Enid tentatively looks up to meet open eyes. “I can buy you whatever bedding you want if you promise me to be more careful about what you post. People have feelings, just like you do, and just like I do.”

   “Okay.”

   “And you’re going to apologize to that girl.”

   “But—“

   “No buts. She did something wrong but you hurt her first. It’s only fair that you also apologize to her. Do we have a deal?”

   Enid wants to  argue. But Miss Thornhill looked so hopeful and Enid really didn’t want to disappoint her favorite teacher. She swears she doesn’t agree just for the bedding. “Okay, I will.”

   “Good girl. Now just give me a few minutes and I’ll have something for that bruise.” 

~

   Enid's new bedding was even better than her last. She tore the green one up with her claws and stuffed it in the dumpster with Moss Thornhill help leaving it to rot away like it rightfully should. She did apologize to Jessica and took down the post about her boyfriend cheating on her, even though they had only been dating for a week. 

   Neither Wednesday or Enid said a word to each other about the incident but Enid bought a dagger from that weird store in town and left it on Wednesdays desk. She saw it while out with Miss Thornhill and just had to sneak inside to grab it as a thank you. 

   After that, if anyone had a problem with Enid's blog they went about it with much kinder actions. Sure, some were still messy, but nobody dared physically hurt her after what happened the first time someone tried. And, Enid tried her best to stick to her promise. She fact checked. She asked more than one person and made sure she had the truth, and permission on top of it. 

   You would think her brothers would be the one to protect her, but they all thought she could stand up for herself. Besides Everett who was beginning to be a little rain cloud himself. Enid just hopes this year will get better. She hates seeing him so sad. She wishes she could talk to him. She wants to, but Everett didn’t like to talk about his feelings anymore. 

   She hated that him being sad was becoming a new normal. What Enid hated more was the dread she felt when Maeve, a freshman, went missing in the woods. The full moon was the night before. Enid remembers trying to knock on Everett doors but her brother ignored her. 

   She wasn’t a werewolf, why was she in the woods? Where was she going? Did anybody see her? Classes continued as normal as people sweeped the woods around Nevermore. The day drudged on, feeling like walking through tar. 

   Enid found herself watching Wednesday. Whatever class she could, her eyes gravitated to the girl she knew was thinking about the mystery. Wednesday acted normal. Wrote in her notebook from time to time, even still, Enid's heart pounded away in her chest thinking about the dark forest, tall looking trees and shadows to eat you whole. It terrified her. Her family would laugh if they knew. 

   “Where are you going?” It was night now. Classes long over. Enid was wrapped in her new blanket, trying to forget about what the new gossip was. Several people wanted her to blog about it, but that just didn’t seem right. 

   Wednesday pulled her backpack over her shoulder, finishing looping her arms through each straps. There was a flashlight gripped in her hand. “You know where I’m going.”

   Enid shivered. She was right, of course Enid knew. And she imagined little scary Wednesday out in the woods. She’s sure the girl could take her own, but if there was a bear out there, or worse, she doubts a five foot girl could take them. Even with Wednesday's abilities. 

   ”I-I’m coming with you,” she blurted. Wednesday doesn’t show it but she knows they’re both surprised by her words. Even more surprised as Enid stumbles out of bed, putting on her sneakers and grabbing whatever she thinks is necessary. 

   “I can handle this myself.”

   “Yeah, well,” Enid lifts her chin, puffing her cheeks out with not a good enough argument on her tongue, “I don’t care. Two is better than one. And-And the woods are scary!” 

   Wednesday looks even more disturbed than before. But she doesn’t say anything. Enid takes the silence as a win, as much of a win as it can be and follows her quietly out of their room. 

~

   Enid was right to be scared of the woods. 

   The trees felt like they could grab you at any moment. She could see in the dark, but the shadows turned into demons, ready to pounce. She nearly squeaked at every turn before her eyes adjusted and Wednesday swiveled the flashlight over just to be safe. Everything made a sound. Animals, the trees, the ground. Enid swears the grass was whispering. 

   She’s not even sure what they’re really looking for. But Wednesday seems to know where she’s going. Or maybe Enid just hopes so badly that she does. 

   They spend at least an hour out there, trekking for so long Enid's legs begin to ache. “Wednesday?” She whispers, scooting a step closer. “How long are we going to be here?”

   “Till we find something. Or till it finds us.”

   Oh, Enid really did not like that. Her hands twisted together, pulling at her fingers as her claws itched to release when an owl screeched somewhere nearby. 

   “If the grownups searched all day, what makes you think we’ll find something?”

   “Tell me, Enid, what do you think of Maeve’s disappearance?”

   Enid doesn’t know. She kept trying not to think about it. Maeve wasn’t a werewolf, so she shouldn’t have been out in the woods to begin with. Maybe a friend had dared her, or asked her to come. She’s not sure if somebody would want that. Her brothers have never invited another non-werewolf to what must be a bunch of werewolves prancing around the woods. 

   “I believe it’s connected.”

   “Connected to what?”

   “Last year's disappearances.” Wednesday says, coming to a full stop to look up at Enid. Her flashlight lulls to the side, lighting up the trees to their left. “Maeve is the fourth girl to go missing from Nevermore. They want us to forget about the others, sway our attention. There is no bear in these woods.”

   “I-I think there is,” Enid murmurs. She looks around wearily, swearing she sees something shift in the darkness but neither her ears or nose pick anything up. 

   “I don’t mean literally. Of course there are bears but the bear they’ve created is a figment. Those girls weren’t torn to shreds by a beast. That was human precision, human mania. An animalistic urge formed from intellectual depravity.” 

   Enids really, really, not liking this. She remembers the pictures. She can never forget the pictures that were in the files on Wednesdays desk. Wednesday had told her not to look, but of course she had. 

   “There’s going to be a pattern. Isla was the first to go missing last year. She was fourteen. Maeve went missing, she was also fourteen—“

   “That’s a ridiculous theory. What does age have to do with anything?” Enid whined. 

