Chapter Text
The crickets chirped, air crisp as Wednesday sat in the grass, leaning back on her palms. She lets the familiar footsteps approach her on the lawn of Nevermore as she looks up at the stars in the sky, wondering how none of them shone as bright as Enid’s smile.
Footfalls stopping, the person plops down beside her with a grunt.
Of course Gomez can’t keep his mouth shut even in the sacred silence of the night. “Something bothering you, little scorpion?”
Wednesday doesn’t glance his way, eyes glued to the sky. “Don’t ask pointless questions that you know the answer to.” Her words lack bite. Drained from all the emotions swirling in her (a first for Wednesday), she wasn’t sure she was equipped to deal with them.
“You’re not the only one you know”, Gomez says, as if that’s supposed to comfort Wednesday.
It does, in the way where it’s laughable that another fool probably sold their loved ones for something that wasn’t worth the trade. It doesn’t in the way that nothing could comfort her because it was all her fault that Enid was going to disappear from this world much sooner than she should’ve. “Of course not”, Wednesday replies, shaking her head.
“Sometimes the people we look up to are fools in their own ways. Fools that may wander the woods aimlessly, or perhaps the fools may know the answer to our biggest problems”, Gomez said.
The words might not have made sense to anyone else, but they made perfect sense to Wednesday. There were very few people that Wednesday looked up to. Finally looking down at the stars, she looked at her father for confirmation. He simply lifted a brow at her. What are you waiting for?
With renewed vigor, Wednesday gets up and starts marching towards the woods. Before she gets very far, Wednesday looks back over her shoulder. “Thank you.” Then she is gone into the brush and thicket of the treeline.
Giving a small chuckle to himself, Gomez lights a cigar and gives it a puff. It was all up to Wednesday now.
-0-
Racing into the woods, Wednesday suddenly feels a shock of goosebumps down her spine. Stopping, she whips out her knife and attacks, only for the attacker to clasp it in his hands and shock her into dropping the blade.
“Still as sharp as ever, my pig-tailed protege!” the attacker gleefully compliments.
An unnatural grin splays itself across Wednesday’s face. “Uncle Fester!”
Taking off his hat, he gives a chortle of a laugh, sound coming straight from his belly. Fester looks upon her with his kooky smile, oh so familiar in the woods that were not nearly as. It was relieving to see his face within the chaos that surrounded her these days.
“Father mentioned somebody doing the same as me. It was you?” Wednesday asked, not afraid to dive into the topic with her familiar uncle. After all, he did not ever judge her, only encourage her in a way that didn’t smother her.
Fester nods. “I see that Gomez has told you.” He scratches his bald head and grins. “He filled me in on what’s going on. What fun!”
At those words, Wednesday frowns and slouches into a sulking position. Fun was definitely not how she’d describe it. Torturous in all the wrong ways maybe. “I thought it would be. It’s not nearly as fun as I predicted when I made the deal.”
“Then just steal your way out of it”, Fester shrugs as if it’s no big deal. He was so nonchalant even in the face of what felt like the end of Wednesday’s world. It’s perhaps what Wednesday admired about him the most, his attitude.
Wednesday cocks her head, curious now at Fester’s words. “How?”
Fester steps forward, leaning in ominously, “There’s always a way. As long as you’re willing to give.” Then he leans back, frowning a little. “I wasn’t willing to give and I paid the price.” He shakes his head and shivers dramatically as if it was simply a creepy memory, that he had given up something so important because he wasn’t willing to “give”.
Except, what did give even mean? What could she give that could possibly appease the devil?
“Does your school have a bonfire going for family weekend? I’m hungry”, Fester snaps her out of her thoughts.
Brow furrowing at the seemingly random question, Wednesday asks, “Where did you get that idea?”
Following Fester’s pointer finger, Wednesday turns around and looks into the sky at the pillar of smoke coming up from Nevermore. Her eyes widening, Wednesday doesn’t have the time to have a heart attack because Enid .
Running and running faster and faster, Wednesday pushes the upper limits of her physical performance. The only thing she can think about is Enid’s safety, the fact that Wednesday had left her all alone in the dorm room to go out even when she knew the devil would be coming soon.
Her heart pounded along with her footsteps, every step pushing her closer to her lover, but not fast enough, not close enough.
