A cold breeze blew on Ember's snooded-neck as she walked along the path she had seen the mayor phone the sheriff on. She didn't show she was cold though. Or even shiver. She was tougher than that.
The garage doors, covered in red, flaky paint, weren't easy. After Wednesday took her shot, pulling at the handles with all her strength, and was unsuccessful, Tyler stepped in. "Hey, let me try."
Wednesday hesitated before letting him in. He tried, but again, it didn't work.
Ember didn't even speak as she took her turn, slamming herself at the doors and using all her arm and leg strength to open them.
It didn't work.
"This is pointless," Tyler rolled her eyes.
"No. Enid hasn't tried yet," Ember said immediately.
"Yeah, I'll have a go," the scared and cold girl stepped forward and pulled at the handle, and it came open within seconds.
"Whoa..." Tyler seemed surprised.
"What?" Enid shrugged, turning back to them. "It's a werewolf thing."
Ember, meanwhile, didn't hesitate to walk into the garage, Wednesday following swiftly behind. Tyler and Enid, again, exchanged looks, but went in after their two cancelled dates.
Ember was the one to find the light switch, so flicked it on as soon as she saw it. The orange bulb flickered for a second, then turned on straight.
The first thing she was aware of was a big, dark shape in the corner of the garage, and when the light came on, she saw it was a car, covered by a cream dust sheet. Ember saw it was blue, when she squinted.
And of course, the first thing Ember did was remove the dust sheet. Well, half way. And then she saw that her suspicions were right. A blue Cadillac.
With no number plate.
"This is the car that hit the mayor," she was dully aware of saying, enthralled by the investigation now.
Enid, meanwhile, wasn't. "Okay, this just took a dark turn!" She shrieked. "We need to call Tyler's dad right freakin' now!"
"Why?" Ember turned. Sheriff Galpin was not coming here. "So he can take me back to Nevermore and get me, probably Wednesday and possibly you, expelled? Not on your life."
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of!" Enid squealed, as Ember walked out the garage, now in pursuit of the main house. The car had laid the foundations, now she needed to make the building.
The front door creaked as Ember pushed it open, her torch only Illuminating about a metre in front of her. However, it was enough to see that she was in an abandoned, old, house.
Now that was cool.
"This is the night I'm gonna die," Tyler, who was behind Ember and Wednesday, was shaking. He still hadn't crossed the threshold.
Ember turned to him. "I would have no objections."
Enid, meanwhile, was whimpering. She had pushed past Tyler to join her friends, but now she was regretting it.
Ember and Wednesday, meanwhile, were fully in. They were slowly advancing up the hallway, stepping on the creaky floorboards.
At the end of the hall, there was what seemed to be a living room, with an old ariel TV in it, and a sofa with stone cold leather on it.
But what interested Ember the most was the picture on the wall. It was hand painted, and huge on the small wall, and it portrayed the Gates. All four of them.
Here they are. The Gates family. They scrub up well for psychopaths.
She looked to the far left of the portrait, where a tall bow wearing a shirt and tie was. He had shoulder length hair, and blue eyes.
There's Garret.
"His father drunk himself to an early death..."
Ember turned to the far right, where a man with long hair as well, pulled back into a bun, was painted. He was wearing the same as his son.
His outcast-hating father, Ansel.
"His mother hung herself in the backyard..."
The mother had a red dress on and a sort of dejected look. She had an arm around her son and the last girl in the picture...
And you must be Laurel, Ember thought, as she saw the last of the Gates'. She had long, blonde hair, a half smile on her face, and a purple dress with a white collar and cuffs on.
"Even his little sister didn't escape. She was orphaned, sent overseas, and ended up drowning."
They're all long gone. So the question is, why did Goody lead me here?
Ember recited it in her head as she headed out of the living room and into another one, which turned out to be a small library. Books and shelves lined one wall and a table stood opposite them. Cobwebs and dead spiders littered the floor and ceiling, but no one but Enid cared.
Ember cared least. She stepped over an old broom on the floor and went to a bookshelf, pulling out all the books halfway to see what was on their cover. She was trying to see a link, a secret passage, a- an anything that would help her solve the case.
"Seen enough?" Tyler asked her about a minute later, once she had checked along a whole shelf.