  “ Because there’s always a motive. Killers always have their favorites.”

   “There is no killer! Why would they lie to us? And-And all those girls willingly went into the woods! Why would they do that, huh? Nobody’s stupid enough to blindly follow a killer into the forest.”

   Wednesday doesn’t reply. Enid is about to whine in even more distress when she hears it .

   Something snaps. 

   Both their heads snap towards the direction. Wednesday's flashlight illuminates the area. “Stay behind me,” Wednesday says. Enid nearly squeaks when she sees a dagger begin to poke from her hand. 

   Snap!

   Enid's claws jump out. Her shoulder bumps into Wednesdays, the moment Enid feels the contact she can’t help but to grab ahold of her forearm. She listens, strains her ears to try and find anything in the distance. 

   “Who’s there?” Wednesday calls out. Enid fearfully watches her ready the dagger in her hand. 

   “Maeve?” Enid hopefully asks. Maybe the girl had just gotten lost, and they could bring her back! Everyone would be so happy with them, they would completely overlook the fact the girls were out past curfew. 

   “It’s not her,” Wednesday says. Enid's about to argue when a shadow begins to brighten, a figure stepping into the radius of the flashlight. Enid clings tighter to Wednesdays arm, she hears the girl whisper something under her breath and—

   “ Girls , just what on earth are you two doing out here at this hour? Especially after the woods were made completely off limits.” Miss Thornhill steps fully into the light, hands on her hips with disappointment glaring at them. 

   Enid relaxes, great, they didn’t die, she thinks. But Miss Thornhill looks more annoyed by the second and Wednesday's dagger is somehow gone before the teacher could even catch a glimpse of it. 

   “I’m waiting. Are either of you going to explain?” Their teacher demands. 

   Enid feels the guilt in her throat. Miss Thornhill didn’t deserve this, and Enid had promised she would be good. That totally had to include not sneaking out to wander the woods with Wednesday. 

   “The air is too crisp to not be indulged. Don’t you just love the endorphins a missing person leaves?”

   Oh, god. They were so getting detention for the rest of the year. Enid's head was already hurting. She realized then her hand was still holding onto Wednesday. She gasped, carefully taking a wide step to the side. Miss Thornhills eyes flickered to her, her eyes somehow darkening with even more disappointment. 

   “I’m so sorry, Miss Thornhill,” Enid says. “I-I just— We were worried about Maeve. The first forty eight hours are so important,” Enid continued, thankfully remembering that fact from last year. 

   It thankfully does something. Because suddenly Miss Thornhill looks more solemn than anything. She lets out a deep sigh, takes a few steps closer to them, her own flashlight flickering on. “I know this must be hard for you both, especially considering how hard last year was. But this is something for the adults to handle. And they will handle it.”

   Enid quickly nods, believing her every word. She knew the adults would try their best. However she does wonder if that would be enough. It certainly wasn’t enough last year for Isla, Clarke, or Emery. Enid knows in her heart that Miss Thornhill believes what she’s saying. Even if that means it’s not the fact they’ve all witnessed. 

   “Right. Of course. We just got a little carried away,” Wednesday says. It’s uncharacteristic of her. Enid expects her to fight but she gives up, takes a step back. That’s when Enid can see the clench of her jaw, how hard she was fighting to give into this. 

   “It’s late. Why don’t we all go back, and you girls get cleaned up. But tomorrow we are having a deep conversation about this. Now, I promise I won’t tell Weems, but if this happens again,” her eyes narrowed on Wednesday, “I will be notifying her.”

   “We promise, Miss Thornhill. We didn’t mean to do anything wrong. We just really want Maeve to be okay.”

   “I know sweetheart,” Miss Thornhill says. She gives one last look between the two before starting to usher them back towards the school.

Chapter Text

   The past month Enid and Wednesday had stared at the new board, to Enid's squeamishness, in the center of their shared room. Wednesday made sure not to add the gruesome photos of the dead bodies from the girls last year. Instead, she used yearbook photos, or with Enid's help, pictures she could find online. They printed them out in Nevermores library, hanging on the board.  

   Enid is still unsure what they’re looking for. Wednesday thinks there has to be a motive. Enid still very much wants to believe this wasn’t really happening. Wouldn’t the police think this too, if it were true? They didn’t even suspect Maeve was connected to the girls last year but Wednesday was so determined that there was a pattern nothing swayed her. 

   Enid really didn’t want Wednesday to be right. 

   Then Julie, a senior, went missing two weeks later. So she was on the board now too. A selfie she took not even the day before her disappearance but the day off. She looked happy, smiling wide with fresh curls and makeup done. 

   None of the girls looked alike. None of the girls were in the same classes. And upon Wednesday's further investigation, she informed Enid none of the girls were friends. 

   “But they told us last year Emery, Clarke, and Isla were friends? And they ran away together.” Wednesday had nearly imploded there. Her reaction was dull. A deep sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose because this had to be Enid's hundredth objection to her investigation. 

   “Do your own research if you don’t believe me.”

   So, Enid did. In the only way she knew how. The internet was everything. Enid practically lived on it growing up back home when all her brothers were gone. It felt like a safe place when she wasn’t at school, and to get away from the bigger picture of everything. 

   Their social media’s were a ghost town. A stark reminder to jab their dead bodies into her head faster than a race car. Enid had to take several breaks. She kept looking, kept digging and scrolling through every picture, and video they had. She even looked through their tagged list. Nothing. 

   At least Emery and Clarke ran in the same circles. But Isla was a freshman. The two seniors had maybe a few classes together, went to the rave’n at the same time but their friend groups weren’t rather intertwined. It could be something, but it just wasn’t enough. In this day and age if you were friends with someone they were all over your feed. Or at least in one picture. Even in the background of a measly video Enid would take as evidence. 

   Enid asked around. Started to bring up Maeve and Julie as well. Did they hang out? Who did they hang out with? Did they have any enemies? Wednesday approved of that question because it meant Enid was finally realizing the truth. That the whole big thing was a gigantic mess. 

