CHAPTER THIRTEEN
my resentment's getting smaller
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𝐖ednesday Addams truly never runs out of surprises. Agnes definitely did not expect her to be hanging around Eugene Otinger who was way better in contrast to the girl's very dark personality. Yet anyway, the three of them stood in front of a cave somewhere in the middle of the same woods that the monster was prowling around. It looked a lot like the drawing on the sketchpad Wednesday had in her hands, which she had no idea where she got from.
It was obviously not from Xavier. Agnes knows her friend's drawings and his doesn't look like that one.
Other than the fact she was out in the middle of the woods again, Agnes couldn't stop thinking about Tyler. They hadn't left on such a good note and she really needed to talk to him. Because as scared as she was to find out that he actually liked her, Agnes didn't want to lose him over the fact that she was too much of a coward to admit that she felt the same thing.
"It's definitely a match," Wednesday stated.
Agnes glanced worriedly at the younger boy. "What were you doing out here, Eugene?"
"Collecting specimens. This place is ground zero for horny gypsy moths," Eugene explained. Then he became uneasy as he stared at the hole. "You think it's in there?"
"Only one way to find out."
"Oh, okay." Agnes hefted her bag and followed after Wednesday inside the cave. Eugene hesitantly does the same thing. "I guess we're going into the strange dark cave where a deadly monster could possibly be."
Eugene grimaced at the sight of the cave. "I'm not a huge fan of enclosed spaces. I'm claustrophobic."
"It's just like getting buried alive," Agnes stated. Then she went on further like it would him feel any better. "You might feel a little queasy for some time and you'll probably die after a few hours but it's bearable."
"If you hear me screaming bloody murder, there's a good chance I'm just enjoying myself," Wednesday told him.
Eugene looked at her nervously, but Agnes just shrugged and went after Wednesday with no hesitation. The entrance did look a little bit smaller at first but their crouching height made them fit altogether. Wednesday led the way with a flashlight in her hand, lighting up their way until they ended up at the end of the tunnel, which was now enough for them to stand up straight.
"This is definitely its lair," Wednesday confirmed, shining the flashing everywhere around them. There were bones, animal bones, Agnes would like to assume.
"Are those human?" Eugene asked fearfully.
Wednesday crouched down to inspect one of the skulls on the ground. "No, I think it's got a taste for venison."
Their findings only kept getting worse. Eugene ended up finding a shackle attached to the cave walls like it was put there for somebody. Then Wednesday came around and shone more light on the chains on the wall. It gave her a sick feeling in the stomach when she realized they were a bunch of scratch marks on the wall like somebody was trying to claw themself out of their binds.
"Yahtzee." Wednesday plucked a fang stuck between a split rock. Eugene peered behind her and asked what it was. "Concrete proof."
Agnes stepped forward, hesitantly tracing the scratch marks on the wall. She tried to feel something, anything, but she could only sigh with discontent when her psychic powers did not work. I suppose, it comes and goes just like Wednesday's abilities. She snapped out of her thoughts when Eugene called her name. Tearing her gaze off the used shackle and scratch marks on the rugged walls of the cave.
The girl had disappeared after their little adventure, and naturally, Agnes wanted to know what hell Wednesday Addams was up to now. She didn't expect to find her just outside the artist's little shed, looking like she'd just had an argument with someone about something. Wednesday gave her one last narrowed look before leaving.
Agnes entered his shed, surprising the heck out of Xavier. "What was that about?"
"Did you know?" He demanded, sounding genuinely upset for some reason.
"What?" Agnes asked, furrowing her brows. Then she realized the drawings on the canvases around her plastered on the walls. Her heart raced. The familiar face of the monster was intricately sketched on the canvas with aggressive and heavy strokes. It was the same big eyes that haunted her when she closed her eyes. "Xavier..."
"So what?" Xavier chuckled dryly. He threw his arms up in the air like he was frustrated, glancing around his terrifying artwork. "You think I'm the monster too? That I had been lying this whole time?"
"Look, X━"
"Just stop! You're just like... like Wednesday," Xavier yelled. He ran his fingers through his hair, looking like he might start crying at any moment. "Maybe you should stop hanging around her, and be around people who actually like you."
"Likes me? Are you kidding me right now, Xavier? What does that even mean?" Agnes scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief. "You barely believed me when I told you there was something out there! And now I find out you're having visions of the same thing? You should've told me. Or is it because you don't trust me too?"
"Agnes, I didn't mean━"
"That's right, you didn't," Agnes snapped, briefly shutting her eyes from frustration "How could quickly assume that I am not on your side when all my life that's all I ever did? Be by your side." Her face hardened with some kind of sadness. "You weren't always in mine."
Agnes was sitting on the windowsill with her legs dangling at the edge when her dorm room's door burst open. Stepped inside was someone she'd never expected inside her room. It was Wednesday Addams. And she didn't look particularly delighted at the mess of what Agnes called a safe haven.
Other than the fact there were already a bunch of old rusting gasoline canisters on the floors, Agnes seemed like she found a new hobby of putting together random scraps to make any sort of an explosive device. The room smelled like it too. Like the stench of napalm and mechanical smoke coming from the strange devices scattered all over her floors.
"What now?" Agnes said bluntly. After everything that happened today, she barely has the energy to have another spat with someone else. "Don't tell me you're pissed off too."
"There is no plausible reason for me to be upset or 'pissed off' as I don't feel any sort of emotion towards you," Wednesday deadpanned. She crossed her arms, keeping a safe distance as she stood next to the doorway. "Eugene and I are going to stake out the cave and identify the monster. You will be useful if you would come with us willingly."
"I feel like you're ordering me to come," Agnes muttered, putting her whole body inside the room again. She jumped off the windowsill and trudged towards her desk. "Why would I do that? I have to accompany Ajax to the dance anyway."