"Of your face," Ember retorted, suddenly seeing it; two matching emblems on two of the shelf dividers, that none of the others had.
Slowly, she reached up to touch it. It was a button.
She couldn't not press it.
And so she did, and, after some gears shifting, and some wheels whirring, the whole bookshelf slid back and into the one on the left-
Revealing a small room with a big painting of Joseph Crackstone in it, smirking evilly. Mouldy and dried-wax-dripping candles were in stands on either side of the picture, and about ten hundred more broken, used or bad ones were littered underneath it. Along with a little pot of small, dark purple flowers, of course.
Enid squealed. "Who doesn't have a spooky built-in altar in their family library?" She was almost crying by now.
"Ours is in the dining room," Wednesday answered without missing a beat. "Ember's used to be in the lounge."
Tyler looked at them as though they had lost their minds.
"More seating for year-long Dia de los Muertos," Ember sighed.
Enid gave another whimper. Tyler, again, looked as though the two girls (both of which he had considered dating at one point or another) needed to be put in an insane asylum.
Ember, however, took her chance to walk into the altar, firstly keeping eye contact with painted Joseph Crackstone, but then her gaze wavering as she saw something, either painted in red or blood, below the left candle stand.
BLOOD
WILL
RAIN
And then, on the other side, below the right candle stand...
WHEN
I
RISE
And then she flicked her torch to Joseph Crackstone... his smirk... his eyes... the only thing she was scared of...
But there was much more interesting things to investigate, for Ember had only just seen, out of the corner of her eyes, that one of the wicks of the candles below the picture of Crackstone was smoking. And hot.
Someone was here.
And then Ember touched all the wicks... all the candles were hot... and some of the wax was melted...
"They're still warm," she turned to her three companions.
The reactions were mixed. Wednesday gave a satisfied smirk. Enid a scared wail. Tyler, a wide eyed scoff.
"Alright, Tyler, you check the rest of the ground floor," Ember said, deciding finally what to do. "Wednesday, you help him. He shouldn't be trusted to go alone. Enid, you and I will search upstairs."
And, giving no party the time to argue, she stalked off out the library. Enid and Wednesday followed her, Wednesday splitting off from them at the bottom of the stairs and letting Ember and Enid go up.
The wooden staircase creeked as the two girls in matching snoods climbed it. "Alright, you go left, and I go right," Ember said, as they reached the top of the stairs.
Enid faced her. "You seriously wanna split up? In here? That is literally how every best friend dies in a horror movie!"
"Then think of yourself as the main character, and me as the supporting one," Ember said. "The sooner we search, the sooner you can leave," she added.
Nevertheless, Enid's eyes went wide and she squealed as Ember turned and left her. She breathed shakily as she too, turned off, whispering unintelligible words to herself.
About five minutes later, a call from Enid's side was heard. "Ember? You need to see this!"
Ember, who had been searching the laundry room, was desperate for a sign, so, ditching the old, broken washing basket she was holding, she speed-walked to where she had heard the voice come from.
She entered a bedroom. But it wasn't just a bedroom. It was probably the most... tidy room in the house.
The bed was made with a blue and pink quilt and a small teddy bear on top, with a big chest of drawers on its right and a small one (the bedside table) on its left. There were also fresh flowers in a vase on top of the bedside table. Preachy yellow roses.
"Bed's made," Enid whimpered, turning around to face her roommate. "No dust or cobwebs..."
But it was the roses that interested Ember the most. She went over to look at them first. In the yellow light of her torch, it was hard to see what colour they were. But she could've sworn she'd seen something like them before...
"LG?" Ember heard Enid ask, for she was looking at a jewellery box in the far corner. It had a little plastic dancing ballerina inside it with a pink tutu on it, but the dancing had stopped a long time ago.
"Laurel Gates," Ember realised what Enid's 'LG' meant as she walked over and saw the two letters embossed on the edge of the ornate box.
Ember and Enid knelt down. "Looks like somebody moved back into their old room," the latter wailed, turning round to make sure no one was behind them.
Meanwhile, Ember was muttering under her breath. "It's not possible."
And it wasn't. It couldn't be. The sheriff had told Ember about the Gates' untimely demises. They weren't alive.