   “I don’t like the truth,” Enid growled. She carefully hugged her stuffed animal from Everett to her chest. Wednesday had carefully written down Enid's findings even if she already knew as much. “There’s no way two seventh graders are aware of this and the police aren’t.”

   “The police aren’t going to broadcast an investigation. They don’t want the killer to be on edge. They lay in wait, and in the silence hope for a mistake.”

   “So what?” Enid murmurs, tucks her chin a-top her arm. 

   “Another girl is going to go missing, Enid. A senior, just like Julie, and the seniors before her. There has to be evidence somewhere. However if no one can find any they’ll wait, and keep waiting.”

   “But,” Enid squints, not liking the sound of more weeks passing and another girl going missing, “that doesn’t help.”

   “No, not particularly. However it gives us an edge to be tactful.” Enids not sure what Wednesday even means by that. She’s between feeling nauseous at the word us and a small butterfly flapping around her stomach. “They have something in common. They all walked into those woods for a reason.”

   “Not ‘cause of the full moon, that’s for sure.” Enid chews her lip. It’s silent, they’re both staring at the board. Enids hoping something falls into their lap and this can end. She really just wants to listen to music and watch those shitty reality shows her mom never lets her watch. 

   “Enid, are there any parties happening as of late?” 

   “Of course there are. I get a flood of submissions before and after each one. Oh! This kid named John, he really wants to ask out this faceless girl, right? But apparently he hasn’t because he’s not sure how to kiss her! Can you believe that?”

   “Are there any senior parties happening soon?” Wednesday asks. 

   “Well, I mean, I’m sure there is. But you don’t— I mean, Wednesday we’re not seniors,” Enid hesitantly says. “We’re like, so, not ready for that. And like— I don’t want to embarrass myself. Some of the older kids are really mean and—“

   “If you don’t wish to attend, I can go alone.”

   “What! No, of course not. And either way you don’t have the information! I am the information holder. I have everything, you have to get through me.” 

   A knife wizzes past Enid's head and marks itself right into her bed frame. She gasps, turning to Wednesday with wide glaring eyes. “Hey, careful! I just got that comforter, I don’t need holes in it!”

   “Do you want another girl to go missing?” Wednesday asks, stalking forward with her chin tilted high. Enid swallows, the shadows really backed her up, as if they were flanking her. “I don’t want to go to some cesspool of a procreation tank but I will if it means we are a step closer to finding our killer and their motives.” 

   “ Fine .”

~

   Enid would never admit this out loud because it’s embarrassing but she’s never been to a party before. Of course her brothers have had birthday parties, and her parents tried to throw a couple for her but they always ended up sour. Away from family Enid had never gone anywhere. Had never found herself dancing to songs with a bunch of people squished together, or singing at the top of their lungs. At least that’s how the movies showed it. 

   Enid knew before going that she didn’t want to do this. She knew when she found out the party was in the forest, she was going to run for the hills and just never look back. But she felt guilty. And Wednesday was so… Wednesday. Just like last time she couldn’t find it in herself to let the small girl walk into the woods. Even if Wednesday felt like a fox in sheep’s clothing. 

   This party however was nothing like the movies. Maybe the older ones Enid wasn’t allowed to watch. Wednesday stood stock still next to her. There was a bonfire in the middle of mingling teens. Music pumped from all around them, carefully planted speakers. A section away from the fire had been cornered off, to keep those dancing safe. If you could even call whatever that was dancing. 

   Enid felt small. Like a tad pool that had been thrown into the whole ocean. She swallows, wishes for a drink but knows for a fact those bottles aren’t something she should touch. Especially not here, and especially not in the woods. 

   “Talking to friends of the victims will give us a better idea of what they had in common. I can sleuth around and try to find enemies. Anyone who looks too nefarious. Teens like to whisper, don’t they? Use those ears for something good, and eavesdrop on everyone.”

   “Right, right,” Enid mumbled. She can’t help but shift, taking the edge of Wednesday's sweater and holding it as her anchor. 

   She wishes Wednesday stalled a second longer. Then maybe she could have planned a good enough excuse to drag them both out. 

~

   Enid should have known better. A senior party meant her brothers, and her brothers meant trying to hide from them. Liam and El were playing a game of beer pong. Enid's nose wrinkled the second she saw the twins. They were fighting against each other, of course. A crowd of people around them cheered them on and when one of them won they would howl up into the cool air. She just had to stay away from the beer pong table. No need to persuade her. 

   It was harder than she thought to stay undercover because people knew her. Most importantly Wednesday stuck out like a sore thumb, and Enid clung to her like she was glued to her. Wednesday didn’t force Enid off. She could tell though that the girl was getting annoyed her plan wasn’t fully on track. 

   Maybe Enid should have stayed in their room.

   But no, no, she could not think like that. Not when Wednesday disappeared so easily in this crowd of mostly seniors. Enid barely kept a hold of her scent through the gross smells of beer, sweaty kids who really needed a shower and some hellish perfume and colognes.

   Enid recognized a few people, but when she finally found the main person they needed it took her a second. She didn’t want to admit it to Wednesday because the girl looked depressed. Her eyes bore into a cup, her back leaned against a tree with nobody around her. Enid knows if she lost Yoko, or anyone else she cared for she wouldn’t know what to do with herself. She takes a deep breath. Finds Wednesday not far, threatening some boy who looked very confused.

   “I’m sorry,” Enid says, as a gentle greeting not to scare her. 

   The older girl startles, her glassy eyes locking with Enids a fraction too late. Her nose crinkles, eyebrows furrowed, “aren’t you— like ten?”

   “I’m thirteen,” Enid corrects, tilts her chin up. 

   “Okay, right. Who invited you here? Because I’ll definitely kick their ass.”

   “Nobody did. I-I,” Enid stops. Because she doesn’t know what she was doing here. What she was meant to ask. It’s like everything Wednesday told her left the moment Enid actually had to do it. It didn’t seem right. This girl was sad. Her friend just went missing and was probably dead by now if Wednesday was right. 

