It was the beginning of the rest of their lives.
Normally, Wednesday Friday Addams would take assertions of that nature as sentimental nonsense, but there was no denying that for the past few days there had been an air of finality, of transition, of change...
Her final year at Nevermore had come to an end.
And what a year it had been.
It started off quietly. Routine, classes, nothing out of the ordinary for the outcast academy. No ominous signs of unsolved mysteries or shadowy stalkers as on past occasions. Wednesday had settled into the idea of a quiet school year focused solely on her academic pursuits, something she didn't dislike as much as she once would have thanks to the presence of her she-wolf by her side.
And then, three months ago at the beginning of spring break, she and Enid were involved in one of the most curious and outlandish adventures of their lives. After all, you don't meet five other versions of yourself from the multiverse every day, transported between realities against their will by the failed spell of an aspiring witch with a misplaced desire for revenge.
Only three months. At times it seemed like it had been much longer. At first Wednesday didn't fully appreciate the impact the experience had made on their lives.
Enid felt it first, the very first night of absence of Wednesday's variants that she had grown attached to as if they were her own pack (and they were, in a way). For Wednesday it was something more subtle, a constant stream of ideas in her daily life in the weeks that followed, wondering how her other selves would deal with things, seeking different approaches... evolving into a fuller version of herself.
It was strange and disconcerting to be able to examine herself through the reflection of her experiences with her other selves, but not entirely unpleasant.
The remaining three months from that altogether ooky adventure to the end of the school year were relatively normal. Some of her classmates, absent during the holiday period, expressed regret at missing the event. Her family had insisted on a weekend visit to learn in more detail about what had happened (Enid showing Morticia the photographs she had taken of her younger dimensional counterparts derailed in an embarrassing review of the family photo album).
Wednesday sighed at the memory. She would have felt irritated but the memory of Enid's smile overshadowed everything else. In the solitude of her dorm room, the Addams allowed herself a small smile of her own as she packed her luggage.
That afternoon, the graduation ceremony would take place. There were students who would leave the school that very same day after the ceremony, but many others would wait until the following morning so that they could celebrate at the farewell party that night. One last bacchanal to say goodbye to their academic life. That was the case for Wednesday and Enid, who was also one of the organizers of the event.
Wednesday's family would be arriving any minute to witness the proceedings and begin preparations for the next day's trip. The administration had arranged the same accommodations used at Parent's Weekend. Enid would be leaving with the Addamses, with whom she was expected to reside from now on. Her relationship with her family remained fractured and the lycanthrope kept only discreet contact with her father, one of her brothers (the only one with any sense according to Wednesday) and a distant cousin.
Wednesday would have skinned Esther Sinclair alive if she could, but Enid had insisted on letting the matter drop. Though not necessarily because she still harbored love for her horrid mother. Wednesday still remembered her she-wolf's words:
"Killing her would mean I still care. And I don't. I'd rather she be a forgotten memory that doesn't taint anything we build in the future."
There may not have been visceral violence, but exercising damnatio memoriae on the matriarch of the Sinclair pack was very Addams of Enid, in her own way. Wednesday could not but approve.
Deep in thought, the Addams could not help but be slightly surprised to realize that she had already finished the preparations to have her belongings ready for the next day's trip.
She looked around and once again did not fight the smile on her lips. Enid's side of the room was still littered with stuffed animals and articles of clothing scattered among the bed and half-filled open suitcases. The next morning was going to be a real spectacle of a nervous and hurried werewolf trying to pick everything up, because it was doubtful that she would do it that night after the party (it was to be their last night alone in the dorm room, and Wednesday had no intention of letting Enid be distracted by anything other than the Addams herself).
Enid was fortunate that Lurch was a patient being who would have no qualms about waiting.
Thinking of her she-wolf (her sunshine, her magnificent beast) brought back a slight shiver of delicious nerves for Wednesday as she thought of all that was to come from the next day. The beginning of a sabbatical year for both of them, a year of traveling to show the world to her beloved. Enid wanted to visit Europe, and especially Greece, the homeland of all lycanthropes in the modern era. Wednesday on the other hand was interested in exploring hidden corners and examining unsolved mysteries.