"She died twenty five years ago, drowned overseas," Ember continued, informing Enid of what the sheriff had told her.
Crash!
Enid gave a horrible gasp and started to shake as an object smashed behind them. "Let's go!" Ember hissed, getting up. Enid followed her and they began to get out-
But not without that music box.
Ember dashed back for it, shutting the lid on the silent ballerina and putting it into her bag. "This is officially the worst girls' night out ever!" Enid cried, almost dragging Ember out the room.
"Guys! Get out! It's here!" Ember heard Tyler's worried shouts and Wednesday's footsteps on the stairs as she and Enid hurriedly walked towards them.
"Come on!" Wednesday, who was looking slightly flushed, was waiting for them them on the stairs as they approached-
"AAAARRRGGH!"
Even Ember's eyes widened as the three girls heard Tyler yell- Enid almost screamed- but Wednesday was just looking at the shadow on the wall, seeing as a big face and huge, clawed fingers came into view-
"The dumbwaiter! Go!" Conveniently, there was a dumbwaiter at the top of the stairs, and it was just big enough for three below- average-height teenage girls. But the stairs were creaking-
The monster was approaching...
"Go! Go! Go!" Enid yelled, as she had jumped into the small, confined space first. Wednesday went second, and then-
"GRRRRRRR!"
"Arrrrgghh!"
Enid's high pitched scream and the monster's roar were heard at the same time as Ember barrelled into Wednesday, just fitting into the small space as the monster took a swipe at Ember's leg-
"Urgh!" Ember grunted, as she barrelled into the dumbwaiter at the same time as being attacked... then she drew back and saw the monster's wide eyes and big, sharp teeth... its deranged look at her. She slammed the metal door shut on it, getting a roar in return It was only then that she stopped to inspect her leg. There was a shallow gash on it, and it was bleeding freely. Her trouser leg was ripped.
"Ember..." Enid whimpered, then her voice went higher. "Ember-!"
"I'm fine, Enid," Ember turned to Wednesday urgently. "Did you see who the monster was?"
"No, I... didn't get a look," Wednesday seemed annoyed. "Tyler shoved me out and told me to go and get you two-"
"Oh my god... oh my god... oh my god..." Enid, meanwhile, was panting in the back. Wednesday turned to look at her stonily, with her wide eyes and pink snood.
"GRRRRRRR!"
Enid screamed again as an ear-splitting roar was heard from outside. Think... THINK! Ember screamed at herself as she thought. What can you use to tie the door shut-
"Not your snood!" Enid wailed, barely audible her voice was so high, as Ember tugged it off her head, tying it around the dumbwaiter doors tightly.
There was more roaring from outside, then, suddenly, three slashes appeared int the metal door, a huge eyes peering through them.
"Oh my god-" Enid was too scared to scream.
But, as Wednesday stared at the monster, Ember was worried about something else.
The rope holding up the dumbwaiter, the rope that was only supposed to hold so much weight as a roast dinner, was fraying.
And snapping.
"AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Enid screamed again as the three girls rattled down and down, going at so fast a pace that Ember thought maybe this was it-
CRASH. Then the small metal box landed, it's force breaking the snood and the doors and spewing the three girls out. They lay on the cold stone floor of wherever they were, coughing and spluttering, dust clouding around them.
Wednesday was first to get up. Then Enid. Ember, still on the floor, was looking at her leg, unable to move.
"Enid, give me your snood," Wednesday eventually said, after a minute of silence.
"No!" Enid drew away. "Ember already destroyed her's, you're not sacrificing mine-"
"Who would you rather be alive? Ember or that pitiless piece of sheep's shedding? Just give!" Wednesday said sharply, tugging the snood off of Enid's neck and going to Ember.
"Wh- what are you doing?" Enid asked frailty.
"Making a tourniquet," Wednesday answered, lifting up the bottom of her cousin's trousers and revealing the four inch gash before tying the snood tightly just above it, then helping her up.
The first thing the finally standing girl did was turn the light on.
And it revealed much more than planned.
They were in a big basement, with a couple of bits of furniture littered around it. However, it was the shelf that interested Ember the most.
Five big glass vats were sitting on a metal shelf, not so far away. They all contained some sort of preservative, and all had a human body part in them.
One a foot, one a head, one a finger... the list went on. Ember stared at them in both wonder and horror.