   “ Oh , you’re the Sinclair girl. So what, you want some real drama now?”

   “What— No, no I don't want anything. I just— Look, Wednesday doesn’t think these girls are running away.” Enid looks away, can’t find Wednesday in the crowd anymore. Her heart nervously stutters. “I don’t wanna believe her. I didn’t. I don't. Maybe I do.”

   “Julie didn’t run away. She had plans.” The girls eyes darken, and in the glint of the firelight Enid can see claws pierce her plastic cup right before it bursts down her fingers. She throws it into the grass, shaking her hand off and rubbing the liquid on her pants. “We had plans. Get out of this fuck— shitty- hell with it. Fuck ass town and find ourselves a place where we weren’t treated as shit for existing. She wanted to be a vet. Got accepted into a college too. So she didn’t—“

   Enid takes her hand. Even though it’s sticky and smells of whatever alcohol was in her cup. The older girl hiccups, trying to calm her racketing heart. It wasn’t fair. This girl didn’t deserve this. Enid couldn’t wrap her head around why someone would want to cause this pain. “I believe you,” Enid says. 

   And she does. Looking into this girl's eyes, seeing the way she’s crumbling and has nobody to catch her. It does it for Enid. She doesn’t want there to be a killer in the woods, she wants the bear. She prays for the bear. But three happened last year, and this year they were on the way to making another set. 

   “Jericho police don’t care ,” the girl seethed. “We’re outcasts, why would they? Not like they did last year with all that bullshit. The petitions, and the search parties didn’t do crap because they ran-away. But I know Julie, and she wouldn’t have left— Left me.”

   Enid hugs her. She can’t help it. Maybe she does it to hide her own cry. To hide the suffocating tightness that forms in her chest. The girl almost instantly hugs her back and breaks down in her arms. Enid cries a little too, opens her eyes enough to peer into the darkness behind her shoulder. The trees sway, the branches whisper with things Enid can’t understand, the leaves taunt with dances falling to the ground. The grass laughs. 

   “You shouldn’t be here, kid.” She pulls away, wipes her own face before gently wiping Enid's. It’s such a gentle gesture. Something Ollie has done about a thousand times when Mom gets a little too much and Enid can’t hold it all inside. “What are you doing here? For real?”

   “Getting the truth.”

   She chuckles, lets go of Enid, who easily takes a step back to give the girl room. She runs a rushed hand through her wavy hair, looking around the loud chaos surrounding them. “I appreciate the effort. Whatever this is, but she— she’s gone.”

   Enid is forced to just watch her leave. She has to stop her, almost does when she chooses to walk deeper in the forest but a hand latches around her wrist. “Let her go,” Wednesday says. “She won’t be of any use.”

   Enid clenched her jaw. She listens, for the girls sake, not Wednesdays. The party is still raving, Wednesday's grip is cold on her heated skin. “What’s the point? I don’t feel like we can do anything. We didn’t learn anything new. She’s upset. More upset than before.”

   “We’ve barely started. You didn’t have to follow me tonight.”

   “Of course I did!” Enid shouts, spinning around. Her eyes feel wild as Wednesday takes a careful step backwards. “Kids are mean and-and there is something out there! I don’t need you coming back hurt. Whether it’s scraped knees or just-- Just not coming back at all.” Enid gestures wildly to the trees. There’s something erratic in her chest, her eyes simmer with heat, tears rushing fast down red cheeks. 

   “There always is something in the woods.” Wednesday steps forward, two steps till she’s closer than Enid ever expected her to willingly get. “And I will find them. The beast that lay in human skin, will be vanquished by the only incompetent person in this town. But there will always be something in the woods. You have to make due with that, otherwise you aren’t going to last.”

   Enid breaths, it’s deep. Her throat fights the action. She wants to rub her tears away but can’t find it in her to shake Wednesdays hand from her wrist. She knows Wednesday hates touch. It was the easiest thing to learn about her. But Enid is aching, maybe selfish. Her mom said that sometimes.

   “Can I hold your hand?” Her lip wobbles with each syllable. “Just till we’re back?”

   Wednesday doesn’t react for what feels like the longest second of her life till a deathly cold hand is lacing with Enid's fingers. Enid’s chest loosens, she squeezes back, tearing her gaze away. “I think we’ve gotten what we can hear.”

  Enid doesn’t argue. They leave the party in pure silence.

~ 

   The Nevermore library had a ton of books. Everything a young outcast would need. But right now Wednesday and Enid needed something else. The Jericho library was the saddest building Enid had ever seen. She gripped the straps of her backpack tighter, tilting her head all the way up to see the four floors of a building that looked to be on its last legs. 

   Because they were only in middle school, they didn’t have permission to go on the shuttles and wander Jericho alone. Instead, they had to make requests and wait for a trip to be had. Thankfully, the moment a kid asked to be taken to the library the school and teachers were delighted to take a group of students to the building where dreams died.

   They’re ushered up the three steps, through the creaky double doors and to Enid’s surprise the inside doesn’t smell bad. Old books, new books, and ink. Ink being a smell that clung to Wednesday's skin like death. It gave Enid an odd sense of calm she didn’t think too deeply about. 

   The group of middle schoolers dispersed, leaving the two of them alone to gawk at the high ceilings and rows upon rows of bookshelves. Tables were shoved into any open space they could be, with chairs and some beanbags hidden in corners that looked like they were rotting. Their colors were faded, fabric scratched and deflated where they sat. 

   “We don’t have much time left,” Wednesday says. Enid knows this, the school year was rounding to a close in a few months. She was dreading the year ending for more than one reason. 

   Her mom got worse. Holidays meant to be fun, were spent watching and listening to her mother nag Everett about wolfing out. Enid could feel the lingers on her, the sharper tone that was sent her way. The hope in her mothers eyes with each holiday that passed, each full moon that Enid would come calling saying she wolfed out. That Everett would do the same. 

