Night fell over Jericho, but not all those who dwelled in the town allowed themselves to be embraced by the arms of Morpheus.
The Clayton Motel was located on one of the edges of Jericho, near the main road and at the opposite end of the path that led directly to Nevermore on the other side of town. It had its origins in an old colonial house, almost a mansion, enlarged and converted into a bed and breakfast in the last half century. Mrs. Clayton, a proud descendant of one of Jericho's founding families, guaranteed comfortable beds, good food and discretion. Among the many renovations made to the old residence in recent years, mainly encouraged by her son, was the improved sound insulation of the rooms, which ensured greater privacy for the guests.
That's why no one heard the cries of anger and frustration of the last two days.
Inside room 12, a figure sat on the floor at the foot of an unmade bed, with a pile of books scattered around them and a first aid kit beside them. They were wrapping their left hand with bandages after cleaning the burns on their skin. Using a wand increased their power, but they lacked practice and experience, and channeling more magic than they should translated into an almost incandescent piece of wood in their hand. It was not pleasant.
But they had almost solved the problem. The wolf was the anchor.
The wolf was the anchor.
It had become almost a mantra. They had their suspicions and seeing from afar how another one of them appeared next to the werewolf only confirmed what they already feared. The utter failure of their initial spell and the most absurd of corruptions.
Wednesday Addams.
Wednesday Addams.
Wednesday Addams.
A name undoubtedly cursed. Sometimes they wished that repeating it would somehow conjure the girl into their presence to put an end to the whole affair.
But they had no time for sweet fantasies of easy revenge. Finishing applying the bandage to their hands, they rose and reverently took the book they had stolen from the Nightshades' library. Foolish children, unable to appreciate the power they possessed there eating dust. The spell had been corrupted, but after hours of consultation they had a clear idea and knew what to do. Now, Addams knew they were in Jericho. Her she-wolf had no doubt barked the alarm like the bitch she was.
They needed to recover, and prepare something extra in case things went awry, but soon it would be time to return to Nevermore.
The wolf was the anchor.
It was time to make sure Wednesday Addams ended up adrift before the end.
§§§
It was six o'clock in the morning and the sun had not yet begun to rise when Pup awoke.
It took a few seconds for the little girl to understand where she was. Her last conscious memory was of Miss Sinclair's arms and the warmth that emanated from them. Looking to the side, she found herself surrounded by blankets and other sleeping figures that made her eyes widen in surprise.
A part of her remembered the events of the previous day almost like a dream.
She had gone from being in the garden of her house, waiting for her mother to arrive with the hamburgers for Cleopatra, to finding herself in a dark alley with a stranger. She had been on guard but had been polite and asked if it was a kidnapping, as her parents had taught her. And luckily Miss Sinclair had not turned out to be an enemy or someone nasty or twisted, like those school teachers bent on reading her tales of knights slaying dragons.
Who would want to kill a poor dragon? Scum, the whole educational system was scum.
But anyway, it hadn't been a dream and what Miss Sinclair had told her had been confirmed as the truth. That she had ended up in that alley with her because of a magical accident and that there were others like her in some sort of weird school where they all lived together, and that she needed a nickname and decided to call her Pup (she didn’t mind, really). Seeing three replicas of herself asleep next to her was solid proof. A dismembered hand nestled in the folds of blankets could only be Thing. It struck her as odd to see him out of his boxes and with so many scars.
Pup got up, silent as a cat, and started to leave the nest of blankets, cushions and sheets, taking one last look at her other selves.
They were older than her. One not much older, dressed in pink, She was struck by seeing a person almost identical to herself dressed in such bright colors. It reminded her a little of when Mother and Aunt Ophelia were in a room together. They were like night and day in spite of being almost twins.
The other two appeared to be of similar age. One was pale as a piece of white marble and Pup could not but admire such a cadaverous complexion. She made Uncle Fester look tanned! The other was also pale, but did not go to such extremes of monochrome. Even in the placidity of sleep there seemed to be a sternness in her face to which Pup nodded approvingly.
Leaving the nest, her eyes fell on the bed with a black duvet in front of it, where two other figures rested.
She instantly recognized Miss Sinclair, her golden hair glistening in the growing light coming through the window, heralding the dawn. The werewolf was cuddled up to the other figure, who was sleeping on her back, her arms folded across her chest.
Pup slowly and curiously approached Wednesday Addams. She found the sight of her fascinating. The others who had slept next to her were older, but her infant brain still registered them as kids. But this Wednesday was, without a doubt, an adult. Young, yes, but closer to her mother than to Pup herself. Truth be told, she reminded her of some of the photographs she had seen of her mother as a young woman, before her marriage, when she still styled her long hair in pigtails.
As Pup leaned in for a closer look, Wednesday Addams opened her eyes, and her dark gaze rested on the little girl.
Pup returned the gaze without any fear or surprise. She recognized those eyes. They were her own. She saw them every day in a mirror.
"Isn't it too early to be snooping around?" asked Wednesday in an almost inaudible whisper.
Pup shook her head, also answering in whispers so as not to wake the other occupants of the room "I'm not sleepy anymore. I'm just a little hungry. This body needs sustenance."
"Wait a minute," said Wednesday. She proceeded to get up and get out of bed. A laborious thing to do as it meant getting out of Enid's grip and leaving the warmth of her beloved behind, taking care not to wake her. The lycanthrope let out a few soft growls at the absence of a body beside her, but continued to doze off.
