Wednesday Friday Addams, or more appropriately, Woe Addams, as she had been renamed in recent hours, watched the night sky over Nevermore Academy from the balcony of the room in which Friday, her younger counterpart, and she were staying as guests.
Her demeanor was stoic, but her mind was a seething hive of activity borne out of the situation she found herself in, and the conversation with the older Wednesday Addams and later with Thing after her older counterpart and her blonde roommate left in search of answers.
On the one hand, part of her was ecstatic about the whole situation. That inquisitive, unquiet part of her mind that from her earliest childhood had made her interested in the strange and the unusual. The multiverse existed and she was experiencing it first hand! In the reality she was in right now the year was 2024, her counterpart had been born almost 26 years later than her and despite the enormous similarities (the result of being the same person on a cosmic level) the differences were also overwhelming. A student at an academy for supernatural youngsters where her parents had met? Woe's Gomez and Morticia never studied at the same place. They had met just out of their teens at Balthazar Addams' funeral (Gomez was still the prime suspect), and Gomez had proposed to Morticia that very night. It was a story Woe had heard a hundred times.
And that was just one of many other details.
Another part of her, however, was not happy. There was a very big difference between exploring a new reality on your own and doing so involuntarily. Not being in control of the situation was unnerving.
And Thing. Seeing a version of Thing covered in scars and stitches infuriated her for some reason. Woe would never admit it, but one of her earliest childhood memories was of the living hand making shadow shapes in her nursery room. He never managed to make her laugh, but the petite Addams always appreciated the effort of who was basically just another honorary uncle to her. The Thing of this reality claimed to have no recollection of where his marks came from, for him they had always been there for as long as he could remember. Woe thought that was fortunate for those responsible.
If someone were to injure her Thing like that, she would seek out the perpetrators and rip the fingernails from their fingers with pliers.
Only she had the right to perform unnecessary surgical interventions on her own family.
And finally, in a secluded little corner of her mind, she thought of Pubert, who at just a year and a half old had to have witnessed his older sister's vanishing. She thought about how Pugsley, Father and Mother must be dealing with it even after only a few hours. Or Uncle Fester and Aunt Dementia, who were visiting. And Grandmama... Yes, Grandmama was probably already thinking about having a seance to locate her.
Woe squashed her own sentimentality. Holding back a sigh she left the balcony and went back into the dorm room. Friday seemed to be rummaging around under Wednesday's bed, being watched intently by Thing.
Woe ignored her more pinkish self and took another look around.
The room said a lot and very little at the same time. To the naked eye, there was a clear split between the two halves into which it was divided. One side was dark, gray, tidy, with an old typewriter, sparsely decorated and giving off the same atmosphere as many of the old rooms in Addams Manor. The other side was an explosion of color, adorable stuffed animals, colorful fabrics, something Woe gathered was some sort of portable computer, and walls adorned with posters of inane pop bands. Strangely, most of them seemed to be Korean.
But the young Addams girl's keen eye was able to appreciate the minor inconsistencies.
On the darker side of the room, on the writing table next to the typewriter rested what looked like a pair of tea cups decorated in brightly colored, handcrafted designs with the letters W and E.
On the more colorful side, among the mass of pastel-colored stuffed animals stood out an adorable bat and spider crafted from black felt.
An old, dark, Addams-esque violoncello rested on the brightest side of the room. A pair of scarf-like pieces of cloth, one black and white but the other of a bright pink and reddish hue, rested on the darker bed. A piece of cloth here, some incongruous object there...
It was as if the two sides of the room were progressively becoming one and the same.
It raised questions that she hoped would be answered by the older Wednesday as soon as she returned.
A metallic noise and a muffled lament drew Woe's attention to Friday.
The little girl dressed in pink was another peculiar enigma. From what little she had told there didn't seem to be extensive differences between their families, but there was something about the way she described her experiences that was strangely... light. Apparently her version of The Addams Family was involved in a road trip across the United States for an indefinite period of time. Curious.
The younger Addams emerged from under Wednesday's bed with her pink dress soaking in dust and cobwebs. A disappointed expression adorned her normally cheerful face.
