My Wolf, My Witch

Crypt in chains

A room totally plunged into darkness, not even a glimmer of light filtering through the cracks, a place where the smell of death hovers, a place where even cockroaches dare not approach, the dark power permeating the stale air so dense that it was difficult for the poor little mole who had just fallen from the ceiling to breathe, the poor little thing had been so frightened by the noises on the surface that it started digging madly until the ground missed under her paws and she fell, fortunately unharmed.

"I'm almost there, I feel like it's getting wider up ahead!"

Beams of white light begin to appear from a crack in the wall.

The poor mole obviously does not see them, but the loud metallic noises scratching the rock startle it, causing it to flee to the wall in front of it, which it probes until it finds a soft enough spot in which to dig to scurry away.

"I see something beyond the hole but I don't fit!"

Next to the flashlight appears a pitch-black eye that begins to scan the interior of the underground room.

"Willa move show me too!"

Wednesday doesn't make a fuss; she presses herself against the wall of the burrow to allow Enid to watch.

"That's her Wednesday, Goody's crypt, we found her!"

Raven is busy laboriously rummaging through her backpack and responds to the company with condescension.

"Were you perhaps questioning my detective skills?"

On Wednesday you finally manage to calibrate out the small electric drill out of your backpack.

"I hope the battery is enough. Enid come behind me, if this rock contains metal there could be sparks."

Enid does as she is told, but not without objecting.

"But yes, after all, I'm the one with the supernatural healing factor, just in case I get hurt."

"And I am the only one who knows how to drill through rock in a hole less than a meter in diameter without causing a landslide."

Enid gives no answer; it is enough for her that Wednesday made her use the hydraulic drill to break through to the estate's basement.

It takes almost 10 minutes on the clock before Wednesday can enlarge the hole enough to fit through it.

"And here we are, the burial place of Goody Addams."

The girls begin to look around and the only thing they notice is that the room is bare, Goody for the outcasts of those times should have been a heroine, the one who defeated Joseph Crackstone, why would her family members bury her like this?

"Come on Enid, open the sarcophagus, there doesn't seem to be anything out here, if there are clues, Goody must have taken them to the grave."

Enid is obviously not happy about it, already raiding someone's grave was not an idea she was comfortable with, but to even desecrate her coffin made her feel bad.

"I hope for you Manny it's worth it or I swear you'll regret it."

Enid pushes and with much more effort than Wednesday expected manages to move the lid.

"What the heck is this!?!?"

Chains, Ropes, arcane seals, a myriad of alchemical symbols covered Goody's coffin. If coffin it could be called, apparently Goody's body was walled up in a coffin of boulders and mud, which was then wrapped with huge, thick iron chains and very strong ropes, all engraved with what Wednesday had studied to be symbols of sealing and confinement, some arcane related to magic, some alchemical related to the material itself. Leaning over everything was an old and worn notebook, made from two old and battered pieces of leather as the cover and what looked like a leather rope as the binding, in between an indefinite number of pages.

"Willa..... what the hell is this!!!?"

"I don't know Enid, but someone has put a lot of effort into making sure that what's locked up here doesn't get out."

Enid takes a few steps back.

"Are we sure it's Goody's grave and not some you other crazy and tremendously dangerous ancestor?"

Wednesday does not respond, reaches out and takes the notebook resting on top of the chains and opens it.

"Goody Addams' private journal...... Enid, behind the cover..... is the same symbol as Jacob Addams' diaries."

"The symbol that prevents Manny from reading its contents."

After Manny had recovered he did not remember the last part of the speech, the one that had sent him into a tailspin, the girls preferred to gloss over the subject, but when they asked about the journals instead he said one particular thing.

"I know their contents roughly..... In fact now that you make me think about it, I don't remember ever reading them and still can't...."

According to Grandma Addams that symbol resembles those used to ward off spirits, but it was a much more complex and articulated version.

"Are you sure it's the same? I didn't remember these."

Enid points to symbols surrounding the seal.

"Actually these are new, in the books Manny is making me study there is nothing like this."

"What exactly is the diary about?"

Wednesday grimaces as she flips through the diary.

"The title is written in elegant calligraphy with old but still understandable English, the rest is messy, full of scribbles and magic seals left in the middle or erased...."

Wednesday closes the notebook abruptly and looks up at Enid.

"Wednesday.... You're scaring me...."

"This is not just a diary, this.... It is the first draft of Goody's grimoire, here are all her spells, all her research that she did not want to transcribe in the final volume."

The object Wednesday holds in her hand is not enchantment, but the information it contains alone causes it to emanate such dark power that it chills young Addams.

"Maybe here is the information about Manor, but there is much more, something very dangerous."