When Tyler found a note in his apron when he was clocking out his first thought was how the hell did someone manage to sneak it in there without him noticing but after reading it it made way too much sense.
"Text me
(xxx-xxx-xxxx)
-Erix ❤︎"
He couldn't help the stupid grin that came over his face and he was happy that there wasn't too many people in the shop to see it. Who knew the boy he was so desperate to talk to wanted to get to know him.
Enough to give him his number too!
He had just put his number in when he heard knocking on his window. He pushed the window open only for a disembodied hand to walk– crawl(?) it's way onto the windowsill.
"Holy shit!" Tyler reached for his bat.
He swung at the hand but it kept crawling until it made it to his desk. As he swung the bat again it grabbed the end and pulled hard enough to throw it out of his hands.
The hand tapped on his desk.
"Okay." Tyler sat down. "Okay, I'm taking orders from a hand. This isn't weird at all."
The hand showed him its palm with a message written on it. There was a number written on it with 'call me' under it.
He put the number in and called. Needless to say he was surprised to see Wednesday answer with a blonde girl behind her.
"Uh... hi." he said, confused. He glanced at the hand that was still on his desk.
"That's Thing." Wednesday told him.
"Is i– he, like, your pet?"
"He's sensitive."
"Look, I know Nevermore is ground zero for all things weird, but this is next-level," Tyler said. "So, what happened to not wanting to be a slave to technology?"
"Desperate times." she sighed. "Are you still willing to help me escape?"
"After what happened today, I figured they'd have you in solitary." he told her. "What happened to Erix?"
"According to Enid, he never gets into serious trouble for sneaking out," Wednesday replied as the blonde girl nodded. "There's the Harvest Festival this weekend. Attendance is mandatory. I'm going to use it as a cover. If you're willing to drive me to the station, I can make it worth your while."
"I'm in." Tyler nodded. "And no charge. Consider it a freebie."
"Why?"
"'Cause I wish I was going with you," he said somewhat sadly. "At least one of us will get out of this hellhole town."
❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎
"Is it a dark academia whore type of night or a pastel whore type of night?"
"What about neon? Like, your coke bottle shirt with some ripped jeans and neon and black boots."
"This is why we're soulmates." Erix pointed at his friend.
They (read as Erix) were getting ready for the Harvest Festival when Erix had a short mental breakdown because Tyler not only found his note but also asked him if he wanted to meet up at the festival.
At the moment Ajax was lying upside down on his bed while Erix rushed around trying to find an outfit. He was half dressed when he came upon the problem of what style he should dress in. Luckily, Ajax was there.
"No problem, 'Rix."
"Pink or green?!"
"Pink."
After Erix had finished getting dressed they walked down to the bus that was going to take them all down to the festival grounds. Ajax looked at him.
"Are you sure you can trust the normie?" he asked.
"I know I can handle myself," Erix replied. "And you do too."
"Yeah but you 'handling things' is how you ended up here. His dad's a cop 'Rix, what am I gonna do if you get arrested?"
"Don't worry, 'Jax. It's not like I'm gonna kill someone."
❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎
"Are you sure you can trust that normie?" Enid asked.
"I trust that I can handle myself," Wednesday replied.
"Well, good luck and safe travels." She moved to give her a hug but Wednesday stepped back. "Still not a hugger. Got it."
Enid walked off to find one of her friends while Wednesday walked to one of the booths. Before she could join up with Tyler she needed to lose Weems.
She went to a dart throwing booth and quickly made a plan. She threw a few darts not missing a single one.
Unluckily for her, another tail came.
"Jeez, you get any better at this, you'll be taking home a whole pack," Xavier said.
"Pandas don't travel in packs. They prefer solitude." Wednesday threw another dart.
"Alright. Subtle hint taken."
"You should know I'm waiting for someone," she told him.
Maybe now he'd leave her alone.
"Oh yeah, who's the lucky guy..." he asked. "Or girl?"
"What does it matter to you?"
Finally Tyler walked up behind them. "Didn't mean to interrupt."
"You're not." Xavier said before leaving.
"This is gonna be trickier than I thought."
"Dad hit me with a curfew. We need to go if I'm gonna make it back in time."
Tonight just kept getting better and better.
"I've got some dead weight I need to lose first. Meet me behind the parking lot when the fireworks start." Tyler nodded before walking off. Wednesday turned to the carnie. "You see that sad, lonely woman over there? She needs this pathetic validation more than I do. Would you mind distracting her?"
He shrugged and picked up the giant panda. As he dropped it in front of Weems' view Wednesday made her escape.
The fireworks crackling in the sky was her cue. She made her way through to the back parking lot where they were least likely to be seen.
"Hey, before you leave, I wanted you to have this." Tyler handed her a police report. "It's your dad's police file from when he was at Nevermore. I think it's the reason my dad hates him."
Wednesday took it and stared at him for a moment.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm not used to people engaging with me," she admitted. "Most see me coming and cross the street."
"You're not scary. You're just kinda..." Tyler trailed off looking for the word. "kooky."
"I prefer spooky."