Against her best interests, Woe felt intrigued enough to ask a question.
"What's going on?"
Friday turned to her, something akin to hope shining in her eyes. Since Wednesday and Enid's departure, the two interdimensional refugees had barely spoken to each other. That Woe seemed concerned filled the younger Addams' heart with joy.
"I'm looking for a guillotine, but Wednesday doesn't seem to have one here."
Woe raised an eyebrow and shifted her gaze to the mountain of fluff piled on Enid's bed.
"Ah, Robespierre and the Terror,” said Woe.
A delighted smile filled Friday's face. Woe had to resist the urge to take a step back. It was a disturbing image to see a face so similar to her own smiling so sincerely. It was an easy thing to weaponize psychologically. She knew it firsthand.
"Yes!" the younger Addams replied, "I wanted to do a revolutionary trial with Miss Enid's stuffed animals and determine which of them are enemies of the Republic. Have you played this too?"
A strange feeling of nostalgia came over Woe, though her face did not betray its unexpressiveness for an instant.
"Not for a long time now. At least not with stuffed animals and dolls. We tried once with Pubert but the little monster stopped the blade with his hand," Woe reminisced, "I still have my Marie Antoinette doll, though."
"Pubert," whispered Friday, "I wonder what it's like to have a little brother..."
"Don't you have Pugsley?"
Friday shook her head, "Pugsley's older than me."
Well, thought Woe, another detail for the list of differences.
"Pugsley as a big brother? My condolences."
"He's not too bad. He always lets me in on his explosions if I ask him to, and if my guillotine breaks he always fixes it for me," said Friday, "Don't you get along with your Pugsley?"
"He's... an adequate accomplice. Most of the time."
Friday looked down, a strange aura of melancholy suddenly seemed to fall upon the little girl for a moment. It vanished at once when she looked up again.
"I hope to see him again soon," she said with conviction, "I have to tell him that in another reality he's the little brother, it's sure to drive him out of his mind."
Woe did not smile, but her facial muscles relaxed microscopically.
"Sure it does," she said, "Well, shall I help you execute these rebels?"
Friday smiled again, " You want to play with me?"
"It's not like I have anything better to do to pass the time," she replied, looking around the room again, "Maybe try playing that cello, but my main interest has always been more in acting than music. And if there's no guillotine we can always improvise. When I picked up the crossbow I seem to remember seeing some machetes."
"There are also axes and knives,” said Friday.
"So we'll have anachronistically medieval executions. It could be good."
"Oh, we can start with...," Friday got up and started grabbing some of Enid's stuffed animals, "This bunny... oh, and the kitty! And that panda too. He has the face of a corrupt sympathizer of the old monarchy."
Suddenly, Thing jumped from Wednesday's bed to the floor, where he began tapping his fingers repeatedly.
"But Miss Enid gave me permission to play, Thing," Friday replied as she deciphered the hurried sign talk.
"I know little one," tapped the living hand, "But Enid's concept of playing with her stuffed animals doesn't involve the decapitation of most of them or having their heads end up on pikes adorning the walls."
Friday looked dejected, "I guess...it already seemed strange to me that they were all still in one piece."
Woe surprised herself by reaching out her arm, as if about to pat Friday's back encouragingly. She stopped before she made contact. If Thing noticed, the hand said nothing.
Woe coughed slightly, clearing her throat and catching Friday's attention again.
"Well, if we can't decapitate these plush, pastel-colored nightmares, surely we can think of something else to do with them," Woe said, "Let's go back to looking under the bed and in the drawers. Hopefully we'll find needles. Long ones."
"Oh, we can do voodoo rituals!” said Friday, “Or even palo mayombe rituals!"
"That's nothing. Let me teach you about ocular invasive acupuncture..."
The two Addams proceeded to fetch materials and tools for their game, to continue passing the time during the waiting and distract their minds. The conversation between the two became animated, at least on Friday's part. But Woe was answering her questions and queries, and her deadpan voice perhaps didn't sound so cutting.
And Thing, who continued to watch them attentively, would have smiled at the scene had he had the mouth to do so.
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