   Spring break meant another holiday at home. Another holiday hearing their mom be upset at them for things Enid couldn’t change. She wishes Wednesday had a phone, but knows if she did Wednesday would never use it to contact Enid. She probably would listen to crime stories. Watch gory and scary movies and read about all the atrocities she could manage in merely a few days. 

   “Enid? Is your hearing impaired?” Enid blinks as fingers snapped rapidly in front of her face. She gives Wednesday a sheepish smile with the shake of her head. 

   “Sorry, just feeling queasy. So, what are we looking for?” The two of them bound deeper into the library with Enid's slight skip and Wednesday carefully placed steps beside her. 

   “Newspapers. Information about where and when exactly the girls disappeared. There’s no similarities in a time frame. It seems random but perhaps we could be missing something because we haven’t looked deep enough.”

   Enid nodded, and spent most of their afternoon bugging the librarian for newspapers and finding books about the forest surrounding Nevermore. Enid still didn’t believe that it had anything to do with the full moon, but Wednesday said they should check everything just to be sure. 

   And, well, it was really boring. Three hours in Enid wanted to pull her hair out. The newspaper smelled, somehow the pages were already yellowed. The farthest back had only been a year, but they still were gross. Enid could only spin in a chair for so long before Wednesday was sending eye daggers at her every minute. 

   “Go be useful and find a book about rituals.” Enid jumped at the opportunity to get up. Her legs had that fuzzy feeling from sitting too long, but shortly after moving that pain withered away and she was skipping to find her task. 

    Rituals. Rituals. 

   The library didn’t really have a rituals area. There were a few boring history books, some books in languages Enid didn’t recognize. But nothing had “rituals with sacrifices!” written across the spine easy for her to grab. She guesses that was good, it meant hurting people and knowing how to hurt people couldn’t be easily in the hands of some bad super villain. 

   “You need help?” Enid jumps, having been too caught up in thinking of a super villain name to hear someone come up next to her. 

   She meets the eyes of a tall boy with ruffled curly brown hair. His demeanor was less than thrilled, eyes casted down with a bored look that didn’t seem to waver upon finding her. There was a name tag sticker on his shirt “volunteer” in bright rainbow colors with his name written in black sharpie roughly underneath. 

   “I don’t think so,” Enid says. 

   Tyler, as his name tag said, looked up at the wall of books she was gazing at. Enid didn’t miss the sneer that began to form on his lips before it was quickly quashed down. “You got a research project or something?”

   “Yes,” Enid quickly says. “I-I do. But I don’t think this place has what I need.”

   “Right.” He looks back at the wall. Reads everything Enid has read and the silence that ticks by makes her squirm. Finally, he reaches up and grabs a book that was a little too high for Enid to grab and hands it over to her. “That might teach you something.”

   Enid looks down at the book he handed her. “Joseph Crackstone: the horror of outcasts” and as soon as she reads it she drops the book. Flinching from the loud sound. Its deep red cover made the man on it stand out more. She’s seen him before, they had a history lesson of the founding of Jericho but the man didn’t sit right in her chest. 

   “What, scared of your history’s sick truth?” He sneers. Enid looks up to find him stepping closer, the book is quickly forgotten on the ground as even with her being tall for her age this boy still towered over her. “What kind of freak are you?”

   “I-I’m not a freak.”

   “I know you came in with that group of Nevermore students. This library has the truth, not some bullshit history your school teaches. Why don’t you write that in your report, how outcasts tortured us.”

   “That’s not—“

   “Read that book!” He growls, he leans down, Enid takes a quick step back till the bookshelf is jabbing into her. His eyes have a fire inside them. “You shouldn’t be here. Why don’t you just keep to your own school. You know, my dads been talking about those missing girls. It’s good, less outcasts means more room for the normal folk to live.”

   “How dare you! They-They’re dead! They’re hurting and-and—“ His fist slams into the shelf. Enid covers her face, claws sharpening out, an instinct she can’t control. 

   “So that’s what you are,” Tyler sneers. Tyler grabs her wrist, pulls it back from her face to stare directly into her eyes and then back at her multicolored claws. “This isn’t normal. You wanna hurt me, don’t you? You have that bloodlust?”

   Enid whines, tugs back but fears she might actually hurt him if she pulls too hard. And then what? Wouldn’t he be right? If she hurts him then he’ll just have more fuel that outcasts are bad, that she is bad. 

   “Please, let me go.”

   His hand squeezed harder, and then it’s gone. He takes a step back, hatred firing behind his eyes. “You freaks killed my mom,” he spits out. Enid's heart shatters in an instant. “I can’t have her. I can’t talk to her. I can’t hug her. All because-because of you .”

   “I—I’m sorry,” Enid says. And she means it. Even if her wrist still hurts a little bit. Even if she was afraid, nobody deserves to feel the pain Tyler was feeling. It didn’t take Enid very long to understand why he was so upset with outcasts. 

   She wants to say more, can’t find the right thing to say and in that heated silence Tyler stomps away. His hair bouncing with each stomp that harshly meets the green carpeted floor. Enid's lip wobbles with each sucking breath. She watches him till she can no longer see him but her ears train in on every step, and she hears a muttered curse under his breath about outcasts that squeezes her heart. 

   Enid looks down at the book. She knows whatever is in that book will only fuel people. It clearly fueled Tyler in his grief. She kicks it under the bookshelf, hoping it won’t ever be found again. She looks back up at all the spines and grabs the first one she sees about moon cycles and quickly walks back to wednesday. Halfway there she feels eyes on her, she doesn’t have to turn around to know a certain normie had found her. He doesn’t matter, Enid thinks. They have a mission. 

~

   As a treat after the library they were all taken to the weathervane. A coffee shop with pastries that were to die for and coffee to have Enid bouncing for the walls. The small group of students nearly took up half the shop, clustered into all the corners and booths they could fit into. 

   Enid and Wednesday took the farthest booth in the back. Enid happily sipped a drink her parents would never in a million years let her order. She picked at a blueberry muffin, bouncing on her palms while looking out the window. If she craned her head far enough she could see a shop that was begging for her attention, not that she had the money. 