But above all else, Wednesday Addams was looking to figure out the perfect words and the perfect situation to meet the ultimate challenge: to make Enid an official Addams. She had opted for something traditional, a ring, at least to begin with. The Addams Family courtship rituals and all the challenges they entailed would come later.
Enid already knew how to deal with the mamushka, so there would be no problems.
Of course, this would be the moment when fate decided to throw a new slice of chaos into Wednesday Addam’s life.
A shiver suddenly ran down her spine. Unnatural. She immediately noticed a smell of ozone permeating the atmosphere of the room all at once, as if lightning was about to strike right there.
And then, the sound. Four strangely familiar musical notes played by a non-existent phantom instrument, resonating not only inside her head but in her very soul.
The sensation ceased with a crack and a thud, as if something solid had fallen on the floor of the room, right behind her.
Wednesday turned around.
A young woman, in her late teens, had materialized in the center of the dorm room.
She was tall, noticeably taller than Wednesday. She wore all black: black boots, black jeans, and a black tank top that revealed shapely arms with pronounced musculature. Her head was adorned by long blonde hair styled in a pair of braided pigtails, each dyed a different color at the tips: black on the left and a crimson red on the right. Her face, as strange as it was familiar, featured a pair of bright blue eyes that looked around with some disorientation.
Observing her tense posture, Wednesday noticed that the newcomer's black-painted fingernails were extended like claws.
A werewolf.
That was the moment the young woman turned and rested her eyes on Wednesday Addams. Eyes that widened in surprise and bewilderment.
A surprise and bewilderment that was reflected in Wednesday's face when the stranger opened her black-painted lips to utter one single word that carried too much weight.
"Mom?"
Oh, no. This can't be what she was beginning to think it was.
"Explain yourself," said Wednesday, with steely voice and narrowed eyes fixed on the newcomer.
The young lycanthrope looked at her with apprehension and something that seemed like growing panic, "Oh, no, no, no, dammit... She looks so young… Time travel? That wasn't supposed to happen! Oooh, we screwed up! We totally screwed up!"
"As I said, explain yourself," said Wednesday, "I don't intend to repeat myself."
The sternness in her tone caught the visitor's attention again. Nerves and panic gave way to strangeness shining in those clear blue eyes.
"Wow, I've never heard you talk like that before, not even when we set the classroom on fire...," the girl said, looking Wednesday up and down, "And you never told us you had a goth phase in high school, what the hell...?"
The words coming out of her mouth caused more questions to pile up in Wednesday's mind. The young woman was clearly nervous and disoriented. Erratic, barely coherent. That she had recognized Wednesday as her mother opened up a panoply of troubling possibilities that the visitor's mention of time travel seemed to confirm.
But Wednesday Addams wasn't entirely sure, there was something that felt off...
You never told us you had a goth phase.
Yes, that. That didn't quite add up.
"Listen," Wednesday said in a tone that tried to be a little more conciliatory, "I need you to tell me who you are and how you got here."
"Ah, yes, yes... I'm sorry, it's just that we've...," the young woman began to say before interrupting herself again, once more looking around frantically, "Where is he!?"
"Who?"
"My brother! We did the ritual together! He should be here by my side!" the young werewolf exclaimed. She immediately took to sniffing the air frantically as a worried whimper escaped her lips. Her eyes widened wildly as if she had detected something. Without another word she broke into a run, rushing out of the room and almost breaking down the door.
"Hey, wait!" exclaimed a frustrated Wednesday hurrying after her. It seemed Nevermore had one last ace up its sleeve to make her life insanely interesting.
§§§
"I don't know Thing. I think absinthe is a little excessive."
The dismembered hand perched on Enid Sinclair's shoulder gestured deftly, using a sign language of his own that very few managed to master. The fact that the young lycanthrope he'd befriended understood him after only a few days of communication had been, in Thing's opinion, the first sign that Enid was a future Addams.
"I know almost everyone at the party is going to be an adult, but absinthe is too strong, even for people with accelerated metabolisms compared to that of a normal human. We'd better just keep the beers and other softer spirits."
The hand jumped from Enid's shoulder, landing on the table on top of the papers filled with notes and planning memos for that night's party.
They were in one of the classrooms on the first floor, converted into temporary headquarters for the preparation of the graduation day celebrations. Bianca had proposed making use of the Nightshades' chamber, but Enid insisted on a more public space, in case students from outside the group wished to share ideas.