What are they here for?
"Argh!" Enid whimpered again as a loud crashing was heard overhead, and some plaster came raining down on top of the three girls' heads. "Come on! Run!" She cried, as she ran towards the window. They were obviously underground, with only a bit of ground above them.
Enid went out first. There was a stool beside the window and she used it to stand up on. She swung a leg out the window and then followed it with the other, jumping out of the Gates house.
Ember, meanwhile, was trying furiously to get to those vats, wobbling on one leg.
"Ember! Ember come on-" Wednesday shouted, as her cousin picked up her torch and hopped back to the vats, looking intently. There was a brain, half a head, a foot-
"What are you doing?!" Enid shrieked, as a big thump was heard on the basement steps.
The monster had caught up with them.
"These are the body parts missing from the monster's victims!" Ember yelled. She remembered hearing the doctor and the sheriff speak in the morgue... that body parts were missing from all the victims-
"COME ON!" Enid screamed, as Wednesday climbed out the window to safety. The monster was growling as it reached the bottom of the steps, hurling over a metal shelf that fell to the ground with a resounding crash-
"EMBER COME ON-"
Ignoring the excruciating pain in her leg as she ran and the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, Ember ran at the window and vaulted it, slamming it shut to the monster's roars.
It had almost got her again.
"Urgh-" Ember grunted, squeezing her glassy eyes shut as she now realised the full consequences of running on her wounded leg. Wednesday helped her up and she asked Enid. "Are you okay?"
"Since when do you care?!" The girl wailed, walking away from the two cousins.
Wednesday lent down to pick up her torch and then, looking at Ember, she said. "Tyler."
"WEDNESDAY! EMBER! WHAT THE HELL?!" They heard Enid's shouts as Wednesday helped Ember limp back towards the entrance to the house.
"We have to go back for Tyler!" Wednesday shouted, not looking behind her.
"BUT THE MONSTER'S BACK THERE!" Nevertheless, Enid ran after them.
Tyler was sitting, breathing heavily, outside the door of the mansion. There were three deep cuts on his chest, all covered in blood.
Suddenly, Ember thought her leg could wait.
"Enid, hold this!" Wednesday shouted, handing Enid her torch and set to work. Ember tried to help, but Wednesday said coldly. "If you try to move on that leg, I'll taser it so you can't move it again."
Ember wasn't afraid of her cousin, but she was nursing a very sore leg with a half undone tourniquet on it, so she sat back, trying to stop the tears from falling.
"That thing is still inside!" Enid squealed.
Wednesday, meanwhile, was looking at Tyler. "You're hurt. Can you walk?"
"Ember?! What? You- oh my-"
Next thing Ember knew, Xavier was coming round the corner, and he was looking between Ember and Tyler crazily, more focused on the girl even though the boy's wound was bigger.
"Where did you come from?" Ember asked, still determinedly trying not to cry.
"Never mind that! Here- take this!" Xavier yelled, giving his scarf to Wednesday so she could press it against Tyler's chest, then he sank to his knees beside Ember. "Ember... I'm sorry I don't have anything else-"
"It's fine," Ember winced, her gash throbbing.
"No! No, it's not- look, I'll help you up-"
So, not objecting for once in her life, Ember let him grab her hand and help her up. Enid followed quickly, and Wednesday and Tyler after that.
But Ember couldn't get something off her mind.
Where did Xavier come from? And- why did he appear right after the monster had attacked?
❣︎❣︎❣︎
They were at Tyler's house. He had lead them there assuring that it was the closest place they could go, and that his father would not be home.
So, as they all sat in the kitchen around the small dining table (Tyler had pulled up another chair for the five of them), Enid was the only person not doing anything.
"Thanks, Doc," Tyler said with a sarcastic smile as Wednesday put a last small, clear but of tape across his wound, sealing it up. He was sitting with his shirt open, his six parallel cuts on show
And, whilst Wednesday had been tending to Tyler, Xavier had been doing the same to Ember's leg. Her trouser leg was rolled up, and he was putting the same, small, clear bits of tape across it.
"I'm more than capable of doing this myself," Ember had said irritably when he had first started doing it.
He had replied with a smirk on his face. "I admire your stubbornness, but also hate it at the same time."