Upon finally reaching the quad, Wednesday grinds to a halt, eyes wide at the sight that greets her. The tables are on fire, the heat blazing in Wednesday’s face. Tied above the stack of blazing tables was Enid, kicking her face and crying in fear. Xavier stood, a twisted smirk on his face. He whipped to face her, ready to step forward, when his face contorts and he falls to his knees and hands. Rolling onto the floor, he claws at his neck, turning red.
“R-run. I-i can’t hold him off”, Xavier’s voice comes out choked towards Wednesday as he fights off the devil inside him. It doesn’t scare Wednesday in the least.
As he continues, Wednesday does the exact opposite of his words and starts to move forward, when blackness starts coming out of Xavier, forming a figure standing above him, a figure that solidifies into a zombified-pilgrim-like man.
Before Wednesday can react and activate her power, the haunting voice from her dreams comes from his mouth. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I still have her life in my hands.”
The fact that the devil doesn’t even bother to remember or say Enid’s name enrages Wednesday further, but she’s scared. Too scared to activate her powers, and instead she stands, hands clenched, unable to do anything. It is this all powerful type of fear that ranks above all else. This fear has manifested for all the years since she’d accepted Enid’s request to be together.
The devil cackles as he pulls out a knife, testing it on his own finger, only for the gash to close up immediately thanks to a swirling fog that appears from inside his flesh. Then with barely a blink of an eye he chucks it at Wednesday.
Closing her eyes, Wednesday accepts her fate. She knows that moving out of the way will result in the devil hurting Enid, so she stays. There’s nothing more she can do to protect Enid but give her life. Perhaps that’s what Fester meant by give. If that’s what it came to, she would be more than content to do so.
But then she hears cracking and popping of bones, and a roar. Wednesday opens her eyes just fast enough. To see the last of Enid’s transformation, the sheer impact of her sudden growth in size shredding the ropes holding her to the post into pieces. Leaping off the post, Enid places herself right between Wednesday and the knife just in time for it to sink into her. Wednesday doesn’t even have the chance to tell her no, or to stop.
With a howl of pain, Enid collapses. The blood immediately soaks through her blood and onto the ground.
“No. No! No!” Wednesday screeches as she drops to her knees, trying to hold the wound together as if it’ll help. Nothing could’ve prepared her for this moment as Enid gasped for air in front of her.
“It’s too late. Your powers aren’t enough”, the devil cackles.
Enid looks at her, even in her wolf form, with so much love in those glowing eyes, the same eyes that teased Wednesday in her human form. She watched as life slipped away agonizingly slowly, and Enid’s eyes closed.
It was only then that Wednesday screamed in desperation, dipping her two fingers into the pool of Enid’s blood, drawing a giant rune circle around Enid’s body. Then she drops to her knees on the ring of blood, clasping her hands together and looking straight into the devil’s eyes. “Take it. Take it and take even more if you need to, I’ll agree to any deal, but give her back. YOU HEAR ME?! GIVE HER BACK!”
The devil leered, his zombified face cracking in places as he did so. “As you wish, you foolish human.”
With a snap of his hand, it all went black and Wednesday felt the powers and more slip out of her.
-0-
Awaking in her human form, Enid looked around the blazing courtyard to see Wednesday crumpled on the ground. A cry of Wednesday’s name ripped from her throat as she scrambled to Wednesday’s side, drawing the pigtailed girl into her arms.
Slowly Wednesday opened her eyes and a dopey smile crossed her face. It was unnatural, unnerving. Enid should be glad that they were both still alive, but something was wrong, completely off.
“Wednesday?” Enid asked again.
“Yes?” Wednesday still refused to look at her, staring straight ahead. It was almost as if…
Horrified, Enid slowly lifted her hand and waved it in front of Wednesday’s face. There wasn’t a single reaction.
“Wednesday. What did you do?” Enid asked.
“If you’re asking then you already know what I did”, Wednesday replies. Shakily her hand comes up, reaching towards Enid’s face, or at least attempting to. Enid’s hand came up to grasp hers and nuzzled her cheek into Wednesday’s hand.
A content expression graces Wednesday’s face despite the blank, glassy look of Wednesday’s eyes.
Feeling the tears sting her eyes, Enid sniffles. “You idiot. I can’t believe you gave up your eyesight for me.” Wednesday would never be able to see Enid again, she knew it. Yet, Wednesday didn’t seem upset at all, but instead triumphant. So instead Enid cried for her, letting the tears spill down her cheeks, mourning Wednesday’s vision in a way that Wednesday refused to.