Thing tapped another question.
"Yeah, yeah... relax. The knife-throwing contest is still on. I already made it clear to Wednesday that she could only use volunteers as living targets. Yoko has offered."
"You know me little hand, I'm always up for any craziness I can find."
Yoko Tanaka, vampire. Wednesday Addams routinely described her as a walking plague of annoyance, something the undead took as a compliment. Maybe it was, after all. The relationship between the two was a strange and caustic friendship.
Yoko was also Enid's best and oldest friend at Nevermore, for all intents and purposes an adoptive older sister to the she-wolf since they first met (though Enid had the more common sense of the two). All in all, if the lycanthrope needed help with anything the vampire was always one of the first to offer a helping hand. Her position as Enid's assistant in organizing the graduation party was inevitable.
"Have you talked to Divina? Have they prepared...?"
"Breathe little wolf," replied Yoko, "She and the rest of the choir sirens will be ready, they've been rehearsing all week. And before you ask, Bianca, Xavier and Kent have the lights and decorations front covered. Eugene is overseeing the snacks with Ajax. They've taken Lenore with them because of her nose, so none of his fellow stoners will sneak in any surprise extras."
Eugene and Lenore were a special case. The beekeeper and the young werewolf still had another year left at Nevermore before graduating, but their presence at the party was guaranteed. Eugene was one of the "Nevermore Saviors" after the Crackstone incident, and Lenore had made a name for herself three months earlier by assisting in the preparations for the conflict with Isadora Laslow. They had also started dating.
Enid sighed.
"Oh, I'm sorry Yoko. I know I sound like a hysterical perfectionist, but it's just that I only want everything to go smoothly," Enid said, "No incidents, no sword fights, no red paint showers..."
"About that, Bianca talked to Lucas and he's promised to let us know if he finds out any of Jericho's jerks are trying anything."
"Does he still have a crush on her?" asked Enid, letting out a chuckle.
"And she on him, but if they've talked about it they're being damned discreet."
"Well, it's not like..."
The classroom door burst open, startling the two of them. Enid extended her claws out of pure reflex. Yoko hissed, baring her fangs. On the table, Thing tensed, ready to jump and grab a throat if need be.
The newcomer was, judging by her also extended claws, a young blonde teenage werewolf, with her hair in pigtails dyed red and black, dressed entirely in dark clothes and considerably tall and muscular despite being clearly younger than Enid and Yoko. Her face as she fully entered the classroom was marked by a hopeful smile that disintegrated as she observed the occupants of the room. An aura of sadness and fear seemed to take hold of her.
"He's not here... but, I'd swear his scent..." she murmured.
"Uh... excuse me? Are you okay?", Enid asked, stepping forward a few paces towards the stranger. The expression of growing desperation on the girl's face prompted her to act out of pure protective instinct even though she didn't know her at all. She did not appear to be a Nevermore student.
There was something strangely familiar about her, though.
The young stranger focused her attention on Enid, sniffing. Her expression turned to one of shocked disbelief.
"It can't be... it was your scent. You smell like... Your scent is identical, but it's not possible," the newcomer said.
"Er... Who are we talking about?"
"My father."
Yoko let out an incredulous snort, "Enid smells like your dad?"
"Enid?" the stranger asked. Her gaze was still fixed on Enid, with an intensity that was beginning to remind the she-wolf of another pigtailed certain someone...
"Ah, yes... that's me!" said Enid, nervous, "Enid Sinclair."
"Enid is my name," the stranger said almost in a whisper, "My middle name. I'm Pandora Enid Addams."
"Addams?" asked a surprised Yoko and Enid in unison.
"And my father... you have his same scent, I still can't believe it... My father is Eamon Sinclair."
Wait, what? thought Enid.
NOTES
As you may have noticed, the beginning of this chapter is a sort of "extended version" of the Altogether Oooky post-credits scene. It was the natural starting point, after all. As in the previous fic, although I have more or less thought out the skeleton of the story, it will undoubtedly undergo changes as I write and come up with new and crazy ideas.
Meet Pandora Enid Addams. Dora to her friends. And yes, she is a "Wenclair baby", it's just that it's about a totally different Wenclair combo.
(Artwork from @Kris6758 on Twitter)
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