   “Are we gonna come on the next library trip? Maybe if we get Miss Thornhill as a chaperone she’ll let us go to the shops.”

   “That library was as wasteful as the one at Nevermore. We need hard evidence. Not the small pieces they allow the media to share. They have to be keeping something.”

   Enid can’t disagree. She has to hope the police know more, and are closer to figuring this all out than it seems. Each girl disappeared at night. From what their roommates said they went to sleep, and woke up for classes and they were gone. Simple, easy. Whatever werewolves and dogs searched the woods said the scent went dead ten minutes into the woods. 

   “What if it's, like, a monster?” Enid asks. “Like those in the fairy tails that make your brain all wonky. We keep asking why they went into the woods. Maybe they didn’t know they were.”

   Wednesday perks up, in a Wednesday fashion way of doing so. “You might be onto something. Still, they would have to get close enough to the victim to lure them.” Enid hums, takes a bite of her muffin. “However, that could happen at any moment. It would be more than easy to bump into a victim a week before, or a few days before and implement something in their head. There are a group of outcasts who can do that.”

   Enid's nose wrinkles. “But why would an outcast do something mean? I thought it would be a normie with everything you’ve said about them not caring about this investigation.”

   Wednesday takes a sip of her espresso, making Enid squirm, wondering if she’s more stupid than she thinks she is. Wednesday gently sets the cup down on its cute little plate. 

   “Anything is always a possibility. We are no closer to figuring this out than we were a moment ago. We are throwing rocks at a wall hoping for one to bounce. It’s wishful idiocy.” Wednesday's eyes trail out the weathervanes window. There’s a moment where there is nothing, and then her eyes are bright like a fire just lit in front of her face. 

   “What?” Enid nervously asks. 

  Wednesday's head snaps towards her, and the most terrifying thing happens. She smiles, grins so wide Enid can see all her teeth. “I have an idea.” 

~

   Enid doesn’t know what she did for the universe to be so cruel to her. She’s said sorry to the moon about a million times the whole journey it took them that night to sneak out of Nevermore, and down the long road into Jericho. The center of the town was empty, all the shops were closed and Enid knows for a fact this was Wednesday's worst idea yet. 

   Wednesdays backpack rattled, they slinked up to the outside of the police station, its doors shut tight, and windows not even having a latch to open. Enid's heart was going to hammer out of her chest. Her ears were rushing with the static of the street lamp a few feet down the road. 

   “Wednesday, this is a bad idea,” Enid murmurs. She looks around, listens for someone, anyone to come and find them. “This has to be, like, the most illegal thing to be illegal.”

   “There are going to be a minimum number of officers in the building. Enid, I need you to be brave, can you do that?” Enid immediately shakes her head no. Her hands twist together, claws popped out and nearly nicked herself on the wrist. “ You need to lie, Enid.”

   “W-What?” Enid's eyes were going to pop. 

   “A receptionist will be at the front desk. You must go to them, distract them for long enough for me to sneak into the back and find the files on the case. Now, I’ve snuck in here before alone so I know it’s possible, though, difficult. Using you as a distraction will give me ample amount of time to gather what we need.” 

   “But- No- I can’t lie. I-I’m not a good liar, Wednesday. We aren’t even supposed to be out of school right now!” 

   Wednesday shushes her, grabs her shoulders and pushes her farther down the building against the wall to hide them better. “You can, Enid. You are a young girl, all you have to do is speak and not show those claws.”

   Enid gulps. Wednesday slowly lets go of her and looks down the edge of the building. Enid's stomach is rumbling, she might throw up if she stands a second longer. Her brain is going haywire, because what was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to even speak? Her mouth didn’t even want to move now, her tongue was heavy, her lips wired shut. She felt the same way when her mom got mad at her, all small and useless and stupid .

   Enid blinks, turns around and Wednesday is gone. Her vision goes blank for a moment, and too quickly she finds the gentle beat of Wednesday's heart getting farther and farther from her. 

   “Okay, okay,” Enid murmurs. She Amos herself up, just like her brothers do before a big game. She jumps, shakes her hands out and wills her claws to go back inside. They painfully shrink, her fingertips ache. 

   Enid wipes her forehead, marches towards the front door of the police station and opens it with a little too much strength. The instant the door is wide open and she’s hit with the cool rush of AC her facade instantly shatters and she feels like a wreck. 

   Her chest heaves up, her eyes wide as she takes in the little room the police station has arranged for guests. There’s a woman at the desk, probably in her late thirties to early forties. She looks away from the computer she was so invested in before, turning to face Enid with something she doesn’t recognize. 

   “Can I help you, sweetheart?” 

   “I—“ Enid's words don't come out. She still has no idea what she’s saying. She was going to kill Wednesday. She’s never hated the girl more till right now, she felt like she was staring down somebody with a silver dagger ready to kill her. 

   The door shuts behind her, her steps take her three feet into the room. Enid can smell cold pizza, coffee that’s been sitting for far too long and something else she doesn’t really want to think longer about. The woman at the desk's eyebrows furrow even more. 

   “Would you like some water?” Enid nods, because that’s really all she can do. The woman stands from the chair, she walks to a door Enid hadn’t even noticed and unlocked it. They’re not blocked by anything now, and that makes her cowardly heart beat even faster. 

   The officer walks to a small machine, grabs a cup from the side and fills it. Enid only gets her feet to move because she’s afraid if she doesn’t the world will implode. Up closer, the woman looks tired, Enid doesn’t sense any malice from her but she still can’t shake her unrelenting fear. The cup is gently handed to her, which she thinks with a small thank you the woman probably doesn’t even hear. 

   “Why don’t we have a seat. You can call me Santiago. What’s your name?” Santiago sits down in a plastic chair, Enid doesn’t move for a few seconds before she sits next to her. 

   Should she say a fake name? Wednesday wanted her to lie, but how far could she go? Wouldn’t they know? Wouldn’t they somehow find out? Enid, before she can really think, blurts out the first name to pop in her head, “Wednesday.” Oh, have mercy on her. 