Yesterday's events and two partial transformations have left her more tired than usual, thought Wednesday, remembering how the she-wolf had become the earlier riser of the two in the last year and a half.
Wearing a coat over her pajamas, Wednesday turned to her younger incarnation who had been waiting patiently. She extended a hand, which little Pup took without hesitation. The two left the room, once again silent as a pair of tigers hunting in the jungle, and descended the stairs to continue their march through the corridors of Nevermore.
When they had descended one floor and were some distance from the room, Wednesday spoke again.
"We're going to make a quick foray to the cafeteria. They're already starting service at this hour as many of the werewolf students are usually early risers."
"Miss Sinclair told me she is a werewolf. And that there are other monsters in this school."
"Yes. We have vampires, gorgons and sirens as the other three big groups. But also psychics, warlocks and witches, sorcerers, shapeshifters, harpies, other werecreatures, the odd demigod, and a whole community of noppera-bō and other yokai, among many other things.”
At every word that left Wednesday's lips the more the gleam of fascination and illusion grew in Pup's eyes despite the adorable seriousness of her little face. A gleam that was suddenly extinguished when the little girl frowned in obvious frustration. This attracted Wednesday's attention.
"What's wrong?"
"This school sounds great," Pup said, "Not like the one I have to go to. I liked it better when Grandmama gave us lessons at home."
"I hear you. I never quite acclimated to school life among... certain people."
"I can't even bring my pets there. I'm sure I could bring Lucifer here without a problem."
Officially Nevermore did not allow pets on campus, but Wednesday preferred not to say anything. Besides, the regulations were loosely enforced and there were more than a few students who had a small pet as long as the creature didn't leave their rooms.
"Lucifer?" asked Wednesday, with genuine curiosity. It was a good name for a pet, although she had never owned one with such a distinguished moniker.
"My bearded lizard. We also have Kitty, father's lion. Cleopatra in mother's gardens. Pugsley has Pericles, his octopus. And besides Lucifer I also have Homer, my spider. Although my favorite is my scorpion, Nero."
Oh.
Now that felt like a punch straight to the heart.
Wednesday's breath caught for a second. All the feelings of painful longing she had experienced the day before with Friday had returned, and it seemed with a vengeance.
Pup immediately noticed the change in Wednesday's demeanor and the unexpected tension in her posture as the two of them stopped in the middle of the hallway. Wednesday looked at her youngest counterpart with an indecipherable expression, before kneeling down to look the little girl face to face, gently resting her hands on her small shoulders.
"Pup," she said, in a serious voice but charged with a gentleness that few would have expected from Wednesday Addams, "I am not going to tell you the reasons behind my advice as I don't see the necessity of exposing you to absurd cruelties, and I know you are intelligent enough to deduce for yourself why I am going to tell you the following: If you take your Nero for a walk, never take him out of your family property, do you understand me?"
There was a pause for a second, before Pup nodded.
"I understand," she said, and rested one of her hands on one of Wednesday's, "And I'm sorry."
Wednesday fought the urge to close her eyes and let the moisture that had unconsciously built up in them release. The child understood. Of course she did.
And suddenly, a little body threw herself against her and wrapped little arms around her in a hug. Pup was hugging her.
"You looked like you needed it," said the little girl, with the earnestness of one who asserts an indisputable fact, "Father and mother hug me when I'm upset, and you looked like it now."
"I...," Wednesday tried to speak, but no other words left her lips. She had never been comfortable with hugs, with very important exceptions (Enid the main one above all). Of her other counterparts even Friday had refrained from expressing 100% physical effusiveness with her, acknowledging Wednesday's reservations.
Pup, as Enid would say, didn’t give an F.
So Wednesday surprised herself when, even with remarkable effort as if her limbs were poorly oiled mechanisms, she returned the embrace.
And it was at that moment that the door of one of the rooms in the hallway they were in opened next to them, and a newly awakened Yoko Tanaka stepped outside, encountering the quite unexpected scene.
The two Wednesdays split apart and watched her. Wednesday with growing irritation. Pup with her eternal curiosity.
The vampire's eyes, not yet covered by her glasses, went from sleepy to wide with enormous surprise, especially as she realized that the miniature Wednesday Addams now staring back at her was none of those she had met the day before.
"Wednesday, what..."
"Tanaka. If a single word of what you just saw comes from your lips to anyone but Enid, a stake through the heart will be the least of your problems."
The vampire nodded nervously, putting on her glasses. Wednesday sighed, pointing at Pup.
"This is Pup, another one of my... gremlins, as you had called them," Wednesday explained, "Pup, this is Yoko Tanaka. A leech."
"Hey!"
Pup waved a greeting with a small smile. Vampires were funny.
NOTES
Pup’s first contact with Wednesday took priority and ended up absorbing the rest of the chapter. If Friday was already a reminder to Wednesday of a certain lost innocence, Pup is the same thing a hundredfold. Her mannerisms are much closer to her own at that age. If Friday was like looking at a distorted reflection, Pup is almost like looking at a near-perfect photograph of her younger self.
Lucifer, Homer and Pericles are pets mentioned or appearing in the 60's series. As far as I can remember there was no equivalent to Nero, but I decided to include him for the delicious, delicious drama.
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