Yoko barely had time to report the situation to the rest of the Nightshades before Principal Barker's announcement kicked off the graduation ceremony.
The only thing that was clear to them, as they took their respective seats, was that Wednesday Addams was once again the center of some kind of bizarre situation that seemed to be similar to the one three months ago. Unfortunately, with the start of the ceremony any discussion on the matter had to be put on hold: the seats of the students who were to collect their diplomas were arranged alphabetically.
On the one hand Wednesday preferred it that way. As an Addams she would be among the first to be called upon to pick up a symbolic piece of paper and would therefore be among the first to be able to leave the scrutiny of the masses. On the other hand, she was to endure the principal's speech and later Bianca's speech while seated several rows apart from Enid.
Bianca, who was by the way the person sitting next to Wednesday.
"If she had agreed to take the Addams name already instead of keeping Sinclair she would be here beside me instead of you, Barclay," murmured the Addams.
"You're not married yet, are you?"
"Irrelevant."
The whole thing was going to be absolute torture, and not of the fun kind.
Silence fell between the two of them and the rest of the audience as Barnabas Barker ascended the stage. The gorgon wore an eye-catching white suit and his usual wide-brimmed hat concealing the snakes on his head. From the dais the principal allowed himself a satisfied look at the assembled students before beginning his speech. Ceremonies at Nevermore were a little less formal than at other high schools and students were not required to wear a stole or graduation cap, their school uniforms or formal wear were more than adequate.
Wednesday practically ignored Barker's words and verbosity. It was not a matter of disrespect, just plain and simple disinterest. The speech was the typical collection of platitudes and clichés typical of the self-satisfied celebrations of academia that one might expect on such a day. Besides, her mind was more focused on other matters.
Wednesday glanced back and her eyes met Enid's. The she-wolf offered a nervous smile in response. Further back, she could see her parents and Pugsley, plus Theo and Dora sitting next to them. There seemed to be the good fortune of either some absence or over seating, which allowed the twins to be next to their, technically, family.
Wednesday mentally reviewed all the information she had acquired in the last few minutes. Children of alternate versions of herself and Enid crossing dimensions in search of their mother. The alternate version of her kidnapped by a creature described as a living shadow. Said counterpart of her turned out to be a grown Friday who had started her own family, the passage of time in her dimension being different from this one's own.
And in all of it there was something that put her instincts on edge.
What was this creature? Theo had mentioned something Wednesday already knew. Shadow creatures like that could move between different planes of existence and between different realities. Why abduct a Wednesday Addams from a universe surely different from the one it came from and disappear without causing further harm?
There was... there must be a reason. It wasn't a casual attack, it was planned and calculated. Maybe not with any more finesse and cunning than an animal attack, but certainly not random or opportunistic either.
Wednesday frowned. That implied the possible existence of a pattern.
She couldn't rule out that Friday had made enemies in her own reality, true, but she had a terrible hunch that it wasn't something so mundane. And the idea that someone might at that moment be causing some kind of harm to Friday made her…
"Addams?" whispered Bianca beside her. Wednesday glanced at the siren and could see that she was watching her with a slightly worried expression.
"You were... er... grinding your teeth. Loudly", Bianca said.
Wednesday opened her mouth to respond, but it was the words of one of the attending parents that cut through the air, interrupting Barker's speech.
"What the hell is that?!"
The one who had spoken was one of the vampires, standing and pointing high in the direction of Nevermore's walls behind the graduation stage. The gazes of all present focused on the pointed spot.
There, at the very top of Nevermore, atop the tower of Ophelia Hall that until a few hours ago had housed Wednesday and Enid's shared dorm room for the past two years, an oversized figure rested, surveying everything like a gargoyle.
And at that moment, accompanied by a muffled scream from the crowd, the being jumped.
It did not let itself fall, it was a proper and deliberate leap, fearless despite the height and distance. On the stage, Barnabas Barker began to move as he realized the angle of the creature's descent. The gorgon principal jumped off the stage just about the instant the being landed squarely on the spot where the principal had been a few seconds earlier, splintering the wood with a small crater.
Wednesday rose to her feet, ignoring the panic-born cacophony around her.
Chairs fell as their occupants rose abruptly, most of the crowd seeking to move out of the way. The Addams knew that her family would not be among those evacuating the area, nor would some of the members of the vampiric or lycanthropic families present. The students for their part had begun to back away as well, pushed back by the teachers. Wednesday could hear Bianca and others of the Nightshades shouting orders, trying to keep the calm to avoid a stampede of people.
On the stage, the being stood up.
Behind her back, Wednesday heard Dora's voice above all the others, "That's it! That's the thing that took our mother!"
The creature was indeed a living shadow. There was no other way to describe it. It was as if a shred of the night itself had been given shape and volume. It seemed to absorb the light around itself, nothing was reflected in its body of infinite darkness. Where the being stood it was as if a piece of reality was missing. Wednesday noticed with slight curiosity how staring at it was causing a sensation of pain and irritation in her eyes.