   “Wednesday,” Santiago smiles. “It’s really late right now, I assume you’re here for a reason.”

   Enid is. To lie to this woman. Enid wasn’t made for lying. Enid shouldn’t even be in this position. The cup in her hand is one second away from becoming a kabob. Enid exhaled deeply, closed her eyes and tried to think, because she needed to talk otherwise what was the entire point of this? 

   “Someone was mean to me today,” Enid blurts out. “But, like, in a mean way that’s nice but not mean? And then he got more mean.” Her voice raises a pitch as she says it. Enid doesn’t take her eyes off the cup for a second. Watching the ripples of water from her shaking hands. “It’s stupid. I-I know he was being— I don’t know.”

   Tyler was grieving. He put all that grief and anger into outcasts, onto the easiest target of people who hurt his mom. Anyone can be a killer, Enid knows. Werewolves have a long history of finding hikers in the woods, ripping them to shreds when they’re wolves out. Vampires have gotten blood thirsty, draining victim after victim till they could be put down. 

   “I’m really sorry to hear that.” Enid looks up to watch Santiago pull out a notepad and click a pen. Her eyes meet Enids for a second, brown eyes that don’t have any heated ill will towards Enid. It makes Enid feel immensely worse, extremely guilty. “Did this happen in town?”

   Enid takes a big gulp of the water, then another, and soon the cup is empty. She sets it down in the chair next to her knowing she’s close to shredding it to piercing. The silence is becoming eerie, she wants to be in bed, with all her stuffed animals and the light of the moon coming through the window. 

   “It did. At the library, we went to the library today,” Enid mumbled. “I—“ Enid stops. Her fingers wrap around the wrist he held and she wonders if Tyler ever got an I’m sorry. If Tyler ever got comfort, ever got justice for his mother. What makes somebody like that? What makes somebody so filled with hatred other than a void that can’t catch them? “I-I think he’s really sad.”

   “Why do you think that?”

   “His mom died. I don’t get along with my mom but I’d be sad if she died. If-if someone took her from me. From my family. We have problems but she loves us, right? And, so, I don’t think we’d be better without her. And he doesn’t have his mom anymore—“ Enid's eyes seem to gloss over. The tile floor looks speckled with dots of light. “That must really hurt. To lose your mom.”

   “I’m sure it does. Grief is a powerful thing, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to be mean to others. Did he hurt you?”

   “No,” Enid says. “I mean, not really. Not technically. He didn’t, like, you know, hit me or anything? Just grabbed my wrist. It wasn’t bad.” 

   “Is that the wrist he grabbed?” Enid's eyes follow the pointed pen to her fingers wrapped around her wrist. If she paid enough attention she could still feel a very small ache, something that definitely is not enough to be upset about. “May I see it?”

   Enid hesitates, but offers her wrist. Santiago takes it, careful fingers turning her hand around to view all sides of her wrist. Enid takes her wrist away when she notices a slight blue hue to her skin that shouldn’t be there. “It doesn’t hurt, not really,” Enid says. Santiago writes something down, nodding along to Enid's words. 

   “What was this altercation about? You said he was upset because his mother died, was that all?”

   Enid has absolutely no idea if this woman would care if she’s an outcast. That’s the most terrifying part. None of the girls had been found, Julie’s friend thought it was because they were outcasts. That the officers weren’t trying hard enough because maybe they had views similar to Tyler’s. 

   Enid could keep her mouth shut. She could lie right here and now. But if she said the truth, she realized, knowing whether the cops hated outcasts would help with their investigation. This was just one officer, but her opinion could help them one way or another. 

   “He knew I was from Nevermore,” Enid whispers. She listens to the normal heartbeat in the woman’s chest. It doesn’t falter, doesn’t speed up. Her face doesn’t change at all from the concern and professionalism she’s had this whole time. Enid nods, accepting this. “He blames outcasts for his moms death.” 

   “Did you happen to get his name?”

   “Tyler.” As soon as she says the name, the woman’s heart jumps. Enid rips her eyes away, and stands up. “I-I think I should go, actually. I’m sorry to disturb your night.”

   “No, it’s okay. It’s very brave of you to come and tell someone when you’re scared,” Santiago says, standing up quickly to meet Enid. “Especially so late at night. Thank you, for telling me what you have. I promise you aren’t in trouble here, but I am going to have to call your school.”

   Enid thinks about bolting for the door. But she knows either way this woman was going to call Nevermore and say Wednesday was at the police station reporting some boy being mean to her. Principal Weems was nice, but she already had a distaste growing for Wednesday and would easily put two and two together. 

   “Can— Can I give you a number to call?” Enid asks. She fiddles with her hands once more, hopefully looking up at the older woman. “She’s a teacher at the school.”

   “Sure, as long as it’s an adult to get you back safe and sound.”

~

   Enid waited for what felt like forever. She hopes her conversation with Santiago lasted long enough for Wednesday to steal what they needed. She sat on her hands to stop from moving. Wednesday hadn’t been caught, that’s what mattered. That meant so far their plan was successful, she just had to survive the rest of this. 

   The moment the station doors opened, officer Santiago was already stepping out through her sectioned off area. Enid sunk deeper into the hard plastic chair as a red bob came into view. She hugged her knees to her chest when Miss Thornhills eyes met hers with a moment of surprise that was quickly hidden. 

   “I’m so sorry for the late call,” Santiago says. 

   “Not at all. One of my students was in need, it was very courageous of her to come out here so late. Is there anything I need to do?”

   “No, she’s good to go. Is it alright if I give you a call if we have anything regarding her report?”

   “Of course.”

   “Then you both are good to go.”

   Miss Thornhill smiles, and they both watch Santiago go back through her door. Her teacher turns to her, not looking disappointed but something Enids not quite sure is on her features. She sighs, “come on, Wednesday ,” she says, almost teasing.

   Enid blushes, and scrambled out of the station as fast as she could. The air feels sticky, it’s not as cold as she wishes it was. Miss Thornhill follows her from the building and guides her towards a car parked against the curb. She opens the door for Enid, and shuts it once she’s safely inside. 