Ember didn't even blink.
So Wednesday and Xavier worked in silence for a second, before Enid, her eyes wide and pointed at the table, her body shaking, hissed. "Not to make this about me, but I'm having a full-blown panic attack right now. We need to get back before Weems realises we're gone."
"Yeah, I think Ember's gonna miss the boat on that one," Xavier sighed, putting the last bit of tape on her leg.
Then the door opened and Sheriff Galpin walked in. "Oh my- what the hell happened?"
He strode into the room, taking in both Tyler's and Ember's injuries then rounding on the two Addams'. "This was you, wasn't it-"
"Wait, dad, please, I'm okay!" Tyler stood up at the same time as Wednesday.
Ember, meanwhile, just spoke from her chair. "Sheriff, I understand you're upset, but I think there's something you need to see."
❣︎❣︎❣︎
And so, now armed with an old crutch that Tyler had found in his house, and a torch, of course, Ember took the sheriff back to the Gates mansion and led him into the basement.
She gasped audibly when she saw it.
There was nothing. No shelves. No rubble. No furniture. No body parts.
"It was all here- I know it was," she snarled, as the sheriff scoffed. "The- the- the body parts and the blue Cadillac that hit the mayor in the garage- the altar, and the bedroom filled with fresh roses!"
"Yeah, well, it's all gone now," the sheriff smirked. "Very convenient for you."
"Somebody cleared this place out after we left!" Ember snapped. Then she lowered her voice. "Listen, yesterday, I told you all signs pointed to this house and I was right."
"That your justification for almost getting my son and your friends killed? Huh?" The sheriff waved his torch in Ember's face. Her eyes stayed wide and unblinking as he stepped forward, his voice going threatening and low. "Now, you listen to me. From now on, you're forbidden from seeing Tyler, and you're forbidden from pursuing anything to do with this case, you understand me?"
Ember just stood on her good leg, shocked.
She didn't say a word on the ride back to Nevermore, shaking with rage in the back of the car with Enid on one side, Xavier on the other. Even when Sheriff Galpin took a sharp turn and she and Xavier barrelled straight into each other, she didn't say anything, her leg aching as it shook; her whole entity was rage.
But Xavier noticed. In fact, he took a risk, and rested his hand on hers.
Ember didn't move away. Later, part of her told herself that it was because she was so angry at the cleared garage and basement and Sheriff Galpin for not believing her, and that she was so focused on her leg paining her.
But part of her thought that she didn't move away because she... liked it.
But still, she didn't say a word.
In fact, Ember only spoke when, entering Nevermore and going up the stairs slowly on her crutch alone, she saw Principal Weems at the top.
"You directly violated my explicit order and left campus during a lockdown," she said calmly, though Ember could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. "Not to mention putting your peers and yourself in danger. Danger which clearly happened," she looked at Ember's leg.
"Which is grounds for expulsion, I know," the girl said. She wasn't scared. Weems gave her an angry smirk. "And you have every right to exercise that option. However, it wouldn't be a very wise action on your part."
"After all you've done tonight, you have some nerve," Weems snarled. "I think contrition might be in order right now, Miss Addams. Not hubris."
"If you're waiting for me to fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness, you'll be here a long time," Ember retorted. "I'll never apologise for trying to uncover the truth."
This was it. It was finally time to show Weems what she had been keeping from the principal since day one. So, unfolding it from her pocket and limping on her crutch up the stairs, she shoved the drawing of her and Crackstone in the quad, the one that Rowan had shown her, into Weems' face.
"What is this?" Weems demanded.
"It's a warning from Rowan," Ember didn't miss a beat.
Weems' eyes widened, and for the first time since Ember had met her coming up the stairs, she didn't look angry. "Is this why he tried to kill you?" She asked in a quiet voice.
Ember nodded. "His mother drew it before she died. Said I was destined to destroy the school.
"But I think I'm meant to save it," Ember disclosed something she had been thinking a lot about in the past to the principal. Her eyes went wide. "Now you know what's at stake. Everything you vowed to protect, no less. Am I still to be leaving tomorrow?"
Weems looked at her for a second, then, not moving a muscle except for her arms, she handed Ember back the drawing. The girl folded it and put it back in her pocket.