"Oh." he smiled slightly.
He seemed to do that a lot.
"Now my train leaves in an hour. We're burning moonlight."
"Uh, right, right."
They turned to see the "pilgrims" walking out from behind the cars. They had metal pipes and crowbars obviously looking for a fight.
"Hey." Tyler tried to get her attention. "Come on, Wednesday. Wednesday! We can lose them in the crowd."
Rowan came running out of nowhere and knocked into her. That was when Wednesday got another vision.
"Oh, whoa!" She heard Tyler say.
It would be hard to explain what exactly she saw but as she came to again she knew one thing for certain.
Rowan was in danger.
❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎
When Tyler had told him earlier that he was driving Wednesday to Burlington so he might disappear for like a half hour, Erix was like "oh, chill". He decided he could just hang out with Ajax for a while so that's what he did.
"Is that Enid?" Ajax asked.
Leaning around his extremely tall friend to see, Erix nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"Oh– no reason."
"You're such a shit liar." Erix deadpanned.
Really the only one who didn't know Ajax had a crush on Enid and that Enid had a crush on Ajax were the two themselves. And as their wonderful friend, Erix really didn't care to tell them.
"Dude, just go talk to her." Erix sighed. "It's sickening to watch you stand over here and just watch her."
"But what about you?"
"I'm fine on my own, now go! Shoo!" Erix shoved his friend towards her.
"See ya 'Rix!"
Erix shook his head. They really weren't kidding about the whole stoner thing.
He walked around the booths. He had already annoyed most of the carnies so he couldn't do that. Glancing at the woods he thought, 'why not?' and made his way through the crowd.
A wave of power swept through the forest unlike any he'd felt at Nevermore. He, like an impulsive idiot, walked closer.
"Rowan– Rowan." he heard a feminine voice gasp.
Wednesday.
She sounded like she couldn't breathe and what in all the rings of hell was Rowan doing here. Erix broke into a run trying to get to them.
He may not be a genius but he was perceptive.
Rowan had been acting weird every time he saw him, looking at him then immediately looking away, trying to make sure he was never alone with him (which wasn't hard because Erix never wanted to be alone with Rowan in the first place), practicing his telekinesis dangerously close to him. It was like he was scared of him or something.
He came upon a clearing where he saw Wednesday floating pushed up against a tree and Rowan with his hand pointed flat towards her.
"What the fuck?" Erix couldn't help but say.
Like mentioned before Erix was no genius (despite what his grades might tell you). Rowan turned to look at him. A crazed smile came over his face.
"This just keeps getting better." the glasses wearing boy said before using his telekinesis to push Erix against the tree just like Wednesday.
"Rowan...put me down," Wednesday told him.
"No! My mother said it was my destiny to stop this girl if she ever came to Nevermore, because she will destroy the school and everyone in it. And that creature behind her was meant to be the only thing standing in my way." he looked at Erix. "Not anymore."
"C'mon Row you don't really wanna do this do you?" Erix tried to reason with him. "Put us down and we can talk over coffee. Hm?"
Sadly, emotional manipulation didn't work but, luckily, a monster bounded into the clearing and batted Rowan aside.
Erix and Wednesday fell to the ground and gasped for air. He was surprised she survived for so long without breathing properly.
The beast snarled and swiped at Rowan, ripping his flesh apart. Rowan screamed and wailed as he was mauled. Eyes wide, Erix rushed in front of Wednesday and covered her.
Rowan was dead.
The beast turned to them and stared Erix down before running off into the woods. Wednesday pushed him away from her and walked over to Rowan's body on shaky legs. She knelt down and stared at the picture on his chest.
Erix looked over her shoulder at it.
It was a picture of a small girl with braids in a nevermore uniform. She was surrounded by fire and was holding a sword. Behind her Erix could see the beast Rowan was talking about.
A black figure with horns and a halo around its neck and seemingly red eyes stood tall, looking down at whatever the girl was standing against.
After a few seconds of Wednesday sitting there shocked she fell limp.
"Wednesday!" Erix caught her. "Fuck– we need to get out of here. I can't be blamed for murder... again."
"Wednesday? Wednesday?" Erix heard someone call.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
"Wednes– what the hell?!" Xavier and Bianca came upon the clearing.
Erix shouldn't have laughed but he couldn't help but let out a small slightly awkward chuckle. Imagine just looking for the girl you're weirdly interested in (with your ex no less) and instead you find your other ex, said girl passed out, and a dead body.
Looked for a girlfriend, found a crime scene.
Erix snapped out of his daze. "What are you doing standing there like you're one of the trees? Go get help!"
Xavier nodded and ran back towards the festival grounds. Erix looked at Bianca.
"Make sure he doesn't accuse me of murder."
She nodded and followed after him. Erix sighed and stood up, carrying Wednesday with him. He looked back down at Rowan's corpse and stared at the picture.
He grabbed the sketch and pocketed it.
"She might want this when she wakes up." he muttered and made his way after the other two.
Looking back, he sometimes wished the monster that killed Rowan would've put him out of his misery too.