   Enid wants to ask if she’s in trouble. She knows they promised Miss Thornhill they’d never sneak out again. And now here she was all the way in Jericho, seemingly alone. God, Enid realizes with a hint of fear that Wednesday was still—

   Enid sees a glimmer of pale skin and dark clothes hide against the corner of the station. It’s enough for Enid to know it’s Wednesday. A braid swishes, and the figure around the corner is quickly gone. She’s safe, good, Enid hopes she makes it back just as safe. 

   Miss Thornhill gets in the car and turns it on. Immediately music rolls from the speakers before she can turn it down to a minimum. They pull out of the space and make their way out of the desolate down. 

   “Deputy Santiago didn’t tell me much. I was surprised when she called about a Wednesday who reported an altercation at the library.”

   “It was the first name I thought of,” Enid defends. She hugs herself, looks up at the moon wanting it to wrap her in a hug. 

   Miss Thornhill chuckled. She tapped her fingers against the wheel in time with the song, a gentle humming that Enid could only hear because of her heightened senses. “Is there a reason you didn’t tell a teacher? You snuck all the way into Jericho, which is pretty impressive but you know you could have told someone at the school. Why hide yourself?”

   “I… I didn’t wanna tell anyone,” Enid says, it’s the honest truth. “I wanted to forget it happened,” she adds on. If Wednesday hadn’t pulled her into this plan she never would have. It would have been her secret to hold and think about when she was sad. “I wouldn’t be able to. I’m always a… freak, and he’s never going to have her again ‘cause somebody made a decision.” 

   “Did he call you that?” Miss Thornhill asks. “Enid, sweetheart, you didn’t take his mother away. You didn’t have a choice to be born what you are. He’s lashing out at the wrong people because he doesn’t know where to put that anger.”

   “You know what’s funny?” Enid murmurs, lip beginning to tremble. “I haven’t even wolfed out yet. He got angry at the one outcast that has so far failed in that category. I don’t wanna hurt people, I-I really don't. But I’d like to share what my brothers experience, you know? And this-this stupid boy scared me and made me feel guilty and I couldn’t even be mad because- because he doesn’t have a mom.” 

   They’re driving down the forest road now that leads to Nevermore. There aren’t any other cars in sight, there never are. And before Enid knows it they are swerving off the path and into a bumpy dirt road she’s not even sure is a road to begin with. 

   “Where are we going?” Enid cranes her neck to look behind them, watching the paved road leave them and the dirt to fog behind in their wake. She rubs her eyes, stinging tears wetting her sleeve. 

   “Somewhere to talk. Don’t worry, it’s just a few minutes from here.”

   Enid nods. She doesn’t ask anything else because she’s afraid of what Miss Thornhill will think. So she stays patient and grateful. Not long later, just like she said, the road tapers off and leads them into a wide grass clearing. 

   “Come on.” Miss Thornhill unbuckles her seat, and gets out. Enid takes a few seconds to question what’s going on. She would never live it down if she admitted she was afraid of the woods. Of the dark and the trees so she followed after her. 

   The moon was bright. Bright in a way where it felt like a spotlight on this little clear patch of land. Trees surrounded them, sparse from the way they came in but otherwise clustered and twisted together. 

   Miss Thornhill sat on the hood of her car with ease. Enid's parents would kill her if she ever did anything like that. Cars were expensive, they could damage it but Miss Thornhill just looked up at the moon like she didn’t have anything to worry about. Enid made the decision and sat down next to her. 

   “I think it’s good to feel guilty. It means you have empathy. It means you’re a good person. He scared you, and yet you didn’t want to cause him any more harm. You’re allowed to be scared of him, be upset at him, and have sympathy for what he’s going through.”

   “I don’t know if I’m a good person. I want to be. But I’m just scared. I was scared that I’d fuel his thoughts more, that I would make him right. I am mad at him for being mean to me and what he said because I didn’t hurt him. Those girls didn’t hurt him. But—“

   “There is no but. There is nothing wrong with that. He needs to control his emotions and you did such a good job. Even though you were scared, even though you were mad.” There’s a pause. Enid takes in the words that swirl around her chest. “I just wish you felt safe enough to tell a teacher instead of walking all the way to town. Were you embarrassed?” 

   Enid pulls her legs up to her chest. The car squeaks underneath her and for a brief moment she doesn’t dare to move. “I dunno.” She cant say the whole truth. So that’s all Enid can muster. She can feel the teacher's gaze on her, and doesn’t turn in fear Miss Thornhill will read her like a book. 

   “Enid, I want you to know no matter what it is, you can tell someone. Whether it’s me, or another teacher at the school we are all here for you. I would have listened to you. I’m sorry I wasn’t at the library to help you when it happened. I understand you must have felt very vulnerable and uncomfortable afterwards. Nothing like this should have ever happened. But sometimes they do, but you can come to someone when it does.”

   “Are you mad?”

   “Not at all. If I am it’s at myself but that’s a feeling for another time. We can keep this between you and me, okay?” Enid meets her eyes, gentle green in the dark. Enid nods, Miss Thornhill makes her feel safe, she trusts every promise that’s come out of her mouth. The woman hasn’t tried to steer her wrong yet. 

   “Thank you.” Enid looks up at the moon, maybe it did something for her after all. Maybe things will get better. She hopes Wednesday found something, because she really wants to save those girls before it’s too late. 

~

   Her name was Salem. She was 17 and went missing the night Wednesday and Enid snuck out of Nevermore. Enid puked the next morning knowing Wednesday walked back alone, while she and Miss Thornhill were sitting in the very woods a girl disappeared into.

   The circle of three was complete. They both knew what that meant. Proven true when a few miles from Nevermore the bodies of all three girls were found the day before spring break. Dead, just like the last. Cut up, just like the last. They had barely enough time to go over the case files Wednesday had managed to copy and steal. 

   But it gave them something. Enid just hoped it would be enough for next year.