But that was not what made Wednesday Addams' every hair rise with a delicious mixture of anticipation and fear.
The shape of the being, the outline of the shadow... its height, its disproportionate torso, its long ape-like arms reaching to the ground topped with sharp claws, its bulbous head... Wednesday would recognize such a silhouette anywhere.
The monster was a Hyde. A Hyde made of shadows.
And from the way it sniffed the air and moved, it seemed that suddenly the being was staring at her despite there being no visible eyes in its form. The darkness that made it up was only broken when it opened its mouth and in the shadow there was suddenly visible a row of teeth, glowing whitish with their own glow.
He's come looking for me, thought Wednesday, Well, that answers some of my questions. I'll have to ask many more assuming I survive this encounter or am not neutralized or captured like Friday.
The creature roared. As it raised its arms outstretched, revealing its claws. Wednesday deduced that it was some sort of intimidation tactic, or perhaps the being was boasting.
In response, the Addams let one of the multiple daggers she constantly concealed in various parts of her uniform drop into the palm of her hand and promptly threw it at the creature. The dagger flew, whistling through the air and plunged into the being's torso, sinking into its chest.
Literally sinking. The dagger was absorbed into the shadows of the creature's body, as if it had struck something that went from solid to intangible in an instant. Finally it fell to the ground between the Hyde's two legs, partially covered by a grayish goo like a grotesque excrement.
The Hyde laughed. A guttural, dissonant sound. It seemed pleased with itself as it showed how at least conventional weaponry would be of little use against it.
The laughter stopped, and what happened next took place in seconds.
The Hyde leapt again, claws outstretched, ready to snatch Wednesday.
The Addams could hear someone shouting her name, maybe Bianca or Yoko. Almost all noise around her seemed to disappear as she concentrated, every muscle in her body tensing to move. This Hyde was fast, but no faster than Tyler Galpin had been. And this time Wednesday wasn't recovering from being stabbed to death in the previous few minutes. The Addams could dodge the attack with no problem, stepping aside.
But she merely smiled and began to duck.
Almost all noise around her had faded in her concentration. Except for the sound of clothes bursting, muscles shifting, and a throat growling. Wednesday ducked just in time for a huge, lupine figure covered in golden fur to fly just above her and ram the Hyde into the air, throwing him back against the stage.
The Hyde made of shadows sat up and Wednesday noted with satisfaction from its body language that the being seemed not only dazed but also perplexed.
And in front of it, standing eight and a half feet tall, a transformed Enid Sinclair extended her claws and responded with a mixture of roar and howl that shook the foundations of Nevermore.
The smile on Wednesday's face intensified even more, if that could be believed. Watching Enid fully unleash the beast that slumbered within her at any time of the day was a sight that the Addams would never cease to find fascinating and alluring in equal measure. That vision of steely muscles covered by golden fur, sharp fangs and multicolored claws had been a recurring one in many of her dreams.
The idea of being subdued by such a beast, surrounded by her arms, feeling the burning warmth of...
Oh, no. She had to stop, this was neither the time nor the place to fantasize about her future wife in her monstrous form.
Cursed hells, I'm really turning into my father.
Oblivious to her paramour's thoughts, Enid had other things on her mind. Mainly, turning the creature in front of her into manageable chunks.
Enid was sure that in Friday's reality, her husband would surely have tried to do the same if he could. But from what the twins had mentioned, Eamon Sinclair must have been fortunate enough to be a normal lycanthrope, only with the ability to transform under the moonlight.
Not being a normal lycanthrope had caused years of pain and anguish for Enid, but it was also what had allowed her to save Wednesday repeatedly and discover facets of herself that she would never have thought possible in the past and that had been the first steps that would one day make her a proper Addams.
The Enid transformed for the first time who fought Tyler Galpin did so with a mixture of fury and fear. The Enid of today, again facing a Hyde, still carried those two emotions but tempered by greater experience.
So when the Hyde pounced on her again, Enid kept her instincts in check and did not act out of pure reflex. Her actions were calculated and measured. The werewolf dropped to the side just as the Hyde was about to strike her with its claws. With the monster in the air at her side, Enid struck out, hurling a swipe straight at the creature's head.
The Hyde fell back to the ground, bringing its hands to where its face would be and emitting shrieks of disbelieving pain. Four white lines, as if made of luminous light, had appeared in the shadow that was his body.
Knives and daggers may have had no effect on the Shadow Hyde.
But Enid Sinclair's claws did.
NOTES
Yep. I'm going to call it Shadow Hyde. Is it really original? Not at all, but I like how it sounds.
If you want to visualize something similar to the effect I've been trying to achieve by depicting its teeth glowing in the darkness of its body, look up images of the aliens in the movie Attack the Block. It's something along those lines.
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