"One more infraction..." Weems said threateningly. "One more step out of line and you will be expelled. No ifs, no buts."
"Enid, Wednesday and Xavier are spared as well-"
"And no more negotiation!" Weems snapped, leering over her. "Good night!"
She left just then, leaving Ember on her own to climb up the stairs back to her dorm.
❣︎❣︎❣︎
Enid was packing a bag when Ember arrived back in their dorm. It seemed she had packed almost all her stuff except for her stuffed animal collection. She was just shoving the last items in angrily when Ember came in and asked. "Where are you going?"
"Yoko's room," Enid replied shortly, not turning round to face her. "Thornhill said I could crash there for a few nights."
"There's no need," Ember was suddenly getting defensive. "I spoke with Weems. You and Xavier won't be punished."
"Am I supposed to thank you?" Enid angrily shut the zip on her bag, still not facing Ember.
"I already apologised. It's over," Ember rolled her eyes.
Enid finally turned round to face her. Her face was blazing. "Over? Over? Tonight was just the icing on the birthday cake you couldn't even be bothered to cut! You'll use anyone to get what you want, even if it means putting them in danger! We could've died tonight because of your stupid obsession!"
"But we didn't," Ember said. Of that she was sure of. "And now I'm one step closer to solving this case - that is what is important!"
Enid stood there, her chest rising and falling, disbelief on her face. She looked down with tears in her eyes. "I've tried really, really, really hard to be your friend. Always put myself out there, thought of your feelings! Told people, "oh, I know she gives off serial killer vibes but actually she's just shy"!"
"I didn't ask you to do all that," Ember cut across her.
"You didn't have to because that's what friends do!" Enid yelled across the dorm, her words (for once) cutting into Ember like a knife. "They don't have to be asked. And the fact that you don't know that says everything!"
Suddenly, Ember didn't feel so much pain in her leg. She felt it in other parts of her body.
Enid, meanwhile, was collecting her bag and her suitcase from her bed and walking towards her, out the door. "You wanna be alone, Ember? Be alone!"
She slammed the door behind her.
Ember stood, looking towards Enid's side of the room. Then, slowly, ignoring the thunder outside and the rain lashing at the window, she hobbled over on her crutch and sat against the window, her chin hugged to her knees, one foot on either side of the tape. Her eyes became glassy. But it wasn't because of her leg.
Goody warned that I was destined to be alone. Maybe it's inevitable. But for the first time in my life, it doesn't feel good.
Slowly, Ember turned to her bag and got out her one treasure from the Gates mansion; the music box with LG on it. She held it up and looked at it.
There's also something else. A gnawing feeling.
She set the box down on the wooden floor of the dorm and opened it, the silent dancer greeting her.
That death is close at hand. Watching me.
Ember sighed, shutting the box and picking it up-
Only to reveal a secret compartment on the bottom, and the several photos that fell out of it.
Ember froze. The photos were face down, and when she picked them up-
The first one was of her. She was playing her violin on the balcony outside her dorm. And so was the second. It was a close up. You could see Thing turning the pages of the music.
Ember put the two photos on the ground, seeing the third one. It was her and her family, getting out the car on Parents Weekend.
The fourth was her, Wednesday, Enid and Tyler, in the car. Just after the two latters had found out about the deception.
The fifth was her at Crackstone's Crypt on her birthday, walking up to the doors.
The sixth was her turning round. A close up of the last shot.
The seventh was her in the woods. Just minutes after Rowan had tried to kill her.
And the eight; the last. A close up of her. Her stone cold eyes; her inquisitive expression.
She laid them all out on the floor, looking at them incredulously.
But I won't be intimidated. And I will never give up.
She thought of the Gates mansion...
That house.
Of the painting of the four Gates...
That family.
Of the statue she had blown up...
Crackstone.
Of the monster that had now spared her twice... and slashed her once...
The monster.
Of Rowan's warning... the picture of her in the quad...
Somehow me.
We all seem to be connected like a spider's web.
And when Mayor Walker got too close to discovering the truth, he was silenced.
Ember was now on the typewriter, her fingers slamming the keys furiously-
But I won't be.
So whoever's watching me, know this.
And with that, she finished her chapter, writing a line both true to Viper's case and her own.
𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞.
I will find you.