"Because as much as it pains you to admit, you and I both know there is something more about that monster," Wednesday said too confidently that Agnes almost wanted to lie that she didn't care. "And you can't get enough of it unless you find out who it was. Whoever it may be."
Agnes sighed exasperatedly, giving up on the temptation of finding out who the killer was. "Fine. I'll give Ajax a more fitting date for the dance. This better be worth my time, Addams."
Something was missing. Agnes glared through her drawers, rummaging through countless wires, screws, and crumpled papers. Then she realized her personalized cards with her initials engraved on them were nowhere to be seen. She was finding something else but when she had a feeling something was wrong, Agnes ended up getting thrown off course once again.
The Rave'N was just starting off downstairs in the hall. She could hear the faint sound of music from her room, and see the disco lights reflecting off the glass of her windows. Yet as everybody gathered at the dance dressed in all white and their respective dresses for tonight's theme━Agnes found herself clad in her usual sweater and a plain skirt with her favorite coat over them. She had worn black stocking leggings for better warmth.
She looked ready for a night out in the woods. Definitely not for a dance. So it really surprised her when a knock came on her door so early before Wednesday's set time. It only got worse when she opened it and found none other than Tyler Galpin standing there nervously with a box of something in his hand.
"Tyler," Agnes gulped. Her eyes fell on his white suit and the baby blue polo shirt he wore, very much playing right into their theme. Other than the fact he looked really fine in that suit, Agnes knew the card he held in his other hand all too well.
He hesitantly raised the card. "I got your invite. Guessing you had Thing drop it in the tip jar?"
Agnes suddenly had a strange urge to burn every stitched dismembered hand she sees. She smiled at him through gritted teeth. Not that she wasn't happy to see him. She just didn't plan very far in the future for this. All the words she'd been practicing to tell him were now gone in her head. So she smiled a little and said: "Good guess."
"Yeah, after our last conversation, I wasn't sure I'd even get to speak to you again, but..." Tyler said uneasily, giving her a nervous smile like he wasn't sure she was happy to see him. Or like he was intruding on her night. "Well, your note was so genuine and... sweet. Totally took me by surprise. I thought you were dyslexic?"
Genuine was strange. Sweet was just over the top. Agnes can be sweet, but not with her words. Because last time she checked, she definitely didn't know how to write sappy notes either. So she had no idea how Tyler believed she was the one who wrote all of that. She just assumed he thought she had someone help her.
That's even worse. He might've thought she actually made an effort to ask him to the dance. Agnes shuddered on the inside. She didn't know whether to thank Thing or barbecue the hand alive in her makeshift grill.
Agnes laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, well... I'm not really that dumb to not know a few words."
"Well, now that I'm here, I'm glad I came," Tyler said with a big smile. He looked so happy that Agnes didn't want to tell him the truth. His brows furrowed a little, noticing her outfit and wandering eyes like she wasn't quite ready. "You need a few minutes?"
"Yes." Agnes quickly closed the door in his face before he could say anything else. She put her back against the door, darting her eyes around the room to find something━anything━maybe a new canister of gasoline. She shook her head. Now was not the time.
Suddenly, there was another set of knocks that came on her door and she stepped back. Only this time it didn't bother to wait for her as they barged inside her room with a certain pitter-patter on the wooden floors. Her eyes narrowed. She swiftly turned around and made a beeline towards the voiceless hand with the name of Thing.
"Agnes!" Wednesday hissed. She didn't look too happy either. Agnes just noticed she was already wearing that little black dress she bought her. From the corner of her eyes, she watched Thing sway side by side on her windowsill with a sense of spite. "Why did you buy me this dress?"
"Because I thought you were going with Xavier to the dance!" Agnes sighed loudly.
Wednesday narrowed her eyes. "And now you're the one with the problem."
"Because your stupid little━I mean, Thing━just did a thing, and now Tyler is waiting for me downstairs for the dance," Agnes exclaimed, rushing through her closet but there was barely any clothing suited for the occasion. She looked at Wednesday pleadingly. "Not that I'm not, like, glad to see him, but I'm so not ready to talk to him... Can we just like, go together or something?"
"I am going," Wednesday deadpanned. "With a guy I barely know just because Thing also did what you called... a thing."
"How are you so calm?" Agnes cried out, eventually dropping on her bed facing the ceiling. "You hate dances!"
"I did not say I couldn't dance."
"Delightful. Just brilliant."
"And that's your dress inside the box."
Agnes abruptly sat up from her bed, looking suspiciously at Wednesday then followed her gaze to the floor next to Thing. The hand looked pretty proud for someone who might've just messed up her night and her plans. She carefully approached it like the big box would burst into fire and her along with it.
"Get dressed," Wednesday said bluntly. "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."
It was a simple navy blue dress that complimented her ebony skin. Like a perfect combination of complexions. Not too bright and not too subtle either. Agnes never thought she would say this but she actually liked it. She also quickly did her hair in a half braid like a crown with the other half spread out in its dark curls.
The braids had exposed the random streaks of white hair on the back of her head. Poliosis. Believe it or not, her werewolf mother has it too. Even her wolf form had streaks of white on the fur like some kind of dalmatian dog. Agnes hoped her fur wouldn't be black so she wouldn't look like a dalmatian. (Not that she would ever transform).
Agnes took a deep breath, took one last look at the mirror in her bathroom, and set down her brush on the sink. I guess some things cannot be stopped. But for the first time, she felt a new reason to have fun and let loose when everything else gets too much for her. Maybe she doesn't deserve this, but for a while, Agnes would like to think destiny finally thought it would be a great time to see genuine happiness and relief in her.